The newspaper said its own requests for information on the protocols for using force were turned down by officials. But the report said Terry's brother, Kent Terry, confirmed the other agents at the scene told him they had been instructed to use non-lethal bean bags first.

"You go up against a bandit crew that is carrying AKs, and you walk out there with guns loaded with beanbags – I don't get it," Terry told the newspaper. "It's like going to the Iraqi war with one knife. It boggles my mind. ... These (Border Patrol agents) are professionals; they should be able to use their judgment call on their own."

Tancredo's report described how Terry was part of a BORTAC (border tactical) team tracking armed drug smugglers in dangerous countryside.

"The area is well-known as a major drug-smuggling corridor, and the smugglers are known to frequently be armed with AK-47s and other long rifles," he wrote.

"Here's the part Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Border Patrol management are trying to hide: Border Patrol Agent Terry and the BORTAC team were under standing orders to always use ('non-lethal') bean-bag rounds first before using live ammunition. When the smugglers heard the first rounds, they returned fire with real bullets, and Agent Terry was killed in that exchange. Real bullets outperform bean bags every time."

Tancredo suggested that the "rules of engagement" place the lives of agents at risk.

"The BORTAC team encountered not one or two smugglers but a team of eight," he reported at the time. "The captured smugglers had AK-47s and backpacks filled with ammunition, food and radios."

Tancredo told WND today that he was called a fear-monger when his initial report came out, even though he considered his sources absolutely reliable.

"I'm just really pleased that we do have people who are willing to come forward and tell us what's going on. They are furious with their own leadership," he said.

The death of the officer in such circumstances also warrants punitive action, he said.

"There should be some ramifications. Whoever is responsible, probably the head of the Border Patrol, should be disciplined. … I hope somebody's head rolls on this one."

The newspaper report said court documents explain specifically:

"When the suspected aliens did not drop their weapons, two Border Patrol agents deployed 'less than lethal' beanbags at the suspected aliens."

The documents continued, "Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot with one bullet and died shortly after. One of the suspected illegal aliens, later identified as Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, was also shot."

The 40-year-old Terry, documents report, was killed by a shot, probably from an AK-47, in the back.

The report says there have been allegations the weapons used by the drug smugglers were purchased from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives by a gun smuggler, who took them to Mexico before they were brought back by the drug smugglers.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is insisting on an investigation into those allegations.

But Tancredo rejected that suggestion.

"The allegation that the Sinaloa drug cartel obtained those AK-47s from gun shops in the United States is nonsensical. That's a fairy tale cooked up by the Obama administration and endorsed by the Mexican government because they do not want to admit that the cartels get most of their serious weaponry from the international black market and the Mexican military itself," he said.

But he said the result of the "bean bag" policy is dangerous.

"Secretary Napolitano should do two things … First, she should order all Border Patrol agents to be issued weapons adequate for both self-defense and apprehension of armed drug smugglers. The second thing she should do … is resign," Tancredo, a former five-term congressman from Colorado and 2008 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said at the time.

He currently is chairman of the Rocky Mountain Foundation and co-chairman of TeamAmericaPac.