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Posted on 06/02/2005 9:27:09 PM PDT by nwctwx
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Note: The following post is an exact quote:
===
===
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1416311/posts
Operation Lightning crush terrorism in Baghdad [Iraq]
Al Sabaah ^ | 2005 Jun 2
Posted on 06/04/2005 1:27:35 AM PDT by Wiz
Yesterday, security forces had arrested 165 wanted during raids in Baghdad, Karbala, Deyala, Ramadi, Mosul and Basra, some of which 92 terrorists capture in the extent of Operation Lightning. As, security fortification is taking place in Baghdad to confine terrorists and prevent them from hurting the innocent civilians. A statement issued by headquarters of Operation Lightning mentioned that Iraqi security forces had arrested 92 terrorists in different places from Baghdad and seized a Chevrolet car, a wireless set, 2 AK-47, 2 pistols and 1 RPG-7.
(Excerpt) Read more at alsabaah.com ...
Note: The following post is an exact quote:
===
===
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1416314/posts
Iraqi forces arrest 17 insurgents, find weaponry plan
Kuwait News Agency ^ | 2005 Jun 3
Posted on 06/04/2005 1:32:18 AM PDT by Wiz
BAGHDAD, June 3 (KUNA) -- Iraqi forces arrested 17 suspected insurgents in three raid attacks in Radhwaniya, Lotaifiya and Al-Mahaweel, said on Friday spokesman of Babylon police.
The source said, in a statement, Iraqi forces found hidden weapons in a fishery and arrested its owner.
Intelligence information indicated some hand-made explosives were hidden in the fishery, the spokesman Captain Muthanna Mohammed Khalid said.
(Excerpt) Read more at kuna.net.kw ...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,158580,00.html
"Rumsfeld Questions China's Military Buildup"
Friday, June 03, 2005
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "SINGAPORE — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld (search) issued a blunt challenge to China at a regional security conference Saturday, saying Beijing must provide more political freedom to its citizens and questioning its recent military buildup.
Rumsfeld said the Pentagon's annual assessment of China's military capabilities shows China is spending more than its leaders acknowledge, expanding its missile capabilities and developing advanced military technology. China now has the world's third-largest military budget, he said, behind the United States and Russia."
TREAS.GOV - U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY - From The Office of Public Affairs - JS-2164: "U.S. TREASURY DESIGNATES TWO INDIVIDUALS WITH TIES TO AL QAIDA, UBL Former BIF Leader and al-Qaida Associate Named Under E.O. 13224" (PRESS RELEASE SNIPPET: "The U.S Department of the Treasury today announced the designation of Adel Abdul Jalil Batterjee and Saad Rashed Mohammad al-Faqih for providing financial and material support to al Qaida and Usama bin Laden (UBL). The U.S. is submitting both names to the United Nations 1267 Committee, which will consider adding them to the consolidated list of terrorists tied to al Qaida, UBL and the Taliban. Batterjee and al-Faqih are not linked to each other.") (December 21, 2004)
Thanks to Jet Jaguar for the ping and the very good news. Note: The following post is an exact quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1416318/posts
Top Terror Leader Arrested in Northern Iraq
Associated Press via Yahoo! News ^ | 2005 Jun 4
Posted on 06/04/2005 2:12:23 AM PDT by Wiz
MOSUL, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi forces on Saturday arrested suspected top terror leader in this volatile northern city, police said. The Iraqi man, known as Mullah Mahdi, was detained with his brother, three other Iraqis and a non-Iraqi Arab national, following a brief clash in eastern Mosul, said Iraqi army Maj. Gen. Khalil Ahmed al-Obeidi.
Al-Obeidi said the terror suspect was affiliated with the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, one of Iraq's most feared terror groups, and links to the Syrian intelligence service.
"He was wanted for almost all car bombs, assassinations of high official, beheadings of Iraqi policemen and soldiers and for launching attacks against Multi-National Forces," al-Obeidi said.
To: Salvation; Old Sarge; JohnathanRGalt; backhoe; piasa; All
http://jreynalds.mensnewsdaily.com/blog/reynalds/2005/06/radical-islamic-cleric-calls-jews.html
Thursday, June 02, 2005
"RADICAL ISLAMIC CLERIC CALLS JEWS "MONKEYS" AND "ENEMIES OF ISLAM""
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "In a preaching tape of jailed radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza obtained by British citizen and freelance investigator Glen Jenvey, Hamza makes frequent references to Jews as monkeys and enemies of Islam.
Hamza has been in prison in the UK since May 2004, when he was held at the request of American authorities, who want him extradited to face charges of trying to build a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
Since then, Britain's Lifestyle Extra reported, Hamza has been charged in the UK with 16 offences including racial hatred and soliciting others to murder non-believers."
Posted on 06/04/2005 2:34:55 AM PDT by Cindy
Davey, i have read some place that al Qaeda has training camps in Cuba.....forgot where.
