ENN EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT-EmergencyNet NEWS Service-Friday, July 11, 1997 Vol. 1 - 192
New York Times Report; American
Lawmakers
Misinformed About Mexico and Drugs
By ENN News Team
NEW YORK CITY (ENN) - The New York Times was reporting on Friday (July 11th) that U.S. officials have been making decisions regarding drug trafficking in Mexico based on faulty or misread intelligence reports. The front-page report was entitled: "Mexico and Drugs: Was U.S. Napping?"
The report was said to be based upon a number of interviews and a review of "classified documents." The Times cited an example that occurred early in 1996, when "a handful of senior American officials in Washington received an alarming secret intelligence report on Mexico." The National Security Agency (NSA) discovered that Mexican drug traffickers had laundered about US$6 billion through Mexico's financial system. The U.S. State Department delivered an angry protest to the Mexican ambassador over the apparent vast breach of Mexico's defenses against drug trafficking and then, the Times said, there was allegedly no follow up. The newspaper did add, however, that all of the accusations could not be fully substantiated.
The Times also said that its review of other incidents "indicates the agency's discredited assessment was by no means an isolated lapse in the annals of U.S. intelligence on drugs and corruption in Mexico. Rather, as the United States weighed momentous decisions about Mexico in the 1990s -- from the North American Free Trade Agreement, to the $12.5 billion bailout of the Mexican economy after a currency crisis -- American policy makers were blindsided by some important developments, misinformed about others and inattentive to many more."
(c) Copyright, EmergencyNet NEWS Service, 1997. All Rights Reserved. Redistribution without permission is prohibited by law.
The ENN EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT is a subscription publication of the EmergencyNet NEWS Service, which is a part of the Chicago-based Emergency Response and Research Institute. This publication specializes in Law Enforcement/Fire/EMS/Disaster and Medical Issues.
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