Search Results for: hizbollah

June 19, 2008 By Fausta

US Treasury Dept: Venezuelan diplomat helped Hizbollah

On June 11 I translated a report by Patricia Poleo that stated that Venezuelans of Arab ancestry are being recruited under the auspices of Tarek el Ayssami, Venezuela’s vice-Minister of the Interior, for combat training in Hezbollah camps in South Lebanon.

Yesterday the US Treasury Department designated a Venezuelan diplomat as a Hezbollah supporter.

The Jerusalem Post (h/t Siggy) reports that Venezuelan diplomat Ghazi Nasr al Din, former Charge d’ Affaires at the Venezuelan Embassy in Damascus and Director of Political Aspects at the Venezuelan Embassy in Lebanon, who is also president of a Caracas-based Shi’a Islamic Center, used his position to give financial assistance to Hezbollah.

Noticias 24 from Caracas (in Spanish) states that a source at the Venezuelan chancellory verified that Nasr al Din is a Venezuelan diplomat based in Damascus. The Venezuelan government refused to issue an official statement “for the time being”.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Nsr al Din and Fawzi Kan’an, along with two travel agencies owned and controlled by Kan’an, as terror supporters

Nasr al Din has counseled Hizballah donors on fundraising efforts and has provided donors with specific information on bank accounts where the donors’ deposits would go directly to Hizballah.

Ghazi Nasr al Din has met with senior Hizballah officials in Lebanon to discuss operational issues, as well as facilitated the travel of Hizballah members to and from Venezuela. In late January 2006, Nasr al Din facilitated the travel of two Hizballah representatives to the Lebanese Parliament to Caracas to solicit donations for Hizballah and to announce the opening of a Hizballah-sponsored community center and office in Venezuela. The previous year, Nasr al Din arranged the travel of Hizballah members to attend a training course in Iran.

The Treasury Dept. statement lists 12 aliases for Nasr al Din, who was born on December 13, 1962 in Lebanon.

The Treasury Dept. identifies Fawzi Kan’an as a

a Venezuela-based Hizballah supporter and a significant provider of financial support to Hizballah. Kan’an has facilitated travel for Hizballah members and sent money raised in Venezuela to Hizballah officials in Lebanon.

Kan’an has met with senior Hizballah officials in Lebanon to discuss operational issues, including possible kidnappings and terrorist attacks. Further, Kan’an has also traveled with other Hizballah members to Iran for training.

The Treasury Department shows Kan’an as a naturalized Venezuelan citizen born in 1943. Kan’an owns and operates the Biblos Travel Agency, located in Caracas, which reportedly he uses to courier funds to Lebanon.

In Caracas, Noticias 24 reports that Kan’an denied the the U.S. accusations, said that his accounts in the US have not been frozen, and sstated that his Biblos and Hilal agencies closed a year ago. However, as you can read in the AP report, who interviewed Kan’an, he was at the “Hilal travel agency in Caracas, a street-level office with barred windows” itself.

The BBC, which also interviewed Kan’an in Caracas, also says he operates two travel agencies in Caracas.

The US assets of both Kan’an and Nasr al Din have been frozen.

William Davila, candidate for governor for Merida, Venezuela, brought a complaint to the Venezuela Attorney General’s re: Hezbollah, which has remained ignored.

Why is this important:
As Efraim Karsh explained in his article, Islam’s Imperial Dreams (via Siggy)

As the 14th-century historian and philosopher Abdel Rahman ibn Khaldun wrote, “In the Muslim community, the jihad is a religious duty because of the universalism of the Islamic mission and the obligation [to convert] everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.”

The Venezuelan government is in bed with this scheme. As the Treasury Department stated,

“It is extremely troubling to see the Government of Venezuela employing and providing safe harbor to Hizballah facilitators and fundraisers. We will continue to expose the global nature of Hizballah’s terrorist support network, and we call on responsible governments worldwide to disrupt and dismantle this activity,” said Adam J. Szubin, Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Bill Roggio is also posting on the story. Noticias 24 has a background article (in Spanish) on Hezbollah in Latin America.

