Iran Setting Up Shop South of the Border
“Our diplomats listened. We welcomed it and we’ll take it from there, same as Obama,” the diplomat said. “I think the Obama administration made it very clear that they would not push other countries the way the Bush administration used to.” And anyway, the diplomat said, “We won’t respond to public pressure on that score.”
So does that mean the Mexicans see a bit of a green light from the north?
To find out, I approached Hillary Clinton’s U.S. State Department, figuring that almost certainly reservations had been expressed to the Mexicans. Instead, I was surprised to learn that the Iranian proposal of three weeks earlier hadn’t even registered.
I got Andy Lane, a State Department spokesman based in Washington, D.C., on the horn.
“To be honest,” Lane told me, “this is the first I’m hearing of it.”
He promised to Google for the information, go check the government’s official position, and get back to me.
While waiting, I called another State Department official whom I knew was closely involved in bilateral diplomacy and the upcoming delegation visits to Mexico. That official was equally perplexed by the news of Iran’s Mexico idea float, saying, “This is the first I’ve probably ever heard about this, and to tell you the truth it’s probably something that’s not going to come up (during the official U.S. visits) — unless it’s somehow forced onto the agenda.”
Alas, Lane called me back with the first official American response on the matter. He read this to me from a prepared statement: “Many countries in the hemisphere have relations with Iran and it is their sovereign right to pursue relations with any country that they choose.”
So at least officially, the Obama administration seems to be flashing a green light to Mexicans who think they see a green light. You heard it here first.
To be sure, not everyone is of one mind about whether there’s danger in Iran setting up this close to the U.S. border. Informed experts like Gary Sick, a Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs professor, told me Iran is merely breaking its UN-imposed isolation as any persecuted country would, by reaching out to oil-producing or oil-consuming nations in Africa, India, China, and quite naturally Latin America.
“The outreach to Mexico doesn’t strike me as dramatically different from many of the things they’ve been doing,” Sick said. “It’s obviously in their interest to have relations with other oil producers. I don’t see this as being a lot more than that.”
I asked: but what about Iran’s history of staging terror attacks like those against Argentina in the early 1990s, the state sponsor of terror designation, the international kidnappings, fielding Hezbollah, and, more recently, orchestrating anti-coalition military operations in Iraq using embassies as cover?
Sick said he saw only economic interest, not any kind of terrorist threat to the U.S., in Iran’s expanding system of Latin American outposts.
“Among all the problems facing the U.S., I’d put that one as close to the bottom as you could get. The Iranians have so little capability,” he said.
But other well-informed people with long, detailed knowledge about Iran’s record of mischief abroad don’t see it that way — at all.
Oliver “Buck” Revell served as associate deputy director in charge of all FBI counterintelligence and international affairs. As someone who has overseen his share of covert ops against the Iranians, Revell told me he doubted his old nemesis would ever be so audacious as to mount a direct attack from Mexico — unless Israel attacks Iran by way of American airspace over Iraq or with some other perceived U.S. support.
But, he told me, the Iranians could certainly use a Mexico base to support one elsewhere in the vicinity. From Mexico, Iranian mischief makers could tap into a fount of narcotics trafficking, black market money, and general lawlessness to build a counterespionage capability, just as possible as in staunchly U.S.-hating countries like Venezuela.
“They could create back channels and cells, get more capability, more contacts, and more resources. There are many, many opportunities if they get a foothold in Mexico that could be harmful to both Mexico and the U.S., and I think we’d have to take a very vigorous intelligence posture and ultimately perhaps more. If I was in Secretary Clinton’s position, I’d be giving Obama a lot of advice … not to forget about the threats that have always been there and are expanding.”
An unprecedented number of high-level contacts are about to begin between the Americans and Mexicans in the coming weeks. If the Americans want to ask the Mexicans about Iran they’ll certainly be in a very good position to do so.
The Iranians certainly intend to talk to the Mexicans some more about themselves, at the same high level. That’s what I was told this week when I called Iran’s Mexico City-stationed ambassador, Mohammad Hassan Ghariri Abyaneh. The good ambassador’s assistant, Maribel Benitez, told me through an interpreter that his schedule was too full to speak to me at least to the end of next month. She said to stay tuned, though, because he is scheduled to have several “official” events soon, including a meeting with President Calderon.
Presumably after Calderon finishes with President Obama.
Makes perfect sense from the Iranian perspective. As Russia and China have recently shown, the Democrats are living up their militantly pacifist reputation.
And with Sec. of State Clinton blaming the violence raging through Mexico on the US itself, the timing’s just right for Iran to help out against The Great Satan, whether Mexico wants it or not:
http://trackacrat.com/category/hillary-clinton/
It may be interesting to see the clash between Islam and narco-traffikers. My money is on the traffikers.
