Mexican Cartels Now Grow Marijuana in US

An interesting story appeared in today's news, entitled Mexican marijuana cartels sully US forests, parks:

PORTERVILLE, Calif. - National forests and parks — long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels — have become home to some of the most polluted pockets of wilderness in America because of the toxic chemicals needed to eke lucrative harvests from rocky mountainsides, federal officials said.

The grow sites have taken hold from the West Coast's Cascade Mountains, as well as on federal lands in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Seven hundred grow sites were discovered on U.S. Forest Service land in California alone in 2007 and 2008 — and authorities say the 1,800-square-mile Sequoia National Forest is the hardest hit.

Weed and bug sprays, some long banned in the U.S., have been smuggled to the marijuana farms. Plant growth hormones have been dumped into streams, and the water has then been diverted for miles in PVC pipes.

Rat poison has been sprinkled over the landscape to keep animals away from tender plants. And many sites are strewn with the carcasses of deer and bears poached by workers during the five-month growing season that is now ending.

"What's going on on public lands is a crisis at every level," said Forest Service agent Ron Pugh. "These are America's most precious resources, and they are being devastated by an unprecedented commercial enterprise conducted by armed foreign nationals. It is a huge mess."

This isn't just destroying our environment, our national parks and forests -- this problem destroys lives and families, too, and brings all the associated crime into communities all across America, as rival gangs fight for the money to be made by controlling the distribution of drugs in America.

The first documented marijuana cartels were discovered in Sequoia National Park in 1998. Then, officials say, tighter border controls after Sept. 11, 2001, forced industrial-scale growers to move their operations into the United States.

Millions of dollars are spent every year to find and uproot marijuana-growing operations on state and federal lands, but federal officials say no money is budgeted to clean up the environmental mess left behind after helicopters carry off the plants. They are encouraged that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who last year secured funding for eradication, has inquired about the pollution problems.

In the meantime, the only cleanup is done by volunteers. On Tuesday, the nonprofit High Sierra Trail Crew, founded to improve access to public lands, plans to take 30 people deep into the Sequoia National Forest to carry out miles of drip irrigation pipe, tons of human garbage, volatile propane canisters, and bags and bottles of herbicides and pesticides.

"If the people of California knew what was going on out there, they'd be up in arms about this," said Shane Krogen, the nonprofit's executive director. "Helicopters full of dope are like body counts in the Vietnam War. What does it really mean?"

Tighter border controls would help, but there needs to be a presence in the forests and parks, as well: more rangers, and clean-up crews for when sites are discovered.

Last year, law enforcement agents uprooted nearly five million plants in California, nearly a half million in Kentucky and 276,000 in Washington state as the development of hybrid plants has expanded the range of climates marijuana can tolerate.

"People light up a joint, and they have no idea the amount of environmental damage associated with it," said Cicely Muldoon, deputy regional director of the Pacific West Region of the National Park Service.

As of Sept. 2, more than 2.2 million plants had been uprooted statewide. The largest single bust in the nation this year netted 482,000 plants in the remote Sierra of Tulare County, the forest service said.

Some popular parks also have suffered damage. In 2007, rangers found more than 20,000 plants in Yosemite National Park and 43,000 plants in Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park, where 159 grow sites have been discovered over the past 10 years.

Agent Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Game estimated that 1.5 pounds of fertilizers and pesticides is used for every 11.5 plants.

"I've seen the pesticide residue on the plants," Foy said. "You ain't just smoking pot, bud. You're smoking some heavy-duty pesticides from Mexico."

People don't seem to realize that there is no quality-control here. People have died from the rat poison that contaminates heroin, and so on....

Scott Wanek, the western regional chief ranger for the National Park Service, said he believes the eradication efforts have touched only a small portion of the marijuana farms and that the environmental impact is much greater than anyone knows.

"Think about Sequoia," Wanek said. "The impact goes well beyond the acreage planted. They create huge networks of trail systems, and the chemicals that get into watersheds are potentially very far-reaching — all the way to drinking water for the downstream communities. We are trying to study that now."

And it comes into our homes, it comes into the schools where our children gulp down cool water after physical education....

And, the drug culture calls marijuana "the good dope". I guess that's relative to rat-poison-laced heroin?

Soft Underbelly, Part 8

We continue from Part 7 reviewing Hezbollah builds a Western base:

Many Arabs in the Tri-border openly acknowledge that they send money to Hezbollah to help their families, and the man in charge of the local mosque in Ciudad del Este, who asked not to be identified by name, declared that Shiite Muslim mosques had "an obligation to finance it."

But the U.S. government maintains that the money ends up stained with blood when it goes through Hezbollah, which is blamed for the bombings of the U.S. Embassy and the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in the 1980s, as well as the kidnappings of Americans, two of whom were tortured and killed.

Patrick M. O'Brien, the assistant secretary of the Treasury in charge of fighting terrorist financing, acknowledged flatly that "we are worried."

"Hezbollah has penetrated the area, and part of that smuggling money is used to finance terrorist attacks," he said.

In Paraguay, looking the other way

The biggest obstacle in the U.S. campaign to counter Hezbollah close to home is Paraguay, whose "judicial system remains severely hampered by a lack of strong anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism legislation," the State Department said in a "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report.

Since 2004, a draft bill to strengthen money laundering laws has been stalled in the Paraguayan legislature, and the government of President Nicanor Duarte has introduced no draft legislation of its own.

Hampering reform efforts is an endemic reluctance in Paraguay to acknowledge the problem.

Interior Minister Rogelio Benitez Vargas, who supervises the national police, claimed that Hezbollah-linked smuggling was a relic of the 1980s. Today, he said, the Triple Frontier is a safe and regulated "commercial paradise."

But authorities from the U.S. State and Treasury departments to Interpol to the front-line Paraguayan police agencies all paint a different picture. Eduardo Arce, secretary of the Paraguayan Union of Journalists, said the government was widely considered to be under the control of drug traffickers and smugglers.

Recall information from the Sibel Edmonds case; from Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds Calls Current 9/11 Investigation Inadequate by Jim Hogue, May 07, 2004:

JH: Can you explain more about what money you are talking about?

SE: The most significant information that we were receiving did not come from counter-terrorism investigations, and I want to emphasize this. It came from counter-intelligence, and certain criminal investigations, and issues that have to do with money laundering operations.

You get to a point where it gets very complex, where you have money laundering activities, drug related activities, and terrorist support activities converging at certain points and becoming one. In certain points -- and they [the intelligence community] are separating those portions from just the terrorist activities. And, as I said, they are citing "foreign relations" which is not the case, because we are not talking about only governmental levels. And I keep underlining semi-legit organizations and following the money. When you do that the picture gets grim. It gets really ugly.

Edmonds spoke in the context of countries in the western half of Asia and the Middle East, as well as the United States. For example, from 'The Stakes Are Too High for Us to Stop Fighting Now' An interview with FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds by Christopher Deliso August 15, 2005:

SE: [snip] What I am telling you is that this network is visible, and it is possible to grasp what's going on. And I think to a certain extent it's obvious that some of your neocons will be involved in these criminal activities. You don't need me to tell you that. But too often, they [the media] have looked in the wrong places.

CD: An example?

SE: Well, I'm wondering why in this "war on terror" they aren't taking a look at the role of banks in Dubai, banks in Cyprus -- they've always concentrated on banks in places like, say, Switzerland. They almost never look at these two other huge areas for money-laundering.

Obviously, though, some of that money that we're supposed to be following can be followed to Paraguay and elsewhere in Latin America.

Consider what we have learned in the context of this next Sibel Edmonds quote, fromFormer FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds Calls Current 9/11 Investigation Inadequate by Jim Hogue, May 07, 2004:

JH: Here's a question that you might be able to answer: What is al-Qaeda?

SE: This is a very interesting and complex question. When you think of al-Qaeda, you are not thinking of al-Qaeda in terms of one particular country, or one particular organization. You are looking at this massive movement that stretches to tens and tens of countries. And it involves a lot of sub-organizations and sub-sub-organizations and branches and it's extremely complicated. So to just narrow it down and say al-Qaeda and the Saudis, or to say it's what they had at the camp in Afghanistan, is extremely misleading. And we don't hear the extent of the penetration that this organization and the sub-organizations have throughout the world, throughout their networks and throughout their various activities. It's extremely sophisticated. And then you involve a significant amount of money into this equation. Then things start getting a lot of overlap -- money laundering, and drugs and terrorist activities and their support networks converging in several points. That's what I'm trying to convey without being too specific. And this money travels. And you start trying to go to the root of it and it's getting into somebody's political campaign, and somebody's lobbying. And people don't want to be traced back to this money.

