Border Problems

Via the Washington Times, a video tape of an Al Qaeda recruiter talking about the possibility of smuggling anthrax over the US-Mexican border has surfaced. Recruiters are by nature salesmen, and I don't imagine it's any different among terrorists. Just because he was talking about the possibility doesn't mean that it is a scenario the group is anywhere near capable of bringing to fruition. The fact that the same tape talks about Al Qaeda joining forces with American white supremacists shows that his speech wasn't entirely grounded in reality. The idea of terrorists teaming with Mexican criminal bands pops up from time to time, and it's never quite seemed plausible to me. Terrorists are political and, in Al Qaeda's case, nihilistic; Mexico's smugglers are generally apolitical and are as dependent on our capitalist consumerist society as is Bill Gates. There would seem to be no overlap.

At the same time, in this case it wasn't a politician with an agenda talking up the border threat vis-a-vis terrorism, but someone from that world. It's not likely by any stretch, but nor is it unthinkable, and the comments from officials in the article seemed to be appropriately serious.

Anyway, here's the response from Bajo Reserva:

The article appears in the rightist newspaper Washington Times. It says that the US stands before a terrible threat and that it comes from Mexico. It cites intelligence reports based on an Al Qaeda video, in which a terrorist recruiter threatens to smuggle a biological weapon through border tunnels. Further paragraphs cite the actual words Abdullah al-Nafisi, who is addressing a group of potential terrorists. He doesn't express any plan, nor does he reveal a nexus with anyone, nor does he even mention how to arrive in Tijuana or Cancún, or how to grab a shovel, or how to dig a hole below the Rio Grande. He simply launches a "jihadist" dream: that if someone smuggled two kilos of anthrax into the US, they would kill 330,000 individuals. The newspaper published the article as its lead story, with "Mexico" in the headline. The internet comments are a lot of fun, and surely the intended reaction: "Close the border now", some say, and others agree with rage. The article appears at a special moment: when Mexico (immigration, H1N1, etc.) is Satan, and when all of the Americas have decided to welcome Cuba back into the OAS. The American ultra-Right has no compunction about using Al Qaeda to militarize the common border.