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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...

The moment that made Gingrich was when he got Tip O'Neill so all fire mad that Tip made statements in violation of House rules and had his words "taken down," a major parliamentary slap on the hindquarters. You can watch the C-SPAN video here: Tip O'Neill's words taken down. Now, this week we've heard the RINOs try to slam Gingrich's attitude to Reagan's foreign policy vis-a-vis the communists, trying to claim that when the liberals in the House were criticizing Reagan's policy and threatening to cut off funding for the Contras, Gingrich was right along them agreeing with it. How...

Prosecutors in Honduras say a decomposed, bullet-riddled body found near the border with Nicaragua has been identified as the purported leader of a shadowy Nicaraguan resistance group.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended his country's nuclear program as he began a four-nation tour of Latin America, joining his ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in accusing the U.S. and its allies of using the dispute to unjustly threaten Iran.[snip] Both leaders planned to travel to Nicaragua on Tuesday for the inauguration of newly re-elected President Daniel Ortega, and then Ahmadinejad will also visit Cuba and Ecuador.

The United States has ordered the expulsion of Venezuela’s consul general in Miami, AFP reported on Sunday. The expulsion comes amid reports linking the diplomat to an alleged Iranian plot to target sensitive U.S. facilities with cyber attacks. According to the report, the Venezuelan embassy in Washington was notified on Friday that Livia Acosta Noguera, the consul general in Miami, had been declared persona non grata and had until Tuesday to leave the country...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to visit Venezuela and Cuba as part of a four-nation Latin America tour in the second week of January 2012, an official said Wednesday. Ahmadinejad will also visit Nicaragua and Ecuador on the trip, his international affairs director, Mohammad Reza Forghani, told the official news agency IRNA. All the countries are left-leaning and share an ideological antagonism towards Iran's arch-foe, the United States. "Mr Ahmadinejad will first go to Caracas to visit (Venezuelan President) Hugo Chavez," Forghani said, confirming an announcement made Tuesday by Chavez. "He will then go to the swearing-in ceremonies for Nicaraguan...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — One-time Sandinista revolutionary Daniel Ortega took a big early lead in presidential elections Sunday, according to preliminary results, amid reports of protests and international observers being blocked from participating. Electoral council President Roberto Rivas said Ortega, the incumbent and heavy favorite, had almost 64 percent of the votes compared to 29 percent for his nearest challenger, Fabio Gadea. Conservative Arnoldo Aleman, a former president, was a distant third with 6 percent. The result came with almost 7 percent of the votes counted, but Rivas said a quick count representative of the entire vote gave Ortega a...

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla leader, looks likely to win re-election on Sunday after heavy social spending won him strong support among the country's poor. Ortega has overseen a period of economic progress in his five years in power, backed by financial aid from his socialist ally in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez.

(AGI) Havana -- Together with Hugo Chavez' Venezuela, Cuba is one of the few countries that supports Muammar Gaddafi. Havana announced that Cuba will not recognize the NTC and has decided to withdraw all its diplomatic personnel from Libya. According to a communique' of the Cuban Foreign ministry, that country "does not recognize any NTC authority and will wait for the formation of a legitimate government, without foreign interventions" before restoring diplomatic ties. . .

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi still has a few friends left in Latin America. We know that Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's charismatic president, supports him because he can't stop talking about it. With the Libyan rebels firing celebration guns in Tripoli, Chavez came out with a second statement that said he refused to acknowledge any government in Libya but that of his friend. "Without a doubt, we're facing imperal madness," Chavez said in his televised address, according to the Associated Press. And now, Nicaragua has chimed in. President Daniel Ortega has been a longtime ally of Gaddafi. In February, he said he...

Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba continue to be the staunchest supporters of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega have both declared that they will not abandon Gaddafi in this time of crisis. Chavez has actually stated that he will continue to recognize only his friend Gaddafi as the legitimate leader of Libya, whereas Ortega has already offered him asylum... According to the Venezuelan paper, El Universal, the fall of Gaddafi's mean the defeat of Chavez. "At a time when even the Arab League has expressed its full support to the Libyan Transitional National...

