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August 7, 2010

A geography quiz

Norah Petersen

Geography Quiz: What world location is described below?

"We have armed paramilitary squad-sized elements coming through ... every day and every night."

A. Somalia?
B. Afghanistan?
C. Columbia?

Answer: Pinal County, Arizona.

The description quoted above is what Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County told Fox News's Sean Hannity earlier this week.Sheriff Babeu has previously said that such paramilitary squads are related to drug and human smugglers who illegally enter the United States through the Mexican border. Hannity accurately pointed out: "This is a national security issue, we don't control our borders, somebody can come over into America because they want a job or they want hope or they want opportunity; so too can the enemies of this country." Indeed, Mexican and South American drug cartels have known connections to the Islamic terrorist organization Hezbollah. Last year, The Washington Times reported:

Hezbollah is using the same southern narcotics routes that Mexican drug kingpins do to smuggle drugs and people into the United States, reaping money to finance its operations and threatening U.S. national security, current and former U.S. law enforcement, defense and counterterrorism officials say.

The Iran-backed Lebanese group has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America's tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Increasingly, however, it is relying on Mexican narcotics syndicates that control access to transit routes into the U.S.

Hezbollah relies on "the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels," said Michael Braun, who just retired as assistant administrator and chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

"They work together," said Mr. Braun. "They rely on the same shadow facilitators. One way or another, they are all connected."

But, never fear, the Obama administration has assured us that the border is "as secure now as it has ever been."

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