U.S. REP. SUE MYRICK: HEZBOLLAH ENTERING U.S. THROUGH MEXICO

Representative Sue Myrick (NC-9) came to Congress in 1995 after building a successful advertising and public relations business, and serving two terms as mayor of Charlotte, NC, the state’s largest city and commercial hub. She is currently in her eighth term representing North Carolina's 9th district, which covers portions of Union, Mecklenburg, and Gaston Counties.

Myrick serves on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, which is the oldest legislative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. It enjoys the broadest legislative responsibility of any House committee, including public health, telecommunications, energy, consumer protection, food and drug safety, air quality, environmental health, and interstate and foreign commerce.

The feisty Republican conservative, 68, has sparkled in her Washington experience, and is on the radar of national media – the subject most recently of a very positive feature on NEWSMAX.com.

Myrick tells Newsmax it is “very frightening” that the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah has been sending agents to Mexico — and some have already entered the United States across the porous border.

The North Carolina lawmaker has asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to set up a special task force to investigate the reports that Hezbollah is cooperating with drug cartels along the Mexican border.

In an exclusive Newsmax interview, Myrick — a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the GOP’s Deputy Whip — was asked what is known about Hezbollah’s threat to America.

“Our intelligence sources have really clarified that they are in Mexico, that there is an operation that is quite large in place there, and it’s very frightening to me because this is national security,” says Myrick, who was first elected in 1994.

“Yes, immigration’s a problem too, but this particular situation [involves] people who don’t like us for various reasons.

“We know some of them have gotten across the border in the past, and now we know that there are people from Iran who are going to Venezuela. They are actually learning Spanish, and then they come up through Mexico to cross our border. So they’re working in cahoots with Venezuela as well.”

About Hezbollah’s intentions in the U.S., Myrick says: “We don’t know. It used to be that most of those groups did not really target the United States. They were targeting other countries or they were staying inside their own area of influence. Now they are starting to target the United States and that’s my concern.

“I do want a task force of both U.S. and Mexican officials. Let’s get to the bottom of this and find out what is going on.

“The response I have received was a call that they would like to give me a private intelligence briefing because I’m on the Intelligence Committee. I said that would be fine, but I would like an answer about the task force first because once I get a briefing, I can’t talk about it.”

Sen. John Kyl, an Arizona Republican, has said he met privately with President Barack Obama and implored him to secure the border. Kyl claims Obama told him that if he did secure the border it would remove the incentive for comprehensive immigration reform or amnesty for illegals. Myrick says that “makes no sense whatsoever.”

Myrick tells Newsmax: “It’s obvious that’s what he wants, amnesty. He’s said it over and over again. I don’t see it that way.

“Our responsibility at the federal government is to make sure that our borders are secure. Once the border is secure, like it is in some other places where we don’t have the problems that we do in the areas where it’s porous, then we’ll know who is in the country. We can control who comes into the country.

“It makes no sense to me whatsoever that you can’t secure the border because you can’t get amnesty.”

Myrick takes issue with Attorney General Eric Holder, who has filed suit against Arizona’s tough new law to battle illegal immigration.

“The federal government has not done its job,” she declares.
“Arizona is only trying to do what a state as the right to do, and that is to protect themselves.”

Turning to Iran, Myrick charges that the Obama administration is dragging its feet on dealing with the nuclear threat posed by the Islamic Republic.

“I think we should take a tougher stance and work harder with our partners in the world to make sure they do too,” she says.

The United Nations in its attempts to deal with Iran is “just a joke,” she adds. “They aren’t doing their job.”

Asked about the possibility that Israel may attack Iran’s nuclear facilities on its own, Myrick responds:

“I think Israel has the right to defend themselves. That option is there.

“I hope it does not come to that, but there needs to be something done to have a tougher stand with Iran.

“They aren’t going to be our friends. You can’t convince them they’re going to be our friends. They don’t operate that way. They don’t want to be friends. They want to conquer the world.”

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/myrick-hezbollah-mexico-border-terrorism/2010/07/15/id/364796?s=al&promo_code=A4B9-1

BULLETIN: Obama fumbles ball again. NC Coast may suffer.

