Create an FP account to save articles to read later and in the FP mobile app.

Sign Up

ALREADY AN FP SUBSCRIBER? LOGIN

Don’t trust Iranian journalists, Gen. Kelly tells Latin America

Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, the new top commander of U.S. forces for Latin and South America, warned countries in the region not to trust the ongoing Iranian diplomatic and cultural offensive there. For the past five to six years, Kelly said today at the Pentagon, Iran has expanded its embassies and cultural centers, and ...

By Kevin Baron

March 20, 2013, 8:38 PM

Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, the new top commander of U.S. forces for Latin and South America, warned countries in the region not to trust the ongoing Iranian diplomatic and cultural offensive there.

For the past five to six years, Kelly said today at the Pentagon, Iran has expanded its embassies and cultural centers, and although he claimed Iran’s efforts were not making much headway in general, he did say that certain countries need to wise up.

“They’re not getting much traction, by the way, in terms of influence,” Kelly said, of Iran’s South American push. “Although there are some Latin American countries that I won’t go into that are concerned.”

“I’ve warned some of the — made mention to some of our friends in the region that these guys are very, very good at what they do. And very skilled at what they do. And that people should just be careful as to who they’re dealing with, whether they claim to be an Iranian journalist or Iranian peace worker or something, just to be careful because these often times are not what they appear to be or that their stated — what they’re doing in their country.”

“So I just, I think I need to let it go at that and can’t get into anything classified.”

Kelly, who was senior military assistant to Defense Secretaries Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, was back at the Pentagon after briefing members of Congress this week. Now with a fourth star, Kelly did something rare for the military’s combatant commanders: he came to the Pentagon briefing and took open questions from the press corps.

“I’m a rock star,” Kelly said of his reputation in Latin and South America. The region is hungry for American military help, especially in joint forces training and in stopping narco-trafficking.

Kelly said that 150-200 tons of drugs are caught before they reach U.S. shores “with a minimal number of surface ships and ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance).” But the lingering sequester fight in Washington, on top of the $487 billion in Budget Control Act cuts, could have an effect. For every ship he has to take out of service, Kelly said that 20-25 tons of additional narcotics will make it into the United States.

“Do I have enough assets? I don’t,” he said. “Even in the normal period before sequestration, I had only a fraction of what I could effectively use.”

Kevin Baron is a national security reporter for Foreign Policy, covering defense and military issues in Washington. He is also vice president of the Pentagon Press Association. Baron previously was a national security staff writer for National Journal, covering the "business of war." Prior to that, Baron worked in the resident daily Pentagon press corps as a reporter/photographer for Stars and Stripes. For three years with Stripes, Baron covered the building and traveled overseas extensively with the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, covering official visits to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Middle East and Europe, China, Japan and South Korea, in more than a dozen countries. From 2004 to 2009, Baron was the Boston Globe Washington bureau's investigative projects reporter, covering defense, international affairs, lobbying and other issues. Before that, he muckraked at the Center for Public Integrity. Baron has reported on assignment from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the South Pacific. He was won two Polk Awards, among other honors. He has a B.A. in international studies from the University of Richmond and M.A. in media and public affairs from George Washington University. Originally from Orlando, Fla., Baron has lived in the Washington area since 1998 and currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife, three sons, and the family dog, The Edge. Twitter: @FPBaron