Secure our borders! Yesterday!
In this morning’s Washington Times, Sara Carter (quickly becoming one of my favorite reporters over there) writes that “US Foes target Latin America”
Iran, Cuba and Venezuela are working together against the U.S. by undermining democracy in Latin America, allowing trafficking of illegal drugs and creating safe havens for extremist groups, intelligence officials said.
Testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday, National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell said that influence from the three countries — led respectively by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez — has spilled into Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador, which “are pursuing agendas that undercut checks and balances” of democratic governments.
She goes on to write;
“We’ve known for some time that Islamic extremists groups were gaining momentum and exploiting the region,” said one U.S. federal law-enforcement official, on the condition of anonymity, who worked drug operations in Central America. “Iran is no exception — now with Cuba and Venezuela, the door is open.”
Web sites advocating Hezbollah and other Islamic extremist groups in Central America are used to recruit members and espouse extremist ideology.
On one Web page — now removed from the Internet — “Hezbollah Latin America” displayed photographs of members, with their faces covered and weapons raised. The Web site contained links to Hezbollah group members in Venezuela, El Salvador, Argentina and as north as Chiapas, Mexico.
Regular readers of this blog will remember the link to Jungle Mom that I’ve posted several times over the past several months referring to Hezbollah influence among the indigenous people of Venezuela’s interior after Chavez forced Christian missionaries out of the country.
Unless we build the wall and start enforcing border securing, these Latins influenced by terrorist organizations will have the ability to blend into our own population and strike without a bit of hinderance.
If that’s not terrifying enough for you, try this;
In 2005, Venezuela became a major transient route for South American — predominantly Colombian — cocaine destined for the U.S. market and it continues to grow, U.S. intelligence officials said.
Mr. Chavez’s lack of counterdrug cooperation “undermines efforts by other countries, particularly Colombia, by giving traffickers access to alternative routes and transit points Chavez is likely to remain unengaged on the counternarcotics front unless the drug trade is perceived to damage his international image or threaten his political longevity,” Mr. McConnell said.”Military cooperation between Tehran and Caracas is growing,” Mr. McConnell testified. “There are growing signs of anxiety among Venezuela’s neighbors about this military buildup.”
Coca-chewing Chavez and crackhead Ahmadinjad supplying our own drug addicts with druga and using the money against us (where are all of those Libertarians who say that drug use is a personal preference and don’t harm society).
But any war against drugs must be prefaced with secure borders. It’ll be up to the next president since this one has been a bit out-to-lunch on that one. And it’ll take a sturdily-spined Congress to force the next Administration to do what needs to be done.
As it stands now, the only people willing to stand up to Chavez and his cronies seems to be Exxon-Mobil.
Category: Foreign Policy, Hugo Chavez, Illegal Immigrants, Politics, Society, Terror War
Good piece, first of all. However, I think the primary responsibility for insecurity and lack of stability throughout Latin America is in large part due our American disregard for the region ever since hanging Colonel Ollie North out to dry. We’ve known about the problems and issues for years and ignored them. We could have won the war on drugs in the USA long ago if crooked politicians and special interests (such as prison corporations) didn’t have a vested interest in keeping the drugs flowing. You think commercialized prisons are going to help solve criminal problems or create them? Name me a single market that thinks it will get ahead by eliminating its customer base rather than trying to grab a larger market share (of society in the prison system’s case). The tri-border area of Paraguay has long been a haven for Hezbollah and narco-terrorists…again, all things we’ve known about and ignored while focusing on the Middle East for the past two decades. I am a former Republican who has many Libertarian beliefs, yet I am a hawk’s hawk and would love to see drug dealers swinging from ropes in trees around the country. Not all Libertarians think it is in the best interest of society to have everyone hooked on crack. Personally, it seems to me more Republicans and Democrats are OK with that notion—it is their two parties after all that keep America polarized and at each others throats so that the people will not hold leaders, policies, and government inefficiency accountable. Recall that it was the Bush administration that just recently ignored efforts by the people of Venezuela (and by military leaders of the country) to oust Chavez. Bush and his administration WANT a bogeyman in the brush. When the American public tires of fighting in the sand, we’ll need somewhere else to focus. As a vet, I’m all for kicking ass and taking names when it comes to our enemies. But China has been supplying weapons and training to South American nations while the Bush administration sits on its ass and does nothing. Republicans aren’t any… Read more »
Good, thoughtful post, Sean. I hope I’ll see more. The only real thing I’d differ with you about is that you confuse Republican voters with Republicans in Congress. It was the Republican voters that shut down the amnesty bill a few months back while Republicans in Congress were mostly ready to cave to it.