American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
The comings and goings of Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, a.k.a. Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmad Diyab, a.k.a. Abu Wael Dihab, a.k.a. Jihad Diyab, Gitmo alumnus and former forger “supporting European, North African, and Levant extremists” by “facilitating their international travels.”
Read my post, Jihad gets around.
Let’s hope Gitmo alumnus Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmad Diyab, a.k.a. Abu Wael Dihab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, a.k.a. Jihad Diyab has a frequent-flyer card by now.
The last time we looked, he was on his way back from Venezuela, where he had turned up at Uruguay’s consulate in Caracas and asked for assistance to fly to Turkey or some other country. His family is in Turkey, and refuse to go to Uruguay.
Turkey doesn’t want him.
Back then I posted,
A known terrorist, who supposedly needs crutches to get around, goes missing for several weeks, to eventually turn up some 4,600 miles away from Montevideo (a little under the distance from New York to Moscow), in Venezuela, of all places, just so he can petition the Uruguayan consulate – which he could do in Montevideo – to “ask for assistance to fly to Turkey or some other country to be reunited with his family.”
After his return, he went on an extended hunger strike, following which he was flown to South Africa (I assume at Uruguayan taxpayers’ expense).
As it turns out, South Africa doesn’t want him either:
Former Guantanamo detainee Jihad Diyab is returning to Uruguay this weekend after being denied entry to South Africa, according to Christian Mirza, a former refugee mediator for the Uruguayan government.
As you may recall, the former member of the “Syrian Group”, which was “comprised of dismantled terrorist cells that escaped Syrian authorities and fled to Afghanistan (AF) in 2000,” was released by the Obama administration from Guantanamo and sent to Uruguay. He went to Argentina last February, and declared himself “ready to fight“, just the thing when you want to make yourself welcome to a foreign country and your first name is Jihad.
After that, Diyab tried to enter Brazil three times but was turned away at the border. Authorities lost track of him, he turned up in Venezuela, was returned to Uruguay where he went on hunger strike, and now this.
Anyone running a pool on where he’ll turn up next?
In an attempt at demonizing any opposition, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tars the Trump supporters as deplorable and/or clueless, and later tried to walk it back, making what even Mexican media called a half apology.
Protesters Set Up 100 Soup Kitchens in Argentine Capital. What took them so long?
Nisman’s Iran case reaches new appeal stage
The efforts to reopen the complaint filed by late AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman against former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in January last year will continue this week with a hearing at an appeals court to determine if Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas had reason to deny such a petition from the DAIA Jewish community group last month.
In parallel, Federal Judge Claudio Bonadio has been making progress in an accusation of treason against Fernández de Kirchner and former foreign minister Héctor Timerman in relation to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Iran.
ARGENTINA, BRAZIL, COLOMBIA:
South America’s Drug Slums: Jurisdiction of Organized Crime
BELIZE
Belize will not support second probe into death of Guatemalan teen
BOLIVIA
Bolivia proposes prison time for illegal coca production
BRAZIL
Upcoming event at Cato: Brazillionaires: Wealth, Power, Decadence, and Hope in an American Country, September 13, 2016, 12:00PM to 1:30PM
If you can’t make it to the event, you can watch it live online at www.cato.org/live and join the conversation on Twitter using #Brazillionaires. Follow @CatoEvents on Twitter to get future event updates, live streams, and videos from the Cato Institute.