This report says that Castr supports:
ETA
Puerto Rican Macheteros
Carlos the Jackal
"Other terrorist groups not named.
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/soc.culture.cuba/browse_thread/thread/7ec3f04e27f69885/76ca192aa92d64aa?hl=en#76ca192aa92d64aa
This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.pearlfilms.com/Cuba&Terrorism.htm as retrieved on Apr 17, 2005 14:56:15 GMT.
To link to or bookmark this page, use the following url:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:NryrxxLFFbwJ:www.pearlfilms.com/Cuba%26Terrorism.htm+Could+Bin+Laden+and+Castro+Be+Working+Together%3F&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&client=googlet
Cuban
Totalitarianism
09/17/01
Having suffered such horrific, unimaginable tragedy before the eyes of the
world, as a nation, as a people, and as individuals, the US will again lead
globally by example, not only showing its might, unity, and resolve but
also tempering with irrefutable patience, deliberation, and ingenuity.
Along with any effective judicial and military responses, the other
challenge the US faces is a war of ideology. This "war", can only be "won"
with world-wide public relations efforts, fought on the moral
high-ground of legality and of human rights. To increase America's
leadership will thus require honest endeavors at resolution of existing
domestic and global, economic and social inequities. Along with
addressing issues of aggression and political injustice, only such
concurrent humanitarian initiatives will also effectively reduce the fertile
soil on which extreme fanatic terrorism has always thrived.
May God Bless America.
R.L.C.
Cuban Weapons of Mass Destruction
Cuban-Chinese Weapons Build-up
US Department of State: Patterns of
Global Terrorism (1997 & 2001)
Overview of
State-Sponsored
Terrorism
Overview of State-Sponsored Terrorism
Consistently, the Secretaries of State have
designated Cuba among the seven governments
that state sponsors terrorism: Cuba, Iran, Iraq,
Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. These
governments support international terrorism
either by engaging in terrorist activity themselves
or by providing arms, training, safe haven,
diplomatic facilities, financial backing, logistic
and/or other support to terrorists.
The US policy of bringing maximum pressure to bear on
state sponsors of terrorism and encouraging other
countries to do likewise has paid significant dividends.
There has been a marked decline in state-sponsored
terrorism in recent years. A broad range of bilateral and
multilateral sanctions serves to discourage state
sponsors of terrorism from continuing their support for
international acts of terrorism, but continued pressure is
essential.
Although there is no evidence to indicate that Cuba
sponsored any international terrorist acts in 1997. As
of 2001, it has continued to provide sanctuary to
terrorists from several different active terrorist
organizations. Castro also maintains strong links
to terrorists and to the other states that sponsor
international terrorism.
(See More Below)
NEWS HEADLINES
SPECIAL REPORT
CUBA AND THE TERROR COALITION:
The Emergence of the Terrorist International
by Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat
Center for the Study of a National Option
(with research support from Rafael Artigas and Ana Carbonell)
It was not hard to guess what common foe brought the "Supreme Leader" and the
"Comandante" together for their summit meeting in Tehran in May of this year. The
statements made by Fidel Castro during his visit to Iran are chilling when read in
light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. According to news reports, during the visit
Iranian "Supreme Leader Khamenei" assured Castro that Iran and Cuba can defeat
the US hand in hand," to which Castro agreed, adding that America was "extremely
weak today," and that "we [in Cuba] are today eye-witness to their weakness, as their
close neighbors." At Tehran University, Castro also stated to the thunderous applause
of students and faculty that " The imperialist king [USA] will finally fall," (AFP, May
10th).
Immediately afterwards the Iranian Press Service proudly proclaimed that "Iran and
Cuba reached the conclusion that together they can tear down the United States."
(IPS, May 10th)
Some have argued that Cuba's well-documented sponsorship and instigation of
international terrorism is a thing of the past, to be understood in light of the Cold War
context. However, irrefutable evidence indicates that to this day:
a) The Castro dictatorship continues to actively harbor international terrorists,
b) The Castro dictatorship continues to pursue a strategic alliance with
terrorist states so as to create an 'anti-Western'i international front, and
c) The Castro dictatorship has engaged directly in terrorist attacks and
espionage against Americans.
There has been a recent effort by the Cuban regime to forge an 'anti-Western'
front with terrorist states in the Middle Eastern region.
As recently as July 1999 Domingo Muchaustegui, a former Cuban government
official said to have exceptional information about the Cuban government,
wrote: "For U.S. interests, the closeness of the [Cuban] relationship with Iraq
and some of the more militant terrorist groups in the Middle East is troublesome.
Can Cuba be used to carry out terrorist acts against U.S. targets? Is there any
cooperation between Sadam Hussein and Castro in the development of chemical
and bacteriological weapons? What remains from the close cooperation between
Castro and the more militant terrorist groups in the region?" (University of
Miami Middle East Studies Institute, July 1999).
In May 2001 Castro undertook a round of visits to Syria, Libya, and Iran.
