Clinton: Mexico Violence Could "Mushroom"

Secretary Of State Tells CBS News War On Border May Escalate If Arms, Drugs Trafficking Not Stopped

(CBS)  CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports that the U.S. Secretary of State came to Mexico this week with a very deliberate message: that America is partly to blame for Mexico's crime wave and the war against the drug cartels.

"We have to recognize and accept that the demand for drugs from the United States drives them north," Clinton told Logan, "and the guns that are used by the drug cartels against the police and the military - 90 percent of them come from America."

Those guns are being used in bloodshed that has left a trail of bodies in Mexico's border cities - right on America's doorstep.

Asked whether she thought the issue posed a present security threat to the United States, Clinton said, "No. What I think is that it has to be stopped now."

That sense of urgency is fueled in part by the possibility that terrorists could take advantage of the chaos and join forces with Mexico's drug cartels.

"We saw it in Colombia, where the insurgents made friends with the drug traffickers. We're seeing it in Afghanistan. We're watching the poppy trade help to fuel al Qaeda and Taliban extremists there," Clinton told CBS News.

"We know that where huge amounts of money are involved and ruthless people without conscience or morals are involved, we have to be quick to respond and recognize that left unchecked, this could, you know, mushroom," she added.

Clinton rejected outright the idea that Mexico was in danger of becoming a failed state, but she acknowledged that the drug cartels were better armed than Mexico's military.

America's top diplomat has been well-received in Mexico, where many feel the problem of the cross-border drugs and arms trafficking is finally getting the attention it deserves.

[Bullfighter11]

Use NATO troops to guard our borders.

Then, when Mexicans force their way into the US, Mexico will be starting a war with 26 countries instead of just one.

We helped them. It's time for NATO to help us.

[thetireguy1]

Where was our military when millions of illegals walked across our boarders?
i say to stop illegals from causing more problems in America, stop all buses that travel
to other states require photo Id if you don't have one then you should be stopped at
point A and then returned to your homeland, not freely traveling around America!
Drugs and illegals are now our problem and its time we stop it in their tracks!!!

Check the serial numbers of these weapons! That will tell us all we need to know.

[formrusmcsgt]

Despite billions spent over several decades, the drugs continue to come across the border.

As long as they are contraband, trafficing will continue regardless of how much more we waste trying to stop it.

[noloyalisti]

quawpawsix is exactly right about the witch hunt. This is yet another lame attempt by the big corporate media to demonize people. To make a bunch of people frightened so they can be manipulated again like the brainless Bush neo conservative crime family did.

[quapawsix]

Sounds like Big Brother to me[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[
Stronger Gun Control Laws, Fingerprint owners pryor to gun purchase,
Set up a national database including Ballistics tests pryor to selling.
Once the Legal Purchaser becomes a convicted felon, he forfeits his right to bear arms
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[noloyalisti]

I thought that the embarrassment of Bushoccio suspended Posse Comitatus. And a lot of the troops in the military occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq are National Guard who could help at the border.

[quapawsix]

The witch hunt continues

[noloyalisti]

America created a lot of this problem by passing NAFTA. Also we backed yet another right winger president to follow a failed capitalistic rape of foreign countries.

And what are we doing sending thousands of troops halfway around the world to two failed quagmires when we have this problem right here?

[1American]

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced 7,500 weapons seized in Mexican drug raids - many them AK-47-type rifles - back to the United States...'
LawyersGuns-n-Money

BATF's Statistics have been proven false too many times for me to take them at face value. They are just like any other Govt. Agency, willing to lie their backside off to justify their existance. You're going to have to do better than that.

[pensacola8-2009]

One easy way to stop purchases from those who have corruptible intentions is to require a buyer to show their last 3 years W-2's and their Federal Tax Returns and have a sales person able to verify their authenticity with the IRS. If the buyer is unemployed, but not retired, or they can not show income from W-2's that are verfiable, the sale should be denied.

This should effectively balance second amendment rights with the needs to deny weapon sales to the most vulnerable to corruption - those who don't work honestly for a living.

