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Colombia's main rebel group freed what it says were its last 10 military and police captives, a goodwill gesture that President Juan Manuel Santos praised but called insufficient to merit a peace dialogue.

Senator Chuck Schumer wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today calling for “increased scrutiny” of the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in light of potential terrorist attacks against New York City. Pointing to NYPD’s director of intelligence warning that Iran is “essentially” the number one threat, Mr. Schumer argued these diplomats must ”be vigorously monitored.” “With Iran’s increasingly bellicose and threatening behavior, it’s imperative that agents of the Iranian government in the United States receive additional scrutiny to ensure that they pose no threat to New York or the rest of the country,” Mr. Schumer said...

His full name is Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Blanco, and his legacy is equally voluminous. Born on July 24, 1783, he was serendipitously raised in an age of revolutions, and was one of the key leaders in the struggle for independence from Spain which spread throughout Latin America. On June 15th, 1813 he dictated his “Decree of War to the Death,” and the rest is history. He would go on to lead Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia to independence from Spain. At one point he was dictator of Peru, president of Colombia,...

The FBI said it searched eight addresses in Minneapolis and Chicago as part of a terrorism investigation Friday. Warrants suggest agents were looking for connections between local anti-war activists and terrorist groups in Colombia and the Middle East. FBI spokesman Steve Warfield told The Associated Press agents served six warrants in Minneapolis and two in Chicago. "These were search warrants only," Warfield said. "We're not anticipating any arrests at this time. They're seeking evidence relating to activities concerning the material support of terrorism." The homes of longtime Minneapolis anti-war activists Mick Kelly, Jess Sundin and Meredith Aby were among those...

A woman and her baby die in Orito, southwest of Bogota, in a bomb attack that targeted a police station. A bomb has exploded at a police station in southern Colombia, killing two people and injuring at least seven others, the authorities said. Police General Rodofo Palomino said the blast killed the wife of the regional police commander and their eight-month old son. The commander, along with his two-year old son and four other people, were seriously wounded and flown to a Bogota hospital for emergency treatment. Palomino blamed rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for the attack, and...

Ecuador has deployed some 10,000 security forces to its border with Colombia to deal with a "most grave" security problem, President Rafael Correa said Saturday. Correa said the troops and police forces were deployed to bolster security amid concerns about "organized crime, drug trafficking (and) irregular groups," including paramilitary groups and Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia known as FARC.

As Occupy Wall Street droned on about the evils of corporate avarice last month, a multimillion-dollar international scandal broke in Bogotá, exposing greed and corruption in the "nongovernmental organization" (NGO) world of human rights.

Reuters) - Colombians rejoiced at the killing of top FARC rebel leader Alfonso Cano and hoped the biggest blow yet against Latin America's longest insurgency could herald an end to nearly five decades of war. In a triumph for President Juan Manuel Santos' hardline security policy, officials said forces bombed a FARC jungle hide-out in the mountainous southwestern Cauca region. Troops then rappelled down from helicopters to search the area, killing the widely hated Marxist rebel boss, his girlfriend and several other rebels in a gun battle on Friday. Pictures of his dead body showed him without his trademark beard,...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The top leader of Colombia's main rebel group, the bookish ideologue Alfonso Cano, was killed Friday in a military bombing in the country's southwest, authorities said. "The fingerprints matched," said one senior security official who confirmed the death, adding that Cano was killed in "a standard military operation" in Cauca state in which ground troops also participated. The official spoke on condition he not be further identified. Cano, the 63-year-old head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had been the top target of Colombian authorities since September 2010, when they killed the insurgency's...

Media: Just days before the U.S.-Colombia free trade pact heads for a vote, the Washington Post publishes a story claiming Colombia's miracle is a sham. This is a smear unworthy of the name "journalism." Topping the front page in its Sunday edition with "A case of aid gone bad in Colombia," the Post attempted to rewrite history by claiming the U.S.'s $8 billion Plan Colombia military program that broke the back of its drug cartels was really ... a waste. Pay no attention to the safety, security and economic growth that have made Colombia such an attractive partner for a...

MINNEAPOLIS – When Meredith Aby met with members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in 2006, she asked what it would take to get them to stop fighting. Jess Sundin did the same during her trip to Colombia 11 years ago. They returned and openly wrote and spoke about their experiences, while criticizing the U.S. government’s involvement in that country. FBI documents recently found by the anti-war activists suggest the trips may have started an investigation into apparent connections between local activists and radical groups in Colombia and the Middle East. One document says the probe expanded to include...

