9/11: Chavez financed Al Qaeda, details of $1M donation emerge

High-level military defectors reveal new terrorist links between Al Qaeda and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. The man who control's the largest oil reserves in the Western hemisphere gave $1 million to the world's most wanted terrorist right after the 9/11 attacks.

Hugo Chavez would not admit it publicly, but in private, he was very impressed with Osama Bin Laden's work. The Venezuelan strongman publicly rails against the United States and "neo-liberal capitalism" which, according to him, represents "hell on earth". He has never visited the White House, but has instead been to China, Libya, Iraq, and Havana, Cuba.

The doublespeak of Hugo Chavez served him particularly well in the aftermath of 9/11. When he spoke to the foreign press in the days immediately after, he assured them that he was against terrorism. But locally, in his first TV broadcast, he stated that "The United States brought the attacks upon itself, for their arrogant imperialist foreign policy."
And in private, he went further still; proclaiming admiration for the terrorist attacks.
" - With 9/11, Bin Laden showed the whole world that he was a force to be reckoned with. This impressed Hugo to no end," remembers General Pedro Pereira, the highest-ranking general in the Venezuelan airforce, who was still a Chavez loyalist in 2001.

The day after the attack, September 12, Chavez supporters publicly burned the Stars and Stripes in the main square of Caracas in an outburst of gleeful satisfaction over the attacks.
The organizer of the Plaza Bolivar protest, Lina Ron (a.k.a. "Rosa", born 9/23/59 in Anaco, Anzoátegui state), received public praise from Chavez. Unknown to the press, Lina Ninette Ron Pereira had been on the payroll of Caracas governor Hernan Gruber Odreman, ever since Chavez appointed him head of the Distrito Federal in 1999. She is still employed by Chavez, today working for Caracas borough mayor Freddy Bernal of Chavez's MVR party. There, she is in charge of a "cultural center" which mobilizes masses for pro-Chavez demonstrations and is active in breaking up opposition events.

$1M for Al Qaeda to fight against the United States
But Chavez did not stop at merely praising the attacks and having his support groups burn the American flag. He wanted to do more. He wanted to help Al Qaeda and the Taliban in their coming war against the United States.

Juan Diaz Castillo from Venezuela's Air Force, was given that job.
The private pilot of Hugo Chavez, Major Diaz Castillo has since defected and has started to talk. As the trusted insider who flew the president's Airbus, he was an eye-witness to secret meetings between Chavez and some of the top dictators in the world. He was also in charge of organizing one million dollars worth of assistance from Chavez to Al Qaeda.

" - Chavez trusted me completely. So right after 9/11, when he decided to help Al Qaeda, he turned to Jorge Oropeza and to me. Jorge was my boss in the presidential air support unit, but he is just a political appointee, so I did all the actual work."

The work, as ordered by Chavez, was to help Al Qaeda but to make it look like he was helping the Taliban, using humanitarian grounds as the excuse.

" - Initially, the plan was not to give them money. Instead, I was asked to organize a shipment of food and clothing and send it to the government of Afghanistan."
At that time, the government of Afghanistan was the Taliban. But everyone knew that the Taliban and Al Qaeda were just two sides of the same coin. The Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan had emerged as the breeding ground for terrorists and extremist groups and the largest source of opium productions and illegal flow of narcotics in the world, posing a serious threat to the peace and stability of the whole region.
" - Chavez saw in Afghanistan a mirror of what he was trying to implement in Venezuela, and wanted a more direct opening with the Al Qaeda organization," says the Major. "He had already tried to contact them once before, in Libya, but when he personally visited Tripoli, Col. Muammar Qaddafi told Chavez that there was no direct channel of communications between him and Al Qaeda."

The aid to the Al Qaeda's camps was supposed to open the channel of communications directly. It was a way of telling Osama Bin Laden that he had a friend in Hugo Chavez.

Air Force Major Diaz Castillo started planning the logistics of sending three Hercules C-130 cargo planes from Venezuela to Afghanistan. The effort would require a large investment in time and personnel, with refueling stops on the way. He came to the conclusion that to transport the cargo to the Taliban and Al Qaeda would be more expensive than the cargo itself.

Involved in the plan was Diosdado Cabello, at the time Chavez's Chief of Staff, the foreign minister and the defense minister. They had a number of meetings, among others with the director of Civil Defense. After hearing from Diaz Castillo of the difficulties with the C-130's, Diosdado Cabello then decided to instead send $1M in cash to Venezuela's ambassador for the region, Dr Walter Marquez. He would then be entrusted with bringing it to Afghanistan.
The doctor - a sinister, wheelchair-bound figure - operates out of an office located at N-114, Panchshila Park, New Delhi, in India. He received the cash in the last week of September, 2001.

