Other Foot, Meet the Shoe

The infiltration of the American embassy in Mexico by a drug cartel may not have been Watergate, but Mexicans, long resentful of American tut-tutting about their own security scandals, are sure milking it. A rough translation of that headline would be, "Spy easily fakes out American security."

Although it's not quite clear how much exactly was compromised, the story is worrying. A man known only as Felipe (he is in Mexican witness protection now) was instructed by the Beltrán Leyva gang to apply for a security-related job in the embassy via internet. He overcame the background check and personal intervew and was hired. Over the course of the decade since his hiring, Felipe was granted clearance to work with congressmen on diplomatic visits. All the while, he was providing the cartel with the names of people being investigated by the American authorities.