According to Fred Burton, the report of U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats - Joint Operating Environment (JOE 2008) -shows that 2 key allies of the United States, Mexico and Pakistan, could be close to a rapid and sudden collapse.  I recently met Fred Burton, former State Department Counter Terrorism official and now the V.P. of Stratfor Institute, an International Intelligence and Analysis Company in Austin, TX.  Mr. Burton reports Stratfor has been following the systemic collapse inside Mexico, including rampant corruption, narco-terrorist tactics, insurgent violence, beheadings, and defections of police officers to the U.S.  On the January 14, 2009 Lou Dobbs Show, Mr. Burton, author of the excellent book, Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent, also said, "The mainstream media is ignoring the story of Mexico.  Most people fail to recognize what's taking place in Mexico, the Homeland Security threat this poses, as well as the interface between the cartels in Mexico and the criminal gangs inside the U.S.  Basically, Mexico's violent narcos control the drug distribution system inside the United States."  
 
The December 22, 2008 edition of Forbes Magazine featured a man with his face covered by the flag of Mexico with this caption: "narco-terror, collapsing oil prices, economic chaos, Mexican Meltdown."  The article tells of some of the highest-level law enforcement assassinations and makes it clear "the narcotraficantes have infiltrated the highest levels of law enforcement including, allegedly, Mexico's principal link to Interpol and its former senior drug czar."  The president of the Mexican Senate's Public Security Commission said, "It's been a fierce bloodbath."  In the same article, Stratfor's Fred Burton asks the question, "We're fixated on Iraq and Afghanistan, but from a Homeland Security perspective, right here on our border, isn't this more important?"  Drug czar John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy certainly thinks so, as he has said, "The consequences for both our countries in the near future and the not-so-near future could be greater."  

 

Pray for all those who are gathering life-saving intelligence on both sides of the border. 

The southern border of the United States experienced a most violent year in 2008 with extortion, kidnappings, street shootings and even beheadings almost a daily occurrence in Mexico.  More than 5700 murders - double the number in 2007 - included police, judges, journalists, attorneys and innocent bystanders.  

 
January 4, 2009, the Dallas Morning News article titled Mexico's Drug Violence Expected to Escalate in '09 stated, "Drug-related violence in Mexico, already at unprecedented levels, is expected to escalate further this year, with targets likely to include top Mexican politicians and law enforcement agents and possibly even U.S. officials, according to diplomats and intelligence experts on both sides of the border."
 
Earnestly pray that plans to commit cross-border crimes will be exposed and thwarted.   

 

Nuevo Laredo, just south of Laredo, TX, saw violence fall dramatically with only about 50 homicides in 2008 compared to 500 in 2005.  There has been a significant increase in the discovery of drugs being shipped through Nuevo Laredo/Laredo.  I have been told that is because of the Juarez Cartel's alliance with the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.  As scrutiny has become more intense in the Juarez/El Paso corridor, they (the Juarez Cartel) use the Nuevo Laredo route.  Increased drug seizures merely reflect an increase in drug shipments.  It is said that 2% of the drugs are stopped and 98% get into the U.S.
 
Reynosa, a Mexican city just south of McAllen, TX, has not experienced violence on the level of other border cities, but last November the Mexican army made its largest seizure ever, consisting of 540 rifles, 165 grenades, 500,000 rounds of ammunition, a rocket launcher and other weapons.  Jaime "El Hummer" Gonzalez Duran, the reputed co-founder of the violent Zetas, was arrested.

In June of 2007, while our nation was captivated by Paris Hilton's early release from jail, a little known yet monumental event was taking place.  The cartels that had been battling for control of the I-35 corridor and related  trafficking routes worked out an agreement to divide up the routes into the U.S.  By mid-July the Nuevo Laredo violence at the mouth of the I-35 corridor had all but stopped. 
 
We might be tempted to believe that the Lord, responding to our intercession, has intervened to make a dramatic difference.  The truth may be more complex than that.
 
In the Posse letter dated June 1, 2008, I told you about 3 possible scenarios.  First, Mexican President Calderon could succeed in ending the drug trafficking business.  In that case, Columbian cartels would already be looking for new routes - like China or other Asian nations - to smuggle drugs into the U.S., the prized market.  Second, Calderon could decide the cartels are impossible to fight and make concessions for peace.  He could let it be known that certain corridors will be available for the traffickers as long as there are no visible bodies left along the way.  Ultimately the middle class wants peace.  There will be some pockets of law and order and some pockets of extreme violence and poverty.  Third, Mexico could become a failed state, completely unable to take care of her people.  Is it possible that part of the second scenario has now happened?  

Rusty Fleming, director and producer of the documentary Drug Wars: Silver or Lead (www.drugwarsthemovie.com), writes, "This is a film that graphically exposes the drug war being waged along our southwest border and how it has proliferated into the United States.  One of the things I hoped to accomplish by making this film was to educate the American people to the fact that the Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) are not the 'cartels' of old. The organizations have, by every definition, crossed into a classification known as narco-terrorism.  My film depicts the dangers that these narco-insurgents represent to our country, how they have already set up a complex and powerful network throughout the U.S. and represent more of a 'clear and present danger' to our nation than probably any other enemy we are faced with anywhere else in the world."

 

Please pray for the safety and effectiveness of Mr. Fleming as he is being used by the Lord to sound the alarm.  Pray the national media will begin telling us the true story of the dangers we are facing.
 