When asked at the time about his involvement, Marquez confirmed that he was in charge. " - Venezuela does not have diplomatic representation in Pakistan or Afghanistan but it is within my purview."

On October 3, 2001, a representative of the Venezuelan government then contacted Kris Janowski of the UNHCR in Pakistan. The purpose: To create a cover story of humanitarian help for the Taliban, so that there would be plausible deniability in case anyone asked about the Al Qaeda money.
According to the plan, Walter Marquez would buy and transport food from New Delhi (India) or Teheran (Iran) where Venezuela has embassies.

False identities for terrorist operatives
After Walter Marquez completed his mission, the million-dollar financing bore fruit. A line of communication to Caracas opened up.

" - The handling was then taken over by Carlos Otaiza [brother of Army Captain Elieza Otaiza Castillo, former head of Chavez's DISIP secret service.] So after that, I no longer dealt with them," says Major Diaz Castillo. But from his vantage point in the presidential palace, he still saw a lot of what was going on:
" - In the last few months of 2001, and all throughout 2002, more and more Arabs started arriving. They were always given special treatment by Chavez, Otaiza and Ramon Rodriguez Chacin". Rodriguez Chacin a Chavez-government cabinet member, and headed the Interior and Justice Ministry until the press proved that he operated with multiple identities. He is currently a party boss in the Chavez political machine.

The "special treatment" afforded to visiting Arabs even extended to fugitives. As documented by General Marcos Ferreira former head of the Onidex passport and ID-card administration and now a member of the country's pro-democracy resistance movement, Chavez-minister Rodriguez Chacin ordered him to provide false ID's to named members of foreign terrorist organizations listed by the FBI.

Now, these facts are coming out, and the military resisters are in danger. Major Juan Diaz Castillo and fellow pro-democracy resister General Nestor Gonzalez Gonzalez were the victims of a trap set by Chavez DISIP (Secret Service) agents on December 21, 2002, on the freeway between Valencia and Caracas, near the town of Guacara.
Immediately following the attempt on his life, Juan Diaz Castillo went underground. Friends in the resistence movement smuggled him out of the country the night before Christmas, in the hull of a fishing boat leaving Venezuela for Curazao, in the Dutch Antilles. There, he stayed until he could arrange safe passage to the United States. Today, safely out of reach of the Chavez death squads, he can now talk freely.

" - I must warn America about Chavez. He is a danger, not just to his own people but to the whole region," says Diaz Castillo.

Hugo Chavez is growing increasingly desperate in his hold on power, in Venezuela where a month-long general strike has cut off oil exports and his source of income.
He refuses to hold free and democratic elections, and has publicly vowed to stay in power until "at least 2021". To Chavez, it matters not what his people think:
" - Referendum to remove me? That is not possible, don't waste time. I will not go in a referendum, I say that to the country and the world. It's like this: I won't go," Hugo Chavez said in November.
" - Ah, no, no, forget about fairytales."
" - Not even if we suppose that they hold that referendum and get 90% of the votes, I will not leave. Forget it. I will not leave."
This, all, from the man who personally visited Saddam Hussein in Iraq, hugged him, and called him "my brother," and then gave one million dollars to Al Qaeda right after 9/11.

Note: Juan Diaz Castillo, who is quoted in this article, just arrived in the United States. He can be contacted at aguila@MilitaresDemocraticos.com

Transcript of House Western Hemipshere Subcommittee Hearing, October 10, 2001***(J. Curtis Struble, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, U.S. Department of State)…………….. Further south, in what is known as the tri-border area, where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay converge, we see the longstanding presence of Islamic extremist organizations, primarily Hizballah and, to a lesser extent, the Sunni extremists group of al Gamaat, IG, and Hamas. These organizations are involved in fundraising activities and proselytizing among the large expatriate population from the Middle East that lives in the tri-border area and also on Venezuela's Margarita Island. These organizations engage in document forgery, money laundering, contraband smuggling, and weapons and drug trafficking. Hizballah is the prime suspect behind the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israel Mutual Association community center. These attacks were characterized by the same faceless cowardice that we saw on September 11, and they remain unsolved to this day, although I am pleased that the trial in the 1994 bombing is now underway in Buenos Aires. We hope the perpetrators will at last be brought to justice.

