Iran Is Stockpiling Shahab 3 Missiles in Venezuela to Reach U.S.

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• Venezuela acquires 1,800 antiaircraft missiles from Russia

German Media: Iran Is Stockpiling Shahab 3 Missiles in Venezuela That Can Reach US

The Gateway Pundit ^ | December 9, 2010 | Jim Hoft


An Iranian Shahab 3 missile. (UPI)

Posted on Thursday, December 09, 2010 6:26:59 AM by Ordinary_American

While Obama has been focusing his attention on the Republican hostage takers and bomb throwers the Iranian regime has been stockpiling Shahab 3 missiles in Venezuela that can reach the United States. Hudson New York reported, via Israel Matsav:

According to Die Welt, Venezuela has agreed to allow Iran to establish a military base manned by Iranian missile officers, soldiers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Venezuelan missile officers. In addition, Iran has given permission for the missiles to be used in case of an “emergency”.

In return, the agreement states that Venezuela can use these facilities for “national needs” – radically increasing the threat to neighbors like Colombia. The German daily claims that according to the agreement, Iranian Shahab 3 (range 1300-1500 km), Scud-B (285-330 km) and Scud-C (300, 500 and 700 km) will be deployed in the proposed base.

It says that Iran also pledged to help Venezuela in rocket technology expertise, including intensive training of officers Venezuela has also become the country through which Iran intends to bypass UN sanctions.

Following a new round of UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic, for example, Russia decided not to sell five battalions of S-300PMU-1 air defence systems to Iran.

These weapons, along with a number of other weapons, were part of a deal, signed in 2007, worth $800 million. Now that these weapons cannot be delivered to Iran, Russia is looking for new customers; according to the Russian press agency Novosti[2], it found one: Venezuela.

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Iran Placing Medium-Range Missiles in Venezuela; Can Reach the U.S.

by Anna Mahjar-Barducci
December 8, 2010 at 5:00 am

Iran is planning to place medium-range missiles on Venezuelan soil, based on western information sources[1], according to an article in the German daily, Die Welt, of November 25, 2010. According to the article, an agreement between the two countries was signed during the last visit o Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Tehran on October19, 2010. The previously undisclosed contract provides for the establishment of a jointly operated military base in Venezuela, and the joint development of ground-to-ground missiles.

At a moment when NATO members found an agreement, in the recent Lisbon summit (19-20 November 2010), to develop a Missile Defence capability to protect NATO's populations and territories in Europe against ballistic missile attacks from the East (namely, Iran), Iran's counter-move consists in establishing a strategic base in the South American continent - in the United States's soft underbelly.

According to Die Welt, Venezuela has agreed to allow Iran to establish a military base manned by Iranian missile officers, soldiers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Venezuelan missile officers. In addition, Iran has given permission for the missiles to be used in case of an "emergency".

In return, the agreement states that Venezuela can use these facilities for "national needs" – radically increasing the threat to neighbors like Colombia.

The German daily claims that according to the agreement, Iranian Shahab 3 (range 1300-1500 km), Scud-B (285-330 km) and Scud-C (300, 500 and 700 km) will be deployed in the proposed base. It says that Iran also pledged to help Venezuela in rocket technology expertise, including intensive training of officers.

Venezuela has also become the country through which Iran intends to bypass UN sanctions. Following a new round of UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic, for example, Russia decided not to sell five battalions of S-300PMU-1 air defence systems to Iran.

These weapons, along with a number of other weapons, were part of a deal, signed in 2007, worth $800 million. Now that these weapons cannot be delivered to Iran, Russia is looking for new customers; according to the Russian press agency Novosti[2], it found one: Venezuela.

Novosti reports the words of Igor Korotchenko, head of a Moscow-based think tank on international arms trade, saying that if the S-300 deal with Venezuela goes through, Caracas should pay cash for the missiles, rather than take another loan from Russia. "The S-300 is a very good product and Venezuela should pay the full amount in cash, as the country's budget has enough funds to cover the deal ," Korotchenko said. Moscow has already provided Caracas with several loans to buy Russian-made weaponry, including a recent $2.2-mln loan on the purchase of 92 T-72M1M tanks, the Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems and other military equipment.

If Iran, therefore, cannot get the S-300 missiles directly from Russia, it can still have them through its proxy, Venezuela, and deploy them against its staunchest enemy, the U.S..

But that is not all. According to Reuters, Iran has developed a version of the Russian S-300 missile and will test-fire it soon, as declared by the official news agency IRNA, two months after Moscow cancelled the delivery to comply with United Nations sanctions[3]. Iran, in fact, has its own capabilities for constructing missiles that could carry atomic warheads. According to a study recently released by the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, Iran is presently aiming to perfect the already existing solid-fuel, medium-range missile that can carry a nuke to hit regional targets, such as Israel[4]. If a missile base can be opened in Venezuela, many US cities will be able to be reached from there even with short-medium range missiles.

