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@mrubin1971Two news stories from recent weeks, if true, should raise a red flag in the United States that Iran is preparing to use Hezbollah to strike at U.S. interests in Latin America, if not in the United States itself.First, this story from the Lebanese news portal Naharnet and sourced in part to Israeli radio. The Naharnet story was taken down shortly after it appeared: Hezbollah is using a training base established by Iran in northern Nicaragua near the border with Honduras, the Israeli radio reported on Thursday [September 6]. “The area is cordoned off and there are around 30 members...

Paraguay's ousted President Fernando Lugo has broken cover to accuse the country's Congress of carrying out a "parliamentary coup d'etat" to force him from power. In his first public appearance since his impeachment on Friday over a deadly land dispute earlier this month, Mr Lugo, 61, attacked Congress for its decision but said he would accept it in the name of peace. "Lugo has not been dismissed; democracy has been dismissed. They have not respected the popular will," he said at a street protest attended by about 500 people in the capital Asuncion. He called his impeachment "unjust" and called...

It’s hard to uphold a reputation as a devoutly religious terrorist group if you make millions selling cocaine. Just ask Hezbollah. Last month, the US government filed suit against a number of American and Lebanese businesses that allegedly helped bankroll the Lebanese terrorist group. The civil indictment in Manhattan blew the lid off a vast criminal network that included money-laundering, cocaine deals and more — including 30 US car dealerships that helped the group launder cash. As one investigator quipped, Hezbollah is the “Gambinos on steroids.” The indictment charges Hezbollah kingpin Ayman Joumaa with smuggling more than 100 tons of...

Paraguayan national dress (background -here-) More/video/links at Reaganite Republican ______________________________________________________ Metro.co.uk   BeautyContestUpdate   iwantmysandwich   Missology   Miss Universe

Bishop Claudio Silvero says the devices are "accursed and tools of sin".... [SNIP] ....mobile phones ease access to pornography and aid in "inappropriate relations." He says about 40 percent of Christian families suffer damage "because of the bad use of cellular phones and the Internet." His campaign is not shared by many in the church. Cell phones are common among Vatican officials and the church has produced some of its own applications for them.

Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler said that the Paraguay shower fall that knocked his teeth out and cut his face was caused by food poisoning not a drug relapse, in a TV interview Thursday. The veteran rocker, who has spoken openly about his drug and alcohol problems in the past, told NBC's "Today" show that he blacked out in an Asuncion hotel shower because he was suffering "Montezuma's revenge" not because he had fallen off the wagon. "Quite frankly I just passed out,"

ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — Organizers say an Aerosmith concert in Paraguay will be postponed one day after singer Steven Tyler fell in his hotel bathroom, hitting his face and breaking two teeth. Garzia Group spokesman Marcelo Antunez is calling the accident "minor" and...said the 63-year-old singer was "once again in the Bourbon hotel" recovering for the concert.

NEW YORK (AFP) – A dual US-Lebanese citizen has been extradited from Paraguay and charged with supporting Lebanon's Hezbollah militant force, US officials said Friday. Moussa Ali Hamdan, 38, appeared in court in Philadelphia following his extradition and has been charged with providing "material support to Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization," the federal prosecutor's office in Pennsylvania said in a statement. Hamdan was arrested by Paraguayan authorities June 15 on suspicion of supporting terrorism and was subsequently handed over to US custody. He is accused in the United States on 28 counts including conspiring to supply Hezbollah with proceeds...

(CNSNews.com) - Amid growing concern about the illicit drug trade across the U.S.-Mexico border, the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas have been linked to South American drug trafficking organizations–and the money Hezbollah and Hamas make from narco-trafficking is used to finance their organizations, according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS). “International terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, have also reportedly raised funding for their terrorist activities through linkages formed with DTOs in South America, particularly those operating in the tri-border area (TBA) of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina,” stated CRS in an April 30 report. As evidence that Hezbollah and...

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....

