Posted on 01/20/2014 1:09:49 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
...It is said that wherever Iran goes, Hezbollah is not far behind.”...
Iran continues to actively cultivate ties among its allies in Latin America, including Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, a policy that some have warned could bring terrorism closer to U.S. borders.
Iranian media has been filled with reports over the past week touting the ten-day visit to Latin America by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi.
In Havana on Thursday, senior Cuban officials praised Iran and expressed interest in further strengthening ties with the Islamic Republic.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla said his country supports Iran pursuing civilian nuclear power.
“Rodriguez said the Islamic Republic has an absolute right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in line with international regulations,” Iran’s Press TV reported.
“He added that the Iranian government attaches special significance to strengthening relations with Latin American and the Caribbean countries and is prepared to take more steps towards the expansion of ties with those states,” it further reported.
Another Cuban official called Iran a “strategic partner.”
“Cuba is ready to take effective steps to expand [its] trade and economic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran as its strategic partner,” Cuba’s First Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investments Luis Antonio Karikarte Crown said according to Iran’s Press TV.
From Cuba, the Iranian official traveled to Venezuela then Bolivia.
During a meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ravanchi said, “Relations with Venezuela are important for Iran and the (Iranian) government is determined to deepen mutual cooperation,” according to a report in Iran’s Fars News.
“Caracas supports Tehran’s freedom-seeking aspirations,” Maduro was quoted as saying.
Iran’s Fars News reported that Maduro “described Iran as a great power that deserves special respect.”
“Last month, Iranian and Venezuelan officials reiterated that expansion of ties among independent states would not only bring about sustainable economic progress, but also end the hegemonic powers’ monopoly on world resources,” Fars added.
Iran has said it seeks improved relations in Latin America both for reasons of trade and cooperation in the Non-Aligned Movement in which Iran currently holds the rotating presidency.
But some have warned that greater Iranian engagement in Latin American could also spur more terrorist activity from its proxy Shiite terrorist group, Hezbollah.
U.S. officials and national security experts told TheBlaze in September that they believe Iran is recruiting an “invisible army” of revolutionary sympathizers in Latin America to one day infiltrate the U.S. through the “soft belly” of the southern border.
As TheBlaze reported, “The Iranian regime’s conversion efforts are becoming increasingly aggressive, especially over the Internet, with the goal of conducting operations against United States interests in the Western Hemisphere, according to U.S. government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the nature of their work in the region.”
During a March hearing of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Roger F. Noriega, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs under President George W. Bush, testified, “It is said that wherever Iran goes, Hezbollah is not far behind.”
“Hezbollah is not a lone wolf. In this Hemisphere it counts on the political, diplomatic, material and logistical support of governments – principally Venezuela and Iran – that have little in common but their hostility to the United States,” said Noriega, who is now with the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute.
The terrorist group uses smuggling, money laundering, and fundraising in collaboration with Latin American “well-financed narcotraffickers and guerrilla groups,” Noriega said. Furthermore, the Venezuelan state airline, Conviasa, runs regular flights from Caracas to Damascus and Tehran, “providing Iran, Hezbollah, and associated narcotraffickers a surreptitious means to move personnel, weapons, contraband and other materiel.”
Like the Obama administration.
"...........Osama bin Laden understood the principal aspects of insurgent warfare both from an academic and practical standpoint. It was clear he followed the same outline of guerilla warfare set forth by Che Guevara, but with Islam rather than international communism as the main element of philosophical cohesion. It’s a theme that is easy to pursue in the Middle East and elsewhere with an active Moslem population.
That fact is that bin Laden saw that it would be relatively easy for any group, large or small, to be characterized as an al Qaeda affiliate as long as they maintained commitment to Islam. Tactics aside, there was one rule required of all AQ fighting and support groups: They had to maintain limited contact with each other unless or until the need arose for a broad scale attack mode.
If this sounds familiar, and it should, all of this harkens back to basic principles evolved in modern times by Ho Chi Minh. He saw the entire concept of insurgency as a natural evolution first as political organization and then paramilitary action. Of course Ho did not invent terrorism as a weapon. In A.D. 66-73, according to Walter Laqueur, the sicarii participating in the Zealot movement specialized in killing people in crowds on holidays in Jerusalem. The Assassins of the 11th century operating in secrecy aimed their activities at killing all levels of higher officials.
Nothing today in the Islamic world goes much beyond what already has existed. This is why it is so odd that the NY Times would seek to give substance to the Obama White House’ characterization that there was no al Qaeda involvement in the tragic incident in Benghazi when the operational and motivational links go back so clearly to bin Laden’s original organization and vastly beyond.".........
If it becomes politically useful, the Obama Regime would find it easy to encourage terrorism across our Southern border and then crack down further on the Tea Party or any other voices opposing the Marxist coup that has overtaken the US government.
“Chavez’ Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), which included states like Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, has forged close military ties with Iran. In 2006, Iranian advisors of the Iranian Republican Guards Corps (IRGC) were embedded in the Venezuelan army. Along with senior members of the Venezuelan government, the IRGC is involved in the illicit narcotics trade as well, which is consistent with its other function as a quasi-business enterprise. In support of Iranian foreign policy, the IRGC acts as a flexible, ideologically committed military force that also manages a huge, semi-legitimate business empire in Iran. The smaller Iranian Quds Force, which has fewer business associations, acts as a special operations force and a covert arm of Iran’s government.
Hostility toward the United States is fundamental to the ideological outlook of Iran’s ruling theocracy, which considers itself at war with the U.S. Employment of the IRGC and Quds Force against America, whether in Iraq (where members of the Quds Force were captured by American troops) or in the Western Hemisphere, where the IRCG and Quds Force participate in anti-US training of local forces and in an illicit drug trade that weakens the United States at home. That Iran has relationships with TCOs with deep ties inside the United States is a fact; the question is what, if anything, the Iranians intend to do with this capability.”
The IRGC are also in Peru, Uraguay to name a few more
Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia? They only want nuclear weapons, nothin’ to see here. Thanks Cincinatus’ Wife.
Just like the undocumented Tyrant-by-Fraud.
Somehow we need to outsmart them until they get past this horrible phase...
Thread bump.
A Look at Iran
http://www.truthusa.com/IRAN.html
http://forum.internet-haganah.com/forum/iran-%7C-islamic-revolution
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Forum.iNTERNET-HAGANAH.com (INFOSURHOY.com) “IRAN MAINTAINS TERRORIST CELLS IN LATIN AMERICA”
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http://infosurhoy.com/en_GB/articles/saii/features/main/2014/01/10/feature-01
2014-01-10
Terrorism
“Iran maintains terrorist cells in Latin America”
By Eduardo Szklarz for Infosurhoy.com
SNIPPET: “Currently, Iran uses websites to recruit adherents, according to security analysts.”
Thank you for the heads-up.
China is doing similar “cultivating” in South America AND in Africa. A lot of it has to do with mineral rights (though political/military ties are always in their thinking and outreach). China’s also setting up multiple base camps in Antarctica so that they will have a strong voice regarding mining (stakes) when the issue of exploiting those resources comes up again for international review in the 2040’s (?).
Yes, I agree with you.
China is also upgrading their military and military-related hardware.
The world is getting smaller.
Thanks for starting this thread Cincinatus’ Wife.
Thread bump.
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