The situation that is unfolding in Venezuela has some resemblance to the Cuba crisis of 1962. At that time, Cuba was acting on behalf of the USSR; now Venezuela is acting on behalf of Iran. At present, the geopolitical situation is very different: the world is no longer ruled by two superpowers; new nations, often with questionable leaders and the ambition of acquiring global status, are appearing on the international scene. Their danger to the free world will be greater if the process of nuclear proliferation is not stopped. Among the nations that aspire to become world powers, Iran has certainly the best capabilities of posing a challenge to the West.

Back in the 1962, thanks to the stern stance adopted by the then Kennedy administration, the crisis was defused.

Nowadays, however, we do not see the same firmness from the present administration. On the contrary, we see a lax attitude, both in language and in deeds, that results in extending hands when our adversaries have no intention of shaking hands with us. Iran is soon going to have a nuclear weapon, and there are no signs that UN sanctions will in any way deter the Ayatollah's regime from completing its nuclear program.

We know that Iran already has missiles that can carry an atomic warhead over Israel and over the Arabian Peninsula. Now we learn that Iran is planning to build a missile base close to the US borders. How longer do we have to wait before the Obama administration begins to understand threats?

[American Patriot]

AH FUCKING HA!

NOW I KNOW WHAT I WAS MISSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew there was something I was missing, I knew it, I KNEW IT!

Iran is doing this to hit us if we go into SK!!!!!!!!!!

The whole of the Axis is getting set up to hit us from several directions.

Come on people think!

The maggot in Venezuela is working with Iran - and has been. China is down there in Panama, and apparently launching missiles off the west coast... Russian subs have been seen on and off in the Atlantic area over the last year, and of course, at the north pole, and above Canada.

North Korea has been belligerent lately to get everyone's attention OFF IRAN.

Iran has pushed HARD for nuclear material - whether they can make nukes isn't relevant... that they can explode missiles in the US with radioactive material on them, though IS relevant. Iran and North Korea believe in asymmetric warfare...

Boy, this is setting up badly for the US.

Just one EMP....

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Thursday, December 09, 2010

MISSILE DAY ALERT: Die Welt: Iran to deploy Shahab 3, Scud-B/C missiles at jointly manned base in Venezuela, many US cities vulnerable to attack


- FLASHBACK: December 2008 Reports Allege Iran Deployed Troops and Missiles in Eritrea, Endangering Israel

According to the November 25, 2010 edition of Die Welt, citing Western intelligence sources, Iran is planning to place medium-range Shahab 3 missiles on Venezuelan soil. The German news source states that the agreement was signed between the two countries while Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visited Tehran on October 19.

Die Welt contends that Venezuela's communist dictator has agreed to allow Iran to establish a military base jointly manned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Venezuelan missile officers. Tehran has apparently given permission for the missiles to be used in case of "emergency." In return, Venezuela can use the proposed missile base for "national needs," greatly endangering neighboring Colombia. The German daily claims that Shahab 3 (range 1300-1500 km), Scud-B (285-330 km) and Scud-C (300, 500 and 700 km) will be deployed at the site.

"If a missile base can be opened in Venezuela," warns Hudson New York Briefing Council, "many US cities will be able to be reached from there even with short-medium range missiles." This news dovetails nicely with a recent post at the China Confidential blog, also citing Western intelligence sources, alleging that Iran and Venezuela plan to use northern Mexico as a platform to lob ballistic missiles at the USA.

What would US President Barack Hussein Obama do if this Iranian-Venezuelan plot comes to fruition? Not much. According to a Tweet by CBS reporter Mark Knoller, who covered Obama's participation in last month's NATO summit in Lisbon, Obama joked about diverting Air Force One to Caracas so he could visit Chavez. Upon learning of Obama's wish, the Venezuelan president fired back: "We would sit down to talk, to eat socialist arepas." Arepas is a corn-based pancake popular in that country.

Two years ago, a similar report surfaced concerning Iran's deployment of missiles and troops in Eritrea, endangering Israel's security.

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Is there an Iranian missile base in Venezuela?

Published: 9:38 PM 01/03/2011 | Updated: 5:41 PM 01/05/2011



Hugo Chavez, the yanqui-hating dictator of Venezuela, will not accept Washington’s proposed emissary and has dared the United States to break diplomatic relations. It seems Ambassador-select Larry Palmer’s sin is that he did not applaud Chavez when he used his rubber-stamp parliament to perpetuate his dictatorial regime. The State Department’s limp-wristed response was to cancel the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador. That, and silence from the White House, told the megalomaniac in Caracas exactly what the United States will do when Iran finishes building a nuclear missile base in Venezuela — absolutely nothing.

Like Marxist Fidel Castro was in the 1960s, Caudillo Chavez is today’s darling of American liberals and the international left. They are enchanted with his underclass roots, his anti-imperialist posturing, and insults he hurls at the United States in media shows that are crowd-pleasing combinations of Keith Olbermann rants and videos of “The Big Guy from Brooklyn.” More ominously, Chavez has imitated Castro, and like Fidel he has found a big brother to give him the nuclear military clout to dominate Latin America: The Islamic Republic of Iran.

