ANTI-TERRORISM OFFICIALS TAKE AIM AT GIANT BORDER WEED

A giant, aggressive weed growing along the border with Mexico is
draining massive quantities of water, overrunning roads and bridges
and providing cover for illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and anyone
else trying to sneak into the country, the Homeland Security Department says.

Called Carrizo cane, the invasive, non-native plant grows stalks up
to 18 feet tall and can get so dense it makes roads impassable.

"It's like a big spider web" that stretches for hundreds of miles
along the Rio Grande, says Hilario Leal, a Border Patrol agent in Del
Rio, Texas.

A "veteran of scratched eyes and hands" who once got so lost in the
cane at night that he had to be guided out by helicopter, Leal says
illegal immigrants cut trails through the dense stalks and smugglers
hide loads of drugs in the cane.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, says the cane will interfere with
government plans to install more cameras and ground sensors along the border.

That's why Homeland Security is paying the Agriculture Department
$1.5 million this year for help getting rid of the cane, an exotic
plant that is native to Mediterranean Europe.

Scientists have found that cutting it down with heavy machinery does
little good; the stuff simply grows back. The area in question is too
large to spread chemical weed killers.

It looks like the best way to combat the cane may be biological, with
bugs collected from Spain, Homeland Security's Gerry Kirwin says.

If early determinations prove right, the predators -- wasps, flies
and scale -- would infest and kill both new shoots and mature stalks.

Kirwin says it will take three years to determine whether the bugs
really do the trick and make sure there won't be any unforeseen
consequences to importing them into the USA.