Foreign 'terrorists' breach U.S. border

[vector7]

Many threads have mentioned this but couldn't find a good one to merge it with.

Today Iran is the World's Largest sponsor of Islamic Terrorism.

Here is a few threads I found with similar information:
Al Qaeda eyes bio attack from Mexico Seeks White Militias as allies

Venezuela and Terrorist Infiltration of CONUS

Iran, Venezuela and Nicaragua:

Iran boosts Qods shock troops in Venezuela
"Axis of Unity"

Chavez Signs Anti-US Cooperation Pact with Iran Providing Bases in Venezuela

Iranians Plant Their Flag In Wilds of Nicaragua

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HOMELAND INSECURITY
Foreign 'terrorists' breach U.S. border

Illegals coming from Afghanistan, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Yemen

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Posted: May 20, 2010
10:55 pm Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Almost nine years after terrorists murdered 2,751 people on Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. is still facing a major threat as hundreds of illegal aliens from countries known to support and sponsor terrorism sneak across the U.S.-Mexico border.




U.S. Mexico border in New Mexico. Only a small strand of barbed wire separates the two countries. (photo: 2006 congressional report)

Special-interest countries' and 'sponsors of terror'

Thousands of illegal aliens apprehended along the 2,000 mile border stretching through California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas aren't even from Mexico. The U.S. Border Patrol calls them "Other Than Mexicans," or OTMs, and many are citizens of countries that are sponsors of terrorism.

Is the American Southwest about to be lost? Read about the realities, in "Conquest of Aztlan"

A 2006 congressional report on border threats, titled "A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border" and prepared by the House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigations, indicated that 1.2 million illegal aliens were apprehended in 2005 alone, and 165,000 of those were from countries other than Mexico. Approximately 650 were from "special interest countries," or nations the Border Patrol defines as "designated by the intelligence community as countries that could export individuals that could bring harm to our country in the way of terrorism."


Illegal aliens from Central America ride atop a freight train leaving Arriaga, Mexico, en route to the U.S. (photo: Hogar de la Misericordia, or Home of Mercy)

Atlanta's WSB-TV2 aired a segment on U.S. border security after it obtained records from a federal detention center near Phoenix, Ariz., and found current listings for illegal aliens from Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan and Yemen.

"We have left the back door to the United States open," former Rep. J.D. Hayworth told the station. "We have to understand that there are definitely people who mean to do us harm who have crossed that border."

WSB-TV 2 published a population breakdown from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement staging facility in Florence, Ariz., dated April 15, 2010, which includes detainees from as far away as Afghanistan, Armenia, Bosnia, Egypt, Ghana, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Pakistan, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Botswana, Turkey and many other countries.

Based on U.S. Border Patrol statistics, there were 30,147 OTMs apprehended in fiscal year 2003; 44, 614 in fiscal year 2004; 165,178 in fiscal year 2005; and 108,025 in fiscal year 2006. Most were caught along the U.S. Southwest border.

According to the Department of Homeland Security's 2008 Yearbook of Immigration Studies, from the Office of Immigration Statistics, federal law enforcement agencies detained 791,568 deportable aliens in fiscal year 2008 – and 5,506 of them were from 14 "special-interest countries."

The State Department lists the following as "special-interest countries": Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.

The following "special-interest countries" are listed as sponsors of terror: Cuba, Sudan, Syria and Iran.

The aliens were apprehended "at the borders of the United States, in the interior of the country and at designated sites outside of the United States." The 2008 yearbook lists 791,568 deportable aliens by country (Page 97). Some include:

Afghanistan: 29
Algeria: 41
Cuba: 3,896
Iran: 98
Iraq: 118
Lebanon: 188
Libya: 11
Nigeria: 299
Pakistan: 494
Saudi Arabia: 71
Somalia: 66
Sudan: 46
Syria: 71
Yemen: 78

According to the Government Accountability Office, "The Border Patrol reported that in fiscal year 2008, checkpoints encountered 530 aliens from special-interest countries."

Ever-present threat of terrorist infiltration'

Warning of an "ever-present threat of terrorist infiltration over the Southwest border," the congressional report notes:

* U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations have revealed that aliens were smuggled from the Middle East to staging areas in Central and South America, before being smuggled illegally into the United States.

* Members of Hezbollah have already entered the United States across the Southwest border.

* U.S. military and intelligence officials believe that Venezuela is emerging as a potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere. The Venezuelan government is issuing identity documents that could subsequently be used to obtain a U.S. visa and enter the country.

The Texas border – specifically the McAllen area – outpaces the rest of the nation in OTMs and aliens from "special-interest countries."

From Sept. 11, 2001, to 2006, the Department of Homeland Security reported a 41 percent increase in arrests along the Texas/Mexico border of "special-interest aliens" – including aliens from Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Cuba, Brazil, Ecuador, China, Russia, Yemen, Albania, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan – all apprehended in the South Texas region alone.

U.S. immigration authorities have discovered items along the banks of the Rio Grande River that suggest ties to terrorist organizations. In 2006, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez of Zapata County, Texas, reported that officials found Iranian currency in the same area.

Also, a jacket found in Jim Hogg County, Texas, was covered in patches from countries where al-Qaida is known to operate. The patches include an Arabic military badge and one that illustrates an airplane flying into a tower. Another one features a depiction of a lion's head with wings and a parachute. The Arab insignia reads "martyr," "way to eternal life" or "way to immortality."



Patches found along Texas-Mexico border. Patch with Arab insignia on left reads "martyr," "way to enternal life" or "way to immortality." Badge on right features illustration of airplane about to collide with a tower. (photos from 2006 congressional report)

'One way or another, they're all connected'

"Islamic radical groups that support Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamiya Al Gamat are all active in Latin America," the 2006 congressional report states. "These groups generate funds through money laundering, drug trafficking and arms deals, making millions of dollars every year via their multiple illicit activities. These cells reach back to the Middle East and extend to this hemisphere the sophisticates global support structure of international terrorism."

In May 2001, just months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a former Mexican national security adviser and U.N. ambassador, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, warned, "Spanish and Islamic terrorist groups are using Mexico as a refuge."

The 39-page report notes members of Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terrorist organization, have already entered the U.S. by way of the Southwest border.

In 2002, authorities arrested Salim Boughader Mucharrafille, a café owner in Tijuana, Mexico, for smuggling more than 200 Lebanese people into the U.S., including several believed to have ties to Hezbollah.

Also, in March 2005, Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, an illegal alien who had been smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border after bribing a Mexican consular official in Beirut for a visa, pleaded guilty to providing material support to Hezbollah. Kourani, brother of the Hezbollah chief of military operations in southern Lebanon, lived in Dearborn, Mich., while he solicited funds for Hezbollah terrorists.

Hezbollah relies on "the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels," Michael Braun, retired assistant administrator and chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, told the Washington Times last year. "They work together. They rely on the same shadow facilitators. One way or another, they are all connected. "

He added, "They'll leverage those relationships to their benefit, to smuggle contraband and humans into the U.S.; in fact, they already are [smuggling]."

In 2006, Colombia's acting attorney general, Jorge Armando Otalora, announced authorities had dismantled a ring that had been producing fake passports to help illegal aliens enter the United States. Colombian officials said the gang was tied to al-Qaida and Hamas militants and that it had supplied the false passports to citizens from Pakistan, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and other countries. However, the U.S. Justice Department denied those allegations, saying the gang had connections to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said, "We are not alleging any connections to any terror organization other than the FARC."

As WND reported in 2007, President Bush's top intelligence aide confirmed that Iraqi terrorists were captured coming into the United States from Mexico.

Just this week, Houston's KHOU-TV 11 reported Homeland Security warned Houston, Texas, police and Harris County Sheriff's deputies that a suspected terrorist may be traveling through the U.S. through Mexico. Mohamed Ali is a suspected member of the terrorist group Al Shabaab, a group based in Somalia with ties to the Somali attacks portrayed in the movie "Blackhawk Down."

Only months ago, Al Shabaab announced its allegiance to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden.