Planning for Iran’s penetration of the Western Hemisphere is well underway. On November 25th, the respected German journal Die Welt published a report that Iran and Venezuela agreed on October 19th to build a joint military base. That complex will include medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) like the Shahab-3 (range 1,200 miles) and Scud-B and Scud-C missiles (range 185-340 miles). Those weapons will enable Chavez to make missile strikes on much of South America, the Caribbean Basin and, with the Shahab-3, even American cities.

Longer-range missiles being developed by Iran will threaten all of the United States when they are installed in Venezuela.

The missile base is part of a pattern that began in March 2009, when President Obama met Chavez at an Organization of American States meeting in Trinidad. President Obama shook hands with the dictator, as usual, and said he wanted to be friends and reset US-Venezuelan relations. Chavez responded by presenting Obama with a book that claims the United States plunders Latin America.

Later, in Lisbon in November 2010, NATO agreed to develop missile defenses to protect Europe from the East (meaning Iran). That sensible decision was the backdrop for new plans by Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to destroy the United States — his Great Satan — and for old plans by Chavez to dominate Latin America. The two autocrats would simply build a strategic rocket base in South America, the vulnerable underbelly of America! And then there is that tractor factory.

Iran has already built what it calls a “tractor factory” in Venezuela, the most heavily guarded and secret tractor factory in the world. The fenced compound is so secret that even Venezuelans are not allowed to enter it; only Iranians are allowed inside. (There are reports that Ahmadinejad visited the facility some months ago.) The factory is in a remote area, not far from a uranium deposit former Venezuelan officials estimate holds 50,000 tons of ore. Is it a stretch to connect the secret “tractor factory” and the uranium? It may be just smoke, but so much more is happening in Venezuela that one can only think there is fire, too. A few examples:

• In November 2008, Russia and Venezuela agreed on “cooperation in thermonuclear fusion” involving the same Russian company that built the Bushehr reactor in Iran: Atomstroyexport. Russia has kindly extended a $4 billion line of credit to Chavez.

• In October 2010, Russia agreed to build two 1,200-megawatt nuclear reactors and a research reactor.

• Russia needs a new customer for the SA-300 missiles Iran tried to buy to protect its nuclear program from air attack. Now Venezuela tells Russia that it likes the SA-300. Might those missiles slip into Iran through a Venezuelan back door?

• Iran uses Venezuela and other Latin American countries as havens for its terrorists. For months Hezbollah, Iran’s terror army, has metastasized across our undefended border with Mexico to set up sleeper cells in our cities. And now we learn a senior Hezbollah thug was appointed as Venezuela’s Deputy Chief of Mission to Syria?

NEXT: Another Cuban missile crisis?

So now it’s on our borders once again: two dictators who hate America, uranium, secret factories, and rocket bases. What is to be done?

In 1962 President John F. Kennedy blew the dust off the Monroe Doctrine. He saw Soviet and Cuban dictators building missile bases that threatened America, and he sent me and other airmen and sailors to Cuba to end that menace. We did it because President Kennedy’s resolve to protect the United States was firm and clear. The foreign menace was driven away.

My service in Cuba in 1962 gives me the standing to ask Mr. Obama a simple question: Why do you allow Iranian missiles to threaten our homeland?

Chet Nagle is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the author of IRAN COVENANT.

Interview with Chet Nagle is a military veteran, former CIA and Pentagon official:

• Is there an Iranian Missile Base In Venezuela part1.mp3
• Is there an Iranian Missile Base In Venezuela part2.mp3
• Is there an Iranian Missile Base In Venezuela Part3.mp3

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Russia says S-300 deliveries to Venezuela pending


S-300 missile defense system
© RIA Novosti. Mikhail Fomichev

11:48 22/02/2011
Related News

• Russia lends Venezuela $4 bln to buy weaponry — Chavez
• Russia to deliver 35 tanks to Venezuela - Putin (Update 1)
• Russia, Venezuela sign deal on nuclear power plant construction (Update 1)
• Russia may sell S-300 missiles to Venezuela, instead of Iran - analyst
• U.S. welcomes Russia's ban on S-300 missile sales to Iran
• Medvedev bans sale of S-300 missiles, other weapons to Iran (Update 1)
• Russia denies selling S-300 missiles to Azerbaijan (Update 1)
• Russia denies deployment of S-300 missiles in South Ossetia
• Russia justifies deploying S-300 missile systems in Abkhazia (Update 1)

Multimedia

• New agreements between Russia and Venezuela
• Vladimir Putin visits Venezuela
• The S-300P surface-to-air missile system

Deliveries of S-300 missile defense systems to Venezuela have been delayed, but will go ahead, an official at Rosoboronexport, Russia's state-owned arms export monopoly, said on Tuesday.

In November, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that Russia had agreed to lend his country over $4 billion to buy weapons.

"There is a contract with Venezuela but it's not yet being implemented," Rosoboronexport special programs director Nikolai Dimidyuk told reporters.

"Venezuela has rescheduled the dates several times, but now we have agreed on a timeframe for the deliveries," he added.

Venezuela is one of the biggest buyers of Russian arms.