[honestabe8]

I looked up "politician" in the dictionary. It is a combination of "Poly", meaning many and "tics", meaning blood sucking insects.

[1American]

The Mexicans will not furnish the serial Numbers so they can be traced, sirmarion-2009

And the trace would lead back to the origional manufacturer of the weapon. Back in the late 80s many of the M16s, used by street gangs on the West Coast were traced to the US Government. The weapons were the ones the US gave the Vietnamese and Thai military who later refurbished them and sold them on the international black market.
Most of the weaponry found in Mexico comes from South America. Brazil is a large "exporter" of black market weapons and my money is on Venezuela supplying the AKs as they were building a Kalashnikov factory there a year or two back. For their own use of course.

[caligula1--2008]

"Border crossing into Mexico is as simple as driving. There are no checkpoints going south from San Diego, California. From Laredo, Texas, driving into Mexico does have part time coverage of the bridge traffic, but almost no one gets stopped. "

Gee, you'd think if even the Mexicans themselves believed all this "US Guns Are The Source of All Our Woes" ******** that they'd bother to do a cursory check at the border, or even a more intense check the way we do for drugs. It's almost impossible to get drugs across the border at a regulated crossing because of our diligence. If they're serious about this issue they'll start instituting some diligence themselves.

Funny, in the US where owning weapons is enshrined in our constitution we have relative peace, but in Mexico where only the elite civilian can legally own a weapon, violence runs rampant. We have far more firepower per citizen, and far less violence, but still, the morons blame the guns and not the people. Don't you see the logical inconsistency in that position?

One hell of alot more Americans have died from Mexico sourced narcotics than Mexicans have died from US smuggled weapons. Gun control phreaks, please get over yourselves, not that this is likely to happen as it has been shown in studies that once someone puts serious emotional investment in a political issue their logical centers seem to shut down like a bank with no money . . . OK, nowadays, maybe not such a good analogy.

[pensacola8-2009]

It is a fact that the guns were purchased and San Antonio and Houston, Texas at gun shows. Cartel's have approached American citizens and paid them to buy the weapons for them. Many Americans do it knowing it is easy money and indend to use their right to assert "plausible deniability" that they didn't know they were buying weapons that would ultimately be transported into Mexico.

Gun shows have been imposing the camera ban from those that attend with intentions of concealing the identity of those who buy weapons. Some say it was because the news media started their cameras when the most stereotypical citizens who appeared ignorant and intimidating, appeared to buy weapons.

Cartels used to kidnap citizens and demand family and relatives to provide cash and weapons as a condition for release of their captives.

By far, the easiest way to acquire a weapon has been to find a corruptible citizen who is unemployed and needs money.

Border crossing into Mexico is as simple as driving. There are no checkpoints going south from San Diego, California. From Laredo, Texas, driving into Mexico does have part time coverage of the bridge traffic, but almost no one gets stopped.

It is too easy. For years, the USA watched and knew stolen cars were being driven into Mexico, but didn't stop any of them.

[sirmarion-2009]

PROOF,,whers the proof,the guns are coming from America?. The Mexicans will not furnish the serial Numbers so they can be traced,So its just inuendos and conjecture..Anyway the way Hillary lies,its hard to believe any thing she says,she probably dodged snipner fire in El Paso?

[erasmus111]

However, where did this 90% of the guns coming from the US come from. Even though gun sales are prolific here, I'm not sure we arent' just repeating a huge exaggeration somebody came up with.

Posted by JoanPope at 9:31 AM : Mar 26, 2009

I really doubt that it's an exaggeration. Where I live, in Canada, what little gun crime there was, most of the guns were traced back to the U.S. We are now starting to see an increase in gun crime.

[sly_64]

I always said the best thing I ever did in PA was leave.
Posted by buanneyphwank
-------------------------------------
Boo Eagles and Steelers.
Posted by TheMasses18

Best thing I ever did in NJ was leave.

[sly_64]

Legalize drugs, problem solved. The government cannot be everyone's mother.

[honestabe8]

Get a clue the government will have a monopoly. - jimmyc

an adult can make their own beer or wine. the same could be done for weed. no government monopoly. people grow their own.