A report Monday on potential terrorist infiltration of the US was based largely on "raw, uncorroborated information" from a source of "unknown reliability."
Given the opportunity to fear-monger, though, the folks at Fox & Friends ignored those caveats and painted a picture of weapon-wielding terrorists who are plotting an attack on a US army base as we speak.
"It was one base in particular ... Fort Huachuca, they have tunnels that go right into it, they have 60 people ... Iraqis and Afghanis, some of which made it through and are still here, coming through with high-powered, lethal weapons to bomb out some of the 12,000 that are housed at that fort," anchor Brian Kilmead warned in that ominous-yet-cheerful tone that is a hallmark of the Fox News morning crew.
Of course, the idea that Mexican smugglers have tunnels that go "right into" a fortified US Army base is ridiculous on its face, although authorities have discovered more than 20 drug-smuggling tunnels leading from Mexico into the US since Sept. 11, 2001.
Also unmentioned by the 'Fox friends' was the fact that the terror warnings, which were reported Monday in the Washington Times, were from May of this year -- six months ago, despite the urgency with which the anchors drummed up the terror threat.
According to the reports, terrorists paid the drug cartels $20,000 per person to smuggle them into the US. Fort Huachuca changed its security procedures following the warnings from various law enforcement agencies and does not appear to be in danger of an imminent attack.
The information on the terror smuggling came from a Drug Enforcement Agency informant who had been reliable in the past, although that informant apparently received his or her information from a "sub source" within a Mexican drug cartel whose credibility could not be verified.
The sub-source was affiliated with the Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico's most dangerous drug-trafficking organizations, according to the Times and is of "unknown reliability," according to the FBI. The source identified a rival cartel, the Sinaloa, as assisting the terrorist smuggling.
"This led the DEA to caution the FBI that its information may be a Gulf Cartel plant to bring the U.S. military in against its main rival," the Times noted in the penultimate paragraph of its article. "The Sinaloa and Gulf cartels have fought bloody battles along the border for control of shipping routes into the U.S."
These details were conveniently omitted from Monday's Fox report.
This video is from Fox's Fox & Friends, broadcast on November 26, 2007.