Wilmington, NC: Ilario Pantano, the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s 7th Congressional District, calls on the Obama Administration to immediately reinstate the charter for the Minerals Management Services’ (now known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Policy Committee and to immediately appoint a representative from North Carolina to the committee.

“It is frightening to me that in the midst of the worst oil spill on record in U.S. history, and during the middle of a review and potential revision of offshore energy regulations and policies, that the OCS Policy committee, the group of experts whose job it is to advise the Secretary of the Interior on such issues, no longer exists because President Obama let their charter expire,” Pantano said.

The Outer Continental Shelf Policy Committee’s charter expired on June 5th effectively disbanding the committee. The Committee had been in existence since 1975, and its expired charter stated that the purpose of the committee was to advise the Secretary of the Interior by reviewing and commenting on all aspects of the leasing, exploration, development, and protection of OCS resources. North Carolina has not had representation on the committee, despite the fact that North Carolina has the largest OCS acreage on the east coast (64 million acres) and the fourth largest in the nation.


"This is another example that President Obama and Interior Secretary Salazar are asleep at the wheel,” Pantano said. "They are not focused on solving the problem. Instead, they are busy trying to politicize this crisis in order to pass their potentially disastrous cap-and-tax energy policy. This is one of the worst disasters in the history of our nation. It deserves our full focus. We must bring every asset to bear from the US Navy on down to plug this leak now.”

Pantano also noted that while other North Carolina leaders including Senator Burr, Senator Hagan, Congresswoman Myrick, and Congressman Butterfield have advocated for North Carolina representation on the OCS, Congressman McIntyre appears to have remained silent.

“While the odds are slim that oil from this disaster will reach the North Carolina coast, we must be proactive and we must be prepared. As a former Marine, I know that the best defense is to take charge and attack the problem before it gets to us. We must do what is necessary to mitigate the damage that would be done to both our environment and our economy if the oil does reach our shores,” Pantano concluded. “It is imperative that the OCS be re-chartered with North Carolina representation.”

www.pantanoforcongress.com


UNCW RESEARCHER: GULF SLICK COULD HAVE DEVASTATING EFFECT ON NC COAST

UNC Wilmington's Steve Ross is among researchers who have studied a deep-sea coral reef, called the Viosca Knoll, that is near the Gulf oil slick. Pristine, deep-water coral reefs also lie off the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Florida.

A thick blanket of oil could smother the living coral, Ross said. Oil droplets that attach to debris sinking to the bottom could also rain onto sensitive bottom-dwelling creatures. Researchers aren't sure what to expect.

"We have serious concerns that are difficult to answer because the appropriate studies have not been funded," Ross said. "Both we and (government) agencies have been remiss" in not assessing such risks sooner.

The ocean currents that could sweep Gulf of Mexico oil up the Atlantic coast might also become a contaminated highway for billions of young sea creatures, some of which will grow to maturity off the Carolinas.

Commercially valuable seafood species such as snappers and groupers sometimes spawn in the Gulf, their larvae riding currents to settle onto N.C. reefs. Coveted Atlantic bluefin tuna, which brought N.C. fishermen $1.4 million last year, are spawning now within miles of the oil leak.

Rare turtles are also swimming onto beaches in the Gulf and Carolinas to lay their eggs.
Scientists say oil could stunt the animals' growth, cause breathing problems or kill them outright. Fish larvae and eggs are especially sensitive to toxic substances.

The odds remain low that the spill will reach N.C. beaches. But oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon well has reached the Gulf's Loop Current, which flows south around the tip of Florida and then northward up the Atlantic coast on the Gulf Stream.

"The Gulf Stream stitches us all together," said Duke University marine biologist Larry Crowder.
The key questions, he added, are how much oil the Gulf Stream will deliver, for how long and in what form?

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/05/22/1451078/oil-spill-a-threat-to-sea-life.html


FOR MORE POSTS LIKE THIS FROM CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL WRITER VERNE STRICKLAND, VISIT:

http://www.examiner.com/x-42565-NC-7th-Elections-2010-Examiner