A convoy of potentially thousands of vehicles is being organized to “Take Our Border Back” on this week, but what, exactly, the event’s organizers are planning to do remains a bit of a mystery.
The convoy is scheduled to leave Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Monday, on its way to points west for three rallies the following Saturday.
One of the group’s organizers, Pete Chambers, whom Vice described as “a former military commander who says he was a green beret,” told “Infowars” host Alex Jones Thursday that his plan was to conduct a campaign of “domestic internal defense.”
“That’s what Green Berets do. Unconventional warfare is our bread and butter. Now we’re doing domestic internal defense,” Chambers said, according to Business Insider.
“What gets us to the enemy quickly is to find, fix, and finish, exploit, analyze, and disseminate,” Chambers said. “That’s what we did in Syria when we took out ISIS really quick.”
“Find, Fix, Finish, Exploit, Analyse and Disseminate,” otherwise known as F3EAD in military intelligence and operations circles, refers to a targeting process often employed by special operations forces such as the U.S. Army Special Forces, or Green Berets.
It often, but not always, refers to a process involving deadly force (in the “Finish” step), as Chambers implied when he used the example of special operations forces defeating the Islamic State group in Syria.
“Now we don’t have the authorities to finish, so what we can do is fix the location of where the bad guys are and pair up with law enforcement who are constitutionally sound,” Chambers said, implying that the group’s mission would be to assist authorities on the ground to identify the location of immigrants crossing the border illegally, allowing them to intercept them.
At that time, presumably, the illegal immigrants would be processed and released into the country, just as they have been throughout the Biden administration.
Would you join this convoy?
Others of the group’s leaders have insisted that its goals are peaceful and include holding three Feb. 3 rallies in San Ysidro, California, Yuma, Arizona, and Eagle Pass, Texas.
Wired described the group as an “armed convoy,” but offered little proof of any armaments beyond online chatter about bring “kits” to the rallies in order that “if stuff goes down you will be able to protect yourselves and help out.”
It’s unclear what would be in those “kits,” but even if it were intended to be an allusion to firearms, that conversation apparently included only two Telegram users in a group of over 1,600.
After that article appeared, the group denied that categorization on Telegram.
“We are not making a call to arms. A call to engage with anyone crossing the border. We are here to peacefully protest under our 1st amendment right and pray!” the group wrote.
It was unclear whether the middle section, which was not a complete sentence, was connected to the first sentence, in which case it means that the group does not plan to “engage with anyone crossing the border,” or with the last sentence, in which case is does plan to engage.
“The group said that one of their goals is to stop illegal immigration immediately and close the border,” Business Insider reported, but no source, including the group’s own website, made it clear just how it hoped to accomplish either of those goals.
Organizers have said that the event is primarily intended as an expression of the First Amendment rights to speak freely, assemble peaceably and petition the government regarding its grievances.
For example, asked about the current tension between Texas and the Biden administration regarding border policies, organizer Scotty Saks said, ““We’re not really focused on that.
“We’re staying the course about making this peaceful assembly as large as we can make it, to make a statement to federal, state, local officials that we don’t want open borders,” he added.
Republican Rep. Keith Self of Texas has said that he supports the convoy, and, based on a post to X on Thursday, plans to attend himself.
🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨
TRUCKERS TO DESCEND ON AMERICA NEXT WEEK!
I have been informed that there are already thousands of participants planning to attend the “Take Our Border Back” convoy next week and truckers from CANADA will be also be joining! 🇺🇸
See you there! pic.twitter.com/i6nnwx0FPO
— Keith Self (@SelfForCongress) January 25, 2024
Appearing on Fox Business Friday, Self reiterated that it was intended to be a peaceful event and that it could include “as many as 700,000 vehicles,” according to Vice.
