On his November 27 630 KHOW-AM show, Peter Boyles ridiculed a Rocky Mountain News column by Paul Campos, who wrote that U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) engaged in “good old-fashioned nativist fearmongering” in a recent presidential campaign ad that warned about the “consequences” of so-called “open borders” by depicting a terrorist bombing of a shopping mall. While Boyles cited a November 26 Washington Times article that reported “confidential law enforcement documents” revealed a terrorist plot to attack Fort Huachuca, a U.S. Army intelligence-training center near the U.S.-Mexico border, he ignored November 26 and November 27 articles by the Arizona Daily Star of Tucson reporting that FBI spokesmen labeled the terrorism threat against the facility as “unfounded” and “fiction,” respectively.

Boyles told his listeners, “If you read your morning Rocky Mountain News and read Paul Campos' column in the Rocky Mountain News this morning, entitled ”Campos: America's worst congressman." Obviously, it's going to be Tom Tancredo, because Tancredo ran that ad about the man in a hooded sweatshirt detonating a backpack bomb in a shopping mall." Boyles then read part of Campos' column on the air:

BOYLES: And Campos writes, “It's worth emphasizing Tancredo is not a racist nut exposing his paranoid delusions on some fringe Web site. He's a racist nut who made his paranoid delusions the centerpiece of a bona fide Republican Party campaign.” He said, “Actually I don't know if Tancredo himself is a racist, and the question holds no interest to me, because he talks like a racist, acts like a racist.”

Boyles then read the opening paragraph from the Times article -- “Dateline yesterday: 'Terrorists target army base in Arizona. Fort Huachuca, the nation's largest intelligence-training center, changed security measures in May after being warned Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility'” -- before adding, “Way to go, Paul! Huh? The truth will set you free.”

However, Boyles did not note the Daily Star's November 26 and 27 articles, which reported, respectively, that FBI spokesmen said the terrorist threat to Fort Huachuca was “proved unfounded” and “turned out to be nothing more than fiction.”

According to the November 26 Daily Star article, “A plot by dozens of foreign terrorists who purportedly planned to attack Fort Huachuca with rocket propelled grenades and mines has proved unfounded, an FBI spokesman said Monday.” The article continued:

The threat, detailed by a local television station and The Washington Times after information was recently leaked to them, involved Iraqi and Afghan terrorists working with a Mexican drug cartel to smuggle themselves and weapons across the U.S. border.

[...]

The intelligence advisory compiled by several federal agencies said the attack was scheduled to occur in May. The information was passed on to Fort Huachuca commanders, who changed security practices in an effort to avoid an attack.

But the attack never occurred and was the result of bad information, said Manuel Johnson, an FBI spokesman based in Phoenix.

“A thorough investigation was conducted and there is no evidence showing that the threat was credible,” he said.

The Daily Star further reported on November 27 that “the plot, widely reported by local stations and national TV networks and The Washington Times, turned out to be nothing more than fiction, an FBI spokesman said Monday.” The article further reported:

Retired Maj. Gen. James “Spider” Marks, who served as a senior intelligence officer during the invasion of Iraq and commanded Fort Huachuca's intelligence program from 2001 to 2004, said military installations routinely receive intelligence saying they're potential targets.

While he hadn't seen the reports cited by the Times, Marks said that, in general, it's crucial to always question the validity of the sources involved.

The intelligence about the Fort Huachuca plot came secondhand from Drug Enforcement Administration sources in Mexico who were “of uncertain reliability,” the Times reported.

“It's unfortunate that you have to assess credibility of intelligence after the fact,” said Marks, who now runs a private intelligence-contracting business in Virginia.

In addition, as the Daily Star noted, the Times article reported that "[t]he FBI report [about the purported terrorist threat to Fort Huachuca] is based on Drug Enforcement Administration sources, including Mexican nationals with access to 'sub-sources' in the drug cartels. The report's assessment is that the DEA's Mexican contacts have proven reliable in the past but the 'sub-source' is of uncertain reliability." Boyles did not read that part of the Times article on the air.

From the November 27 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

BOYLES: If you read your morning Rocky Mountain News and read Paul Campos' column in the Rocky Mountain News this morning, entitled “Campos: America's worst congressman.” Obviously, it's going to be Tom Tancredo, because Tancredo ran that ad about the man in a hooded sweatshirt detonating a backpack bomb in a shopping mall. And Campos writes, “It's worth emphasizing Tancredo is not a racist nut exposing his paranoid delusions on some fringe Web site. He's a racist nut who made his paranoid delusions the centerpiece of a bona fide Republican Party campaign.” He said, “Actually I don't know if Tancredo himself is a racist, and the question holds no interest to me, because he talks like a racist, acts like a racist.”

Dateline yesterday: “Terrorists target army base in Arizona. Fort Huachuca, the nation's largest intelligence-training center, changed security measures in May after being warned Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility.”

Way to go, Paul! Huh? The truth will set you free.