Rousseff Abandons Brazil’s Capital after Ouster
CHILE
Affluent Chile draws migrants but it’s no picnic for them
COLOMBIA
Colombia’s ELN rebels and paramilitary heirs scramble to occupy FARC territory
Colombian Condemns Murder of Owner of FARC Transition-Zone Property
CUBA
Cuba’s Walled Garden
House panel will consider bill to halt Cuba flights next week
Sirley Ávila León Cuban Democracy Leader Disappears From Commercial Flight
ECUADOR
Ecuador Begins Drilling for Oil in Pristine Corner of Amazon
Sweden puts pressure on Ecuador over questioning Julian Assange
HAITI
Hillary Cares About You? Ask the Haitians She Ripped Off
JAMAICA
Prince Buster: Jamaica’s True Voice of the People
MEXICO
‘Wolf Boys’: 2 American teens become brutal hitmen for feared Mexican drug cartel
PANAMA
Panama Papers: Denmark to buy leaked data
PUERTO RICO
Latin America’s Largest Sail Training Ship Docks in Puerto Rico
URUGUAY
Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmad Diyab, a.k.a. Abu Wael Dihab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, is still at it:
Hunger-striking ex-Guantanamo inmate leaves Uruguay hospital
Uruguay searching for country to take ex-Guantanamo detainee (emphasis added)
Syrian native Abu Wa’el Dhiab has repeatedly said he is unhappy in Uruguay and is demanding he be allowed to leave the South American country, which took him in with five other former Guantanamo prisoners in 2014.
. . .
Although there’s nothing impeding Dhiab’s family from coming to Uruguay, the former prisoner is against it, Mirza said. “We’d have to ask ourselves why his family could not come to Uruguay when the families of other Guantanamo refugees came here when they wished.”
. . .
Dhiab also says that he feels like a prisoner in Uruguay.
A prisoner who traveled to Argentina, and through Brazil to Venezuela, that is.
VENEZUELA
FROM VOODOO ECONOMICS TO VOODOO
Almost 60 Percent of Venezuelans Say They Want Out
Authorities in seven countries spent the last month or two trying to locate Gitmo alumnus Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmad Diyab, a.k.a. Abu Wael Dihab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, who went missing from Uruguay.
For brevity’s sake, let’s call him Diyab.
The former member of the “Syrian Group”, which was “comprised of dismantled terrorist cells that escaped Syrian authorities and fled to Afghanistan (AF) in 2000,” was released by the Obama administration from Guantanamo and sent to Uruguay. He went to Argentina last February, and declared himself “ready to fight“,
After that, Diyab tried to enter Brazil three times but was turned away at the border. Then authorities lost track of him, until now.
And he’s in Venezuela:
Former Gitmo Detainee Shows Up in Venezuela. Abu Wa’el Dhiab unexpectedly left his home in Uruguay, raising concerns (emphasis added)
A former Guantanamo Bay detainee who unexpectedly disappeared from Uruguay last month showed up in Venezuela on Tuesday, saying he wanted help traveling to Turkey, Uruguay’s Foreign Ministry said.
Abu Wa’el Dhiab, who was transferred by the Obama administration to Montevideo, Uruguay, in 2014, appeared at Uruguay’s consulate in Caracas and asked for assistance to fly to Turkey or some other country to be reunited with his family.
“He made it clear he has no interest in returning to Uruguay, but that he needs our country’s help,” the ministry said late Wednesday, adding that Venezuelan authorities were aware of the situation.
A spokesman for the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry in Caracas had said earlier that the office had no information about the former detainee’s arrival.
. . .
Mr. Dhiab’s travel plans may raise additional concern, given Turkey’s porous border with Syria and its use as an entry point for volunteers looking to join Islamic State.
How did he get there? He supposedly needs crutches to walk.
Who helped him along the way? Who’s bankrolling him?
Where is he staying? With whom? Doing what?
UPDATE:
The more I think about it, the worse this story looks.
A known terrorist, who supposedly needs crutches to get around, goes missing for several weeks, to eventually turn up some 4,600 miles away from Montevideo (a little under the distance from New York to Moscow), in Venezuela, of all places, just so he can petition the Uruguayan consulate – which he could do in Montevideo – to “ask for assistance to fly to Turkey or some other country to be reunited with his family.”
This simply does not pass the smell test.
Linked to by Gates of Vienna. Thank you!
Live podcast 8PM Eastern: “Olympics in Brazil, US-Mexico…” hosted by Silvio Canto Jr https://t.co/J9Px2UtslT
— Fausta (@Fausta) July 27, 2016
Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmad Diyab, a.k.a. Abu Wael Dihab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, is still missing.