……………..In the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, Middle East terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hizballah train terrorists and conduct fundraising activities in an area which has a growing population of Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrants. Funds raised in the tri-border area are sent directly to the Middle East to support the operation of these organization, possibly even the planning and execution of terrorist acts. I have no doubt that funds raised in the tri-border area have made it to the pockets of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Afghanistan produces 75 percent of the world's heroin. The Taliban reaps tremendous profits from such trade and use them to sponsor Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists. As Americans, we must recognize that fighting the war on drugs is tantamount to fighting the war on terrorism. Every time an American boy buys cocaine or heroin, they are directly funding the terrorists who are responsible for the deaths of over 6,000 innocent Americans.

Today, the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere will hear from a distinguished panel of official witnesses who will provide us with important testimony about the type of terrorist organizations operating in our hemisphere, the links between international terror and drug trafficking, and the efforts of the OAS and its member states to help our nation win the war on terrorism. While I have no doubt that these panelists will provide the Subcommittee with excellent testimony, I am profoundly troubled that Otto Reich has yet to be confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. At this time, the President needs to have his nominee confirmed and in place to fight both drug trafficking and terrorism in Latin America.

……………..Mr. STRUBLE. There are large expatriate populations in a number of areas in Latin America. The tri-border region has been mentioned before. There is also Santa Margarita Island in Venezuela, the Colon Free Trade Zone in Panama, and then a number of others throughout the hemisphere. We are quite concerned about the possibility or in some instances the certainty of financial transactions from these areas supporting terrorist groups in the Middle East. Mr. Mack alluded before to the efforts of INL over a number of years to give countries the tools, help them develop the tools, and work multilaterally in this hemisphere to control money laundering through more effective sharing of financial transaction information.****

Here's one of the expose articles that expands on the Latin American threat to both their region and the USA that you'll find over at that Venezuela military officers (who have left Chavez) web site here...
http://www.militaresdemocraticos.com/articulos/en/20021227-01.html

-Shane

Brazilian Plotter Buys Time for Chavez; Has Links to Terrorists and to Saddam

Marco Aurelio Garcia

By Johan Freitas, in Caracas

" - We have to first give the impression that we are democrats," says Marco Aurélio Garcia, the hardline marxist behind president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil. "Initially, we have to accept certain things. But that won't last," he warns.1

Marco Aurelio Garcia was in Venezuela last week, lending a helping hand to another make-believe democrat, Hugo Chavez. The country's general strike has left pumps dry and motorists stranded. The effects of the strike threaten to unseat Chavez. But now, thanks to Marco Aurelio Garcia, Chavez just bought himself some time: A Brazilian tanker, the Amazon Explorer, is on its way with 520.000 barrels of gasoline from the Brazilian oil company Petrobras.

Why the urgent need to personally arrive and help out? Why would Brazil intervene to break-up a strictly Venezuelan strike? Why does Lula want Chavez to stay?

A closer look at Marco Aurelio Garcia, the man behind the plan...

"Democracy is just a farce for taking power"
In interview with the French "Le Monde", Brazil's President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva repeats words taught to him by Marco Aurélio Garcia when he calls a democratic election a "farce" that is merely a necessary step for the taking of power in a nation.2

For Marco Aurelio Garcia, these words are not just theory. He lived them personally, from 1969 to 1973 when he was a foreign political activist in Chile during the Salvador Allende regime.3 Allende was democratically elected, but once in power used the government to close newspapers and harshly control his political opposition. In a public scandal, huge caches of Cuban weapons were found in his home, sent from Cuba's president Fidel Castro to arm citizen militias to "defend the socialist revolution" in Chile. A Brazilian was a key helper. This was Marco Aurelio Garcia's first contact to Cuban operatives abroad.

In 1980, Marco Aurelio Garcia founded 'PT', the Brazilian Worker's Party, with Lula da Silva. Ever since founding the party, he has been its international affairs advisor.

Fast forward to 1990. Spurred on by Castro, who by this time had orchestrated military incursions in more than 30 different countries, Marco Aurelio Garcia calls a meeting of all left-wing groups from Latin America and the Caribbean. Representatives from 48 different communist parties and terrorist groups attend. This becomes the "Foro de São Paulo", which is founded with Marco Aurelio Garcia as its head -- a title which he still holds today, 12 years later.

The Sao Paulo Forum: Supporters of terrorism
As the leader of the Sao Paulo Forum, Garcia controls and coordinates the activities of subversives and extremists from the Rio Grande to the southernmost tip of Argentina.
Several of the members of the Sao Paulo Forum are terrorists. Some are on the FBI's Most Wanted list. But this is not a coincidence. The Sao Paulo Forum, under the auspices of its executive secretary Marco Aurelio Garcia, has made it a policy to support terrorist groups. Consider this quote from its 10th Congress, which took place NEW-AXIS December 7, 2001 in Havana, Cuba, and which refers to the terrorist groups ELN and FARC of Colombia:
"9. Ratify the legitimacy, justice and necessity of the Colombian organizations' fight and our solidarity with them."