Now, recall the last sentence quoted in this post from the article we are reviewing: "Eduardo Arce, secretary of the Paraguayan Union of Journalists, said the government was widely considered to be under the control of drug traffickers and smugglers."

Apparently, it's not just the US that has its politicians bought off by organized crime cartels that are in bed with Islamic terrorists.

From An Interview with Sibel Edmonds, Page Two by Chris Deliso, July 1, 2004:

SE: Everything -- from drugs to money laundering to arms sales. And yes, there are certain convergences with all these activities and international terrorism.

CD: So with these organizations we're talking about a lot of money --

SE: Huge, just massive. They don't deal with 1 million or 5 million dollars, but with hundreds of millions.

So what is the illegal drug industry worth?

Hundreds of millions?

Think bigger...



A couple hundred billion per year, like the UN Chart from 2003 shown above suggests?

Think bigger....

Soft Underbelly, Part 7

We now continue reviewing Hezbollah builds a Western base by Pablo Gato and Robert Windrem, Telemundo and MSNBC.com, May, 2007; we had left off on this article in Part 5:

Deadly legacy of a lawless frontier

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Tri-border has become a top-level, if little-publicized, concern for Washington, particularly as tension mounts with Iran, Hezbollah's main sponsor. Paraguayan government officials told Telemundo that CIA operatives and agents of Israel's Mossad security force were known to be in the region seeking to neutralize what they believe could be an imminent threat.

But long before that, U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies regarded the region as a "free zone for significant criminal activity, including people who are organized to commit acts of terrorism," Louis Freeh, then the director of the FBI, said in 1998.

Edward Luttwak, a counterterrorism expert with the Pentagon's National Security Study Group, described the Tri-border as the most important base for Hezbollah outside Lebanon itself, home to "a community of dangerous fanatics that send their money for financial support to Hezbollah."

"People kill with that, and they have planned terrorist attacks from there," said Luttwak, who has been a terrorism consultant to the CIA and the National Security Council. "The northern region of Argentina, the eastern region of Paraguay and even Brazil are large terrains, and they have an organized training and recruitment camp for terrorists."

"Our experience is that if you see one roach, there are a lot more," said Frank Urbancic, principal deputy director of the State Department's counterterrorism office, who has spent most of his career in the Middle East.

A mother lode of money

Operating out of the Tri-border, Hezbollah is accused of killing more than 100 people in attacks in nearby Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the early 1990s in operations personally masterminded by Hezbollah’s military commander, Imad Mugniyah.

Mugniyah is on the most-wanted terrorist lists of both the FBI and the European Union, and he is believed to work frequently out of Ciudad del Este.

For President Bush and the U.S.-led "war on terror," the flourishing of Hezbollah in the Western Hemisphere demonstrates the worrying worldwide reach of Islamist radicalism. In the Tri-border, Hezbollah and other radical anti-U.S. groups have found a lucrative base from which to finance many of their operations.

Smuggling has long been the lifeblood of the Tri-border, accounting for $2 billion to $3 billion in the region, according to congressional officials. Several U.S. agencies said that Arab merchants were involved in smuggling cigarettes and livestock to avoid taxes, as well as cocaine and marijuana through the border with Brazil on their way to Europe. Some of the proceeds are sent to Hezbollah, they said.

So, why don't we hear about all this?



From Cracking the Case: An Interview With Sibel Edmonds by Scott Horton, August 22, 2005:

SH: Okay, and you mention when you talk about criminal activity, drug-running, money-laundering, weapons-smuggling...

SE: And these activities overlap. It's not like okay, you have certain criminal entities that are involved in nuclear black market, and then you have certain entities bringing narcotics from the East. You have the same players when you look into these activities at high-levels you come across the same players, they are the same people.

SH: Well, when we're talking about those kind of levels of liquid cash money we probably also have to include major banks too, right?

SE: Financial institutions, yes.

From Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds Calls Current 9/11 Investigation Inadequate by Jim Hogue, May 07, 2004:

JH: Here's a question that you might be able to answer: What is al-Qaeda?

SE: This is a very interesting and complex question. When you think of al-Qaeda, you are not thinking of al-Qaeda in terms of one particular country, or one particular organization. You are looking at this massive movement that stretches to tens and tens of countries. And it involves a lot of sub-organizations and sub-sub-organizations and branches and it's extremely complicated. So to just narrow it down and say al-Qaeda and the Saudis, or to say it's what they had at the camp in Afghanistan, is extremely misleading. And we don't hear the extent of the penetration that this organization and the sub-organizations have throughout the world, throughout their networks and throughout their various activities. It's extremely sophisticated. And then you involve a significant amount of money into this equation. Then things start getting a lot of overlap -- money laundering, and drugs and terrorist activities and their support networks converging in several points. That's what I'm trying to convey without being too specific. And this money travels. And you start trying to go to the root of it and it's getting into somebody's political campaign, and somebody's lobbying. And people don't want to be traced back to this money.

Soft Underbelly, Part 6

We continue now from Part 5 reviewing Terrorist Alley:

And, Anderson says, they're entering the United States right through our backyard. "This is the main alley. It's called 'Cocaine Alley' or 'Terrorist Alley.' Whatever you want to call it, Arizona is the prime place."

"Cochise County is the center. It's the point of gravitus, center of gravity for all illegals," says Anderson.

Anderson says some Special Interest Aliens are well-funded, paying tens of thousands of dollars to be smuggled into this country. They manage to get passports from non-terrorist nations.

And here's the shocking part: if they are caught, they are often released on their own recognizance, never to be seen again.

The release was due to a lack of facilities to hold detainees. There has since been an effort made to address that.

According to Retired Border Patrol Agent David Stoddard, "There are Middle Easterners coming across the border as we speak."

Stoddard agrees with Anderson. Stoddard spent 17 years as a Border Patrol agent and supervisor in the Tucson Sector before retiring.

"What's scary is that I can show you places out here on the line right now where 18-wheelers can be driven across."

"These 18-wheelers can be loaded with anything -- illegal aliens, atomic weapons, whatever."

Stoddard says Americans would be shocked if they knew just how many people from all over the world are getting into this country across the Arizona border. And he says we're even less safe from terrorism today than we were before 9/11.

Take for example, the capture of terrorist suspect Jose Padilla. The Justice Department says Padilla and an accomplice planned to enter the U.S. thru Mexico to blow up apartment buildings in major cities, like New York.

Or the case of suspected al-Qaeda sleeper agent Mohammed Junaid Babar.

Babar has told investigators of a scheme to smuggle terrorists across the Mexican border. He's tied to a terror plot to carry out bombings and assassinations in London.

And the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper reports that in June, 53 Middle Eastern men were apprehended by Border Patrol agents near Willcox.

It's believed they were from Iran or Syria.

Stoddard says, "It's the ones who are sneaking into our country under cover of darkness between our ports of entry that concern me and should concern every American."

Border Patrol Council President T.J. Bonner says, "You don't know what is getting by you unless you come across, as you said, small pieces of evidence, remnants of things that give you clues, that not everybody is coming across from mexico looking for a job."

Bonner knows exactly who and what current agents are uncovering along our border and he has a dire warning:

"It's only a matter of time before another terrorist attack occurs, unfortunately."

Some in Congress are starting to take notice of the threat. Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo released a report that revealed a 50% increase in OTMs, illegals Other Than Mexicans, crossing the border.

Tancredo says some illegals from terrorist nations are paying as much as $50,000 to be smuggled in. He says they're not paying that kind of money simply to work at a 7/11.

It is important to recall that terrorism is not a means of resistance of poor people against a richer enemy. It takes a great deal of money to support terrorism, and the terrorists we face are well-financed: in addition to donations from rich sheikhs with access to petrodollars, there are donations from Islamic charities and front organizations.

But the greatest source of funding for terrorism has for years been organized crime -- in the case of Islamic terrorists, it has been heroin from South Asia, although there are now growing ties to cocaine and other drugs produced in the Americas and trafficked back to Europe.

From 'The Stakes Are Too High for Us to Stop Fighting Now' An interview with FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds by Christopher Deliso August 15, 2005:

SE: You know how they always talk about these Islamic charities funding the terrorists, right?

CD: Yes...

SE: Well, and this is not a firm statistic, just a sort of ratio... but these charities are responsible for maybe 10 or 20 percent of al-Qaeda's fundraising. So where is the other 80 or 90 percent coming from? People, it's not so difficult!

From Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds Calls Current 9/11 Investigation Inadequate by Jim Hogue, May 07, 2004:

JH: Can you explain more about what money you are talking about?

SE: The most significant information that we were receiving did not come from counter-terrorism investigations, and I want to emphasize this. It came from counter-intelligence, and certain criminal investigations, and issues that have to do with money laundering operations.

