While Langley Fiddles...

Real danger lurks south of the border:

Dirt roads trace pale lines across a desolate landscape of bald peaks and plunging canyons near Texas' Big Bend and bridge the border at dozens of improvised crossings. For decades, these routes have been used to smuggle drugs and humans. Now there is growing concern they could become deadly conduits for terrorism.

The concern is buttressed by a confidential but unclassified FBI intelligence bulletin, obtained by The Dallas Morning News, that contains the vague outlines of a possible terrorist plot.

Officials from both sides of the border played down the possible threat but acknowledged that it is the sort of scenario they have to guard against. The prospect of terrorists crossing the southern border has been a rising concern among officials in Texas and Washington.

The plot, according to uncorroborated information provided by an FBI informant, involves a man, described as an Arab who goes by the nickname "El Español," and Ernesto Zatarín Beliz, also known as El Traca, suspected of being a Mexican drug trafficker and member of the Zetas, the feared enforcers of the notorious Gulf cartel.

"El Español is gathering truck drivers with knowledge of truck routes in the United States and explosive experts" in the state of Coahuila, according to the March 11 memo, which originated in the San Diego FBI office and was made available by a U.S. attorney's office. The informant "believes that the activity in Coahuila, Mexico, is terrorist related."

In exchange for the Zetas' help in recruiting drivers, the memo says, the Arab – who barely speaks Spanish – promised to help them fund and execute a plan to free Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cárdenas from prison. The Gulf cartel is embroiled in a bloody turf war with rival traffickers for control of Nuevo Laredo, a key drug smuggling route into the U.S.

According to the FBI memo, El Traca was attempting to recruit a security guard at a Mexican government explosives factory in Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila, to assist with the Arab's plan. The region is known for producing nitric acid and ammonium nitrate, materials that are used for industrial and agricultural purposes and can also be ingredients for explosives.

The informant has "provided reliable narcotics intelligence in the past," the bulletin says, but it adds that the informant also flunked two polygraph tests.

The San Diego FBI analyst who wrote the document declined to comment. The division's spokeswoman said publication of such sensitive information would undermine the bureau's mission.

"We are trying to protect national security," said Special Agent Jan Caldwell. "We can't do that when things like this are put in newspapers."

A senior Mexican intelligence official said the information in the memo had not been corroborated.

"The informant paved a road that led nowhere," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. He added that Mexican federal agents spent "literally weeks chasing down the information, only to come up empty-handed."

It would be nice, of course, if Dubya were less friendly toward Mexican president Vincente Fox, who doesn't seem to have been any help at all at closing off the southern corridor for drug traffickers and terrorists.