The Latest from National Terror
Alert Response Center

Taliban Islamists Nearing Pakistani Nukes

Posted: 07 May 2009 12:04 AM PDT

Israel and the US should be focusing more on the Taliban’s rise in nuclear

Pakistan than on Iran’s nuclear aims, more and more experts are saying.

“Pakistan must move to the top of our strategic agenda,” writes
former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton. Similarly, “Nuclear

Taliban/Al Qaida is a far more ominous threat than nuclear Iran

could ever be,” writes Byron Ellis, who heads the international Jethro

Project consulting company.

Bolton, writing in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, warns that the U.S.

must take “hard steps” to prevent Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal from falling into
the hands of Taliban. U.S. President Barack Obama’s statement of confidence

last week that the nuclear arsenal will not fall to the terrorists is “not

reassuring,” Bolton writes, “in light of the Taliban’s military

and political gains throughout Pakistan.”

There is a “tangible risk that several weapons could slip out of military

control,” Bolton warns. “Such weapons could then find their way to Al Qaeda

or other terrorists, with obvious global implications.”

Even graver is the possibility that Pakistan’s government could collapse

entirely, enabling “a well-organized, tightly disciplined group to seize
control of the entire Pakistani government.”

“To prevent either scenario, Pakistan must move to the top of our

strategic agenda, albeit closely related to Afghanistan,” he wrote.

“Neither greater economic assistance, nor more civilian advisers

upcountry, nor stronger democratic institutions will eliminate the

strategic threat nearly soon enough… We must strengthen pro-

American elements in Pakistan’s military so they can purge dangerous

Islamicists from their ranks; roll back Taliban advances; and,

together with our increased efforts in Afghanistan, decisively
defeat the militants on either side of the border.”

Source

This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert.

National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and
information.

Share this post

Sinaloa Cartel Threatens Use Of Deadly Force in U.S.

Posted: 06 May 2009 04:50 PM PDT

The reputed head of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel is threatening a more

aggressive stance against competitors and law enforcement north of the

border, instructing associates to use deadly force, if needed, to protect

increasingly contested trafficking operations, authorities said.

Such a move by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Mexico’s most-wanted
fugitive, would mark a turn from the cartel’s previous position of largely

avoiding violent confrontations in the U.S. — either with law enforcement

officers or rival traffickers.

Police and federal agents in Arizona said they had recently received at

least two law enforcement alerts focused on Guzman’s reported orders

that his smugglers should “use their weapons to defend their loads at all costs.”

Guzman is thought to have delivered the message personally in early March,

during a three-day gathering of his associates in Sonoita, a Mexican
town a few miles south of the Arizona border, according to confidential U.S.

intelligence bulletins sent to several state and federal law enforcement

officials, who discussed them on the condition of anonymity.

The Sonoita meeting is considered one of several signs that Guzman is

becoming more brazen even in the face of a Mexican government

crackdown on his activities and continued turf rivalries with other

traffickers.

Information from informants, wiretaps and other sources have prompted a

flurry of warnings to authorities in U.S. border states, instructing them to

use extreme caution when confronting people suspected of smuggling drugs

and illegal immigrants from Mexico or ferrying weapons and cash south from

the United States, officials familiar with those warnings said.

Some U.S. intelligence officials suggested Guzman was on the defensive

because of enforcement efforts on both sides of the border and because he
can no longer afford to ditch valuable cargoes when challenged by rivals or
authorities.

Read Full Article

This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert.

National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and
information.

Share this post