KHOU-TV's chilling report can be seen below:

Likewise, the station reported, a federal indictment was filed in San Antonio against a Somali man two weeks ago. It alleges Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane led a "large-scale smuggling enterprise," moving east Africans into the U.S., including members of a terrorist group called AIAI. Dhakane is also suspected of recruiting people to help create a Taliban regime.

Shocking likelihood of terrorist infiltration

A 2009 academic study by the Society for Risk Analysis, titled "Analyzing the Homeland Security of the U.S.-Mexico Border," used a mathematical model to predict the likelihood of terrorist infiltration across the border with Mexico.

Two researcher from Stanford University and a third from George Mason University concluded that chances of OTM terrorists entering the U.S. across the southern border are quite high.

According to one calculation, based on assumptions about the extent of border screening and other aspects of domestic interior enforcement, the probability of an OTM terrorist crossing into the United States was 97.3 percent.

A 2005 Congressional Research Service report for Congress warned, "Terrorists and terrorist organizations could leverage these illicit networks to smuggle a person or weapon of mass destruction into the United States, while the large number of aliens attempting to enter the country illegally could potentially provide cover for the terrorists."

Aliens from the Middle East and other parts of the globe are said to travel to South America first, where they learn to speak Spanish. Then they continue up through Mexico and join other illegal aliens as they cross the border – mostly undetected.

According to the 2006 congressional report, federal law-enforcement agencies estimate that only 10 to 30 percent of illegal aliens are actually caught – meaning an estimated 70 to 90 percent enter the U.S. undetected.

"While many illegal aliens cross the border searching for employment, not all illegal aliens are crossing into the United States to find work," the report states. "Law enforcement has stated that some individuals come across the border because they have been forced to leave their home countries due to their criminal activity. These dangerous criminals are fleeing the law in other countries and seeking refuge in the United States."

[American Patriot]

Why.... thank you Vector. You just verified something I've been discussing privately with some folks around here.

I can't elaborate here, but will eventually.

[vector7]

Updated May 26, 2010
Feds Issue Terror Watch for the Texas/Mexico Border

By Jana Winter
- FOXNews.com



The Department of Homeland Security is alerting Texas authorities to be on the lookout for a suspected member of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorist group who might be attempting to travel to the U.S. through Mexico, a security expert who has seen the memo tells FOXNews.com.

The warning follows an indictment unsealed this month in Texas federal court that accuses a Somali man in Texas of running a “large-scale smuggling enterprise” responsible for bringing hundreds of Somalis from Brazil through South America and eventually across the Mexican border.

Many of the illegal immigrants, who court records say were given fake IDs, are alleged to have ties to other now-defunct Somalian terror organizations that have merged with active organizations like Al Shabaab, al-Barakat and Al-Ittihad Al-Islami.

In 2008, the U.S. government designated Al Shabaab a terrorist organization. Al Shabaab has said its priority is to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, on Somalia; the group has aligned itself with Al Qaeda and has made statements about its intent to harm the United States.

In recent years, American Somalis have been recruited by Al Shabaab to travel to Somalia, where they are often radicalized by more extremist or operational anti-American terror groups, which Al Shabaab supports. The recruiters coming through the Mexican border are the ones who could be the most dangerous, according to law enforcement officials.

Security experts tell FOXNews.com that the influx of hundreds of Somalis over the U.S. border who allegedly have ties to suspected terror cells is evidence of a porous and unsecured border being exploited by groups intent on wrecking deadly havoc on American soil.

The DHS alert was issued to police and sheriff’s deputies in Houston, asking them to keep their eyes open for a Somali man named Mohamed Ali who is believed to be in Mexico preparing to make the illegal crossing into Texas. Officials believe Ali has ties to Al Shabaab, a Somali terrorist organization aligned with Al Qaeda, said Joan Neuhaus Schaan, the homeland security and terrorism fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute, who has seen the alert.

In the Texas smuggling case, Anthony Joseph Tracy, of Virginia, who admitted to having ties to Al Shabaab, is currently being prosecuted for his alleged role in an international ring that illegally brought more than 200 Somalis across the Mexican border. Prosecutors say Tracy used his Kenya-based travel business as a cover to fraudulently obtain Cuban travel documents for the Somalis. The smuggled Somalis are believed to have spread out across the United States and remain mostly at large, court records show.

Somalis are classified by border and immigration officials as “special interest” — illegal immigrants who get caught trying to cross the Mexican border into the U.S. who come from countries that are considered a high threat to the U.S., Neuhaus Schaan explained.

DHS did not respond to multiple e-mail and phone requests for comment.

In addition to the Somali immigration issue, Mexican smugglers are coaching some Middle Eastern immigrants before they cross the border – schooling them on how to dress and giving them phrases to help them look and sound like Latinos, law enforcement sources told FoxNews.com.

“There have been a number of certain communities that have noticed this, villages in northern Mexico where Middle Easterners try to move into town and learn Spanish,” Neuhaus Schaan said. “People were changing there names from Middle Eastern names to Hispanic names.”

Security experts say the push by illegal immigrants to try to fit in also could be the realization of what officials have feared for years: Latin American drug cartels are helping jihadist groups bring terrorists across the Mexican border.

J. Peter Pham, senior fellow and director of the Africa Project at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, said that for the past ten years there’s been suspicion by U.S. law enforcement that drug cartels could align with international terrorist organizations to bring would-be-jihadists into the U.S.

That kind of collaboration is already being seen in Africa, said Dr. Walid Phares, director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

“Al Qaeda could easily say, “Ok, now we want your help getting these guys into the United States,” Phares said. “Eventually the federal government will pay more attention, but there is a window of time now where they can get anyone they want to get in already.”

Experts also say the DHS alert and recent court case highlights the threat of terrorists penetrating the Mexican/Texas border — and the growing threat of Somali recruitment efforts to bring Americans of Somali descent back to Somalia for jihadist training, creating homegrown terrorists.

Pham says the DHS alert comes too late. “They’re just covering themselves for the fact that DHS has been failing to date to deal effectively with this,” he said. “They’re already here.”

Michael Weinstein, a political science professor at Purdue University and an expert on Somalia, said, “In the past year, it’s become obvious that there’s a spillover into the United States of the transnational revolutionaries in Somalia.”

“It’s something that certainly has to be watched, but I don’t think it’s an imminent threat,” he said. “This has to be put in context with people smuggling — everybody and their brother is getting into the United States through Mexico; I read last week that some Chinese were crossing, it’s just a big market.”

Pham disagrees. “The real danger is ‘something along the lines of jihadist version of ‘find a classmate,’ he said, referring to Al Shabaab’s potential to set up sleeper cells in the U.S. “Most of them rely on personal referral and association. That type of social networking is not beyond their capabilities.”

Pham says the DHS alert is too little, too late.

“This is like shutting the barn door after the horses got away,” he said.

[vector7]

Also Venezuela's Chavez Backing Leftist Guerrillas In Mexico

Congresswoman Fears Hezbollah ‘Israel-Like Bombings’ in US

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Published: 06/29/10, 1:01 AM / Last Update: 06/29/10, 1:00 AM

A Republican Congresswoman has warned that Hezbollah terrorists, hooked up with Mexican drug cartels, may be planning �Israel-like bombings� against customs officials or National Guard units on the U.S. border.

North Carolina legislator Sue Myrick wrote Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, urging a task force "to engage U.S. and Mexican law enforcement and border patrol officials about Hezbollah's presence, activities, and connections to gangs and drug cartels."

Echoing previous reports of Hizbullah’s activity in the profitable drug trade, Myrick wrote, "The connection between Hizbullah and the drug cartels has seemed to grow over the past few years. This may be especially true on the U.S. southern border.

“Across states in the Southwest, well trained officials are beginning to notice the tattoos of gang members in prisons are being written in Farsi.

We have typically seen tattoos in Arabic, but Farsi implies a Persian influence that can likely be traced back to Iran and its proxy army, Hizbullah.

