Cartels and gangs pose the most direct danger to the U.S., intelligence officials said Tuesday as they delivered their annual global threat assessment to Congress. [emphasis, links added]
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said they have flooded America with drugs, helped illegal immigrants swamp the border, and are growing increasingly violent in the areas south of the border where they operate.
She said the cartels and gangs are what “most immediately and directly threaten the United States.”
She pointed to more than 50,000 synthetic opioid deaths she attributed to the cartels and to the largely Chinese firms that supply the precursor drugs as the largest manifestation of the threat.
Ms. Gabbard said the U.S. still faces threats from the Islamic State and challenges from Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China, which she labeled as America’s most dangerous state foe.
“China stands out as the actor most capable of threatening U.S. interests globally,” she said, though she said the communist country is more cautious than the others, chiefly because it doesn’t want to risk its economy or global image.
Left out of the report is any mention of climate change, which had been in previous assessments.
Sen. Angus King, Maine independent, said that was odd.
Sen Angus King spent his time today grilling Tulsi Gabbard about the national security threat of….climate change.
“Has global climate change been solved? Who made the decision that it should not be in this report??” pic.twitter.com/C6ikSt63an
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) March 25, 2025
“Did you instruct that there be no finding in terms of climate change in this report?” he demanded of Ms. Gabbard.
“I don’t recall giving that instruction,” she replied.
Democrats also chided the intelligence leaders over the exclusion of any mention of Canada in the drug smuggling concerns.
Read rest at Washington Times
