Terror Threat from Venezuela: Al Queda Involved

At 9:29 p.m. on March 8, 2002, Hakim Mamad Ali Diab Fattah landed at Venezuela's Simón Bolívar International Airport on board Delta Flight 397. The Venezuelan-born Arab had been the subject of international surveillance because he had taken lessons at two New Jersey flight schools attended by Hani Hanjour, who crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

The FBI had arrested Fattah in the United States after discovering that he also had talked about blowing up an airliner and had used forged identity documents. Information about him was requested from Venezuela's internal security service, Direccion de Inteligencia Seguridad y Prevencion (DISIP). But little was forthcoming other than psychiatric records showing that he was a diagnosed schizophrenic who had failed to attend therapy for more than a year.

Top-level members of Venezuela's security services now are shedding some light on the mystery. General Marcos Ferreira, who recently resigned as director of the Venezuelan national guard's border control, Departamento de Extranjeria (DIEX), says that DISIP picked up Fattah directly from the plane and escorted him into a waiting car parked on the runway.

Fattah represents the tip of an iceberg, according to security officials, confirming that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been setting up a terrorist regime to undermine the constitution of the oil-rich South American country. A dedicated disciple of Fidel Castro, Chavez is plugging international terrorist networks into the country's security services, financial system and state corporations as part of his plans to clone Cuba's revolution and turn Venezuela into a terrorist base. Supporters of Al Queda are involved, as are FARC, and ELN. All three organizations are designated as terrorist groups in the report Patterns of Global Terrorism, United States Department of State, May 2002.

But that is not enough for Hugo Chavez. The president's scheme also involves government-sponsored armed militias, or Circulos Bolivarianos, modeled on Cuba's Revolutionary Defense Committees. These militias are taking over police stations around the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and invading the facilities of the state-run oil company, PDVSA. The president of the later is an ex-communist guerrilla leader, Ali Rodriguez Araque, a.k.a. "Comandante Fausto".

The blueprint follows Chile of Salvador Allende, with many of the same actors on the scene. There, a democratically-elected president also used the vote to turn himself into a dictator, imported thousands of Cuban paramilitaries to overthrow the constitution and establish a Marxist-Leninist regime which was not what the voters had originally expected when they put him in power. Cuba is the ever-present present menace.

Cuba's Direccion General de Inteligencia (DGI) special-operations teams already are positioned at the port of La Guaira, according to Venezuelan navy sources, who report that Cuban undercover agents are using the local merchant-marine school. Rear Admiral Oscar Betancourt reports that they are studying Venezuela's oil-tanker fleet as part of contingency plans to prepare for commandeering of some of the tankers by a Venezuelan intelligence officer. A Cuban special-assault unit is occupying the second and third floors of the now-closed former Sheraton Hotel in La Guaira.

During the last few weeks, Chavez has moved to control the military high command with his closest acolytes. Gen. Luis Garcia Carneiro, who has been leading the Caracas-based 3rd Infantry Division in operations to disarm the metropolitan police, is now the effective head of the army.

Arab terrorists and Colombian narcoguerrillas are being protected by DISIP, which has come under the control of Cuba's DGI, according to members of the Venezuelan security agency. European diplomatic officials in Caracas confirm that Cubans are operating DISIP's key counterterrorist and intelligence-analysis sections. According to a variety of sources, 300 to 400 Cuban military advisers coordinated by Havana's military attaché in Venezuela, navy Capt. Sergio Cardona, also are directing Chavez's elite Presidential Guard and his close circle of bodyguards. As many as 6,000 Cuban undercover agents masquerading as "sports instructors" and "teachers" also are reported to be training the Circulos Bolivarianos and even operating naval facilities.

"I quit my job when I got tired of doing dirty work for Chavez with the Cubans looking over my shoulder," Marcos Ferreira says, while showing proof that former Interior Minister Rodriguez Chacin and other presidential aides repeatedly pressured him to launder the identities of terrorists and narcotraffickers transiting through Venezuela. He also was ordered to deceive U.S. authorities on the activities of a Hezbollah financial network whose files were requested by the FBI following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Chavez gave instructions to destroy records on 10 suspected Hezbollah fund-raisers conducting suspicious financial transactions in the islands of Margarita, Aruba and Curaçao, and the cities of Maracaibo and Valencia, according to Ferreira. The Venezuelan president then dissolved key military counterterrorist units by firing 16 highly experienced, U.S.-trained intelligence officers at the time of the terrorist plane attacks in New York City and Washington. Circulos Bolivarianos leader Lina Ron celebrated the event by burning an American flag in the center of Caracas.

