There are more important threats than Al Quaida

(Updated 16-Feb)

This is nonsense, but there is a real threat to Mexico looming (besides GM Corn):

 MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico said on Wednesday its crude oil installations were safe, after a Saudi wing of al Qaeda called for attacks on U.S. oil sources around the world.

Mexico, which ships about 1.4 million barrels per day of crude to the United States, tightened security around its Gulf of Mexico oil rigs in 2005 in line with international norms, a spokeswoman at state-run oil monopoly Pemex said.

…

The Mexican border is seen as a soft point in the U.S. war on terror. Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants cross it annually but reports in recent years about Arab terrorists attempting to enter the United States from Mexico have turned out to be false.

Blogotitlan wonders if this “new” Al Quada “theat” doesn’t have more to do with immigration, and U.S. interests than anything in Mexico:

En preludio a la visita de Michael Chertoff, secretario de Seguridad Nacional de EU, se difundieron presuntas amenazas de Al Qaeda contra instalaciones petroleras de México. Buena ocasión para que los gringos se ofrezcan a vigilar yacimientos.

This is the real threat:

Cactus-eating moth reaches Mexico

Buena ocasión para que los gringos se ofrezcan a vigilar yacimientos.

By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — A non-native moth whose larvae threaten to decimate Mexico’s emblematic flat-leafed cactus has invaded the mainland for the first time, experts said Wednesday, an event that authorities have feared for decades.

Lab reports indicated that at least one moth trapped in the resort city of Cancun since January is a South American “nopal moth,” a species detected last year off the coast on Isla Mujeres, said Hector Sanchez, Mexico’s director of plant safety.

… the moths probably flew across the narrow strait that separates the island from Mexico’s Caribbean coast or caught a ride on a ferry. He added that workers have set out more special moth traps and are inspecting the region’s cacti.

Known as Cactoblastis Cactorum and native to Argentina, the moth was exported to Australia, South Africa and islands throughout the Caribbean starting in the 1920s to eradicate cacti that occupied valuable farm land.

But in countries like Mexico — where flat-leafed Opuntia cactuses known as “nopales” are a food source, an important part of the ecosystem and a national emblem — the moth poses a major threat.

About 50,000 Mexican farm families make a living from the $100 million annual market for boiled, tender cactus leaves and prickly pear fruit.

Scientists say the moths were probably carried onto Isla Mujeres by visitors or blown there by a hurricane from nearby Caribbean islands, where they have been sighted since the 1950s.

The moths — whose larvae eat away the cacti’s insides — also appeared in the United States in 1989.