Green Tree City Case Study Week 7 (Question 3 only) - Assignment Example

Green Tree Case Study Week 7 John Jones Investigators often wish they had 20/20 foresight when dealing with criminal activities. It was definitely true before 9/11, when the FBI and various police agencies had most of the nineteen hijackers in their sights, especially Zacarias Moussaoui, the only one hapless enough to have been apprehended before that fateful day. There were even Federal agents who tried to warn their supervisors of impending attacks but were mostly ignored (Ross, 2011). It was only after the attacks that the FBI and CIA began to share notes and started putting the dots together, for the evidence to suddenly seem to make a great deal of sense to them.

So it was to those involved with the Green Tree City Bombing investigation. As early as three months before the attack, Lieutenant Boardman was aware several Middle Eastern men in the community had been acting suspicious. Unfortunately with the United States laws on probable cause, he had nothing to hold them. Even when the state trooper made the traffic stop, he had no real cause to search them. Only when the car wreck happened and the money and fake ID documents were found did Boardman and his peers begin to piece together the scenario, mostly too late.

Besides, as many agents were focused on the Chandra Levy case in the summer of 2001, Boardman was preoccupied with the Hell’s Angels like motorcycle gang.As the investigation processed, Investigator Vincent would be wise to assume that Green Tree City was a prelude to something much bigger. Although terrorist cells might target a small city office building to instill fear in Americans, the attack was more than likely a test run to see if the United States is complacent once more, with the mistaken impression it won’t happen yet again.

It is quite evident that Amid is a young man who is terrified of being put into jail and he might jump at the chance of being a confidential informant. Nobody in the cells thought of him as much more than a gopher and he might be able to garner a great deal of information just by hanging around the terrorists. Of course that depends upon whether word of his arrest has filtered down to the suspects. In that case, that would be putting his life in great danger.However, the investigation should focus on that salvage yard operation in Arizona.

Many thousands of people from Central and South America illegally cross the United States-Mexican border annually. That international area is nearly 2,000 miles of mostly rugged and highly indefensible desert areas. The Department of Homeland Security Secretary admitted in 2012 that DHS has known for years that known Arab terrorists have likewise been crossing the border, in most cases paying thousands of dollars for the jackals’ help (Mora, 2012). Border Patrol agents are thinly spread and mostly lack the equipment for quick field identification, so separating them from illegal immigrants is almost impossible.

It is quite probable that if they are caught they are simply processed and taken back across the border, as is the case of other illegals. It would be a long shot but pressuring the managers of the salvage yard might reveal the names and addresses of those in charge of slipping the terrorists across the border. Mexico cooperates fully in the Global War on Terror and could very well be persuaded to assist in the investigation, especially since it would show the country is making a stand against illegal crossings.

ReferencesRoss, B (2011), While America Slept: The True Story of 9/11, Retrieved from: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/ten-years-ago-today-countdown-911/story?id=14191671. Mora, E (2012), Napolitano: Terrorists Enter U.S. from Mexico ‘From Time to Time’ Retrieved from: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/napolitano-terrorists-enter-us-mexico-time-time.