Reports on the investigation rescued from Chavez's burn pile specify that two of the suspects sought by the FBI -- Fathi Mohammed Awada [Venezuelan ID card No. V-6282373] and Hussein Kassine Yassine [No.V-6293922] -- withdrew $400,000 from the branch of the Corp Banca in Margarita before gong to Lebanon in December 2001. The report concludes that the individuals were "engaging in suspicious transactions which validate the suspicions of the U.S. government."

The money transfers never were recorded by Venezuela's national banking superintendent, a Chavez appointee. U.S. diplomatic sources in Caracas confirm that official inquiries through Venezuela's banking authorities have failed to reveal evidence on terrorist money laundering. "We've only consulted officials of the government," admits a U.S. economic officer.

Intelligence sources familiar with the cover-up say Chavez is withholding information on the Arabs, some of whom were important financial contributors to his presidential campaign. The report, withheld from the United States, also mentions Nasser Mohammed al-Din, described as a powerful entrepreneur and a close personal friend of Chavez, at whose home in Margarita the Venezuelan president stays on his frequent visits to the resort island, which is also a favored venue for his private meetings with Castro.

Margarita Island appears to be the center of an extensive terrorist financial network stretching throughout the Caribbean to Panama and the Cayman Islands, where three Afghanis traveling on false Pakistani passports were caught entering from Cuba with $200,000 in cash in August 2001. According to British colonial authorities, efforts to launder the money through Cayman banks also involved a group of Arab businessmen.

Chavez's ties to international terrorism date back to the days of his bloody 1992 military rebellion against the government of Carlos Andres Perez in which nearly 100 people were killed. After being received with honors by Castro in Havana, Chavez proceeded to Tripoli and Baghdad. "He came back with a lot of money to form his Movimiento Revolucionario Venezolano [MRV] and run for president," says Col. Pedro Soto, a Chavez supporter at the time.

Chavez paid presidential state visits to Libya, Iraq and Iran in February 2001, signing cooperation agreements with Muammar Qaddafi, Saddam Hussein and Tehran's ruling mullahs. Castro visited Libya, Iran and Syria some months later. An MRV politician and close Chavez aide closely tied to the Circulos Bolivarianos, Freddy Bernal, was in Iraq last March. He got caught trying to move arms into Saudi Arabia by U.N. peacekeeping forces policing the border.

Back in the days when he was a frustrated coup leader, Chavez also received help from Colombian narcoguerrilla organizations. He now is repaying them by closing Venezuelan airspace to U.S. antidrug flights. A military-intelligence report obtained by the former commander of the 2nd army theater of operations on the Colombian border, Gen. Nestor Gonzalez Gonzalez, shows that the Colombian drug forces are being protected by Chavez in camps inside Venezuelan territory. The sick leader of Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN), Comandante Pablo, rests under DISIP protection at a villa in the upmarket Caracas neighborhood of El Marques.

Venezuela's army chief of staff, Gen. Jose Vietri, refers to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as "the de facto government of the Colombian border region.

The main contact with terrorist networks is identified as former interior minister Chacin, a commando-trained navy captain whose intimate relationship with Chavez dates back to when they conspired together in the 1992 putsch. Ferreira says that Chacin fired his predecessor at DIEX for complying with international requests to deport an ELN terrorist.

Chacin officially resigned as interior minister last April at the insistence of military officers who had led a coup attempt against Chavez. But he remains the de facto security chief, according to sources who describe how he operates under the double identity of Rafael Montenegro, managing secret bank accounts and conducting considerable activity along the border with Colombia.

"One of the first things Chacin ordered me to do when I became head of DIEX was to legalize the entry of five undocumented Colombians on the grounds that they had assisted ransom negotiations for kidnapped Venezuelans," Ferreira recalls. "He explained that they needed to spend some days in Venezuela before going to Cuba." The general soon found that such instructions were not exceptional.