Speaking at Tehran University, he insisted that "...people must be informed and
awakened, they must not allow themselves to be pillaged by the West." On July
26, 2001, Castro marked another anniversary of the beginning of his revolution
by marching in Havana alongside the Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson, now a high
ranking Iranian official.
The Iran-Cuba link has long worried intelligence and security analysts in the US.
Soviet Colonel Ken Alibek, formerly second-in-command of the USSR's
bacteriological arms development program, has long insisted that the Castro
regime has such weapons at its disposal. In his book Biohazard, Alibek quotes
his former boss, General Yuri T. Kalinin, as having told him that Cuba had an
active bacteriological arms program. Former Secretary of Defense William Cohen
stated in May 1998 that: "Cuba's current scientific facilities could support an
offensive biological warfare program in at least the research and development
stage." In October 2000 Cuban vice president Carlos Lage and the Iranian vice
minister of Health inaugurated a biotechnological research and development
plant outside Tehran. Experts expressed doubts about the supposed medical
objectives of the installation, since Iran already produces 97% of the medicines
its population consumes.
It is feasible to both establish the links of the bin Laden network with the
Iranian government and to identify its common interests with the Castro
regime. Both Castro and bin Laden work hard to build a common front to bring
down the United States and to develop biological weapons of mass destruction.
In its indictment of bin Laden the Justice Department stated that the Al-Qaeda
terrorist organization under his command sought to "...put aside its differences
with Shiite Muslim terrorist organizations, including Iran and its affiliated
terrorist group Hezbollah, to cooperate against the perceived common enemy,
the United States and
its allies..."
The indictment further alleges that Al Qaeda "...also forged alliances with the
National Islamic Front in Sudan and with representatives of the government of
Iran, and its associated terrorist group Hezballah." In February 1998 Osama bin
Laden announced the creation of an "international front" against the United
States. According to a document obtained by the PBS program 'Frontline,' bin
Laden "regards an anti-American alliance with Iran and China as something to
be considered." A group of Cuban spies in Florida were recently convicted of
conspiring to murder US citizens, seeking to penetrate US military installations,
spying on members of the US Congress and providing classified information on
Miami International Airport.
But there may be more to the Castro-bin Laden connection than the Iran link.
In a March 4, 2000 story the Associated Press reported that: "A young Afghan
who trained this winter at a camp in mountainous Kunar province, in
northeastern Afghanistan, said he saw men from Chechnya, Sudan, Libya, Iraq,
Iran, Cuba and North Korea. As America prepares to build a global coalition for
a definitive assault on international terrorism it must come to grips with the fact
that the enemy is a step ahead. Policy makers, legislators and analysts must not
dismiss Cuba's insistent efforts aimed precisely at building an anti-Western
alliance, its continued support and encouragement for international terrorist
organizations, or its latent capacity for biological warfare and its propensity to
share it with other terrorist states directly linked to US enemies.
Turning a blind eye to Castro on the eve of the "first war of the 21st century,"
would be tantamount to ignoring the Nazi and Fascist alliance with Japan the
day before Pearl Harbor. An enemy is 90 miles south of Key West. And he does
not hide his hatred for us.
Cuban 'Education'
Cuban 'Journalism'
Cuba's Young Pioneers
Cuban 'Psychiatry'
Cuban Weapons of
Mass Destruction
'An Innocent Victory'
( Ithaca Journal:
06/01/00 )
Cuban-Chinese
On the bottom is a link to China supplies weapons to Cuba, you will want to read it.
This is the search that I used, LOL, your own words.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Could+Bin+Laden+and+Castro+Be+Working+Together%3F&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&client=googlet&start=10&sa=N
Weapons of Mass destruction
2002 report.........
"Let us not forget that during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Castro
sent a letter to Soviet Premier Kruschev asking him to launch
a surprise nuclear attack against the United States."
CASTRO DEVELOPS DEADLY BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
by Hal Feeney - 2002
These days a small country led by a malevolent dictator can do a
lot of damage. Aided by both Russia and Communist China, Fidel
Castro is developing sophisticated biological weapons on a large
scale and using communications technology for espionage and
interference with U.S. Air Traffic Control.
Not much information has been released by the U.S.
Government, and none by our asteemed media regarding
Castro's production of biological weapons 90 miles from our
shores -- perhaps so as not to interfere with the current proffers
to Castro of "good" relationships.
However, in May 1998 Secretary of Defense William Cohen
testified in Congress that Cuba possesses advanced
biotechnology and is capable of mass-producing agents for
biological warfare.
Former Deputy Chief of the ex-Soviet Union's biological warfare
program. Colonel Ken Alibek, documented recently to the CIA
that, concealed in Cuba's medical research complex, Castro is
carrying out a sophisticated program for high-capacity production
of germ warfare agents during the last few years. Dr. Alibek tells
us that Castro's program started in 1981 when former Soviet
Premier Brezhnev visited Cuba and arranged to help Castro with
the technology.
