SSI Exclusive: FBI involvement in the murder of Brian Terry and the cover-up that followed. Part One. Peck Canyon -- The Killing Ground.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot while in the performance of his duties as part of a BORTAC team just before midnight on the night of 14-15 December 2010 at Peck Well, near Rio Rico, Arizona, while trying to apprehend a "rip crew" -- desert jackals who prey on the columns of human and drug smugglers who pass through Peck Canyon on their way to points north within "Estados Unidos." This series of articles will deal with what happened that night in the canyon, how it happened and who knew about it ahead of time. It will also deal with the efforts of the FBI to cover up the true circumstances of Brian Terry's death and why they did it. It is a story of inexcusable betrayal. In the final analysis, it will be apparent that just as ATF agents like John Dodson might not have blown the whistle about the Gunwalker Plot without the catalyst of the murder of Brian Terry, the true circumstances of the Terry murder would not have been discovered without the link to the Gunwalker Scandal. They are two sides of the same filthy coin.


In 1880, a young New York adventurer and miner named Arthur Leslie Peck settled in southern Arizona in a canyon in the mountains near present day Rio Rico. With him came his wife and child. He called his homestead Peck Canyon and settled near a year-round well which he dubbed Peck Well. Two years later, while Arthur was off prospecting, a renegade band of Apaches raided Peck Well, burned his homestead, raped and killed his wife and slaughtered his child for good measure.

Peck left the canyon, remarried in 1885, and never lived in such a lonely, dangerous place again. He left behind the graves of his wife and child, and his name on the well and the canyon.

Peck Canyon is now U.S. Forest Service land. A riparian area of very rough country, with many caves, the canyon is frequented by migrating birds, and, during the daylight hours only, hikers and nature lovers, although these days the tourists are either fearless, clueless or both. At night, Peck Canyon is inhabited by ghosts and contested by the bahadores, the border bandits, the rip crews, the smugglers they prey on and the Border Patrol special operations teams (called BORTAC teams) who hunt them.

In September 2003 the Tuscon Citizen covered a BORTAC team as it deployed in the desert, calling it a "Stealth Force."

They work in the shadows.

They hide in the hills, crouch under shrubs and lie waiting in holes in the ground.

They are federal agents from the mobile tactical operations unit of the U.S. Border Patrol, called BORTAC, and their latest mission has brought them into Tucson's back yard.

BORTAC has been deployed to work with border police in Albania, Guatemala, Bolivia and Honduras.

In the United States, the unit participates in tracking terrorism, riot control, guarding foreign diplomats and catching human smugglers and drug traffickers, Unit Commander Kevin Oaks said in an interview from BORTAC headquarter in Texas last week.

The agents represent almost every state in the country and have been operating as a
well-kept secret for almost 20 years.

Their most notable assignment - and the one that shattered their shield of anonymity - came in April 2000, when BORTAC agents executed a raid to ensure the safe return of Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba.


"22 April 2000: Seven-year-old Elian Gonzales became the centre of a major political storm when Miami-based relatives defied a US court order to return the boy to his father's custody in Cuba. After days of protests around the family home, a pre-dawn raid by armed Border Patrol officers was captured on camera, the terrified-looking boy apparently being grabbed by a uniformed man with a gun."

A battle to keep the boy in the United States failed. He had been rescued off the coast of Florida when a boatload of Cuban refugees perished at sea.

"We keep a low profile and we like it that way," Oaks says.

And so an invitation to the Tucson Citizen to observe the work of BORTAC agents came with restrictions, namely that their location and identities not be revealed.

The agents were deployed from Biggs Army Air Field in Texas into the Arizona desert this summer by the Department of Homeland Security.

Their mission: Detect and deter the flow of illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

"Our forte is once we leave the pavement," Oaks says. . .

Their packs are heavy, weighing up to 100 pounds, and are equipped with everything an agent might need should a shift unexpectedly extend into days. The medically trained agents are also prepared to switch from law enforcement mode into humanitarian mode should they encounter a migrant in distress.

Oftentimes, their "lay-in" operations, where they find an observation spot, stay put and monitor desert movement, can last days.

"That's probably the biggest difference between BORTAC and other agents - we're willing to work four days straight," says Agent Bobby, an 11-year veteran of the Border Patrol.

BORTAC'S work is precise and calculated.

These agents use their extensive training to detect groups of people crossing the border, keep them from getting too spread out, and manage their movement in order to get them to walk right into agents who are lying in wait in the cover of darkness.

"We like to call it the 'Surprise' operation," says Agent Bob, 41, a 20-year Border Patrol veteran. "Often we succeed in getting them to walk right into our agents or step on (agents) who are laying on the ground."

