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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...

SNIPPET - quote: Dissemination *_is_* collection I always get a kick out of people who tell me I give away intelligence for free. What I do is watch how information moves. Keep in mind that the subject covered on this site are pretty darn esoteric by most standards. What kind of people, for example, even know who Oussama Salhab is? Answers include: Oussama Salhab, his family, friends, associates in and out of Hizballah, people he does business with, spies of various nations, etc. Yep. The barn is free, and so is the food.

"Spectacular find" includes gold, jewels, and a small army of likely sacrifices. Newfound tombs in Central America are yielding thousand-year-old gold, gems, and even hints of murder by pufferfish. But the real treasure is the excavation's clues to the unnamed civilization of the so-called golden chiefs of Panama, archaeologists say. "It's really a very spectacular find. ... probably the most significant" for this culture since the 1930s, when the nearby Sitio Conte site, also in central Panama, yielded a wealth of gold artifacts, anthropologist John Hoopes said. Until now, Sitio Conte provided the only major evidence of the golden-chiefs culture,...

Former military strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega was flown home to Panama on Sunday to be punished once again for crimes he committed during a career that saw him transformed from a close Cold War ally of Washington to the vilified target of a U.S. invasion.

A French court has granted a request by Panama to send Manuel Noriega back home, where he is wanted for crimes committed during his 1983-1989 rule. The former Panamanian military leader is currently serving a prison sentence in France for money laundering. Prior to that, he spent 20 years in prison in the US after being convicted there of drug-trafficking charges. Noriega is likely to return before the end of the year to Panama, where courts have already convicted him in absentia.

Somebody forgot to tell Panama about the eurozone crisis. While the rest of the world is slowing, its economy is set to expand by 10 per cent this year and 7.5 per cent next. And those are real figures, as Finance Minister Frank de Lima told beyondbrics. In the nominal terms most people use, those numbers hit the teens. Few countries, perhaps none, can match that. The canal is responsible for most of this growth. Indeed, since the country took it over in 1999, Panama’s economy has tripled in size. That remarkable performance is because Panama runs the canal more...

His burial at sea in full armour and in a lead casket was designed to ensure that no one – but especially the Spanish – would find his body. Now, more than 400 years after Sir Francis Drake's death in the Caribbean, the great seafarer's watery grave may be close to being discovered. A team of treasure hunters led by an American former basketball team owner claims to have discovered two ships from Drake's fleet lying on the seabed off the coast of Panama. The 195-ton Elizabeth and 50-ton Delight were scuttled shortly after the naval hero's death from dysentery,...

Why did the White House cancel a Rose Garden bill-signing for the Free Trade Agreements, opting instead for a behind-closed-doors event? On Tuesday, the White House issued a press release announcing that “On Friday, October 21st, President Obama will sign the Korea, Panama and Colombia Free Trade Agreements and the renewal of Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers in the Oval Office before making remarks in the Rose Garden. In his remarks, President Obama will underscore that these trade agreements will significantly boost American exports, support tens of thousands of American jobs and protect labor rights, the environment and intellectual property....

All across America there are cities and towns that were once prosperous and beautiful that are being transformed into absolute hellholes. The scars left by the long-term economic decline of the United States are getting deeper and more gruesome. The tax base in many areas of the nation has been absolutely devastated as millions of jobs have left this country. Hundreds of cities are drowning in debt and are desperately trying to survive. Last year, city government revenues in the United States fell by another 2.3 percent. That was the fifth year in a row that we have seen...

Congress approved free trade agreements Wednesday with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, ending a four-year drought in the forming of new trade partnerships and giving the White House and Capitol Hill the opportunity to show they can work together to stimulate the economy and put people back to work. Republicans criticized Obama for taking several years to send the agreements, all signed in the President George W. Bush administration, to Congress for final approval. Many among Obama's core supporters, including organized labor and Democrats from areas hit hard by foreign competition, were unhappy that the White House was espousing the...

“...The US currently has one of the strongest and fastest growing biotech and pharmaceutical industries in the world. Weakening of IP rights not only is detrimental to the economy, but also puts the public’s health and safety at risk. Drugs being researched and manufactured today have been proven effective against life threatening diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis and diabetes due to reliable patent laws that encourage innovation. Research and development is very expensive, and companies need to have an incentive to keep inventing life-saving drugs. Any trade agreement negotiated by the United States must include an IP chapter that provides...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly a dozen Republican senators on Wednesday urged President Barack Obama to quickly send Congress three long-delayed trade deals that they said would help put Americans back to work. "If the president really cares about jobs, he will send up the agreements immediately," Senator Rob Portman told reporters, referring to deals with South Korea, Panama and Colombia signed more than four years ago. With Obama set to outline his ideas for reducing high U.S. unemployment in a speech on Thursday night, Senator Mike Johanns urged the president to announce that he will send the pacts to Congress...

