For those of you who don't read La Jornada, I refer you to their article on November 10.
En Tres Marías, los federales intentaron asesinar a los funcionarios de EU: PGR
En Tres Marías, los federales intentaron asesinar a los funcionarios de EU: PGR
After more than two months of investigation, on November 9, Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office (Procuraduría General de la República) confirmed that it was formally charging 14 federal police agents for an August 24 attack on a US embassy armored Toyota Land Cruiser on a road near the Tres Marías community, south of Mexico City in the state of Morelos.
The PGR Agents claimed that they mistook the Toyota Land Cruiser with diplomatic license plates containing two Central Intelligence Agency annuitants, working actively for the CIA and a Mexican Naval Captain assigned to Fuerza de Infantería de Marina ( Naval Infantry) for members of a gang that perpetrated a local kidnapping. It is a stretch to believe that the PGR Agents could think that, but that was their story before they were "interrogated". Interrogation in Mexico is not the tender experience that most Americans can relate to (as portrayed both on television and in real life).
The two CIA Case Officers were wounded in the incident by spawl and bullet proof glass flaking as bullets repeatedly struck it.According to La Jornada, The PGR charged that the 14 Mexican police agents "tried to take the lives" of the three men in the embassy vehicle. Investigators determined that the agents were driving private cars and were in civilian clothes when they attacked the embassy's van, which was surrounded by the agents' vehicles. Investigators said that the Armored Toyota Land Cruiser was hit with 152 bullets.
The PGR's formal charges didn't mention possible links to organized crime, but PGR sources indicated they believed three of the agents had ties to the Beltrán Leyva drug cartel. The 14 agents are being held in maximum-security prisons in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and in Puente Grande, Jalisco.
Much of this investigation could have been shortcut if the CIA had listened to knowledgable sources close to the Beltran Leyva Organization with whom they were in constant contact. Sadly, they didn't use the assets available to them and their "investigation" was prolonged and their findings in the end are skewed without a first-hand account from the person who ordered the attack and paid the PGR officers through cut-outs. The real question is whether or not the CIA cares whether its findings are correct or not. One can only presume that they don't. While I'm not going into further detail on this, read the tea leaves and decide for yourselves.
CIA had a personnel turnover in Mexico right before the attack. One can speculate that the people with the skill to follow through with these inquiries had left the country.
And taking it one step further, having not pursued this, how can they know when it's going to happen again?
Hmmm. The CIA seems to be showing some cracks of late.
ReplyDeleteThe CIA is extremely risk-averse. The Benghazi Affair/Scandal/Terrorist Attack simply compounded the internal belief that doing nothing is better than doing something. For example, if the CIA hadn't been there in-country, there would have been no attack on THEIR ANNEX. The attack on the Consulate would seem to be a foregone conclusion since all of the other Missions (The British and the International Red Cross) left because they'd been attacked.
ReplyDeleteThe CIA's position in Mexico is somewhat tenuous because they are forced (because of decisions made in Washington) to walk a line wherein MOST of their people simply remain (cowering) in the US Embassy in Mexico City and other US Offices such the Office of Bilateral Implementation, down the street from the Embassy.
From a security perspective purely, it puts them in the position where they are forced to almost completely rely on others (co-opted in large part by drug cartels) to feed them information rather than getting it themselves -- because of that fear of disclosure that the CIA is at work in Mexico. There is a gentleman's agreement between themselves and the Mexicans wherein they won't go into or send anyone into the field to collect intelligence. This is why there were so paranoid about sending people to inquire as to the cause of the attack - thus formulating an in-house proactive strategy against seeing it happen yet again.
I know that it makes no sense. It's simply how things work in Mexico - and US dysfunction in Mexico is every bit as evident as it is as US dysfunction in Washington DC.