U.S. weapons from Afghan war give Pakistani militants a deadly advantage
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — On Jan. 9, 2018, an M4A1 carbine rifle left the Colt's Manufacturing plant in Connecticut, bound for Afghanistan. Last month, it was recovered in the aftermath of a deadly train hijacking by militants in Pakistan.
The banged-up rifle, bearing serial number W1004340 and stamped with the Colt logo, was among billions of dollars' worth of U.S. military equipment provided to Afghan forces, much of which was abandoned after the withdrawal of American troops in 2021.
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Bernard Kerik dies at 69
Bernard Kerik, who was New York City's police commissioner during the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center before pleading guilty to tax fraud and then being pardoned, died on Thursday night at the age of 69. FBI Director Kash Patel announced Kerik's death in a post on the social media platform X, saying the law enforcement officer, an Army veteran, died after a 'private battle with illness.' 'He was decorated more than 100 times for bravery, valor, and service, having rescued victims from burning buildings, survived assassination attempts, and brought some of the world's most dangerous criminals to justice,' Patel said. 'His legacy is not just in the medals or the titles, but in the lives he saved, the city he helped rebuild, and the country he served with honor,' the FBI director added. The New York City Police Department confirmed Kerik's death, offering 'our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.' Kerik, who was praised for his response during the 9/11 attacks, pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud and false statement charges in 2009, in part for getting $250,000 for apartment renovations from a construction company. He was in prison for three years, from 2010 until 2013. President Trump pardoned him in 2020. Kerik was nominated to lead the Department of Homeland Security in 2004 by former President Bush, but shortly after, Kerik withdrew his nomination, saying he had uncovered information that led him to second-guess the immigration status of his housekeeper and nanny. Kerik founded a risk management consulting firm, Kerik Group, in 2005. 'With over forty years of service in law enforcement and national security, he dedicated his life to protecting the American people,' Patel wrote on X late Thursday. 'As the 40th Police Commissioner of New York City, Bernie led with strength and resolve in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, guiding the NYPD through one of the darkest chapters in our nation's history.'
Yahoo
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Feds could eye Indiana's Camp Atterbury as potential site for ICE detainees amid capacity strain
Photo by Sgt. Joshua Syberg/Indiana National Guard Federal officials could be eying Indiana's Camp Atterbury as a temporary holding site for immigrant detainees as nationwide deportation efforts continue — and detention demands grow. While no official decision has been announced, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to the Indiana Capital Chronicle on Thursday that the agency is actively 'exploring all options' to meet current and future detention needs. The statement comes amid a push by President Donald Trump's administration to stage the 'largest deportation operation in American history,' vowing to deport millions of people. 'U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's enhanced enforcement operations and routine daily operations have resulted in a significant number of arrests of criminal aliens that require greater detention capacity in Indiana,' the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement. 'While we cannot confirm individual pre-decisional conversations, we can confirm that ICE is exploring all options to meet its current and future detention requirements.' So far, however, the Indiana National Guard 'has no tasking or request' from federal authorities, a spokesperson told the Capital Chronicle. The federally owned facility is licensed to and operated by the Indiana National Guard. It offers a variety of training ranges, live-fire venues, managed airspace with air-to-ground firing capabilities and an LVC simulation and exercise center. For now, DHS officials have declined to provide a timeline or identify specific sites under consideration. Camp Atterbury, located about 30 miles south of Indianapolis, has previously been used for large-scale federal operations. Most recently, in 2021, the facility temporarily housed thousands of Afghan refugees evacuated during the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Feds to wind down certain Indiana naturalization ceremonies, block on-site voter registration During Operation Allies Welcome, the base accommodated over 7,000 Afghan evacuees in 82 lodging buildings across six neighborhoods, complete with dining facilities and medical centers. The infrastructure includes dorm-style housing for families and open bay barracks for individuals, all equipped with heating, air conditioning and plumbing. Camp Atterbury wouldn't be the first military or state-owned site proposed to be repurposed by federal officials for immigration-related operations. Most recently, Fort Bliss in Texas was identified as a potential deportation hub, with plans to hold thousands of detainees in massive tents on the Army base. The site could serve as the model for a dozen other holding facilities on military bases nationwide. A lack of detention space could be a reason for ICE to tap Camp Atterbury and other locations. The newest data released last week by DHS showed a drop in the number of immigrants in