According to the White House, President Obama has been huddling with advisers on a jobs plan he’ll present to Congress this week. One thing he could do immediately is finalize the free-trade deals with Colombia, South Korea and Panama that have been languishing on his desk. For nearly three years, Republicans and a number of Democrats have been calling on the president to approve these deals to create a level playing field with America’s competitors overseas, vastly expand the market for U.S. goods, strengthen our ties with three important allies and create jobs for Americans. Yet the deals have been...

A group of US archaeologists may have uncovered a section of hull and coral-covered chests that privateer Henry Morgan lost during his 1671 raid of Panama. The team from Texas State University is led by underwater archaeologist Frederick Hanselmann. He led last year's discovery of cannons at the mouth of the Chagres River that may also have belonged to five ships Morgan is believed to have lost. The team have been working slowly to uncover the wreckage of the ship that has been buried in the sand. "When we get to an archaeological site, like a shipwreck that has a...

Sitting in the Oval Office with Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, President Obama praised the “historical relationship” between their two countries and promised greater cooperation and communication on free trade and battling an illicit drug market. “We’re confident that a free-trade agreement between our countries will create jobs here in the United States,” Obama told reporters. “It will also be good for Panama.” Obama said they’re continuing cooperation on the “constant problem” of the drug trade. And he said that the more Panama can help showcase the success of the free market, democracy and security to its neighbors, “the more successful...

I have not found any English language sources regarding this patriot of Panama. Freepers everywhere would have loved to meet a real man. One who stood up to Manuel "Pizza Face" Noriega and you may recall his famous photo wearing a blood stained shirt fighting off a kid. That kid was one of Noriega's goons. And yes, "Billy" told me that he clocked the kid but good. Truly a remarkable man and life. One morning, he actually flipped the bird to one of Noriega's helicopter gunships hovering right outside his apartment in the Paitilla neighborhood of Panama City. They couldn't...

President looks ridiculous ignoring Colombia and Panama on Latin America tripWhen President Obama begins his tour of Latin America on Friday, two countries will be conspicuously missing from his itinerary: Colombia and Panama. Although Mr. Obama plans to swing by Brazil, Chile and El Salvador, he opted not to schedule visits to a pair of nations he claims are important partners in his plan to double U.S. exports by 2015. Their absence on his schedule is disappointing - but no surprise. Five years ago, the United States negotiated free-trade agreements with Colombia and Panama, and Mr. Obama has called for...

Geopolitics: America's string-along -and-dither policy on a free-trade pact with Colombia is not only costing U.S. firms; it's exacting a strategic price. China is now exploiting the void with a dry canal at a strategic choke point. A decade ago, military analysts worried about what the final handover of the Panama Canal in 2000 might mean if Chinese companies got a foothold there. Some did, setting up warehouses. Today, something much more dramatic is happening. China's Development Bank is prepared to splash out $7.6 billion to build a whole new railroad "dry canal" on the Colombian side of the isthmus...

MIAMI – A suspected al-Qaida operative who lived for more than 15 years in the U.S. has become chief of the terror network's global operations, the FBI says, marking the first time a leader so intimately familiar with American society has been placed in charge of planning attacks. Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, has taken over a position once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Miami-based FBI counterterrorism agent Brian LeBlanc (said). That puts him in regular contact with al-Qaida's senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden... Shukrijumah and two others were part of an "external operations council" that designed and approved...

Two men from Pakistan and Sri Lanka were held without bail Friday on charges that they smuggled Middle Easterners into the United States through third countries for $20,000 each. Iqbal Munawar and Chelliah Sri Kajamukam were arrested late Thursday at Miami International Airport on charges filed in New York, federal authorities said.They made federal court appearances Friday and were ordered to return to court for bond hearings Thursday.An Indian businessman led the smuggling ring, which illegally flew people to Miami and New York and carried them to the United States by boat, FBI agent Timothy Ryan wrote in a court...