ABU-DHABI, February 22 (RIA Novosti)

[American Patriot]

Nice Russian system. Can track up to 100 targets, engaging up to 12 at a time.

Devastating anti-aircraft system.

SA-300 systems can be (have been) fitted with nukes.

[American Patriot]

Since they are moving this stuff to Chavez... anyone have a take on what Chavez might do with this crap?

[Malsua]

Chavez will probably bomb Columbia.

He only picks fights he thinks he can win.

[American Patriot]

That's my thinking too. Columbia is caught in the middle between the US and Chavez too. We'll help Columbia.

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Iran building rocket bases in Venezuela

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JPOST CORRESPONDENT
05/17/2011 01:41

German paper says Iranians paid cash to build mid-range missile launch pads on Paraguana Peninsula; Iranian engineers visited site in Feb.


Photo by: REUTERS

BERLIN – The Iranian government is moving forward with the construction of rocket launch bases in Venezuela, the German daily Die Welt wrote in its Thursday edition.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is Teheran’s most important South American ally.

RELATED:
Arab spring, Persian winter
UN: Iran, North Korea trading missile technology

Iran is building intermediate- range missile launch pads on the Paraguaná Peninsula, and engineers from a construction firm – Khatam al-Anbia – owned by the Revolutionary Guards visited Paraguaná in February. Amir al-Hadschisadeh, the head of the Guard’s Air Force, participated in the visit, according to the report. Die Welt cited information from “Western security insiders.�

The rocket bases are to include measures to prevent air attacks on Venezuela as well as commando and control stations.

The Iranian military involvement in the project extends to bunker, barracks and watch tower construction. Twenty-meter deep rocket silos are planned. The cost of the Venezuelan military project is being paid for with Iranian oil revenue. The Iranians paid in cash for the preliminary phase of the project and, the total cost is expected to amount to “dozens of millions� of dollars, Die Welt wrote.

The Paraguaná Peninsula is on the coast of Venezuela and is roughly 120 kilometers from America’s main South American partner, Columbia.

According to Die Welt, the clandestine agreement between Venezuela and Iran would mean the Chavez government would fire rocket at Iran’s enemies should the Islamic Republic face military strikes.

Meanwhile the German press agency (DPA) reported on Friday that Germany will not contest the placement of the Hamburg- based European- Iranian Trade Bank (EIH) on the EU sanctions list at the end of the month. The US Treasury Department sanctioned the EIH last year, saying it was one of the most important institutions in Europe for financing Iran’s missile and nuclear proliferation programs. Germany was the subject of criticism from American, French, British and Israeli officials because it refused to shut the EIH.

The EIH plays a crucial role in facilitating financial transactions for midsize German firms that are active in Iran. German- Iranian total trade amounted to over 4 billion euros in 2010, making German Iran’s No. 1 EU trade partner.

[BRVoice]

http://www.mexidata.info/id3018.html


Latin American Terrorist Ties with the Middle East
By Vanessa Neumann
Monday, May 9, 2011

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

The most publicized (and publicly contested) connection between Hugo Chávez and the Colombian narcoterrorist organization Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was revealed after the March 2008 Colombian raid on the FARC camp in DevÃ*a, inside Ecuador, where a laptop was discovered that apparently belonged to Luis Edgar DevÃ*a Silva (aka, “Raúl Reyesâ€�), head of FARC’s International Committee (COMINTER). The Colombian government under then-President Ã�lvaro Uribe announced that Interpol had certified the authenticity of the contents of the computer disks, whose files traced over US$ 200 million funneled to the FARC through the Venezuelan state-owned, and completely Chávez-dominated, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). On May 10th, 2011, the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) will publish one of its strategic dossiers based on a study of the computer disks entitled The FARC Files: Venezuela, Ecuador and the Secret Archives of ‘Raúl Reyes’ that purports to elucidate the organization’s development and internationalization.

According to some already leaked documents, Venezuelan General Hugo Carvajal and other members of the armed forces were in direct contact with and lending financial support to the late FARC leader Antonio MarÃ*n, aka “Tirofijoâ€� (“Sure Shotâ€�) and “Manuel Marulanda.â€� Of the fact that the FARC enjoys at least ideological support from the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela, there can be no doubt: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa have both argued that the FARC should not be considered a terrorist organization.

While support of the insurgents next door is certainly nothing new, Venezuelan military and terror alliances are spanning the globe and expanding at a worrying rate for all, especially US interests in the region.

As I wrote in The Weekly Standard last October[1], Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Russian President Dimitry Medvedev jointly announced that they had reached an agreement for Russia to build two 1200-megawatt nuclear reactors in Venezuela. Also part of the deal was the latest installment of $6.6 billion of conventional weapons purchases since 2005: ninety-two T-72 and T-90 tanks that will replace the aging French MX-30s, ten Ilyushin Il-76MD-90 planes, two Il-78MK refueling aircraft, as well as five S-300 missile systems. Iran had also sought the S-300 but Medvedev banned the sale for fear of violating U.N. Security Council Resolution 1929, concerning sanctions on Iran. The S-300 missiles and their attendant Smerch multiple rocket launchers are considered far more powerful than the Tor M-1 missile systems that both Venezuela and Iran have previously purchased in the past five years. Caracas has also confirmed plans to purchase up to 10 Mi-28NE attack helicopters on top of the 10 Mi-35M helicopters purchased in the past half-decade. That is an awful lot of weaponry for a country that has not fought a war since its independence from Spain in 1821.

