THE BORDER REPORT

The white militant accused in a murder job that left a nine-year old girl dead last month was arrested at the headquarters of a large non-profit border watch group in Southern Arizona. Shawna Forde, who's been formally charged in the double execution, was arrested as she left the offices of American Patrol, a border watch group that pulls in about a million dollars a year in charitable contributions.

It's not much of a secret; in fact, American Patrol's CEO Glenn Spencer took the smart approach, choosing to write about the arrest that went down on his property himself. But the border's like a long and skinny small town; everybody knows one another through this or that person. Leaders of all the border watch groups, from the Minuteman Project to U.S. Senate hopeful Chris Simcox to powerful lobbyists like the Federation for American Immigration Reform knew Shawna Forde. It's obvious, they've all admitted it and they're all denouncing her now. The two questions that need to be addressed are: why didn't they denounce her before if she was considered too dangerous to keep in their organizations? And why didn't state and federal authorities, who maintain fairly close relationships with various border groups, keep an eye on Forde? I've noticed they've stayed quiet.

In what may be the most awkwardly written diatribe I've ever read, Spencer says the woman walked into his home and was standing behind him when he turned around.

"Sitting down at my desk, Forde told me she was setting up an organization to put unemployed veterans to work protecting the border. Knowing that this was ridiculous, I quickly ended the conversation and excused myself.  Forde asked if she could use our family room to do some work on her laptop.  She stayed about twenty minutes and left," he wrote.

She was arrested as she left the property.

Like I said, a smart move (if somewhat filled with questions and holes) by Spencer. The various Minuteman groups have also stepped away from Forde, saying they don't condone her actions.

And maybe they don't. But nobody bothered to report their discomfort to the authorities before. Context is important here; Southern Arizona, crawling with Feds and cops, looks a little Ruby Ridge at times (sometimes with good reason). There's a mistrust of law enforcement and government. But there's also a symbiosis and frequent communication between various vigilante groups like the Minutemen and agencies like the U.S. Border Patrol and the FBI.

So I'm not surprised that Forde was close enough to American Border Patrol that she could just saunter into Spencer's office (which doubles as his home). The real question becomes, which law enforcement agency knew about her as well? The Cochise County Sheriff's Office? Pima County's? Department of Public Safety? Border Patrol? They all maintain ground-level relationships with the vigiliantes. Did anyone ever report their concerns to any of them?

That answer is not being made clear by anybody. But it should.