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December 21, 2017 By Fausta

Obama administration allegedly covered up for Hezbollah in Latin America

Long-time readers of this blog will remember that I have blogged about Hezbollah‘s inroads in our hemisphere for the last decade (for additional posts see also Hizballah Hizbollah).

Josh Meyer’s fascinating report, The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook, highlights the connections between the drug trade and terrorism:

Over the next eight years, agents working out of a top-secret DEA facility in Chantilly, Virginia, used wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollah’s illicit networks, with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.

They followed cocaine shipments, some from Latin America to West Africa and on to Europe and the Middle East, and others through Venezuela and Mexico to the United States. They tracked the river of dirty cash as it was laundered by, among other tactics, buying American used cars and shipping them to Africa. And with the help of some key cooperating witnesses, the agents traced the conspiracy, they believed, to the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.

And

The untold story of Project Cassandra illustrates the immense difficulty in mapping and countering illicit networks in an age where global terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime have merged, but also the extent to which competing agendas among government agencies — and shifting priorities at the highest levels — can set back years of progress.

And while the pursuit may be shadowed in secrecy, from Latin American luxury hotels to car parks in Africa to the banks and battlefields of the Middle East, the impact is not: In this case, multi-ton loads of cocaine entering the United States, and hundreds of millions of dollars going to a U.S.-designated terrorist organization with vast reach.

What did the Obama administration do about it?

They killed a probe of the terror group to get the Iran deal (emphasis added)

After 9/11 the DEA launched investigations into Venezuelan crime syndicates, links between Colombian drug-traffickers and Lebanese money-launderers, and the “suspicious flow of thousands of used cars” from the U.S. to Benin, Mr. Meyer explains. The U.S. military was also investigating links between Iran and Shiite militias with improvised explosive devices that killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers. “All of these paths eventually converged on Hezbollah,” he writes.

By 2008 the DEA had “amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself” into a global crime syndicate “that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking and money laundering,” Mr. Meyer reports. DEA’s Project Cassandra was born to take down the Hezbollah operation by busting its “innermost circle.”

For instance,

Alleged Venezuelan drug kingpin Hugo Carvajal was arrested in Aruba in 2014. Venezuela’s close alliance with Iran is no secret and reeling in “the chicken,” as Carvajal was known, would have generated key intelligence about cocaine trafficking to the U.S. and North Africa. The Netherlands mysteriously intervened and returned him to Venezuela.

When Colombia arrested Walid Makled, a Syrian-born Venezuelan who was alleged to be shipping ten tons of cocaine to the U.S. each month, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos refused U.S. extradition requests and sent him to Venezuela. Mr. Obama repaid Mr. Santos by backing his amnesty for the FARC, the largest drug cartel in the Americas.

Additionally, (back to Meyer’s article),

As a result, some Hezbollah operatives were not pursued via arrests, indictments, or Treasury designations that would have blocked their access to U.S. financial markets, according to Bauer, a career Treasury official, who served briefly in its Office of Terrorist Financing as a senior policy adviser for Iran before leaving in late 2015. And other “Hezbollah facilitators”arrested in France, Colombia, Lithuania have not been extradited — or indicted — in the U.S., she wrote.

Billions of drug trade money funding terrorists. Tens of thousands of lives ruined. Read The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook.

This warrants a most rigorous congressional investigation.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

June 3, 2009 By Fausta

Congressman Connie Mac on Chavez and Iran

Liveblogging a teleconference with Congressman Connie Mac on “Venezuela and Iran: The Case for Concern”

“The growing relationship between Iran and Venezuela reminds me of the relationship between Russia and Cuba during the Cold War.”

“Chavez is allowing Venezuela to become the gateway to evil in our hemisphere.”