The forner Gitmo detainee was released to Uruguay last year, and visited Argentina last February, where he declared he was “ready to fight“,
He had tried to enter Brazil three times but was turned away at the border.
He may have succeeded in entering Brazil through other means, but the Brazilians don’t know for sure:
Brazil’s security is being heightened ahead of the Summer Olympic Games set to begin in less than a month. Antiterrorism measures are being put in place, including cooperation with other nations’ intelligence agencies, said Sergio Westphalen Etchegoyen, a minister in charge of institutional security.
“An individual like this one is among our top priorities,” he said during a news conference, declining to detail what is being done to find him.
Thomas Joscelyn has more on the missing man:
The four Syrians transferred — Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Ali Husein Shaaban, Abd al Hadi Omar Mahmoud Faraj, and Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab — were all allegedly members of the so-called “Syrian Group.” The JTF-GTMO files describe the “Syrian Group” as “comprised of dismantled terrorist cells that escaped Syrian authorities and fled to Afghanistan (AF) in 2000.”
Several South American countries are looking for the multi-named Abu/Ahmed/Ahmad.
Good luck with that.
The Olympics are four weeks away.
As Capt. Louis Renault may exclaim, while contemplating the terrorist networks at work,
Uruguayan journalist Nora Fernández Espino, currently working with the Fundación de Ayuda Humanitaria (IHH), which owns the Mavi Marmara, one of the Free Gaza flotilla vessels, took time from her busy schedule last month to escort Gitmo alumnus and “Syrian Group” member Jihad Ahmad Diyab (a.k.a. Abu Wael Dihab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab – could we call him Jihad?) to Argentina.
Imagine that!
You may recall that Jihad took the opportunity to say he was “ready to fight“, but not to take a job or learn Spanish.
Our friends at HACER (link in Spanish) also point out that Fernández Espino, while having no visible means of funding, is the proprietress of various corporations and bars in Uruguay and Argentina. The photo in the article was taken during one of her frequent trips to Gaza:
Today’s Capt. Louis Renault moment
comes from Argentina via Uruguay:
Syrian Jihad Ahmad Diyab, one of the six Gitmo alumni released to Uruguay last month, went to Argentina (link in Spanish), to request that that country issue asylum to other Gitmo alumni,
“I’ll never forget my comrades there, and that’s why I came here to fight.”
Diyab’s mother is Argentinian.
Here’s his interview, in Spanish, where he claimed he was just a regular guy living with his family until the Americans dragged him out of his home and sent him to Gitmo,
Thomas Joscelyn shows otherwise:
The four Syrians transferred — Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Ali Husein Shaaban, Abd al Hadi Omar Mahmoud Faraj, and Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab — were all allegedly members of the so-called “Syrian Group.” The JTF-GTMO files describe the “Syrian Group” as “comprised of dismantled terrorist cells that escaped Syrian authorities and fled to Afghanistan (AF) in 2000.”
Part of the reporting in the JTF-GTMO files on the so-called “Syrian Group” came from the Syrian government, which was opposed to this particular group of jihadists but also eventually allied with al Qaeda in the fight against American forces in Iraq. Ultimately, in a form of blowback, that one-time alliance would fracture.
There are two forms of lying to non-believers that are permitted under certain circumstances, taqiyya and kitman. These circumstances are typically those that advance the cause Islam – in some cases by gaining the trust of non-believers in order to draw out their vulnerability and defeat them.
This report says that Diyab also goes by the name of Abu Wael Dihab; in it an Uruguayan official asserts that “none of the former detainees has expressed the intention of leaving nor made any efforts to,” even when Diyab stated in an interview that he had no desire to return to Uruguay. None of the six have accepted any employment offers, all dropped out of state-provided Spanish lessons.
The Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas, or DAIA (Delegation of Israelite Argentinian Associations) is worried about the possibility of a new Islamist attack in Argentina, following the theft of a TOW 2 missile and 130 FAL rifles from the armed forces.
