The U.S. Border Patrol held a memorial service in Tucson on Friday morning, paying homage to one of its elite agents, Brian Terry, who was killed during a gunbattle with bandits in a canyon along the Arizona-Mexico border. He was a man who friends called "Super-Cop." (Click inside for slideshow of images.) This is a story I produced for KJZZ's Fronteras Desk, public radio, Arizona. TUCSON – Hundreds of Border Patrol agents filled part of the baseball stadium in a sea of olive green. A line of riflemen stood at attention as the American flag and the agency's own flag fluttered in the cool morning air. They were here to honor an elite Border Patrol agent murdered last month. Brian Terry was a former Marine and cop who became an agent in his late thirties. Agent Jose Verdugo had known Terry since their days in the Border Patrol Academy. They they ran into each other in a hall recently and Verdugo says he wasn't surprised to see Terry in the uniform of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit. "Brian, your work ethic, your integrity and your sense of honor were infectious and inspirational. Rest in peace, super-cop," he said. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin addressed the agents, telling them the murderers will be captured. "The reason why he was in those canyons west of Nogales and the reasons why our Border Patrol agents go out on the line and stand between harm and the American people is because we are determined to restore the rule of law to the United States Mexico border. And this sector in Tucson is the last place where it must happen," Bersin said. Four Mexican men have been arrested as part of the investigation into the murder. Nobody has been charged.
Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

THE BORDER REPORT

Produced for KJZZ's Fronteras Desk. Click to listen. Last weekend's shooting in Tucson has been difficult on the community, including those tasked with keeping the rest of us safe. Since Saturday, the sheriff and the surgeons have kept the nation briefed on developments in the case, and given us a glimpse into their drive and humanity. KJZZ's Michel Marizco reports. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik was just minutes into a press briefing when he started talking about his personal loss in Saturday killings. "Five people were killed. One of whom – two of whom – are personal friends of mine, including councilwoman Giffords. One being a federal judge, John Roll," he said. Dupnik, of course, meant Congresswoman Giffords. He’s an experienced lawman who suddenly found himself bound by professional duty on one hand, and grief on the other. Then, the anger crept in. "The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous," he said, his voice rising. "And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry." Dupnik has since been slammed for these comments, criticized by Republican senators and AM Talk Radio deejays for confusing the personal with the professional. All across Tucson, the people of this tight-knit community they call the Old Pueblo have been grappling with the grief behind Saturday’s killings. All told, six people were murdered, another 14 were shot. Sheriff Dupnik’s reaction makes sense to Jake Jacobs, a psychology professor at the University of Arizona. He studies the affects of trauma on soldiers and emergency workers. "The sheriff? As he stepped outside of his role as the sheriff, and began to speak personally, we got more opinions. The anger came out, I think," Jacobs said. The 75-year-old sheriff wasn’t the only one expressing his personal feelings. The pressure of the past few days has even weighed on the doctors, including Dr. Michael Lemole, the neurosurgeon who’s been at Giffords' bedside. He spoke to the press on Monday morning. “I was personally touched," he said during a press briefing, last week. "My wife brought my children by to the memorial and really the look on the childrens' faces said it all and it really spoke to the way the community has come together, the way it's healing and the way it's trying to heal.” Prof. Jacobs says the doctors are doing the most normal thing in the world, reaching out to the Tucson community. "If there's anything we know, it's connecting with others that helps in moments like these," Jacobs said. Then there's Dr. Peter Rhee, UMC’s chief trauma surgeon. Speaking about her condition, his experience as a battlefield surgeon comes through. "I think that she has a one hundred and one percent chance of surviving. She will not die. She does not have that permission from me," he said, confidently. Dr. Rhee says he’s seen much worse injuries in war. He was one of the first trauma surgeons deployed to Afghanistan, then started the first surgical unit in Ramadi, Iraq. If Giffords’ case is affecting him adversely, Rhee isn’t showing it. "That evening here in Tucson after mass casualty type of event, we had another person shot in the chest and died in our emergency room as well. This goes on all day long," Rhee said. Asked how it compares to war, Rhee smiles and says it doesn't. "This is a piece of cake."

