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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Latin America</title>
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		<title>The Loophole Is Obama</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ann-coulter/the-loophole-is-obama/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-loophole-is-obama</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ann-coulter/the-loophole-is-obama/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Jul 2014 04:35:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ann Coulter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[border]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crisis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drugs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Illegal Immigration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latin America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trafficking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=237471</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the biggest illegal immigration lies debunked. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/the-border-crisis-is-hurting-obama-now-but-it-will-hurt-republicans-later.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-237472" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/the-border-crisis-is-hurting-obama-now-but-it-will-hurt-republicans-later-450x337.jpg" alt="the-border-crisis-is-hurting-obama-now-but-it-will-hurt-republicans-later" width="258" height="193" /></a>It&#8217;s been reported everywhere &#8212; The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fox News &#8212; that the William Wilberforce Sex Trafficking Act requires that any non-Mexican children who show up on our border be admitted and given a hearing. (New York Times, July 7, 2014: &#8220;Immigrant Surge Rooted in Law to Curb Child Trafficking.&#8221;)</p>
<p>The problem, we&#8217;ve been told, is that a loophole in the sex trafficking law mandates these hearings &#8212; or &#8220;removal proceedings.&#8221;</p>
<p>But there is no such loophole.</p>
<p>The fact that people on both sides of the aisle are telling the same lie about this law is worrisome. Are Republicans being tricked into thinking we need an emergency bill, so that, two weeks later, we&#8217;ll see them emerging from a conference, saying:</p>
<p>We fixed the loophole! We didn&#8217;t get everything we wanted, but you can hear about that later.</p>
<p>No, tell me now.</p>
<p>Well, remember amnesty? It&#8217;s kind of in this bill. But the headline is: We closed the loophole! So no more worries about that loophole. But yeah, amnesty passed.</p>
<p>Why else would everyone be carrying on about a non-existent loophole? I know they&#8217;re mistaken because I read the law.</p>
<p>The Wilberforce law states, in relevant part:</p>
<p>&#8220;Any unaccompanied alien child sought to be removed by the Department of Homeland Security, except for an unaccompanied alien child from a contiguous country (i.e. Mexico &#8212; or Canada, so as not to sound discriminatory) &#8230; shall be &#8212; placed in removal proceedings &#8230; eligible for relief &#8230; at no cost to the child and provided access to counsel.&#8221;</p>
<p>Obviously, that&#8217;s the whole ball of wax. Once a kid is in, given La Raza attorneys and a hearing date, he&#8217;s never going home. No immigration judge is going to listen to a lawyer-manufactured sob story and say, &#8220;No, I&#8217;m sorry, that didn&#8217;t touch my heart. You have to go back to Huehuetenango.&#8221;</p>
<p>But the law&#8217;s definition of &#8220;unaccompanied alien child&#8221; limits the hearings to kids who have no relatives in the United States. If your relatives live here, the law assumes you&#8217;re not being sex-trafficked &#8212; you&#8217;re trying to join them.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the definition &#8212; note subsection (C):</p>
<p>&#8220;(g) Definitions</p>
<p>&#8220;(2) the term &#8216;unaccompanied alien child&#8217; means a child who &#8211;</p>
<p>(A) has no lawful immigration status in the United States;</p>
<p>(B) has not attained 18 years of age; and</p>
<p>(C) with respect to whom &#8211;</p>
<p>(i) there is no parent or legal guardian in the United States; or (ii) no parent or legal guardian in the United States is available to provide care and physical custody.&#8221;</p>
<p>The law is not &#8212; as George Will suggested on &#8220;Fox News Sunday&#8221; &#8212; a general humanitarian mandate allowing all 2 billion poor children of the world to show up at our border and be told, &#8220;Welcome to America!&#8221; It&#8217;s a law to combat sex trafficking.</p>
<p>Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Vice President Joe Biden wrote the law &#8212; and Feinstein isn&#8217;t stupid. She&#8217;s well aware of illegal immigration. That&#8217;s why the law specifically excludes two huge categories of illegal aliens from getting hearings: (1) Mexicans; and (2) children who have relatives in the U.S.</p>
<p>Those cases look more like illegal immigration than sex trafficking. (Didn&#8217;t anyone wonder why Mexican kids are excluded?)</p>
<p>Mexicans make up the lion&#8217;s share of illegal immigrants in the U.S., and children with relatives already living in the U.S. are probably just trying to rejoin family &#8212; not trying to escape a fiendish kidnapper about to sell them into sex slavery.</p>
<p>According to last Friday&#8217;s New York Times, almost 90 percent of the 53,000 illegal alien kids given refugee status since October have already been transferred to parents or relatives living in the U.S. By the law&#8217;s clear terms, those 47,000 kids should have been summarily turned away at the border &#8212; just as Mexican children are.</p>