You get to a point where it gets very complex, where you have money laundering activities, drug related activities, and terrorist support activities converging at certain points and becoming one. In certain points -- and they [the intelligence community] are separating those portions from just the terrorist activities. And, as I said, they are citing "foreign relations" which is not the case, because we are not talking about only governmental levels. And I keep underlining semi-legit organizations and following the money. When you do that the picture gets grim. It gets really ugly.

From Cracking the Case: An Interview With Sibel Edmonds by Scott Horton, August 22, 2005:

SH: Okay, and you mention when you talk about criminal activity, drug-running, money-laundering, weapons-smuggling...

SE: And these activities overlap. It's not like okay, you have certain criminal entities that are involved in nuclear black market, and then you have certain entities bringing narcotics from the East. You have the same players when you look into these activities at high-levels you come across the same players, they are the same people.

SH: Well, when we're talking about those kind of levels of liquid cash money we probably also have to include major banks too, right?

SE: Financial institutions, yes.

Stay tuned as Soft Underbelly continues.

Soft Underbelly, Part 5

We continue from Part 4 with the transcript from a 2004 TV investigative report entitled Terrorist Alley, where we had just heard about individuals from Sudan, Iran and Iraq who had crossed the US border from Mexico into Arizona.

These detainees are called "other than Mexicans" or OTM's. Most will eventually be sent back to their home country.

But some disappear very quickly, usually before they even reach this center or other holding facilities. They're taken away by tight-lipped federal agents to who-knows-where.

Who are they? They're called "Special Interest Aliens" or "SIA."

According to Ben Anderson, a retired U.S. Army Colonel, the SIA that they don't want to talk about. That's special interest alien. These are people from those countries that we consider terrorist threats."

Anderson is a retired U.S. Army Colonel who tracks illegal immigration from his home in Sierra Vista, Arizona. He has a website sharing his research into Special Interest Aliens.

"You will not read about that. You will not hear about that. They will not talk about that. They will not provide that info to the press."

Colonel Anderson says these Special Interest Aliens originate in the Middle East or Northeast Asia. They travel through Spain to what's called the tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, then, to Mexico City.

They pay to learn Spanish language skills, and by the time they reach the U.S., they're acting and talking like Mexicans to fool border agents.

The problem is more than just terrorists passing themselves off as Mexicans. As we have seen, and as we now see again, there is a terrorist infrastructure developing going far beyond Mexico, to Venezuela and even as far south as Argentina. We now begin with Hezbollah builds a Western base by Pablo Gato and Robert Windrem, Telemundo and MSNBC.com, May, 2007:

From inside South America's Tri-border area, Iran-linked militia targets U.S.

CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay - The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia has taken root in South America, fostering a well-financed force of Islamist radicals boiling with hatred for the United States and ready to die to prove it, according to militia members, U.S. officials and police agencies across the continent.

From its Western base in a remote region divided by the borders of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina known as the Tri-border, or the Triple Frontier, Hezbollah has mined the frustrations of many Muslims among about 25,000 Arab residents whose families immigrated mainly from Lebanon in two waves, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and after the 1985 Lebanese civil war.

An investigation by Telemundo and NBC News has uncovered details of an extensive smuggling network run by Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group founded in Lebanon in 1982 that the United States has labeled an international terrorist organization. The operation funnels large sums of money to militia leaders in the Middle East and finances training camps, propaganda operations and bomb attacks in South America, according to U.S. and South American officials.

U.S. officials fear that poorly patrolled borders and rampant corruption in the Tri-border region could make it easy for Hezbollah terrorists to infiltrate the southern U.S. border. From the largely lawless region, it is easy for potential terrorists, without detection, to book passage to the United States through Brazil and then Mexico simply by posing as tourists.

They are men like Mustafa Khalil Meri, a young Arab Muslim whom Telemundo interviewed in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay's second-largest city and the center of the Tri-border region. There is nothing particularly distinctive about him, but beneath the everyday T-shirt he wears beats the heart of a devoted Hezbollah militiaman.

"If he attacks Iran, in two minutes Bush is dead," Meri said. "We are Muslims. I am Hezbollah. We are Muslims, and we will defend our countries at any time they are attacked."

Straight shot to the U.S.

U.S. and South American officials warn that Meri's is more than a rhetorical threat.

It is surprisingly easy to move across borders in the Triple Frontier, where motorbikes are permitted to cross without documents. A smuggler can bike from Paraguay into Brazil and return without ever being asked for a passport, and it is not much harder for cars and trucks.

The implications of such lawlessness could be dire, U.S. and Paraguayan officials said. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Hezbollah militiamen would raise no suspicions because they have Latin American passports, speak Spanish and look like Hispanic tourists.

The CIA singles out the Mexican border as an especially inviting target for Hezbollah operatives. "Many alien smuggling networks that facilitate the movement of non-Mexicans have established links to Muslim communities in Mexico," its Counter Terrorism Center said in a 2004 threat paper.

"Non-Mexicans often are more difficult to intercept because they typically pay high-end smugglers a large sum of money to efficiently assist them across the border, rather than haphazardly traverse it on their own."

Mixed in with the many Mexicans seeking work in the U.S. are more Latinos from other countries farther south seeking opportunity here -- they violate our laws by entering illegally, but other than that, they're not bad people.

Mixed in with all the Latinos seeking work are Latinos fleeing from law enforcement in their native countries. These are some bad people.

And, mixed in with all that, there are operatives of foreign countries and terrorist organizations, menacing the Great Satan with terrorist strikes from within.

Stick around as Soft Underbelly continues.

Soft Underbelly, Part 4

We continue from Part 3 with Hezbollah presence in Venezuela feared, by Chris Kraul and Sebastian Rotella, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers, August 27, 2008:

In March 2007, the intensified ties between Venezuela and Iran led to the start of weekly IranAir flights from Tehran to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, that stop in Damascus.

The flights were highlighted in the State Department's annual assessment of global terrorism, which noted in April of this year that Venezuelan border officials at the Caracas airport often neglected to enter the arriving passengers into their immigration database and did not stamp passports. The Venezuelans have since tightened up on their procedures, informed sources say.

Despite those improvements, the IranAir flights also feature in recent intelligence gathered by Western anti-terrorism officials. Agents of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah have allegedly set up a special force to attempt to kidnap Jewish businesspeople in Latin America and spirit them away to Lebanon, according to the Western anti-terrorism official. Iranian and Hezbollah operatives traveling in and out of Venezuela have recruited Venezuelan informants working at the Caracas airport to gather intelligence on Jewish travelers as potential targets for abduction, the Western anti-terrorism official said.

The allegations were reinforced by a statement last week by the Israeli government, issuing an alert to citizens warning that Hezbollah plans to kidnap Israelis around the world to retaliate for the Mughniyah assassination.

Hezbollah has long operated in the Lebanese communities of Latin America. In addition to receiving a multimillion-dollar infusion from Iran, the militia finances itself by soliciting or extorting money from the Lebanese diaspora and through rackets such as smuggling, fraud and the drug and diamond trade in South America and elsewhere, Matthew Levitt, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Congress in 2005.

Three years ago, police in Colombia and Ecuador broke up an international cocaine-smuggling ring that functioned in Latin American countries, including Venezuela, and allegedly sent profits to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The lawless "tri-border" region connecting Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina has been a center of organized crime activities and finance linked to Hezbollah, Western anti-terrorism officials say.

Hezbollah operatives based there participated, along with Iranian spies, in the car bombings in Buenos Aires of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and a Jewish community center two years later that killed a total of 114 people, an Argentine indictment charges.

In the aftermath of that indictment, filed in 2006, Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors, chiefly the Revolutionary Guard, decided to shift from the increasingly scrutinized tri-border area to other countries, including Venezuela, Western anti-terrorism officials say.

"It preserves the capability of Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guard to mount attacks inside Latin America.... It is very, very important to Iran and Hezbollah right now."

This presence of hostile foreign powers and a violently hostile anti-American ideology south of our border makes for a very real threat within our borders; here are excerpts of the transcript from a 2004 TV investigative report entitled Terrorist Alley, which documents how illegals from terrorist nations are crossing the border into Arizona.

Tom McNamara and the Eyewitness News 4 Investigators have spent the last three months talking to experts and eyewitnesses.

The stories are compelling and the evidence is frightening, and just this week, Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo released a report showing that the problem is worse than anyone thought.

Here's what the Eyewitness News 4 Investigators uncovered.

"It's a Muslim prayer blanket. It was found about a mile and a half west from the Douglas port of entry in 2001."

Larry Vance is a rancher who lives near the U.S.-Mexico border in Douglas, Arizona.

For years, he says he's watched - and documented - thousands of illegals crossing the border and running away to eventual arrest... or freedom and anonymity somewhere in this country.

