Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:10 pm Post subject: Concerns Terrorists Could Still Enter US from Mexico
Concerns Terrorists Could Still Enter US from Mexico by Anthony L. Kimery
Tuesday, 09 March 2010
'Ability of people from countries of special interest to ... be ferried up to the border and ... into the United States … is … a concern'
Former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) intelligence chief Steve Casteel told HSToday.us at a recent meeting of corporate security officials that a terrorist organization wanting to smuggle a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) into the United States is more likely to utilize an established drug trafficking or some other well-established organized crime organization to get the weapon into the country.
"If Al Qaeda wants to bring in a WMD, they're going to - the best way to do it - is to use organized crime ... right down here on [the US/Mexican] border," Casteel said. He added that Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda associated movements (AQAM) are becoming more intertwined with international organized crime networks.
A three decade DEA veteran who in the mid- to late-90s served as Associate Special Agent in Charge of DEA's Houston office where he was responsible for more than 1,200 miles of the Texas-Mexico border, Casteel candidly said it’s the southern border where terrorists could utilize Mexican traffickers’ smuggling expertise to bring a WMD into the US.
Casteel, now senior vice president for GardaWorld’s international business development, warned Congress about the nexus between terrorist organizations and global organized drug traffickers in his May 2003 testimony, "Narco-Terrorism: International Drug Trafficking and Terrorism - a Dangerous Mix,” before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in response to questioning by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that terrorists could “potentially” enter the United States from Mexico.
“On the human trafficking side, it’s not solely illegal immigrants coming to work, but the ability of people from countries of special interest to immigrate into Central America and be ferried up to the border and over into the United States … [that] is … a concern,” Napolitano stated.
McCain asked: “Countries of special interest – people could come up through our southern border?”
“Potentially, yes,” Napolitano answered.
Homeland Security Today’s August, 2009 investigative report, “Unholy Trinity,” focused on this very problem, in particular citing the findings of the unredacted version of the report, “Operation Cazando Anguillas,” on the problem that was contracted by an office of the Secretary of Defense. The findings were either confirmed or supported by a variety of past and present and other intelligence authorities interviewed by Homeland Security Today.
Homeland Security Today’s report detailed how security components of Mexican cartels are involved in escorting “persons of interest of Islamic origin” into and out of South and Central American … and into the United States.
But while Napolitano and other intelligence officials have openly acknowledged this problem, an official familiar with the Operation Cazando Anguillas report told HSToday.us on condition of anonymity that “I think it brought up border issues that the USG doesn’t want to tackle and that the topic really is not P.C. The DoD office for whom the report was prepared was more concerned about the spotlight on them because of the report going public (worried that it may appear that they were conducting intel collection).”
According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics for fiscal year 1999 through June 17, 2009 provided to HSToday.us, 2,872 citizens of just a few Muslim nations were apprehended trying to enter the United States. The vast majority, 1,179, were from Pakistan, followed by 318 from Iran, 316 from Indonesia, 295 from Egypt and 189 from Afghanistan.
But these weren't the only apprehensions of citizens of Muslim nations who were caught illegally trying to enter the United States - many more were caught entering the country from yet other Islamic countries with ties to terrorism.
Further, despite reports that no individuals with terrorism ties have been caught trying to enter the United States by crossing the Mexican border, the “Unholy Trinity” report revealed that senior intelligence officials have stated publicly and on off the record to Homeland Security Today that those reports aren’t accurate.
In addressing members of the 15-nation UN Security Council in February, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), stated that international criminal gangs and traffickers are exploiting vast geographic blind spots where electronic, imagery, and other forms of surveillance is lacking or completely nonexistent.
Costa told the Security Council that nations must improve their systems of intelligence sharing to close these surveillance gaps.
See the UNODC report, "Crime and Instability: Case Studies of Transnational Threats."
http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/12439/149
