United States concerned with smuggling in Mexican trucks
Issue date: 4/5/07 Section: World News
That view, however, assumes that a would-be terrorist would come from the Middle East and discounts the fact that there are large numbers of Spanish-speaking immigrants in countries such as Paraguay and Argentina, where U.S. officials report widespread support for Hezbollah and Hamas, two groups that the United States considers terrorist organizations.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9-11 attacks, who's also implicated in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, used his own Pakistani passport in 1995 to travel to South America's so-called tri-border region, where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. In 1998, the United States asked Brazil to capture Mohammed on a tip that he was hiding in the area. He was captured in Pakistan on March 1, 2002, and is in detention at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.
Del Rio Virgen expressed confidence that Mexico's navy has adequate resources to protect its oil installations, and bristled when he heard that a reporter had penetrated port security.
"I know many Mexicans who have crossed your border, some who even work in Washington," he said. "That doesn't mean there isn't protection" in the United States.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9-11 attacks, who's also implicated in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, used his own Pakistani passport in 1995 to travel to South America's so-called tri-border region, where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. In 1998, the United States asked Brazil to capture Mohammed on a tip that he was hiding in the area. He was captured in Pakistan on March 1, 2002, and is in detention at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.
Del Rio Virgen expressed confidence that Mexico's navy has adequate resources to protect its oil installations, and bristled when he heard that a reporter had penetrated port security.
"I know many Mexicans who have crossed your border, some who even work in Washington," he said. "That doesn't mean there isn't protection" in the United States.
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