And in just one hour, during this stake-out along the border between Douglas and Bisbee, The Investigators count 198 illegals in five different groups crossing into the U.S. with no resistance.

Watch as they huddle in the bushes, then climb thru a few strands of barbed wire and run for freedom.

We called Border Patrol and waited another full hour, but no one ever came.

Later, we checked Border Patrol logs which note agents being dispatched following our call, but also note those agents found no signs of activity in the area.

In recent years, Vance says, the evidence some illegals leave behind is alarming.

Vance says, "Other log books, diary-type things, other bits and pieces of paper with Arabic written on them found in the area over the last few years."

We've all heard of the U.S. government's Terror Watch List: countries flagged because Americans are endangered by their citizens, yet regularly, illegals from those countries are crossing the Arizona border, blending in with groups of Mexican and South American illegal immigrants.

If apprehended, they are brought to this federal detention center in Florence, Arizona.

The investigators found that on this day, several individuals of this kind were being detained here, including some from Sudan, Iran, and even Iraq.

These are just the ones who were caught.

Individuals from Sudan, Iran and Iraq, going to Mexico, then sneaking across the border into the United States -- and that's just what was caught on that one occasion!

Do you suppose they traveled all that distance to pick vegetables as migrant laborers?

Stay tuned for Part 5!

Soft Underbelly, Part 3

In an overview of activities of the US Deparment of Justice, National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), entitled NDIC Accomplishments, Fiscal Year 2007, we find the following:

Throughout FY2007, NDIC's Document Exploitation (Doc Ex) and Computer Exploitation (Comp Ex) programs made significant contributions to ongoing high-level investigations targeting drug trafficking, money laundering, terrorism, and other criminal activities that impact U.S. national security. In FY2007, the Doc Ex Branch completed 71 missions, half of which were in support of OCDETF investigations. Eighty-eight percent of Doc Ex missions were at the request of DEA or FBI, while other Doc Ex missions were conducted on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the U.S. Attorneys Office (USAO), and DoD. The success of NDIC's Doc Ex program and the increased demand for foreign language missions encouraged NDIC to establish a satellite Doc Ex unit at the Utah National Guard Joint Language Training Center, which contributed 12 foreign language missions to the 68 total Doc Ex missions in FY2007.

[snip]

Although Doc Ex missions are predominantly conducted in support of drug trafficking investigations, they have frequently been conducted to confirm suspected links or reveal unknown links between drug trafficking and terrorism. In FY2007, the Doc Ex Branch supported several drug-terrorism investigations including a Doc Ex mission that identified links between southern Philippines drug traffickers and elements of designated foreign terrorist organizations, namely the Abu Sayyaf Group and Jamayah Islamiyah.

Doc Ex Branch has supported another drug-terror investigation aimed at disrupting and dismantling five Arab Tri-Border Area (TBA) drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) that operate in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay as well as in surrounding areas and in Europe and the Middle East. All five groups have been linked to Islamic Radical Groups.

NDIC's Doc Ex Branch supported DEA's Special Operations Division by analyzing information on a high-level drug trafficker, money launderer, arms dealer, and terrorist who is documented in 74 DEA investigations dating back to the 1970's. Historical evidence indicated that this individual and his associates have trafficked multiton quantities of hashish and heroin and laundered tens of millions of dollars in drug proceeds. In addition, this individual had also brokered international multimillion dollar arms deals for Yemen, Kuwait, Syria, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, and Colombia and has supported several Middle Eastern terrorist groups including the Palestine Liberation Front, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Once again, the links between terrorism and other crimes are evident. This reminds us of the Sibel Edmonds case, as Edmonds explains in the following excerpt from Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds Calls Current 9/11 Investigation Inadequate by Jim Hogue, May 07, 2004:

JH: Can you explain more about what money you are talking about?

SE: The most significant information that we were receiving did not come from counter-terrorism investigations, and I want to emphasize this. It came from counter-intelligence, and certain criminal investigations, and issues that have to do with money laundering operations.

You get to a point where it gets very complex, where you have money laundering activities, drug related activities, and terrorist support activities converging at certain points and becoming one.

This nexus of terrorism linked with other kinds of criminal activity, often addressed at Stop Islamic Conquest, is of particular concern, when one considers the trafficking of drugs to the United States, plus the growing presence of Islamic terrorist organizations from the Middle East in Latin America. We now begin to review Hezbollah presence in Venezuela feared, by Chris Kraul and Sebastian Rotella, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers, August 27, 2008:

The Lebanese Shiite militia, linked to deadly attacks in Argentina in the 1990s, may be taking advantage of Chavez's ties with its ally Iran, terrorism experts say.

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Western anti-terrorism officials are increasingly concerned that Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shiite Muslim militia that Washington has labeled a terrorist group, is using Venezuela as a base for operations.

Linked to deadly attacks on Jewish targets in Argentina in the early 1990s, Hezbollah may be taking advantage of Venezuela's ties with Iran, the militia's longtime sponsor, to move "people and things" into the Americas, as one Western government terrorism expert put it.

As part of his anti-American foreign policy, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has established warm diplomatic relations with Iran and has traveled there several times. The Bush administration, Israel and other governments worry that Venezuela is emerging as a base for anti-U.S. militant groups and spy services, including Hezbollah and its Iranian allies.

"It's becoming a strategic partnership between Iran and Venezuela," said a Western anti-terrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the issue's sensitivity.

Several joint Venezuelan-Iranian business operations have been set up in Venezuela, including tractor, cement and auto factories. In addition, the two countries have formed a $2-billion program to fund social projects in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America.

Those deepening ties worry U.S. officials because Iranian spies around the world have been known to work with Hezbollah operatives, sometimes using Iranian embassies as cover, Western intelligence experts say.

In June, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas A. Shannon said Iran "has a history of terror in this hemisphere, and its linkages to the bombings in Buenos Aires are pretty well established."

"One of our broader concerns is what Iran is doing elsewhere in this hemisphere and what it could do if we were to find ourselves in some kind of confrontation with Iran," Shannon said.

Fears about the threat from Hezbollah's global networks intensified after the slaying in February of Imad Mughniyah, a notorious leader of the militia, in Damascus, the Syrian capital. Hezbollah and Iran accused Israel and promised revenge, putting Western authorities on guard against attacks on Israeli or Jewish targets around the world.

Although the Bush administration is embroiled in political conflict with the Chavez government, allegations that Hezbollah and Iranian spies operate in Venezuela date to the 1990s, before Chavez took office.

The most concrete allegations of a Hezbollah presence in Venezuela involve money-raising. In June, the U.S. Treasury Department designated two Venezuelan citizens as Hezbollah supporters and froze their U.S. assets.

Treasury officials formally accused Ghazi Nasr al Din, a Venezuelan diplomat of Lebanese descent, of using posts at embassies in the Middle East to support financing for Hezbollah and "discuss operational issues with senior officials" of the militia.

Nasr al Din "facilitated the travel" of Hezbollah members to and from Venezuela and to a "training course in Iran," according to Treasury officials. The president of a Shiite Muslim center in Caracas, he served as a diplomat in Damascus and later in Beirut, authorities say.

The second Venezuelan targeted by Treasury is Fawzi Kanan, a Caracas-based travel agent. He is also alleged to have facilitated travel for Hezbollah members and to have discussed "possible kidnappings and terrorist attacks" with senior Hezbollah officials in Lebanon. The Treasury allegations did not specify whether the alleged discussion involved plots for kidnappings in Venezuela or elsewhere.

In comments to a Venezuelan reporter, Kanan dismissed the charges as lies. The Venezuelan government has strenuously denied that it is harboring militants.

First of all, I don't believe Chavez' government. Chavez has been actively destabilizing Colombia by supporting FARC terrorists.

In any case, Chavez might not realize the threat to his own government posed by the kind of people he is letting into his country, and helping move into ours.



Stay tuned!

Soft Underbelly, Part 2

There are real problems related to our borders. We have such little control over our southern border that essentially anyone can get across. The result is that the border is only effective at keeping out the kinds of people that we might actually be willing to let in; the kind of people that we really need to keep out find that our border is not much of a deterrent to illegal entry into the United States.

Examples of the kinds of people that are coming across the border illegally can be found in a report entitled A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border. (See original for footnotes; note that the URL is misspelled: http://www.house.gov/mccaul/pdf/Investigaions-Border-Report.pdf.)