While Chávez has said that he is arming his citizen militias, known as Bolivarian Circles, rumor has it that the weapons may also be going to agents and fighters from the Colombian FARC, the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah and Cuban security and intelligence services, whose numbers, according to many think tanks and U.S. security sources, have swelled in Venezuela. Interpol has confirmed evidence that Venezuela has funneled well over $300 million to the FARC and has built an ammunition plant to supply AK-103s, the FARC weapon of choice.

That is only one piece of the puzzle; the other is Iran, where Venezuelan money has also been flowing.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly call each other “brothers� and last year signed 11 memoranda of understanding for, among other initiatives, joint oil and gas exploration, as well as the construction of tanker ships and petrochemical plants. Chávez’s assistance to the Islamic Republic in circumventing U.N. sanctions has got the attention of the new Republican leadership of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Connie Mack (both R-FL) have said they intend to launch a money-laundering investigation into the Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA). In July 2010, the EU ordered the seizure of all the assets of the Venezuelan International Development Bank, an affiliate of the Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI), one of 34 Iranian entities implicated in the development of nuclear or ballistic technology and sanctioned by the Treasury Department. In the meantime, Tehran and Caracas have announced that PDVSA will be investing $780 million in the South Pars gas field in southern Iran.

Uranium, sought by both Iran and Russia, is a key aspect of the two countries’ strategic relationship: Iran is reportedly helping Venezuela find and refine its estimated 50,000 tons of uranium reserves.

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

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

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

In December 2008 the EDBI offered to deposit $120 million in the Ecuadorean Central Bank to fund bilateral trade, and Iran and Ecuador have signed a $30 million deal to conduct joint mining projects in Ecuador through the Chemical-Geotechnical-Metallurgical Research Center in Ecuador. Even as that deal carefully avoids mentioning uranium, the IAEA’s March 2009 plans to help Ecuador explore its vast uranium reserves were largely intended to highlight and preclude Iranian involvement. In February 2010 the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, a multilateral organization that combats money laundering and terrorist financing, placed Ecuador on a list of countries that failed to comply with its regulations.

Middle Eastern terrorism, however, is not new to Latin America and has been on the US Army’s radar for many years.[2]

Latin America’s Tri-Border Area (TBA), bounded by Puerto Iguazu, Argentina; Ciudad del Este, Paraguay; and Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, has long been an ideal breeding ground for terrorist groups. The TBA, South America's busiest contraband and smuggling center, is home to a large, active Arab and Muslim community consisting of a Shi'a majority, a Sunni minority, and a small population of Christians who emigrated from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and the Palestinian territories about 50 years ago. Most of these Arab immigrants are involved in commerce in Ciudad del Este but live in Foz do Iguacu on the Brazilian side of the Iguacu River.

In 2005, six million Muslims were estimated to inhabit Latin American cities. However, ungoverned areas, primarily in the Amazon regions of Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, present easily exploitable terrain over which to move people and material. The Free Trade Zones of Iquique, Chile; Maicao, Colombia; and Colón, Panama, can generate undetected financial and logistical support for terrorist groups. Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru offer cocaine as a lucrative source of income. In addition, Cuba and Venezuela have cooperative agreements with Syria, Libya, and Iran.

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

Today, one of the masterminds of those attacks, the Iranian citizen and Shia Muslim teacher, Mohsen Rabbani, remains not only at large, but extremely active in recruiting young Brazilians, according to reports in the Brazilian magazine Veja[3] (see 3a, 3b and 3c below). “Now based in Iran, he continues to play a significant role in the spread of extremism in Latin America,� prosecutor Alberto Nisman, head of the special unit of the Argentine prosecutors charged with investigating the attacks, said to VEJA. The enticement of Brazilians for courses abroad has been monitored for four years by the Federal Police and the ABIN, the government’s secret service.

One hundred eighty kilometers away from Recife, in rural Pernambuco, the city of Belo Jardim remains the most active center for the recruitment of extremists in Latin America.[4] Along with the recruits in Belo Jardim, youth from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico also travel to Iran for religious instruction under Rabbani.

The Federal Police has information that Rabbani has been to Brazil several times in recent years. In one of those visits, almost three years ago, he boarded the Iran Air flight from Tehran to Caracas, Venezuela and then from there, entered Brazil illegally.

So while ungovernability through either government weakness (or lack of will) to exert controls over immigration and the flows of money, drugs and weapons has always been an issue, it is the new government complicity that makes it all the more dangerous.