These tattoos in Farsi are almost always seen in combination with gang or drug cartel tattoos.�

Myrick also warned that the United States may face terror tunnels, similar to those Hizbullah used in the Second Lebanon War against Israel in 2006.

Noting that the terrain along the American-Mexican border is similar to Israel’s, she wrote, “Hezbollah is extremely skilled in the construction of tunnels. Israel has time and again found Hezbollah tunnels leading into Israel, some of which are large enough to accommodate trucks. Likewise, …intelligence officials say that the drug cartels, in an effort to dig larger and more effective tunnels, are employing the expertise of Hezbollah.

Federal government documents have shown that that the United States apprehended two Syrians and 17 Iranians over a 12-month period ending this past April.

Also nabbed at the border were dozens of others from other Muslim countries, including Sudan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Texas border agents have discovered illegal immigrants with an Arabic clothing patch that reads “martyr� according to the current National Review.

(IsraelNationalNews.com)

[vector7]

GOP Rep: Hezbollah Partners With Drug Cartels To Infiltrate America's Southern Border

Justin Elliott | June 25, 2010, 4:18PM



Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), who we last encountered exposing Muslim intern spies on Capitol Hill and terrorists in the nation's convenience stores, has issued her most startling warning yet: Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, she has come to believe, is partnering with Mexican drug cartels in the U.S. borderlands and may be planning "Israel-like car bombings of Mexican/USA border personnel or National Guard units."

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Myrick calls for a task force "to engage US and Mexican law enforcement and border patrol officials about Hezbollah's presence, activities, and connections to gangs and drug cartels."

Myrick says she has to come believe that Hezbollah is operating on the border because of evidence well, wouldn't that be crazy? She writes:

"The connection between Hezbollah and the drug cartels has seemed to grow over the past few years. This may be especially true on the US Southern border. Across states in the Southwest, well trained officials are beginning to notice the tattoos of gang members in prisons are being written in Farsi. We have typically seen tattoos in Arabic, but Farsi implies a Persian influence that can likely be traced back to Iran and its proxy army, Hezbollah. These tattoos in Farsi are almost always seen in combination with gang or drug cartel tattoos. These combinations have been increasing in number and point to the fact that these criminals are tied to both Hezbollah and gangs and drug cartels."

Myrick also points to the similarity between the U.S. border terrain and Israel as a reason why Hezbollah is there:

"Former intelligence officials have pointed to the terrain that makes up our border, especially in the San Diego border sector, as a reason why drug cartels have been partnering with Hezbollah. This terrain is very much like the areas around Israel's borders. As we well know, Hezbollah is extremely skilled in the construction of tunnels. Israel has time and again found Hezbollah tunnels leading into Israel, some of which are large enough to accommodate trucks.

Likewise, these intelligence officials say that the drug cartels, in an effort to dig larger and more effective tunnels, are employing the expertise of Hezbollah. For their expertise, Hezbollah could be receiving a cut of the drug money or even be helping put cash up front to assist in the overall drug operations."

We've asked Myrick's office for the names of the former intelligence officials and any evidence to back up what she's saying, and we'll let you know if we hear back

[vector7]

Islamic Terrorists Crossing Into United States From Mexico

[vector7]

Glenn is on to the Iran / Hezbollah + Venezuela = Mexico terror border connection

Glenn Beck 08-16-10-C

[vector7]

Companion Threads:

• Obama invites tens of thousands of radical Muslims to relocate to the U.S.
• The Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated both the Clinton and Obama Administrations
• The Left's Unholy Alliance with Islam
• Is Obama a Muslim?
• New Black Panthers Target Jews, Conservatives and Tea Partiers
• Ahmadinejad met with Farrakahan and New Black Panthers
• New Black Panthers Plot With Ahmadinejad to Overthrow America
• Iran has 'penetrated' the Obama Administration
• Obama Sounds the Retreat

Iran's secret pipeline into the U.S.

August 18, 2010 - 5:02am


FILE -- In a Feb. 11, 2008 file photo Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaks during a rally to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution at Azadi Square, Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian/file)

J.J. Green, wtop.com

WASHINGTON - Iran Air 744 is a bimonthly flight that originates in Tehran and flies directly to Caracas with periodic stops in Beirut and Damascus. The maiden flight was Feb. 2, 2007.

The mere existence of the flight was a significant concern for U.S. intelligence officials, but now a broader concern is who and what are aboard the flights.

"If you [a member of the public] tried to book yourself a seat on this flight and it doesn't matter whether it's a week before, a month before, six months before -- you'll never find a place to sit there," says Offer Baruch, a former Israeli Shin Bet agent.

Baruch, now vice president of operations for International Shield, a security firm in Texas, says the plane is reserved for Iranian agents, including "Hezbollah, the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and other intelligence personnel."

Current and former U.S. intelligence official fear the flight is a shadowy way to move people and weapons to locations in Latin America that can be used as staging points for retaliatory attacks against the U.S. or its interests in the event Iranian nuclear sites are struck by U.S. or Israeli military forces.

"My understanding is that this flight not only goes from Caracas to Damascus to Tehran perhaps twice a month, but it also occasionally makes stops in Lebanon as well, and the passengers on that flight are not processed through normal Venezuelan immigrations or customs.

They are processed separately when they come into the country," says Peter Brookes, senior fellow for National Security Affairs at the Heritage Foundation.

The 16-hour flight typically leaves Tehran and stops at Damascus International Airport (DAM), which is Syria's busiest. In 2009, almost 4.5 million passengers used the airport.

After a 90-minute layover, the flight continues the remaining 14 hours to Venezuela's Caracas MaiquetÃ*a International Airport (CCS). Upon arrival, the plane is met by special Venezuelan forces and sequestered from other arrivals.

"It says that something secretive or clandestine is going on that they don't want the international community to know about," says Brookes, a former deputy assistant defense secretary for Asian and Pacific Affairs and CIA employee.

"The fact that there is a flight is of course of interest, but the fact that not anybody can gain access to this flight or buy a ticket for that flight is of particular curiosity and should be of concern to the United States."

In addition to speculation about who is aboard, there are significant concerns that the Boeing 747SP airplane might be transporting uranium to Tehran on the return flight. The U.S. government has enacted strong sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program and there are worries the flight might provide an opportunity to skirt the embargo against materials that might be used for the program.

"Clearly, Iran has been a sponsor of Hezbollah, and clearly Hezbollah profits from this relationship," former CIA Director Michael J. Hayden says.

"It would be too much to say that Hezbollah is a puppet of the Iranian state, but one way of looking at this relationship is that the Iranian state might rely on Hezbollah as a strategic weapon -- its weapon for global reach."

Hayden, now a principle in the Chertoff Group, says the CIA has been aware of the activities for several years.

"Fundamentally, the thing that first and very solidly caught our attention at the Agency was the inauguration of direct air flight between the two capitals. Here was a conduit that people could travel from Iran into the Western Hemisphere, into Latin America in a way that would be very difficult for American intelligence services to detect and to understand.

"Right there at that very simple level, just the direct flight is something that we would be and should be concerned about."

Brookes says the passengers "may not even need visas because they are special passengers. That obviously is of concern because there is no transparency about who the people are coming in and going out of the country. Of course there is concern that these folks may be Iranian special agents."

Beyond concerns about Iranian intelligence flooding the west, Brookes and others worry that Iranian special advisers are schooling the Venezuelan military and may be involved in plans to move Iranian agents inside the U.S.

"It's certainly a possibility.

Would the agents that come into Venezuela be able to find their way to the United States?

That's certainly possible.

You see the drug smugglers today using submersibles to move drugs to the U.S. and other parts of the Caribbean which is a real challenge. So why wouldn't they be able to do the same with persons?"

A U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity says there are concerns about the relationships between Iran and Venezuela, but you have to keep it in perspective.

"The problems both countries face internally, and their own regional priorities closer to home, limit the amount of trouble they can cause together. But it's something you have to watch, whether it's the potential for government-to-government mischief or the possibility of something involving Iran's friends like Hezbollah.

