Sen. Luger calls for more US surveillance help on Mexican border

Reuters:

The Obama administration should provide additional resources to help Mexico as the two countries try to root out drug traffickers along their shared border, according to a senior Senate Republican.

Senator Richard Lugar, the influential top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on Obama to consider using the U.S. military and intelligence community to provide more surveillance assets to help interdict drugs and weapons crossing the border to and from Mexico.

"Transnational drug trafficking organizations operating from Mexico represent the most immediate national security threat faced by the United States in the Western Hemisphere," he said in prepared remarks for a Mexican prosecutors conference on Sunday in Indiana, which were provided to Reuters.

"The United States should undertake a broad review of further steps the U.S. military and the intelligence community could take to help combat the Mexican cartels in association with the Mexican government," Lugar said, suggesting aviation, surveillance and other intelligence assets.

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I agree. We should also help Mexico with counterinsurgency training to deal with the criminal insurgency. While Mexico is reluctant to call what is happening an insurgency, aside from trying to overthrow the central government, there is not much different and on the local level there is none.

The fact of the matter is that counterinsurgency operations of protecting the people will lead to better intelligence and a better opportunity to get control of the criminal organizations making war against each other and the people of Mexico.