I have lived in central Mexico for about six years now… Im not convinced that Mexico-Iran ties are something to be truly worried about…. at least for now. What Iran does in Venezuela and Nicaragua, two countries who have little to lose by ticking the US off, will be more of a bellweather…
Im certain Mexico’s interest with any ties with Iran are purely economic. With Obama in office, they are definitely freer to test the waters in that respect. But I cannot imagine Iran having any real influence here. Islam is no real temptation and, despite the blowhards, neither is any serious anti-Americanism.
Worst case scenario might possibly be a terror cell coming across the US-Mexico border (something that has been worried about for sometime). However, Mexico has a real vested interest in the US NOT seriously shutting down the border. Any terrorist attack would do just that.
Rather than a clash between Islam and Mexican narco-trafficers, you might see an alliance. If Iran wanted to infiltrate people, weapons and explosives into the U.S. what better partner than the Mexican drug gangs who can seemimgly get anything, in any quantity, into any part of America? In addition to infiltration, the drug gangs have wide-reaching, sophisticated, para-military operational capabilities here too. MS-13 would be an outstanding operational partner for any terror mission inside our borders.
Mexico’s drug cartels are all about drugs and money and associated crimes like prostitution and kidnapping. The Iranians have a political agenda up to and including the manufacture and/or possession of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. I’d be much more worried about Iran getting too chummy with Mexico and, as the author states, the Mexican governments reluctance to even discuss the issue for me raises large red flags. Do you seriously think the corrupt and basically incompetent Mexican government can cope with a determined Iranian effort to infiltrate both Mexico and the U.S.? Compared to the professional killers of Iran the Mexican drug cartels are nothing more then thuggish amateurs. Instead of sending more troops to Afghanistan maybe we should be sending a few thousand more heavily armed troops, with artillery and air support, down to the Southern border.
terrorists use international terror not to liberate a country, or change an ideology but to expand geo political projection. that is why they do it. that is what is happening in the western hemisphere. expansion is the source of power, as well as their Achilles heel if they fail. that is what their interests are. their prime directive is to expand.
how that is a mystery as stated here and the interview is utterly baffling to me. non allied country’s are trying to hitch a ride with Russia and China to expand their influence. for Iran, they will expand their external influence or they will die internally. why is that complicated?
people have their eyes so fixated on boogie men motives like Islamic fascism and Zionism that they fail to see the most basic of historical historical motives. the worlds first history book described absolutely nothing different than what is happening today. pick up a copy of the Peloponnese wars, read it, add modern weaponry and a larger field of war and you will have no more questions about why Russia, Iran, and China are rapidly deploying all means of influence in Latin America. they are filling the void of gringo incompetence, short sightedness and stupidity about the most basic tenets of internationalism. give it the big duh.
and on top of that Calderon just asked the U.S for billions more in aid to help battle drug lords, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=a0KyEWkn3kqI&refer=latin_america But then again we now live in a world where 10 to 35 Billion dollars isn’t as much as it used to be. But if you ask me for that kind of money we might as well tell mexico to just get the hell out of the way and let us in to handle it!
I agree the gringo helped the situation with NAFTA, and GATT. All those jobs going south to the turd world brings the US closer to being the same. Not to mention China, and 50 cent an hour jobs.
Yep, those gringos keep showing incompetence with not securing the border, and billions going south non-taxed.
Moon god worshipers will use this incompetence to extend a hand of peace to the gringos. I do not know what to think about those Zionist. They just stay at home, and try to protect their children and wives from rockets from the religion of peace.
I’m going to go clean my weapon now.
Meanwhile, Hezbolla, according to the DEA and as reported by the Washington Times, is operationg on the U.S. Mexico Border using Mexican assets to smuggle…
I love it how they’re talking “Regional Issues” with Iran…
leatherneck, you are a dinosaur. you sound like one of the kid anti globalization protesters, with an added racial insecurity issue. yeah man, slants, greasers and the border, those are the real problems. get a grip.
gcblues,
Are you sure it is me? Read your post at #6 again, and get back to me.
BTW, I know a lot of Americans that lost their jobs to NAFTA, and GATT. I am a Nationalist, and do not like to see our laws broken, and our tax money used for the third world’s poor healthcare, jail costs, and anchor babies. Let Mexico and others be billed. Of course, pointing that out makes me a racist to lefturds.
You’re part of the problem.
leatherneck: you been in a cave or something? haven’t you been watching the great giveaway?