Recently the FBI arrested 12 Castro agents caught spying in the
United States, including military installations. Since Castro has
no real need for military data, it is quite likely that he is selling
that type of information to the Chinese, North Koreans or
perhaps Saddam Hussein. It is strangely hypocritical to rush
half-way around the world, to spend so many lives and billions of
dollars on a seemingly needless war with Iraq.
FIDEL CASTRO DEADLY SECRET
Five Bio-Chem Warfare Labs
by Martin Arostegui
Vol 14, No 26 July 20, 1998
From Insight Magazine (Washington Times)
Throughout the island, according to documents smuggled out of
Cuba and made available to Insight by Alvaro Prendes, a former
Cuban air force colonel who now is the Miami-based spokesman
for the Union of Liberated Soldiers and Officers, a pro-democracy
movement within Cuba's security services, point to continuing
Cuban support for international terrorism and drug trafficking.
They tell Insight that, according to CIA documents, Russian
specialists still operate the electronic listening station at Lourdes
on the northeast tip of Cuba which taps into U.S.
communications. During the Persian Gulf War, this station
forwarded strategic information to Iraq. Castro initiated his
chemical-weapons program in 1981 when Soviet technicians built
a plant to produce tricothecen, the main component of "yellow
rain," in an underground tunnel complex at Quimonor in
Matanzas province. The program was expanded some years later
with the construction of another chemical-weapons facility in
Pinar del Rio, where Cuban and Soviet technicians began
experimenting with mixtures of germs and toxins to produce
anthrax.
Castro's Cuba is one of the few countries in the world, who
refuses to condemn international terrorism. Here is an excerpt
from: THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Patterns of Global
Terrorism 2000 - Europe Overview
Combating terrorism, including arresting numerous ETA members
and raiding logistics and support cells. France regularly delivered
detained ETA terrorists, including several senior leaders, into
Spanish custody. Spain also secured a pledge from Mexico to
deny safe-haven to ETA members. Spain welcomed the
condemnation of ETA in November by all Ibero-American
presidents -- except Cuba's Fidel Castro, whose refusal seriously
harmed bilateral relations. (also see below)
What is America doing to protect its Southern border from this
terrorist only 90 miles from its shores? Let us not forget that
during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Castro sent a letter to Soviet
Premier Kruschev asking him to launch a surprise nuclear attack
against the United States!
Insight Magazine
This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.lanuevacuba.com/archivo/notic-02-5-2529.htm as retrieved on May 27, 2005 11:41:20 GMT.
To link to or bookmark this page, use the following url:
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LA NUEVA CUBA
CASTRO'S CONNECTIONS
By Paul Crespo*
Editor's Note:
This article first appeared in American Legion
magazine
April 2002
Sunday, May 12, 2002
NewsMax.com
La Nueva Cuba
May 25, 2002
The U.S. government's detaining of Taliban
and al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo naval
base in Cuba is supremely ironic given Fidel
Castro's long-standing support for global
terrorism.
As we continue our worldwide battle against
terrorists, this sly but significant terror
monger on our very own doorstep should not
be overlooked. Castro is a bankrupt dictator
with a decades-long history of support for
violent, anti-American terror groups,
obsessive hatred of the U.S., sophisticated
spy rings operating on our soil and a
potentially deadly biowarfare capability.
While he has not been directly linked to the
attacks of Sept. 11, considerable
circumstantial evidence ties Castro to an
international terror network that extends from
Afghanistan to the Middle East and South
America.
According to an Associated Press report, an
Afghan al-Qaeda defector reported seeing
Cubans training in camps in the Kunar
province of Afghanistan.
On Sept. 15, the government of the Cayman
Islands publicly reported that Afghan nationals
detained there in the wake of the recent
attacks reportedly transited through Cuba
carrying fake passports and suspiciously large
sums of cash, in the amount of $2 million. Two
other people, detained post-9-11 in Panama
for their possible financial connection to the
bin Laden network, were reportedly en route
to Cuba.
One story receiving widespread coverage in
the mainstream press was the scandal
involving accused Castro spy Ana Belen
Montes.
The Washington Post explained that the FBI
quickly arrested Montes (the senior Cuba
analyst at the U.S. Defense Intelligence
Agency) on Sept. 21 (after only a few short
months of surveillance) because they believed
she could pass American war plans to Castro's
intelligence service, the Directorate of General
Intelligence (DGI), which might in turn provide
them to bin Laden supporters.
Following the Sept. 11 attack, Montes
allegedly transmitted classified information to
her DGI spymasters through Cuba's mission
to the United Nations. Castro meanwhile
reportedly ordered a military alert in Cuba
and called up the reserves. Intelligence
specialists believe that Castro may have had
reasons to fear possible U.S. retaliation.
Montes is the highest-ranking American ever
accused of spying for Castro. An influential
analyst with high-level access across the
entire U.S. intelligence community, she also
had considerable input into recent Defense
Department reports minimizing the threat
from Castro's Cuba.