The account of the female warriors from Colombia came this week as rebels identified a host of foreigners fighting for the Gadhafi regime or supplying the dictator with valuable material. Mercenaries are paid up to $1,000 a day, according to some reports. The rebels said they have captured Algerian mercenaries and claim that the authoritarian government of Belarus has sent more than 100 military advisers to help Col. Gadhafi. They said the regime also has received aid from supporters in Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Ukraine. Algerian and Belarusian officials have denied the rebels’ allegations. Officials with other governments cited...

MEXICO CITY – The most fearsome weapons wielded by Mexico’s drug cartels enter the country from Central America, not the United States, according to U.S. diplomatic cables disseminated by WikiLeaks and published on Tuesday by La Jornada newspaper. Items such as grenades and rocket-launchers are stolen from Central American armies and smuggled into Mexico via neighboring Guatemala, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City reported to Washington. The assertions appear in embassy cables written after three bilateral conferences on arms trafficking that took place between March 2009 and January 2010 in Cuernavaca, Mexico; Phoenix; and Tapachula, Mexico, respectively. The cables’ authors...

Colombia's armed forces say they have killed a Farc rebel leader who acted as the group's main contact with Mexico's drug cartels. The rebel known as Oliver Solarte controlled drugs and weapons smuggling operations in southern Colombia, President Juan Manuel Santos said. He died in an attack on rebel positions near the border with Ecuador. It is the latest in a series of blows to the guerrillas, who have lost many of their top leaders in recent years.Farc setbacks President Santos said the death of Oliver Solarte was an "important blow" to the left-wing group. ""I want to tell them...

Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi is well known now for the abuses he has inflicted on his own people during more than four decades of brutal rule in Libya, but few remember the vast campaign of carnage and terrorism he orchestrated across West Africa and Europe when he was at the height of his powers. Nor are his more recent alliance with Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and his long-standing relationship with Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua -- both of whom are busy trampling their constitutions and moving toward dictatorship -- well understood. And the fact that all three governments support the Revolutionary Armed...

It's not every day that an American labor union gets investigated for possible ties to two of the world's most lethal terrorist organizations. But Chicago's Service Employees International Union Local 73 isn't an everyday union. Last September 24, FBI agents raided residences in Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan of more than a dozen radical activists in an effort to connect them to the Hamas (Gaza and the West Bank) and FARC (Colombia) guerrilla movements. Two of the occupants were SEIU Local 73 chief steward and executive board member Joe Iosbaker and former local board member-steward Tom Burke. Neither they nor anyone else has...

21st Century SocialismThe attempt to destroy democracy in Latin America.  The Obama administration started out on the wrong foot in world affairs. It used techniques better suited for domestic political campaigns — popularity contests — in its foreign policy. In our own hemisphere, the result was confusion for our allies and our enemies alike. The overriding objective of U.S. policy — in Latin America and elsewhere — should be to advance U.S. national interests, not to curry favor with foreign leaders. If we can be liked while advancing our interests, so much the better. But when we try to befriend...

Prominent current and former members of SEIU local 73 are being investigated for their potential ties to the Hamas and FARC terrorist groups. Late last year, their homes were raided by the FBI, and they were subpoenaed to appear in front of a grand jury for questioning. Joe Iosbaker, Chief Steward of SEIU 73, and Tom Burke (former board member of SEIU 73) are among 9 people who are subjects in the investigation. None of them have been charged with any crimes, yet. Two days ago, they refused again to appear in front of the grand jury. The interesting thing...

The release of over 250,000 diplomatic cables has revealed a lot about the intricacies of U.S. diplomacy. However, one aspect of the WikiLeaks release that has been much under the media's radar is what the leaked cables have said about Russia and its surrogate-state sponsorship of what would most accurately be described as an international terrorist network. In a diplomatic cable dated August 6, 2008, regarding a meeting between U.S. and Russian experts on the export of Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) from Russia, the State Department expressed its concern about "Russian ammunition, sold to Venezuela ... found in possession...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday he would promote a general accused by the United States of helping Colombian guerrillas smuggle cocaine, to armed forces' general in chief. General Henry Rangel is currently head of strategic operations and will be promoted to the top military rank as soon as Saturday, Chavez said. Rangel became embroiled in another controversy this week when a Venezuelan newspaper published an interview in which he reportedly said the army would not accept an opposition victory in the 2012 presidential election. In a live address broadcast on all Venezuelan TV and radio stations, Chavez said...