Anchor babies are all descendants of John Smith, and those that came afterwards. so yeah it does make you sound like a racist/righturd.
what i don’t understand is the anger towards the AIG people who got money they earned??? that is a tenet of capitalism, you work and you get paid. why aren’t people pissed off at the ones who made it possible to happen with tax monies, like Chris Dodd and Geithner, and that Obama fellow?
money talks and lots of money shouts in Mexico, so as long as the Iranians are willing to throw money around there will be someone to listen. the problem will be that it will mostly be some lower level burrocrat who will take the money.
Only white folks can be racist. Don’t you lefturds know anything?
leatherneck, you will always have problems with other people. it will never be your fault.
sounds like you and your “friends” deserved to lose “their” jobs. as if a person or a country has a right to a job. you cannot compete with the world so whinnnnnnnnnnne like a girl. in the USA, “nationalists” like you were known by another name. “no nothings”. you “no nothings”, rightards and leftards, both on the right and the left, try to use the state to dial in the culture and economy you piously and loudly think is correct. the result, both sides have eroded personal freedoms and rights rendering the USA as just another failed central planning state. land of the free? no mas. more like land of the bozos.
thanks nationalists. good job. pass a few more laws, expel a few million more, build some walls, pass some tariffs, join a union, buy american junk, ….. yeah that’s it. man i missed it leatherneck, your a freaking genius.
The big push will be to convert Mexican citizens to the “Religion of Peace.” Once there is a huge mosque in Mexico City and a couple of hundred Islamic schools teaching what they teach best, that to die for Allah is the best of all possible things, then Barack Hussein will finally admit being a Moslem all along. Thats all we will need to keep us busy for a long time, home grown Iranian type Moslems next door with the rights to come over the border any time they want to do so.
Hey gcblues,terorrists and the drug cartel are both our enemy. Does that tell you something?
I am amazed at the low response to this article. It seems small and insignificant right now, but it’s something we need to keep an eye on. This isn’t a left or right issue – it’s a national security issue. I see it as a sort of “back door invasion.”
No, they aren’t invading yet, but once the Islamic extremists have Mexico in their pocket, we might start seeing stories like the one above generating a lot more concern from the American citizenry.
I don’t know about turning Mexicans into Hispanic versions of Islam – Catholicism is pretty strong in that country. However, if the terrorists decide to infiltrate Mexico, who is going to stop them, when we see the corrupt Mexican government turning a blind eye to the violence in the current drug wars? They’re getting big payoffs to stay out of the cartel’s way. I’m figuring Iran has more money to pay for bribes and favors than the cartels.
Wake up America! It’s happening!
#15. You may be right about Obama. I have no evidence, but the Muslim principle of ‘al taqiyya’ allows deception on the level you suggest. For those who don’t know about taqiyya, try google.
All this is a public acknowledgement that Iran and the Islamic extremists are working with the narco-terrorists and others who are undermining Mexico. Mexico is the terrorist free ride into the US to destroy us. It just makes sense for Iran to ally themselves with these groups and facilitate the trafficking of people, drugs, and weapons.
http://franklinslocke.blogspot.com/
Well, why not manufacture an incident or a rivalry between the Iranians and the biggest cartel? With the current bunch running the CIA, I could see the pessimism in this approach.
..the Iranians have studied chess
Why is it that Muslims claim Moses was a prophet and the 10 Commandments given to Moses by OUR HEAVENLY FATHER on Mount Sinai clearly gives OUR HEAVENLY FATHER’s Commandment not to kill while they believe in killing those who will not convert, and killing for other various reasons under Shari’a Law? Do Not Kill; there are no ifs, ands, or buts. OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, who created all in Heaven and on Earth, made that Commandment expressly clear. Any prophets to come along later have supported all those Commandments given by OUR HEAVENLY FATHER. OUR HEAVENLY FATHER is greater than absolutely everyone and absolutely everything. Do Not Kill; there are no ifs, ands, or buts. We apparently are not to kill others; that is not our purpose. Supposedly Mohammed said something different. So either Mohammed agreed with those Commandments and didn‘t actually say what he supposedly said, or Mohammed wasn’t a prophet. And if Mohammed agreed that those Commandments came from OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, then Mohammed didn’t try to argue with them or change them to fit his own agenda. Maybe that ‘Book Burning’ in the 7th century A.D. (C.E.) wasn’t just to ‘standardize’ but to ‘cover-up’ the Truth. I’m not trying to argue religion here; or trying to argue doctrine. It just does not make any sense. If Christians and Jews killed people as Muslims kill people, then most of the world would kill each other off. Do Not Kill; there are no ifs, ands, or buts. May OUR HEAVENLY FATHER’s Will Be Done.