Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vows Israel will do 'whatever is necessary' in fight with Hamas

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/07/27/israel-resumes-gaza-offensive-after-rocket-attacks/

Mexican prison ordeal saps Marine Sgt. Tahmooressi's life savings

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7/27/14    

While Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi was living on a base and eating MREs in Afghanistan and earning a battlefield promotion, his paychecks from Uncle Sam were piling up in the bank.

He dreamed of returning to Weston, Fla., when his second tour of duty ended and buying a new truck, maybe getting a place of his own. At 26, and with a modest nest egg waiting, he had a future back home.

Now Tahmooressi languishes in a Mexican prison, plagued by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. And the $65,000 he saved in the service of his nation is gone, according to his mother.

"He has already lost all of his life savings."- Jill Tahmooressi, mother of Marine imprisoned in Mexico

"He has already lost all of his life savings," his mother, Jill Tahmooressi, said. "When this is all over he will have nothing and will be facing an enormous debt."

Tahmooressi has been held since March 31, when he accidentally drove into Mexico at the San Ysidro, Calif., Port of Entry late March 31, after becoming disoriented from poorly lit street signs and being in a position on the road unable to make a last ditch U-turn. He was carrying all of his possessions, including three registered guns – legal in the U.S., but not in Mexico.

If convicted, he faces up to 21 years in prison. But even if he is set free, he will have nothing, his mother fears.

"He's been in jail for three months just for making a wrong turn and now he is broke," Jill Tahmooressi said. "He will walk out of jail a broke man."

Most of the money has been spent on attorneys, Jill Tahmooressi said. The Marine is now represented by Fernando Benitez, a legal star known for defending the mayor of Tijuana on weapons and corruption charges. While the family is confident in Benitez, two prior attorneys did little but send bills, according to Jill Tahmooressi.

She said their first lawyer, Alejandro Osuna, cost her son a prepaid retainer in excess of $10,000, although she declined to be more specific. Osuna was fired after he allegedly suggested Tahmooressi tell a judge at an April 28 hearing that he had never been to Mexico before his arrest, which was not true.

A second attorney, Lamberto Jesus Esquer Dabdoub, charged him $10,000 up front and didn't do anything prior to his firing eight days later because of lack of confidence by the family. Neither attorney ever submitted a shred of evidence to the federal court on Tahmooressi's behalf.

Benitez has yet to submit a bill, but given the case could stretch out for as long as two years, the Tahmooressi family is braced for expenses that could exceed $100,000.

The family of Jon Hammar, another Florida Marine caught at the border with a weapon he declared, told Jill Tahmooressi that in the four months he was in prison before his release in 2012, his legal fees alone exceeded $90,000.

Jill Tahmooressi said her son is shouldering the bulk of the expenses but she is not without her own financial burdens with the case. A nursing director at Miami Children's Hospital in Florida, she said she has already laid out more than $6,000 for travel to be with her son. The time she is taking from work is unpaid.

Jill Tahmooressi said she hasn't sought help because "economically, all of America has been hurting for so long." But three weeks ago, with the help of a California law firm that has been advising her, she established a charitable trust through Campaign Solutions in Washington. The name of the site to make donations for Andrew's defense is www.andrewfreedomfund.com.

But whether kind sympathizers chip in or the Tahmooressis have to go deeper into debt, the distraught mom said she would do whatever it took.

“I will pay any cost, including sacrificing our family home if need be, to pay the bills to Mexico associated with Andrew's release back to the states,” Jill Tahmooressi said.

For all you Obama Lovers, He hasn't lifted a finger to help!

Border agents say violent MS-13 recruiting at Arizona facility for new Central American arrivals

 Bailey: "This just shows you how incompetent our Government is on protecting us from outside threats."