"You can ask what a self-proclaimed Bolivarian socialist has in common with a bunch of theocratic thugs in Iran. The answer is 'not much,' beyond a taste for repression and a shared desire to make life difficult for the United States and its allies."

On Friday, the next flight is expected to take off. While U.S. intelligence may be able to track the flight, there appears to be little more they can legally do to determine what or who is on board.

"American intelligence services have a lot of things on their plate. The fact that I can tell you that we're really interested in that direct flight tells you that it was on our scope -- something that we are sensitive to," Hayden says. "Are we doing enough about it? I would have to say 'no,' because it's a very challenging menu that American intelligence has to deal with."

In a statement, the State Department says, "Nations have the right to enter into cooperative relationships with other nations."

Neither the Iranian nor the Venezuelan governments responded to request for reaction before this article was published.

---

Islam has become the fastest growing religion in Mexico...

Islam and immigration
Becky Yeh - OneNewsNow
California correspondent - 8/4/2010 4:20:00 AM



On July 17, a drug cartel completed its first successful car bombing, shaking the violence-stricken city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and one activist sees that as an indication of an Islamic presence in Mexico and the Mexican-American border.

Juarez, a city plagued by extreme violence and bloodshed, has been home to drug-traffickers and gangs who afflict citizens' daily lives with rising hostility. But despite President Felipe Calderon's attempts to quench the bloodshed by dispatching troops to Juarez, the violence has only increased.

This particular attack exhibits tactics similar to those utilized by terrorists in the Middle East, which one activist sees as an indication of an Islamic presence in Mexico and the Mexican-American border.

Brigitte Gabriel, author and founder of ACT! for America, believes Islam and immigration are closely related. She joins intelligence officials in pointing out that drug cartels are working with terrorist organizations like Hezbollah in order to infiltrate the United States.

"I strongly suggest that Hezbollah is working with the drug cartels," Gabriel affirms. "We know for fact that [terrorists] are working and trying to get into the Latin American countries. We are seeing more and more [Islamic presence] in the border."

The founder of the non-profit organization came to the United States as a Lebanese immigrant after her country was lost to Islamic fundamentalists during the Lebanese Civil War. She now devotes her time to educating Americans on the threat of radical Islam.

As a member of the Board of Advisors of the Intelligence Summit, Gabriel contends in a New York Post article that terrorist organizations and drug cartels are working side-by-side.



"Law enforcement officials and intelligence analysts believe that terrorist groups like al-Qaeda have been working with such gangs as the ruthless MS-13 to smuggle terrorists into America," she writes. "Intel briefings and other sources suggest that al-Qaeda spends as much as $50,000 to smuggle in a single terrorist, while Hezbollah -- funded by Iran -- pays as much as $10,000."

Gabriel refers to "A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border," a congressional report on homeland security which shows that a large number of illegal immigrants from countries such as Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq are crossing the American border.

Known as OTMs, or "other than Mexicans," these illegal immigrants are able to pass as Hispanics as they have similar features which help them blend well in Mexican cities. The report contains photos of military jackets with the line "Martyr, Way to Eternal Life" on a badge.

A report from WBS-TV further explains that illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan are in a federal detention center in Arizona and that illegal immigrants from the Middle East came through Latin America, where they learned Spanish and traveled to the Mexican border. These terrorists then gain aid from drug cartel members who helped smuggle weapons and aliens across the border into the United States.

The Washington Times reported in 2009 that Hezbollah is using the same routes that Mexican drug cartels use in order to smuggle illegal substances into the United States and that they depend on the same "criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels."

Terrorists are also using other methods to gain entry into America as officials are finding tunnels dug between Mexico and United States -- a method used in Islamic terrorism against Israel, Gabriel says.

For example, U.S. Border Patrol agents recently found a man-made tunnel in El Paso, Texas near the Bridge of the Americas Port of Entry. Authorities have found the entry to the channel at a point in Mexico. Another tunnel was also found in Mexicali in July, and authorities confirm it was used to smuggle people and drugs across the border.

These ploys and methods of violence, including beheadings, is not an imitation of Islamic terror, the activist explains, but they are an indication that there is an Islamic presence near our borders.

"Decapitation is not something new, but it is strictfully an Islamic signature," Gabriel reports. "The heads are posted on top of a post for everyone to see. This is why we are seeing more and more beheadings right now."

As beheadings shootings and bombings increase in Mexico, officials fear the same violence may spill over into the United States, especially since it is now believed that Hezbollah has 11 terrorist cells in America -- one of them being in New York.

Gabriel believes America's confrontation with Iran is also adding fuel to the fire -- an issue that cannot be avoided much longer.

"We are about to head into confrontation with Iran," she suggests. "Iran knows they will head into confrontation with America sooner or later, [so] Iran is trying to set operation in the United States by smuggling [terrorists]."

The activist is also concerned about the alarming infiltration of Islam in America.



"[Terrorists] are going directly into large cities. They are marrying American women, [and] they are infiltrating through so many areas," Gabriel points out. "Terrorists are becoming very smart. We are seeing a lot of conversion to Islam, mostly happening in the United State in prison systems and inner cities. The highest conversion of Islam in the United States is the African American community and some from the Hispanic community," she adds.

Meanwhile, Islamic fundamentalists are pulling out the race card as a method of spreading Islamic conversion.

Inmates are told by Muslim imams that Christianity is a white man's religion, while Islam is for the black man because of its African roots. Also, by assuring sex offenders that Islam allows sex with little children -- following the example of the prophet Muhammad -- sex offenders, who are viewed as criminals in Christianity, can be seen as holy men in Islam.

Upon release from prison, inmates go directly to the ghettos and inner cities where they seek to convert their friends and families to Islam, which is promoting the religion "like wildfire."

"The greatest concern is about illegal immigration in general," Gabriel concludes. "Everyone came to America to start a new life. They did not come as criminals.

We are concerned about illegal immigration -- not immigration.

What we are concerned about is Islamic terrorist and radicals with the purpose of turning Muslim-Americans against America."

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EXCLUSIVE: DHS Caught and Released 481 ‘Fugitive’ Illegals from State Sponsors of Terror and ‘Countries of Interest’

Thursday, August 12, 2010
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer


U.S. Department of Homeland Security seal


(CNSNews.com EXCLUSIVE) - In the three fiscal years from 2007-2009, the Department of Homeland Security caught and released 481 illegal aliens from nations designated as state sponsors of terrorism and “countries of interest,� and those 481 aliens are now fugitives, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement database obtained by CNSNews.com as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request.

The four state sponsors of terrorism, as determined by the State Department, are Iran, Syria, Sudan and Cuba. The “countries of interest� are those additional countries whose citizens have been subjected to enhanced screening on U.S.-bound flights by the Transportation Security Administration as a result of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Flight 253.

On Jan. 3, 2010, TSA said in a statement that the agency was “mandating that every individual flying into the U.S. from anywhere in the world who holds a passport issued by or is traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening.� TSA did not specify which nations it considered “countries of interest.�

But a Jan. 4, 2010 New York Times report, citing Obama administration officials, identified them as Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.

A report in USA Today that day, citing the TSA as the source, described the full list of nations whose citizens would be targeted for enhanced security checks as “14 countries with terrorism problems.�

The database that ICE provided to CNSNews.com includes the date that each illegal alien was taken into custody (booked in) by the federal government, the date they were released (booked out), which of the 24 regional ICE jurisdictions they were booked in, the status of the case (whether the person has been deported, the case against him has been withdrawn, or whether the case is still active, etc.), the category of the case (which includes whether the person is a fugitive), the gender of the alien and his or her country of citizenship. DHS withheld the names and birthdates of the aliens.



Attorney General Eric Holder, right, accompanied by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, center, and New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, during a news conference to update the attempted bombing in Times Square, Tuesday, May 4, 2010, at Justice Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
For the three fiscal years 2007, 2008 and 2009, the database shows that there are 481 “active� cases for “fugitives� from the 4 state sponsors of terror and 9 of the 10 “countries of interest.� There are no active fugitive cases for Libyan nationals.

