Lawmakers ask: Why did Guard retreat?

And will episode embolden armed drug smugglers?

By Brady McCombs

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Questions still linger about what really happened two weeks ago when a National Guard observation team was forced by four armed men to retreat from its post east of Sasabe.

Federal lawmakers have joined their state counterparts in demanding answers about the Jan. 3 incident. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking what the agency has learned and how it will handle future hostile confrontations.

Last week, Arizona lawmakers asked for an explanation as to why National Guard troops fled their observation post. Rep. Warde Nichols, R-Gilbert, who chairs the House Committee on Property Rights and Homeland Security, has scheduled a Jan. 29 meeting at which the committee will question Maj. Gen. David Rataczak, the state Guard commander.

"I've heard two or three different stories of what happened at the border," Nichols said . "We want to get to the bottom of what happened and not stay in the realm of 'he said, she said.' "

Among the questions that loom is whether the Guard troops had ammunition in their rifles, who the armed men were and what the Guard is allowed to do when confronted, he said.