GOP Rep. Admits He’s Taken Photo with Dead Combatant
By Fox News. US Rep. Duncan Hunter of California acknowledged taking a photo with a dead combatant during his time as a Marine as he defended a Navy SEAL charged with multiple war crimes, including killing a teenage fighter.
The Republican congressman, who was re-elected last November as he faces corruption charges, made the comments during a town hall Saturday in his San Diego-area district, the Union-Tribune reported.
Hunter has advocated for a pardon for Edward Gallagher, who’s charged with stabbing to death a teenage Islamic State fighter under his care in Iraq in 2017 and then holding his reenlistment ceremony with the body.
Prosecutors said the Navy SEAL chief texted a photograph of himself next to the dead fighter and wrote he “got him with my hunting knife.” He’s also accused of shooting two civilians in Iraq and opening fire on crowds.
Hunter said he also posed for a photo next to a dead combatant but said he did not text it or post it to social media. The congressman said “a lot of us have done the exact same thing,” referring to fellow service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Read more from “GOP Rep. Admits He’s Taken Photo with Dead Combatant” HERE)
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Hunters — Father and Son — Hold Town Hall to Discuss Border Security
By The San Diego Union-Tribune. The event put on by the American Liberty Forum of Ramona was billed as “The Border, Then and Now.” For nearly an hour (the elder Hunter departed after 20 minutes for another engagement) the two discussed issues familiar to their East County constituents: border security and immigration. . .
Hunter said that the waves of immigrants who have come to the border and overwhelmed border security agencies is a “drug cartel-driven catastrophe.” He said cartels assemble large groups of people to cross illegally in one area, including what he called “fake families” of children with unrelated adults who then ask for asylum under international law. While the Border Patrol is busy processing a large group, Hunter said, cartels smuggle drugs across a less guarded area a few miles away.
While drug smuggling by cartels has long plagued the border, it’s unclear how much the crime groups are involved in moving people. A RAND Corporation study released in April said that there was a range of people involved in smuggling migrants into the U.S. from Central America, and concluded that there was little evidence that drug cartels — or Transnational Criminal Organizations — engage in human smuggling. But the study also said that “Drug-trafficking TCOs might also coordinate unlawful migrants’ border crossings to divert attention from other illicit activities and recruit or coerce migrants to carry drugs.”
The younger Hunter also addressed some other issues, including the pending court martial case against San Diego-based Navy SEAL chief Edward Gallagher and Army Capt. Mathew L. Golsteyn. Both are charged with committing war crimes during their service — Gallagher in Iraq and Golsteyn in Afghanistan. (Read more from “Hunters — Father and Son — Hold Town Hall to Discuss Border Security” HERE)
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