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Note: Photo included. "2 Canadians slain in Mexico tied to drug trade: police 3 gunmen believed responsible for shootings" Last Updated: Monday, September 28, 2009 | 9:56 PM ET The Associated Press SNIPPET: "Gang investigators in British Columbia say two men gunned down in Mexico were involved in the drug trade, and had been on the radar of gang investigators before they were found shot to death in a Puerto Vallarta condo complex."

Last week the Washington Times reported that Hezbollah is using the same southern narcotics routes that Mexican drug kingpins do to smuggle drugs and people into the United States, reaping money to finance its operations and threatening U.S. national security. The Iran-backed Lebanese group has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America's tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Increasingly, however, it is relying on Mexican narcotics syndicates that control access to transit routes into the U.S. Hezbollah relies on "the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels," said Michael...

I believe it is long past time to end the War on Drugs. That’s not because I approve of drug use or have any desire to encourage it. But this particular war has already gone on longer than the ones in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, put together, with no end in sight and far less to show for it. I would not only decriminalize drug use, I would give it the same legal status as tobacco and alcohol, and with the same age restrictions. For one thing, this would provide a great source of new tax revenue. Also, it...

Afghanistan Earmarks by: Lance Nation, October 14, 2008 Seven years ago the United States military entered Afghanistan to eliminate Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Now this once straightforward mission is becoming increasingly complex as politicians continue to tack on non-military objectives. “The military had initially resisted other attempts to broaden its mission in Afghanistan, and yet ended up adopting those expanded roles within months,” stated Dr. Ted Galen Carpenter. “For example, the military command insisted that it would not take part in nation-building activities and would not try to maintain security on the country’s far-flung road system. It has since...

Diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend By Chris Hastings, Stephanie Plentl and Beth Jones, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:29am GMT 07/01/2007 Diamonds have been synonymous with Hollywood glamour since Marilyn Monroe declared them to be a girl's best friend in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. But now a new generation of Hollywood stars is shunning the stones as a new film exposes the darker side of the international diamond trade. Blood Diamond tells the story of forced-labour diamond mines For the first time in the 79-year history of the Oscars, certain kinds of diamond will be absent from...

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- A deputy U.S. marshal was killed in a shootout with police officers who had stopped the agent for driving erratically early Sunday, authorities said.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- The death of a Mexican man shot by U.S. authorities while trying to sneak into California proves that extending border walls will not curb illegal immigration, President Vicente Fox's office said Monday. Guillermo Martinez died Saturday in a Tijuana hospital, a day after he was shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent near a metal wall separating that city from San Diego, according to prosecutors in Baja California state. Authorities said Martinez was on the Mexican side of the border at the time, but may have picked up rocks and made motions as if to...

NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO - Mexican authorities flew 41 detained city police officers to Mexico City on Sunday for questioning related to the weekend shooting of a plainclothes federal agent here.City officials here said the police were being interrogated in the capital by federal authorities about events surrounding the Saturday morning wounding of Feliciano Campos, an agent of the Federal Investigation Agency, or AFI. The agency is Mexico's equivalent of the FBI. Campos was shot in the chest after municipal police pulled over a convoy carrying about 25 agents on a highway leading to a main border crossing. The agents were...

DISCLAIMER The July 27, 1990 Regulations, “Aliens and Nationality: Asylum and Withholding of Deportation Procedures,” mandated the creation of a new corps of Asylum Officers to provide an initial, nonadversarial adjudication of asylum claims. Asylum Officers use asylum law, interviews with asylum applicants, and relevant information on country conditions to determine the merits of individual claims for asylum. As specified in the Regulations (8 CFR 208.12), as amended, such information may be obtained from “the Department of State, the Office of International Affairs, other Service offices, or other credible sources, such as international organizations, private voluntary agencies, news organizations, or...

Ronald Reagan's defense secretary, Caspar Weinberger, credited with engineering the demise of the Soviet Union, once predicted – because of illegal immigration and social unrest south of the border – the U.S. would be at war with Mexico by 2003. As the U.S. becomes increasingly concerned about just those issues – and one more, the growing power and violence of the drug cartels operating in and around the border – some U.S. intelligence and military analysts are dusting off Weinberger's "Operation Aztec" battle plan for review. Weinberger's scenario outlined a rapid three-pronged military invasion designed to control domestic Mexican unrest...

BOGOTA, Colombia – Marxist rebels staged two ambushes on Colombian police on jungle roads Thursday, killing 13 officers, the police said. News of the ambushes came as details emerged of a weekend attack in which the U.S.-backed army and air force killed 16 rebels. Guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia detonated explosives as a police patrol drove near the town of Tado in the northern rain forest province of Choco and then opened fire with assault rifles, an official with the National Police said. Ten police officers were killed. Three more police were killed in a similar ambush...

I don’t know when it first dawned on me that the study of history was the study of a worldwide criminal enterprise, but a look back at just the last century reveals that the Nazis had it in mind to control and loot all of Europe, while the Empire of Japan sought to do the same with China and Pacific Basin nations. If you go back in history, Pax Romana, imposed by the Roman Empire was, in essence, a huge extortion scheme in which the conquered nations paid Rome to “protect” them and provide some good roads. If you come...