<p>(Democrats wailing about a &#8220;humanitarian&#8221; crisis &#8212; after calculating the precise number of voters they need &#8212; evidently don&#8217;t care about the Mexican kids.)</p>
<p>No law needs to be fixed. The only thing that needs to be fixed is the president.</p>
<p>Obama has gone mad and is defying the law in order to &#8220;fundamentally transform America&#8221; &#8212; as he pledged to do during the 2008 campaign &#8212; into Latin America. (Luckily for George Will, he won&#8217;t be around by the time Latin America gets to his neighborhood.)</p>
<p>Any Republicans pushing for an immigration bill to seal an imaginary loophole aren&#8217;t fighting Obama; they&#8217;re helping him.</p>
<p>Constitutionally, the remedy for a president defying the law so he can assist an alien invasion is impeachment. But the media won&#8217;t let us impeach Obama &#8212; and Republicans don&#8217;t have the votes, anyway. The only way for Americans to fight back is to put large Republican majorities in the House and Senate this November.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>A Latin American Leftist&#8217;s Second Thoughts</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/lloyd-billingsley/a-latin-american-leftists-second-thoughts/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-latin-american-leftists-second-thoughts</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Jun 2014 04:40:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lloyd Billingsley]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eduardo Galeano]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hugo Chavez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latin America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[manifesto]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[renounce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wrong]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=233265</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Eduardo Galeano disavows his leftist-beloved manifesto. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/6a00d8341c575d53ef0148c7f2992c970c.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-233266" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/6a00d8341c575d53ef0148c7f2992c970c.jpg" alt="6a00d8341c575d53ef0148c7f2992c970c" width="297" height="292" /></a>“This brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America,” reads the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Open-Veins-Latin-America-Centuries/dp/184668742X"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Amazon description of Eduardo Galeano’s <i>The Open Veins of Latin America</i></span></a>, the book Venezuelan leftist Hugo Chavez presented to U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009. “It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx.”</p>
<p>Published in 1971, <i>The Open Veins of Latin America</i> was a bestseller and has become a keystone of the left-wing canon on American college campuses. Trouble is, the book’s 73-year-old Uruguayan author now considers the book’s rhetoric “extremely leaden” and concedes that back in the day he didn’t know much about economics or the way the world works.</p>
<p>“I know it took real courage — even gallantry — for Galeano to publicly correct himself,” wrote exiled Cuban journalist <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/379158/idiots-lose-their-religion-carlos-alberto-montaner"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Carlos Alberto Montaner in <i>National Review</i></span></a>. “It’s not easy to admit when you are wrong. And it is even more difficult when you are a hero to so many, as Galeano has been.”</p>
<p>In 1996 Montaner teamed with Peruvian author Alvaro Vargas Llosa and Colombian journalist Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Perfect-Latin-American-Idiot/dp/156833236X"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i>Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot</i></span></a>. One chapter, “The Idiot’s Bible,” Montaner says,</p>
<blockquote><p>“was devoted to explaining what Galeano himself now confirms: that the author knew very little about economics, and what little he thought he knew was totally wrong.”</p></blockquote>
<p>The authors’ summary of Galeano’s book, “We’re poor; it’s their fault” even showed up in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/24/books/eduardo-galeano-disavows-his-book-the-open-veins.html?_r=0"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i>New York Times</i> piece by Larry Rohter headlined “Author Changes His Mind on ’70s Manifesto: Eduardo Galeano Disavows His Book ‘The Open Veins.’”</span></a> The article noted that <i>The Caviar Left</i> author Rodrigo Constantino had blamed Galeano’s analysis for many of Latin America’s ills and said the Uruguayan “<span style="color: #272727;">should feel really guilty for the damage he caused.”</span></p>
<p style="color: #272727;">But the caviar left thought otherwise.</p>
<p>Chilean novelist Isabel Allende, who authored a foreword for <i>Open Veins</i>, told Rohter that Galeano “may have changed, and I didn’t notice it, but I don’t think so.” Michael Yates, of the leftist Monthly Review Press, told the <i>Times</i> that “the book is an entity independent of the writer and anything he might think now.” So in the style of Hillary Clinton, “what difference does it make” if the author changed his mind about his central thesis? Several professors told the <i>Times</i> that they would take account of Galeano’s views but others discount his change of mind.</p>