During 2001, Chacin asked Ferreira to smooth the way for another 25 to 30 Colombians whom he personally received at the border crossing of San Antonio from where they were escorted by DISIP to Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas to board flights for Cuba. Chacin similarly arranged the transit of Canas Serrano, an ELN terrorist wanted by Interpol for the deaths of 84 people in the bombing of an oil pipeline.

The language Chacin used perturbed some of his officers. "After returning from a trip to Cuba, he started calling us comrades, referring to opponents of the government as 'the enemy' and talking about attacking their families." The breaking point came when a lieutenant colonel of the Presidential Guard asked Ferreira to issue a passport for a member of FARC, Ana Belinda Macias Arismendi, who carried a false Venezuelan identity document [No. V-12438823]. She urgently needed to get to Havana, Ferreira was told. "The fingerprints on the ID didn't even match hers," confides the general.

An analysis of DIEX records indicates that during the last two years 3,799 fraudulent Venezuelan identification documents have been distributed, of which 1,745 were issued through the DIEX border post of San Antonio. By cross-checking the redundant document numbers, Ferreira determined that 2,520 false IDs were given to Colombians and that the second-largest category of 279 went to Arabs invariably described as "Syrians."

Running further checks through Colombian police records, say law-enforcement insiders, two-dozen of the IDs were traced to known terrorists and narcotraffickers. Some examples: Julio Quintero Gomez [No. E-81895307], identified as a member of an ELN urban guerrilla column; Ramon Quintero, [No. E-81895573], identified as a member of the ELN national committee; and Alberto Diaz Sanchez [No. E-818955586], identified by authorities as a member of a narcotrafficking ring.

With Chavez loyalists and Cuban advisers now firmly in control of Venezuela's intelligence services, further efforts to track fraudulent ID cardholders are unlikely. Possibly thousands of falsely documented terrorists now could be part of what security officials describe as a "parallel force" being formed by Chavez to spread terrorism throughout the Western Hemisphere and support his power grab at home.

Intelligence sources say experienced urban-guerrilla fighters have been incorporated into the Circulos Bolivarianos, hundreds of whom have trained in Cuba and Libya as "social activists." Special shock units called Tupamaros and Carapaica secretly are headquartered at safehouses around Caracas where machine-gun emplacements protect street approaches to districts they control in outlying parts of the capital.

The Circulos militias also are being held responsible for recent bombings targeting the television stations, the trade-union confederation CTV and the business association Fedecamaras, which are charged by Chavez with organizing a general strike against the government. Threats have been e-mailed to government opponents such as a prominent woman journalist who has received graphic online descriptions of how she will be raped

The Circulos are backed by the 3rd Infantry Division, loyal to Chavez, and deployed around Caracas to disarm local police, preparing the ground for a showdown that could result in civil war.

Gen. Medina Gomez, who leads a group of 100+ dissident officers gathered for a monthlong protest rally at the Plaza Altamira square, is confident that the bulk of the military will not support the imposition of a dictatorship. "But the armed forces are suffering a deep internal crisis," he says. Gen. Nestor Gonzalez believes the army is seriously split: "Ten percent are pro-Chavez, 10 percent are anti-Chavez and 80 percent could go either way."

Chavez has had plenty of time to destabilize the armed forces, which may no longer be in any condition to stage a successful coup. Air force and mechanized units are low on fuel. Tank drivers have been assigned to drive public buses, and many career officers have been sent to administer civic projects with inflated budgets used to corrupt them. Sensitive communications and electronic-intelligence equipment is reported missing from military and police installations, and parts of the navy are being turned over to the Cubans. A U.S.-built amphibious landing ship, LST T63, has been tracked by U.S. satellite on round-trips between the port of La Guaira and the Cuban base of Cienfuegos.

The fuse has been lit by enemies of the United States out to prevent a heavy flow of oil from Venezuela when push comes to shove in the Middle East. Saddam has a terrorist supporter and friend in the Americas. His name is Hugo Chavez.

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

Shane,

Nice catch!

ALL,

Do you all remember that mysterious murder down in Tennessee last February? Remember the woman who worked at the TN BMV and was selling fake drivers' licenses to Middle Easterners and that two of them had ties to 9/11 and the WTC?