Q. Can good relationships with Cuba improve our relationship with Iran?
A. Chavez uses this relationship as a tool to further his anti-American Bolivarian revolution. Castro has the solution: if he released the political prisoners, the embargo would end. If the Castro brothers are sincere about what’s best for their people, they would allow for free expression, release the political prisoners and allow democracy.

Q. Should we buy sugar ethanol from Brazil?
A. I am worried about the government deciding what to trade. That said, we should abolish the ethanol tariff and allow for the US to be part of the solution.

Q. What incentives should US give LA countries to not build relationships with Iran?
A. We should have a clear path to reengage in Latin America. If we don’t engage with them, Iran & Chavez will try to fill that void. The FTA with Peru and Colombia are examples of that. At the same time, for those countries who don’t see the US as a friend, we need to be serious and take the resources we have, use the resources to build relationships, and for countries who don’t, we should move our resources away.

Q. Does the US recognize the inflirtation of Iran & Hezbollah in the drug trade?
A. Yes. I was very pleased to see Sec of State Clinton so aware of the region. The drug trade is the lifeblood of this deterioration of freedom and democracy in Latin America. Chavez is closing his eyes, at the very least, to the drug traffic in Venezuela. He sees Venezuela as a gateway. As we see the drugs move through Venezuela and go to the Caribbean and Africa, we see relationships with terrorism through drug trafficking. It’s drawing in terrorist organizations throughout the world.

Q. If Iran assists Venezuela in a nuclear program what actions should the US take?
A. The statement of Ahmadinejad to wipe Israel off the map should be taken seriously. Israel has the right to defend itself at all costs… from nuclear threat or all threats. As far as Iran & Venezuela, we need to stop Hugo Chavez from going down the road of military buildup…If the next step is to Iran help Venezuela to have a nuclear weapon, we can’t allow it.

Q. What are the restrictions to international waters? Are the ships between Russia and Venezuela under constant surveillance?
A. Yes, they are.

Q. Does the outcome of the election in Iran have any influence on Latin America?
A. It is not a free and fair election. We’ll continue to see Ahmadinejad. The world needs to put pressure in Iran, North Korea and Cuba to try to make changes in these countries to allow freedom to exist.

Q. Hizbollah: Rodriguez Action Center in PR, Is PR under any threat of inflirtation?
A. All countries of the Caribbean & LA, because of Hugo Chavez, are becoming the gateway to this in Latin America. We need to do a better job of communicating what we do know.

Q. Congressional statement on Jewish Community in Venezuela that was withdrawn.
A. I had offered a series of amendments, and he withdrew the amendment because there were more no votes than yes votes, but all the Democrats who spoke out agreed with the amendment but decided it was not the right time. I have a fundamental disagreement with anyone who believes it’s not the right time to speak out for the Jewish community in Venezuela? When is the right time, if not now? I will continue to push this resolution in Congress. We’re building a coalition of people to speak out now.

Q. Can you provide any information on Bolivia & Venezuela supplying Iran with uranium?
A. I’ve read the reports, & it’s very concerning, but not surprising. Chavez will do anything to tie with Iran. It all goes to say to Ahmadinejad “we stand with you.” Chavez is not dumb but has an ego. He’s put himself to be used by Ahmadinejad. All signs point to Chavez telling Ahmadinejad, “I’m your friend, help me.”
We need to strengthen our relationship with our allies and stop the growth of this anti-America, anti-democracy, anti-freedom movement Chavez and Castro are growing.

The call was sponsored by The Israel Project

December 30, 2008 By Fausta

Listening to the Israel Project’s conference call with Israel’s Ambassador to the United States

Sallai Meridor, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, is holding a conference call sponsored by The Israel Project. Here are a few of his remarks,
“One in every ten Israelis is under direct attack” from the Hamas missiles. “In only six months the number of Israelis under attack tripled.”

