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| Government Corruption |
| Texas National Guard disbanded intelligence wing after members used WhatsApp to spy on migrants |
| 2023-08-30 |
| [Texas Tribune] When officers from the Texas National Guard showed up to their 7 a.m. meeting with federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations in El Paso, they didn’t arrive empty-handed. Six military intelligence officials turned over a list of names at the February 2022 meeting. The Texans were part of an intelligence directorate supporting Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott's state-run border mission. The officers, which included the group’s top two leaders, told federal agents they’d secretly infiltrated invite-only WhatsApp group chats filled with migrants and smugglers and wanted their help investigating the targets they’d identified, according to a sworn statement attached to a whistleblower complaint filed later that month. The Homeland Security officials in the meeting rebuffed the Texans on the spot — with one official saying that they were an investigative body and "not an intelligence agency," the whistleblower recalled. An investigation by Military Times and The Texas Tribune has found that Texas National Guard leaders disbanded Operation Lone Star’s intelligence wing after whistleblowers reported the WhatsApp surveillance, which targeted migrant groups to track them through Mexico, because they believed it violated long-standing rules against state-run spy operations. During the same period, another team from the intelligence directorate allegedly sent classified FBI intelligence to their Texas Guard colleagues in an apparent violation of federal secrecy laws, according to an internal incident report. At least four intelligence officers have faced interim administrative discipline in the debacle’s wake: The Texas unit shutdown likely followed a threat of loss of Federal Funding and or pending legal action. Related: Texas National Guard: 2023-08-14 Mexican Cartel Weapons Found on Border Along Texas Bank of Rio Grande Texas National Guard: 2023-07-26 5,300 Migrants Apprehended in Four Days in Arizona Border Sector Texas National Guard: 2023-05-21 24 Republican governors pledge to assist Texas in securing its border Related: Operation Lone Star: 2023-08-15 Border agents seize enough lethal drugs this fiscal year to kill more than 6 billion people Operation Lone Star: 2023-08-14 Mexican Cartel Weapons Found on Border Along Texas Bank of Rio Grande Operation Lone Star: 2023-08-14 40K Migrants Apprehended Along Southwest Border in First 10 Days of August |
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