Even ahead of the IISS dossier’s publication, the most shocking revelations into the global interconnectedness of Latin American governments and Middle Eastern terrorist groups have come from Walid Makled, Venezuela’s latter-day Pablo Escobar, who was arrested on August 19, 2010 in Cúcuta, a town on the Venezuelan-Colombian border. A Venezuelan of Syrian descent known variously as “El Turco� (“The Turk�) or “El Arabe� (“The Arab�), he is allegedly responsible for smuggling 10 tons of cocaine a month into the US and Europe – a full 10% of the world’s supply and 60% of Europe’s supply. His massive infrastructure and distribution network make this entirely plausible, as well as entirely implausible the Venezuelan government did not know. Makled owned Venezuela’s biggest airline, Aeropostal, huge warehouses in Venezuela’s biggest port, Puerto Cabello, and bought enormous quantities of urea (used in cocaine processing) from a government-owned chemical company.

Indeed since his arrest and incarceration in the Colombian prison La Picota, Makled has given numerous interviews to various media outlets, in which he has claimed that he paid more than a million dollars a month to various high-ranking Venezuelan government officials who were his partners in trafficking FARC cocaine – amongst the named: Venezuelan Minister of the Interior and also Minister of Justice, Tarek El Aissami, the General-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Unified Command, General Henry Rangel Silva, and the Director of Military Intelligence, General Hugo Carvajal.

Although the US had issued an arrest warrant and subjected him to sanctions under the Kingpin Act, Makled is being extradited to Venezuela, not the US. While the US dithered on Colombia’s offer of extradition to the US, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez requested Makled’s extradition to Venezuela, where he is (in the ultimate ironic twist) wanted for cocaine trafficking and at least two murders.

When asked on camera by a Univisión television reporter whether he had any relation to the FARC, he answered: “That is what I would say to the American prosecutor.� Asked directly whether he knew of Hezbollah operations in Venezuela, he answered: "In Venezuela? Of course! That which I understand is that they work in Venezuela. [Hezbollah] make money and all of that money they send to the Middle East."[5]

Makled’s extradition to Venezuela rather than the US is thus a terrible loss for both the United States' Global War on Terror (GWOT) and the world’s intelligence communities: in Venezuela’s heavily politicized judicial system Makled will never receive a fair trial and any testimony he might give will certainly be concealed.

The problem now is that Latin American support for terrorism has growing state support—and this should worry everyone.

Notes

1. [Text] http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...es_511234.html

2. [Text] http://www.army.mil/professionalWrit...05/1_05_4.html

3.a. http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/reinal...mistas-no-ira/

3.b. http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/reinal...uam-no-brasil/

3.c. http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/reinal...%80%9D-no-ira/

4. [Text] http://interamericansecuritywatch.co...ssor%E2%80%9D/

5. [Text] http://colombiareports.com/colombia-...drug-lord.html

——————————

Vanessa Neumann is an Associate of the University Seminar on Latin America at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University. A native Venezuelan, Dr. Neumann has worked as a journalist in Caracas, London and the United States. She is Editor-at-Large of Diplomat, a London-based magazine to the diplomatic community and a regular contributor to The Weekly Standard on Latin American politics.


"The Middle Eastern–Latin American Terrorist Connection," by Vanessa Neumann; Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) "E-Notes," May 2011; reprinted with permission.

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Is this a second missile crisis? Iran to build mid-range rocket bases in Venezuela

By Oliver Pickup

Last updated at 8:22 PM on 17th May 2011

• Iran believed to be paying Venezuela in oil
• Military will also build bunkers, barracks and towers
• Project to cost 'dozens of millions' of dollars

There are fears there will soon be a second world missile crisis after it was reported that Iran, who are fierce enemies of Israel, are due to build a mid-range rocket base in Venezuela.

According to German paper Die Welt Iran have bought launch pads on the Paraguana Peninsula, and the Middle East country's engineers visited the site in February.

As well as the Israelis, it will concern the West, who will be reminded of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when the Soviet Union teamed up with the South American country against America.


Missile site: Iran has reportedly decided to build a mid-range rocket base on the Paraguana Peninsula in Venezuela, with engineers visiting the location in February

Now Western - and Israeli - forces will be on alert again, with the reports that Iran, who have a troubled relationship with America, in particular, have been given the nod to build missile bases in South America.

A CRISIS WITH NUCLEAR CONSEQUENCES


The situation between Iran and Venezuela has evoked memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

During the conflict, the Soviet Union teams up with the South American country against the United States.

The U.S., under President John F Kennedy, were trying to invade Fidel Castro's Cuba, but the presence of the Soviets, who were embattled with America in the Cold War, led to a nerve-shredding climax.

Luckily at the 11th hour, and fearing nuclear war would erupt, JFK decided to back down and his troops left Cuba.

American nuclear missiles were withdrawn from Turkey, and the Soviets took their weapons out of Cuba.

It could have been very different if one of the two super powers had not seen sense and backed down.

Relations with the West have soured further after the killing of Osama Bin Laden at the start of this month in a U.S. raid in Pakistan.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is known to have good relations with Iran, and his country are Teheran’s most important South American ally.

According to the Jerusalem Post Iran will build intermediate-range missile launch pads on the Paraguana Peninsula, located roughly 120km from America's main South American ally, Columbia.