“The [Israeli] effort is focused on terrorists, trying to minimize damage to innocent people”.
Sixty-three trucks yesterday and ninety trucks today go into Gaza for humanitarian aid.

“Gaza is an arm of the octupus centered in Iran…Gaza is in many ways a Taliban state on the border of Israel”.

How does killing 300 Palestinians promote the cause of peace in the region? “Does killing terrorists advance the cause of peace in the region? Absolutely yes. When we are successful the chances for peace in the region will be higher, and people in the region will have more hope.”

As he spoke he was told that Hamas rockets had reached Beersheba.

“Only if we stand together, supporting each other, determined to prevail over this”, we can win.

Obama administration: “I don’t have an answer on the position of the incoming administration, I can only tell you what I heard when I accompanied Pres. elect Obama on his visit to Israel, he made his position very clear, stating that Hamas needs to accept the 3 principles: recognize Israel, stop terrorism and abide by previous commitments.” The Ambassador also quoted Obama’s reply on if his family was under attack he’d do anything to stop it.

“We want to live in peace and security and dignity next to a Palestinian neighbor who also wants to live in peace and security and dignity.”

Iran’s involvement, & Iranian nuclear threat: “What you see in Gaza is Iranian made: funded, led by Iran, training either in Iran or by Hizbollah, missiles are Iranian made & supplied. Iran is a terrible octupus with proxies in the region. The largest exporter of terror in the region and beyond the region, and moving ahead with a nuclear bomb. If there’s a nightmare, is the day when there’s this unsacred marriage between terror and nuclear. They’re fast-forwarding to that.”

2:34
“If world leadership is resourceful and doesn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the thirties, it has to act today. There is a chance because the Iranian regime, if it sees its nuclear program as a liability, it might change its mind, since oil at $40/bb is not the same as at $140, but it will take an immediate world action.”

“Terror is a threat that is global, crosses international borders, and if it goes global, the worst threat.”

“The challenge to us is to be together, be determined, promote our values, and not be deterred by terrori

Military action is necessary but not enough: “we need prevention, deterrence, and defense.”

“Education for peace is something we went over after Oslo in all the textbooks. We dealt with the challenge and continue so that this light of hope won’t ever die. And as much as we do, there’s always more to do. THe more you’re attacked, the more you have to invest in your children so that they continue to believe in the values you believe.” “Dealing with terror today is very painful but killing hope in the future by teaching children to hate Americans, and moderates, and Jews and Israelis, kills the hope for better days.”

Reaction to Ban Ki Moon’s statement on overreaction: The ambassador doesn’t react directly to anyone’s statement, but asks “everyone to put yourself in the same position. Think about your daughter, your parents, think about that happening to you day after day, year after year. Ask what would I do if it were my children.”

I’ll post a link to the transcript later today.

UPDATE
What YouTube Doesn’t Want You to See, plus link to the IDF YouTube channel.

MP3 audio of the call.

UPDATE
Welcome, EU Referendum readers. Please visit often.

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August 27, 2008 By Fausta

Hezbollah presence in Venezuela feared

Via Irish Spy and Jihad Watch, a detailed article reviewing information regular readers of this blog have known for a while, but it’s a good article:

Hezbollah presence in Venezuela feared

Western anti-terrorism officials are increasingly concerned that Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shiite Muslim militia that Washington has labeled a terrorist group, is using Venezuela as a base for operations.

Linked to deadly attacks on Jewish targets in Argentina in the early 1990s, Hezbollah may be taking advantage of Venezuela’s ties with Iran, the militia’s longtime sponsor, to move “people and things” into the Americas, as one Western government terrorism expert put it.

As part of his anti-American foreign policy, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has established warm diplomatic relations with Iran and has traveled there several times. The Bush administration, Israel and other governments worry that Venezuela is emerging as a base for anti-U.S. militant groups and spy services, including Hezbollah and its Iranian allies.