On a recent operation, agents find suspicious-looking footprints across a sandy trail.

Clearly, the smuggler leading this group knows that agents will be looking for footprints and he has the group walk heel-to-toe across the trail and carefully step in each others footprints.

The race is on and agents don't know if they will encounter work-seeking migrants or a more sinister group trying to smuggle drugs into the United States.

Three agents take off into the pitch-black desert on foot. By making their presence known, they strategically "push" the group to travel down a path that will lead them to other agents hidden in the desert, where they will be apprehended.

On the next road north, agents sit quietly, watching through night-vision binoculars for signs of the group.

Atop a nearby hill, an agent equipped with infrared lenses watches for movement and reports to the others on the ground whenever a group changes direction or stops.

Less than one percent of the U.S. Border patrol qualifies for BORTAC. The training is tough and like most special operations courses it is designed to eliminate candidates. BORTAC members are trained in special weapons, team tactics and multiple languages. Already a Marine combat veteran, Brian Terry graduated from BORTAC Training Class # 27 in 2009.

The night of 14-15 December was cold and dry. There would be a waxing, gibbous moon that night, just past half -- but the moon was low and would set around 1 AM on the 15th. It had been 78 degrees that day, but with nightfall it gets cold quick in the desert and by the time Brian Terry's BORTAC team was working its way down to the lay-up around Peck Well it was close to freezing. The wind was a steady two miles an hour out of the south-southwest with gusts up to 20 miles an hour. It was crisp and clear. Visibility was ten miles. The BORTAC team was used to operating in the cold. Cold was good, cold and dry was their friend. There was nothing to interfere with the thermal scopes. Anyone who approached them that night would have stood out like a blazing candle in a dark room.

What happened that night? The FBI, the Border Patrol, in fact every other Federal agency that knows what happened in that canyon that night -- and KNEW it BEFORE it happened -- isn't talking. There are, however, some documents that slipped out of the iron curtain of silence.

My fellow citizen investigator, the late Hugh Holub, received an email on 27 December 2010 that included official Customs and Border Patrol reports, including a timeline. Holub wrote:

The real shocker was the following email from a Bob Price. I tried to chase down Mr Price about the email to no avail.

I, too, have sent an email to Mr. Price, also to no avail. But I have verified from other sources that the information in the email is from official Border Patrol documents.

—– Forwarded Message —-
From: ”bprice777@comcast.net”
To: ”Price, Bob”
Sent: Mon, December 27, 2010 10:55:17 PM
Subject: Agent Terry United States Border Patrol

BORTAC Shooting Incident (11 TCANGL 121570000077)

On December 14, 2010, at approximately 11:13 p.m., a report of shots fired was broadcast over the radio by a member of TCA/BORTAC. The agent reported that an agent had been “hit” and that a possible bandit had been struck as well during the armed encounter. The area of the armed encounter is reported to be in an area known as “Peck Well”, near Rio Rico, Arizona.

Nogales Radio (KAK-865) immediately notified Emergency Medical Services (EMS), as well as Life Flight.

Field Operations Supervisor (FOS) Luke Bilow responded and set up a Command Post on Mesquite Seap, in an area known as “Peck Mesa”, where a landing zone was also established for the responding Life Flight. Supervisory Border Patrol Agents (SBPA) Knab and Johnson responded to the scene.

Air Assets: National Guard “Falcon One” and an OAM Blackhawk and Omaha 7AM” en route to assist in locating assailants.

On December 15, 2010, at 12:10 a.m., it was reported that there was one assailant in custody, with multiple gunshot wounds. A second Life Flight was contacted and is en route at this time.

The injured agent, identified as Brian Terry (Class #699/EOD 7/23/07), is currently in a Service vehicle being transported to the landing zone for the awaiting Life Flight helicopter.

Tucson Sector Investigations Branch SBPA Kevin Jones was notified of the situation.

A search for the outstanding assailants (reportedly 2) is ongoing.

Notifications:

11:19 p.m.: (A)APAIC Adame
11:19 p.m.: (A)PAIC Dikman
11:23 p.m.: ACPA Mark Rios

Updated information and timeline as of 2:38 a.m.

Six BORTAC Agents were conducting laying-in operations in the Peck Well area on December 14, 2010. At approximately 11:15 p.m., a group of approximately five individuals approached their position, coming from the east. BORTAC Agents identified that at least two of the individuals were carrying rifles. After identifying themselves as Border Patrol Agents, Detailer BORTAC Agent Gabriel Fragoza (Class 595/EOD; 7/11/05), from the Blythe Station/Yuma Sector, deployed two rounds from a less than lethal device (bean bags from shotgun). Agent Fragoza also discharged an unknown number of rounds from his Service issued sidearm.

BORTAC Agent Timothy Keller (Class 653/EOD: 1/16/07), from the Calexico Station/El Centro Sector, discharged an unknown number of rounds from his Service issued M-4 rifle. After the armed encounter, BORTAC Agent Terry called out that he was hit and couldn’t feel his legs. Agent Terry lost consciousness shortly thereafter.

Updated information and timeline as of 4:10 a.m.

SBPA Raul Chacon of the International Liaison Unit was contacted and he notified Mexican authorities of the situation. C-4 was contacted.

ICAD ticket# 2045 was created for the incident.

Arizona Department of Public Safety dispatching air assets to assist in the search for the outstanding assailant(s).

At 3:40 a.m., the wounded suspect arrived to the landing zone to be air lifted by Life Line to University Medical Center (UMC). Preliminary reports indicate the suspect was shot twice in the abdomen, and once in the upper back. The suspect is coherent and identified himself as Manuel OSORIO-Arellanes (DOB: 8-4-76, POB: Choix, SIN, Mex.).

At 3:41 a.m., Agent Terry was transported by EMS to the Tubac, Arizona Fire Station. Carroon’s Mortuary personnel will be transporting Agent Terry to Carroon’s Mortuary in Nogales, Arizona. Agent Terry is being escorted by Tucson Sector Honor Guard personnel.

The search continues for the outstanding assailant(s).

BORTAC Armed Encounter Timeline:

December 14, 2010

11:15 p.m.: BORTAC reports shots fired near Peck Well
11:18 p.m.: EMS/EMS Agents en route.
11:21 p.m.: Lifeflight and CBP/OAM contacted.
11:28 p.m.: Life Line en route.
11:33 p.m.: Air Omaha 7AM contacted.
11:35 p.m.: FOS Bilow sets up Command Post on Peck Mesa, near Gasline.
11:36 p.m.: National Guard Air Falcon One en route.
11:36 p.m.: Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Deputies arrive at Command Post.
11:38 p.m.: Landing Zone (LZ) created at Command Post (N31.49879 W-111.07986)
11:39 p.m.: EMS at Command Post.
11:39 p.m.: Tucson Investigations Branch (Kevin Jones) contacted.
11:40 p.m.: Reported that the injured agent is unresponsive/no pulse.
11:41 p.m.: Air Omaha 7AM en route.
11:44 p.m.: Tucson Investigations Branch/CIT en route.
11:53 p.m.: Life Line standing by at Landing Zone.
11:58 p.m.: BORTAC Agents report one suspect apprehended (with gunshot wounds).
11:59 p.m.: Omaha 7A9 and Omaha 747 (Blackhawk) in the area.

December 15, 2010

12:03 a.m.: Second Life Line contacted for wounded suspect.
12:09 a.m.: Wounded BORTAC Agent (Brian Terry) loaded into vehicle.
12:10 a.m.: Second Life Line en route.
12:10 a.m.: Mobile Surveillance Unit relocated.
12:14 a.m.: Falcon One in area.
12:19 a.m.: Agents en route to Ramanote Well to head off outstanding assailant(s).
12:23 a.m.: FOB Agents mobilizing further east on Ruby Road.
12:38 a.m.: Second Life Line on site.
12:46 a.m.: BORTAC Agent Terry arrives to Landing Zone.
12:51 a.m.: BORSTAR from Blackhawk rendering assistance.
01:06 a.m.: Dr. Chan pronounces Agent Terry dead.
01:35 a.m.: Reported that there are four subjects in custody at this time (one being gunshot), with one subject outstanding but spotted.
02:04 a.m.: Falcon One goes 10-7 for fuel.
02:40 a.m.: TCA Sector Radio informs Nogales Station that DPS Air Ranger en route.
03:05 a.m.: DPS Ranger in the area.
03:25 a.m.: Falcon One 10-8, on scene to assist.
03:40 a.m.: Wounded suspect arrives to LZ, en route to University Medical Center.
03:41 a.m.: Agent Terry is transported to Carroon’s Mortuary in Nogales, Arizona, escorted by Tucson Sector Honor Guard personnel.

Sad how bureaucratese reduces the greatest tragedy to dry words, isn't it?

In part two, we will explore how it came to be that the "rip crew" headed up to Peck Well that night, and how, according to sources, everybody but the BORTAC team knew what was going down before it went down. Everybody but Brian Terry and teammates. Thus it was that Brian Terry became the first BORTAC duty KIA casualty in the 27 years of its history -- from the stupidity and venal treachery of their fellows in federal law enforcement.