The total number of active fugitive cases involving citizens from the four state sponsors and the 10 countries of interest include:

Cuba-137
Nigeria-97
Pakistan-87
Lebanon-34
Iran-29
Iraq-26
Somalia-22
Sudan-14
Syria-13
Yemen-8
Algeria-8
Afghanistan-4
Saudi Arabia-2
Libya-0

ICE Spokeswoman Gillian Brigham told CNSNews.com that a “fugitive� as listed in the database is defined as an individual who has been found legally deportable and has evaded authorities.

“A fugitive is an individual who has a final order of removal and has absconded,� Brigham said.

Although Cuba is named by the State Department as a state sponsor of terrorism, under U.S. law Cubans who escape from their native country and successfully reach U.S. soil are allowed to remain in the country. After one year and one day, they can apply for permanent resident status, which is granted unless the individual has committed a crime that could lead to deportation.

Brigham and Barbara Gonzalez, another spokeswoman with ICE, told CNSNews.com that the special status given to Cubans can be revoked for criminal conviction, but they could not confirm whether or not the 137 Cubans that were in ICE custody in fiscal 2007-2009 and are now listed as “fugitives� had criminal records.

When asked why illegal aliens from “countries of interest� or those from state sponsors of terrorism were released inside the United States after being detained, Brigham said that the number of illegal aliens undergoing immigration-law processing in the United States makes it impossible to keep all of them in custody.

“On any given day, the immigration detention system has about 32,000 beds available for people going through immigration proceedings,� Brigham said. “There are 1.6 million people going through some kind of immigration court proceeding. So you can’t detain everyone.�

Brigham said individuals that meet “mandatory detention� requirements, such as conviction for a certain classes of crimes, or who are determined to be a flight risk are the first to be assigned a detention space.

“We have to prioritize who we put in detention,� she said.

Of the 481 illegal aliens from state sponsors of terrorism and countries of interest who were initially detained in fiscal years 2007-2009 and who are now fugitives, 430 are male, 50 are female and the gender of one, according to the database, is “unknown.�

--Edwin Mora contributed to this report.

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Update: Hezbollah on the Southern Border?

Since Rep. Myrick wrote to Sec. Napolitano more than two months ago, more evidence has arisen that shows Hezbollah may be operating in Mexico and along our Southern border.

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U.S., Mexican Officials Say They Can't Confirm Arrest of Hezbollah Operative on Border

By Joshua Rhett Miller
Published July 09, 2010
| FoxNews.com


APJune 2: A Hezbollah supporter holds up a poster of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah as he protests with others along the Lebanese-Israeli border in southern Lebanon.

Officials in the U.S. and Mexico say they cannot confirm a widely-circulating report out of Kuwait that a Hezbollah leader has been arrested in Mexico.

The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyassah reported last week that Hezbollah operatives had employed Mexican nationals with ties to Lebanon to set up a network in South America designed to target Israel and the West, and that the group's alleged leader, Jameel Nasr, had been arrested in Tijuana.

According to the report, authorities in Mexico conducted a surveillance operation on Nasr, who traveled frequently to Lebanon to receive instructions from Hezbollah militants.

Nasr -- who was said to be living in Tijuana at the time of his reported arrest -- made frequent trips to other countries in Latin America, including a two-month stay in Venezuela in 2008, according to the report.

Attempts to confirm that an arrest had taken place were unsuccessful.

Police officials in Tijuana told FoxNews.com that they have no information pertaining to Nasr and Mexican embassy officials in Washington did not return multiple messages seeking comment. U.S. State Department officials said they could not confirm Nasr's arrest but would be unable to do so if the arrest occurred in Mexico. Officials at Interpol referred inquires to Mexican authorities.

The Department of Homeland Security said it does not have "any credible information" that terrorist groups are operating along America's Southwest border.

On June 23, two weeks before Nasr's reported arrest, U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano calling for more "intelligence gathering" on Hezbollah's presence along the U.S.-Mexico border and requested a task force be created to evaluate the terror network's presence, activities and connections to drug cartels.

The congresswoman also noted that officials in Southwestern states have begun noticing tattoos of gang members in prison that are written in Farsi.

"We have typically seen tattoos in Arabic, but Farsi implies a Persian influence that can likely be traced back to Iran and its proxy army, Hezbollah," the letter continued. "These tattoos in Farsi are almost always seen in combination with gang or drug cartel tattoos. These combinations have been increasing in number and point to the fact that these criminals are tied to both Hezbollah and gangs and drug cartels."

Drug cartels and Hezbollah operatives have been partnering along the U.S-Mexico border in part due to Hezbollah's experience in the rugged terrain along the border, according to Myrick's letter, which cited former intelligence officials.

"This terrain is very much like the areas around Israel's borders," the letter continued. "As we well know, Hezbollah is extremely skilled in the construction of tunnels. Israel has time and again found Hezbollah tunnels leading into Israel, some of which are large enough to accommodate trucks. Likewise, these intelligence officials say that the drug cartels, in an effort to dig larger and more effective tunnels, are employing the expertise of Hezbollah."

In a statement issued to FoxNews.com, DHS spokesman Matt Chandler said the agency would respond directly to Myrick and said it does not have any "credible information" on terrorist groups operating along the border.

"DHS secures our border based on an intelligence-driven, layered enforcement approach; an effort that includes advance information, sophisticated technology and partnerships with law enforcement agencies and other countries," Chandler's statement read. "At this time, DHS does not have any credible information on terrorist groups operating along the Southwest Border."

Meanwhile, Jeffrey Addicott, director of the Center for Terrorism and Law at St. Mary's University in Texas, said its "pretty common knowledge" within the intelligence community that Islamic radical groups and their affiliates have been operating in Central and South America for some time, as well as within U.S. cities.

"Every major city in this country has Hamas or Hezbollah sympathizers or supporters," Addicott told FoxNews.com. "They're worldwide organizations. There's a lot of stuff going on under the radar, but we haven’t had a large incident to bring it to our attention."

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Hezbollah terrorists entering US through Mexican border; Obama ignores evidence

• November 29th, 2010 3:57 am PT

Obama ignoring evidence of Hezbollah...again
Photo: Getty Images

Hezbollah terrorists are entering the US through the Mexican border, yet the Obama Administration ignores the evidence. Americans should now not only be vigilant against illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico (and bringing with them all their lovely crime, diseases and salary depreciation). They should also be vigilant against a second headache that is piggybacking its way into the US through the underground tunnels that drug cartels normally use to gain entry into the US.

According to a congresswoman who has seen evidence from the Drug Enforcement Agency, this additional problem of the porous US-Mexican border is a worrisome reality that the Obama Administration is completely in denial about.

Sue Myrick is a GOP congresswoman out of North Carolina and also a member of the House Intelligence Committee, and she has been trying to get a task force set up to deal with the invading Hezbollah terrorists through the southern border for months, only to have Obama’s Homeland Security Department either refuse to answer her letters on the issue, or totally deny it. However, it is indisputable that such terrorist infiltration into the US is occurring, since a New York district attorney actually handed down an indictment on August 30th of this year regarding an arms-for-drugs deal that was initiated. It involved the trading of cocaine that came from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that was to be exchanged for many weapons, which a Hezbollah agent in Mexico was housing.

On a weekend segment of "Huckabee" that was actually informative, Myrick further says that the conspiracy between Mexican drug cartels and terrorists like Hezbollah is only a natural evolution from the fact that both organizations want to bring weapons and the like into the US. What makes the infiltration of Hezbollah so fluid is the existence and use of the drug tunnels that are continually being dug and are also quite sophisticated, which exist underground and run from Mexico to the US.

This makes a lot of sense when you consider that Hezbollah is actually an expert in building these kinds of tunnels—over in the Middle East! The point is that the drug tunnels that the Mexican cartels use are actually not their own, original idea, but merely a copy of the Islamic terrorists’ design that they’ve been using against Israel for years.