Cuba's agents operating in the U.S. also
include a military spy ring code-named the
"Wasp" network, uncovered in Miami. Though
the spy ring was dismissed by Castro
apologists as incompetent and irrelevant,
evidence uncovered during the trial proves
these descriptions were wrong.
The FBI has stated this ring was directly
involved in orchestrating the deliberate 1996
shoot-down of two small civilian aircraft
piloted by the Brothers to the Rescue group
over the Florida Straits (murdering three
Americans). The FBI also charges the DGI with
conducting espionage against U.S. military
and civil aviation through a network of some
300 agents operating across the continent.
Quoting federal law enforcement officials,
Insight magazine reported that "Information
which Atta's al Qaeda cells readily possessed
on flight schools, airport security and airline
flight patterns only could have been obtained
through an intelligence infrastructure already
in place." This Cuban spy ring certainly fits
that bill.
Questionable Company
The Cuban intelligence service is one of the
most effective in the world. According to one
Pentagon source, "only a highly sophisticated
espionage network," such as Cuba's, could
have cracked the code of Air Force One in
what was originally believed to have been a
breach of security that caused U.S. Secret
Service officials to fly the president out of
sight on the morning of Sept. 11.
Additionally, Martin Arostegui reported in
Insight that al-Qaeda ringleader Mohamed
Atta, who organized the Sept. 11 attacks and
crashed a hijacked airliner into the World
Trade Center, may have met secretly with
Cuban undercover agents shortly after his
arrival in the United States last year. Atta's
contacts may have also included high-level
officials of Cuba's biological warfare program.
They allegedly spoke with Atta at a Miami
motel.
Arostegui said federal investigators suspect
that one of Atta's Cuban contacts may have
been a top defense ministry officer with
personal ties to Castro. The man is thought to
have entered the United States under cover
of assignment to a Cuban-government
delegation visiting the U.S. during the Elian
saga. The Czech government has confirmed
that Atta similarly had met with Iraqi
intelligence officers in Prague (though this has
since been contested).
A Russian defector has stated that Castro
supplied critical intelligence on U.S. military
activities to Saddam Hussein during the Gulf
War – information gained through his
Soviet-built, Russian-financed signals
intelligence facility in Lourdes, capable of
eavesdropping on phone calls in Washington,
and from spies in the U.S.
Until recently, the Russians paid Castro more
than $200 million a year in much-needed hard
currency for access to Lourdes. In a surprise
move, though, Russian President Vladimir
Putin suddenly withdrew his support and
1,500 advisers from Cuba in the wake of the
attacks on Washington and New York.
Some analysts speculate that he feared
Castro may have been using the Lourdes
facility to collect intelligence later funneled to
bin Laden, Iraq and other terror groups.
Castro enjoyed having the Russian advisers
there as a shield against a U.S. attack and
was furious at their removal.
Unfortunately, China has now seemingly
supplanted the Russians as Castro's primary
electronic espionage partner and has built a
new sophisticated signals intelligence complex
in Bejucal, Cuba, operating under the cover
of Radio China.
In addition to being used for espionage, these
installations are reportedly part of a robust
cyber-warfare capability Castro is developing.
The FCC has stated they are capable of
interfering with U.S. communications and air
traffic control. The Chinese at one point also
reportedly sent a message to New York air
traffic control replicating U.S. military fight
codes and falsely identifying themselves as
U.S. military transport planes – a chilling
foretaste of things to come.
Castro the Puppeteer
Castro's current links to transnational
terrorism are all the more plausible given his
long-standing, obsessive hatred of the U.S.
and track record of support for violent radical
extremists. Despite Castro's recent
protestations of innocence, he has been an
active terrorist sponsor since the 1940s –
and in many ways spawned the current global
terror network.
In 1958 Castro expressed his passionate belief
that he was destined to lead an anti-American
crusade. ''I am going to launch another much
longer and bigger war against them. I realize
now that this is going to be my true destiny,''
he wrote to his trusted aide Celia Sanchez.
True to his word, he dispatched Che Guevera
and his terrorist mercenaries to Africa, South
America and elsewhere in the '60s.
According to various sources, Castro's terror
effort mushroomed in the '70s and '80s. As
the spearhead of the Soviet Union's global
subversion campaign, he trained, equipped
and advised an alphabet soup of terror groups
and Latin American guerrillas such as the
FMLN in El Salvador, the Sandinistas in
Nicaragua, Colombia's FARC and ELN and
Peru's Shining Path, as well as the European
Red Brigades, Carlos "The Jackal," the IRA,
the PLO and the Palestinian PLFP, among
others.
Thousands of terrorists reportedly graduated
from Cuba's training camps in Matanzas
and the Isle of Pines (otherwise known as the
Isle of Youth) and spread like a cancer
worldwide. Castro's military advisers trained
other terrorists in dozens of war-torn
countries and left a trail of blood over several
continents. Many of these groups also
conducted attacks in the U.S.