SNIPPET: "In recent years, U.S. concerns have increased over activities of Hezbollah and the Sunni Muslim Palestinian group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) in the tri-border area (TBA) of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, which has a large Muslim population. The TBA has long been used for arms and drug trafficking, contraband smuggling, document and currency fraud, money laundering, and the manufacture and movement of pirated goods." SNIPPET: "This article is an edited portion of a longer January 25, 2010 CRS report, Latin America: Terrorism Issues (PDF) prepared by Mark P. Sullivan, Specialist in Latin American Affairs for the Congressional Research Service...

"Now Arizona has more than one war in our backyards MY OPINION: Hezbollah using drug routes" By Lionel Waxman, Inside Tucson Business Published on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 SNIPPET: "For years, I have been warning that the Mexican drug war will sweep over Southern Arizona if we don’t close the border. Well now the war is here. But today, I am writing to warn you of another war. It is using the drug routes but it isn’t connected to the cartels. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese group, is on its way to involving Tubac, Tucson, Phoenix and other parts of Arizona...

SNIPPET - quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Concepcion (Paraguay) Security Incidents CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Americas - Paraguay 23 Apr 2010 U.S. Embassy Asuncion released the following Warden Message on April 23: This Warden Message alerts U.S. citizens residing or traveling in Paraguay to recent security incidents in the Department of Concepcion. On April 21, 2010, four people were murdered in rural Concepcion. The Government of Paraguay suspects the involvement of the Paraguayan People's Army (EPP), a nascent insurgent group responsible for a number of high profile kidnappings, bombings and other...

Note: The following text SNIPPET is a quote: SEVEN CHARGED FOR ILLEGAL EXPORT OF ELECTRONICS TO U.S. DESIGNATED TERRORIST ENTITY IN PARAGUAY February 19, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jeffrey H. Sloman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of Investigations, John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, Harold Woodward, Director of Field Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Michael Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, Department of Commerce (DOC), Adam J. Szubin, Director, Department of the...

Paraguay named an undocumented U.S. immigrant to run its consulate in New York, discovering his illegal status only when the man returned home to get his diplomatic papers and was denied a U.S. visa. Paraguay's foreign ministry acknowledged Wednesday that it was a mistake to name Augusto Noguera as the consulate's "first official," but said President Fernando Lugo annulled the decision as soon as he was informed of the U.S. Embassy's visa denial. Vice Foreign Minister Manuel Maria Caceres told The Associated Press that the decision to name Noguera as a diplomat on Sept. 21 was made in good faith...

RIO DE JANEIRO — A massive power failure blacked out Brazil's two largest cities and other parts of Latin America's biggest nation for more than two hours late Tuesday, leaving millions of people in the dark after a huge hydroelectric dam suddenly went offline. Paraguay was also affected when the Itaipu dam straddling the two nations' border stopped producing 17,000 megawatts of power, resulting in outages in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and at least several other big Brazilian cities, Brazilian Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao said. The cause of the failure had not been determined, but Lobao said...

Here is a video report on a premature baby boy weighing just over one pound (500 grams) in Paraguay who was pronounced dead at a hospital, but who "woke up" as he was taken from a box to be placed in preparation for his own wake! When the baby was removed from the box, he began to cry and move his arms and legs. The family both overjoyed and angry. Officials are investigating to see how this could happen. Doctors pronounced the boy dead and signed his death certificate as well. Wouldn't that be some king of a surprise! ....

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's federal police have arrested a high-ranking al Qaeda operative in Sao Paulo and are keeping him under tight security, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday. The suspect is allegedly a chief of international communications for al Qaeda, according to the report in Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil's largest daily newspaper. The report did not give the suspect's name or say when he was taken into custody, nor did it provide a source for the information. The arrest was surrounded by secrecy with the federal police disguising it as part of an investigation into neo-Nazi groups in...

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...

Spanish experts have found in Paraguay the oldest evidence of the presence of man dating back more than 5,000 years. The find was made during the course of an investigation being conducted into the heritage of the Pai Tavytera Indians. The remnants of ancient man's presence - which were not specified - were found in a hill known as Jasuka Venda by a team from the Altamira Museum, which is responsible for looking after the same-named cave containing the famous Upper Paleolithic cave paintings. The museum will present details of the Paraguay find at the International Congress on Cave Art...