Al Qaeda and the ogue air network

Chilling Reuters story in the National Post today about a rogue aviation network smuggling huge quantities of drugs across the Atlantic and its links with terrorists. I sure hope authorities in the United States are paying attention. It also shows why we have to pay attention to the growing friendship between Chavez and Ahmedinejad and the porous U.S. border with Mexico. It means we also have to pay attention to the links among radical Islam, drug narco-terrorists and the radical left. But alas, I fear our authorities will remain asleep at the switch as will most of our news media. Thank God for the National Post and the conservative blogosphere.

Reuters reports:

TIMBUKTU, Mali -- In early 2008, an official at the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security sent a report to his superiors detailing what he called "the
most significant development in the criminal exploitation of aircraft since
9/11."

The document warned that a growing fleet of rogue jet aircraft was
regularly crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean. On one end of the air route, it
said, are cocaine-producing areas in the Andes controlled by the leftist
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. On the other are some of West Africa's
most unstable countries.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, was ignored, and the problem has since escalated into what security officials in several countries describe as a global security threat.

The clandestine fleet has grown to include twin-engine turboprops, executive jets and retired Boeing 727s that are flying multi-ton loads of cocaine and possibly weapons to an area in Africa where factions of al-Qaeda are believed to be facilitating the smuggling of drugs to Europe, the officials say.