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

The Brazilian government has denied acquiring key nuclear technology from Pakistan amid allegations that a smuggling network headed by disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan may be the source. Brazil's navy, which launched its nuclear program in the 1980s, said in a statement on Friday that it "denies any type of link with Pakistan regarding the development of Brazilian centrifuges." Brazil's Ministry of Science and Technology said it "objects to news accounts attributed to anonymous sources without the support of any institution or country and that try to link decades of scientific development and technologies to obscure procedures or to...

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

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

Hurt by pressure on Islamic charities, terrorists expand S. America operations With Islamic "charities" under increasing international pressure and scrutiny to cut ties with terrorists, al-Qaida and other allied organizations are expanding operations in Latin America, establishing both legitimate and criminal enterprises to fund future operations, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. A global focus on Saudi Arabian financial institutions behind the charity system, known as zakat, has seriously damaged the ability of Islamic terror groups to conduct business as usual, reports the premium online intelligence newsletter. Intelligence sources agree that the terrorist financial scene is changing rapidly. Funding, at times,...

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN Al-Qaida south of the border Rumsfeld: Human smuggling rings tied to bin Laden's terrorist network -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: February 16, 2004 WASHINGTON – Pentagon officials have confirmed human smuggling rings in Latin America are attempting to sneak al-Qaida operatives into the U.S., information first reported in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin more than a year ago. In a Defense Department briefing Friday about National Guardsman Ryan Anderson, suspected of trying to give al-Qaida information about U.S. capabilities and weaponry, reporters were also told to expect Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to provide details on two other subjects: Guantanamo...