Shadow Wolves ... Surprise taliban
Is the day of rekonning closer to hand? Well if you are a taliban or al-quieda in Afgahnistan it is. The old saying "loose the dogs of war" comes to mind as an elite unit form America's boarder patrol takes to foriegn fields.
The Shadow Wolves are a Native American tracking unit that has been deployed from the Arizona boarder in order to track down terrorists. This unit uses their skills of tracking to locate and arrest (in this case let the military serve justice as long as politicians stay out of it) those who are causeing trouble in and along the Afgahnistan and Pakistan boarder.
A little history of the Shadow Wolves:
http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2003/january/wolves.php
An all-Indian Customs unit, nicknamed the Shadow Wolves, that patrols the reservation.The unit, which numbers 21 agents, was established in 1972 by an act of Congress. (It has recently become part of the Department of Homeland Security.) “The name Shadow Wolves refers to the way we hunt, like a wolf pack,” says Nez, a 14-year veteran who joined the U.S. Customs Patrol Office of Investigation in 1988 after a stint as an officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Navajo Police Department. “If one wolf finds prey, it will call in the rest of the pack.” What makes the Shadow Wolves unique is its modus operandi. Rather than relying solely on high-tech gadgetry— night-vision goggles or motion sensors buried in the ground—members of this unit “cut for sign.” “Sign” is physical evidence—footprints, a dangling thread, a broken twig, a discarded piece of clothing, or tire tracks. “Cutting” is searching for sign or analyzing it once it’s found.
Between October 2001 and October 2002, the Shadow Wolves seized 108,000 pounds of illegal drugs, nearly half of all the drugs intercepted by Customs in Arizona. The group has also been invited to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Kazakstan and Uzbekistan to help train border guards, customs officials and police in tracking would-be smugglers of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
At home, the Shadow Wolves unit is responsible for the 76 miles of border that the reservation shares with Mexico. It’s a difficult task for fewer than two dozen officers, and the events of September 11 have only made things worse. Beefed-up security at Arizona’s designated border crossings— Nogales and Sasabee in the east, tiny Lukeville in the west.
In April 2002, a group of officers was making an arrest near Ajo when a smuggler tried to run down Shadow Wolves agent Curtis Heim with his truck. Heim, only slightly injured, shot the smuggler, who survived the wound but was arrested, his drugs confiscated. (That bust brought in a whopping 8,500 pounds of marijuana, which could have sold on the streets for an estimated $8.5 million.) This pastAugust, Kris Eggle, a 28-year-old park ranger at the OrganPipeCactusNational Monument, just to the west of the reservation, was shot and killed by a Mexican fugitive he was pursuing.
[THE PREVIOUS EXCERPTS ARE FROM A GREAT TALE OF A HOT DAY IN THE ARIZONA DESERT WHERE THE SHADOW WOLVES WENT ON A HUNT}
MORE INFORMATION AND TAILS OF THE SHADOW WOLVES CAN BE FOUND HERE:
http://www.desertusa.com/mag03/apr/hunt.html
Legends of the old west and tales of the outstanding tracking ability of Native Americans abound. It was an Apache that chased Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to South America. Army Scouts helped find Geronimo.
The chances that osama should be looking hard over his shoulder have no increased a hundred fold.
Michelle malkin has some more:
http://michellemalkin.com/
The Shadow Wolves are on the trail
By Michelle Malkin · March 12, 2007 10:50 AM
Following in the footsteps of the WWII Codetalkers, an elite unit of Native American trackers is being deployed to help nab Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan:
An elite group of Native American trackers is joining the hunt for terrorists crossing Afghanistan's borders. The unit, the Shadow Wolves, was recruited from several tribes, including the Navajo, Sioux, Lakota and Apache. It is being sent to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to pass on ancestral sign-reading skills to local border units.
In recent years, members of the Shadow Wolves have mainly tracked smugglers along the US border with Mexico.
But the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan and the US military's failure to hunt down Osama bin Laden - still at large on his 50th birthday on Saturday - has prompted the Pentagon to requisition them.
US Defence Secretary Robert M.Gates said last month: "If I were Osama bin Laden, I'd keep looking over my shoulder."
The Pentagon has been alarmed at the ease with which Taliban and al-Qa'ida fighters have been slipping in and out of Afghanistan. Defence officials are convinced their movements can be curtailed by the Shadow Wolves.
The unit has earned international respect for its tracking skills in the Arizona desert. It was founded in the early 1970s to curb the flow of marijuana into the US from Mexico and has since tracked people-smugglers across hundreds of square kilometres of the Tohono O'odham tribal reservation, southwest of Tucson.
Very cool, but as AJ Strata points out: What took the US so long to deploy the Shadow Wolves?
Tigerhawk links to an old Smithsonian profile of the unit.
And here's a tribute page to the Shadow Wolves. Their motto:
"In brightest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight, for I am the Shadow Wolf."
