Clinton: Latin American drug cartels’ links to Iran, Hezbollah a concern
March 3rd 2012 · 23 Comments
When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced her concerns on Wednesday over intelligence reports that Latin American drug cartels are closely linked with Hezbollah and Iran, many within the U.S. law enforcement community were grateful that Obama Administration officials were finally acknowledging what cops already knew.
Secretary Clinton is concerned over reports of Iranian intelligence officers and Hezbollah officials cozying up with Latin American leaders. Credit: DoS File Photo
“We are concerned about the activities of Iran and Hezbollah in the Western Hemisphere,” the top U.S. envoy told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at a hearing.
Washington recognizes Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group in Lebanon, as a terrorist organization, while Iran’s disputed nuclear program is resulted in sanctions by Washington and its allies.
“We continue to monitor the situation closely. We are aware of and concerned about allegations that some Latin American drug trafficking organizations are linked with Hezbollah and Iran,” Clinton said, vowing to take “appropriate action” to counter any threat that may arise.
Acknowledging that Washington has not found information to verify “a lot of the allegations,” Clinton drew attention to Iran’ s attempted assassination of the Saudi ambassador to the United States, a case unveiled by U.S. authorities in October 2011, calling it “a very large question mark and wake up call.”
“We are continuing to look for direct links and we are engaged very extensively with our partners in the hemisphere, both to educate them about the dangers posed by Iran and Hezbollah and also to work with them to heighten our intelligence sharing,” she said.
“While many of us in law enforcement applaud Secretary Clinton, we’re still wondering what [President Barack] Obama and Attorney General [Eric] Holder are planning to do. They appear too busy – having guns smuggled into Mexico and harassing law enforcement officers for trying to protect Americans — to come up with a plan to thwart narco-terrorist coalitions on our own doorstep,” said former police detective and military intelligence officer Michael Snopes.
This was not the first time U.S. lawmakers from both parties were warned about Latin America’s vulnerability to radical Islam. In 2007, the Bush Administration’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Peter Pace, warned members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that elements of radical Islamic groups were active in South America recruiting and training terrorists.
U.S. intelligence officials in the past have told the Law Enforcement Examinerthat an alliance exists between Mexican and Colombian drug gangs as Islamic terror groups. Iranian military and intelligence members are said to be in Latin American countries such as Venezuela. In addition, terrorist groups – such as the Iranian backed Hezbollah – are being harbored in Central/South American nations.
A version of this column originally appeared in island-adv.com.
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Tags: Administration Officials, American, Barack Obama, Clinton, concern, Drug Cartels, enforcement, Eric Holder, General, Hezbollah, Hillary Clinton, Holder, House Committee, intelligence, Intelligence Officers, Intelligence Reports, Iran, Iranian Intelligence, Latin American, Latin American Leaders, law, Law Enforcement, Law Enforcement Examiner, Marine, pace, Photo Caption, Saudi Ambassador, Secretary, Terrorism, terrorist, Terrorist Organization, Washington, Western Hemisphere
By Jim Kouri
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Hope they are watching the situation!
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She should know.
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Appropriate action…that’ll be the day!
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she’s just figuring this out?
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she is pure evil–she helped kill vince foster and the bitch never severed! she called secet service-trained apes—and she is pure evil!–so happy her daughter was fired! but bill mad 66 million in books and speechs-sad to hear he still has secret service protection-wish q crazy man might off him!
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another dumb ass bitch
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I feel so much better now.
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So what is the administration going to do about? Yea don’t stop them from coming across the borders and by all means don’t guard our borders. Obummer I think this is back firing on you or it could be planned. We Americans don’t no because you don’t want us to know!
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We are over run with mexiacans and they have ruined the look,feel and The American Way of our whole city ! Every store,sign and package is now in mexican “wake up people” !!
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Da
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bull crap… “appropriate action” ? that’s the DEM’s new “spin” for this election year… action should have been taken long ago. Nothing but lies come from this admin.’s mouths. True it is happening… total bullshit that you have any intention of doing ANYTHING AT ALL !!!
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SO WHY DON’T YOU DEMYGODS LET THE BOARDERS GET SHUT AND ALL VISA’S STOPPED TILL THIS MESS IS FIGURED OUT! BECAUSE YOU ARE BIGOTS AND RACISTS AGAINST AMERCIANS
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I am no fan of Hillary, but she obviously has a better grip on reality the President. However, the question remains. What the hell are you clowns going to do about it?
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I think the ties to Iran are just another fairy tale to give them more incentive to bonb Iran. The cartels are in Latin America and don’tneed any ties anywhere.
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I think the ties to Iran are just another fairy tale to give them more incentive to bonb Iran. The cartels are in Latin America and don’tneed any ties anywhere.
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I think the ties to Iran are just another fairy tale to give them more incentive to bonb Iran. The cartels are in Latin America and don’tneed any ties anywhere.
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I think the ties to Iran are just another fairy tale to give them more incentive to bonb Iran. The cartels are in Latin America and don’tneed any ties anywhere.
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They are all goofy! who didn’t know this. Close the borders now! put our troops on the borders…..pull em out of Afghanistan and use them on our borders. BRING EM HOME!!
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This woman is in way over her head
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YES, YOU JUST KEEP LOOKING TILL THE NEXT 9-11 HITS YOU IN THE FACE STUPID
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WOW, they finally figured out what everyone else knew was going on. That’s real “intelligence” in government.
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Makes sense to me, they’re all drug dealers. Afghans make their money from Poppies wherein Opium and Heroin are derived from, and Mexican cartels specialize in marijuana, coke, crack and meth. “Birds of a feather, flock together”…!!!
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No shit”’now maybe some of the liberal’s will open their eye’s NOT”””””””
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