detention across the country for the first time since January — from 49,184 on May 4 to 48,870 on May 18 — but the shift could be due to existing detention facilities reaching capacity. Congress allocated funds for 41,500 detention beds this year, almost 20% fewer than the current number of detainees. It's unclear exactly how many people are currently being held in Indiana. Numbers can fluctuate daily as detainees are released or moved, so specific data is difficult to track. Recent reporting by Mirror Indy revealed at least 400 ICE detainees being held at the Marion County Jail in Indianapolis. And the federal government is paying Marion County $75 per day for each person held. As of March 17, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University reflected an average daily population of eight detainees at the Marion County Jail; and an average of 238 detainees at the Clay County Jail in Brazil, which is operated by the Clay County Sheriff's Department and began housing ICE detainees in 2013 under contract with the federal government. CONTACT US Using Camp Atterbury instead of local jails could save the federal government money. There are an estimated 11 million immigrants who are not legally authorized to live in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute, an independent, nonpartisan think tank. A separate report released Thursday by the Center for Migration Studies found the nationwide population of people without permanent legal status to be closer to 12.2 million. Indiana's unauthorized immigrant population was estimated to be around 102,000 as of 2019. During the 2025 legislative session, state lawmakers passed multiple measures to boost immigration enforcement and ensure local compliance with federal directives. That included House Enrolled Act 1393, which requires local law enforcement to notify federal immigration authorities about undocumented immigrants in custody. After sharp debate, a separate and stricter immigration proposal failed to pass, though. House Bill 1531 would have required local law enforcement officers to comply with federal detainer requests for undocumented immigrants. The bill would have also banned employers from hiring unauthorized residents. Though the bill passed out of the House on a 64-26 vote, it never got a hearing in the Senate. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
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- Yahoo
Trump Is Turning The Border Into A Military Base. Here's What I Learned From A U.S. Army Tour.
EL PASO, Texas — The armored military vehicles President Donald Trump has sent to the U.S.-Mexico border weigh 50,000 pounds apiece and have thermal and infrared cameras said to be able to spot 'a little mouse up to a mile out.' That feature might appeal to Trump, who has referred to people who cross the border without authorization as 'rats' who 'infest' the nation. Last week, when a soldier emerged from one of the hulking eight-wheelers, armed with a pair of binoculars and a grimace, he briefly turned his attention away from the U.S.-Mexico border. He turned over his left shoulder, looking inward at the United States — and at me. He was one of the approximately 10,000 members of the U.S. military who are now stationed at the border, many of whom now patrol areas where, according to the president, they have the authority to detain civilians. Over the last few weeks, Trump has directed the military to take control of thousands of acres of land along the border in Texasand New Mexico, treating nearly 250 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border as de facto military installations known as 'National Defense Areas.' As a result, people who cross the border in these areas are now not only susceptible to charges of illegal entry but also of trespassing on a military installation. This escalation also purportedly gives soldiers the legal authority to detain civilians for trespassing. In short: Trump has issued a hugely significant order for troops to detain people for civilian criminal violations on American soil. At the U.S.-Mexico border last week, I saw what a national military police force might look like. On top of increased air surveillance and logistical support, there are now at least three massive, armored Stryker vehicles each in Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The Strykers themselves aren't armed, but the soldiers within them carry rifles, as do others along the border. (About 50 such vehicles arrived at the border in April; it's unclear how many are in use.) Four other journalists and I participated in a U.S. Army tour last week, being shepherded around the borderlands in a sprinter van. Beginning at Fort Bliss, we first drove through downtown El Paso, Texas, to the bollard fence that marks many urban borders with Mexico. We passed through the gate, going south, and our van lurched between sandy potholes until we stopped underneath the Bridge of the Americas. For the first time in American history, soldiers have purportedly been given the authority to detain people in the New Mexico and west Texas borderlands on the grounds that they are trespassing on a military base. Though the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act restricts the use of the military for domestic law enforcement, a loophole known as the military purpose doctrine allows exceptions where soldiers are working to further a primarily military function, like guarding a military base. Trump's recent orders take advantage of this loophole. You might be able to spot the circular logic. The hundreds of miles of new 'military installations' along the border have provided the grounds for hundreds of trespassing charges, and potentially thousands more in the