[CitizensTruth] Report of US trained forces aiding Mexican cartels

[Walterb306 at cs.com]

All,


Government of criminals, by criminals, for criminals,

See article below.

Beverley

May 14, 2008, 11:46PM
U.S.-trained forces reportedly helping Mexican cartels
By STEWART M. POWELL
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/5780470.html#

WASHINGTON — As many as 200 U.S.-trained Mexican security personnel have 
defected to drug cartels to carry out killings on both sides of the border and as 
far north as Dallas, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, told Congress on Wednesday.

The renegade members of Mexico's elite counter-narcotics teams trained at 
Fort Benning, Ga., have switched sides, contributing to a wave of violence that 
has claimed some 6,000 victims over the past 30 months, including prominent law 
enforcement leaders, the Houston-area Republican told the House Foreign 
Affairs Committee.

The slaughter has gained urgency amid high-profile assassinations of law 
officers in Mexico since May 1, claiming six senior officers, five of them with 
the federal police.
Poe held aloft a dramatic, poster-board-size photograph that he said showed 
guerrilla-style commandos crossing into the United States.

He said the Department of Homeland Security had documented "over 250 
incursions by suspected military forces" into the United States over the past decade.

"I was surprised to hear that the United States has trained Mexican forces 
and some of those have deserted and become the reason for these attacks," Poe 
said.

Officers 'switched sides'

The U.S.-trained Mexican security personnel have "switched sides and became 
assassins and recruiters for the Mexican drug cartels."

Poe, a former prosecutor and criminal court judge, issued the allegations in 
an unsuccessful effort to persuade the House Foreign Affairs Committee to 
revamp President Bush's Merida Initiative.

Bush's blueprint calls for $1.4 billion in training, equipment and law 
enforcement assistance to Mexico and Central America over three years.

Bush also is seeking $500 million in emergency assistance for Mexico this 
year as part of the supplemental war spending measure.

Democrats have included only $400 million of Bush's request in the $161 
billion war spending measure.

Poe tried to require the Bush administration to evenly split spending between 
the United States and Mexico rather than sending the entire amount south of 
the border.

"It seems as though the United States has a history in some cases of giving 
support (to Mexico) and that support turns around and is used against the very 
people we're trying to protect, in this case, us," Poe said. "We have no 
assurance that the equipment we're sending to Mexico won't be turned over to the 
drug cartels and used against us."

Panel backs original plan

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, also tried to persuade the 
Democratic-controlled panel to shift part of the Mexico-bound spending to the United States to 
bolster law enforcement efforts on the border. 

McCaul, a former federal prosecutor who specialized in counter-terrorism, 
called border drug violence "an imminent security threat right on our doorstep" 
that deserves the same effort as the war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 50-member panel, led by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., largely endorsed 
the Bush administration's version of the proposal, expanding assistance beyond 
Mexico and Central America to include the Caribbean nations of Haiti and the 
Dominican Republic.
Berman referred Poe's and McCaul's proposed changes to the House Judiciary 
Committee, saying their plans for greater spending by U.S. law enforcement along 
the border fell within that panel's jurisdiction.

stewart.powell at chron.com

    
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