Fausta's Blog

ARGENTINA
Falklands Blockade Is an Act of War Toward Britain

Snif Snif: 300 Dogs stop Dollar Flight

BRAZIL
In her first year, Brazil President Dilma Rousseff cleans house

Chevron’s Crude-Oil Spill in Brazil Prompts $10.6 Billion Lawsuit

Brazil Bets Big on Wind Power

CUBA
Cuba: Images of repression

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
News host in Dominican Republic quits when station refuses to air video of politician’s bodyguard shoving a journalist

ECUADOR
Petroecuador to Ship $538 Million Worth of Oil to PetroChina in 2012

Ecuadorian government’s attempt to trademark Twitter tag portends censorship, warns blogger

FALKLAND ISLANDS
Rockhopper and Desire jump on Falklands find
Rockhopper Petroleum has unveiled another oil discovery near the Falkland Islands, sending its shares up almost 10pc.

HONDURAS
Where has La Gringa been?

LATIN AMERICA
Iran Preparing Serious Cyber Attack Against the U.S. from Latin America

Hezbollah, Yet Another Western Hemisphere Link

MEXICO
Zetas: We are not Terrorists, Nor Guerrillas
A series of public messages seemingly hung by the Zetas in the border town of Nuevo Laredo deny that the group has any plans to confront the Mexican or US governments.via Gancho.

Why Would Mexican Drug Cartels Need Hezbollah To Launder Their Money?

Government Says Hezbollah Profits From U.S. Cocaine Market Via Link to Mexican Cartel

PANAMA
Don Ray brings hospital supplies: Container #8 Unload

PARAGUAY
La Policía brasileña confisca 13 toneladas de marihuana en la frontera con Paraguay

PERU
Peru’s Humala Passes His First Test
By lifting a blockade of a copper mine, Peru’s President Ollanta Humala upholds the rule of law and sends a strong positive signal to foreign investors.

PUERTO RICO
2 strong earthquakes strike Puerto Rico within a few minutes

VENEZUELA
What Hugo Chávez’s illness means for U.S., China

U.S. authorities probing alleged cyberattack plot by Venezuela, Iran, via GoV

Shake it, baby! Shake that PSUV tree!

The NY Times has a graph on
Money Laundering at Lebanese Bank
The chart below shows the intricate money-laundering system the Lebanese Canadian Bank used to divert money to the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, according to United States officials.

The report: Beirut Bank Seen as a Hub of Hezbollah’s Financing

At the same time, the investigation that led the United States to the bank, the Lebanese Canadian Bank, provides new insights into the murky sources of Hezbollah’s money. While law enforcement agencies around the world have long believed that Hezbollah is a passive beneficiary of contributions from loyalists abroad involved in drug trafficking and a grab bag of other criminal enterprises, intelligence from several countries points to the direct involvement of high-level Hezbollah officials in the South American cocaine trade.
…
The revelations about Hezbollah and the Lebanese Canadian Bank reflect the changing political and military dynamics of Lebanon and the Middle East. American intelligence analysts believe that for years Hezbollah received as much as $200 million annually from its primary patron, Iran, along with additional aid from Syria. But that support has diminished, the analysts say, as Iran’s economy buckles under international sanctions over its nuclear program and Syria’s government battles rising popular unrest.

Yet, if anything, Hezbollah’s financial needs have grown alongside its increasing legitimacy here, as it seeks to rebuild after its 2006 war with Israel and expand its portfolio of political and social service activities. The result, analysts believe, has been a deeper reliance on criminal enterprises — especially the South American cocaine trade — and on a mechanism to move its ill-gotten cash around the world.

Venezuela plays a part, too,

According to Lebanon’s drug enforcement chief, Col. Adel Mashmoushi, one path into the country was aboard a weekly Iranian-operated flight from Venezuela to Damascus and then over the border. Several American officials confirmed that, emphasizing that such an operation would be impossible without Hezbollah’s involvement.

It doesn’t end there.

Go read the whole thing.

Univision’s documentary, The Iranian Menace, on Iran’s sleeper cells in Latin America, in Spanish, (below the fold, since it starts immediately),

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Stakelbeck on Terror: Hezbollah in Your Backyard

Watch as former George W. Bush administration officials Roger Noriega and Jose Cardenas discuss Hezbollah’s alliance with Venezuela, its new terror base in Cuba, its work with Mexican drug smugglers along America’s southern border, and more.