“It’s becoming a strategic partnership between Iran and Venezuela,” said a Western anti-terrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the issue’s sensitivity.

Several joint Venezuelan-Iranian business operations have been set up in Venezuela, including tractor, cement and auto factories. In addition, the two countries have formed a $2-billion program to fund social projects in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America.

Threats against Israel:

Fears about the threat from Hezbollah’s global networks intensified after the slaying in February of Imad Mughniyah, a notorious leader of the militia, in Damascus, the Syrian capital. Hezbollah and Iran accused Israel and promised revenge, putting Western authorities on guard against attacks on Israeli or Jewish targets around the world.

Possible kidnappings:

In March 2007, the intensified ties between Venezuela and Iran led to the start of weekly IranAir flights from Tehran to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, that stop in Damascus.

The flights were highlighted in the State Department’s annual assessment of global terrorism, which noted in April of this year that Venezuelan border officials at the Caracas airport often neglected to enter the arriving passengers into their immigration database and did not stamp passports. The Venezuelans have since tightened up on their procedures, informed sources say.

Despite those improvements, the IranAir flights also feature in recent intelligence gathered by Western anti-terrorism officials. Agents of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah have allegedly set up a special force to attempt to kidnap Jewish businesspeople in Latin America and spirit them away to Lebanon, according to the Western anti-terrorism official. Iranian and Hezbollah operatives traveling in and out of Venezuela have recruited Venezuelan informants working at the Caracas airport to gather intelligence on Jewish travelers as potential targets for abduction, the Western anti-terrorism official said.

Extortion and drug trade:

Hezbollah has long operated in the Lebanese communities of Latin America. In addition to receiving a multimillion-dollar infusion from Iran, the militia finances itself by soliciting or extorting money from the Lebanese diaspora and through rackets such as smuggling, fraud and the drug and diamond trade in South America and elsewhere, Matthew Levitt, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Congress in 2005.

Three years ago, police in Colombia and Ecuador broke up an international cocaine-smuggling ring that functioned in Latin American countries, including Venezuela, and allegedly sent profits to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The lawless “tri-border” region connecting Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina has been a center of organized crime activities and finance linked to Hezbollah, Western anti-terrorism officials say.

Jihad Watch also has a prior post on Hezbollah in Nicaragua and the Iranian expansion there.

UPDATE
Welcome, Gates of Vienna readers. Please visit often.

Thursday, August 29
Hezbollah in Venezuela…no shockers here

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June 23, 2008 By Fausta

The fourth Monday in June Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your posts to be included, please email me: faustaw2 “at” gmail “dot” com.

The week’s big stories: Chavez threatens to stop oil sales to EU, EU says he “misunderstood”, and the US Treasury Department designated Venezuelan diplomat as a Hizbollah supporter (see links under Venezuela).

We discussed this and other Latin American topics with Monica Showalter of Investor’s Business Daily in last Friday’s podcast.

BLOG OF THE WEEK
Inside South America

LATIN AMERICA
LAC news for 17 June

ARGENTINA
La Plaza del Amor: The Kirchners

Argentina’s farm dispute: Cristina’s climbdown: Calling Congress back to life

Para ustedes que siempre quisieron…

BOLIVIA
Bolivian Tensions, Part 3

BRAZIL
Brazil’s IPO Rush Hits Rough Patch

CHILE
A whale of a week ahead for Chile

COLOMBIA
Prince of Thieves

The unstoppable crop: A big rise in coca in Colombia

COSTA RICA
Travel: Costa Rica Vacation – Arenal Volcano!