Suspected Terrorist Arrested In Florida Iqbal Munawar Arrested In Alleged Immigration Scheme UPDATED: 3:25 p.m. EDT September 14, 2002 MIAMI -- Iqbal Munawar, who was on the FBI's list of suspected terrorists, was jailed as he tried to fly from Miami to Tampa, Fla., Friday morning. Munawar and two other men have been charged with smuggling illegal aliens from the Middle East into the United States on airplanes through Miami International Airport and John F. Kennedy Airport. The suspects are accused of making more than $100,000 in the smuggling operation, selling more than 1,000 false visas to illegal immigrants. Miami-Dade...

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...

It was the biggest event in our planet's history since the extinction of the dinosaurs.Three million years ago, the Americas collided. The creation of the Panama Isthmus - the narrow land bridge that joins the two continents - wreaked havoc on land, sea and air. It triggered extinctions, diverted ocean currents and transformed climate. Now a multi-billion dollar project to widen the Panama Canal is set to reveal new secrets about the event that changed the world. Panama is a tiny country, but in a perfect location. > The formation of the Panama Isthmus, however, did not only affect the...

NOTE The following text is a quote: August 06, 2010 ICE removes man after investigating a terroristic threat on Metro in January Convicted murder who escaped from jail abroad returned to Panamanian law enforcement WASHINGTON, D.C. - A Panama man convicted of murder in his native country was returned Thursday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Juan Alberto Barrera-Candelaria, 36, illegally entered the United States in 2008 after he escaped from a Panama detention center where he was being held to serve a more than 13 year sentence for murder. In January 2010, ICE special agents assigned to the FBI's...

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) - First lady Michelle Obama has arrived in the Florida Panhandle to meet with business and tourism leaders to discuss how the Gulf oil spill has harmed them. Obama's plane landed Monday at the new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City.

Islamic Iran / Hezbollah's roots in Brazil (& Latin America) UN approves Iran sanctions [9 Jun 2010] ... UN approves Iran sanctions. Twelve Security Council members endorse fourth round of sanctions against Tehran; Turkey and Brazil vote against proposal, Lebanon abstains; decision marks compromise between US demands, Russia's and China's conditions... http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3902831,00.html Turkey? We all know that the current Islamic party's Mr. Erdogan was looking for an excuse to go against Israel, especially since the Gaza operation, the Flotilla Jihad boat incident only helped him in his anti-Israelism campaign. Analysis: Erdogan's harsh Israel rhetoric tests ...2 Jun 2010 ... The...

An interesting clip from C SPAN shows this debate between Reagan and Buckley in 1978 over the Panama Canal treaty. Buckley for it and Reagan against it. Even more interesting is seeing both a young George Will and a young Pat Buchanan among the questioners. Also, Reagan at times turns the floor over to his military expert who is none other than the father of a certain Arizona Senator. It's not interesting to watch the debate but even more fascinating to see so many influential conservatives all at the same event, and knowing in the case of Will and Buchanan...

I have seriously been thinking of leaving the country. My hope is pretty much gone that we can turn any of this around. Who would I be staying for....to support the people who ride in the cart and don't contribute and hate this country? I'm too old for all this and if the immigration bill goes through, I totally believe all is lost. How can we pay VAT, Tax and Trade, Healthcare, Local sales taxes, income taxes, etc., etc. and survive? So overused today, but it's "non-sustainable"

A NORTH Dorset explorer has discovered evidence of an ancient water route connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Col John Blashford-Snell made the breakthrough on his recent trip to the Central American country of Nicaragua. It is believed the route, which encompasses rivers, a lake and flood plains, would be more ancient than the Panama Canal. The research focused on the strip of west-coast land separating Lake Nicaragua from the Pacific. A local fisherman told how he managed to cross the strip on a temporary lake created during wet season floods. “It seems likely that even if early cartographers did...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, Jan. 4, 2010 – After the U.S. Army invaded Panama in 1989 to oust the dictator Gen. Manuel Noriega, the country’s people went on to rebuild their lives. Army Sgt. Nicanor Garcia left his native Panama in 1989 before the invasion by the U.S. Army and didn’t return until 20 years later. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Travis Zielinski  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Twenty years after Operation Just Cause, a soldier deployed here who left Panama before the war began to live in the United States had the chance to return to his native country...

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThursday, December 17, 2009 Guyanese National Charged with Smuggling Indian Nationals to the United States A Guyanese national has been indicted on charges of conspiracy and alien smuggling in connection with her role in the smuggling or attempted smuggling of four Indian nationals to the United States. Annita Devi Gerald, aka Annita Rampersad, 52, was charged in a nine-count indictment returned yesterday by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas. Gerald was arrested by ICE special agents in Houston on Nov. 17, 2009, and has been held without...