Mr. Fleming is currently showing the Drug Wars documentary in cities across the United States.  Following the December 30, 2008 showing in Victoria, TX, several guests, including the leaders of the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition, Southwest Border Sheriffs' Coalition and the Gulf Coast Sheriffs' Alliance, participated in a panel discussion with Mr. Fleming.  Here are excerpts from my notes:
 
Ø      no longer about drug trafficking as usual
Ø      these people are actually terrorists
Ø      narco-terrorism involves drugs, extortion, kidnapping
Ø      Border Patrol agents work hard, but people in DC don't have a clue
Ø      Mexico is going to lose big - they haven't seen the amount of violence the cartels are capable of
Ø      a military solution might be possible, but you can't put any force up against these narcos for any length of time that will not become corrupt
Ø      this is more of a threat than Iraq or Afghanistan - we're allowing a far more serious situation in our own backyard
Ø      not just a border problem - affects every single individual in the U.S.   
Ø      the Chinese mafia has moved their operations to Tampico, MX
Ø      we can give $1.4 billion to Mexico but can't get $100 million for 31 U.S. border counties
Ø      crime has been reduced by 63% on the border with sheriffs working 12-16 hr days, but it has left them desperate for funding
Ø      small arms bought in U.S. by straw buyers are smuggled into Mexico
Ø      more sophisticated weapons come from all over the world
Ø      groups from the Middle East train the cartels how to ship and transport IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices)
Ø      a cartel War Room in Monterey, MX rivals anything at the Pentagon

Ø      training is being given to the U.S. military for the border
Ø      there is already military on the border, just not ours
Ø      we should demand military on our border
Ø      cartels fear 2 things: legalizing drugs and U.S. military on the border
Ø      absolute lack of trust and non-sharing of intelligence by Federal agencies hampers local law enforcement
Ø     gang wars are about turf

Ø     what took 3 years to accomplish in Nuevo Laredo (terrorize the people and leave the government impotent) only took 8 months in Juarez, a city several times the size
 
Pray for coordination and cooperation among local, state and federal agencies.
 
Sunday, January 11, 2009 on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Newt Gingrich interrupted the discussion about Iraq by saying more people were killed in Mexico in 2008 than in Iraq.  He declared that Mexico is a threat to national security and said this will be a test for Obama when he becomes President and inherits this situation. 

Fleming also states, "We're seeing cross border abductions, up to seven or twelve in a week, up and down the border, and less than 5% are being reported."  When the Drug Wars documentary was shown in El Paso, Mr. Fleming was contacted by 5 different people who attended the showing whose loved ones have been kidnapped and never heard from again.  Of the 5, only 1 was reported missing.
 
Believe it or not, you can now buy Kidnap Insurance.  This would cover loss of wages while the person is missing, negotiations, payment of ransom, and family counseling.  One thing you need to know: if you have access to cash you are kidnap-able.

Every time one of the Border Sheriffs addresses a group, there is one recurring theme.  They are desperate for funding.  They have made trips to testify before Congress, and they have been rejected each time.  The Sheriffs were even told by one Congresswoman to quit coming because they were wasting their time.  She was a Democrat blaming the problem on the Republicans.  When Democrats came into power, nothing changed. 
 
At the National Sheriffs' Association conference last June in Indianapolis, Robert Duvall met with the Border Sheriffs to discuss making a movie that would educate middle America about the border.  After dinner that night, Hudspeth County, TX Sheriff Arvin West tried to help pay the bill.  Robert Duvall quipped, "Arvin, you have to borrow money from the library fund to put gas in your vehicles, and the least I can do is buy dinner."  We all laughed, but it really wasn't that funny. 

 

Many border counties are sparsely populated with just a few small towns.  There isn't much of a tax base to fund their departments.  In Victoria, TX, Sheriff West told the Drug Wars audience, "I have 17 deputies and it costs $300 a deputy to attend a 2 day training class, but because of my budget I am limited in who I can send."  He also pointed out that by working 12-16 hour days, crime has been reduced by 63% on the border, but the overtime causes a strain on their budget.  Border Sheriffs have proven they can do the job, but they need to be adequately funded!
 
Pray that Sheriff Sigi Gonzalez, leader of the Southwest Border Sheriffs' Coalition, and Sheriff Arvin West of the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition will be successful in securing funding from state and federal governments to adequately defend our borders.  Also pray for the interception of loads of U.S. currency as it is transported back to Mexico.  Confiscated drug money is a great source of funds for border counties. 

On Monday, January 12, 2009, President Calderon met with president-elect Obama to discuss U.S. support for President Calderon's battle against drugs.  The incoming U.S. President pledged to find ways to work with Mexico to reduce drug-related violence and stop the flow of arms from the U.S. to Mexico.  The U.S. has already given millions of the $1.4 billion dollars committed to Mexico as part of the Merida Initiative entered into by Presidents Bush and Calderon to help fight the cartels, but law enforcement on the border has so far received "zero, zip, nada."  The November 30, 2008 San Antonio Express News editorial concluded with these sober words, "The Obama administration will have to confront the drug violence as a domestic problem, not a foreign one.  Obama needs to look at a Merida Initiative that will address the violence (fund the battle) in THIS COUNTRY."
 
Pray that President Obama will have wisdom, discernment and the courage to do what is necessary to secure our border. 

 

Pray that the incoming Homeland Security Director, Janet Napolitano, will agree to meet with Sheriff Sigi Gonzalez and the Border Sheriffs and that they will have favor with her.  (Chertoff would not respond to them.)

 

 

 I hope you are able to watch and pray.

 

     I invite you to join this spiritual POSSE to ride the borders of the United States in intercession.  Can you hear the bugle's rally cry, To the Colors? 
 
"Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there.  Our God will fight for us."  Nehemiah 4:20
 
Pam