The Cuban dictator also directly supported
violent domestic U.S. terrorists such as the
radical Weathermen underground and the
Puerto Rican nationalist group Macheteros,
responsible for numerous bombings and
murders in the U.S. In 1979 and 1980,
Castro-sponsored Machetero terrorists
destroyed several U.S. Air National Guard jets
in Puerto Rico, worth over $45 million, and
later murdered two American sailors.
According to Cuban defector Jorge Masetti (a
former highly placed Cuban intelligence
officer), Castro also organized and partly
financed the 1983 Machetero robbery of a
Wells Fargo depot in Connecticut, later
providing safe haven for one of the terrorists
and receiving $4 million of the stolen $7
million via diplomatic pouch through Mexico.
Some argue that the aging Castro is now
more interested in the tourism trade than the
terror business. This is a dangerous delusion;
he is interested in both.
The Cuban dictator has never wavered in his
ideological "jihad" against America, even as he
has wooed Western investors. Following the
Sept. 11 attacks, Castro followed the lead of
hard-line Muslim leaders by blaming "this
tragedy" on "the terrorist policies of the
United States."
In recent months he has been organizing a
new "anti-Western" alliance of rogue states
(now including Chavez's Venezuela). As
recently as May 2001 Castro toured Syria,
Libya and Iran to garner support for this
effort. On May 10 in Tehran, the Iranian Press
Service reported Fidel Castro stating, "Iran
and Cuba, together, can bring America to its
knees."
Castro's aggressive, overt terror effort
continued as long as the Soviet Union
provided him cover and protection. After the
fall of the Soviet empire in the early 1990s,
however, Castro exchanged his open and
active involvement in terrorism for a more
subtle and easily disguised role as a
mentor-facilitator, intelligence provider and
safe harbor.
While Castro may no longer be running active
terror training camps in Cuba, he is still
intimately connected to the international
terror network he helped create, acting as a
critical nexus for many disparate terror
groups and rogue states. Cuba is currently
one of seven nations (along with Iran, Iraq,
Syria, Libya, North Korea and Sudan) on the
U.S. State Department list of terrorist states.
Despite a campaign in some quarters to
remove Cuba from this list, Castro's status is
very well deserved. In 2000, the State
Department reported that Cuba continued to
provide safe haven to several terrorists and
U.S. fugitives. Even since the September
attacks Castro was discovered hosting
terrorist groups such as the IRA, who are
training the Marxist guerrillas – the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) – responsible for a savage terror and
urban bombing campaign in Colombia.
There are also reportedly a small number of
Cubans currently providing support and
advice to the FARC (though their exact role is
unconfirmed), and Colombian military
intelligence has intercepted guerrilla radio
communications in which senior FARC military
commanders talk about forming an
"anti-imperialist front" to launch terrorist
attacks against targets in the United States.
Biological Warfare
Increasingly worrisome, too, is Castro's
potential chemical and biological weapons
development and proliferation. Castro has
long been suspected of hiding a
biological-chemical weapons program within
his sophisticated, Soviet-created
biotechnology industry.
In May 1998, Secretary of Defense William
Cohen testified before Congress that Cuba
possesses advanced biotechnology and is
capable of mass-producing agents for
biological warfare. High-level Cuban defectors
as well as Col. Ken Alibek, former deputy chief
of the ex-Soviet Union's biological warfare
program and author of "Biohazard," support
that assessment; others have described his
secret labs in detail.
Castro may also be exporting this capability to
his rogue friends. The Miami Herald reported
that senior Cuban officials inaugurated a new
"biotech" research plant near Tehran in
October 2000, despite reports that the
Iranians already produce almost all their
pharmaceutical needs domestically.
Castro may have exported biological and
chemical weapons to other regions as well,
specifically to the FARC in Colombia. A FARC
bomb that burned out the lungs of an entire
police garrison in the Colombian town of San
Adolfo last September reportedly contained
chlorine-based poison gas. Some analysts
believe the Cuban military may be helping
FARC develop this chemical warfare capability.
Significantly, Cuban troops are believed to
have used chemical weapons against
anti-communist guerrillas in Angola and South
African troops in the 1980s. Exchanges
between bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and
Cuban intelligence could thus also involve the
provision of chemical weapons and
"weaponized" biological strains produced by
Cuba's secret biochemical warfare facilities.
(Note: Since this article was initially published,
U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control
John Bolton has publicy confirmed that the
U.S. suspects Cuba of having a "limited
offensive biological weapons capabilty" and
may be involved in bioweapons proliferation to
rogue states.)
Castro's long-standing connections to
terrorist groups are undeniable. Numerous
indirect links to bin Laden and other terror
groups are highly suspicious. His continued
anti-American fervor, close intelligence ties to
rogue states and terrorists, and potential
biowarfare capability make him a dangerous
neighbor.
What Should the U.S. Do?
At minimum, America must warn Castro that
we will not tolerate Cuba being used as a
haven for international terrorists. The United
States would also be wise to inform China that
we will no longer allow Cuba to be used as an
intelligence collection or subversion site
against the U.S.