***
Update: Tons of readers point out the Shadow Wolf motto is inspired by Green Lantern:
The Shadow Wolves are a Native American tracking unit that has been deployed from the Arizona boarder in order to track down terrorists. This unit uses their skills of tracking to locate and arrest (in this case let the military serve justice as long as politicians stay out of it) those who are causeing trouble in and along the Afgahnistan and Pakistan boarder.
A little history of the Shadow Wolves:
http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2003/january/wolves.php
An all-Indian Customs unit, nicknamed the Shadow Wolves, that patrols the reservation.The unit, which numbers 21 agents, was established in 1972 by an act of Congress. (It has recently become part of the Department of Homeland Security.) “The name Shadow Wolves refers to the way we hunt, like a wolf pack,” says Nez, a 14-year veteran who joined the U.S. Customs Patrol Office of Investigation in 1988 after a stint as an officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Navajo Police Department. “If one wolf finds prey, it will call in the rest of the pack.” What makes the Shadow Wolves unique is its modus operandi. Rather than relying solely on high-tech gadgetry— night-vision goggles or motion sensors buried in the ground—members of this unit “cut for sign.” “Sign” is physical evidence—footprints, a dangling thread, a broken twig, a discarded piece of clothing, or tire tracks. “Cutting” is searching for sign or analyzing it once it’s found.
Between October 2001 and October 2002, the Shadow Wolves seized 108,000 pounds of illegal drugs, nearly half of all the drugs intercepted by Customs in Arizona. The group has also been invited to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Kazakstan and Uzbekistan to help train border guards, customs officials and police in tracking would-be smugglers of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
At home, the Shadow Wolves unit is responsible for the 76 miles of border that the reservation shares with Mexico. It’s a difficult task for fewer than two dozen officers, and the events of September 11 have only made things worse. Beefed-up security at Arizona’s designated border crossings— Nogales and Sasabee in the east, tiny Lukeville in the west.
In April 2002, a group of officers was making an arrest near Ajo when a smuggler tried to run down Shadow Wolves agent Curtis Heim with his truck. Heim, only slightly injured, shot the smuggler, who survived the wound but was arrested, his drugs confiscated. (That bust brought in a whopping 8,500 pounds of marijuana, which could have sold on the streets for an estimated $8.5 million.) This pastAugust, Kris Eggle, a 28-year-old park ranger at the OrganPipeCactusNational Monument, just to the west of the reservation, was shot and killed by a Mexican fugitive he was pursuing.
[THE PREVIOUS EXCERPTS ARE FROM A GREAT TALE OF A HOT DAY IN THE ARIZONA DESERT WHERE THE SHADOW WOLVES WENT ON A HUNT}
MORE INFORMATION AND TAILS OF THE SHADOW WOLVES CAN BE FOUND HERE:
http://www.desertusa.com/mag03/apr/hunt.html
Legends of the old west and tales of the outstanding tracking ability of Native Americans abound. It was an Apache that chased Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to South America. Army Scouts helped find Geronimo.
The chances that osama should be looking hard over his shoulder have no increased a hundred fold.
Michelle malkin has some more:
http://michellemalkin.com/
The Shadow Wolves are on the trail
By Michelle Malkin · March 12, 2007 10:50 AM
Following in the footsteps of the WWII Codetalkers, an elite unit of Native American trackers is being deployed to help nab Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan:
An elite group of Native American trackers is joining the hunt for terrorists crossing Afghanistan's borders. The unit, the Shadow Wolves, was recruited from several tribes, including the Navajo, Sioux, Lakota and Apache. It is being sent to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to pass on ancestral sign-reading skills to local border units.
In recent years, members of the Shadow Wolves have mainly tracked smugglers along the US border with Mexico.
But the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan and the US military's failure to hunt down Osama bin Laden - still at large on his 50th birthday on Saturday - has prompted the Pentagon to requisition them.
US Defence Secretary Robert M.Gates said last month: "If I were Osama bin Laden, I'd keep looking over my shoulder."
The Pentagon has been alarmed at the ease with which Taliban and al-Qa'ida fighters have been slipping in and out of Afghanistan. Defence officials are convinced their movements can be curtailed by the Shadow Wolves.
The unit has earned international respect for its tracking skills in the Arizona desert. It was founded in the early 1970s to curb the flow of marijuana into the US from Mexico and has since tracked people-smugglers across hundreds of square kilometres of the Tohono O'odham tribal reservation, southwest of Tucson.
Very cool, but as AJ Strata points out: What took the US so long to deploy the Shadow Wolves?
Tigerhawk links to an old Smithsonian profile of the unit.
And here's a tribute page to the Shadow Wolves. Their motto:
"In brightest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight, for I am the Shadow Wolf."
***
Update: Tons of readers point out the Shadow Wolf motto is inspired by Green Lantern:
