by
Tim Brown
Former United States Marine (once a Marine, always a Marine) and Iraq
War Veteran Jon Hammar endured much in his tour in the streets of
Fallujah, but now he spends most of his time chained to a bed in a
Mexican jail on trumped up gun charges that could result in twelve years
in jail. Not surprisingly his former commander-in-chief Barack Obama
has been absolutely silent on the matter, even though he was arrested on
August 13. Didn’t anyone tell you this?
Hammar took to Mexico
with a friend to surf, as it was the only thing that seemed to ease his
mind following his service in Iraq. He is now within walking distance
of the U.S. border, but sadly does not possess the freedom to do so.
And why is a former Marine chained to a bed in a Mexican Jail?
McClatchy DC reports:
The reason might seem ludicrous. Hammar took a six-decade-old shotgun
into Mexico. The .410 bore Sears & Roebuck shotgun once belonged to
his great-grandfather. The firearm had been handed down through the
generations, and it had become almost a part of Hammar, suitable for
shooting birds and rabbits.
But
Mexican prosecutors who looked at the disassembled relic in the 1972
Winnebago motor home dismissed the U.S. registration papers Hammar had
filled out. They charged him with a serious crime: possession of a
weapon restricted for use to Mexico’s armed forces.
Hammar isn’t the only American accused of questionable gun-related
charges at Mexico’s border. Last April, a truck driver who was carrying
ammunition through Texas got lost near the border, dipped into Mexico to
make a U-turn and was forced to spend more than six months in jail.
According to his grandmother the shotgun was more like a “glorified BB gun.”
Both
Hammar and his friend Ian McDonough were arrested, not because of the
gun, which had cleared customs, but because of the length of the barrel.
The Mexican prosecutors “dismissed the U.S. registration papers Hammar
had filled out,” charging Hammar with the serious crime of “possession
of a weapon restricted for use to Mexico’s armed forces”:
Curiously,
it wasn’t the type of shotgun that broke Mexican law. It was the length
of the barrel, which the formal citation said was shorter than 25
inches, although a discrepancy has emerged over how the barrel was
measured.
Hammar’s friend, Mcdonough, was released and allowed to walk back into Texas.
According
to Marine Sgt. James Garcia, who served with Hammar in several combat
situations, he said Hammar was “one of the best we had.” According to
the reports Hammer, who is now only 27 years old, “joined the Marines
and deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq before receiving an honorable
discharge in 2007, serving another four years in inactive reserve.”
During
his stay he has received death threats and as he was sent to a state
prison in Matamoros, his parents in Florida received extortion phone
calls demanding $1,800. They did not pay, but instead contacted U.S.
diplomats who were able to get Hammar moved from a wing of the prison
controlled by a Mexican drug cartel into solitary confinement.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), chairwoman of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee said, “His family has described a very disturbing
situation that includes their son being chained to a bed in a very small
cell and receiving calls from fellow inmates threatening his life if
they did not send them money. The family also says that the jail where
their son is being held is controlled by the dreaded and brutal Zetas
drug cartel. The family wants their son back home, and I will do my best
to help them.”
I’m pretty sure the Mexico is pretty ticked off
still over our government’s blatant supplying of arms to Mexican drug
cartels with the Fast and Furious scandal has hurt our relationship with
them. No doubt there should be no need to take it out on a U.S.
citizen, but this is what happens when you have a man like Barack Obama
in the White House.
While Garcia says, “He doesn’t deserve this.
We never leave a brother behind. We never leave a Marine behind. We have
to do something,” and the Hammar’s own representative says she will do
all she can to help, Barack Obama has said absolutely nothing on the
matter or lifted a finger to help this marine who served his country.
No comments:
Post a Comment