Another panelist on the show, Deputy Speaker of Israel’s Knesset, Danny Danon, actually revealed that there are currently training camps of Hezbollah terrorists being trained by Iran, and these camps are located along the border of Columbia and Venezuela! The Islamic terrorists have penetrated into South America with ease, and they have chosen this location as a strategic launching point to give them a direct entry into the US! Yet despite all this evidence and firsthand testimony, the Obama Administration is dismissing another important national security issue.

Isn’t it almost miraculous that the US hasn’t been attacked yet when there is a clear and present danger of Islamic terrorists basically amassing just south of the US?

According to Myrick and others in the know, this threat is not overseas anymore—it’s basically knocking on the back door of the US! While that is shocking, primarily since the liberal media is covering it up to help Obama out, what is more shocking is how dismissive and disinterested the Obama Administration is on this. That seems like a self-destructive policy only promoting attacks on the US homeland instead of preemptively heading them off.

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Also in the news: Radical Imam Caught Sneaking Into US in Car Trunk

Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 7:06 PM



Imam Said Jaziri appears at his Immigration and Refugee Board hearing in Montreal Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. (The Star)

Iranian Book Celebrating Suicide Bombers Found in Arizona Desert

By William La Jeunesse

Published January 27, 2011 | FoxNews.com

EXCLUSIVE: A book celebrating suicide bombers has been found in the Arizona desert just north of the U.S.- Mexican border, authorities tell Fox News.

The book, "In Memory of Our Martyrs," was spotted Tuesday by a U.S. Border Patrol agent out of the Casa Grande substation who was patrolling a route known for smuggling illegal immigrants and drugs.

Published in Iran, it consists of short biographies of Islamic suicide bombers and other Islamic militants who died carrying out attacks.

According to internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection documents, "The book also includes letters from suicide attackers to their families, as well as some of their last wills and testaments." Each biographical page contains "the terrorist's name, date of death, and how they died."

Agents also say that the book appears to have been exposed to weather in the desert "for at least several days or weeks."

Authorities told Fox News that there were no people in the area at the time the book was found, and no arrests have been made in connection with it.

"At this time, DHS does not have any credible information on terrorist groups operating along the Southwest border," a Department of Homeland Security official said in a statement. "We work closely with our partners in the law enforcement and intelligence communities and as a matter of due diligence and law enforcement best practice, report anything found, no matter how significant or insignificant it may seem."

Statements from U.S. officials, including FBI director Robert Mueller, have raised serious concerns in recent years over "OTMs" -- or illegal immigrants other than Mexicans -- who have crossed the southwest border at alarming rates.

Mueller testified before the House Appropriations Committee in March 2005 that "there are individuals from countries with known Al Qaeda connections who are changing their Islamic surnames to Hispanic-sounding names and obtaining false Hispanic identities, learning to speak Spanish and pretending to be Hispanic."

Just last year, the Department of Homeland Security had in custody thousands of detainees from Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. U.S. Border Patrol statistics indicate that there were 108,025 OTMs detained in 2006, compared to 165,178 in 2005 and 44,614 in 2004.

Authorities would not release a picture of the book to Fox News, or reveal how long they believe it was lying in the desert. Immigration officials have previously discovered items along the U.S.-Mexico border from Middle Eastern origin, including Iranian currency in Zapata, Texas, and a jacket found in Jim Hogg County, Texas, that was covered in patches including an Arabic military badge that illustrates an airplane flying into a tower.

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Sunday, September 5, 2010 IRAN SURROGATES, HEZBOLLAH TRAINING MEXICAN CARTELS Alan Note: cutting off heads also taught to the drug cartels by Islamic terrorists and drug partners. None of this was happening until they arrived on scene. By Rep. Sue Myrick An indictment was handed down Aug. 30 by the Southern District Court of New York that shows a connection between Hezbollah - the proxy army of Iran and a designated terrorist organization - and the drug cartels that violently plague the U.S.-Mexico border. In short, a well-known international arms dealer was trying to orchestrate an arms-for-drugs deal in which cocaine from FARC - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which works with Mexican drug cartels to take cocaine into America - would be traded for thousands of weapons housed by a Hezbollah operative in Mexico. This most recent case brings up several questions: Why would a member of Hezbollah be in Mexico? Why would Hezbollah need thousands of weapons in Mexico? Why are members of Hezbollah willing to work with FARC? Perhaps to exchange weapons for drugs? If Hezbollah has guns in Mexico and wants drugs, isn't it logical to assume that it is trading with more accessible Mexican drug cartels? This is just the most recent incident in which it's clear that Hezbollah may have a presence in Mexico and along our southern border. There have been more incidents - which have been ignored by the Obama administration and the Department of Homeland Security. On June 23, I sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano asking her to establish a task force to investigate the presence of Hezbollah along the U.S.-Mexico border. The evidence is there: Hezbollah's cooperation with countries across South America. Highly sophisticated tunnels for transferring drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border, ones very similar to the tunnels dug by Hezbollah into Israel. The close relationship between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the increase in Iranian nationals traveling through Venezuela to receive false documents, which they use to cross into the United States. Mexican officials raising concerns about Hezbollah operatives possibly training Mexican drug cartel enforcers in making car bombs. Michael Braun, a former Drug Enforcement Administration chief of operations, has even been quoted as saying, "Hezbollah relies on the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels. ... They work together; they rely on the same shadow facilitators. One way or another, they are all connected." Only a few weeks after I sent this letter, it was reported that Jameel Nasr (Arab name), a Mexican national with ties to Hezbollah in Lebanon, "entrusted with forming a base in South America and the United States to carry out operations against Israeli and Western targets," was arrested by the Mexican government. Days later, a cell-phone-detonated car bomb - the first of its kind reported used by Mexican drug cartels - was deployed just across the U.S.-Mexico border in Juarez. On Aug. 27, another car bomb exploded in a U.S.-Mexico border state. These car bombs show an evolution in the tactics being used by the drug cartels and bear a strong resemblance to those employed by Hezbollah, raising questions as to who trained the cartels. Doesn't the protection of the American public deserve answers? The primary role of the federal government is to protect its citizens. Unfortunately, the administration continues to sit by idly while security threats go uninvestigated. And that's all I'm requesting - an investigation to find out what's going on along our southern border. To date, I have not received a response from the Department of Homeland Security informing me of any decision to investigate. How much more is it going to take? Hezbollah in Mexico Uploaded by JerusalemPulseRadio on Apr 12, 2011 The Mexican drug cartels are being trained by Hezbollah. Hezbollah are coming across the porous US border daily. Why isn't the Obama Admin doing something to stop them? Intel says 25-100 terrorists are making their way across the border daily with backpacks on... Can you say SLEEPER CELLS?! VIDEO=FOX NEWS REPORT FEB 2011

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Companion Thread:

• Southern Border Chessboard Involves Iran/Venezuela/Russia

Hezbollah and Mexica Drug Cartels Operating in Mexico and U.S.

Michael Webster - BigNews.biz
go to original

One high ranking Mexican Army officer says Hezbollah is now believed to be training Mexican drug cartel enforcers the art of bomb making.

From Brownsville Texas to San Diego California the drug-related dangers and violence is so staggering that the country has been declared off-limits to all U.S. Military.


Mexican drug cartels, Hezbollah (Party of God) and other Islamic terrorist groups are joining forces in Mexico. Hezbollah is synonymous with terror, suicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. No wonder the criminal organizations in Mexico seem to have adopted many Middle Eastern terrorist tactics with kidnappings and beheadings happening throughout Mexico.


According to authorities global Islamic terrorist have moved into Mexico and other Latin American countries to open the door for Mexican cartels to have excess to Afghanistan cocaine at bargain basement prices, those profits from those sales are being passed on to Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations worldwide to attack the states from within.


Hezbollah is known to be raising money for their cause in the U.S and some Americans say they have brought suite case dirty booms into the U.S. and are waiting for further instructions. Hezbollah is currently training Mexican drug cartel enforcement gang members. They are teaching them their gorilla terror tactic’s that they use in the Middle East.