future. The purpose of those charges is to protect the military bases. Those bases, according to the military, are part of an overall effort to 'seal the southern border and repel illegal activity,' as well as 'denying illegal activity along the southern border.' But the trespassing charges now central to that effort would not be legal if the bases didn't exist. According to the military, these new National Defense Areas range from 60 feet to over 3 miles deep, though the Army has not released maps to make their exact dimensions clear. Analyzing land transfer data earlier this month, a spokesperson for Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) told SourceNM the border militarization scheme has serious implications for anyone driving along New Mexico State Road 9 'who might pull over to stretch their legs and unwittingly trespass on a military base.' Dozens of migrants have already pleaded guilty to the new trespassing charges. But many others have seen their charges dismissed, with a federal judge saying earlier this month there was no reason to believe they even knew they were stepping onto a military mission. At least so far, the arrests have been carried out by Border Patrol agents, not soldiers. But that could change, especially if the number of unauthorized border crossings ticks up as temperatures cool in the fall. Also, so far, it appears no U.S. citizens have been charged with trespassing on the border installations — but there's nothing in the legal authorities cited by the Trump administration that would preclude that. These developments are just the latest in decades of border militarization. The United States, under presidents of both parties, has built hundreds of miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border in recent decades. The Border Patrol recently celebrated its 100th birthday, and especially since Sept. 11, 2001, border enforcement has grown more and more aggressive, featuring high-tech surveillance equipment and thousands of armed agents, the presence of whom — especially as recent presidents have attacked asylum rights along the border — tends to push people into isolated, barren parts of the desert. In recentyears, members of the military have served in a support capacity along the border, helping with logistical tasks and surveillance. Still, Trump has accelerated this trend in his second term. Now, there are 10,000 soldiers along the border as part of the federal mission, up from 2,500 in January. And the threat of trespassing charges is palpable. Veteran border journalist Todd Miller wrote this month that on a recent trip to attempt to take photos of the new Defense Department signage, he noticed a camera system on an unmarked truck that appeared to be tracking his movements. 'What if I had missed the No Trespassing sign?' Miller wrote. 'Things began to feel creepy.' Someone exited the truck. Miller turned around. Last Thursday, I felt a similar chill when the soldier trained his binoculars on me. Was he just hamming it up for a scheduled media tour? Maybe so. But what about the thousands of Americans who live walking distance to a border National Defense Area? And what if Trump, as is expected, keeps expanding these National Defense Areas across the entire southern border? What if he starts declaring them throughout the country? Concertina wire glistened near my fingertips. The mid-May temperature crept toward 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Sweat soaked through my clothes. Pointing to the Rio Grande, I tried a joke on an Army public affairs officer, referring to the soldier with the binoculars. 'You should tell him the border is that way.' The officer didn't respond. The soldier with the binoculars dipped back inside his air-conditioned vehicle. We left, driving back under the Bridge of the Americas, waiting as a public affairs officer punched in a code that engaged a motor and opened the gates into the United States, then taking the highway to New Mexico. At the start of our four-hour tour, the three Army spokespeople tasked with escorting our group to various points along the border quickly tempered expectations. As a condition for the trip, they were not to be named or quoted, they said. The answers to some questions were self-evident. Earlier this month, for example, a federal magistrate judge dismissed trespassing charges against nearly 100 defendants who allegedly crossed the border into a National Defense Area, ruling 'the United States provides no facts from which one could reasonably conclude that the Defendant knew he was entering the [New Mexico National Defense Area].' From what I saw, that was a fair ruling. The signs warning border-crossers in English and Spanish that they were standing on military property appeared at 100-meter increments, on signposts driven into the desert sand. They're just over a foot wide and use a half-inch font, and were often positioned 30 feet or more inland from the portions of the border wall I saw. It's easy to imagine migrants standing on Mexican soil not even noticing the signs, let alone being able to make out what they say. Many questions remain unanswered. Here are a few I sent in an email this week to the U.S. Army, which has not responded: What are the rules of engagement for soldiers? When can they use lethal force? Are soldiers allowed to carry pepper spray, tear gas, 'less-than-lethal' ammunition, and/or similar arms? Do soldiers working in the National Defense Areas receive any border-specific training? Any training in crowd control or arrests? Have they trained with Border Patrol at all? Is the military authorized to do vehicle chases if someone crosses into an NDA and then flees? What about soldiers operating out of Customs and Border Protection vehicles? Can the military detain people overnight? Has that happened? Have any U.S. citizens been detained for trespassing on an NDA? 