Engineers from Khatam al-Anbia construction company scoped out the site earlier this year.

The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Air Force, Amir al-Hadschisadeh, was present, Die Welt - who cited information from 'Western security insiders' - reported.

In a dual partnership between Venezuela and Iran, the rocket bases will include measures to prevent air attacks on the South American country as well as commando and control stations.

The Iranian military will also build bunkers, barracks and oversea tower construction, as well as 20-metre deep rocket silos.

According to the German paper, the cost of the Venezuelan military project will be paid for with Iranian oil revenue.




On the brink: JFK, pictured centre, meets with his military top brass to discuss the Cuban Missile Crisis in late 1962

In order to grease the wheels of the venture, the Iranians paid in cash for the preliminary phase and, the total cost is expected to come to 'dozens of millions' of dollars, say Die Welt.

The German publication said that the secret agreement between Venezuela and Iran would allow the Chavez government to fire rockets at Iran’s enemies, should the Islamic Republic face military strikes.

In recent years Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is thought to have been building a nuclear arsenal, and has - on occasion - shown his country's capability, firing rockets into the sea.

[American Patriot]

One phrase in this article stood out like it had been boldfaced. It had not, but here without further debate, is the single line that defines the entire situation.

It could have been very different if one of the two super powers had not seen sense and backed down.

This morning (and as recently as last week) I have mentioned "Missing the Commies". Once in the words of a song and this morning as part of a dissertation on the Russian making fantastic claims to being able to "destroy an area of the world in 15 minutes".

The Soviet Empire and the US in the 1960s had cooler heads. As did the '70s, 80s and 90s.

The 21st Century is RIFE with idiots in charge.

We won't make it out of a war this time.

Trust me on this one.

If this comes to a "Missile Crisis" head - the shit will indeed, splatter the fan, the impeller, the walls and everything and everyone standing near by in front, or behind the fan.

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The Big Story of the Week: Welcome Back to 1962

By John Galt

May 20, 2011

In 1962 the Soviet Union constructed Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) launchers 90 miles off of the coast of Florida in a blatant act to escalate the Cold War and bluff the United States into strategic concessions including arms negotiations because of the nuclear arms race that we were not prepared to make. Fast forward to the news this week from the German magazine Der Welt via The Jerusalem Post:

‘Die Welt’: Iran building rocket bases in Venezuela

This story clicked with some but then I reflected on what my parents told me about anti-aircraft missiles being set up near our local beaches, tanks and troops deploying around the state, and the United States being on its highest level of alert that they ever experienced during the Cold War period. Duck and cover in their young minds at the time was a reality they might indeed have to live with. Unfortunately for the United States at this time, much different from the USSR, the opponent constructing the IRBM silos are originating from one unstable regime in Iran with the bases built on the territory of another, Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela.

According to the story:

According to Die Welt, the clandestine agreement between Venezuela and Iran would mean the Chavez government would fire rocket at Iran’s enemies should the Islamic Republic face military strikes.

That’s right my fellow Americans, this story if true is designed as a retaliatory strike weapon and all the Iranians need is one lucky shot. Thus if the United States has to deploy dozens of Patriot missile batteries around this region to counteract the moves by Iran, trust me, I shall let everyone know. For those who think “This doesn’t impact me,� I simply offer up a few more news stories.

November 28, 2008:

Iran capable of firing a series of Sejil missiles: Official

Source: Payvand Iran News

The Seijil missile series has evolved since 2008 and it is believed they have a functional multi-state IRBM capable of carrying a payload over 2,000 miles (Source: GlobalSecurity.org) If that is true and the bugs in their navigation technology has been ironed out, then this story from Front Page Magazine tonight is even more alarming:

Iran’s Bomb and the Chinese Connection

The problem is that the ability to evaluate the technology being transferred appears to be hampered, at least in the public eye, by a lack of human intelligence on the ground. If the Iranians are following the Chinese model, they are manufacturing or have produced warheads which are lighter and capable of yielding a nuclear explosion of between 50 to 100 kt. If that is indeed the case, then I strongly suggest those living within the continental United States in the map area highlighted in red (distances are approximate) consider their radiological survival procedures and packages immediately. After all, it only takes one lucky shot and a miss by the Anti-Ballistic Missile systems in our country and our nation changes forever.

[American Patriot]

Concessions? He won't do ANYTHING about ANYTHING! Concessions. That's rich. lol

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IRGC Commander Said Killed In 'Final Test Phase'Of Intercontinental Missile Program

November 19, 2011


Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (center) joined prayers over the coffins of IRGC members in Tehran on November 14, two days after the mysterious explosion.

A relative of the top Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander killed in a mysterious blast last week has told Iranian news agencies that his brother died while testing an intercontinental missile.

Revolutionary Guard Mohammad Tehrani Moghaddam told the state-run "Iran" newspaper that his brother, Hasan Tehrani Moghaddam, was killed in the "final testing phase" of the missile program.

Mogdamm was killed alongside at least 16 others in a blast at a military site southwest of Tehran on November 12 in what the IRGC said was as an accident.