MS-13 members are infiltrating a federal facility for Central American youths illegally entering the United States -- trying to cross the border with criminal pasts and recruiting others to join the notoriously violent, California-based gang, sources tell Fox News.
Shawn Moran, of the National Border Patrol Council, said the gang leaders are recruiting pre-teens, as they typically do, and following the lead of drug cartels also trying to fill their ranks from among the estimated 57,000 unaccompanied youths and others who have come to the U.S. from Central America in roughly the past nine months. 
He said agents have witnessed the recruiting at the Border Patrol’s facility in Nogales, Ariz., and that gang members are using a Red Cross phone bank there to “recruit, enlist and pressure” others illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It makes sense that MS-13 would do the same,” said Moran, vice president for the union, which represents border patrol agents.
He and local union officials also say agents are saying they cannot isolate admitted criminals and gang members, suspected gang members and those engaging in criminal behavior because they are minors.
The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement each told FoxNews.com earlier this week that they have no knowledge of the MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, activities detailed by Moran and others. However, they pointed out that young unaccompanied aliens are held in ICE facilities for only the first 48 hours.
“We know it’s happening because agents are telling us,” Moran told Fox News. “The Border Patrol is trying to downplay it.”
He said agents have overhead the phone bank conversations and that potential recruits are given a phone number to call and say they are “willing to join” the gang.
MS-13 also has a large presence in El Salvador, which has in part led to many Central American youths fleeing that country. So at least some gang members would more than likely be among the tens of thousands of young illegal Central Americans who have recently arrived at the border, sources say.
Texas state GOP Sen. Dan Patrick said earlier this week that roughly 100,000 illegally immigrants living in his state are gang members.

Israel resumes Gaza offensive after rocket attacks

Israel said Sunday that it was resuming its ground offensive and airstrikes in the Gaza Strip early Sunday, closing a unilateral 24-hour cease-fire window after the Islamic militant group Hamas fired a salvo of rockets at southern Israel.
"Due to Hamas' incessant rocket fire during the humanitarian window, we are renewing our aerial, naval, and ground activity in Gaza," an Israel Defense Forces spokesman tweeted Sunday. The next tweet read, "The IDF has repeatedly urged the civilian population of Gaza not to approach combat zones."
The Israeli military said about a dozen rockets had been fired from Gaza since midnight Sunday, without causing any reported casualties or damage. Israel's Cabinet had decided to extend the cease-fire for 24 hours, until midnight Monday (5 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday), but warned that its military would respond to any fire from Gaza and would continue to demolish cross-border tunnels used by militants to stage attacks.
The rocket fire began late Saturday after Hamas, who have demanded the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade on the territory and the release of prisoners, refused to extend the truce.
"Once again Hamas is cynically using the people of Gaza as a human shield," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
Shortly thereafter, clashes erupted between Israeli troops and Gaza militants and the sounds of explosions echoed across the coastal territory. The Islamic Jihad group said one of its field commanders was killed by tank fire near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.
Gaza health officials claim that the 20-day offensive has killed more than 1,050 Palestinians, though it is not clear how many were civilians and how many were Hamas militants. Israel has lost 43 soldiers, while two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker were also killed by rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza.
The Hamas rejection of a further lull after fighting was halted for 12 hours Saturday complicated the efforts of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and European foreign ministers, who were meeting in Paris in hopes of transforming the cease-fire into a more sustainable truce.
Israel launched its military operation on July 8 and later sent ground forces into Gaza to stop relentless rocket fire and to destroy a sophisticated network of Hamas tunnels that could be used to infiltrate the country.
The military says it is doing its utmost to prevent civilian casualties, including by sending evacuation warnings to residents in targeted areas, and blames Hamas for putting civilians in harm's way.
Hamas and other militants in Gaza have fired more than 2,400 rockets at Israel since hostilities began on July 8, many deep into the Israeli heartland and toward most of the country's major cities. Casualties in the Israeli side have stayed relatively low thanks to Israel's sophisticated Iron Dome missile defense system and because residents have been vigilant about seeking shelter quickly upon hearing the air raid sirens.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said any truce must include a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and that tens of thousands of displaced people must be allowed to return to their homes. Israel's current terms are "not acceptable," he said in a text message to journalists.
Israel's acceptance of the cease-fire extension was premised on its soldiers remaining in Gaza to destroy the more than 30 tunnels the military says it has already found in the densely populated coastal strip. Israel says the tunnels represent a strategic threat because they allow Hamas fighters to carry out attacks on Israeli territory.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.