When Islamists made their roots south of the border... Venezuela's dictator: H. Chavez that "sees" only money, oil and Anti-Americanism-Power, does "serve" the Islamic Iranian Republic well, giving out passports to anyone. From that "port" it is quite easy for an Islamic Iranian AGENT to arrive into any other Latin American country as a... "Venezuelan". A "random" different case (of a Muslim trying to "blend" into Latin America), a year ago, a Jordanian Arab that "met" a Costa Rican (Tica) girl in Spain (she vouched for him in CR, asw this man came from the area in Jordan where a...

Head Up, no link yet!

Panama agrees to host two U.S. naval bases MEXICO, September 27 (RIA Novosti) - Panama will sign before October 2009 a treaty with the United States on the opening of two U.S. naval bases on its territory, a senior Panamanian government official said on Sunday. According to Panama's La Prensa newspaper, a preliminary agreement was reached between Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during recent talks in New York. "The U.S. and Panama will sign before October 30 an agreement on the deployment of two naval bases on the pacific coast of our country to...

A slimy, glob-like creature dubbed Gollum has terrified children after it slithered out of a lake and clambered over the rocks towards them. The young teenagers were playing by the waterfront in a Panama lake near Cerro Azul when the bald beast emerged from a cave behind a waterfall. They started screaming as it shuffled out "as if to attack them". Locals told Panama news the monster was like "Gollum from Lord of the Rings". One said: "I have only seen that creature once before - and it was in the Tolkien film." But in a "desperate bid to defend...

Doctors move to Panama from the states and abroad so they can truly practice medicine. Many of the doctors you find in Panama will have been top specialists who got tired of the bureaucracy and restrictions on their ability to truly offer the best care to their patients because they were always having to think about insurance and mal-practice law suits. As a result you can get the best medical care in the world in Panama. Every specialist you can imagine is here, and many new aspects of medicine are being offered here. for example the Stem Cell Institute of...

Richard Lehman sues Panama 03-11-2009 | BUSINESS WIRE The Lucom’s legacy would give the poor children of Panama $50 million Panama Star BOCA RATON, FLORIDA. Richard Lehman, a Florida attorney who was falsely charged with murder and over a dozen other crimes in Panama for his efforts to defend a $50 million food aid donation, has filed a human rights lawsuit against the country with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Organization of American States). “Panama continues to foster an atmosphere of corruption in the legal system which has caused it to be in violation of several human rights...

(English-language translation) MIAMI - Panamanian General Manuel Antonio Noriega appealed yesterday to the United States Supreme Court as a last legal recourse to avoid his extradition to France after an appeals court ruled that he may be sent to Paris, where he faces money-laundering charges. Seventy-three-year-old Noriega, who is serving a prison sentence in Miami for allowing cocaine shipments from the defunct Medellín Colombian drug cartel to Panama, went to the nation's highest court to argue that, being a prisoner of war, he must be sent back to Panama in accordance with the Geneva Convention.

Prospective retirees: Panama wants you. The pitch? A plane ride just 21/2 hours from Miami enables the newly poor to swap a wretched retirement in the U.S. for one befitting a royal in the balmy Central American nation. Cash out! Emigrate! Feel rich! Panama—the new Florida. Spin aside, Panama is increasingly popular among retirement-age types looking to hedge against—or skip out on—the recession. The Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank that studies the movement of people around the world, says the chief factors prodding professional-class Americans to flock to Panama include its First World health care available at Third...

While President Obama partners with Hugo Chavez and the Castro Brothers to destroy Honduran democracy, all is not bad news in the region.Congratulations are in order to Panama and its new president, Ricardo Martinelli. BTW, despite what our state-run media says, Panama has not joined the Chavista countries in demanding Honduras restore it's dictator wannabe. On 1 July, The Republic of Panama will enjoy its fourth peaceful presidential transition since the overthrow of Noriega in 1989. I was there, but I didn't have anything to do with it. I did experience the pleasure of having a squad of Cubans...

Staff Half of Panama’s population of children under the age of five is in grave danger of death from malnutrition. The country’s staggering 40 percent poverty rate is one of the worst in Central America. The late Wilson Lucom reportedly left $50 million to a trust intended to aid these starving children according to a secret will revealed upon his death in 2006. Lucom’s Panamanian wife Hilda and her children from a previous marriage are contesting the will and over two years of legal haggling between the two parties has not resulted in the resolution of the case. So far...