Guess what! One of those Middle Easterners arrested had a Venezuelan passport - and the guy ONLY spoke Arabic.

Here's the original article, though the link no longer works properly:

She was murdered on Sunday, and the people she sold the fake drivers licenses to may have ties to 9/11. Please also note the ties to Venezuela...

http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/local_news/article/0,1426,MCA_437_982376,00.html

Feds fear license examiner is dead

Woman's co-defendants tied to 9/11, judge told

By Tom Bailey Jr.

baileytom@gomemphis.com

A missing Tennessee driver's license examiner charged with conspiring to provide licenses fraudulently was probably the victim of a "most unusual and suspicious" death, a federal prosecutor said Monday.

Asst. U.S. Atty. Tim Di Scenza also raised the possibility in court that Katherine Smith's five codefendants are involved in terrorism against the United States, citing "connections" to Sept. 11 and the World Trade Center.

A defense attorney, however, protested that the only reason the prosecutor raised the issue of terrorism is that the defendants are from the Middle East.

DiScenza told the court that the same car Smith drove when she was arrested Feb. 5 crashed in Fayette County east of Collierville early Sunday.

Although the gas tank did not explode and the car was only slightly dented from impact with a pole, a fire burned the person inside beyond recognition, FBI agent J. Suzanne Nash testified Monday.

The body had not been identified late Monday, but DiScenza told U.S. Magistrate Judge Diane Vescovo that there was a "great possibility" it was Smith.

While authorities have not determined if foul play was involved in Smith's disappearance, Vescovo described the revelations as "upsetting and disturbing."

Nash testified she was called about the wreck at 1 a.m. Sunday. Smith's family told authorities she'd been missing since Saturday night.

Smith was to have appeared Monday for a detention and probable cause hearing in the conspiracy case against her and Khaled Odtllah, 31, of Shelby County; Sakhera Hammad, 24, of New York City, and Mohammed Fares, Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin and Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad, for whom ages and addresses were unavailable.

Smith had been free on bond since Feb. 5. The other five defendants have been detained since their arrest the same day.

The specter of terrorism and Sept. 11 emerged in Monday's hearing when DiScenza asked Nash if documents seized from the suspects had been examined.

She responded that a visitor's pass for the World Trade Center, dated Sept. 5, 2001, was found in Sakhera Hammad's wallet. Hammad told authorities he was a plumber and worked on the center's sprinkler system, Nash said.

She also said that Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad and Sakhera Hammad said they were cousins, and worked together in the plumbing business.

Nash also testified that Odtllah drove back from New York City to Memphis on Sept. 11.

But Anthony Helm, attorney for Odtllah, asked Nash, "You certainly don't have any indication any of these fellows is a terrorist, do you?"

"Not at this time, no sir," Nash responded.

Helm also argued that Odtllah has many relatives in New York City, suggesting it wouldn't be unusual for him to travel there.

Vescovo continued the hearing until Wednesday for three of the defendants, Abou-Shanin, Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad and *****Fares, primarily to arrange for an Arabic interpreter. The men told the FBI they are in the country illegally. She went ahead with the hearing for Odtllah and Sakhera Hammad.

Nash testified that Odtllah and Sakhera Hammad led the driver's license scheme. She said Odtllah made the arrangements with his friend Smith, and that Hammad drove the people who bought the fraudulent licenses from New York.

She said that Odtllah received $1,000 per license, and that Hammad would receive any amount paid over $1,000.

After two hours of testimony and arguments, Vescovo ordered each man held without bond until their trial.

During the hearing, Di Scenza and Nash revealed details of the government's case against the six defendants.

Smith had told authorities after her arrest that Odtllah, who goes by the nickname "Kal," was a friend, and that he had asked her to help him obtain driver's licenses six or seven times before.

Odtllah has lived in Shelby County two and a half years. Until a few months ago, he owned a Phillips 66 gas station. He also buys and sells cars.

Nash testified that Smith had said she was buying from Odtllah the champagne-colored 1992 Acura that crashed early Sunday.