(On a lighter vein, separted at birth? Christian Bale).
There’s always an impending disaster. In the case of the Rio Olympics, it looks more likely than most.
ARGENTINA
Argentina gripped by mystery: the ex-minister, a convent and bundles of cash. Ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and the church face tricky questions after José López was found trying to stash $8.9m in cash at a nunnery at 4am. Cristina says she doesn’t know who gave him the money:
El dinero que Lopez tenia en su poder alguien se lo dio. Y no fui yo. Ni ninguno de los miles de militantes q integran este espacio político
— Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) June 17, 2016
BOLIVIA
Why Bolivia turned away Bill Gates’ chicken donation. It’s about more than a few ruffled feathers
BRAZIL
Brazil ‘mass rape’ video: Seven suspects to be charged
Brazil’s Rio state declares financial disaster before Games
New Plan to Fix Brazil’s Royal Mess: Restore the Monarchy. How did that work out the first time?
Brazil Gets Worst Possible Resignation On Eve Of Olympics
Brazil President Michel Temer Says Graft Claims Are ‘Lies’
CHILE
Chile’s government, in major defeat, will cease work on key labor reform
The reform, aimed at strengthening organized labor in the South American country, was initially passed by the Senate in March after a bruising battle that opened divisions within the governing Nueva Mayoria coalition.
But Chile’s Constitutional Tribunal in April rejected a provision of the bill that said companies could only negotiate with legally designated unions during collective wage talks.
It also struck part of a measure that prohibited companies from extending many benefits to non-unionized employees.
Colombia’s pilot crop substitution program to begin on July 10
On the one hand, Colombia sheds cocaine capital image as economy grows
On the other hand,
Colombia nadando en cocaína x culpa del desgobierno y #SantosNosAnunciaGuerra si no se aprueba su acuerdo impunidad pic.twitter.com/HFQLYYrOm3
— Honorio Henriquez (@honohenriquez) June 17, 2016
World Economic Forum in Medellin, Colombia
CUBA
FedEx Downsizes Cuba Ambitions in Amended Flight Request
Stonegate Bank is Breaking the Law by issuing a credit card for use in Cuba.
“Check it out, Mildred!” Rejoice, Cubans, Rejoice! Hark, Hark! Dolce & Gabbana coming soon to the historic center of Old Havana!
GUATEMALA
Guatemala ex-president and deputy face fresh corruption charges
JAMAICA
IMF approves US$80-m disbursement for Jamaica. From the IMF statement,
Jamaica’s economic reform programme supported by the fund’s Extended Fund Facility has made major strides in restoring macroeconomic stability, pursuing fiscal consolidation, reducing public debt and undertaking significant tax policy reforms, building financial sector resilience, and tackling structural issues.
MEXICO
Mexican minister says ties with Canada could strengthen if Trump elected
PANAMA
Panama Papers awarded Investigation of the Year
‘Panama Papers’ firm demands prosecution of suspect in Switzerland
PARAGUAY
Killing of Mysterious Figure Part of Larger Narco War in Paraguay?
PERU
Mrs. Ollanta Humala, Peru: first lady banned from going abroad (emphasis added)
A judge in Peru has banned First Lady Nadine Heredia from leaving the country while she’s investigated for allegedly hiding undeclared campaign contributions. The order handed down Thursday night prevents Heredia from travelling [sic] abroad for four months, as her husband, centrist President Ollanta Humala, leaves office in July.
Heredia has been dogged for years by accusations that she hid large contributions from socialist Venezuela that funded her husband’s 2006 and 2011 campaigns.
PUERTO RICO
Orlando shooting victim’s death takes a toll on Puerto Rico town
Puerto Rico could see hundreds with Zika birth defects, CDC says
URUGUAY
Uruguay: ex-Guantanamo detainee traveled legally to Brazil. He gets around.
VENEZUELA
Beautiful essay: The Last Flight
