The Latest Border Control: Iraq War Blimps

Blimp Camera Films Night Crossing of the Rio Grande

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Cloaked by darkness, a dozen people dash into the brush fringing the Texas bank of the Rio Grande. They re-emerge at the water’s edge, pile into a boat and are paddled back to Mexico as two Border Patrol agents approach on foot.

The scene unfolds on a night-vision video showing white silhouettes walking and running against a gray background, all of it taken from a surplus military blimp once used to safeguard U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan from Taliban attacks.