China must be urged to follow the Russian
example and withdraw its advisers and
technicians immediately. Additionally, the
United States should demand that Castro shut
down these facilities and allow for independent
inspection and verification.
We should also insist on inspecting all
suspected chemical/biological research –
better stated as warfare – sites on the island.
Finally, prudence dictates that rather than
consider removing Castro from the State
Department terrorist list, we should redouble
and refocus our intelligence efforts to verify
and confirm the details of Cuban complicity
with international terrorist groups.
Castro is clearly a player in this global terror
network. We need to discover quickly just
how deeply he is involved and respond
accordingly.
***
*Paul Crespo recently worked as an
international political risk and security
consultant with the Ackerman Group in
Miami. A former Marine Corps special
operations and intelligence officer, he
served in the Far East and Europe and
with the Defense Intelligence Agency. He
was also posted as a Defense and Naval
Attaché at U.S. embassies in the Balkans,
the Persian Gulf and Latin America.
He graduated from the Georgetown
University School of Foreign Service and
has master's degrees from both London
and Cambridge Universities in the U.K.
He is a member of the Council on
Emerging National Security Affairs
(CENSA).
E-mail Mr. Crespo at
pcrespo@WashingtonPartners.net.
Copyright © 1997-2002 - LA NUEVA CUBA
""The release of terrorist Ibrahim Parlak into the community is in compliance with a federal district judge's order, but it does not change the fact that an immigration judge has found Parlak deportable under our nation's immigration laws," the statement said."
Morning Ruth, thanks for the ping.
If this guy has the ability to complete his biological germs we are in big trouble. For that matter, if any of them do we are.
We can't even control killer bees and fire ants let alone a killer virus. I've always wondered about SARS and the bird flu etc. whether they were attempts that didn't spread as expected.
All they need to do is infect a few of the illegals entering our country and we're in big trouble. As it is, I just read that the coyotes who bring them in will dump them for only two reasons, one is lack of money and the other is if they are coughing up blood from tuberculosis! This country went through hard times eradicating that disease and to have it start over again because we can't control our border is outrageous!
bump! Good find!
We had some articles on the SARS bump threads that tracked SARs back to guandong China. There was also a AIDs outbreak with tainted blood at the same time.
|
Sunni clerics call for end to Operation Lightning sweep in Baghdad BAGHDAD, Iraq - An influential Sunni association called for an end to a weeklong counterinsurgency offensive in Baghdad, saying it overwhelmingly targets members of their religious minority and has led to the detention of hundreds of people. Eight people died from insurgent attacks around the country, bringing to at least 830 the number killed since the Shiite-led government took office April 28 - an average of 23 deaths a day, not counting rebels. In the past 18 months, 12,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed, including more than 10,000 Shiites, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said, citing data from a research center. But he said he figured the affiliations based on the areas where victims lived, not individual religious identifications. Army Col. Mark Milley, who commands the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, said intelligence indicated insurgents were using Baghdad's southern districts to stage attacks in the capital. U.S. and Iraqi troops swept through several southern neighborhoods Friday. Milley said 84 suspects were detained, while a ''half a dozen suspected al-Qaida cell members'' and several other fighters from Sudan, Syria, Egypt and Jordan had been captured since the operation began Sunday. ''For two years I have been suffering from these terrorists. Now it is my time,'' said Brig. Gen. Mohammed Essa Baher, an Iraqi army commander from the southern district of Mahmoudiya whose two sons had been killed by insurgents. Jabr said the sweep, known as Operation Lightning, had captured 700 suspected insurgents and killed 28 militants. Despite the government gains, violence continued throughout the country. In northern Mosul, a suicide car bomber blew himself up near a police station in the southern part of the city, killing three police officers and wounding five, police Capt. Ahmed Khalil said. A mortar attack in Tal Afar, a city about 50 miles west of Mosul, killed two Iraqi men and injured three, the police chief, Col. Ishmael Mohammed, said. Police also reported finding seven bodies in different parts of the city, identifying them as five terrorists, a police officer and a Kurdistan Democratic Party member. Sunni clerics in Baghdad took advantage of Friday prayer services to call for an end to Operation Lightning, which many Sunnis say target members of their own religious minority. Sunni Arabs are thought to make up the overwhelming majority of the insurgency. ''I appeal to every official here in Iraq to stop humiliating people and [end] the raiding campaign,'' Sheik Mahmoud al-Sumaidie said in the Um al-Qura Mosque, which also serves as the headquarters of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars. Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, has been trying to include the Sunni minority in the political process, seen as the only way to defuse the insurgency. But the incessant violence - launched by Islamic extremists to Saddam loyalists - highlights what still needs to be done to stop the killings. Among those killed Friday were a city council member in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, an Iraqi contractor in western Samarra and an Iraqi man killed by a mortar outside Baghdad's main hospital. |
|