Prior post The Mounting Hezbollah Threat In Latin America

h/t Gates of Vienna

The American Enterprise Institute has an excellent report on The Mounting Hezbollah Threat in Latin America, via Phyllis Chesler,

The immediate US national security concern related to Hezbollah activity in Latin America is Mexico, where the terrorist group has ready access to the US border.

Key points:

• To ward off its international isolation and undermine US influence in the region, Iran, with its Hezbollah proxy in tow, has made a major diplomatic and economic push into the Western Hemisphere.

• Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and other radical anti-American populists have made common cause with Iran and Hezbollah in waging asymmetric warfare against the United States.

• Hezbollah’s criminality in the region has multiplied as it has established deeper relations with transnational criminal organizations.

• Evidence indicates Hezbollah is sharing its terrorist experiences and techniques with Mexican drug cartels along the US borde

Additionally,

Long-term readers of this blog will not be surprised by most of this information, however, this is an excellent report and you must read every word. It’s also available on easy-to-print PDF format.

Arab Times article,
Kuwaitis Among Trainees In ‘Guards’ Latin Camp (h/t Vlad) (emphasis added)

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is allegedly training a large number of Kuwaitis, Bahrainis and Saudis in a private training camp located in Waheera, a remote area near the borders of Venezuela and Columbia, and intends to use them to carry out terrorist activities within their respective countries and other areas across the world in case Iran is attacked militarily, Al-Seyassah daily quoted a reliable source as saying.

Since the reports come from Arab-language newspapers, I speculate that the location of Waheera is actually Guajira (whose phonetical pronunciation is the same as “Waheera”) in this map,

The article continues,

The trainees are first sent to Venezuelan capital Caracas or Columbian capital Bogota via Damascus and from there, they are sent to the border region in cars, one of the militants who broke away from the Iranian group told the daily.

Reportedly, the training camp is run by some Iranian intelligence officers and others affiliated to the Revolutionary Guard in cooperation with Hezbollah and Hamas. The trainees were given courses in making bombs, carrying out assassinations, kidnapping people and transporting the hostages to other locations.

The operations are financed through the drug trade,

When asked about the financing of this militia, the source said the money Iran makes through drug trafficking and money laundering is equal to the budget of some countries. “For example, Dutch police, in cooperation with security authorities of seven other countries, arrested 17 drug smugglers in 2009 in Korasu and confiscated 2,000 kilos of cocaine from them. The huge quantity was smuggled through tankers from Venezuela to West Africa and then to Holland, Lebanon and Spain. Smugglers also transported cocaine by air from Korasu to Holland, Belgium, Spain and Jordan. The Dutch authorities had then announced that the smuggling network was linked to Hezbollah and Iran,” he added.

These reports have been surfacing recently (including Kuwaiti newspapers), but long-time readers of this blog know about the Iranian and Hezbollah presences in Latin America. Interestingly, now the reports are including Hamas.

Cross-posted at Real Clear World Blog.

UPDATE, 10 May,
Welcome, Blogs for Victory readers!

Today’s – and any day’s – must-read,
Middle East-Latin America Terrorism Connection: Analysis

In a global triangulation that would excite any conspiracy buff, the globalization of terrorism now links Colombian FARC with Hezbollah, Iran with Russia, elected governments with violent insurgencies, uranium with AK-103s, and cocaine with oil. At the center of it all, is Latin America—especially the countries under the influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

There are enough connections to make your hair stand on end: the FARC, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua,

So, on one side Venezuela is funding and arming the FARC; on the other it is purchasing nuclear reactors and weapons from the Russians; on yet another, it is sending money to Iran and helping it find and enrich uranium. And then there is Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanon-based asset.

Reports that Venezuela has provided Hezbollah operatives with Venezuelan national identity cards are so rife, they were raised in the July 27, 2010, Senate hearing for the recently nominated U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, Larry Palmer. When Palmer answered that he believed the reports, Chávez refused to accept him as ambassador in Venezuela. Meanwhile, Iran Air, the self-proclaimed “airline of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” operates a Tehran-Caracas flight commonly referred to as “Aeroterror” by intelligence officials for allegedly facilitating the access of terrorist suspects to South America. The Venezuelan government shields passenger lists from Interpol on that flight.

Iran, meanwhile, has developed significant relationships elsewhere in Latin America – most prominently with Chávez’s allies and fellow Bolivarian Revolutionaries: Bolivian President Evo Morales, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

And let’s not forget the Tri-Border Area,

Argentine officials believe Hezbollah is still active in the TBA. They attribute the detonation of a car bomb outside Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires on 17 March 1992 to Hezbollah extremists. Officials also maintain that with Iran’s assistance, Hezbollah carried out a car-bomb attack on the main building of the Jewish Community Center (AMIA) in Buenos Aires on 18 July 1994 in protest of the Israeli-Jordanian peace agreement that year.