Saturday, January 17, 2009 MINDBOGGLING CONSPIRACY BY McCAIN, OBAMA, McCASKILL, LEAHY, CLINTON AND COBURN TO CIRCUMVENT ARTICLE TWO, SECTION ONE OF THE US CONSTITUTION ********** In this article, originally posted in the blog of the same name, "Zapem" breaks a report of the history of sidestepping, skirting, and attempted Constitutional tinkering on behalf of unnatural born Citizen, John McCain -- thereby, an attempt to pave the way for Barack Obama.If one were to look at the activity on Capital Hill during the campaign, there would be no question in their minds that both McCain and Obama were sweating the “natural...

PANAMA CITY – Conservative supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli won Panama's presidential election in a landslide Sunday, promising to guide the country through the world economic crisis and an ambitious expansion of the Panama Canal. The win by Martinelli, of the opposition Alliance for Change, marked a rare center-right election triumph in a region that has seen a wave of leftist leaders. Electoral Tribunal President Erasmo Pinilla called Martinelli the "indisputable winner" after preliminary results showed him with 61 percent support and governing party candidate Balbina Herrera with 37 percent. Former President Guillermo Endara was a distant third. The winner was...

The excavation and dredging works to enlarge the Panama Canal are being carried out in different levels of execution, as part of a process that should conclude in 2014. The first dry excavation stage, has been fulfilled by almost 90 per cent. The second part of the contract, work has been executed by 60 per cent. The third is still in its initial stage. According to available reports the value of the already agreed contracts reached about 339.4 million dollars in December. The programme consists of the construction of two lock complexes, with three levels each, together with the widening...

Just two days after US President Barack Hussein Obama shared a controversial and landmark handshake with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez at the Summit of the Americas, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has released a study analyzing the flowering alliance between the increasingly anti-Western Latin America and the virulently anti-Israel Iran. The study was conducted at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC), a non-governmental organization dedicated to Israeli intelligence and terrorism issues. According to the study, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is using anti-Western Hugo Chavez as a springboard into several Latin American countries, such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, and...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/2009/nyc031909.html U.S. Announces Indictment of Heads of Colombia's D.M.G. Group for Money Laundering MAR 19 -- JOHN P. GILBRIDE, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Field Division (“DEA”), LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, RAYMOND W. KELLY, Police Commissioner of the City of New York (“NYPD”) and HARRY J. CORBITT, Superintendent New York State Police (“NYPD”) announced today the unsealing of an Indictment against DAVID EDUARDO HELMUT MURCIA GUZM�N, 28, MARGARITA LEONOR PABON CASTRO, a/k/a "Margarita Castro Pabon," 35, WILLIAM SU�REZ‑SU�REZ,...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg19.htm February 10, 2009 tg-19 Treasury Targets Financial Network of Fernando Zevallos Gonzales Washington, DC -- The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated 26 companies and 14 individuals tied to Peruvian drug kingpin Fernando Zevallos Gonzales. This financial network, based in Peru, Panama and the British Virgin Islands, is now subject to financial sanctions pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act ("Kingpin Act"). "Our action demonstrates the importance of following the changing networks of major drug kingpins, like Fernando Zevallos," said OFAC Director Adam J....

A Russian warship was set Friday to sail through the Panama Canal for the first time since World War II in a symbolic challenge to US influence in the region. The large anti-submarine ship Admiral Chabanenko is scheduled to traverse the waterway from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, the Russian embassy in Panama said. "The only time such an event took place was in 1944 during the Second World War, when four Russian submarines passed through" the canal, said the embassy in a statement. At that time, when the waterway was under...

The enigmatic phrase “natural born citizen” poses a series of problems for contemporary originalism. New Originalists, like Justice Scalia, focus on the original public meaning of the constitutional text. The notion of a “natural born citizen” was likely a term of art derived from the idea of a “natural born subject” in English law—a category that most likely did not extend to persons, like Senator McCain, who were born outside sovereign territory. But the Constitution speaks of “citizens” and not “subjects,” introducing uncertainties and ambiguities that might (or might not) make McCain eligible for the presidency.

The 2008 election cycle has been a busy one for legal disputes over the qualifications of presidential candidates, with federal cases having been filed to challenge both major candidates’ eligibility under the “natural born Citizen” clause. These cases unquestionably present vital questions of constitutional law, touching on matters of self-evident national importance. It is doubtful, however, that they are justiciable in lower federal courts. Standing requirements and the political question doctrine make it unlikely that a federal court will reach the merits in cases of the type filed to date.