II. Illegal Alien Crimes Against U.S. Citizens

Not all illegal aliens are crossing into the United States to find work. Law enforcement officials indicate that there are individuals coming across the border who are forced to leave their home countries because of their criminal activity. These dangerous criminals are fleeing the law in other countries and seeking refuge in the United States. For instance, it is known that many of the operatives of cartels in Mexico actually live in the United States. Information received by several law enforcement agencies indicates these criminals are living in our communities and that they come to the U.S. to escape the possibility of apprehension in Mexico.⁹⁰

The Violent Crimes Institute conducted a 12 month in-depth study of illegal immigrants who committed sex crimes and murders for the time period of January 1999 through April 2006. This study makes it clear that the U.S. faces a dangerous threat from sexual predators that cross the U.S. borders illegally.⁹¹

The Institute analyzed 1,500 cases in depth, including serial rapes, serial murders, sexual homicides, and child molestation committed by illegal immigrants. Police reports, public records, interviews with police, and media accounts were all included. Offenders were located in thirty-six states, with the most of the offenders were located in States with the highest numbers of illegal immigrants. California was ranked first, followed by Texas, Arizona, New Jersey, New York, and Florida.⁹²

Based on an estimated illegal immigrant population of 12,000,000 and the fact that young males make up more of this population than the general U.S. population, the Institute concluded that sex offenders in the illegal immigrant group make up a higher percentage. ICE reports and public records show sex offenders comprising 2% of illegals apprehended. Based on this 2% figure, which is conservative, the Institute estimates that there are approximately 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in the United States.⁹³

The study concluded, when applied to ongoing illegal immigration at the borders, these estimates translate to 93 sex offenders and twelve serial sexual offenders coming across U.S. borders illegally per day. The 1,500 offenders in this study had a total of 5,999 victims. Each sex offender averaged four victims. This puts the estimate for victimization numbers around 960,000 for the 88 months examined in this study.⁹⁴

The violence of illegal aliens is not confined to border communities. Residents and law enforcement in the interior cities are also vulnerable to criminals crossing the border. The following are examples of crimes committed by illegal aliens:

• In testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security's Subcommittee on Investigations, Carrie Ruiz, a Houston resident, described how her 17 year old daughter was murdered in October 1999 by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who escaped prosecution by returning to his home country. Ruiz's daughter was stabbed more than thirty-nine times after she helped authorities identify a gang member.

• On February 10, 2005, a high-ranking member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), was apprehended in Brooks County, Texas. He had been previously deported at least four times. This MS-13 gang member is believed to have been responsible for the killing of twenty-eight persons, including six children, and the wounding of fourteen others, in a bus explosion in his native country. Information was received in late April of this year that he was on his way back into the United States, or that he was already in the country, and was threatening to assassinate any officer that attempted to apprehend him.⁹⁵

• On March 22, 2006, Texas State Trooper Steven Stone was shot six times at point blank range by two illegal aliens during a routine traffic stop. Ramon Ramos and Francisco Saucedo were charged with fourteen counts of aggravated assault on a public servant. An investigation showed that Ramos had been criminally deported from the United States on two different occasions on Federal weapons and drug charges. Ramos had been living illegally in the United States for approximately three to four years prior to the March 22 shooting.

On the night of the shooting, Ramos and Saucedo were in possession of body armor, a rifle modified for automatic fire, a handgun modified for automatic fire, two or more handguns, numerous knives, drugs and alcohol.⁹⁶

• On June 27, 2006, a teenage girl from Mexia, Texas was forced off the road by two illegal aliens and kidnapped. She was sexually assaulted by both men. The two illegals tried unsuccessfully to break her neck and strangle her. They then dragged her out of the car and put her into a ditch where they began kicking, beating, and stabbing her with broken glass. She sustained massive injuries to her head, face and upper body. After the suspects left her for dead, she was able to walk about one-half mile to the nearest house and ask for help. The suspects are identified as Noel Darwin Hernandez and Javier Guzman Martinez. An immigration hold has been placed on each suspect.⁹⁷

• On September 21, 2006, in Houston, Texas an illegal immigrant from Mexico, Juan Leonardo Quintero, was charged in with capital murder in the shooting death of Houston Police Officer Rodney Johnson. Quintero had been deported in the past. His record shows in 1998 he was charged with indecency with a child.⁹⁸

On September 29, 2006, one week after Officer Johnson was killed by an illegal alien, Houston Mayor Bill White announced a change in the way Houston Police officers process suspected illegal immigrants. The Houston police will fingerprint suspected illegal immigrants detained on minor violations, and those with identification police believe to be fraudulent. That information will then be provided to Federal authorities.⁹⁹

Though not orchestrated by a foreign government, this illegal invasion of the United States is orchestrated by foreign powers, the organized crime cartels that illegally move narcotics, people and other contraband into the United States, where Americans are killed and otherwise victimized as a result of the illegal crossings.



Stay tuned as we look more closely at the threat posed by Islamic terrorists in relation to our easy-to-cross borders.

Soft Underbelly, Part 1

The Oklahoma City bombing (OKBOMB) was not unlike the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, or the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, or the bombing of the US embassies in Africa. For that matter, it was not unlike the bombing of the USS Cole, except for the rental truck carrying the OKBOMB versus a boat carrying the Cole bomb.

Yet, we are assured by our government that there was no Middle Eastern connection with the OKBOMB.

From testimony in the US Senate in late 2001, THE GLOBAL REACH OF AL–QAEDA:

STATEMENT OF MR. LARRY C. JOHNSON, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR (1989–1993) OFFICE OF COUNTERTERRORISM, DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, DC:

Mr. JOHNSON. Thank you for having me today, Senator Boxer, and I submitted my statement, and presumably it will be included in the record. I can tell you a first-hand story of an experience that I had in Panama in the Colon Free Zone to illustrate some of the issues that were brought up.

I agree with everything that the FBI colleagues expressed beforehand. The al-Qaeda network exists. They have sympathizers around the world, but they are not these Islamic supermen that can go anywhere, do anything, anytime that they want. They are human beings. They face the same kind of limitations that every other human being does, and as someone who has been involved with scripting counterterrorism exercises for the U.S. military forces that have that mission, I know what it takes to put those folks in motion and to get them from point A to point B, and it is not easy. It is not something you do at a snap of the fingers. They can do it fairly quickly, but you have an enormous amount of resources dedicated to that task. These terrorists fortunately do not have those kinds of resources. They do not have their own military airlift command. They do not have their own logistics support agency.

Twelve years ago, I was involved in Central America, doing an investigation into product counterfeiting that was taking place against a U.S. company, and one of the individuals that we discovered—he is not an al-Qaeda member, but he is involved with radical Palestinian groups that are involved with terrorism. The person we found selling the stuff was named Waleed Sayeed Mazees, and he was out in San Francisco at one point, I think you will be happy to know.

When we busted him for selling these counterfeit products, the local Panamians working with me said this guy is a terrorist, did you know that? I said, no. They said, and he also went to jail for money-laundering, and in this book that he wrote — it is in Spanish — Palestine, the "Burning Silence," he details his secret entries into Palestine to meet with members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and some other groups.

The reason I raise him is, you find right now throughout Latin America, particularly in the Colon Free Zone of Panama, in a little town up in the Guajira Peninsula of Colombia called Maicao and down on the triborder area, in the Cuidad Del Este, which is on the border of Paraguay and Brazil, with Argentina close, there are networks of good Muslims and there are also networks of people affiliated with radical Islamic groups such as Hezbollah, some Hamas ties, and people with sympathies with al-Qaeda.

What makes these potentially of concern, and I can cite the case of Argentina in particular, you have radical groups that sympathize with the Muslims that also have some ties with neo-Nazi groups and that have ties with right-wing groups up here in the United States. Now, fortunately, none of those groups have been willing to carry out attacks against the United States, but these groups exist, they are there, they are operating, and when you look at the case of Argentina, I led a U.S. team when I was with the State Department to Buenos Aires in the aftermath of the bombing of the Israeli Embassy back in 1992, and to this day there is some suspicion that elements of Argentinian intelligence were involved, or at least were sympathetic in helping facilitate the activities of groups like Hezbollah.

Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups are active in Latin America, and have ties to neo-Nazi and right-wing groups here in the U.S.; furthermore, these groups have the sympathies of elements of the intelligence services of some Latin American nations -- you know if Argentine intelligence personnel are sympathetic, some Venezuelan personnel are, as well.



From An Investigation of the Belated Production of Documents in the Oklahoma City Bombing Case, Chapter 1, dated March 19, 2002, by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General:

The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, exploded on April 19, 1995, following the detonation of a bomb. One hundred and sixty-eight individuals died and several hundred more were injured in the explosion. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began an international investigation to identify and capture the perpetrators.

Just 77 minutes after the explosion at the Murrah Building, an Oklahoma State Trooper stopped Timothy McVeigh for a traffic offense less than 80 miles from the bombing site and subsequently arrested him for unlawfully carrying a handgun. Within 48 hours, the FBI identified McVeigh as a prime suspect in the attack on the Murrah Building. Federal officials charged McVeigh with unlawful destruction by explosives.

