Cuba Mentioned in a House Intel Bill that Emphasizes Latin American Threads
- Submitted by: admin
- United States
- Politics and Government
- 07 / 02 / 2009
The 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act recently passed by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence “authorizes a substantial increase in funding for critical intelligence operations … to address emerging global security issues,” including growing security threats in Latin America and Mexico.”
According to the Committee’s report on the authorization bill, “Latin America has not received attention from the Intelligence Community commensurate with the region’s importance to US national security. As a result, intelligence agencies are hard-pressed to provide needed insights about the complex threats emanating from the Western Hemisphere, including a brutal narcotics trade and the proliferation of violent youth gangs that have moved into American cities beyond the Southwest border region.”
Consequently, “the legislation authorizes funding to enhance human intelligence collection and provides critical funds for traditional intelligence challenges and other enduring and emerging global security issues in Asia, Africa, and Latin America,” the Committee report stated.
Counterterrorists and counter-narcotics officials have been warning – openly and behind closed doors - that not only do Latin American narco-cartels and gangs pose a rapidly growing security threat, but so do Middle East-based and fundamentalist Islamic terrorist organizations.
Several Islamist terrorist organizations have had operational infrastructures in Latin America for two decades.
Attending to these terrorist groups and narco-cartels are money laundering and smuggling businesses that have had to be established to facilitate their operations.
But what’s more worrisome to intelligence authorities are indications of overlapping among all these criminal and terrorist activities, like Mexico’s cartels’ ties to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, from whom they’ve been buying much of the cocaine that they distribute in the United States and elsewhere.
As a result of the surge in activities of Mexico’s narco-cartels and terrorist groups in the region, and the lack of adequate intelligence resources being available to apply to these security threats, Intelligence Community officials have sought additional funding for a variety of Latin American intelligence programs.
Among activities the House intelligence committee authorization bill provides for is improved intelligence cooperation and intelligence-sharing with Mexico and Latin American governments to combat both terrorists and narco-cartels. These are intelligence activities that have been pushed by the Obama administration and expressly discussed by the Department of Homeland Security.
The annual Intelligence Authorization Act provides policy guidance and sets classified funding levels for the intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the 16 agencies of the Intelligence Community.
The Committee report “recommends that the Intelligence Community modify its approach to [Latin America] in the following ways.
“First and foremost, the Committee recommends greater collaboration among the elements of the Intelligence Community. In particular, the Department of Homeland Security Intelligence and Analysis Division (DHS I&A) must do a better job of filtering and disseminating the unique intelligence that it draws from its operations on the US borders and from state, local, and tribal resources. The Committee is pleased that DHS I&A plans to deploy at least one full-time employee to each of the 70 Fusion Centers operating throughout the country.
“Additionally, the Intelligence Community should harness the expertise of the growing number of Hispanic-Americans, many of whom have strong cultural and linguistic ties to the region, including proficiency in regional dialects. To this end, the Committee encourages the Intelligence Community to intensify its multipronged efforts to attract Hispanics and other minorities to its ranks. For hard target countries in the region, such as Cuba, the Committee urges the Intelligence Community to tailor recruiting drives to attract exiles from those countries, just as the United States has done with Iraqi-Americans in seeking to meet intelligence objectives in Iraq.
“Finally, the Committee encourages the Intelligence Community to strengthen its relationships in Latin America, particularly with the Mexican government. Mexico is confronting powerful drug cartels that have used billions of dollars from drug sales in the United States to bribe officials and arm themselves with American-purchased weaponry. This is a shared problem for which the United States and Mexico must both shoulder the responsibility of finding a solution.”
Source: HS Today
According to the Committee’s report on the authorization bill, “Latin America has not received attention from the Intelligence Community commensurate with the region’s importance to US national security. As a result, intelligence agencies are hard-pressed to provide needed insights about the complex threats emanating from the Western Hemisphere, including a brutal narcotics trade and the proliferation of violent youth gangs that have moved into American cities beyond the Southwest border region.”
Consequently, “the legislation authorizes funding to enhance human intelligence collection and provides critical funds for traditional intelligence challenges and other enduring and emerging global security issues in Asia, Africa, and Latin America,” the Committee report stated.
Counterterrorists and counter-narcotics officials have been warning – openly and behind closed doors - that not only do Latin American narco-cartels and gangs pose a rapidly growing security threat, but so do Middle East-based and fundamentalist Islamic terrorist organizations.
Several Islamist terrorist organizations have had operational infrastructures in Latin America for two decades.
Attending to these terrorist groups and narco-cartels are money laundering and smuggling businesses that have had to be established to facilitate their operations.
But what’s more worrisome to intelligence authorities are indications of overlapping among all these criminal and terrorist activities, like Mexico’s cartels’ ties to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, from whom they’ve been buying much of the cocaine that they distribute in the United States and elsewhere.
As a result of the surge in activities of Mexico’s narco-cartels and terrorist groups in the region, and the lack of adequate intelligence resources being available to apply to these security threats, Intelligence Community officials have sought additional funding for a variety of Latin American intelligence programs.
Among activities the House intelligence committee authorization bill provides for is improved intelligence cooperation and intelligence-sharing with Mexico and Latin American governments to combat both terrorists and narco-cartels. These are intelligence activities that have been pushed by the Obama administration and expressly discussed by the Department of Homeland Security.
The annual Intelligence Authorization Act provides policy guidance and sets classified funding levels for the intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the 16 agencies of the Intelligence Community.
The Committee report “recommends that the Intelligence Community modify its approach to [Latin America] in the following ways.
“First and foremost, the Committee recommends greater collaboration among the elements of the Intelligence Community. In particular, the Department of Homeland Security Intelligence and Analysis Division (DHS I&A) must do a better job of filtering and disseminating the unique intelligence that it draws from its operations on the US borders and from state, local, and tribal resources. The Committee is pleased that DHS I&A plans to deploy at least one full-time employee to each of the 70 Fusion Centers operating throughout the country.
“Additionally, the Intelligence Community should harness the expertise of the growing number of Hispanic-Americans, many of whom have strong cultural and linguistic ties to the region, including proficiency in regional dialects. To this end, the Committee encourages the Intelligence Community to intensify its multipronged efforts to attract Hispanics and other minorities to its ranks. For hard target countries in the region, such as Cuba, the Committee urges the Intelligence Community to tailor recruiting drives to attract exiles from those countries, just as the United States has done with Iraqi-Americans in seeking to meet intelligence objectives in Iraq.
“Finally, the Committee encourages the Intelligence Community to strengthen its relationships in Latin America, particularly with the Mexican government. Mexico is confronting powerful drug cartels that have used billions of dollars from drug sales in the United States to bribe officials and arm themselves with American-purchased weaponry. This is a shared problem for which the United States and Mexico must both shoulder the responsibility of finding a solution.”
Source: HS Today
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