CUBA
Another sad day for the plight of Cuba’s political prisoners

What we didn’t know about the Cuban Missile Crisis

ECUADOR
Sorry, Che, we blew it

La HRF Responde a Acusaciones del Presidente Correa y Declara a Guadalupe Llori como Prisionera Política del Gobierno del Ecuador

Bayly (in Spanish): Las dos viudas de [Raul] Reyes

Chavez wants to work with next US leader: We ask – WHAT AS? Montaner Declares Ecuador has No Compass

MEXICO
Deadly stampede at Mexico disco

A Wary Friendship: Amid bad temper and wounded pride, Mexico and the United States inch towards compromise on a plan to boost the fight against drug crime

Welcome for US aid for Mexico’s drug war

Travel: Ultimate Vacation Guide: Laguna Miramar – Mexico

NICARAGUA
Thwarting democracy in Nicaragua

Daniel Ortega Compara a los europeos con “moscas que se paran en la inmundicia” (compares Europeans to “flies that stand on filth”).

PERU
Just a kid babe edition

Brrrr… Peru Declares Emergency — Record Cold Kills 61 Children & 5,000 Alpacas

PUERTO RICO
The Incredible Shrinking Airlines
They’re cutting back flights, routes, and services. How business travelers can be prepared for the upheaval.

TRINIDAD
Freakonomics, Crime and Trinidad and Tobago

VENEZUELA
Venezuela ‘taking control’ of mines

US designates two Hezbollah operatives in Venezuela as terrorists
Treasury Moves on Hezbollah in Venezuela
US Treasury Dept: Venezuelan diplomat helped Hizbollah

CHAVEZ WILL BE BROUGHT BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT, THE HAGUE

A funny way to beat inflation: Hugo Chavez invites the private sector to help him build socialism

Hugo of Hezbollah

Venezuela Goes to the Dogs

Via American Sheepdogs blog, the town of Macon Georgia and a member of Americans for Peace salute Chavez

Chavez Guisonomics 101, part IV: Why did the Government stop the use of structured notes to buy a bank?

IMMIGRATION
Report: McCain calls for comprehensive immigration reform at private meeting with Hispanic Republicans? Update: In newspaper interview, too?

Border patrol seeks recruits in Salem: Career opportunities lure prospects in Northwest

ELECTION
Outraged Cuban Americans Protest Obama in Miami

ENTERTAINMENT
The perfect Cuba libre

Special thanks to Eneas, Larwyn, Maria, Monica and Siggy

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January 10, 2008 By Fausta

The wrong approach: Palestinian statehood and compensation

Bush: Palestinian statehood and compensation are solution to refugee issue

“I believe we need to look to the establishment of a Palestinian state and new international mechanisms, including compensation, to resolve the refugee issue,” said Bush, in a statement summing up two days of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Bush arrived in Israel for a three-day on Wednesday.

“There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967,” continued Bush. “The agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people.”

In today’s news, this is how the news was received:
Ramallah demo brands Bush ‘war criminal’

Thousands protest in Gaza against “vampire” Bush

and via Gateway Pundit, the American International School in the Gaza Strip got bombed.

Have Fatah, Hamas or Hizbollah changed their stripes?

Then making a Palestinian state and paying compensation will accomplish nothing.

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November 23, 2007 By Fausta

"Clinton wins surprise support from former French first lady" whose husband is under investigation, that is.

Via Memeorandum:
Clinton wins surprise support from former French first lady

U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won surprise backing from the wife of former French President Jacques Chirac on Thursday, together with a pledge to join her on the campaign trail.

Bernadette is clearly impressed:

“From the first look, the first words, Hillary Clinton is a friendly, smiling person who never lets herself be caught out,” she said.

Bernadette is ready, willing, and able:

She even expressed interest in attending the Democratic convention in Denver in August. “And if I can be of any use to her somewhere in the campaign, I’m available. I’d like to go with her and I’m going to suggest it to her.”

Oh, yes, please, Bernadette! Please do join Hillary on the campaign trail. It’ll bring you a welcome respite from Jacques’s fight for what little “honor” he has left [See Saturday 24 Nov. Update below]:

French ex-President Jacques Chirac says he will fight for “truth and honour”, after being placed under investigation for misuse of funds while Paris mayor.