Over the course of the next several months, the FBI dedicated enormous resources to identifying the perpetrators of the bombing and obtaining the necessary evidence to indict and convict them. The FBI's 56 domestic field offices, as well as its foreign offices, were involved in the investigation. A task force coordinated the efforts of the FBI, prosecutors, and agents from other law enforcement agencies. The investigation, known as OKBOMB, led to the arrests of two additional suspects: Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier. McVeigh and Nichols were indicted on August 10, 1995, for 11 counts of violating Title 18 of the United States Code relating to unlawful use of explosives and weapons of mass destruction as well as first degree murder. Fortier was indicted for conspiracy, false statements, and other crimes.1

In criminal trials, the government must provide to the defense some of the information contained within its files. This is known as the discovery process. The discovery rules that govern all federal trials require that statements of witnesses testifying at trial, evidentiary items to be used at trial, and information exculpatory to the defendants be disclosed. See Rule 16, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure; Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963); Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3500. Early in the OKBOMB discovery process, however, the United States agreed to go beyond these requirements and disclose all investigative reports. Over 27,000 investigative reports, 13,000 items of physical evidence, and millions of pages of hotel, motel, and telephone records were produced or made available to the defense before or during the trials.

McVeigh's and Nichols' trials were severed. McVeigh was convicted on all 11 counts on June 2, 1997. On August 14, 1997, following a sentencing hearing, McVeigh was sentenced to death. On December 23, 1997, Nichols was convicted of eight counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of conspiracy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Both McVeigh and Nichols appealed their convictions, but the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the convictions and sentences. In December 2000, McVeigh ended his appeals, and his execution was set for May 16, 2001.

Independent of the trial and appellate process, in February 2000, personnel in the FBI's Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Field Office recognized that the warehouse being used to store the OKBOMB investigative materials was probably inadequate for long-term storage. They sought advice from the FBI's archivist on February 18, 2000. After viewing the warehouse storage facility in May 2000, the archivist agreed that the storage facility was inadequate, and he initiated an archival process to preserve the OKBOMB documents. As part of that process, on December 20, 2000, the archivist sent a memorandum to all FBI field offices instructing them to identify their OKBOMB files, permitting them to destroy copies of certain documents previously sent to the OKBOMB Task Force, and requiring them to send a list of the items that had not been destroyed to the Oklahoma City Field Office.

In January 2001, several field offices responded to the archivist's memorandum by destroying some of their OKBOMB documents as they had been authorized to do. Two field offices sent their entire OKBOMB files to Oklahoma City. When Oklahoma City Field Office personnel examined the material sent by the two field offices, they observed documents that they suspected had not been sent previously to the OKBOMB Task Force and that might not have been disclosed to the OKBOMB defendants as part of the discovery process. The Oklahoma City Field Office personnel notified three FBI supervisors about the potential problem: OKBOMB Inspector in Charge Danny Defenbaugh, who was then the Special Agent in Charge of the Dallas, Texas, Field Office; OKBOMB Supervisory Special Agent Mark White, who was then a Supervisory Special Agent in the Dallas Field Office; and Oklahoma City Field Office Supervisory Special Agent William Teater. After consulting with the archivist, the Oklahoma City personnel sent a memorandum on January 30, 2001, to the field offices instructing them not to destroy any material and to send all OKBOMB materials to Oklahoma City.

Over the course of the next several months, FBI personnel in Oklahoma City received OKBOMB files from FBI field offices and foreign offices. Personnel carefully compared the incoming material to OKBOMB records to determine whether the material had been disclosed to defense counsel. By March 2001, FBI personnel determined that a significant number of items sent in by the field offices likely had not been disclosed to defense counsel even though they were within the categories of items that should have been disclosed pursuant to the discovery agreement. By the end of April 2001, when the review process was completed, the number of suspected undisclosed items was over 700.

On May 7, 2001, nine days before McVeigh's scheduled execution, OKBOMB Inspector in Charge Defenbaugh first notified FBI Headquarters about problems with the discovery in the case, and on May 8 he notified the OKBOMB prosecutor. On the same day, the prosecutor contacted the defense attorneys to notify them of the issue. By the next day, May 9, 2001, the OKBOMB prosecutor provided 715 documents, consisting of approximately 3,100 pages, to the defense attorneys.

The problem with the documents in the McVeigh case was immediately disclosed to the press, and on May 10, 2001, the media reported that the FBI had failed to disclose thousands of pages of documents to the defense. On May 11, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft postponed McVeigh's execution until June 11, 2001. The Attorney General stated that he was taking the extraordinary action to allow defense attorneys adequate time to review the documents and to "protect the integrity of our system of justice." Also on May 11, the Attorney General requested that the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigate the circumstances surrounding the FBI's belated production of OKBOMB documents.

Within a few days following the initial disclosure, over a hundred more documents that had not been disclosed previously were found in two FBI field offices. As a result, concerns arose as to whether the field offices possessed still more OKBOMB material that needed to be reviewed to determine whether the items had been properly disclosed. During the week following the public disclosure of the problem, FBI Headquarters on several occasions instructed all FBI field offices to send OKBOMB material to Oklahoma City for review. The field offices sent in boxes of additional material, which the FBI also reviewed to determine if any discoverable items had not been disclosed properly. As a result, the FBI determined that a "second wave" of discoverable items, consisting of almost 200 documents, likely had not been disclosed to the defense before the trials. By the end of May, a total of 1,033 items were provided to the defense.

A total of 1033 items that had not been provided to the defense...

Did the truth really come out...?

The whole truth?

Or, might certain aspects of this affair not have, uh, "surfaced", due to concerns about who might be involved, and in what?

From my earlier post, Out of Context, Part 1:

In the context of the Oklahoma City bombing:

According to Keating, President Clinton's first comment to him after the bombing was "God, I hope there's no Middle Eastern connection to this."

In the context of the Sibel Edmonds case:

SE: In some cases where the FBI stumbles upon evidence of high-level officials being involved in drug-smuggling, they're even prevented from sharing it with the DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency]. The Department of State just comes in and says, "Leave it."

You know, it's funny, after 9/11, the common criticism was that there was "no information-sharing" between the FBI, CIA, and the like, and this is why the terrorists pulled it off -- as if we didn't want to cooperate. No information-sharing? That's the biggest BS I ever heard!

See also:

Out of Context, Part 2

Out of Context, Part 3

Out of Context, Part 4

Out of Context, Part 5

Out of Context, Part 6

Out of Context, Part 7

Out of Context, Part 8

Meanwhile, as this series continues, we will examine security issues related to our our border. We will examine drug-, human- and arms-trafficking; we will see how terrorists interact with drug cartels and with Latin American governments and authorities. And, we will see how that impacts us in the United States.

Stay tuned!

Lone Wolves & the Border

Here's a nice one: The "Lone Wolf" and al-Qaeda Sleeper Cells in the United States by Abdul Hameed Bakier, January 15, 2008.

Since 9/11, the security and intelligence echelons of the United States have been preoccupied with the possibility of domestic al-Qaeda sleeper cells being activated to perpetrate additional terror attacks. In clandestine activities, a "sleeper" is an operative who establishes deep cover to evade security forces and accomplish his mission in hostile environments. To uncover such sleeper cells, the FBI has devised certain security measures throughout its field offices in the United States. Islamist militants, eager to again attack the United States, are posting instructions on jihadi websites as to how fellow militants could evade the security apparatus and carry out terror strikes on U.S. soil. Comparing the training instructions for jihadi sleepers with the security measures currently in place could shed light on other angles warranting consideration in the hunt for sole sleeper operatives and—to a lesser degree—sleeper cells.

Nice.

A 2005 FBI report stated that the agency had been unable to find conclusive evidence of the existence of such cells (ABC News, March 9, 2005), though comments on jihadi websites suggest that they exist. The militants are aware of the FBI's concern about sleeper cells in the United States; each time pertinent information is released in U.S. media, jihadi posters write comments and prayers for the success of those cells. One website participant—who appears to be knowledgeable about clandestine activities—has posted a code of conduct for sleepers in the United States. Nicknamed al-Muhajr, the forum member claims "sleeper cells are walking around the infidels' land using different cover methods and white names that don't attract American internal security's attention, but that is not what terrifies the FBI in particular and internal American security in general. It's al-Qaeda's lone wolves that disrupt their tranquility and sleep" (hanein.info, January 1). Al-Muhajr proceeds to guide the "lone wolf" sleepers on the necessary skills to succeed in their mission:

What's a "white name"? Racist islamist nutter....

