Top Billing! T. Greer –What Happens When Wall Street Goes Up Against the CIA? 

….I would like to focus on one sentence hidden in the body of the report. Shortly after the implementation of the Merida Initiative in 2008, the Mexican intelligence agency CISEN discovered that various cartels were employing American trained, ex-special forces. Understandably alarmed, American intelligence agencies floated a proposal to cut the power of the cartels:

“Anxious to counterattack, the CIA proposed electronically emptying the bank accounts of drug kingpins, but was turned down by the Treasury Department and the White House, which feared unleashing chaos in the banking system.”This one sentence betrays Washington’s distorted foreign policy priorities.  The CIA proposal had several clear benefits: drug lords forced to pull their investments would have less incentive to stay in the game,  cartels would be robbed of operating funds, and most importantly of all, the proposal could be implemented with minimal American involvement. [2] There would be no need for more boots on the ground. The drawbacks were also clear: folks on Wall Street would lose money. The White House took Wall Street’s side in the debate, and favored a policy designed to kill or capture the “high value targets” whose bank accounts were not to be touched.  (Readers curious about the cost of these operations — in terms of man-power as well as money — will find plenty of details in the last few pages of the Washington Post report.) 

SWJ El Centro – Friction Rises as Mexico Curbs U.S Role in Drug Fight and Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 14: Narcocantante (Narco-singer) Assassinated in Mission, Texas 

….If the investigation determines that Quintanilla was killed because of his narcocorridos it would be the first known assassination of a narcocantante (narco-singer) in the United States.  This would be a significant shift in targeting and the U.S. would be firmly in the operational zone of targeted killings to shape the ‘narcosphere’ or ‘drug war zone.’  

Quintanilla was identified with the CDG: Cartel del Golfo (Gulf Cartel) and had dedicated songs to Tony Tormenta (Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén)[6] the CDG capo who died in a battle with Los Zetas in November 2010.[7]  One of his songs, “Estamos En Guerra (Los Zetas Vs. CDG),”chronicled the battles following the Gulf-Zeta split.[8],[9]

It is possible that Quintanilla became a target of one or both of those cartels as a result of his characterization of their activities in the current conflict in Tamaulipas.  Certainly both cartels have a presence in Texas and could operate there as seen in recent reports of narcobloqueos (narco-blockades) in Texas.[10]  It is also possible that he crossed other criminal enterprises (such as U.S. gangs) or was targeted for more mundane criminal reasons.  Nevertheless, the modus operandi or tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) involved in his death are consistent with those of narco-assassinations. 

Southern Pulse –Cleaning up after Operation Limpieza 

….Prosecutions of government corruption initiated under the Calderon administration are falling apart in the early months of the Peña Nieto administration, leading to accusations among Mexico’s political elite. On one side, PRI officials say the Calderon government abused its authority, relied on untrustworthy witnesses, and targeted politically convenient officials. On the other side of the debate are concerns that the PRI is allowing impunity for corruption and harming relations with US agencies that provided evidence and want corrupt officials out of government. Regardless of whether the officials named were or were not working with transnational criminal organizations, the Mexican government’s failure to successfully investigate and prosecute high-level corruption should be a source of concern. Rumors of high level corruption have only increased since ex-President Felipe Calderon declared a war on violent drug trafficking organizations in Mexico upon taking office in December 2006. 

SWJ Blog –Cyberwar in the Underworld: Anonymous versus Los Zetas in Mexico

WIRED –Don’t Panic, But Mexico’s Zetas Cartel Wants to Recruit Your Kids 

FOXnews Latino –Mexico’s Blog De Narco Author Gives First Major Interview 

Washington Post – Obama’s trip to Mexico hints at new balance of power and What did we learn about Obama’s thinking in Mexico?

OTHER TOPICS:

TIME C. Christine Fair –Can This Alliance Be Saved? Salvaging the US-Pakistan Relationship

J.M. Berger –FORECASTING TERRORIST ATTACKS WITH BIG DATA AND THE WISDOM OF CROWDS… OR NOT

Steven Pressfield Online (Shawn Coyne) –Getting Screwed is a Compliment 

Global Guerrillas-The Flaw that May Bring Down Bitcoin or Change it Forever 

 Information Dissemination (Robert Farley) Book Review: China’s Search for Security 

Col. Pat Lang –“Israeli attacks inside Syria risks widening war” CSM 

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A harbinger that we are in grave danger of becoming a nation of autistic mimes