re: "Grenadegate." "Worse Than Gunwalker?" Nah, but you are supposed to think so. Caveat lector -- let the reader beware.

Meet Vincent Cannistraro, retired CIA disinformation specialist.

I have been getting a lot of inbound mail about this and this.

Drug cartel sending U.S. weapons to Mexico

EL PASO, Texas, July 13 (UPI) -- A Mexican drug cartel may be smuggling military-grade weapons through El Paso, Texas, and Columbus, N.M., into Mexico, a former intelligence officer said

Phil Jordan, a former CIA operative, told the El Paso Times that the Zetas drug organization might be planning to disrupt Mexico's 2012 elections or use the weapons to fight other cartels.

Jordan, who served as director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center in 1995, said the Zetas have shipped large amounts of weapons purchased in the Dallas area through El Paso.

Robert "Tosh" Plumlee, a former CIA contract pilot, told the Times he supported Jordan's allegations, adding that the Zetas have reportedly bought property in the Columbus, N.M., border region to stash weapons and other contraband.

"From the intel, it appears that a company was set up in Mexico to purchase weapons through the U.S. Direct Commercial Sales Program, and that the company may have had a direct link to the Zetas."

Last year the direct sales program was used to provide Mexico with $416.5 million worth of weapons and equipment, U.S. statistics indicate.

A spokeswoman for the El Paso DEA office said the agency does not have any information about the Zetas operating in the border region.

Well, I've got to admit that last is a bit of hysterically funny non-information.

So, yes, thank you, I am aware of the stories.

But, no, thank you, I am not inclined to believe them.

Agendas and disinformation come in all shapes and sizes and from all directions.

"Tosh" Plumlee, upon whom much of the sensational part of this story hangs, has a history of both according to my sources.

And those sources, I have learned from experience, CAN be trusted.

Owen's story headline is: "Worse Than Gunwalker? State Dept. Allegedly Sold Guns to Zetas: It’s a stunning allegation that makes the other gunrunning scandals look like child’s play."

Yes, well, it is supposed to. In fact, it was probably designed to.

I am also reminded of the OKC bombing, when former CIA man Vince Cannistraro announced on the day after that it was all the work of Islamic radicals, when in fact that story served to deflect interest away from Andreas Carl Strassmeier, the "security chief" at Elohim City, Oklahoma who had been provided a Virginia driver's license and Social Security number by CIA man Vincent Petruskie. McVeigh, whoever he was ultimately working for, had evidentiary ties to Strassmeier, the Aryan Republican Army, and Elohim City. Strassmeier, however, was a federal informant, as was the guy who ran EC, the "Reverend" Robert Millar, also known by some as "the Whitey Bulger of the Ozarks."

Long after OKC, Cannistraro, who had retired from CIA in 1991, was floating disinformation about WMD's in Iraq, and Saddam Hussein's ties to OBL and AQ, in support of the agency's (and Bush's) agenda there.

Jordan certainly could be following the pattern of Cannistraro and "Waco Jim" Cavanaugh, two other retirees who serve their former bosses by making allegations and statements that serve a specific purpose. Allegations that, because they are merely "reports" and "intel" whispered by "experts" NOT IN THE GOVERNMENT cannot be verified by inspecting them under oath.

This is not rocket science, although I confess that had I not had the experiences that we had with disinformation such as Cannistraro's during the private investigation of the OKC bombing, I might myself be more easily gulled by such stuff.

As I said, and it bears repeating, agendas and disinformation come in all shapes and sizes and from all directions.

In fact, right now in the Gunwalker Scandal is the perfect time for it, from a certain point of view -- that of the plotters themselves. The credulous WILL get taken in, and confusion will reign. That only serves the cover-up.

As we get closer to the core of the boil that is Gunwalker, you will hear and see more of it. Don't lose sight of the facts as we know them and the essential thing.

"The enemy's gate is down."