Feds in El Paso: Rep. O’Rourke Called to Ban Contact with Judicial Watch

Federal law enforcement sources in El Paso say that a United States congressman called their office to prohibit contact with Judicial Watch in the aftermath of a disturbing story confirming that Islamic terrorists are operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Sources tell JW that Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat who represents El Paso in the U.S. House of Representatives, telephoned the area offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) in an effort to identify—and evidently intimidate—sources that may have been used by JW. On August 29 JW reported that the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is working in Juarez and planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED).

In the piece JW cites high-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources confirming that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued. Agents across a number of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense agencies have all been placed on alert and instructed to aggressively work all possible leads and sources concerning this imminent terrorist threat. In the aftermath of JW’s story Ft. Bliss, an El Paso Army base near Juarez, increased security measures and the sheriff in Midland County Texas—located halfway between Ft. Worth and El Paso—confirmed that he received an alert bulletin warning from the feds that ISIS may have formed a terrorist cell in or near Juarez.

O’Rourke evidently believes that someone on the inside is feeding JW information because the facts in all our reporting have been correct, according to government sources with first-hand knowledge of the matter. “He called the El Paso offices of the FBI, HSI and USBP asking if anyone was talking to Judicial Watch,” one inside source told JW this week. O’Rourke’s calls were followed by a memo that came down through the chain of command threatening to terminate or criminally charge any agent who speaks to media of any kind. This would include JW, a nonprofit legal watchdog that has broken a number of government corruption stories on its website and newsletter.

Congressman O’Rourke’s office emphatically denies making any phone calls to any El Paso federal law enforcement offices related to this matter. His director of communications, John Meza, assures that no one in the congressman’s office—including the congressman himself—has talked to any law enforcement agencies or officials to discourage or question contact with JW or any other media outlet. “We don’t do that,” Meza said.

The Obama administration steadfastly denies that Islamic terrorists are operating in Juarez, even as facts continue to unfold proving otherwise. Though the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to respond to multiple inquiries from Judicial Watch, both telephonic and in writing, about this information it has issued statements in the media rejecting the story. Is it possible that the administration called upon a trusted ally, a federal lawmaker from the targeted area, to silence the whistle blowers?

After all, the administration has for years covered up, or at the very least downplayed, a serious epidemic of crime along the Mexican border even as heavily armed drug cartels have taken over portions of the region. JW has reported that the U.S. Border Patrol actually ordered officers to avoid the most crime-infested stretches because they’re “too dangerous” and patrolling them could result in an “international incident” of cross border shooting. And who could forget the famous words of Obama’s first Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano; the southern border is “as secure as it has ever been.”