'As with any military installation, this land is under Department of Defense administrative jurisdiction,' Geoffrey A. Carmichael, a public affairs major with the U.S. Army, told HuffPost in an earlier statement, before I sent the above questions. 'This includes the authority to prevent unauthorized access and to detect and deter potential security threats to maintain security, order, and discipline, which may include apprehending those who enter without authorization. Any person apprehended for trespassing (or committing other criminal offenses) on a military installation, regardless of citizenship, will be transferred over to appropriate non-DoD law enforcement officials as promptly as practical.' Border Patrol operates in 'close proximity to our patrols,' he added, so 'law enforcement execution can be carried out rather quickly.' 'But I want to make it very clear,' Carmichael said. 'Law enforcement is not a DoD responsibility. Law enforcement and adjudication, in addition to what you've seen in reporting recently is the responsibility of CBP and the Department of Justice.' Also among the unanswered questions: Are the soldiers really helping to 'secure' the border? The administration seems to think so. 'If you see guys in camouflage now with binoculars, or in Stryker vehicles with rifles, they have the authority to detain illegals temporarily and assist Border Patrol and hand them over, and now, to be charged by the Department of Justice up to 10 years,' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video update two weeks ago. The numbers of charges, troops, barbed wire, and National Defense Areas would all continue to 'climb,' he said, because, 'we're going to get 100% operational control of the border.' Similar boasts about the military's ability to one-up Border Patrol officers are common in Operation Lone Star, the governor of Texas' parallel (but unrelated) mission to militarize that state's border using Texas National Guard soldiers, state troopers and state trespassing charges. That mission has also been marred by alleged human rights abuses and gratuitous political theater. Still, even before the declaration of National Defense Areas, crossings were already at historic lows, as they began dropping during the Biden administration due to much larger forces. Mexico, under pressure from the U.S., has for years moved aggressively to use its military and law enforcement to keep migrants away from the U.S. border. And both Trump and former President Joe Biden dramatically cracked down on asylum rights on the border, in Biden's case with a numerical cap, and in Trump's by simply declaring border crossings to be an emergency, and eliminating asylum rights almost altogether. As of last Thursday, the Army claimed it had made 190 'detections' since the New Mexico National Defense Area was first established in April — a minuscule number compared with Border Patrol's day-to-day work. Seeing the beefed-up military presence at the border made clear this is about more than 'operational control.' It's also about optics. Dispatching the military looks tough, and Trump loves to look tough. After our sprinter van left El Paso, we made our way west, into New Mexico, passing Santa Teresa Border Patrol Station and continuing until there was nothing around us but endless desert scrub. A surveillance blimp hovered nearby. We turned toward a black line on the horizon, which grew bolder until it became a 20-foot bollard wall. We disembarked onto soft sand a few steps from the wall. The sun glared overhead, and within minutes my phone shut down, overheating and displaying an error screen. Dust clung to my eyes and my boots seemed to sink into the shifting ground. We were only a couple of miles from a port of entry, but I couldn't tell. Later, I would find that the group No More Deaths, a humanitarian organization, had mapped a cluster of recorded human remains in recent years around where we stood. A few feet from an armored Stryker vehicle, a deserted, weathered backpack sat on the ground, contents spilled onto the earth — a toothbrush, ointment, deodorant, a baseball cap. The Stryker vehicle stood motionless atop a sandy hill, seeming to glare at me. This time, no one emerged from the vehicle. Since the Obama administration, many migrants have voluntarily surrendered to border agents after making the grueling trip north, opting to pursue their right to an asylum case in the United States. One major benefit of that route is the opportunity to avoid more trekking through the deadly desert. Now, given the new trespassing charges and the United States' animosity toward the asylum process itself, more people could try to avoid detection altogether. Squinting against the glaring sun and hot sand, I was overwhelmed at the thought. For dozens of migrants arrested out here under the new trespassing charges, the next stop has been local jail. For others, it might be immigration detention. For those trying to escape detection, the journey might continue through the desert, for however long they can survive. Because I happen to have been born in Maryland, the U.S. Army drove me to a gas station, then to a Fort Bliss parking lot. My trip to the border was over. Trump Is Quietly Using The U.S. Military In A Whole New Way Historians Are 'Shocked' By What They've Seen Trump Do In Just 100 Days Trump's Bid To Deport Columbia Activist Mahmoud Khalil Is Likely Unconstitutional, Judge Says Maryland Congressman Denied Access To See Man Wrongly Deported To El Salvador Trump Administration 'Unquestionably' Violated Deportation Order, Judge Says