Most of this report will not come as a surprise to long-term readers of Fausta’s blog, but you must read it all.

More, much more, including Walid Makled, here.

At least according to this report, Terrorist Group Setting Up Operations Near Border
Hezbollah Considered To Be More Advanced Than Al-Qaida

A terrorist organization whose home base is in the Middle East has established another home base across the border in Mexico.
“They are recognized by many experts as the ‘A’ team of Muslim terrorist organizations,” a former U.S. intelligence agent told 10News.
…

Hezbolah has operated in South America for decades and then Central America, along with their sometime rival, sometime ally Hamas.
Now, the group is blending into Shi’a Muslim communities in Mexico, including Tijuana. Other pockets along the U.S.-Mexico border region remain largely unidentified as U.S. intelligence agencies are focused on the drug trade.
“They have had clandestine training in how to live in foreign hostile territories,” the agent said.
The agent, who has spent years deep undercover in Mexico, said Hezbollah is partnering with drug organizations, but which ones is not clear at this time.
He told 10News the group receives cartel cash and protection in exchange for Hezbollah expertise.
“From money laundering to firearms training and explosives training,” the agent said.
For example, he tracked, along with Mexican intelligence, two Hezbollah operatives in safe houses in Tijuana and Durango
“I confirmed the participation of cartel members as well as other Hezbollah individuals living and operating out of there,” he said.
Tunnels the cartels have built that cross from Mexico into the U.S. have grown increasingly sophisticated. It is a learned skill, the agent said points to Hezbollah’s involvement.

While one should take unnamed sources with a grain of salt, Hezbollah has maintained a presence in Latin America for decades. It’s hardly surprising that they’re getting closer to the US border.

Border security is national security.

UPDATED, Friday 6 May,
Welcome, The Other McCain readers! You will probably find today’s follow-up post interesting: The Middle East-Latin America Terrorism Connection.

Hezbollah honcho busted at his Tijiuana Mx home: 15 Minutes on Latin America.

I’ll also be in Silvio Canto’s podcast at 10:30AM Eastern.

UPDATE,
Also mentioned in both podcasts, Enrique Krauze’s article, An Anti-Incumbency Wave — in Mexico

I’ve been stating for a while that securing the border with Mexico is a matter of national security. Long-term readers of this blog also know that Hezbollah is carrying out operations in Latin America, frequently associated with drugs. Now this,
Hezbollah leader living across US border in Tijuana

My my… more evidence bubbles to the surface that the US-Mexican border war is about more than the civil rights of illegal immigrants… or the anticipated built in voter bloc for desperate Dems. Today brings good news that the Mexican police are actively working to thwart Hezbollah’s attempt to gain a foothold there. A surveillance operation focused on Hezbollah leader, Jameel Nasr, resulted in his arrest at his Tijuana home. Nasr employed Mexican nationals with family ties to Lebanon for his Hezbollah/Mexico network.

Haaretz reports,
Mexico thwarts Hezbollah bid to set up South American network
Militant group employed Mexican nationals with ties to Lebanon to target Israel and the West, Kuwaiti newspaper reports.

Mexico foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to establish a network in South America, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Hezbollah operatives employed Mexicans nationals with family ties to Lebanon to set up the network, designed to target Israel and the West, the Al-Seyassah daily said.

According to the report, Mexican police mounted a surveillance operation on the group’s leader, Jameel Nasr, who traveled frequently to Lebanon to receive information and instructions from Hezbollah commanders there.

Police say Nasr also made frequent trips to other countries in Latin America, including a two-month stay in Venezuela in the summer of 2008.

Nasr was living in Tijuana, Mexico at the time of his arrest, the report said.

Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R- NC) had written to the Dept. of Homeland Security

In June, a U.S. congresswoman wrote to the Department of Homeland Security to warn that Hezbollah was increasing its presence in Central and South America.

In her letter, Congresswoman Sue Myrick called on the U.S. to work with Mexican forces, as there was intelligence that Hezbollah was working in conjunction with Mexican drug cartels on the U.S.-Mexico border.

I wonder what happened to her request.

Meanwhile, what is the Obama administration doing?
The Department of Justice is suing Arizona over its immigration law. Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion posted the complaint, which you can read below the fold:

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