AP spreads Minutemen BS

Here on the Canadian Border in Whatcom County, the 'Washington Minutemen' are once again flogging their delusions of self-importance:

...They say they are doing what they believe our border security has failed to do: keep illegal immigrants out of the United States.

"“They are out to get us, we know that,"” said Tom Williams of the Washington Minuteman Detachment.

Asked who "they" are, he said, "“the enemies of our country, the al Qaida, whoever wants to come in and do our country harm." [KING-5 News]

Do a Google-News search on the words 'Minutemen' and 'Sumas' and you'll get page after page of Newpapers and TV Stations that picked up an AP article that (in part) says:

In Sumas, Wash., about 150 Minuteman volunteers were keeping watch Saturday.

"We're going to be running posts both day and night," said chapter organizer Claude LeBas, whose 10-acre farm was the staging area.

It would be really really scary to have that many Border Vigilantes skulking around Whatcom County... if it were true. But fortunately, it turned out to be pure BS. The truth is the 'Minutemen del norte' only managed to muster a few assorted loonies. This mornings Bellingham Herald reports:

There are 22 Minutemen at the border, said Tom Williams, sector chief of the Washington Minutemen Detachment.

I wondered about the discrepancy in reported numbers, so I emailed the reporters. The reporter for the Bellingham Herald sent me a reply in less than an hour:

I was told by Tom Williams of the Minutemen that there were 22 minutemen at the border as of Sunday. When I asked him about the 150 AP reported, he laughed and said, nope, not quite. I'm not sure where AP got that figure.

Thanks for the email,

Michelle

I still haven't received a response from the AP reporter