StormWarning’s Counterterrorism

This will be short since I have to admit to having heard the concept while driving and hearing Limbaugh rant on about this. The mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the blind Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, stood trial and was convicted of convicted of “seditious conspiracy” and now serves a life sentence in the Butner NC Correctional Facility. That was before we knew what we know now.

Affording terrorists or enemy combatants rights under the U.S. Constitution as the recent Supreme Court ruling does, leads to the presumption of innocence. This means that if Osama bin Laden was to be captured and brought to trial, he would be presumed innocent until proven guilty. What proof would we need? Or, worse, what reasonable doubt could be established to enable the man who ordered the murder of nearly 3,000 the morning of September 11, 2001 to walk free? The simple answer is that not only is the Supreme Court decision wrong headed, but the utter ignorance by Barack Obama that we are a Nation (and a World) at War with Terrorism by indicating a return to treating terrorism as a criminal act, is emptyheaded.

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The siege in Mexico in the war between Calderon’s government forces and the drug cartels has taken a new turn with the Gente Nueva posting lists of 21 police officers marked for death. These banners appeared on bridges across the border near El Paso Texas.

An unusual chill has fallen Chihuahua City, just across from El Paso on the Texas border, after authorities said they found banners attached to bridges displaying a list of 21 police officers targeted for assassination, reportedly written by a gang called Gente Nueva (New People).

The fight for the US-Mexico border rages on. The limited effort to stop the drug trafficking coupled with the increased boldness of the Mexican drug cartels should make a vacation “down Mexico way” a thing of the past (I know people who still drive across the border to go shopping…I don’t understand how they could take their lives in their hands like that).

Calderon, Chihuahua, El Paso, Gente Nueva, Merida Initiative Sphere: Related Content

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If you don’t know what the NAU is, then you haven’t been sucked in by one of the other conspiracy theories that has spread around the blogosphere…the so-called North American Union. Its believers somehow think that President Bush and his other North American presidents are conspiring to create a United North America…all predicated on a theoretical paper written by the Council for Foreign Relations in 2005 and the existence of the SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership). This goes hand in hand with the supposed NAFTA Superhighway. It has to be true, doesn’t it??? All of these important guys signed it!

Now, you see, to believe that there is a secret cabal working within our government to bring about the demise of the sovereign United States is beyond reason and belief (in my opinion of course). But there are some people who actually believe it…some of those are from the “truth seekers” group, and others on in the group of “pseudo-experts.”  BTW, its supposed to happen in 2010.

As I have written in the past, while a secure perimeter around North America makes sense in many ways, there will be no removal of border controls or immigration requirements…certainly not while the Mexican government cannot control its own outmigration.

While anyone can try to debate this, even Snopes debunks it.  One of the things lacking in today’s World of “read it on the Internet and scoop other bloggers mentality” is critical thinking (its one of those things like creativity…if you’ve got it, you’ve got it…if you “don’t got it”…you can’t learn it).

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This is early, and the source is somewhat dubious since ABC has had a recent spate of “breaking news” blurts that diminishes the network to a “blogoburster,” but ABC is reporting that “officials familiar with highly sensitive intelligence on this issue,” that Iran and al Qaeda are in high level discussions. While questioning whether Iran will release bin Laden’s son’s (who are at the core of these discussions), the motives are unclear.

“The Iranians know there would be hell to pay if these guys were set free,” a U.S. official told ABC News.

“Iran likely sees these individuals, as major bargaining chips,” says another official. “How and when they’re going to use those chips or whether they are going to keep them in the bank is part of an ongoing strategic discussion they are having internally.”

Apparently, after September 11th, al Qaeda split into two groups, one heading to the mountains of Pakistan and the other, led by Saif al Adel (an Egyptian), went to Iran (Adel is suspected as the leader of the group that attacked the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 - the US State Department has put a $5 million bounty on his head). The group that fled to Iran is said to include al Qaeda’s shura (management council), and over 2 dozens members including some of bin Laden’s relatives, including two of his sons, Saad and Hamza.

“Al Qaeda would like to get those folks a deal and they’ve been trying to work a deal,” a senior defense official tells ABC News. “Right now there is greater effort being applied by al Qaeda to seek a resolution.” Although Iran has recently signaled a willingness to discuss the issue, this official says, “I don’t see the Iranian government desiring to work very fast or quickly on that. ”

AND

“Iran has repeatedly resisted numerous calls to transfer custody of its AQ detainees to their countries of origin or third countries for interrogations or trial,” the report says. “Iran also continued to fail to control the activities of some AQ members who fled to Iran following the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.”

Motives behind these reported talks?
* Under one theory, the talks are a reaction to al Qaeda’s recent anti-Iranian rhetoric…Iran may be making an unspoken threat to al Qaeda’s leadership: If al Qaeda attempts to attack Iran, these people will suffer.

* Iran may have initiated the talks as a threat to the United States, that if the U.S. takes hostile action against Iran, these captives could be released, set free to plot attacks against the West.

Either way, I have an issue with the ABC statement: ABC News interviewed several high-level U.S. national security officials for this story. Because of the sensitive nature of intelligence on this subject, all spoke on the condition that their names not be used. We also asked the government of Iran to comment on this story. The spokesman for the Iranian Mission to the United States said he could not answer our specific questions but told us combating terrorism “remains one of the main Iranian political priorities.”

Also covered by the Right Truth in Iran Joining Forces with al Qaeda.

Frankly, I’ll be interested to see how this all plays out in the next few days.

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As I have before, I find myself in a sort of political “nowhere land” largely because despite what I believe in my heart, I also have a deep-seated distain for the type of personal attack politics that now pervades our society. On many issues, including the War in Iraq, I am strongly Republican (even though I feel that policy, strategy and tactical mistakes have been made). Yet when I voice my pro-choice belief, I am immediately challenged and branded a “librul.” It is clear that one is not afforded the opportunity (or privilege) of walking that thin-line in the American Middle.

There is nothing in either Democratic Party candidate that could prompt me to vote for them. Frankly, I am glad that John McCain, regardless of his flaws (aren’t we all flawed afterall?), is the candidate for the Republican Party (I am equally thrilled that a social, or “values” conservative is not the party’s nominee).

At the same time, it is impossible to maintain my views in World and National Affairs, focused on security both home and abroad, and not be appalled by this video compilation in which the Democratic Party leaders ask for what amounts to be a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq.

The road to democracy, our continuing quest to perfect an already perfect Union, remains a challenge each day. If not motivated solely by partisan politics, but in fact, driven by strongly held beliefs, these Democratics leaders are entitled to their opinions.

The reality is as former Secretary of State Powell noted…”we broke it, we need to fix it” (or something close to that). Leaving Iraq and abandoning the Middle East…in fact, abandoning the “fix the Middle East” strategy of the Bush Administration can only lead to the emboldening of those people who our State Department and Department of Homeland Security refuse to call what they are, Isalamic Fundamentalist Jihadists, exactly the opportunity they plan…a World power without the resolve to see through to the end an effort, regardless how flawed, poorly planned and implemented, or even falsely justified…and with that, the Long War of the Global War on Terrorism will be both longer, and more difficult to win.

Prevail we must…for the sake of our democracy, we must. And we will. Despite the character assassination, the inuendo, the gossip, the lies and falsehoods, the “swift boating” and all of the rest of the dirty, Internet inspired politics…we will emerge the day after this coming election day with a President who will have won the most Electoral votes, and as envisioned by our Founding Fathers, power will transfer, and the Nation shall prevail. In what state the World will be on that day, is a completely different question.

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Its a good thing that I’ve been busy all day and ignored some of the earlier trash about this story. En garde! Despite some reports to the contrary from some of the usual suspects like Drudge, a scary report about an al Qaeda tape threatening a WMD attack has been declared a prank and a hoax.

The headlines, splashed across The Drudge Report, ABC News and other major news sites last night, were scary indeed:

AL QAEDA TAPE TO CALL FOR USE OF WMD

According to the reports, the tape urged jihadists to use “biological, chemical and nuclear weapons to attack the West,” and a quote from an official source followed, adding further credibility:

“There have been several reports that al Qaeda will release a new message calling for the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against civilians,” FBI spokesman Richard Kolko told ABC News in an e-mail.

Luckily, Evan Kohlmann posted a prompt dismissal of this as a hoax. From the Counterterrorism Blog:

For the record: there is no indication whatsoever that Al-Qaida’s As-Sahab Media Foundation is preparing to release anything in the next 24 hours. There has been no notification posted on the usual channels, there are no glitzy advertisements, and there is no credible electronic chatter, period. Rather, the intel community appears to have (once again) fallen victim to poorly researched open source news reporting. In recent days, several fringe media organizations have published stories about a video recording posted by anonymous Al-Qaida miscreants on extremist Internet chat forums. The video consisted of a remarkably amateurish mash-up of Discovery Channel documentaries, widely published sermons by radical clerics, and stolen propaganda footage. While it is perhaps true that the video offered subtle encouragement for nuclear attacks on the United States, it featured no original content and could have been clumsily strung together with little more than two VCRs. The video was meandering, boring, and difficult to follow–and it certainly was not the product of Al-Qaida.

Further debunking of the Nuclear Jihad Web Threat is found here.

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Many serve this country in different ways. Some in glory, others in anonymity. Some by choice, and others by circumstance. The men and women of our intelligence services who have died in the country’s service are often forgotten.

The Stars on the Wall
The CIA Memorial Wall is one of the first things visitors see when entering the Original Headquarters Building lobby. The wall – located on the lobby’s north wall – stands as a silent memorial to those CIA employees “who gave their lives in the service of their country.” Currently, there are 87 stars carved into the marble of the CIA Memorial Wall.

The”Book of Honor” lists the names of 54 employees who died while serving their country. The names of the remaining 33 employees must remain secret, even in death; each of these officers is remembered in the book by a star.

Last Memorial Day: CIA Adds Four Stars to Memorial Wall

Storm: If you’ve never been there, you cannot begin to understand the utter feeling of awe when you stand staring at the Wall of Stars and realize the silent sacrifice made by those whose lives are represented.

DIA Patriots’ Memorial

A GRATEFUL NATION RECOGNIZES THOSE WHO
HAVE MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE WHILE
PROTECTING OUR FREEDOM.

The Patriots’ Memorial honors Defense Intelligence Agency employees who died in the service of the United States. The memorial occupies a prominent position in the lobby of the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center (DIAC), at Bolling Air Force Base. For Agency employees and visitors to the DIAC, this memorial acts as a daily reminder of these brave individuals and their ultimate sacrifice.

Dedication: On 14 December 1988, then DIA Director Lieutenant General Leonard Perroots dedicated the memorial, and Deputy Secretary of Defense William H. Taft, III, spoke at the ceremony and noted the service of those being honored. General Perroots presented the families with a replica of the plaque in memory of their lost loved one. Unfortunately, a number of Agency employees have died in the line of duty since 1988, and their names have been enshrined as well.

Storm: There are many who comment…and not so many who “do.”  It is with a sense of their duty and recognition of the role they performed that I now bow my head…to thank those Intelligence officers who died in the defense of our Nation, perhaps in total anonymity…and to be thankful of the opportunity to serve.

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Its been subrosa for a while, but now revealed, that a group of Catholics named Grupo Romo is working to address what thet call “the increasingly toxic anti-immigrant atmosphere” by turning the Alamo City into a sanctuary for unauthorized immigrants. These are “faith-driven” activists providing shelter, food and medical care for what this article refers to as “unauthorized immigrants” (this is political correctness carried to a ludicrous extreme!)…call these people what they are! They are “illegal aliens” who enter this country illegally by surreptitiously sneaking across holes in our border with Mexico (along with G-d knows whoever else).

The encouragement offered by this “well meaning” Grupo Romo is contrary to anything that any law-abiding citizen of the United States should countenance…residents of Texas where the population is 36% Hispanic (counting only the legal residents) and in San Antonio, where the legal Hispanic population is nearly 58% is astounding. Grupo Romo, despite their “faith base” and religious cloak, are aiding and abetting law breakers.

“We are the new Sanctuary Movement in San Antonio,” said group member Víctor Ruiz, 63, who works for the immigration division of Catholic Charities and previously was with the Defense Department in Corpus Christi. “If immigrants need help, we will do all we can to help them out.”

The original “Sanctuary Movement” was a religious effort in the 1980s that created an underground railroad for Central Americans fleeing the region’s bloody civil wars, whose trail crossed South Texas…

…Offering sanctuary to the undocumented is controversial even within immigrant-heavy congregations…

Despite their religious basis, Grupo Romo and other like them are breaking the law! This whole “New Sanctuary” movement is contrary to the Law of the Land!

● Jim “Hoot” Gibson, a San Antonio teacher and member of U.S. Border Watch, a Houston-based immigration-restriction group, said he and others stand ready to protest the Romo group. The law is unequivocal, Gibson said: They’ll be aiding and harboring undocumented immigrants.

● local ICE Director, Jerry Robinette says that “He’s all for people acting on political and religious convictions, and he’s got nothing against helping needy folks, but he can’t look the other way if they break immigration laws.” and “I’d caution them that good intentions could make them criminally liable,” Robinette said. “They have to make the decision whether they want to violate the law or not.”

Movements like the New Sanctuary Movement work against our National Security in the name of “faith.” Groups like these must be stopped. While their ideals a correct, the fact that they encourage law breaking is something I cannot support.

FYI, check out Right Truth’s Memorial Day Weekend Reading Assignment.

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Is it beyond humanity or “fair play” that we consider “taking out” certain pesky gnats?

The question is whether it is better to strategically target a terrorist or national leader for assassination, rather than fight a lengthy war of armies. Of course it is argued that Presidential directives prohibit such actions. I counter by saying that this war against the jihad is different from all others, and that “Directives” (like Presidential Executive Order 12333) were for past wars.

As I am not not now nor have I ever been directly involved in any form of counter-terrorism employment (except of course in my writings “here and there”)…this post is therefore purely opinion and conjecture, and clearly does not reflect policy in any way…some might consider it a flight of fantasy; others might look at it as ”out of the box” thinking.  But still the question is if a targeted assassination…such as eliminating Ahmadinejad could change the course of history (before it unfolds)…So it once again occurred to me that perhaps it was time to resurrect the Phoenix Program from the Vietnam era (admitting that as Bill Colby said back then, “a lot of things were done that should not have been done.”). This was actually suggested to me by a close friend who comes from that “background.” Of course there are some people who consider even a discussion of these tactics to be off limits. But this war is not a conventional war. This War on Terrorism is an asymmetrical chess game. As a result, in my opinion, strategies and tactics of 25 years ago should not be considered sacrosanct.

So why not (selective/targeted assassinations)? How different would things be today if a bullet with Hussein’s name on it had been delivered by a special ops team? I continue to ask why Osama bin Laden remains either at large or has not been found. Even ask the question of why certain bothersome individuals now populating the world stage remain on the stage (lets name names…Chavez and Ahmadinejad)…in the end, we had not hesitation in bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki to “save lives.” Of course, I’m not an insider…so what do I know? But, al-Sadr…he’s a pain in the butt. Why is he still alive? What will stop a jihadist from taking the shot at Karzai if the opportunity arises?  Note, as mentioned in a comment re-provided below, there may be a difference between the targeting of a head of state versus that of a known terrorist.

The following is a brief description of the Phoenix Program according to Wikipedia.

The Phoenix Program(Vietnamese: Kế Hoạch Phụng Hoàng, a word related to fenghuang, the Chinese phoenix) or Operation Phoenix was a covert intelligence operation and assassination program undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in close collaboration with South Vietnamese intelligence during the Vietnam War. The program was designed to identify and “neutralize”—capture; induce to surrender; kill; or otherwise disrupt—the noncombatant infrastructure of Viet Cong (VCI) cadres who were engaged both in recruiting and training insurgents within South Vietnamese villages, as well as providing support to the North Vietnamesewar effort. The operation was directed by the CIA’s Evan J. Parker, then by Ted Shackleyand his deputies, including Thomas Clines, Donald Gregg, and Richard Secord.While the Phoenix operations were originated by the CIA, they were eventually turned over to the US Army and Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) military, and later as part of the “Vietnamization” program they were transitioned to a Republic of Vietnam military program with just a handful of US military advisors assisting. The Phung Hoang operations were officially established by Republic of Vietnam Presidential decree on July 1, 1968, although the program existed unofficially prior to that date.Gary Leroy and Karl Sherrick were two of the most effective advisors having 23 kills in the month of March. President Thieu would later declassify the program, and announce its existence publicly on October 1, 1969, in order to gain wider acceptance and cooperation from South Vietnam citizens.

Here is an interesting article on the subject: CIA and Operation Phoenix in Vietnam…and just in case you’re interested in reading further, here is the link to a Google search on “CIA Phoenix Program Vietnam.”

Finally, here is a compilation of articles on the subject of the Phoenix Program. The Memory Hole Documents from the Phoenix Program (from this site):

The Phoenix Project and Its Creator, Nelson Brickham
by Douglas Valentine

Nelson Brickham joined the CIA in 1949, serving first in the sedate Directorate of Intelligence, then transferring in 1955 to the Operations Division, where he served in the high-profile Soviet-Russia Division. Brickham gained a wide range of experience, from running black propaganda and false-flag recruitments, to gathering information on Soviet missile silos. Over the years he developed his own “systems approach” to spookery that he later employed when developing the Phoenix Program…

Upon assuming the job as Chief of Field operations, Brickham inherited and sharpened three existing programs:

1) The Hamlet Informant Program (HIP), in which principal agents working for the CIA and Special Branch recruited informants in the hamlets. This was dangerous work, because no one likes a snitch, and because the snitches often lied and set-up innocent people. Informants know they are unliked, and they need to be motivated. Some of them were blackmailed into becoming informants; others did it for revenge. Money was the most common motivating factor used in recruiting people for the HIP Program. (The eerie resemblance to Ashcroft’s short-lived TIPS program need not be emphasized.)

2) The Province Interrogation (PIC) Program. The CIA began building a secret torture chamber in each of South Vietnam’s 44 provinces in 1964. Try to file an FOIA for information on them and see what happens. The CIA hired Pacific Architects and Engineers to build these facilities. Information from defectors and captured documents was put into the PIC Program reporting system, to which the CIA had total access.

3) Penetrations into the Viet Cong Infrastructure (usually by blackmailing or terrorizing a member of a targetted individual’s family) were the most sought-after means of gathering information. Brickham conducted penetrations unilaterally and in liaison with the Special Branch. CIA province officers trained their counterpart Special Branch officers on how to mount penetrations, how to interrogate suspects, and how to recruit informants…[more]

I never did get to read this book.

Outrageous thinking? Maybe. Uninformed thinking? Maybe. I’d love to hear an unclassified explanation of why such operations aren’t now feasible and why they wouldn’t shorten the path to peace from jihadist terrorism. If it hasn’t already risen, perhaps the Phoenix should rise again? Besides, unlike the Vietnam era, these strategic kills might not even require a “human hand” rather than a Predator strike (in fact recent events suggest the efficiency of “UAV hits”).  Whose rules are we fighting this war by anyway? There are alot of bad actors on the World stage today…why waste time, money and lives?

By the way, this is a replay of posts from before: Re-Evaluating Strategic Assassinations and The Return of the Phoenix - Taking the Offensive on Counterterrorism.

One of the key comments from an earlier iteration of this post was posted by Darrell from Morning Coffee:

You bring up some great points here, and though I dont come from a special ops background, I’ll still offer my opinion on the subject.

First off Assassinating Ahmadinejad or Chavez is completely different from taking out al-Sadr. Ahmadinejad & Chavez are both heads of state al-Sadr is Jim Jones in a Thoub suit. We are still officially at peace with Iran and Venezuela, an assassination attempt on their heads of state would be an act of War. No matter how much they deserve it, that is not how we declare war. Al-Sadr is cultist leader directing an insurgent militia against our forces and against the recognized government of Iraq… He is fair game..

Now if we were already at War with Iran/Venezuela, targeting their military leadership and lines of communication is fair game, if Mahmood or Hugo happen to be there at the time no great loss.

There is one other line of thought that deserves some consideration. In WW2, had Hitler been assassinated say in 42 or 43, the War in Europe may have lasted much longer than it did, just because of the competence of the German Military Leadership.

I would say that it would deserve consideration only on a case by case basis, and someone has to make a judgement call based on the Intel they have. That judgement call must come from the President, perhaps delegated to Sec Def under specific direction from the President. But I don’t ever see even a theatre commander or other military official making the decision to specifically take out a political leader. That is a political decision, and just as Politicians should leave the military decisions to Generals, Generals need to leave the Political decisions to Politicians.

Interesting and thought provoking post.

Darrell

Just a thought…”Yeah, I know!” We can’t.

CIA, Executive Order 12333, Project Phoenix, State Department, targeted assassinations, Vietnam Sphere: Related Content

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Just the other day we read about the gunning down of Mexican top cop Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez as he entered his home. Yet on Friday, another high level Mexican law enforcement officer was killed, the 4th since May 1.

Esteban Robles, the former head of the capital’s anti-kidnapping squad, was leaving his apartment early Friday when drive-by shooters opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles.

Robles’ killing came a few hours after the funeral of Señor Gómez (there is some belief by Mexican intelligence that the assassination of Gómez was an inside job since the killers had keys to his apartment - a sure sign I think). But in addition, yesterday afternoon, on Saturday, Juan Antonio Roman Garcia, the #2 law enforcement officer in Juarez was killed when his car was sprayed by machine gun fire.

His death has plunged the city into mourning because he was an exemplary officer with an impeccable 20-year record who fulfilled his duties until his last breath, despite the dangers,” said Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz.

If that isn’t enough to stop you from spending time in Mexico on vacation (OKAY, you’re not a law enforcement officer, so you aren’t at the top of anyone’s hit list, but the chances are that you are an American), you have this…attacks on Mexican ranchers in which 17 people were murdered and the daughter of the rancher was kidnapped.

A prominent cattle rancher hid Monday from gunmen who killed two of his sons and kidnapped his daughter in weekend attacks that left 17 people dead in southern Mexico, relatives and authorities said.

Men with assault rifles forced victims into a line and sprayed them with bullets Sunday at Rogaciano Alba’s ranch in Petatlan, a town in southern Guerrero state, investigators said. Five people were killed and five others died at a hospital, State Attorney General Eduardo Murueta said Monday.

Will the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative to fight the drug violence be enough? I think not. Don’t fool yourself, this is not just an internal problem for Mexico.

As my “regular” readers know, I’ve been on the case of the emerging threat of Mexican violence from almost the beginning of this blog (the Mexican Tourist Board doesn’t like me). See additional stuff on this in Snooper’s post, War in Mexico.

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It is time that we wake up America!  The Rio Grande Valley along the Texas-Mexican border is a war zone…and it is going to be a battlezone for freedom if we are not careful. If the battles between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels aren’t enough to scare the crap out of you (along with the viciousness of the Gulf Cartels’ henchmen, Los Zetas), then examine more closely the gunning down of Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez. As the public face of the Mexican government’s war on drugs, his being killed on the doorstep of his apartment in Mexico City, no less, holds in it the risk that the cartels will be emboldened (see Washington Post article). We are witnessing the first real protracted battles of the War on Terrorism in our Hemisphere.

“This could have a snowball effect, even leading to the risk of ungovernability,” Luís Astorga, a Mexico City-based sociologist and drug expert, said in an interview. “It indicates terrible things, a level of weakness in our institutions — they can’t even protect themselves.”

Already, there have been more than 6000 deaths in this Drug War within the country that lies to the south of our porous border. Millán Gómez’s murder is not the first high level (and visibility) murder.

Before Millán Gómez was slain, assassins also killed Robert Velasco Bravo, the head of the federal police agency’s organized crime tactical analysis office, as well as two other top police officials, all of them in Mexico City. One of the killings was in Coyoacan, an old-money haven popular with tourists.

The message seems clear. The Drug Lords and their cartels reign supreme in Mexico. I don’t care about the Merida Initiative! It won’t work (IMO of course). Merida is the appropriation of funds for the U.S. to help Calderon quell the violence and stop the drug trade. Who the hell are we kidding? The problem is that the problem is going to become more difficult to stop.

The worst part of all of this is the International connections to the Mexican Drug War…the first battles on the War on Terrorism in the Western Hemisphere are being fought today in Mexico. In his post on the Counterterrorism Blog, Doug Farah connects the dots for those who cannot or do not already see (anyone who has a familiarity with counter-narcotics issues already knew this).

It is worth remembering that the chaos the traffickers are wreaking in Mexico is not just aimed at the Mexican state, it is also aimed at undermining the already-battered viability of our southern border. The hundreds of dead across the border states of Mexico show where the battles are being fought.

The easier it is to cross dope, weapons, illegal aliens from around the world, the higher the profits for the traffickers.

And the FARC rebels in Colombia are now in a direct business relationship with Mexican trafficking organizations, according to the recently-captured FARC documents resulting from the raid that killed rebel leader Raul Reyes.

The FARC, in turn, is allied with Nicaragua (Ortega) and Venezuela (Chavez), who in turn are allied with Iran, which in turn runs Hezbollah, which in turn is actively working to expand its beach head in Latin America.

Remember Monkey Point? StormBlog is one of the only places, I dare say, that discussed the Iranian foothold in South America. Its been quiet down there recently. No news, but its there!

In his own blog, Farah connects the dots for those who do not already see them!

It is not a conspiracy to see all these developments as inter-connected. As I often tell military audiences and others, every piece of the mosaic, looked at individually, is serious but not alarming. But when the tiles of the mosaic are assembled into a picture, even if the picture is a bit blurry, it is astonishing and dangerous.

Wake up America! The battles along our border are alot more important than keeping all of those Mexicans from swimming across the Rio Grande! or walking through the desert. We need to worry about the so-called, “Other Than Mexicans.” Our Southern Border with Mexico is indeed and battlezone. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the Battle of the Rio Grande will soon expand.

As my “regular readers know, I have been writing on the brewing invasion of the U.S. related to the war in Mexico for quite some time now. A different view can be found here. Also see a more recent view of this issue written by Snooper.

[I needs ta git me a "posse"]

counter narcotics, Edgar Eusebio Millan Gomez, FARC, Los Zetas, mexico drug cartels, Monkey Point, Washington Post Sphere: Related Content

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There you have it. “Proof” once again that the encroachment of religion into politics, diplomacy and foreign policy has to stop. According to one (and probably other) blogs, we will invade Iran (soon) because its the only way to achieve the end of days. My intention is not to offend any of my believing Christian friends, but, Poppycock!

The thing that Hagee does best (in my opinion of course) is to create a massive traffic jam every Sunday as his church lets out. As for attacking Iran, I wrote back in November 2007 (now six months) that the “Let’s Attack Iran” crowd was dreaming.

Attack Iran and we turn the Middle East to glass in a massive conflagration unseen to date and perhaps never seen again. End of days? Indeed.

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Aside from having been wrong (for a number of reasons revealed below), I was unwilling to believe that the U.S. would cave to the likes of CAIR and Muslim Public Affairs Committee and ban the use of “Islamic Fundamentalist Jihad” (and other variants) from the GWOT Thesauraus. In reality, however, the DHS, the State Dept. and others have mandated the elimination of words describing the callous and cowardly barbarous al Qaeda mujahadeen who appropriated Islam for their inhumanity, to quell the concern of moderate Muslims that using such language confused the true meaning of those terms as used in secular Islam.

Thanks to Steve Emerson’s IPT, the government documents detailing this change are offered here and here. Maybe even more to the point, the Muslim proponents of this change, also reject the use of the word “moderate” to describe themselves, and instead wish to be referred to as “mainstream” or “traditional.”

Various Muslim groups including the MPAC praised these changes.  But MPAC accepts, not isolates terrorists.  In fact, MPAC differentiates between such groups as Hezbollah and Hamas, and the more dastardly al Qaeda by saying that “Hezbollah and Hamas are distinct in methods, motivations and goals from Al Qaeda.” Hamas and Hezbollah work to the elimination of Israel. And their use of suicide attacks and other indiscriminant killing tools of terrorism are not unlike those used by al Qaeda.

Arab states question Washington’s list of designated pro-Palestinian groups and humanitarian organizations. It is clear that the current terrorist threat to the US emanates from Al-Qaeda and not Palestinian groups. There is no evidence that Palestinian groups designated as terrorist organizations have any connections to Al-Qaeda. Yet the preoccupation with these groups raises the question as to whether targeting Palestinian groups serves true national security interests or is based on political considerations.

Certainly expressed better than I by IPT, the issue is clear…in an effort to satisfy the still fearful and quiet “mainstream” or moderate Muslim community in the U.S., where Islam remains a minority, the U.S. agrees to blur the distinction between the politically correct, and the literally obvious. In quoting M. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, IPT raises the spectre that the suggested changes could diminish American understanding of the ideological motivations behind those who threaten our security…and also ignores that in Muslim majority nations the radicals call themselves Muslims, Islamists, and Jihadists in Arabic and every other language with little time spent admonishing society not to call them what they call themselves.

Of course, it is interesting that in Europe, we have such articles as Today’s Islamist radicalization in Spain. Just the subhead says it all: “The protecting the safety of Spanish citizens should override the fear of sacrificing human rights, writes Carlos Echeverría Jesús for Strategic Studies Group.”

The Spanish jail population with ties to Salafist jihadism continues to grow. Because of this, it is even more urgent to prevent radicalization among the relatives and friends of terrorists. With their friends and family imprisoned, it is likely they will feel victimized and attempt to carry on the terrorist work. It is necessary to assume that the Muslim population as a whole, especially its youth, will feel besieged or marginalized as a community by Christians. It is imperative that the public powers try to change this.

The establishment of the Salafist jihadist ideology or any other variety of radical Islamism must be prevented. The way to do so is to filter the access to these messages by both young and old.

It is also interesting that in this article from Bloomberg, Al-Qaeda’s Recruitment Efforts Intensify in Europe, the word “Islamist” is used to refer to the U.S. and coalition efforts in Afghanistan.

A further, direct quote from IPT’s dialog with Jasser:

Certainly pious loyal American Muslims will be frustrated with the inappropriate use of the name of Islam and ‘jihad’ in the militant causes by these radicals around the world. But that frustration should be directed toward frontal Muslim anti-Islamist and anti-militant causes and movements. Denying that considerable movements of radical Muslims exist around the world which exploit our religion and truly believe that their barbarism is ‘jihad’ will only empower them more and delay the inevitable conflict within our faith community over “whose Islam, which Islam”. For the USG to paternally dismiss the self-described nomenclature of ‘jihadists’ and “Islamists” is to in fact embark into a realm which really is an internal struggle within the consciousness of the Muslim community. We should call the terrorists what they call themselves. Once any Muslim, let alone non-Muslims, begins to determine who is and who is not qualified to define ‘jihad’, ‘Muslim’, or ‘Islam’ they are creating a clergy and a ‘church’ with a communication and excommunication process. That is exactly what the likes of Bin Laden and other radical Islamists want.

To parrot the phrase, yes, “words matter.” But in its fear to offend the “mainstream American Muslim” by using such words as “mujahadeen,” “jihadist,” “Islamic fundamentalist,” or simply, “Islamist,” the government removed a tool, words to describe, the very blight that bin Laden and al Qaeda has perpetrated on World society.

On Why I Denied
1- my unwillingness to believe such political correctness could win out
2- the rush to scoop inherent in the Internet and the quoting of an undisclosed “reliable source.”
3- the spreading like wildfire of Internet scoops that take on their own lives, even if/when proven false.
4- no excuse, but I’m very busy (busier than I could have ever imagined) and my tolerance for unsupported claims is thin.

I am not the USG, nor do I work for it. Thus, those who follow bin Laden and his offshoots are forever Islamic Fundamentalist Jihadis. How about towel-headed animals.

al Qaeda, CAIR, Islamist, jihadist, mujahadeen, Muslim Public Affairs Committee, words matter Sphere: Related Content

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Buried chemical weapons have been discovered…in Washington DC and in Hawaii.

A section northwest of DC, Spring Valley, is also the location of American University.  During the first World War, the area was known as the American University Experimental Station.  Here, at Camp Leach, we had an R&D facility for chemical weapons…this is where American University is today, and where in 1993, a utility contractor unearthed First World War munitions.  Additional checking found chemical munitions on the Korean ambassador property abutting American University.  The cleanup was scheduled to begin in the fall of 2007.

Additionally, arsenic-contaminated soil was also removed from an area on American University.  AU is among 145 arsenic sites that will cost $11 million and take until 2011 to clean-up.  Also found at AU was a bottle containing a small amount of Lewisite, a blister agent and one containing mustard gas.  OOOPS!

Also, the U.S. Army is cleaning up some discovered phosgene munitions in Hawaii.  More than 70  WWII projectiles were discovered on an old Stryker brigade training range. All except one were filled with phosgene, which was a main chemical warfare agent for the U.S. Army during the Second World War.

The projectiles included a mix of 38 each 155 mm projectiles; 22 each 75 mm projectiles; 11 each 4-inch Stokes mortars; and a good number of liquid-filled (not chemical agent) mortar and artillery projectiles. The Army has been setting this disposal process up carefully over the past year.

As I wrote, buried WMD have been found. Double OOOPS!!!

American University, buried WMD, Hawaii, Washington DC Sphere: Related Content

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There are many recent history conspiracy theories. Perhaps one of the most offensive is that surrounding the events 13 years ago this morning when Terry Nicols and Timothy McVeigh exploded a bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building (Yes, there are some people who continue to maintain that there was an Islamic connection, when it was an act of domestic terrorism.). A traffic stop just 90 minutes afterward led to the arrest of McVeigh.

The crime scene that morning covered a 20 sq. block area. However, a truck axle found 650 feet away from the building revealed a VIN and led to investigators learning that it belonged to a Ford truck that had been sold to Ryder truck rentals.

The Ford people were quick to tell us that the 1993 twenty-foot Ford truck had been sold to Ryder and it was a rental. Ryder? That immediately piqued our interest because Ryder was the same brand that had been used in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 in New York City. Did this mean that the perpetrators were Middle Eastern? This was a thought that certainly ran through our heads. As we all now know, the bombers weren’t Middle Eastern and the Ryder truck usage was merely coincidental, but at the time we figured that a connection could be a possibility.

Not too long after, FBI investigators traced the truck to “Elliott’s Auto Body, a rental agency in Junction City, Kansas, where a “Robert Kling” had rented it on April 17 a little after 4:00 PM.” Located just 244 miles, or a 4 hour drive from Oklahoma City…too close for comfort to be insignificant to the investigation. Interviews with the people at Elliott’s Auto Body quickly found the paperwork showing that the truck had been rented to “Robert Kling” who supposedly lived in Idaho. This phony address led to the conclusion that no Robert Kling existed (and in fact, not only not in Idaho, but anywhere in the 50 states). This led the FBI to send an artists to Junction City to do a composite sketch.

The result of the artist’s work was an image of what we called Unknown Subjects (Unsubs) in the FBI lexicon. In this case, there were two images, and with Unsub #1, or John Doe #1, the image was very close, as it would turn out, to that of the actual bomber, Timothy McVeigh. Unsub #1, the primary person, was the one who actually went to the rental counter and rented the truck. Eldon Elliott, the owner, later testified that he remembered Timothy McVeigh’s face because McVeigh, unlike most clients, had waived damage insurance on the vehicle.

(But a witness at the rental agency also remembered something else—McVeigh was accompanied by another man. As Simple Truths, the seminal book on the Oklahoma City bombing, describes it, the search for Unsub #2 would receive more public and media attention than anything else in the case.)

With the faces of the perpetrators, the FBI’s investigation was accelerated. At first they were surprised that neither suspect looked like a Middle Easterner (please now, eliminate the conspiracy theory from your minds)…they were white, make Americans. The next day, “John Doe #1″ and “John Doe #2″ were introduced to the American public. AG Reno also announced a $2 million reward leading to the arrest and conviction of the bombers.

What else went on during this time?

● There was talk of a possible third man, an Oklahoma resident named Abraham Ahmad, who had left Oklahoma on the day of the explosion. On his way to Amman, Jordan, he was stopped on a connecting leg of his trip in London for “acting nervous.”

● there was a spotlight on three Middle Eastern–looking men who had been arrested in Oklahoma and Texas…held on immigration charges after stopping an Oklahoma state trooper to ask directions on Wednesday (Later found to have nothing to do with this case.)

At that point, the FBI started to question motive for the bombing.

After basically rejecting the notion that the motive for the bombing was drug related (DEA employees were among those missing in the attack), they concluded a possible “connection to survivalist or extremist religious cults,” considering that the Oklahoma City bombing occurred exactly two years following the Branch Davidian stand-off in Waco (now in the news because people are drawing relationships between Waco and El Dordado where newly pubescent teen girls were being impregnated in the name of a polygamist “religion”). Perhaps not coincidently, on the same day as the Oklahoma bombing, “a member of another right-wing extremist group, the Order, was executed in Arkansas for the murder of a pawnshop owner whom he thought was Jewish.”

The real break in the case came when the manager of the Dreamland Motel recognized the man federal agents had only known as Robert Kling, as “Tim McVeigh.” A bit more digging determined that in a routine traffic stop, an Oklahoma State Trooper has queried the name, Timothy McVeigh that very same day, April 19th, seventy-five miles from the bombing site when, about an hour and a half after the explosion. The car didn’t have a license plate.

The driver, Timothy McVeigh, explained he’d just bought the car and that’s why he didn’t have the plate. When Hanger asked if he had insurance or registration, he said that because the car was newly purchased—although he didn’t have any kind of receipt—all the documentation was being sent to his new address.

As he gave Trooper Hanger his driver’s license, the officer saw that he did happen to be carrying something: a gun. The traffic violator was sporting a Glock semiautomatic pistol on a shoulder holster. He also had ith him an ammo clip and a knife.

Time for jail, Mr. McVeigh. He was escorted into Hanger’s patrol car, after being ordered to leave his locked car by the side of the road. So, there it was—a nearly undisturbed crime scene. It was sort of like one of the Egyptian tombs. We caught quite a lucky break.

It was also quickly learned that McVeigh’s NY State concealed weapon permit was not legal in Oklahoma…he was put in jail.

Note that the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism has an extensive data base of information relating to the Oklahoma City bombing. One element is a feature called “Today in Terrorism” the results for today are shown below:

April 19, 2000 - Philippines: Abu Sayyaf beheads 2 hostages because demands ignored, including release of Arab terrorists in US jails. See 3/20.

April 19, 1995 - United States: An explosion at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City killed 168 people and injured hundreds of others.

April 19, 1995 - Japan: Over 400 injured during chemical attack on the Yokohama subway, Aum Shinrikyo responsible.

April 19, 1980 - Colombia: Founding of M-19. The “April 19 Movement (M-19),” formerly a leftist guerrilla group, has made peace with the government and become a legitimate political party.

There is one other thing. For those who may wonder my identity or why I am interested in terrorism, a minor clue is that this event, the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, is in fact, the moment when I began my new life. See discussion of federal building security here and here.

Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Branch Davidian, El Dorado, Terry Nicols, Timothy McVeigh, Waco Sphere: Related Content

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