The new axis of terrorism starts with Cuba, then works its way down to Colombia, financed with Venezuelan oil billions, and ends in budding superpower Brazil.

In a policy dictated by Havana, Cuba, the Sao Paulo Forum leader Marco Aurelio Garcia has shown special interest in named terrorist Manuel Marulanda Velez, a.k.a. 'Tirofijo', leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Every year from 1990, Garcia has made it his priority to personally meet with FARC. The meetings have not just taken place in Havana (with Fidel Castro himself being always present), but also in Mexico, where Marco Aurelio Garcia travelled to meet with FARC-member Marco León Calara on Tuesday, December 5 2000.

What they talk about is a matter that remains behind closed doors. But every time they meet, FARC always increases its attacks in the weeks that follow, with a high cost in loss of human lives.

What's in store for Brazil - and the region...
Brazil's foreign policy, under the guidance of Marco Aurelio Garcia , will be designed in Havana, Cuba. Garcia's Brazil will actively work against current United States policy, starting with it's policy towards Fidel Castro: "We'll attempt to eliminate the trade embargo against Cuba," he promises.4

Marco Aurelio Garcia describes his party, PT, as "radical, of the left, socialist"5. But Garcia is more than radical, and more to the left of mere socialists. Because Garcia is, in fact, a hardline communist. He wants to revive communism. In an article which he wrote about 'The Communist Manifest' by Karl Marx, he ended saying that: "The agenda is clear. If this new horizon which we search for is still called communism, it is time to re-constitute it."6

Marco Aurelio Garcia works closely with other marxist politicians around the world and appears in anthologies whose other participants read like a who's-who of international terrorism supporters. From Cuba, we meet Dario Machado and Marta Harnecker. From China, YunLin Nie, author of "The Communist Manifesto and Socialism with Chinese Characteristics". Pham Nhu Cuong represents Vietnam, and Mohamed Latifi is the Iranian contact. Extremists from democratic countries also collaborate, like Seppo Ruotsalainen ("The Revolutionary Process and Manifesto") from Finland, Alan Woods ("The Communist Manifesto Today") from England, and Pierre Zarka ("The Manifest of the Communist Party") from France. All share a deep and intense hatred of the United States, and everything that the West stands for.7

The Nuclear Weapons link to Saddam
Brazil used to have a nuclear weapons development program, which they stopped at the request of the United States. But now, with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in charge and Marco Aurelio Garcia directing foreign strategy, there are plans for the program to be silently reactivated. Nuclear capability is necessary for the strong anti-Americanism of Marco Aurelio Garcia and the terrorist groups which he supports through the Sao Paulo Forum.

From a nuclear Brazil, there are links to Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The first link is Hugo Chavez. The second, Sao Paulo Forum co-founder Fidel Castro. Hugo Chavez is Saddam's best friend in Latin America, and has personally visited and supported Saddam Hussein. After the first Chavez visit, Fidel Castro then sent his right-hand man, Rodrigo Alvarez Cambras, to Iraq for personal discussions with Saddam as well. Up until now, the trio of Saddam-Castro-Chavez has only worked together on bio-weapons. But from January 2003, with Lula taking power in Brazil, nuclear warheads will be added to the mix as well. It is just a matter of time. And with the rescue package of Brazilian gasoline to Chavez, Marco Aurelio Garcia just bought some more time for the beleaguered Venezuelan president.
In a world where totalitarian dictatorships are still very much alive, nothing would please Marco Aurelio Garcia more than to see Saddam go nuclear.

More information: www.MilitaresDemocraticos.com

REFERENCES:

1: “La Nación”, Buenos Aires (Argentina) 5 October 2002.
2: Le Monde, Paris: "En privé, Lula, âgé de 56 ans, pense tout haut que l'élection est une "farce" et qu'il faut en passer par là pour prendre le pouvoir".
3: Article in "O Estado de S. Paulo" Newspaper (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Monday, Nov 6 2000: "Quem é Marco Aurélio Garcia"
4: Emilio J. Corbière, quoting Marco Aurelio Garcia in: "Lulazo, populismo y desarrollismo", published in "La Fogata, el fuego de la lucha revolucionaria" 28 October 2002
5: Marco Aurélio Garcia, "A social-democracia e o PT", from Revista Teoria & Debate N° 12, Sao Paulo, Oct/Dec. Issue 1990
6: "O Manifesto e a refundação do comunismo", by Marco Aurélio Garcia, published in Teoria e debate, nº 36. Brazil. 26 January 2001.
7: Source: Internatif, France (2002)

December 27, 2002

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.