US-funded program fails to stop tunnel smuggling

US-funded program fails to stop tunnel smuggling

www.lasvegassun.com

Angry at Hamas' ability to fire rockets at Israel, the United States last year allocated $23 million to help train Egyptian officials to stop the smuggling into Gaza through tunnels at a border plagued by crisis and corruption.

Months later, there is little noticeable effect: Smuggling has continued at a robust pace, allowing Hamas militants in Gaza to gain rockets to shoot at Israeli citizens. Israel's military says about 300 tunnels ran under the Gaza-Egypt border before its military offensive began Dec. 27. Since then, Israel has bombed dozens of them.

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I believe that the idea behind this effort is a good one, but I do not believe it will work. You cannot just throw money at this problem and make it go away. It is also the same old story that we always hear, when asked how the money was spent we are refused details.

Tunnel smuggling goes back as far as the 1980's, can you imagine how many tunnels there are? There are also parralels to life here in the US in this story. Most of the people that are doing the smuggling are unemployed, or make very little, not nearly enough to support their families. With corruption runningrampant in this part of the world, it is easy for the smugglers to get away and continue what they are doing. One of the smugglers hit the nail right on the head in the article when he said "For God sake, look at all the modern cars in this town, which is full of unemployed people".

www.lasvegassun.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It's the same as inside any jail in any country. It doesn't matter how much they spend on security and other measures, contraband and drugs will always get into the prison system. There will always be corruption and collusion.

I think the same goes for the Egyptian border. Hamas will always have sympathisers in Egypt willing to turn a blind eye or even actively help in the smuggling of weapons. This may be because they're being paid well or it could be they just simply support Hamas cause.

I can't see how they can completely stop the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. I suppose there's good money to made by people who earn relatively low wages.

Originally posted by paul76
It's the same as inside any jail in any country. It doesn't matter how much they spend on security and other measures, contraband and drugs will always get into the prison system. There will always be corruption and collusion.

I think the same goes for the Egyptian border. Hamas will always have sympathisers in Egypt willing to turn a blind eye or even actively help in the smuggling of weapons. This may be because they're being paid well or it could be they just simply support Hamas cause.

I can't see how they can completely stop the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. I suppose there's good money to made by people who earn relatively low wages.

I could not agree more. I do not believe that the smuggling will stop. And just like in any other country in the world, if you are poor and easy money comes up like this, why would you not jump on it? The people over there are in a life and death struggle, so yes, they are going to take extraordinary chances and do what they have to.

Look into the tunnel wars from the Korean war to Vietnam and down through WWI and WWII. They are very effective for the kinda wars the Israels and alot of nations drag themselves into.
Plus the amount of tunnels just across the Mexican border that border patrols deal with day in and out.
Also the ground there is hard packed and makes great tunnels once they are bored through.
In WWIII tunnels will be the only safe wars.

[edit on 7-1-2009 by MREALE]

Yes, the tunnels are a very smart strategy that has been used by countless governments and military throughout world history.