• The sleeper should have excellent command of the local language, accent and slang.
• The sleeper's appearance must not reveal their Arab or Islamic origins. To pretend to be of Hispanic extraction is preferable; therefore sleepers should learn Spanish and use Hispanic aliases.
• The sleeper must carry false identity documents, which are easily obtained in the United States. False identities must be used when buying munitions, shotguns or night vision equipment, etc. from licensed Wal-Mart stores or other shopping centers.
• Sleepers must choose their place of residence very carefully. The preferred choice of residence is in multicultural neighborhoods while eschewing areas frequented by drug dealers to avoid scrutiny from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
• The sleeper should learn martial arts and keep fit for personal protection.
• The sleeper must become highly literate in computers and the internet.
• The sleeper should become an expert in surveillance, counter-surveillance and observation.
• The sleeper should train with sniper rifles, especially U.S.-made weapons that are easily obtainable within the country. Al-Muhajr recommends five different types of U.S.-made rifles.
• The sleeper should train with assault pistols with silencers, the weapon of choice for assassinations.
• The sleeper should learn to prepare explosive belts and explosive charges big enough to booby-trap a small car.

Learn Spanish and mingle in with the Latino community... nice.

(Meanwhile, as our esteemed cohorts at Gates of Vienna report, border security does not seem to be a priority.)

Al-Muhajr goes on to say: "It's a well-known fact that the perfect sleeper is the highly trained loner risking less chance of compromise. It takes one mistake by a cell member to compromise the entire cell." To conclude, al-Muhajr cites the case of John Allen Muhammad, the serial killer who carried out sniper attacks in the Washington, DC metropolitan area in 2002. Muhammad was eventually captured because the fingerprints of his younger accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, were found at a crime scene. Therefore, al-Muhajr cautions, sleepers must be careful not to let their guard down at any time: "The lone wolf doesn't worry about security penetrations."

Although going under deep cover in Western society may involve contradicting certain aspects of Islamic ideology, Salafi-Jihadis have in the past justified certain unreligious practices under the principle of "deterring the bigger evil with a smaller evil." Hence, profiling for possible sleepers must include ideology-oriented variables in addition to standard indicators, because no matter how well the sleeper assimilates to a foreign society, close scrutiny is bound to uncover certain latent and unavoidable habits.

Anything is okay, as long as it promotes Islam and helps Muslims, and contributes to the jihad against the infidels.

So, what should we infidels in America be doing?

• Insist that our government secure our borders against those who enter illegally. (Why?) (Why else?)
• Insist that our government more thoroughly inspect goods and cargo that arrive in US ports-of-entry.
• To the best of our individual abilities, stay fit and learn self-defense.
• Demand our Second Amendment rights not be infringed, so citizens on the scene of a terrorist attack are able to defend themselves while law enforcement responds.

And, more importantly:

• Go after their money! These lone wolves need money to operate.

Since many of these terrorists feed at the same trough as our corrupt politicians, that means, most importantly:

• Clean up Washington, D.C. We can start by demanding a thorough investigation of the Sibel Edmonds case. (Or with the 9/11 Commission's phony report. Or with the Valerie Plame case. Or with any of the scandals -- so many of them are related....)

The Borderline

From Officers need assistance at the border: Comments from Law Officer Editor, June 21, 2006 10:39, by Dale Stockton Editor, Law Officer magazine

It was the middle of the day on a Monday and Hudspeth County (TX) deputies had received information regarding a large shipment of drugs. When they spotted three shiny new SUVs filled with large bundles and traveling together, the officers gave chase and were assisted by state troopers. During the 18 mile pursuit, the SUV caravan turned south towards the Rio Grande, the dividing line between the US and Mexico. One vehicle escaped (into Mexico) by driving across the river and one was captured after it blew a tire. The third got stuck in the river and at first, it looked like law enforcement would capture two out of three of the drug transport vehicles.

However, heavily armed subjects, many of whom were dressed in military uniforms, quickly flanked the officers. According to Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West, these militarily dressed subjects were approximately 200 yards into American territory. Using a military-like Humvee with a mounted machine gun, the subjects tried to free the stranded SUV. When that failed, the drugs were off loaded and the vehicle set afire. Although no shots were fired, Sheriff West said the cops were seriously outgunned and could do nothing but stand by and watch.

Who were these subjects? At first, a Mexican spokesperson said they were US soldiers dressed in Mexican uniforms to make Mexico look bad. Later, it was claimed they must be drug runners disguised as military. Our federal government has been reluctant to take a definitive position and Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of Homeland Security has downplayed this and other incidents. Sheriff West, who has lived in the area all of his life, says he knows who is responsible. "No doubt in my mind they were Mexcian military," he said. "We've had other contacts with them." As for Secretary Chertoff's comments? The sheriff did not mince words: "Our government and everyone else wants to piss ant around about this. He [Chertoff] has no clue as to what is going on down here."

This is not the first incident of this type. About two months prior, a stop was attempted on a dump truck loaded with an estimated 10,000 pounds of marijuana. The truck headed south towards the river and subsequently became stuck. The driver fled into Mexico. After approximately 1,800 pounds of marijuana were recovered, heavily armed subjects dressed in Mexican military BDUs showed up and took over the scene, using a large front loading tractor to pull the dump truck out of the river and over to the Mexican side. According to TJ Bonner, a 27-year veteran of the US Border Patrol and the President of the National Border Patrol Council, the officers (which included USBP) could only observe as the vehicle and its cargo of contraband were taken away.

This is just one of many persistent allegations that corrupt elements of the Mexican military are involved in smuggling, going so far as to make armed incursions into US territory.

This has implications far beyond drug-trafficking.

If a dump truck can carry several tons of marijuana across the border, it is not difficult to envision the security risk to our nation.

If a dump truck can carry several tons of marijuana across the border, it is not difficult to envision nuclear weapons and dozens of Mujahideen crossing the border.

I was dismayed to discover how heavily into narcotrafficking Al Qaeda and the Taliban are. A tremendous amount of heroin and other narcotics is produced in Afghanistan. A worldwide Islamic Mafia network moves the drugs, causing tremendous damage especially in Europe; the profits return to South Asia to fund terror.

However, that is not the topic of this post.

While perhaps unlikely, the possibility remains that those very drugs that were getting moved across the Rio Grande in the incidents described above may have Al Qaeda's involvement. Regardless of that, it seems clear that at least some of the heroin and related narcotics coming into the United States has its origins in Afghanistan, and profits terrorists in that part of the world.

But, wait! It gets better.

From Terror and the mob, 10/02/2006, by PAT MILTON, Associated Press Writer:

WASHINGTON- The FBI's top counterterrorism official harbors many concerns: weapons of mass destruction, undetected homegrown terrorists and the possibility that old-fashioned mobsters will team up with al-Qaida for the right price.

Though there is no direct evidence yet of organized crime collaborating with terrorists, the first hints of a connection surfaced in a recent undercover FBI operation. Agents stopped a man with alleged mob ties from selling missiles to an informant posing as a terrorist middleman.

...

The traditional mafia has highly developed networks for acquiring goods and services and money, all for a price.

The mob's potential interest in helping a terrorist has nothing to do with ideology or sympathy but with greed, said Matt Heron, head of New York FBI's organized crime unit.

"They will deal with anybody, if they can make a buck," Heron said. "They will sell to a terrorist just as easily as they would sell to an order of Franciscan monks. It's a business relationship to them."
"If the mob has explosives and a terrorist wants them and they have the money, they could become instant friends," he said.

Pat D'Amuro, a retired senior FBI official and now chief executive of Giuliani Security, said a Mafia boss once acknowledged that the mob would help terrorists.

"I am aware of a high-level Mafia figure, who was cooperating with authorities, being asked if the Mafia would assist terrorists in smuggling people into Europe through Italy," D'Amuro said. "He said, 'The Mafia will help who ever can pay.'"

...

[Joseph Billy Jr., the FBI's top counterterrorism official] said his biggest concern remains weapons of mass destruction. While Hezbollah and Hamas are more defined terrorist groups, with a territorial focus and a political platform, al-Qaida is more unpredictable.

"We know they were trying to acquire it prior to 9/11, bin Laden's own words said that," said Billy. "What makes us think they are still not trying?"

If they're not still trying, it is because they have already gotten their weapons of mass destruction in place.

The new ties beginning to form between terrorists and conventional organized crime makes me wonder: Is there no honor among thieves?

After all, organized crime figures live here in America, too, and so do their families. Do they think that only other infidels will suffer, and that they will somehow escape the terror?

From Mexican Army Invades U.S., Wednesday, March 12, 2003, Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com:

It’s the war nobody wants to talk about: well-armed Mexican soldiers storming across America’s southern border, sometimes with guns blazing.

“We are in state of war,” Edward Nelson, chairman of U.S. Border Control, told Soldier of Fortune magazine. “And we are fighting enemies who have brought the battle to our shores. If ever there was a time for the United States to put troops on the border, it is now.”