Nash testified that Smith had assigned four driver's license numbers in the station's computer system using forms filled out by Odtllah. But only Fares's license showed his correct name. The other three applications contained fictitious and "totally untraceable" names, DiScenza said.

"Those kind of IDs are for further criminal activities," DiScenza said.

Nash said Sakhera Hammad told her he came to Tennessee to get driver's licenses only to help people have identification so they can get jobs.

Sakhera Hammad is from Jordan, but has become a U.S. citizen, said his father, Peter Hansen of New York, who attended the hearing.

Odtllah came to the United States from Jerusalem 13 years ago, Helm said.

Nash said Abou-Shahin told authorities he was from Egypt and is a carpenter.

*****Fares has a Venezuelan passport, but speaks Arabic, DiScenza said.

DiScenza said a key question is whether the alleged license conspiracy had a purpose greater than obtaining driver's licenses so illegal immigrants could find work.

Do the circumstances in the case connect the alleged conspiracy to the World Trade Center terrorism, he asked rhetorically.

"Of course not," DiScenza said. "But, you can only have so many coincidences."

Helm argued that the case is not "connected to anything else in the world." He said prosecutors are making the terrorism implications only because the defendants are from the Middle East.

Vescovo said the "completely untraceable" licenses were a great concern to the court.

"What further concerns me greatly is that Ms. Smith's vehicle has been burned and a body is inside," she said.

While no testimony Monday links Odtllah or Sakhera Hammad to Smith's disappearance, Vescovo said, "She is connected to the case against them."

- Tom Bailey Jr.: 529-2388

Well, the so-called 'far right' (nazi/aryan socialist type) in the US puts out propaganda almost identical to that of the Palestinians; the Turner Diaries are popular in both camps. But as far as I have heard, the Iraqi-Brazil nuclear issue goes back to the early 1980s, and it was uncovered during a political spat which occured since then. I haven't heard of much recent linkage between Iraq and Brazil so perhaps some of the players have changed since then:

1981 : (BRAZIL SELLS IRAQ 8 TONS OF URANIUM) The Brazilian military had sold eight tons of uranium to Iraq in 1981, according to a Brazilian congressional investigation later in 1994, which also reported that after Brazil's successful ballistic missile program was ended, the general and 24 of the scientists working on it went to work for Iraq. There are reports that with financing from Iraq, a nuclear weapons capability has been covertly maintained contrary to directives from the civilian democratic leaders.- "Blocking a New Axis of Evil," by Constantine C. Menges, The Washington Times, August 7, 2002

All this was during the Iran-Iraq War. Not long after this Brazilian sale Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear site...

SEPTEMBER 1982 : (BRAZIL PRODUCES ENRICHED URANIUM) Brazil succeeded in producing slightly enriched uranium in its own centrifuges. - "Iraq and the Bomb: Were They Even Close?", By David Albright and Mark Hibbs, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March 1991, Volume 47, No. 2, pp. 16-25

1988 : (GERMAN CENTRIFUGE EXPERT MEETS IRAQIS) Bruno Stemmler, a former centrifuge expert at the German firm MAN Technologien GmbH, met secretly with Iraqi centrifuge design engineers in 1988. Before 1988 the German firm H&H Metalform Ltd. sold Iraq flow forming machines, which could shape the preforms into thin centrifuge rotor tubes or outer missile casings. - "Iraq and the Bomb: Were They Even Close?", By David Albright and Mark Hibbs, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March 1991, Volume 47, No. 2, pp. 16-25

1988 : (IRAQ, GERMANY) A German centrifuge expert met with Iraqi centrifuge designers in Baghdad

1988 : (BRAZIL NUKE PROGRAM) Brazil inaugurated a new gas centrifuge enrichment plant at Ipero, in the state of Sao Paulo, with 50-100 machines. - "Iraq and the Bomb: Were They Even Close?", By David Albright and Mark Hibbs, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March 1991, Volume 47, No. 2, pp. 16-25

1988 : (GERMANS BRUNO STEMMLER & WALTER BUSSE GO TO IRAQ & VISIT FACTORY 10 IN IRAQ) - "Iraq and the Bomb: Were They Even Close?", By David Albright and Mark Hibbs, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March 1991, Volume 47, No. 2, pp. 16-25