One high ranking Mexican Army officer who will at his request remain anonymous says Hezbollah is now believed to be training Mexican drug cartel enforcers the art of bomb making. It is now feared that there will soon be car and truck bombings of Mexican solders at the many road blocks that they have set up throughout Mexico, their barracks, police stations and even government buildings are at risk. The training is designed to combat the Mexican Army and police, American Special Forces and DEA agents now operating in Mexico.


According to Mexican officials Hezbollah is training the opposition to the Mexican Army and is starting to be seen throughout the country. There are new reports of late, of hit and run tactics against Mexican military set up road blocks where both attackers and Mexican solders have been killed.


Homeland Security has said that there are Hezbollah members operating in the U.S. and it is reasonable to believe they are in contact with other Hezbollah in Mexico and around the world. In addition to other terrorist attacks, Hezbollah has been tied to the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut that left 241 U.S. personnel dead, and the 1996 Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia that left 19 U.S. servicemen dead.


One U.S. law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, says there is considerable forensic evidence tying Hezbollah bomb experts to roadside explosions in Iraq.


Dennis Lormel, who founded the counterterrorist financing program at the FBI, says the United States has been a cash cow for Hezbollah.


"They raise funds through business fronts, through criminal activity, use of shell companies and through fundraising mechanisms," he says.


Before September 11, 2001, Hezbollah was responsible for more American deaths than any other terrorist organization. Hassan Nasrallah, the group's secretary-general, recently proclaimed, "Death to America was, is, and will stay our slogan."


In spite of all that, the terror and violence in Mexico, Mexican officials are encouraging Americans to visit Mexico in a new tourist campaign. But with more than 1,200 people having been killed this year alone in Ciudad Juárez that is not happening. Juarez has a population of 1.5 million people many depending on American tourist dollars. But many El Pasons who live in El Paso a bordering city of about 350,000 say they are just to frighten to risk going into Mexico.


Mexico’s violence of terror along with the world banking and financial crises that are happening today are forcing drastic changes in the rate of tourism to Mexico, especially border regions from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean.

Mexico has been heavily dependent on tourism and American investors and both are drying up. Oil and drugs are now Mexico’s official and respectively unofficial main stay for what economy they have.


From Brownsville Texas to San Diego California the drug-related dangers and violence is so staggering that the country has been declared off-limits to all U.S. Military. Residents on the American side of the border have told the Laguna Journal that they are afraid to cross over to visit family, shop or conduct business anywhere along the border.


Violent spillover from crime-ridden Mexican border cities are a growing concern for Americans. With cartel-related killings in Chihuahua alone now topping over 1200 for the year, officials in the states are increasingly concerned about “spillover” of crime from neighboring border cites. In El Paso, real effects are being felt at the city’s hospital, where officials report dozens of cases of individuals wounded over the border in the Mexican state of Chihuahua being treated at their facility.


Just last week the State of Morelos Deputy A.G. for Organized Crime Affairs and two escorts were killed by what appeared to be a well organized paramilitary unit in a car-to-car gunfire assault. The killers then fled in two military style vehicles.


Another significant issue is that now Mexico's toll of deaths linked to organized crime has reached four thousand so far this year, a historic record. That is more violent related deaths than Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Mexico is reported to be on track to near 5,000 before the end of 2008, another record.

The last one thousand deaths have taken place in 48 days. The first one thousand deaths of the year took place in 114 days, the next one thousand in 72. But seventy days later, it reached 3 thousand.


Iran, Hezbollah's longtime sponsor, and donations from the Lebanese Diaspora are two sources for a multimillion-dollar budget that pays for the militia's armed and political wings and for social projects such as money, food and hospitals in Beirut. But investigations around the world have shown that Hezbollah also funds itself through drug dealing, arms trafficking, contraband smuggling and other rackets in the Americas, Africa Europe and elsewhere.


The L.A. Times is reporting U.S. and Colombian investigators have dismantled an international cocaine smuggling and money laundering ring in Bogota, Colombia and Madrid Spain, that allegedly used part of its profits to finance Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shiite militia, officials said.


Hezbollah presence in Venezuela is also feared

A couple of armed men arrived at a funeral home in Juarez and opened fire on persons at a service for a man who himself had been the victim of a homicide. Three persons were wounded before the thugs left.


“Worse than Iraq: 38 executed”

During the last 24 hours 38 persons have died in different events caused by members of organized crime; the number has reached 4,052 in 2008 in this country (Mexico), surpassing by more than three times the number of dead in Iraq this year, where they total 1,167.


Just recently, ten gunmen lost their lives after a shootout with state agents in Nogales, Sonora. The police were attacked with fragmentation grenades; three police and three civilians were wounded.


The body of a gagged man was found in Cabo San Lucas a known and popular American tourist spot. His fingers had been chopped off. Eight persons have died in Baja California Norte in the last 24 hours, the product of a spiral of violence. (Note: the Baja California Peninsula is divided into two states with the same name; each is differentiated by “Norte” and “Sur”) In the morning the bodies of two men were found, both shot to death out of different events.


Just recently two Rosarito police officers were assassinated while on patrol.

Twenty kilometers away three other persons were murdered. This is an area where Americans murdered bodies have been found. A related account in “El Universal” (Mexico City) states that violence in Rosarito has cost the lives of seven police and at least a dozen other persons in less than thirty days; it adds that there have been mass resignations of police there because of fear of being murdered. (Note: just some years back Rosarito Beach was a laid back American tourist attraction, peaceful ocean beach town not far from Tijuana and San Diego.


According to Mexico City daily newspaper Reforma’s running tally of cartel-related killings, or Ejecuciones, (executions/assassinations) Chihuahua’s weekly rate of killings remained higher than it was before over two thousand soldiers and federal police were deployed there in mid-March. Seven other crimes took place in Chihuahua; two men were found dead in Hermosillo, Sonora, two in Culiacan and some others in Guanajuato, Guerrero, the Distrito Federal and Taxco.


From Aug. 9 to Aug. 15, Chihuahua had an unprecedented 79 ejecuciones, including the gangland-style killing of 13 partygoers in the town of Creel in the Sierra Tarahumara Mountains, a key transit point for drugs en route to the U.S.-Mexico border. Among the dead were several teenagers, a university professor, and a 1-year-old baby.


The previous week, eight were shot and killed during a prayer session at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Cuidad Juárez.

These attacks challenge a common perception that Mexico’s escalating death toll is reducible to cartel members killing other cartel members, and have driven local and state officials to publicly question the efficacy of the current campaign against the cartels. In a televised address, Chihuahua Gov. José Reyes Baeza Terrazas said that the massacre in Creel among other similar, recent events throughout the state show that “the strategy and actions for guaranteeing the security of people in [Chihuahua] need to be radically modified.”


Research group Consulta Mitofsky’s annual survey Encuesta Nacional en Viviendas revealed strong public will for drastically strengthening enforcement measures to combat organized crime in the country.


Police say six people were lined up and gunned down outside a business in this violent border city Juarez. City police spokesman Alejandro Pariente says a written statement "for all rats" was found among the bodies and declared that the killings "will continue."


Pariente says investigators found more than 100 bullet shells at the scene. He says no arrests have been made.


Again in Tijuana this past week, at least five people are dead following a clash between soldiers and gunmen protecting a safe house near a junior high school in a residential area of the city. Concern about recent violence led a medical group to urge a voluntary curfew Wednesday through the end of November, calling for residents to avoid going out after 9 p.m.


This is real terror and it’s happening right in our own front yard and is expected to escalate and U.S. law enforcement fear it’s just a matter of time and we’ll be dealing with it right here at home. There already have been reported suspected attacks by these Mexican terrorist in Phoenix Arizona, Las Vegas Nevada, Atlanta Georgia, Dallas Texas and Birmingham Alabama.


U.S. drug czar John Walters said Friday that Mexico's drug cartels are crossing the border to kidnap and kill inside the United States.


Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, was in Mexico for two days to discuss efforts with local officials to stem killings, weapons trafficking and money laundering by Mexican cartels and their U.S. associates.


"Some of these groups not only engage in crime and violence not only in Mexico and along the border, but they come across and kidnap, murder and carry out assassinations," Walters told reporters. "These groups do not respect the border."