Think the IRA has stepped off the world stage? Their role is closer to that of ringleader. One of America’s most influential terrorist enemies traces its lineage back some thirty years — and it isn’t a Muslim organization.In splinter groups like the Continuity IRA and more recently the Real IRA, Irish terrorists have positioned themselves at the center of a network connecting revolutionary FARC rebels in Colombia, Hezbollah in the Middle East, al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Taliban forces in Afghanistan currently fighting and killing American troops. The IRA and PFLP have trained together and coordinated attacks, weapons smuggling, and other...

A DUTCH woman who joined Colombia's largest rebel group only to complain of disillusionment in a diary found in 2007 at an abandoned jungle camp has now appeared in a video pledging allegiance to the guerrillas. In a brief interview, Tanja Nijmeier, speaking in Spanish, said she was not being held against her will and was proud to belong to the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. "Just come and try to 'free' me and we'll receive you here with AK (Kalashnikov rifles],, with mines, with mortars, with everything," she said in the video, which Colombian journalist Jorge...

US communists called for unity against McCarthy-style witch-hunts at the weekend. Their appeal came in the wake of a series of raids on the homes of 12 peace activists during which computers and photographs were seized. The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) said the September 24 raids had nothing to do with protecting the US people against terrorism and "everything to do with chilling the long-cherished tradition of the right to dissent." FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents ransacked the activists' homes across the Midwest for evidence of "material support" for organisations such as the Popular Front for the Liberation...

The FBI arrests affirm an emerging terror alliance between American-based leftists, Islamic terror organizations, Colombia’s FARC, and Irish Republican groups. Weeks ago, news broke of a September 24 FBI raid on the homes of Minneapolis activists — part of an investigation related, as the Bureau told the Star-Tribune, to “the material support of terrorism.” But in the absence of further reporting by the mainstream media, Americans are left wondering just who these activists are, if they remember the story at all. An ongoing PJM investigation reveals that the revolutionary American socialists targeted by the FBI are connected at multiple levels...

When Juan Manuel Santos came into office as Colombia's president and emphasized economic issues over the fight against terrorist guerrillas, he was suspected of going soft on those he had combated as minister of defense under the previous administration. Little did his critics know that he was planning the "coup de grace" against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The devastating Sept. 22 attack on FARC headquarters in Colombia's central Meta province all but signifies the end of the five-decade-old conflict. It will take a little while for the official end to be declared, but this war is pretty...

Colombia's largest rebel group FARC will not be able to replace their recently slain military commander "Mono Jojoy," national police director General Oscar Naranjo told Colombian radio. In an interview with W Radio, Naranjo said that within the high ranks of the FARC there is no commander who is as feared as Mono Jojoy was before he was killed by armed forces on Wednesday. "There is no terrorist [within the FARC] who is able to generate so much intimidation ... They will not find a commander who can take up this role," the police commissioner said. Naranjo denied earlier reports...

Top FARC commander "Mono Jojoy" was killed by Colombian state forces. President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed the death of the rebel leader from New York City, where he is attending the U.N. General Assembly. The head of the FARC's Eastern Bloc and member of its Secretariat was killed in a massive air strike in a region called La Macarena in the central Colombian Meta department, 200 miles south of Bogota. Some 20 other guerrillas were killed and five members of the security forces were injured in the attack, the government's Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera said. Mono Jojoy, also known as...

Victory: Colombia's army blew away the field marshal of FARC's narco-terror war Wednesday, showing with a jolt that to win, it's terrorists who must "absorb" attacks, not innocents. Mexico and the U.S. have much to learn. Seems the adage that Colombia is the only country where guerrillas die of old age isn't true anymore. On Thursday, Colombia celebrated news of the demise of Jorge Briceno, military commander and second-highest chief of FARC. The 57-year-old terrorist went down in a hail of bombs and gunfire over three days in a jungle bunker near La Macarena. The Colombian army suffered no deaths...

Colombia's military killed the field marshal and No. 2 commander of the country's main leftist rebel group on Thursday in the country's eastern plains, authorities said.

Thank you New Zeal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq9K90bvaX0&feature=player_embedded

SNIPPET: "BOGOTA – Police seized 100 kilos of pentolite and arrested five people, including four Ecuadorians, who were transporting the high explosive on a highway in southwestern Colombia, a police commander said Tuesday. A 17-year-old girl carrying a baby was among the foreigners arrested, the National Police commander in the southern border province of Putumayo, Col. Orlando Polo, said. Officers also seized 6,000 meters (6,565 yards) of detonating cord, Polo told reporters in Mocoa, the capital of Putumayo. The explosives and detonating cord were in a truck apparently headed for Florencia, the capital of neighboring Caqueta province." SNIPPET: "The pentolite...

