Drugs & Crime

For all you national security law junkies, here's a firsthand report from my CNAS colleague Jennifer Bernal on the American Bar Association's two-day long annual hoedown on National Security Law. (I know, what was second prize?):

There was one panel that I made not sure not to miss: 'Narco-violence Along the Border,' correctly -- in my opinion -- flagged as 'an emerging issue in national security law.'

I work on issues related to this narco-violence at CNAS, so I found the fact that this issue was prominently featured at the ABA conference both striking and encouraging. Now, as with most unsettling geopolitical phenomena, one can argue at different levels whether and how the situation in Mexico poses a national security threat to the United States. (The 'failed state' argument that an unstable southern neighbor is inherently detrimental to U.S. security versus the view that only considers direct attacks on the U.S. homeland, and so on.) What is certain is that the drug war in Mexico now routinely spills across the border. (It's why cities in places like Arizona are now tremendously unsafe, with drug-related kidnapping rates that have tripled in the past eight years.)

As the panel moderator put it: To what extent should we deal with drug-trafficking groups with the same methods we use with terrorist ones? How should the U.S. government handle the line between law-enforcement and intelligence- and military-oriented responses? Given a national legal framework that depends on formal categories (citizen vs. non-citizen, state vs. non-state) and the ways in which drug violence and associated problems repeatedly defy them, the answers are complicated indeed.

Unfortunately, the panel fell flat of my expectations by omitting to address these questions completely. The preceding discussion, 'Legislative Update on Developments in National Security Law,' was as jargon-y as you would expect from its title, setting my expectations for the upcoming one. Yet -- and as ironic as this sounds -- what was missing from the panel on narco-violence was a discussion of, well, law. What we got instead was a very thorough run-down of the situation in Mexico. The panelists discussed mounting death tolls (more than 5,600 casualties in 2008 alone), the alarming amount of manpower and firepower wielded by cartels, the chaotic nature of the confrontations between them, as well as the ways in which the U.S. exacerbates the conflict (drug demand and gun supply). Most of this information was on point, but it never evolved into a policy discussion.

Fact: most people don't know as much as they should about Mexico. (This became painfully obvious during a low moment in the panel when the speaker asked the audience a number of very basic questions about the country, to astounding general silence.) There's value to informing people. Yet I would have hoped for more from a discussion hosted by the ABA. Even what is arguably the biggest and most obvious legal question when it comes to policies to curb U.S. drug demand, the de-criminalization of marijuana, emerged as an afterthought in the very last question of the Q&A. Really?

Certainly, even just getting the facts right is important. It's also why I'll take this chance briefly to discuss two particular items of misinformation that I hear cited at just about every turn. I don't mean to claim that they're the most important, only that they keep coming up and require clarification.

(Read on)

My CNAS homie retired Army Col. Bob Killebrew has a good piece in Small Wars Journal on crime and terrorism. As you might expect, the news isn't good. Bob, a longtime mentor of mine, is especially worried by the nexus of drugs, crime and insurgency, and their effect on the way we live: "the explosion of the illicit economy, the merger of crime and terrorism, and their reach inside our borders, have added a new and possibly more imminent challenge to our safety -- not only at the national level, but on our streets."

Rich Man/Flickr

A veteran Special Forces trainer, one-time Sgt. 1st Class Kelly Stewart, fluent in German and knowledgeable about evasion techniques, is convicted in Vilseck, Germany, of sexual assault and kidnapping, and then sent to a hotel room escorted only by a sleepy member of his unit? And the Army is surprised that he takes off and disappears in the black Audi Q5? (But he eventually saw the light and turned himself in. But apparently not before taking some poison that wound him up in intensive care at Walter Reed. This guy is out to beat the astronaut lady who wore Depends.)

Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

The U.S. embassy in Kabul says it is firing its frat boy security contractors. This brings to mind a recent news report that the British security guard charged with murdering two of his colleagues in the Green Zone early in August had a criminal record back in the UK. He actually left Britain despite being on probation for robbery and firearms offenses, the papers reported.

Wikimedia Commons

That's my headline of the day. I doubt it is true, and it has nothing to do with defense--except maybe against aliens and hopped-up macropods--but what a headline! Whoever wrote it should take off the rest of this week.

An Italian cruise ship repelled Somali pirates with firearms and fire hoses. Do I smell a business opportunity here for Soldier of Fortune magazine-a special "Clearing the High Seas" cruise, with daily .50 cal practice over the stern rail?

Flickr user Ben Sutherland

Police in Guatemala police rousted out an training camp being run there by Zeta, one of the major Mexican drug cartels. Reportedly the fleeing trainees left behind some 500 hand grenades, along with some rifles and ammunition. The camp also had an airstrip, an obstacle course, and a shooting range with moving targets.   

Army Capt. Michael Nguyen was the civil affairs officer for a battalion in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, until recently. But he allegedly took the wads of cash he was supposed to distribute for humanitarian aid and reconstruction projects and instead mailed them home to himself. All told, he is charged with waltzing off with $690,000. A West Point graduate, Nguyen bought a BMW and a Hummer. (One post on a West Point alumni discussion board says his mistake was that he should have married and hidden the money in his wife's account.) 

You've got to wonder when the battalion commander and operations officer woke up to the fact that the aid and reconstruction they were paying for wasn't happening. Then again, the battalion commander in an unusual move requested relief six months into his unit's tour in Iraq and then retired from the military, according to the Tacoma News-Tribune.

Photo: Flickr user alsalam