It’s now time for a Fausta’s blog flashback: On October 7, 2005 I posted:

Blacque Jacques Chirac’s “lunch money”
Last March I posted that 47 people were on trial for rigging public works contracts (ah, a whiff of New Jersey chez le Seine?) and that on Nov. 2002 Chirac had avoided prosecution over his exhorbitant food bills (which avearaged 600 euros (£420) a day on average between 1988 and 1995) from back when he was mayor of Paris because the statute of limitations had ran out.

Now Socialist MP Rene Dosiere (emphasis mine) sheds light on Chirac’s mysterious millions. President costs taxpayer three times official figure: Elysee Palace has 1,000 staff and budget of €82m

the palace’s annual budget – which MPs set this week at €32.7m (about £22m) for 2006 – represents only a third of what it actually gets. Mr Dosière revealed that the Elysee employs about 1,000 staff, “the equivalent of the municipal workforce of a town of 50,000 people”. He said the palace’s “extraordinary opaqueness” meant he could not rule out further serious “Republican anomalies”.

In a financial maneuver worthy of the UN,

. . . Mr Chirac also pays some 150 to 200 employees out of his “official” budget, meaning he has at his disposal a staff of 1,000, Mr Dosière said. He has calculated that some 280 hours of presidential flying time, at an average cost to the taxpayer of €5,750 per hour, are unaccounted for by his official requirements.
But perhaps the biggest mystery is the president’s salary, which is fixed not by law but by himself and amounts – officially but hardly credibly – to just €6,594 a month, less than a third of that of the prime minister (€20,206) and less than half that of a minister (€13.471).

Très cher, that Jacques.

As if this wasn’t enough bad news for Jacques, The Telegraph has this story, How Chirac ‘ordered’ his own secret, secret service

A former French secret agent has accused President Jacques Chirac of ordering him to run a private secret service to channel ransom money to hostage-takers in Lebanon and Bosnia.
. . .
But Marchiani claims that the money was transferred to his accounts to set up an “intelligence outfit” on the orders of the former interior minister, Charles Pasqua in the mid-1980s, when Mr Chirac was prime minister.
“It was a system put in place at the request of Charles Pasqua in place of the official secret services,” said Marchiani.
Marchiani said he used the funds to secure the release of hostages in Lebanon, held by Hizbollah in 1986.
“We did not collaborate with the French secret services, we worked in their place,” he said.

And that flashback’s just to whet your appetite for all things Chirac; There’s the Clearstream affaire, Jacque’s part in a coup in the Comoros, Jacques’s own secret service mentioned above, and the Chirac connections in the Oil-For-Food scam.

Captain Ed writes,

Why wouldn’t Hillary want to get linked to Jacques Chirac? After all, he epitomized European resistance to the Bush administration, didn’t he? He did a lot more than that, however. He also epitomized French undermining of sanctions against Iraq. Chirac’s administration not only demanded an end to sanctions, they actively undermined them for years, stuffing billions of dollars into the pocket of Saddam Hussein and selling him dual-use technology forbidden by the UN. Rather than have that exposed, Chirac sided with Russia (who had committed the same kinds of acts) and Saddam.

Flopping Aces wants to know,

Why is it that criminals and their families seem to flock to the Clinton family?

Why indeed? In other Hillary news, SEC Opens Investigation of Company Headed by Key Supporter of Clintons.

I’m sure there’s room for Bernardette in the picture, while the other Hsu drops out of sight.

Update:
Was Media Really “Surprised” With Latest Hillary Endorsement?
Update 2:
The Paris prosecutors’ office has dismissed a suit against Donald Rumsfeld accusing the former U.S. defense secretary of torture

UPDATE, Saturday 24 November:
Jacques is not merely “defending his honor”, as the Beeb so quantly phrased it; he’s been charged with embezzling public funds (link in French via No Pasaran).

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