The children of Muammar Gaddafi have called on their father to give up leadership and leave the country to receive political asylum from the President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega, Army Radio reported on Wednesday. According the report, Gaddafi family associates living outside of Libya reported that the brothers already received the constent of the Nicaragua move, which was also supported by the United States. The Libyan leader however, refused the suggestion and insists on staying in power and fighting back against the protests sweeping across his country.

Media blackout: CIA director accused of links to Communist spy contact -- scandal ignored Wes Vernon June 13, 2011 If you have been depending on the mainstream media for your news the past few days, you are probably learning here for the first time that CIA Director Leon Panetta has been called out for his links to an important open member of the Communist Party. Some background When this writer first arrived in Washington, D.C., as a reporter in 1968, one of my assignments was to cover the congressional delegation from Washington State. Occasionally, both Democrat and Republican members of...

Back in February, weeks before NATO launched its Libyan bombing campaign but after the Tripoli regime had slaughtered hundreds of civilians, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega phoned Muammar Qaddafi multiple times to express his support. Speaking publicly, Ortega declared that the bloodstained despot was “waging a great battle.” Then, in late March, with the NATO war well underway, Qaddafi tapped former Nicaraguan foreign minister Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann (who served under Ortega’s Sandinista dictatorship during the 1980s) to be Libya’s new ambassador to the United Nations. So it wasn’t terribly surprising last month when WikiLeaks released a pair of U.S. diplomatic cables...

Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua, has attacked the British monarchy and said he was offended by William and Kate's gala marriage ceremony. Left-winger Mr Ortega said the hands of the monarchy "are stained with blood because they are celebrating while Libya is being bombed, while blood is being spilled in Libya". Nicaragua's leader made the comments in a speech to thousands of supporters hours after the lavish royal wedding that was watched by an estimated two billion people around the world. The governments of Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia are staunch allies of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and have...

UNITED NATIONS — A former Nicaraguan foreign minister who once called President Ronald Reagan “the butcher of my people” has been appointed to represent Libya at the United Nations after its delegate was denied a visa, the Nicaraguan government said on Wednesday. Nicaragua said the former minister, Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, 78, an outspoken critic of the United States and a Catholic priest, would replace the Libyan diplomat Ali Abdussalam Treki, who had been unable to obtain a visa to enter the United States. Libya’s ambassador to the United Nations, Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgam, defected in late February after denouncing Col. Muammar...

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...

Kadhafi podría pedir asilo político a Nicaragua * La Radio del Ejército de Israel reporta que los hijos de Kadhafi pidieron a su padre que deje el poder y pida asilo político al presidente Daniel Ortega * Cancillería de Nicaragua no tiene información al respecto elnuevodiario.com.ni - - La Radio del Ejército de Israel afirmó este miércoles que los hijos del mandatario de Libia, Muamar Kadhafi pidieron a su padre que deje el poder y pida asilo político al presidente de Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega. En una nota publicada por Notimex, se señala que la radio transmitió que allegados a la...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Nicaragua's leftist President Daniel Ortega says he has telephoned Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to express his solidarity. Ortega says he has called several times this week because Gadhafi "is again waging a great battle" to defend the unity of his nation. Human rights groups say more than 200 people have died as Libyan security forces crack down on protesters. Ortega has long been an ally of the Libyan leader, based in part on a shared distrust of the United States. Ortega says that "it's at difficult times that loyalty and resolve are put to the test."

Ernesto "Che" Guevara's famous beret is gone. His iconic beard is filthy and matted against skeletal cheekbones. One bushy eyebrow arches over his half-open eyes. As a Bolivian country surgeon methodically saws off his lifeless hands, Che appears vaguely amused. Gustavo Villoldo, a stocky figure in green army fatigues, stands just inside the tiny laundry room where the Cuban revolutionary's corpse rests atop a sink. For five months, the CIA operative has led soldiers hunting Guevara through the rough crags and valleys of southern Bolivia. Less than 24 hours ago, his team had captured and executed him in a village...

