One of the least covered current news stories of national interest involves Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, a U.S. Marine with two tours in Afghanistan, strangely being held --- almost two months now --- in a prison near Tijuana after he missed an exit and inadvertently drove across the San Ysidro border with three legal and registered guns and was arrested by Mexican authorities, notes Grumpy Editor.
While few news outlets have run an Associated Press piece on the development, it took Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, a former criminal defense attorney and civil trial lawyer, to go on scene to bring the “wrong turn” incident to national attention over several days last week via her On the Record current affairs program.
She traveled from Washington to the San Diego-Tijuana border and to the prison on the Mexico side --- even duplicating the confusing road route taken by the 25-year-old Marine in the pickup truck he had driven from Florida to make a new start in San Diego.
Van Susteren’s two-days on-scene investigation included live coverage from the area. She explained to viewers: “Even prison officials said we could interview the sergeant in the prison. But after we waited outside the prison for two full days, other prison officials decided to keep us out, refusing to let us interview Tahmooressi.”
Jill Tahmooressi, the Marine’s mother, who was allowed to visit him in a gymnasium-like area at the prison, told Van Susteren that when she saw her son on April 14, six or seven guards surrounded him.
Even to this Memorial Day --- marking 56 days Tahmooressi has been imprisoned --- there has been no movement from the White House or secretary of state in efforts to release the Marine who reportedly has been chained to his bed in the Mexican prison.
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