Moghaddam told reporters that the incident has delayed the missile project for two weeks.

Report: Iran Revolutionary Guard Commander Killed in Explosion was Testing Intercontinental Missile

• Posted on November 19, 2011 at 8:31am by Madeleine Morgenstern

• Comments (114)

A cloud of black smoke rises after an explosion rocked a weapons depot in Iran Nov. 12, 2011. A senior commander killed in the blast was reportedly testing a missile, his brother said Saturday. (Image source: Fars News Agency)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander killed in an explosion at an ammunition depot west of Tehran last week died while testing an intercontinental missile, his brother was quoted by a government newspaper as saying Saturday.

Mohammad Tehrani Moghaddam, himself a Guard officer, also said in an interview published Saturday that his brother Gen. Hasan Tehrani Moghaddam had founded the missile unit of the Lebanese Hezbollah group.

Gen. Moghaddam was killed together with 20 other Guard members Nov. 12 at a military site outside Bidganeh village, 25 miles southwest of Tehran.

The Guard said the explosion was an accident and occurred while military personnel were transporting munitions.

But Mohammad Tehrani Moghaddam was quoted by the government-run Iran newspaper as saying that his brother was killed when the weapon exploded during testing. He did not dispute that the explosion was accidental.

“He lost his life while doing a final test of the missile,” Moghaddam said. “The project was in the final testing phase. It was related to an intercontinental ballistic missile … It was a completely high-tech, confidential process.”

These key quotes were left out of the text printed by the newspaper. They appeared on the paper’s website early Saturday, but were deleted later in the day.

The Guard has praised Moghaddam as the founder of the elite unit’s surface-to-surface missile capability.

In a statement released after the explosion, the Guard said it would not forget Moghaddam’s “effective role in the development of the country’s defense…and his efforts in launching and organizing the Guard’s artillery and missile units.”

Moghaddam headed a “self-sufficiency” unit of the Guard’s armaments section, it said.

In the interview, Mohammed Tehrani Moghaddam said that this brother had set up Hezbollah’s missile capability. “Hasan…visited Lebanon and created Hezbollah’s missile unit there,” he was quoted as saying.

Iran is a key supporter of Hezbollah and is believed to funnel it weapons and millions of dollars in funding, though Tehran denies arming the Shiite group. Hezbollah, also closely allied to Syria, boasts a heavy arsenal of rockets capable of reaching deep inside Israel.

The Revolutionary Guard, Iran’s most powerful military force, is in charge of Iran’s missile program.

Iran’s arsenal boasts missiles with a range of about 1,250 miles that were designed for Israeli and U.S. targets. The missile capability, along with Iran’s nuclear program, are among the reasons why Israel considers Iran its most dangerous enemy.

Moghaddam said his brother was also involved in Iran’s space program, assisting the rocket that took an Iranian satellite into orbit.

He didn‘t elaborate but said Hasan was favored by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Moghaddam himself was once Khamenei’s bodyguard.

The Guard initially said 17 Guard members were killed in the explosion. The semi-official Mehr news agency listed the names of 21 victims prompting the military force to say some of those critically injured had succumbed to their wounds later.

[American Patriot]

I am saddened at this turn of events.

Only 16 of them died.

"No, we're only using uranium for PEACEFUL PURPOSES!"

Right.

[Phil Fiord]

Do you suppose Iran has any type of delivery device to produce an EMP if released off our eastern shore?

[American Patriot]

Yes...

They could easily do it.

EMP though has to be a nuke, launched into space ABOVE the ionosphere. Sure there's something rebound that occurs below when a bomb is detonated, BUT, the BEST and most powerful, and most far reaching is to launch a rocket to space, detonate the bomb above the ionosphere.

The resulting ionosphere rebound --- essentially causing the ionosphere to oscillate is what causes the most bang for the buck. Plus the higher the altitude you detonate, the larger the ground foot print is.

Effectively they'd have to launch a nuke into space above KC, MO or so to hit 90% of the US.

But it would have to be a big bomb.

Even if Iran has a nuke, it won't be big enough to do widespread damage.

instead, dropping the nuke in the heart of DC would be more effective at terrorism. They could take out the President, Cabinet, most of Congress and there would actually be no one left for continuity of government to launch a counter strike.

it would have to be a BIG SURPRISE for this to happen, but a counter offensive would be mounted as soon as anyone had the authority to do so. It wouldn't take LONG either.... Iran would be a boiling wasteland.

Russia would launch, China would launch and we'd have ourselves an all out nuclear holocaust.

Iran has ships there... dunno their missile capabilities, but I think those were destroyers they were showing, so they probably can't do a major about of damage with them before the USN takes them down.

Thing is with EMP is it's not very powerful unless it is run off of a thermonuclear device. A simple atom bomb (most assuredly what Iran is attempting to produce) will not be sufficient. It will make a great city leveler, but not take down the US infrastructure. ONLY the Chinese and Russians really have that ability as far as I know.

I'm not too read up on France and the other countries' nuclear capabilities.