AP: Intelligence Shows Terrorists in Iran Washington (AP) - Mounting evidence gathered over several years has U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies increasingly convinced that leading terror suspects have been living in Iran. Their existence in the Islamic republic poses an ongoing problem to top Bush administration officials, who have warned Middle Eastern countries against providing shelter or other aid to terrorists. The evidence includes communications by a fugitive mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing and the capture of a Saudi militant who appeared in a video in which Osama bin Laden confirmed he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks, according to U.S. and foreign officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because much of the evidence remains classified. Saudi intelligence officers tracked and apprehended Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harbi last year in eastern Iran, officials said. The arrest came nearly three years after the cleric had appeared with bin Laden and discussed details of the Sept. 11 planning during a dinner that was videotaped and aired across the world. The capture was a coup for Saudi Arabia, which spent months tracking him and setting up the intelligence operation that led to his being taken into custody in exchange for eventual amnesty. The officials said interrogations of al-Harbi, who is now in Saudi Arabia, have yielded confirmation of many al-Qaida tactics, including how members crossed into Iran after the U.S. began military operations to rout al-Qaida and the Taliban from Afghanistan. Al-Harbi is believed to have been paralyzed from the waist down while fighting in the 1990s alongside Muslim extremists in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and he surprised intelligence officials when he appeared in the December 2001 video with bin Laden. "Everybody praises what you did," al-Harbi said on the tape. U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies also have evidence stretching back to the late 1990s that indicates Ahmad Ibrahim al-Mughassil remains in hiding in Iran. He is wanted as one of the masterminds of the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans. Al-Mughassil, who also goes by the alias Abu Omran, has been charged as a fugitive by the United States - accused of conspiracy to commit murder in the attacks - and has a $5 million bounty on his head. U.S. authorities have long alleged that the 1996 bombing was carried out by a Saudi wing of the militant group Hezbollah, which receives support from Iran and Syria. Intelligence agencies gathered evidence, including a specific phone number, as early as 1997 indicating that al-Mughassil was living in Iran, and they have other information indicating his whereabouts. U.S. officials have not publicly discussed the Saudi capture of al-Harbi or their evidence on al-Mughassil's whereabouts, but they have increasingly raised questions about Iran's efforts to turn over other suspected terrorists believed to be under some form of loose house arrest. Nicholas Burns, State Department undersecretary for political affairs, told Congress last month that Iran has refused to identify al-Qaida members it has in custody. "Iran continues to hold senior al-Qaida leaders who are wanted for murdering Americans and others in the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings and for plotting to kill countless others," Burns said. Top administration officials have repeatedly warned Iran against harboring or assisting suspected terrorists. U.S. intelligence this week has been checking some reports, still uncorroborated as of Friday, that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's leader of the Iraqi insurgency, may have dipped into Iran, officials said. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned countries in the Middle East not to help al-Zarqawi. "Were a neighboring country to take him in and provide medical assistance or haven for him, they, obviously, would be associating themselves with a major linkage in the al-Qaida network and a person who has a great deal of blood on his hands," Rumsfeld said. The U.S. and foreign officials said evidence gathered by intelligence agencies indicates the following figures are somewhere in Iran, perhaps under some form of house arrest or surveillance: _Saad bin Laden, the son of the al-Qaida leader whom U.S. authorities have aggressively hunted since the Sept. 11 attacks. _Saif al-Adel, an al-Qaida security chief wanted in connection with the deadly 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa. _Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the chief of information for al-Qaida and a frequently quoted spokesman for bin Laden. Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East analyst at the Congressional Research Service, said it's possible that some of the suspected terrorists are being held in guarded villas, and he doubted any detention is uncomfortable. "I think that Iran sees these guys as something of an insurance policy," Katzman said. "It's leverage." Rasool Nafisi, a Middle East analyst who studies conservative groups in Iran, said Iran has returned some lower-level operatives to their home countries but probably is keeping higher-ranking operatives as a bartering chip. "Remember, Islamic tradition is very much based on haggling," Nafisi said. "If I were the Iranian government, I'd be very happy to have them and to use them in future negotiations with the United States." |
I thought you all might want to read this article that appeared in today's San Diego Union Tribune. What a way to get your blood boiling before that first cup of coffee.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050604/news_1n4texas.html
"Migrants exploiting border law for non-Mexicans"
snip
>>McALLEN, Texas – In the silvery-blue light of dusk, 20 Brazilians glided across the Rio Grande in rubber rafts propelled by Mexican smugglers who leaned forward and breast-stroked through the gentle current.
Once on the U.S. side, the Brazilians scrambled ashore and started looking for the Border Patrol. Their quick and well-rehearsed surrender was part of a growing trend that is demoralizing the Border Patrol and beckoning a rising number of illegal immigrants from countries beyond Mexico. <<
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1415532/posts?page=218#218
Good read. Thanks Kyla.
Thanks, Cal and Kyla...I just pinged it to the list. That graphic is...well...quite graphic.
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