HOUSTON — A truck driver was resentenced to nearly 34 years in prison on Monday after a federal appeals court last year overturned the multiple life sentences he received for his role in America's deadliest human smuggling attempt, which resulted in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants from Central America. The new sentence of 405 months that Tyrone Williams was given during a court hearing is equal to the longest prison term he previously got in the case, for another count that was upheld on appeal. During the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Daniel Rodriguez made an impassioned plea that despite the...

<p>Since the season is more than month away, and information is incomplete, this is a preliminary post. When more information develops, I'll post the "formal" announcement.</p> <p>Survivor: Redemption Island is the 22st season of Survivor. It begins Wednesday, February 16, 2011 on CBS.</p>

Lately in the news: Beijing provokes clashes with the navies of both Indonesia and Japan as part of a bid to claim the South China Sea. Tokyo is in a serious diplomatic row with Russia over the South Kuril islands, a leftover dispute from 1945. There are credible fears that Tehran and Damascus will use the anticipated indictment of Hezbollah figures by a United Nations tribunal to overthrow the elected Lebanese government. Managua is attempting to annex a sliver of Costa Rica, a nation much too virtuous to have an army of its own. And speaking of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega...

<p>In a statement Thursday, Costa Rica's foreign ministry said the country had filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, to end a situation that "threatens imminent and irreparable harm" to Costa Rica.</p> <p>The suit asks the court to stop "the construction of a canal on Costa Rican soil," according to the statement.</p>

Will the Obama administration ever start standing up to the Latin axis of caudillos? Nicaragua invaded Costa Rica last month -- yet the State Department is all but AWOL. State is taking a carefully worded, almost neutral stand in the dispute between Costa Rica -- our ally, and the world's most pacifist country -- and Nicaragua, a key player in Hugo Chavez's group of Latin strongmen. Last month, Nicaragua sent troops into a jungle area at the mouth of the San Juan River, which has long been determined by mediators to be on Costa Rica's side of the border.

With the world distracted by currency fights, European debt problems, and other economic challenges, Nicaragua has quietly invaded and occupied the sovereign territory of Costa Rica. It is an act of naked aggression that deserves to be condemned and resisted by governments everywhere, yet most Americans have probably read little or nothing about it. Here’s a brief synopsis of what happened. At the direction of their government, Nicaraguans were dredging the San Juan River, which forms a section of their southern border with Costa Rica. They were doing so in a manner that was damaging many Costa Rican properties, which...

Nicaragua invaded and assumed control of a small section of Costa Rica in late October. At first Nicaragua blamed the incursion on Google Maps. This farcical explanation belies the fact that Nicaragua has for years wanted the property on the other side of the San Juan River for its own canal from the Pacific to Atlantic. That project was originally dreamed up when Nicaragua was a Soviet Client state and a completed canal project would be a game changer. Currently the canal project is funded by Iran and Venezuela while Nicaragua is led by the same man that led the...

Once again, the leftist thugs of Central America test our mettle and prove the  impotence of international organizations. Haaretz reports that Iran,Venezuela and Nicaragua are working together to encroach on Costa Rican territory: The recent border dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua is a sign of an ambitious plan by Venezuela, Iran and Nicaragua to create a "Nicaragua Canal" linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that would rival the existing Panama Canal. Costa Rica says that last week Nicaraguan troops entered its territory along the San Juan River - the border between the two nations. Nicaragua had been conducting...

An international conflict between Nicaragua and Costa Rica sparked in part by Google Maps is escalating as the search giant admits to yet another geo-goof that could spark yet more tensions. After blaming Google Maps for its troops invading Costa Rica last week, Nicaraguan troops have refused to leave the disputed piece of land, which lies near the border between the countries. Google has admitted to mistakenly identifying the land as part of Nicaragua, an error it has since fixed. The Secretary-General of the Organisation of American States visited both countries in an attempt to resolve the conflict. However, Nicaraguan...

The recent border dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua is a sign of an ambitious plan by Venezuela, Iran and Nicaragua to create a "Nicaragua Canal" linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that would rival the existing Panama Canal. Costa Rica says that last week Nicaraguan troops entered its territory along the San Juan River – the border between the two nations. Nicaragua had been conducting channel deepening work on the river when the incident occurred. Sources in Latin America have told Haaretz that the border incident and the military pressure on Costa Rica, a country without an army, are...

