{"id":14201,"date":"2012-11-20T09:56:17","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T16:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14201"},"modified":"2012-11-20T10:06:14","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T17:06:14","slug":"mexico-rejects-absurd-house-gop-report-alleging-iran-hezbollah-ties-to-mexican-drug-cartels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14201","title":{"rendered":"Mexico rejects absurd House GOP report alleging Iran, Hezbollah ties to Mexican drug cartels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mexico disputes House GOP report alleging Iran, Hezbollah are using Mexican drug cartels<\/strong>
\n20 November, 2012 – The Daily Caller – Matthew Boyle<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Mexico\u2019s ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukh\u00e1n, told The Daily Caller his country\u2019s government disputes a recent House GOP report alleging that Iranian and Hezbollah terror operatives are using Mexican drug cartels as a conduit to infiltrate the United States.<\/p>\n

Last week, the House Homeland Security Committee Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Management released a report titled \u201cA Line in the Sand: Countering Crime, Violence and Terror at the Southwest Border.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report found that the \u201cSouthwest border has now become the greatest threat of terrorist infiltration into the United States.\u201d It specifically cited a \u201cgrowing influence\u201d from Iranian and Hezbollah terror forces in Latin America.<\/p>\n

The Mexican government disagreed with that assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government of Mexico, as it has done in the past, reiterates that no such relationship or presence exists,\u201d Ricardo Alday, a spokesman for Mexico\u2019s ambassador to the United States, wrote in a letter to The DC.<\/p>\n

Alday pointed to the U.S. State Department\u2019s Country Reports on Terrorism to support Mexico\u2019s argument. \u201c[I]n each and every one of its Country Reports on Terrorism, the US Department of State has unmistakably established that there is no such relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alday quoted the latest such State Department report, issued on July 31 of this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo known international terrorist organization had an operational presence in Mexico and no terrorist group targeted U.S. citizens in or from Mexican territory,\u201d the State Department report reads. \u201cThere was no evidence of ties between Mexican criminal organizations and terrorist groups, nor that the criminal organizations had political or territorial control, aside from seeking to protect and expand the impunity with which they conduct their criminal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the House subcommittee, chaired by Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, did not immediately respond to a request for comment in response to the ambassador\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n

But the 50-page congressional report did contain what the House Republicans who prepared it contend is evidence that terror organizations are using Mexico\u2019s drug cartels as a front.<\/p>\n

In October 2011, Iran apparently tried to exploit its ties to the drug cartels to conduct its eventually foiled assassination attempt on the Saudi ambassador to the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to a federal arrest complaint filed in New York City, the [Iranian] Qods Force attempted to hire a drug cartel (identified by other sources as the Los Zetas) to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir for a fee of $1.5 million,\u201d the report reads. \u201cThe terror attack was to take place at a popular restaurant in Washington, D.C. without regard to collateral deaths or damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Qods Force made this solicitation because it knows drug traffickers are willing to undertake such criminal activity in exchange for money,\u201d the report continues. \u201cMoreover, if this terror attack had been successful, the Qods Force intended to use the Los Zetas for other attacks in the future. Had it not been for a [Drug Enforcement Agency] DEA informant posing as the Los Zetas operative, this attack could have very well taken place.\u201d …source<\/a><\/p>\n

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Mexico disputes House GOP report alleging Iran, Hezbollah are using Mexican drug cartels 20 November, 2012 – The Daily Caller – Matthew Boyle A spokesman for Mexico\u2019s ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukh\u00e1n, told The Daily Caller his country\u2019s government disputes a recent House GOP report alleging that Iranian and Hezbollah terror operatives are more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[3721],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14201"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14206,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14201\/revisions\/14206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}