Walters praised Mexican President Felipe Calderón for mounting a police and army offensive against the cartels, which he called "terrorist criminals."

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Are Muslim Hezbollah Terrorists Training Mexican Drug Lords? [VIDEO]

America is at war and it's not in the middle east. What say you?

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Mexican Drug Cartels Operating in at Least 1,286 U.S. Cities

Written by Kelly Holt

Tuesday, 19 April 2011 11:03

On April 13, All Headline News reported that the influence of Mexican drug cartels operating in U.S. cities, is growing because cartel members are becoming residents. Roberta Jacobson, Deputy Secretary of State for Mexico and Canada, brought this information to a political forum in Washington, D.C., quoting a March 27 report from the Justice Department. The findings are also being widely disseminated in the Mexican media. The National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) report, according to Jacobson, listed the cartels with the most influence in the U.S. as follows: the Sinaloa cartel, operating in 75 U.S. cities; the Gulf and Zetas cartels, both in 37 cities; the Juarez, in 33 cities; the Beltran Leyva Organization, in 30; La Familia, in 27; and Tijuana, in 21. This list contains the largest and most widely known cartels; the Zetas organization, comprised mostly of Mexican Army special forces soldiers, is considered to be one of the most vicious. The unnamed cities are all said to have seen a substantial increase in drug sales and violence. AHN reported that the U.S. government plans to cut spending for drug interdiction under the Mérida Initiative next year by $250 million. The Initiative is a 2008 treaty under which the U.S. government pledged to contribute $1.5 billion to Mexico, along with drug-fighting equipment and personnel. Jacobson explained that the Initiative is entering a new phase in which achievements will likely take longer and progress will not be as obvious. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claims that since 2009, its agents have doubled the amount of time they spend in breaking up cartel influence. Borderland Beat (BB), referencing the same NDIC report on April 11, reported that the expansion of cartel operations into the United States has predictably resulted in increased violence. According to BB, the Intelligence Center information indicated that the Mexican cartels are now operating in at least 1,286 American cities in nine regions — with 143 of these operations controlled directly by cartel members in Mexico. The report was sent to embassies and border entry points to aid officials in identifying cartel members regularly crossing the border or settling in the United States. Law enforcement personnel have been warned to check for tattoos and jewelry bearing the various symbols used by the cartels. The LA Times for April 17 carried the report of a Columbia, South Carolina police sting that captured Sinaloa cartel member Frediberto Pineda, who had settled in the state capital to manage one of the cartel’s U.S. outposts. According to the Times, cartel members living in America are trained in Mexico, with cartels claiming territories for their markets and developing routes. Many kkfear that the posturing by the gangs for routes and territories in the United States will soon produce the same result as in Mexico — savage, all-out turf wars. When the FBI targeted Pineda, they finally had a direct connection to the cartel; however Pineda refused to cooperate with authorities for fear of cartel retaliation against his children in Mexico. The Times reported, “[Lead FBI agent Michael] Stansbury said the FBI tried to draw Pineda out in an interview to learn more about the cartel, but the discussion went nowhere. In the back of a car heading from the FBI office to jail, Pineda resisted. 'You know what happens in Mexico if I start talking,' he said. 'You know what they will do.'" Pineda had been deported twice before settling in Columbia, South Carolina. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for heading a cocaine operation there.

[American Patriot]

I suspect this is part of an overarching plan to ban all weapons in the country......

[vector7]

Companion Threads:

• Southern Border Chessboard Involves Iran/Venezuela/Russia
• Hezbollah opens base in Cuba
• Chavez Signs Anti-US Cooperation Pact with Iran Providing Bases in Venezuela
• Iran Is Stockpiling Shahab 3 Missiles in Venezuela to Reach U.S.
• Iran Says It Could Deploy Navy Near U.S. Coast: Report
• Iran boosts Quds shock troops in Venezuela
• "Axis of Unity"

Iran 'Directed' Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says


The United States Capitol Building in Washington D.C. is pictured at night, in this undated file photo. (Hisham Ibrahim/Getty Images)

By RICHARD ESPOSITO and BRIAN ROSS (@brianross)
Oct. 11, 2011

FBI and DEA agents have disrupted a plot to commit a "significant terrorist act in the United States" tied to Iran, federal officials told ABC News today.

The officials said the plot included the assassination of the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir, with a bomb and subsequent bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C. Bombings of the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were also discussed, according to the U.S. officials.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in an announcement today that the plan was "conceived, sponsored and was directed from Iran" by a faction of the government and called it a "flagrant" violation of U.S. and international law.

"The U.S. is committed to holding Iran accountable for its actions," Holder said. He said the White House will be meeting with federal agencies before announcing "further action" in regards to Iran.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said the arrest of a suspect in the plot shows the U.S. will "bring the full weight of [the] law to bear on those responsible" and that "any attempts on American soil will not be tolerated."

READ: U.S. Complaint in Alleged Iran-Directed Terror Plot (PDF)

The stunning allegations come against a backdrop of longstanding tensions between Iran and the United States and Saudi Arabia. In the last year, Saudi Arabia has attempted to build an anti-Iran alliance to push back against perceived aggression by Iran in the region.

An Iranian representative in Washington, D.C., told ABC News the U.S. government's story was "fake" but declined to provide any other information.

The State Department has listed Iran as a "state sponsor" of terror since 1984. Officials in Argentina have said Iran was behind an attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992.

Alleged Terror Plotter Claims He Was 'Directed By High-Ranking' Iranian Officials

The new case, called Operation Red Coalition, began in May when an Iranian-American from Corpus Christi, Texas, approached a DEA informant seeking the help of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, according to counter-terrorism officials.

The Iranian-American thought he was dealing with a member of the feared Zetas Mexican drug organization, according to agents.

The DEA office in Houston brought in FBI agents as the international terror implications of the case became apparent.

The Iranian-American, identified by federal officials as Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, reportedly claimed he was being "directed by high-ranking members of the Iranian government," including a cousin who was "a member of the Iranian army but did not wear a uniform," according to a person briefed on the details of the case. Counter-terrorism officials said they believe the cousin may be part of the special operations unit of the Revolutionary Guard, the Quds force.

Arbabsiar and a second man, Gohlam Shakuri, an Iranian official, were named in a five-count criminal complaint filed Tuesday afternoon in federal court in New York. They were charged with conspiracy to kill a foreign official and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, a bomb, among other counts. Shakuri is still at large in Iran, Holder said.

The complaint also refers to another Iranian official but does not name him.

U.S. officials said Arbabsiar met twice in July with the DEA informant in the northern Mexico city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, and negotiated a $1.5 million payment for the assassination of the Saudi ambassador. As a down payment, officials said Arbabsiar wired two payments of $49,960 on Aug. 1 and Aug. 9 to an FBI undercover bank account after he had returned to Iran.

Federal agents said the DEA and the FBI recorded a number of meetings and phone calls between the informant and Arbabsiar, some of them from Iran.

Officials said Arbabsiar flew from Iran through Frankfurt, Germany, to Mexico City Sept. 29 for a final planning session, but was refused entry to Mexico and put on a plane to New York, where he was arrested.

Arbabsiar, a naturalized U.S. citizen, expressed "utter disregard for collateral damage" in the planned bomb attacks in Washington, according to officials.

He also reportedly told the undercover DEA informant that his contacts in the Iranian government could provide "tons of opium" for the Mexican cartels, according to officials who have reviewed the case file.

Officials said Arbabsiar is now cooperating with prosecutors and federal agents in New York, where the case has been transferred.

"Though it reads like the pages of a Hollywood script, the impact would've been very real and many lives would've been lost," Mueller said of the foiled plot.

A spokesperson at the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C., said she was unaware of the alleged plot.

[Backstop]

Finally.

For once, I scooped vector7.

Only by 17 minutes, but scooped nonetheless.



http://www.transasianaxis.com/vb/sho...t=3193&page=21

If you had any idea how many times I bring an article here to find it's been posted within the last 30 minutes.