MATAMOROS, MEXICO - Garcia's is where Americans go for a quick taste of Mexico. Or did. Garcia's is a vast emporium here, selling leather purses, silver jewelry and other Mexicana. Just a 10-minute walk across the bridge from Brownsville, Texas, its shelves groan with merchandise. And the store's attractive restaurant stands ready to serve its fajita specials. But the mariachi bands play for almost no one. Few Americans are patronizing Garcia's, or other businesses that cater to day-trippers. They're too afraid to cross the Rio Grande River. When something goes wrong at the border, it goes wrong for a...

London 23.01.05 | Yesterday morning I listened to what appears to be a VHF communication, although it has been reported as a telephone conversation, between FARC leaders Juan Santrich and Jorge Tivieras. Radio Caracol of Colombia reports that Tivieras is thought to be the international liaison chief of a guerrilla front with seat in Caracas, Venezuela's capital. Tivieras gives account to Santrich about 41 credentials that he has obtained for an equal number of guerrilla members to assist and participate in the officialy sponsored Bolivarian congress held in Caracas on December 6-9 2004. Furthermore Tivieras states that he is in...

Following are extracts from a letter to TAE's editor from a young West Point-educated Army officer who has been at the center of intelligence operations connected to two of the trickiest and most successful combat actions carried out by the U.S. military in the last half century--August 2004's Battle of Najaf and November's Battle of Fallujah. He provides details on the Fallujah fight, including the previously unreported revelation that Muslim holy warriors traffic in illicit drugs. On November 7, Prime Minister Allawi gave the green light to the American and Iraqi military. All day long, Air Force and Marine Corps...

MJB Posted on Mon Oct 25, 2004 12:12 pm  Your help is urgently needed – over on the Swift Vets message board there’s a thread that trying to unravel the financial dealings of John Kerry and a number of his key money people. There are some incredible people on this board – NavyChief, who did the leg work leading to Thomas Lipscomb’s recent article that Kerry was the only possible author of the after action report that led to his own Bronze Star medal; Navy Wife – who has helped to compile and post a treasure trove of documents relating...

OUR OPINION: KILLING IS A BLOW AGAINST ALL WHO VALUE TRUTH IN JOURNALISM The murder of Mexican journalist Francisco J. Ortiz Franco in Tijuana should be condemned in the strongest terms. By shooting this valiant newsman in front of his children, the killers not only committed a brutal act of cowardice, but also sought once more to intimidate a muckraking publication that represents some of the best in journalism. Mr. Ortiz Franco was a founding editor of the Zeta newsweekly, which frequently has exposed the nefarious deeds of narcotics traffickers, money launderers and their friends in positions of power. It...

GONAIVES, Haiti - The plane came from the south, as they all do, touching down on the dirt road here as a police convoy rumbled in from the capital to greet it. In the scrub nearby, dozens of neighbors watched from their huts. Presence Jae, a charcoal-maker and father of four, had seen the planes many times before that day in January, and he figured just a pound of its merchandise could forever deliver him from his bare-earth existence. But he was uninterested . ''I don't get involved,'' Jae said. ``These guys have large weapons.'' For the last two decades,...

<p>Prentiss Williams, flanked by his lawyers, Spiros Cocoves, left, and Jeff Helmick in juvenile court, is certified to be tried as an adult for a 1994 slaying.</p> <p>TOLEDO, OHIO -Prentiss Williams, the inmate who recently fired a smuggled gun inside the Lucas County jail, was once a hired killer, court records indicate.</p>

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/030505/ap/d7qrdhp01.html Tuesday May 6, 05:34 AM Powell: N. Korea Must Target Drug Trade Secretary of State Colin Powell added illicit narcotics Monday to nuclear weapons and missiles as programs North Korea must end to avoid being shunned by much of the world. Powell said North Korea's drug trafficking activities were highlighted two weeks ago when Australian sailors seized a North Korean cargo ship after it was said to have unloaded 110 pounds of heroin in southern Victoria state. North Korea also is believed to be a major supplier to Japan of methamphetamines, a potent stimulant that has long been the...

Antonio Maria Costa said that what is needed for the future is an increase in international support “in establishing and developing law enforcement institutions” and providing the local farmers with alternative crops. This year’s production is estimated to be worth around 200 million USD to its Afghan growers, far more than they would receive from conventional crops.

The main festivities will be held at the Kabul stadium where public executions were performed under the Taliban regime. To save money, the Afghan authorities decided not to hold the traditional military parade this year. President Hamid Karzai is expected to participate in the festivities and deliver a speech.

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - China marked U.N. anti-drug day by executing 64 people accused of drug crimes, officials and state media said Wednesday. Many of the executions on Tuesday and Wednesday came immediately after public rallies where thousands watched judges condemn the accused. China usually marks International Anti-Drug Day on June 26 with a wave of publicized executions, underscoring authorities' belief that harsh punishments are an effective weapon against the spread of drugs. Officials from the United Nations ( news - web sites) have said they do not condone the practice. Another 188 people also accused of drug crimes were...