The pressure for a peaceful solution to the Costa Rica - Nicaragua conflict is mounting. Costa Rica officials on Thursday accepted to extend the 4pm deadline at the recommendations of the Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América (ALBA). to delay taking action. Costa Rica announced last night that it would give its northern neighbour another 24 hours to remove its troops from the Isla Calero, the small piece of land on the south side of the San Juan river, which Costa Rica claims its own. The decision to delay is aimed at buying time for the politician on...

You would think that military professionals would rely on something other than Google Maps in determining where countries have their borders. However, down in Central America, there's apparently been something of an international incident, after a Nicaraguan military commander, using Google Maps as his guide, brought his troops into Costa Rica. He insists that he was just following what Google Maps said, and that he never intended to go into the neighboring country. Yet... the report also notes that there was a Costa Rican flag there, which the Nicaraguans took down and replaced with their own flag. You would think,...

A Nicaraguan diplomat was found dead in his Bronx apartment with his throat slashed yesterday when his driver came to pick him up for the UN General Assembly meeting, police sources said. The body of Cesar Mercado, 34, was found shortly after 10:30 a.m. when his driver opened the door of his Grand Concourse apartment and saw him on the floor in a pool of blood, cops said. Investigators are probing the possibility that the killing was caused by a gay relationship gone wrong, police sources said. The sound of men arguing was heard in the apartment before the murder,...

A senior Nicaraguan diplomat in New York has been found dead with his throat slashed as world leaders gathered in the city for the UN General Assembly's annual meeting. Cesar Mercado, 34, who has been based in New York for eight years, was found in his apartment in the Bronx when his driver came to pick him up. The driver discovered the door closed but not locked and the diplomat's body lying just inside the blood-spattered flat, police said. An NYPD spokesman said: "The knife was found on the floor next to him." Police were trying to establish a possible...

New York City police say a Nicaraguan diplomatic official was found dead in an apartment with his throat slit. Police say the 34-year-old man was found by his driver at about 10:15 a.m. Thursday.

I will be handling this thread on a temporary basis only, and as time and health permits. You people are used to - and deserve - more. Hopefully, someone more qualified will step up and take this over. :) References: Official Survivor site at CBSWikipedia articleSurvivor: Nicaragua is the 21st season of Survivor. It will moving to Wednesday nights this season. In fact, it begins tonight, September 15, 2010, 8/7c. The theme this season will be Young vs Old. The players will include a former NFL coach (Jimmy Johnson) and an amputee triathlete champion (Kelly Bruno). From Wikipedia:Survivor host Jeff...

Get ready to see football coaching superstar Jimmy Johnson in his underwear. Johnson, 67, says he spent a lot of time on "Survivor: Nicaragua" in his undies because he got tired of being in his wet, smelly clothes.

Legendary football coach Jimmy Johnson, known as much for his perfectly combed hair as he is for racking up wins, is among the castaways on CBS' "Survivor: Nicaragua."

"Gaza flotilla: 2 dead, dozens injured in navy boarding." By JPOST.COM STAFF AND YAAKOV KATZ 05/31/2010 07:00 SNIPPET: "Passengers tried to wrest weapons from soldiers, Army Radio reports; Turkish leadership in emergency meeting to discuss response to attack at sea. Passengers tried to grab weapons away from soldiers boarding the Gaza protest flotilla, starting the violence, Army Radio reported Tuesday morning, responding to accusations that Israeli commandos assaulted the ships guns blazing."

The head of the Sandinista Government in Nicaragua protected one of the world’s top drug barons and helped him to establish trafficking routes through the country, a former high-ranking officer has claimed. During the 1980s Daniel Ortega, the revolutionary leader and current President, gave Pablo Escobar, the head of Colombia’s Medellín cartel, access to drug corridors as well as sanctuary and a military guard, according to the allegations. Cuba and Panama, then led by Fidel Castro and Manuel Noriega, are also said to have participated in the deal, with Panama acting as a financial and money-laundering centre and Cuba protecting...