THE BORDER REPORT

The following script is presumably the communications dispatch of what happened the night U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered. I say "presumably" because neither the Border Patrol nor the FBI will confirm (or deny) the dispatch is true. I warn you, take this with a grain of salt. I can tell you I received it from a credible source. However, I'm merely providing it as a pretext for a discussion into what happened the night of Dec. 14. In the interest of fairness to Border Patrol agents, I've chosen to remove their last names from this document. When I receive an official account of what happened that night, I'll post that.

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THE BORDER REPORT

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is about to find out what a journalist, now dead, found out ten years ago. The system, once pushed, will respond. In Assange's case, he and Wikileaks are finding themselves losing the resources for survival, one by one, more every day. First Amazon dumped Wikileaks, then PayPal, now Visa and Mastercard. Next up, the Justice Department with potential trafficking in stolen property charges, the New York Times reports. I noticed the editors of the Washington Post, perhaps smarting over Wikileaks' not sharing the cable-dump with them, started referring to Assange as pasty-faced in their news stories. It all reminds me of the persecution of a nearly-forgotten journalist in the 1990s, Gary Webb. Working for the San Jose Mercury-News, Webb wrote a series of articles claiming that Nicaraguans working for the CIA-supported Contras were running coke up to Los Angeles. The coke was being pushed on the streets as crack cocaine and the proceeds returning to the Contras. In effect, Webb argued, the CIA knew who was fueling the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s. The series was later published in a book, Dark Alliance. (Minor but crucial point: Webb never argues the CIA was moving the coke, only that they stepped aside as their Contras did so). It's not one of my favorite books, let me be upfront about that now. I felt Webb lacked the proof throughout the book. I've read it a few times now and each time, I walk away unconvinced that he had the solid proof. I can almost feel the desperation that drove him to finish it. That's not to say I disbelieve the idea, clearly he laid out the case for more work to be put forth on the matter. My problem with the book isn't the question, or even the accusation he makes of the CIA. You can sense it's there. But he didn't prove it. But my own dissatisfaction is irrelevant. Dark Alliance should have raised the curiosity of the press, particularly those charged with watchdogging the government, newspapers like the Washington Post, The Los Angeles and New York Times, hell, his own newspaper in San Jose (they retracted the story). Instead the constructs of the machine surrounded Webb. It was embarrassing how the newspapers reacted. Rather than take his story and press the Feds on the matter, the newspapers chose to vilify Webb. They attacked his reporting, his character and his news judgment. Not one of them, and mind you, one of those includes the Washington Post, the newspaper that helped bring down a president, invested the resources, time or the interest in following up on Webb's reporting. Instead, they quoted government officials who condemned his reporting. The newspapers chose not to listen because to do so would have required time and money – and ego. They would have had to acknowledge that they got smoked by a much smaller paper with far less resources than their own companies could muster. It raised uncomfortable truths about an austerity in genuine, critical and original reporting by the country's greatest newspapers. In the end, Webb was disgraced, his career finished. Never mind that even before he wrote his series, the Kerry Committee had already determined there were truths there that bore exploration. Those were ignored. Webb died in 2004, the official cause: suicide, from two gunshot wounds to the head. Secretos, tragedy, quien sabe. Now the machine closes on Assange. Here's Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen charging Assange with recklessness: "but Assange launched them into cyberspace anyway, not caring if American interests were damaged. In fact, that might have been the whole point." Really, Cohen? Did you forget (or even stop to consider) that Assange is Australian and thusly, may not have American interests at heart because he's not American? Madres. Assange may have committed a crime in receiving these classified dispatches. But he's not the problem. Clearly, someone within the U.S. government sees fit to purge government computers of thousands of megabytes of information and ship them to a meta-data website for mass publication. Clearly, someone isn't vetting U.S. government employees or security measures are not being taken to prevent their being lifted. We have a problem. But those are harder questions to have to answer, they are awkward and risk embarrassment and accountability – after the fact, after the information's already been leaked. Apparently, those in the news business now criticizing Assange also feel they are harder questions to ask. It's far easier, and far cheaper, to kill the messenger. And in Assange's case, the messengers are helping to kill.