[piasa]

Well, there definitely is a heavy Libyan influence in the Caribbean. As we know, the Libyans had obtained uranium from Niger, where France has a lot of interests. We had North Korea, China, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Libya all intertwined in the Niger thing though the press always convenently left off Iraq from the list, and if they were getting materials from Niger then it is reasonable to assume it probable some Frenchmen knew about it.

I'm wondering if there is something going on with a Central or South American country trying to get its hands on the same stuff the other countries were, or if it is just that they are backing terrorism alone.

Brazil already had once traded centrifuge technology with Iraq long ago, and it is not exactly led by friendly folks now, seeing as its leader is an old leftwing terrorist himself.... Venezuela has been hostile with us for certain and has delved into aiding ME terrorists; and Cuba is Cuba, as usual. The French are bound to have trading interests here and with Iraq cut off would they have an interest in petroleum products from the Carib and Venezuela as well as an interest in supplying arms?

[Fedora]

Interesting thoughts. I wasn't aware of Libya's presence in the Caribbean, but now that you mention it, there's also some long-standing OPEC ties in Latin America, aren't there? As for the French, I was thinking of that Haiti incident a few months back (French surprise in Haiti, etc.), which got me wondering about the general French presence in the Caribbean. Smuggling has long been the forte of the Corsican mob (a la the old French connection), which when combined with terrorist interest in acquiring WMD is not a comforting thought to me.