A blockbuster exposé in the magazine's March issue notes that over the past five years, there have been 120 documented incidents of Mexican military/police incursions, sometimes resulting in the arrest of Mexican army personnel on U.S. soil by Border Patrol agents.

Thousands of Mexican soldiers, often ill-trained draftees, have been moved up to the border allegedly to fight narcotics smuggling. Many times these armed men cross the border chasing drug traffickers.

...

Some of these “anti-drug-trafficking troops” are themselves trafficking in drugs.

...

Said Congressman Tancredo: “There’s no doubt Mexican military units along the border are being controlled by drug cartels, and not by Mexico City. The military units operate freely, with little or no direction, and several of them have made numerous incursions into the Unite States.”

From another article addressing the above-mentioned incident, Mexico Army Likely Part of Border Incident, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2006, NewsMax.com Wires:

EL PASO, Texas -- Suspected drug runners dressed in Mexican military-style uniforms who were involved in an armed confrontation with Texas lawmen were using a Mexican military-issue Humvee and weapons, the Hudspeth County sheriff said Friday.

"It was military," said Arvin West, whose officers were involved in the standoff. "Due to the pending congressional hearings I can't comment further."
West said the determination that the equipment was military-issue came from the federal government, but he wouldn't elaborate. A U.S. Army spokesman said he could not confirm West's statement, and the Mexican Foreign Relations Department said it would have no comment.

...

A California newspaper reported this month that Mexican military units had crossed into the United States 216 times since 1996. It cited a Department of Homeland Security document, but department Secretary Michael Chertoff has said many of those incidents were just mistakes.

From Texas border standoff with Mexican military, January 24, 2006:

Texas law enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents engaged in an armed standoff with Mexican military personnel and drug smugglers just inside the United States along the Rio Grande yesterday afternoon.

According to a report in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, Calif., both Texas law enforcement and the FBI stated nearly 30 American agents were part of the incident.

Chief Deputy Mike Doyal of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department told the paper Mexican military Humvees were towing what appeared to be thousands of pounds of marijuana across the border into the United States.

Border Patrol agents called for backup after seeing that Mexican Army troops had several mounted machine guns on the ground more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border – near Neely's Crossing, about 50 miles east of El Paso.

And, from Mexican army escorts border drug-runners April 11, 2005:

WASHINGTON – The Mexican army is escorting those attempting to cross over the U.S. border illegally – including known drug-runners – to areas not patrolled by the Minuteman Project near Naco, Ariz., say Border Patrol sources and other officials including a U.S. congressman.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, denounced the action by the Mexican military and called on President Bush to do the same.

(We'll address the Minuteman Project in another post; meanwhile, google it if you're curious.)

Also:

Sheriff insists Mexican military crossed border
February 8, 2006 By Stephen Dinan THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Texas Sheriffs Say Terrorists Entering US from Mexico
August 21, 2006 By Kevin Mooney CNSNews.com Staff Writer


There is nothing new here regarding the increased narcotrafficking activity; ten years ago, this could be seen taking root.

The Mexico/USA Border; A Gathering Storm, 05/28/97 Editorial/Opinion, By C. L. Staten, ENN Publisher:

Specifically in regard to drugs, according to counter-drug officials, an estimated 75% of all cocaine and 40% of all heroin that reaches the streets of America was smuggled through Mexico. DEA agents say that Mexican drug lords have become as powerful or more powerful than those leading the Colombian cartels. A 1996 San Francisco Chronicle article said that there is evidence that the Mexican drug lords are spending in excess of $500 million dollars a year to bribe and corrupt Mexican police and military officials.

Interestingly enough, a much heralded international agreement may also be contributing to this massive infusion of drugs. The NAFTA agreement essentially allows Mexican truckers free access to America's southern borders, in an effort to speed the transit of manufactured goods between Mexico and the United States. U.S. Customs agents say that pressure by officials high in the administration in Washington, to expedite without inspection the movement of thousands of tractor-trailer trucks across the border, can lead to a major importation of illegal drugs. Some more informed members of the U.S. Congress have attempted to renegotiate portions of NAFTA to close these loop-holes which make drug smuggling easier...so far with little avail.

And, least we forget, Mexican drug lords are using everything from Boeing 727 aircraft (purchased for one-way trips to remote runways), to large container ships (like those recently raided and found filled with RPG's and AK-47's) and transiting the Pacific coast for Mexico, to piggy-backed tractor-trailers, to ultra-lite aircraft, in their widely successful efforts to import dangerous drugs to this country. According to one drug enforcement agent who spoke to ENN, "the drug dealers imagination in importation methods is only exceeded by the grotesque amount of money they make in doing so." "It is a vicious circle...they sell drugs and make massive amounts of money...they use the money and violence to corrupt government systems and sell even more drugs...thus making even more money."

...

At least some military analysts are becoming increasingly alarmed at the instability of some areas of the border between the United States and Mexico. They point to "cross-border" raids by "armies" funded by the drug cartels, intimidation of American property owners, and the "almost total corruption of police and some army commanders" in the northern Mexican states. Drug inspired violence in a number of border towns continues to spiral out of control, and reports of multiple homicides are being received by ENN on a frequent basis. Two incidents of border patrol officers being fired upon from across the Mexican border have been received by ENN in recent weeks.

Additionally, evidence continues to surface of ties between Mexican drug cartels and internal "popular revolutionary forces" who would chose to overthrow the established Mexican government by force. Incidents of assaults on Mexican police and military bases continue to be reported with alarming frequency. Often with support from communist or socialist ideologs from other Latin American countries, and now armed and trained by the drug dealers, groups like the Zapatista National Liberation Army, and the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) have had at least some success in carrying out an armed insurgency against the Mexican government.

Worse that these already terrible circumstances are recent allegations that the Mexican cartels are hiring retired or ex-special operations soldiers, law enforcement officers, and intelligence operatives to work for them in their internal security forces. By paying extremely large "tax-free" salaries and offering handsome benefits like free travel and nice housing, it would appear that at least some extremely able American citizens have become mercenary allies of the cartels. If true, the addition of these well-trained and extremely capable American collaborators could add a fearsome and troubling dimension to the already difficult problems on the Mexican/U.S. border.

Finally, it should also be noted that officially unconfirmed reports continue to be received which indicate that large numbers of increasing sophisticated weapons are being imported into Mexico and finding their way into the hands of revolutionary organizations and the private soldiers of the drug cartels. If wide-spread rebellion ensues in Mexico, those combatting it will no longer be facing pistols, single-shot carbines or shotguns. More likely they will be forced to combat state-of-the-art assault rifles, RPG's, SAM's, and other crew-served weapons, being imported from Europe, China and parts of the former Soviet Union.

Now for the icing on the cake!

From U.S. pays Mexico to secure border Dec. 29, 2005, Chris Hawley, Republic Mexico City Bureau:

Like Bush, U.S. officials have repeatedly praised Mexico's efforts to bolster security on its side of the border as the countries try to present a united face against criminals and terrorists in the wake of Sept. 11. But the reality is that U.S. taxpayers have bankrolled much of Mexico's increased border vigilance. From X-ray scanners and helicopters to intelligence training, the United States has been quietly pouring millions of dollars into Mexico in the hopes of bolstering U.S. national security. U.S. spending on military and police aid to Mexico has more than tripled in the past five years to $57.8 million with the hope it will help protect America's southern flank.

That's right! Read 'em and weep!

The US taxpayer, via foreign aid, is paying the salaries of those Mexican military personnel and police who are escorting the drugs across the border and into US territory.

From the United States Constitution

Article I Section 8
The Congress shall have Power...To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions...

Article I Section 10
No State shall, without the Consent of Congress,... engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay...

Article IV Section 4
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion...

Makes me wanna sing...

Borderline

Something in the way you love me wont let me be
I dont want to be your prisoner so baby wont you set me free
Stop playing with my heart
Finish what you start
When you make my love come down
If you want me let me know
Baby let it show
Honey dont you fool around

Just try to understand, Ive given all I can,
cause you got the best of me

Chorus:

Borderline feels like Im going to lose my mind
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline

(repeat chorus again)

Keep on pushing me baby
Dont you know you drive me crazy
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline

Something in your eyes is makin such a fool of me
When you hold me in your arms you love me till I just cant see
But then you let me down, when I look around, baby you just cant be found
Stop driving me away, I just wanna stay,
Theres something I just got to say

Just try to understand, Ive given all I can,
cause you got the best of me

(chorus)

Keep on pushing me baby
Dont you know you drive me crazy
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline

Look what your love has done to me
Come on baby set me free
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline
You cause me so much pain, I think Im going insane
What does it take to make you see?
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline