BY KIMBERLY DOZIER

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is stepping up aid for Mexico’s bloody drug war with a new U.S.-based special operations headquarters to teach Mexican security forces how to hunt drug cartels the same way special operations teams hunt al-Qaida, according to documents and interviews with multiple U.S. officials.

Such assistance could help newly elected Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto establish a military force to focus on drug criminal networks that have terrorized Mexico’s northern states and threatened the U.S. Southwest border. Mexican officials say warring drug gangs have killed at least 70,000 people between 2006 and 2012.

Based at the U.S. Northern Command in Colorado, Special Operations Command-North will build on a commando program that has brought Mexican military, intelligence and law enforcement officials to study U.S. counterterrorist operations, to show them how special operations troops built an interagency network to target al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden and his followers.

The special ... Read More

BY KEN ELLINGWOOD

A tantalizing question is spicing up talk shows and opinion columns as Mexican voters prepare to elect a new president: Will the government spring a “June surprise” by finally nabbing Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman?

Guzman, you might recall, is the world’s most wanted drug suspect — on the lam since escaping a Mexican federal prison in a laundry cart in 2001. He allegedly sits atop a vast crime network reaching into the United States and across much of the globe, and is ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the world’s richest men.

In other words, Guzman would be a sweet trophy for President Felipe Calderon, who could use a big score before voters head to the polls July 1.

Calderon’s conservative National Action Party, or PAN, and its presidential candidate, Josefina Vazquez Mota, trail in the polls, even though formal campaigning hasn’t begun yet. Far ahead is Enrique Peña Nieto, ... Read More

BY KATHERINE CORCORAN

MEXICO CITY — Much like the late Osama bin Laden, the man the U.S. calls the world’s most powerful drug lord apparently has been hiding in plain sight.

Mexican federal police nearly nabbed Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in a coastal mansion in Los Cabos three weeks ago, barely a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with dozens of other foreign ministers in the same southern Baja peninsula resort town.

Jose Cuitlahuac Salinas, Mexico’s assistant attorney general in charge of organized crime investigations, confirmed on Sunday that there was a near miss in late February in the government’s efforts to arrest the man who has become one of the world’s top fugitives since he escaped prison in a laundry truck in 2001.

“We know he was there,” Salinas told The Associated Press.

The incident fuels growing speculation that authorities are closing in on Guzman, and that the government of President ... Read More

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on Monday defended the U.S. and Mexican war against drugs and drug cartels, stressing that her country would continue to assist Latin American nations in combating production of narcotics and drug trafficking.

Napolitano, who is currently on a five-day tour of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama, insisted during a joint press conference with Mexican Interior Minister Alejandro Poire that the ongoing U.S.-Mexico war against drugs was not a failure by any means.

Instead, Napolitano noted that the war against drugs undertaken jointly the U.S. and Mexican governments was part of “a continuing effort to keep our peoples from becoming addicted to dangerous drugs.”

Asked whether her department considered Mexico to be a safe destination for Americans despite escalation of drug-related violence in that country, Napolitano said: “I think Americans come and go freely to Mexico all the time and I expect that to ... Read More

Aspectos destacados del testimonio del Embajador Roger Noriega ante el Comité de Relaciones Exteriores del Senado, Subcomité para el Hemisferio Occidental, Cuerpos de Paz, y Narcóticos

Febrero 16 del año 2012

El director de Inteligencia Nacional, James R. Clapper, declaró a principios de este mes que “las autoridades iraníes” de más alto nivel “están ahora más dispuestas a realizar un ataque en Estados Unidos ….” El general Clapper también informó que el líder supremo de Irán, Ali Jamenei, probablemente estaba enterado de las acciones descubiertas en octubre donde supuestos líderes de cárteles de la droga mexicanos conspiraron con Irán para perpetrar un supuesto atentado terrorista en el corazón de la capital de nuestra nación.

Basándonos en decenas de entrevistas con expertos de todo el mundo, con testigos en la región y en una gran cantidad de documentos oficiales venezolanos e iraníes se hacen las siguientes conclusiones:

TESTIMONY OF AMBASSADOR ROGER F. NORIEGA

BEFORE THE UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE,PEACE CORPS, AND GLOBAL NARCOTICS AFFAIRS

HEARING ON

“IRAN’S INFLUENCE AND ACTIVITY IN LATIN AMERICA”

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Room 419, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC

Mr. Chairman, I applaud you and other members of the Subcommittee forinitiating a review of Iran’s activities in Latin America.

Since you announced your inquiry, the Director of National Intelligence, James R.Clapper, testified earlier this month that “Iranian officials” at the highest levels “are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States….” General Clapper also reported that Iran’s so-called “supreme leader” Ali Khamenei was probably aware of the bizarre plot discovered last October to conspire with supposed Mexican drug cartel leaders to commit a terrorist bombing in the heart of our Nation’s capital.i Only because ... Read More

BY DOUGLAS BIRCH

WASHINGTON — Moammar Gadhafi now joins the ranks of powerful foreign figures who have battled the United States only to come to a bad end.

But even with the demise of the Libyan dictator, plus Osama bin Laden, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic, there are still autocrats around the world hostile to the U.S., notably in Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea and Iran.

America’s most determined foes have been bucking more than just the world’s sole surviving superpower, which spends as much on its military as all other countries combined. All faced social and technological trends that made their work more difficult by opening more borders to trade and travel, promoting ethnic and religious tolerance and wiring the world for high-speed Internet.

But as long as the U.S. maintains its leadership role in world affairs, it will find itself a tempting target. Among the despots and autocratic regimes hostile to ... Read More

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, there was a chance that the world’s last remaining superpower and other nations could begin to relate to each other with a new sense of empathy.  Unfortunately, the attacks of 9/11 showed that although the United States does not necessarily stand alone, it does stand apart.

The terrible events of 9/11 reminded my countrymen that the United States is a country that enemies will find, whether we go looking for them or not.  Extremists in dozens of countries are not waking up every morning to plot attacks on Argentina, Barbados, or Colombia.  The United States remains the ultimate target of nihilist extremists who distort religion as a justification for murdering innocent men and women.  We can try to behave as if that were not the case, but that sort of self-delusion could put the lives of innocent U.S. citizens at risk.

I recall watching the ... Read More

Después de la caída del Muro de Berlín, había una oportunidad para que las superpotencias y otras naciones comenzaran a relacionarse entre sí con un nuevo sentido de empatía. Infortunadamente, los ataques del 11-S mostraron que aunque Estados Unidos no necesariamente se quedó solo, sí se quedó aparte.

Los terribles eventos del 11-S les recordaron a mis compatriotas que Estados Unidos es un país que los enemigos sabrían encontrar, ya sea que vayamos a buscarlos o no. Extremistas de docenas de países no se despiertan cada mañana para maquinar planes en Argentina, Barbados o Colombia. Estados Unidos sigue siendo el máximo blanco de extremistas nihilistas, que distorsionan la religión como una justificación para asesinar a mujeres y hombres inocentes. Podemos tratar de comportarnos como si ese no fuera el caso, pero esa clase de autoengaño puede poner en riesgo la vida de inocentes ciudadanos de EE. UU.

Recuerdo ver los ataques del ... Read More

Twice in recent weeks, the influential Brazilian newsmagazine Veja has published explosive articles revealing the extent to which radical Islamists move freely in South America raising money and recruiting young Latin Americans for training and indoctrination in Iran.

The magazine cites Brazilian intelligence documents asserting that operatives from Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, and Egypt’s al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya use or have used Brazilian territory “as a hideout, logistics center, fundraising source, and planning center for terrorist attacks.”

The so-called Tri-Border region of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, home to some 12,000 Muslims, is well-known to U.S. authorities as a hub for smuggling and Hamas and Hezbollah fundraising. (Osama Bin Laden and top lieutenant Khalid Shaikh Mohammed reportedly traveled there in 1995.) But the Veja reports reveal that the problem is far more extensive and dangerous than what has been made public.

Identified as Iran’s point man in the region is Mohsen Rabbani, who is wanted by Interpol for his involvement in ... Read More

The arrest of an alleged cousin of Osama bin Laden, accused of running a human trafficking ring in Ecuador, is another sign of how lax visa policies have fed the growth of such smuggling networks.

Besides claims in Ecuadorian and Colombian media, there is little evidence that Eritrean national Yaee Dawit Tadese, alias “Jack Flora,” is indeed part of the extended bin Laden family.

Tadese was reportedly arrested March 10 during a raid in Quito, in a joint operation by Ecuadorian police and Colombia’s elite anti-kidnapping squad, known as GAULA.

According to Guayaquil-based newspaper El Universal, the arrest of Tadese and 66 other nationals from Asia, Africa and the Middle East was part of an investigation into a human smuggling ring. Tadese was reportedly deported to the U.S. on March 12, as he was wanted by Interpol on terrorism, drug and human trafficking charges.

Colombian police told El Tiempo that Tadese managed a network ... Read More

Bin Laden’s death makes headlines throughout Latin America. Peru’s president calls it Pope John Paul’s first miracle.

BOGOTA, Colombia — Latin America hailed the announcement of Osama bin Laden’s death even as some media outlets criticized the United States’ invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in its pursuit of the terrorist leader.

In Peru, President Alan García said bin Laden’s death might have been the first miracle performed by the newly beatified Pope John Paul II.

“This is great news not just for Obama but it also vindicates George W. Bush who was the one who took the decision to punish bin Laden,” he said.

In Colombia, one of the United States’ staunchest allies in the region, President Juan Manuel Santos, issued a statement calling bin Laden’s death “an important and powerful blow against global terrorism.”

The news made headlines throughout Latin America, as the region was recovering from Labor Day rallies and marches.

Most of the ... Read More

In Brazil, a soccer match was bigger news than Osama bin Laden’s death.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Reaction across Latin America to the news that U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden was generally subdued and congratulatory — except in Venezuela.

Speaking on state television, Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua criticized the United States’ jubilant reaction to bin Laden’s death. “It never ceases to surprise how crime and murder have become normal and are celebrated,” Jaua was quoted as saying in the Venezuelan paper, El Nacional.

Jaua also made reference to recent NATO airstrikes that killed the son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. “Now the death of any individual,” Jaua said, “not only those outside the law like Osama bin Laden, but also presidents, families of presidents, are openly celebrated by the heads of the governments that bomb them.”

In Brazil, bin Laden’s death received comprehensive coverage on television and in print, yet the ... Read More