GOP LAWMAKER SAYS IRANIANS INFILTRATING FROM MEXICO



"Iran is working with Venezuela. And they're transiting through Venezuela, taking Spanish for maybe six months. They're getting the false documents that they need, coming up through Mexico and if they're stopped, they just say well I'm Spanish... the other thing that we're seeing... in the prisons is Farsi tattoos. Farsi is basically a Persian language, which Iran is... That's a pretty good indication that these people coming across our border are not just coming from Mexico..."
--Representative Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/14/sue-myricks-latest-conspi_n_646093.html

This Republican congresswoman, who is on the House Intelligence Committee, believes that Iran sends agents to Venezuela to be trained in Spanish, so they can cross the Mexican border into the US, where so many end up in prison that they can be spotted by their Farsi tattoos.

This fear-mongering fantasy neatly combines Iran, Chavez, the Mexican border, immigration reform, and olive-skinned prisoners unto a call for action. Dislike of immigrants was not enough; now fear of Iran is being used to justify more defenses on the Mexican border. And it also increases the support for an attack on Iran.

In analyzing this "intelligence", I expect that:
1. There are Iranians in Venezuela as a result of the trade and military exchanges between the two countries.
2. The people in the trade and military missions are learning each other's languages.
3. No Spanish-speaking Iranian agents have been caught on the Mexican border.
3. The tattoos on the US prisoners are Arabic, and the prisoners are Hispanics and/or converts to Islam, who speak no Farsi and have no connection to Iran.