1990 (BRAZIL, DA SILVA, CASTRO FOUND THE SAO PAULO FORUM) Mr. da Silva makes no secret of his sympathies. He has been an ally of Mr. Castro for more than 25 years. With Mr. Castro's support, Mr.da Silva founded the Sao Paulo Forum in 1990 as an annual meeting of communist and other radical terrorist and political organizations from Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. This has been used to coordinate and plan terrorist and political activities around the world and against the United States. - "Blocking a New Axis of Evil," by Constantine C. Menges, The Washington Times, August 7, 2002

1990 : (WMD, SCIENTIST KARL-HEINZ SCHAAB IS SOUGHT BY GERMAN AUTHORITIES FOR SALES TO IRAQ) German scientist Karl-Heinz Schaab is sought by German authorities since 1990 on charges of selling German uranium enrichment technology to Iraq before the Gulf War. . - "Brazil uranium sales to Iraq stir debate ," by Carmen Gentile, United Press International 9/25/02

1990 : (BRAZIL APOLOGIZES FOR TECH TRANSFERS TO IRAQ) Brazilian president Fernando Collor de Mello apologized for the technology transfers, which he called "potentially significant." - "Brazil: Trying to Give Up Missiles" from The Risk Report,Volume 1 Number 3 (April 1995) Page 4.

AUGUST 1990 : (IRAQ, GERMANY ENDS TRAINING OF IRAQI ENGINEERS) Immediately after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the German Foreign Office issued an internal memo to its export control officials. The document ordered an end to a training program three German firms had been conducting for Iraqi engineers, "in the light of newest evidence of German involvement in the nuclear weapons field in Iraq, and threatening political complications [arising from] such a suspicion." The training program was part of a concerted Iraqi effort to overcome what Western experts believe was its nuclear Achilles heel, lack of skilled personnel. The three firms—one of which was Interatom GmbH, which supplied staff from its advanced reactor department—had been training the engineers for nearly a year before the export control office was informed of the full scope of the training program. The Iraqis were on the staff of a Baghdad organization known as Industrial Project Company (IPC), which the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, believes is at the pinnacle of Iraq's entire military procurement effort. Although Interatom officials told German export authorities that the transfer of nuclear know-how was forbidden, customs agents emphasized that IPC staff expressed a keen desire to get specific and extensive nuclearrelated information. IPC is also behind a company called Al Fao General Establishment, in Baghdad. According to U.S. and Israeli intelligence reports, Al Fao has been active in procuring missile technology for Iraq. A U.S. government expert said that Al Fao wanted laboratory equipment from Interatom which could be used as a clean room for manufacturing missile guidance systems, or centrifuge components needed to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons. A work room, German investigators said, was the first dual-use (civilian-military) export to Iraq which was stopped after Kuwait was overrun. - "Iraq and the Bomb: Were They Even Close?", By David Albright and Mark Hibbs, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March 1991, Volume 47, No. 2, pp. 16-25

1990 : (IRAQ INVASION OF KUWAIT EXPOSES BRAZILIAN TECH TRANSFERS TO IRAQ) The best known is Hugo de Oliveira Piva, who has been called "Brazil's Dr. von Braun." A former head of CTA (Centro Tecnico Aeroespacial) (Aerospace Technical Center), Brazil's premier missile lab, he was caught in Iraq with a team of Brazilian missile experts when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Piva then humiliated his government by taking as long as he could to come home. "Piva's name comes up a lot," the U.S. official says. In a recent interview with the Brazilian newspaper Istoe, Piva said he would view the resumption of Brazilian missile projects with satisfaction. "I regard these projects as my children whom I used to hold on my lap." Piva's "children" may be the MB/EE and SS-series missiles Brazil was working on during the 1980s. A consortium of Brazilian firms known as Orbita was trying to develop a medium-range missile based on the Sonda-IV space rocket with foreign financing. As a missile, the rocket could carry a 500 kilogram payload up to 1,800 kilometers, almost as far as the U.S. Pershing II missile. Avibras, Brazil's largest weapon exporter, was also working on a line of surface-to-surface missiles known as the SS-300 and the SS-1000. - "Brazil: Trying to Give Up Missiles" from The Risk Report,Volume 1 Number 3 (April 1995) Page 4.

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