Free Republic

Early on the morning of March 16th, 1984, William Buckley left for work at the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Officially, Mr. Buckley, a decorated veteran of the Special Forces, served as the political officer at the embassy. In reality, however, Mr. Buckley was the embassy’s CIA station chief. On his way to the compound, Buckley’s car was stopped by a group of masked men, who forced him from his car at gunpoint. His assailants would later be identified as terrorists from the group Islamic Jihad, which served as an alias for the real perpetrators, Hezbollah. The circumstances surrounding the...

The waters in the Caribbean and around Latin America for a long time have provided a path for illicit drugs to flow into the United States, but the U.S. Navy has increased its patrols in the region now looking for something else – Hezbollah terrorists, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. The Navy, in trolling for mini-submarines sometimes used to transport drugs, has discovered that some of them apparently are being operated by Hezbollah. The mini-subs are small semi-submersibles, made of fiberglass and capable of carrying up to four people plus a payload. They are popular with...

(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...

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...

Homeland Security: Duncan Hunter got the number wrong but the problem right in Tuesday's GOP presidential debate. We need to worry about al-Qaida in Iraq but also about al-Qaida and Hezbollah in the Americas. The long-shot congressman from San Diego tried to make the point that border security isn't just about people coming into this country looking for a better life, but also people possibly coming across looking to end our way of life as we know it. Hunter has stated that last year some 155,000 illegals were caught coming into this country classified as OTMs (other than Mexicans). In...

CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay - The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia has taken root in South America, fostering a well-financed force of Islamist radicals boiling with hatred for the United States and ready to die to prove it, according to militia members, U.S. officials and police agencies across the continent.

By LTC Joseph Myers and Patrick Poole 28 April 2006: From the Article: "It is too early to predict how the current diplomatic crisis over Iran’s nuclear weapons program will play out, but Americans should assume that any potential military hostilities could result in Hezbollah striking American interests across the globe and here in the US Homeland. Possibly the Iranian ayatollahs may decide that preemptive Hezbollah suicide attacks against America might serve as a deterrent to U.S. military action against their nuclear facilities. A strategic wave of Hezbollah suicide bombings, and well coordinated military attacks in America could very well...

Each year thousands of tourists are drawn to the beauty of Iguacu Falls in an undeveloped area of South America where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet: the Tri-border region. But CBS News correspondent Trish Regan reports that a large, influential Arab population flourishes in the area. Many of them are reaping huge profits in a variety of illegal activities. Members of the American military have charged that the region harbors radical Islamic terrorists, and that the area is a growing threat to U.S. security interests. Millions of dollars flow through these streets every year — and basically nothing is done...

Last week, Voices Magazine published a story about a "new" illegal immigration problem the U.S. Border Patrol is experiencing – as if this overworked, understaffed and much-maligned thin, green line of professional men and women needed another immigration-related dilemma. According to the report, the USBP says there has been a dramatic increase in the number of OTMs – other than Mexicans – being apprehended along the U.S. southwest border. In all of 2003, the patrol says its agents caught 39,000 OTMs, but already this year that figure has climbed to more than 85,000 – more than double two years ago....

"This shows that FARC is working throughout Latin America to revive the socialist ideal," said Luis Villamarin, a retired colonel of the Colombian army who fought FARC forces for 25 years. More than exporting criminal skills to neighboring countries, Col. Villamarin said, FARC is attempting to "internationalize their efforts by sponsoring socialist revolution throughout the Southern Cone." "For a couple of years, they have been in a period of retreat with the idea being to avoid pitched battles and open conflict, moving their leadership deep into the jungle," said Adam Isacson, senior associate of the Center for International Policy in...

Brazil said recently that it will bolster policing of its part of the Triple Border Area with Paraguay and Argentina. The move is welcome, if overdue. The Triple Border Area has long been identified as a fund-raising, training and procurement haven for diverse terrorist groups, including al Qaeda and Hezbollah. Brazil's federal police said last week that they have established a new unit and will increase river and air patrols in the area. Authorities said they will combat drugs and arms smuggling, but adhering to a traditional state of denial, they did not mention terrorism. Still, terrorist groups would be...

Dot # 1: A Growing Threat in the Tri-Border Area of South America. (Terrorist and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of South America. A Report Prepared under an Interagency Agreement by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, July 2003.) There is currently no effective surveillance or containment of these terrorist activities. Dot #2: Increased Terrorism in northern Venezuela Dot #3: Illegal Immigration at the Southern Border…Not Just Hispanics, Anymore. Can the purpose of this re-enforcement be other than an Arab terrorist plan to mount major attacks on numerous targets throughout North America? Such imaginative terror masterminds...

Situated between Argentina and Brazil, the sprawling Iguazu waterfalls are among the most popular tourist destinations in South America, with nearly 2 million visitors flocking annually to witness their extravagant beauty. In recent years, however, the area surrounding the falls has also attracted a far less savory element. In the shadow of the Iguazu lies the “tri-border” region, a lawless zone which has become a magnet for Islamic terrorists. Located where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet, the area is home to roughly 20,000 Middle Eastern immigrants—mostly from Lebanon and Syria—and has long been a hotbed for terrorist fundraising, arms and...

One Coin, Two Sides <>P> By Greg Buete Published 01/03/2003 Deep in South America two terror fronts are colliding. While fundamentally dangerous apart together they are capable of producing terror attacks against the West in both greater magnitude and frequency than ever before. The region is called the Triple Border. It is a lawless region between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil that supports a community of 30,000 Muslims, many of them radical expatriates of the Lebanese civil war and aligned with Hezbollah. As Jeffery Goldberg of the New Yorker discovered, Hezbollah, an Iranian backed Lebanese terrorist group responsible for over 300...

<p>When Colombian President Alvaro Uribe dared to say, in a September speech, that some "human rights" groups in this country are actually fronts for terrorists, local and international leftists took great umbrage.</p> <p>Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, who has a well-known soft spot for the Latin left, delivered a pious lecture: "It's imperative that the administration continue to impress on [Mr. Uribe] the importance of democratic values, such as the respect for human rights and free speech."</p>

Revealed: the South American connection (Filed: 09/11/2003) A lawless frontier is helping to finance Arab extremists. Philip Sherwell reports from Ciudad del Este, Paraguay They work from dawn until dusk on the traffic-clogged Friendship Bridge that runs across the Parana River between the seedy Paraguayan city of Ciudad del Este and its neighbour, Foz do Iguacu in Brazil. By foot, bicycle and motorcycle or packed into cars, vans and buses, the people known as "ants" criss-cross the bridge several times a day with sacks and boxes laden with counterfeit cigarettes, pirated CDs and computer software and fake designer clothes. For...

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Brazilian police confirm that suspected al-Qaida terrorist Khalid Shaikh Mohammed visited their country in the 1990s, and U.S. intelligence suggests that he may have hidden out in the region. Mohammed's visit — the first confirmed al-Qaida presence in South America — renews fears that Osama bin Laden's organization may have sleeper cells in South America. There have been numerous unconfirmed reports of al-Qaida training camps on Paraguay's border with Brazil. When he was apprehended in Pakistan on March 1, Mohammed was one of the world's most sought-after suspected terrorists. Dubbed the field general of al-Qaida,...