Marxist rebels' open letter asks South American body to facilitate peace talksColombia's largest insurgent group asked the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to help resolve the country's decades-old political struggle in a open letter published Wednesday. "Although the government of Colombia has closed the door to dialogue with the insurgency spurred on by the mirage of a military victory and Washington's interference, we want to convey to the Union of Nations of the South, UNASUR, our unyielding determination to seek a political solution to the conflict," said the letter from the communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), published...

NOTE The following text is a quote: FARC Associate Pleads Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to providing material support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization AUG 11 -- (MANHATTAN, NY) JOHN P. GILBRIDE, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Field Division ("DEA") and PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced yesterday the guilty plea of JUANITO CORDOBA-BERMUDEZ, an associate of the 57 Front of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia ("FARC"), A Colombian terrorist group, to a Indictment charging him with participating in a conspiracy to provide material support to...

Caracas and Bogota appeared to put an end to their short-lived diplomatic crisis Tuesday, as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and new Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos held a high-profile summit at a Colombian port town. "We are looking to restore relations between two brother nations," Mr. Santos said upon arriving in Santa Marta. "We're optimistic, and we want this meeting to produce firm results." Mr. Chavez said that "despite all the storms, I come to ratify my eternal love for Colombia." The meeting comes three days after Mr. Santos was sworn in, and nearly three weeks after an accusation by...

Colombian patriot and brave national hero Alvaro Uribe has now retired from the presidential office he first took in 2002... when Colombia was nothing short of a failed state. How did he do? Besides the fact that he all but defeated the FARC rebels and numerous drug cartels over his eight years, Uribe's presidential approval rating has hovered between 60-70%... as recently as 2008 hitting an astounding 91%... George W Bush honored his accomplishment, principles, and valor with a Presidential Medal of Freedom... while today's radical Democrats refuse to support Colombia's great strides with even a free-trade pact. But as...

Olavo de Carvalho had a column published yesterday in Brazilian newspaper which included a discussion of how communists continue to use illicit drugs as a weapon. He agrees with Prof. Denis Rosenfield's conclusion that revolution and drug trafficking are like Siamese twins, linked always and forever. The 'Opium War' waged by Mao against several Chinese provinces, for example, was the first recorded case in history when an organized political power deliberately addicted the population of their own country, to undermine it, explore it and master it. de Carvalho recommends a 1999 book by Joseph D. Douglass (Red Cocaine: drugging the...

Americas: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez sputtered rage and fury Sunday after Colombia charged him with harboring terrorists. It was about par for a bully whose nation is going downhill fast. It didn't get much play in the media, but on Friday Colombia's government laid out scads of evidence — photographs, videos, satellite GPS coordinates and computer e-mails — to the Organization of American States showing why it's so tough to fight terrorists. As the world does nothing, Venezuela aids the Colombian narcoterrorists known as FARC, which is an act of war. In effect, Chavez looks the other way as some 1,500...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Top FARC Commander Sentenced To 27 Years In Prison For Conspiring To Import Tons Of Cocaine Into The United States JUL 22 -- (Manhattan, NY) - JOHN P. GILBRIDE, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Field Division ("DEA") and PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and, announced that GERARDO AGUILAR RAMIREZ, a/k/a "Cesar," a former front commander in the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or "FARC"), was sentenced today to 27 years in prison for conspiring to...

(CNN) -- Colombian authorities have proof that high-ranking leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, live in Venezuela, the Colombian government said Thursday. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe issued a statement listing their names. Among them is one with the alias "Ivan Marquez;" Rodrigo Granda, whose alias is "Ricardo;" Timoleon Jimenez, whose alias is "Timochenko;" German Briceno, whose alias is "Grannobles;" and Carlos Marin Guarin, whose alias is "Pablito." The president said there are other "integral members" of the group in Venezuela. Venezuela and Colombia have strained relations.

Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, who spent six years as a rebel hostage before being rescued, has sued the Andean nation over her kidnapping, sparking outrage from the government that freed her. The suit seeks $6.8 million (4.5 million pounds) in damages from the state for emotional stress and loss of earnings while she was being held in secret jungle camps by Marxist guerrillas.

