31 agosto, 2012

Bin Laden Raid Became Re-Election Mission, SEAL Book Says

By Noah Shachtman

President Obama and his national security team watch the bin Laden raid unfold. Photo: Wikimedia
Updated 6:21 p.m.
The mission was twofold: first and foremost, kill Osama bin Laden. Then, once the deed was done and the troops were back safe, help re-elect the president of the United States by promoting the death of the world’s most wanted terrorist.
That’s the accusation in “No Easy Day,” the firsthand account of the bin Laden raid from Matt Bissonette, a former member of SEAL Team 6. Copies of the book, due out next week, were obtained by the Huffington Post and by the Associated Press’ Kim Dozier.

SEALs’ Cover Story if Bin Laden Raid Went Bad: Downed Drone

By Noah Shachtman

Osama bin Laden films an undated propaganda video. Photo: CIA
Before SEAL Team 6 was sent into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden, the troops were given a cover story, in case the mission went south. They were supposed to say that they were deep in Pakistani territory, hunting for a lost drone.
It’s one of many fascinating details in No Easy Day, Navy SEAL Matt Bissonette’s firsthand account of the bin Laden raid.
“We all laughed,” Bissonette writes about the explanation. “The story was preposterous. We were allies with Pakistan on paper, so if we did lose a drone, the State Department would negotiate directly with the Pakistani government to get it back. The story didn’t wash and would be very difficult to stick to during hours of questioning…. The truth is, if we got to that point, no story we could come up with was going to cover up twenty-two SEALs packing sixty pounds of hi-tech gear on their backs.”

Mexico Kills Cartel Big Shot, But Drug Violence Worsens

By Robert Beckhusen

Photo: Fronteras Desk/Flickr
For months, Mexico’s army has gradually moved thousands of troops into territory controlled by the country’s largest and arguably most dangerous drug cartel. The mission: kill or capture the top bosses of the Zetas, right in the heart of their prime terrain. Last week the manhunt started paying dividends, as the army took out a senior cartel leader during a major shootout — although it came at the cost of turning a Mexican city into a warzone.
According to local press reports, the hours-long battle began on Thursday in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, when forces loyal to the boss of a major Zetas drug trafficking operation, Gerardo Guerra-Valdez, attacked military personnel moving on the cartel’s “command structure.” When the military fought back, cartel gunmen began blockading key roads stretching from the city’s downtown, near the World Trade Bridge connecting Nuevo Laredo to Texas. They came prepared: included in their convoy was at least one armored vehicle, rocket and grenade launchers, lots of rifles and, predictably, cocaine.

He Double-Crossed the Zeta Cartel… And Somehow Lived to Tell About It


Two years ago, Antonio Pena Arguelles was handling millions in drug money and working as the intermediary between the violent Zetas cartel and senior Mexican politicians. On Tuesday, U.S. authorities seized him at his suburban San Antonio home, where Pena was allegedly hiding from his former employers. What brought him there, however, involves a story of betrayal, deceit and the assassination of a Mexican political candidate by unknown gunmen that would lead the Zetas to want to kill him.

Radio Zeta: How Mexico’s Drug Cartels Stay Networked

By Spencer Ackerman


Arranging drug sales on a cellphone, cryptic email or even a pager? That’s strictly for the small-time dealer. If you’re a Mexican drug cartel, you have your own radio network.
Since 2006, the cartels have maintained an encrypted DIY radio network that stretches across nearly all 31 Mexican states, even down south into Guatemala. The communications infrastructure of the narco-gangs that have turned Mexico into a gangster’s paradise consists of “professional-grade” radio antennas, signal relays and simple handheld radios that cost “millions of dollars” — and which the Mexican authorities haven’t been able to shut down.

How the U.S. Fights the Zeta Cartel, From Spies to Sanctions

By Robert Beckhusen


Report: Navy SEALs to Hunt Cartel Kingpin Like Bin Laden

By Robert Beckhusen

A special forces soldier secures a perimeter during an exercise on Feb. 15, 2010. Photo: EUCOM
Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is arguably the world’s most wanted criminal, supplanting Osama bin Laden after the terrorist mastermind’s death during a Navy SEAL raid in May 2011. Now the Pentagon reportedly has a plan to send the SEALs after El Chapo too. There are lots of reasons why the report may be off. Chief among them: The Mexicans hate U.S. troops on their soil even more than the Pakistanis do.
According to anonymous Mexican and U.S. military sources cited by Proceso magazine (translated from Spanish), the plan involves sending Navy SEALs by helicopter after the Sinaloa Cartel kingpin, who is rumored to be hiding in the mountains of the western Mexican states of Sinaloa and Durango. The SEALs would be divided into two teams — one would land and attack, and the other would stay airborne — assisted by three unmanned drones packing missiles.

Marines vs. Zetas: U.S. Hunts Drug Cartels in Guatemala

By Robert Beckhusen

A U.S. Marine during a jungle patrol exercise in Guatemala on Sept. 12, 2010. While the Marines have helped train Guatemalan troops to hunt for drug traffickers in the past, the service is now expanding into chasing traffickers directly. Photo: USMC
The war on drugs just got a whole lot more warlike. Two hundred U.S. Marines have entered Guatemala, on a mission to chase local operatives of the murderous Zeta drug cartel.
The Marines are now encamped after having deployed to Guatemala earlier this month, and have just “kicked off” their share of Operation Martillo, or Hammer. That operation began earlier in January, and is much larger than just the Marine contingent and involves the Navy, Coast Guard, and federal agents working with the Guatemalans to block drug shipment routes.

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