SNIPPET: "President Chávez also announced during the visit that Venezuela is working on a preliminary plan for the construction of a “nuclear village” in Venezuela with Iranian assistance so that “the Venezuelan people can count in the future on this marvelous resource for peaceful purposes.” The transfer of Iranian nuclear technology from Iran would be a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions - 1737 (2006), 1747 ( 2007), and 1803 (2008) - that imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear technology transfers. In late September 2009, comments by Venezuelan officials offered conflicting information about Iran’s support for Venezuela’s search for uranium deposits....

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...

Note: Contact info deleted by me. # Note: The following text is a quote: Secretary Napolitano Designates 11 New Countries as Eligible for H-2a and H-2b Nonimmigrant Visa Programs Release Date: January 22, 2010 For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano this week designated 11 new countries as eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B nonimmigrant visa programs, which allow U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary or seasonal jobs for which U.S. workers are not available. The 11 newly designated countries—Croatia, Ecuador, Ethiopia,...

Concern is mounting that the US government is using antiterror laws - namely, the Patriot Act - to revive a now-discredited practice common during the cold war: the prevention of foreign intellectuals who are critical of administration policies from entering the country and sharing their views with Americans. The practice, called ideological exclusion, became illegal in 1990. But a recent lawsuit - brought by the American Association of University Professors, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the PEN American Center under the Freedom of Information Act - is asking the Bush administration to explain its decisions to revoke or deny...

The Argentinean prosecutor who ferreted out Iranian links to Argentina's largest terror attack warned Wednesday of Teheran's growing terror network in Latin America. "The Iranians are moving fast," assessed Alberto Nisman, who has secured Interpol backing for the arrest of several Iranians, including former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, for ordering the July 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community offices in Buenos Aires. "We see a much greater penetration than we did in 1994." He said that Iran, particularly through Lebanese proxy Hizbullah, has a growing presence in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, using techniques it honed in Argentina before the...

With U.S. policymakers distracted by the situation in Honduras, Nicaragua continues to move toward authoritarianism. On October 19, a Nicaraguan Supreme Court panel overturned a constitutional provision limiting presidents to two non-consecutive terms in office. The ruling will allow incumbent Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega--the Sandinista party leader, former Soviet client, vociferous critic of the United States, and current Hugo Chávez acolyte--to run for another term in 2011. If there were any doubts that Nicaraguan democracy is slowly being extinguished, this latest development should remove them. The Nicaraguan Supreme Court is composed of 16 members. Thanks to a political deal made...

MANAGUA – An arsenal of military weaponry seized over the weekend in the province of Matagalpa belonged to a cell of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, Nicaraguan authorities said Monday. The National Police said Monday in a communique that the arsenal – including 58 assault rifles, two mortars, 10 grenades, 30 sticks of TNT and 19,236 rounds of ammunition – “were being transported by members of the Sinaloa cartel” in a pickup truck with Nicaraguan plates. The shipment of arms, ammo and explosives was confiscated on Sunday in a joint operation involving the police and the army, the statement said. The...

Nicaragua's President on Monday urged Latin American peoples to unite in order to force the removal of airbases in Colombia that the U.S. military intend to use. President Daniel Orgeta, a main ally to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, announced that the greatest struggle for Latin American countries was to "make dissappear once and for all ... the military bases that threaten the sovereignty, integrity and peace of our people." Ortega denounced the recent Colombia - U.S. military agreement (which he believes to have been initiated by the George W Bush administration) as the greatest threat to Colombia and Latin American...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- With just 300 or so Muslims in all of Nicaragua, it became an instant mystery here when a big new mosque suddenly seemed to spring up recently in a residential neighborhood. Like, who paid for it?

SNIPPET: "Lula and Chavez have established a "strategic relationship," and recently agreed upon a joint Brazilian-Venezuelan oil venture worth billions of dollars. Lula and Chavez have joined with Daniel Ortega, the returned Nicaraguan Marxist dictator, to form an anti-U.S. Latin American military alliance - all with Russian assistance - funded by the region's abundant oil reserves. Brazil is engaged in its own arms build-up and Lula is determined that Brazil will become at least a first-rate regional power. Unfortunately, Lula is establishing Brazil as an anti-American military power by aligning with nations hostile or potentially hostile to the U.S. Lula...