Chalk up another defeat for Hugo Chávez. Last weekend, Colombian voters delivered a landslide victory to conservative presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos, who clobbered former Bogotá mayor Antanas Mockus by nearly 42 percentage points. Always eager to meddle in foreign elections, Chávez had strongly criticized Santos during the campaign, calling him a “threat to the region” and warning that “he could cause a war in this part of the world, upon instructions from the Yankees.” On April 25, the Venezuelan dictator said that, while Santos was “trying to dress as Little Red Riding Hood,” he was actually “a wolf...

Mexico’s drug war is still raging, with over 22,000 people having been killed since 2006. Now, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, often referred to as the FARC, are teaming up with the drug lords. The Marxist terrorist group’s ties to Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and other organizations make the conflict to the south a major threat to the United States. The violence in Mexico is severe. In the first two days of May, 25 people were killed in Chihuahua, with several of the murders happening in Ciudad Juarez. As the month of May began, 62 people had been killed...

Oswaldo Álvarez Paz's arrest is evidence of Chávez's abuse of the legal system and the silencing of his critics. The arrest of Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, a former president of Venezuela's Chamber of Deputies, governor of the Venezuelan state of Zulia, and presidential candidate, should concern the entire world because it demonstrates just how far President Hugo Chávez's regime is willing to stray from democratic norms. Standing silent as democracy atrophies in Venezuela is now not only immoral, but is becoming increasingly dangerous for all of Venezuela's people. Álvarez Paz has a worldwide reputation for being an honourable man devoted to...

War: A Spanish court has charged Venezuela with collaborating in a terrorist plot to assassinate President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. That's an attempt on a top U.S. ally, and calls for a hard response. If it's not predator-drone time, it's time to name Venezuela as a state sponsor of terror. What came to light Monday isn't the first time Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has been caught aiding terrorists, but it may well be the most egregious. Spanish Judge Eloy Velasco named a Venezuelan government official as a key link between 12 FARC and ETA terrorists who were indicted in a 2003...

None of us who are believers of individual freedom are fans of Hugo Chavez. But it seems that the situation is growing more worrisome by the day. The Washington Post outlines the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a searing and authoritative report on the destruction of Venezuela's political institutions and the erosion of freedom under President Hugo Chávez. It details the fearful deterioration of rights in the country, and the blind eye the Organization of American States (OAS) has turned to those events. The report details facts and events that document how Mr. Chávez's regime has done away with...

A Spanish judge has charged 13 members of the Basque separatist group ETA and the Colombian rebel group FARC over an alleged plot to assassinate Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, judicial sources said on Monday. Judge Eloy Velasco said he believes FARC asked ETA's help with a plot to kill a number of Colombian officials in Spain, including Uribe.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and pop superstar Shakira are talking about U.S. policy toward children at the White House. Obama and the Colombian entertainer met briefly after she had meetings with staff from the National Security Council and the Domestic Policy Council to talk about early childhood development. A White House official, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because the meeting was not on the president's public schedule, says Shakira stopped by to say hello to Obama when the meetings ended. Shakira is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and has been an advocate for children in poverty.

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "Bout and American-born pal Richard Chichakli were accused of creating a new business, Samar Airlines, which they thought was clean of any connection to their own bloody dealings. Starting in the summer of 2007, Samar Airlines started making deals for airplanes and crews to ferry contraband between the United States and Tajikistan, the indictment said." SNIPPET: "The Russian-born Bout is accused of wiring $1.7 million from bank accounts in Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Russia through banks in New York City and Salt Lake City to finance the scheme." SNIPPET: "Bout, who is accused of supplying weapons to real...

The FARC and the Quest for Surface to Air Missiles By Douglas Farah SNIPPET: "The Miami Herald today reports that the Colombian FARC has likely already fulfilled its long-time goal of purchasing surface to air missiles to be used against U.S.-supplied helicopters in Colombia. The FARC has long placed a very high strategic priority on acquiring SAMs, going back to at least 2003. The commanders officially requested money from Libya and Nicaragua at that time to purchase the weapons because the insurgency was being so badly hurt by helicopters acquired by the military and police." SNIPPET: "It is not a...

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez has turned to his friends in Cuba for help in tackling Venezuela's energy crisis, drawing criticism for seeking advice from the communist-led island that has struggled with its own electricity woes. Chavez gave few details on Wednesday about what is expected of Cuba, but insisted that "it's valuable experience that's serving us well." He said that he spoke for hours Tuesday with Cuban Vice President Ramiro Valdes after his arrival in Venezuela to lead the consulting team. The decision to seek help from Cuba bewildered Venezuelans coping with the nation's power shortage. "It's laughable...