Informed Source
A notorious street gang based in El Salvador has rapidly spread into at least 31 U.S. states and raised enough concern for the Justice Department to create a new high-level task force to battle it. But the head of the task force says the gang has no Al Qaeda connections - despite comments made Monday by El Salvador’s president.
“The FBI, in concert with the US intelligence community and government of several Central American republics, has determined that there is no basis in fact to support this allegation of Al Qaeda or even radical Islamic ties to MS13 [a.ka. Mara Salvatrucha],” says Robert Clifford, director of the new force, who is in El Salvador this week to discuss cooperation with his Central American counterparts.
Last year, Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez raised an alarm when he said that Al Qaeda might be trying to recruit Central American gang members to help terrorists infiltrate the US. On Monday, Salvadoran President Tony Saca echoed this theme, saying he could “not rule out a link between terrorists and Central American gang members.”
Such assertions are being heard in the United States as well. Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D) of Texas said last month: “We know from El Salvadoran law enforcement that Al Qaeda is meeting with violent gang leaders in El Salvador. We have also had reports that Middle Easterners have been sighted on the banks of the Rio Grande.”
However, Mr. Clifford unequivocally dismisses this theory. “Very unlikely,” says the former Middle East security specialist. “To have something as sophisticated as Al Qaeda overtly align and identify itself with a group of misfits is improbable.”