<p>“Rather than disavowing the book entirely,” University of Pennsylvania graduate student <a href="http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2014/05/27/much-ado-about-nothing-the-times-non-story-about-eduardo-galeanos-non-apology/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Adam Goodman wrote</span></a>, “it would seem Galeano offered a critique of it and its young author, with the benefit of hindsight and forty-plus years of experience, both lived and learned.” However, discussion of the book’s limitations, <span style="color: #424242;">“whether based on content, style, or in the framing, is admirable and potentially productive for the Latin American left.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Andy Baker, political scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder and author of <i>The Market and the Masses in Latin America</i>, weighed in with a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/06/02/latin-americans-are-embracing-globalization-and-their-former-colonial-masters/"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i>Washington Post</i> blog</span></a>. Baker noted that “</span>Latin America is the region that spawned dependency theory, which was the neo-Marxist body of scholarly thought that informed Galeano’s critique of international trade.” But despite Galeano, data shows that many Latin Americans are favorable toward international trade, multinational corporations, and the United States. “The most pro-American countries,” says Baker, “are those most victimized by U.S. military forays,” the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, for example.</p>
<p>When it comes to their economic ills, Baker explains, Latin Americans do not blame Spain, the IMF, Warren Buffett “or even the U.S. military, as Galeano did in his previous life.” Instead “voters in Latin America exact retribution against governments that oversee sluggish economies, and the ham-fisted attempts by Chávez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro, to continue blaming Venezuela’s downward spiral on the United States are increasingly falling on deaf ears.” So for the University of Colorado political scientist, “Galeano’s decision to recant his old work in the face of a new reality and new evidence on globalization was intellectually brave and admirable. As it turns out, Latin American citizens were way ahead of him.”</p>
<p><span style="color: #212121;">So were authors such as Carlos Alberto Montaner and Alvaro Vargas Llosa, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Liberty-Latin-America-Hundred-Oppression/dp/0374185743"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i>Liberty for Latin America: How to Undo Five Hundred Years of State Oppression</i></span></a></span>. So was Hernando De Soto, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Other-Path-Hernando-Soto/dp/0465016103"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i>The Other Path: The Economic Answer to Terrorism</i></span></a>. American professors willing to reconsider Galeano’s <i>Open Veins</i> should open their courses to works like this.</p>
<p>President Obama has not responded to Eduardo Galeano’s critique of the book Hugo Chavez gave him in 2009. Like Galeano, Obama shows little knowledge of economic classics such as F.A. Hayek’s <i>The Road to Serfdom</i>.  Obama already believed that the United States was essentially a colonial looter but unlike Galeano the president shows the inability to change his mind based on facts and history.</p>
<p>To publicly correct oneself, as Carlos Alberto Montaner noted, takes “real courage – even gallantry.” The President of the United States just doesn’t have it.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Russia&#8217;s Threat in the Americas</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/russias-threat-in-the-americas/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=russias-threat-in-the-americas</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:56:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cuba]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hague]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latin America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nicaragua]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Putin]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=222049</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Putin's disturbing military build-up in our own backyard. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/vladimir-putin-nicolas-maduro-evo-morales-cumbre-gas-rusia-foto-efe.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-222122" alt="vladimir-putin-nicolas-maduro-evo-morales-cumbre-gas-rusia-foto-efe" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/vladimir-putin-nicolas-maduro-evo-morales-cumbre-gas-rusia-foto-efe.jpg" width="280" height="186" /></a></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">President Obama dismissed Russia as no more than a “regional power” in remarks he made to the press in The Hague on March 25</span><sup style="line-height: 1.5em;">th</sup><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, where he was attending a summit meeting on nuclear security. “Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors not out of strength, but out of weakness,” he said.</span></p>
<p>True, the Russian Federation is a shadow of the Soviet empire in its heyday. And Russia is not driven by a global Communist ideology that it seeks to spread to every part of the world in opposition to the capitalist democratic model, as the Soviet Union tried to do. But that does not make Russia a weak neighborhood bully posing little threat beyond its “immediate neighbors,” as President Obama seems to think. Mitt Romney was right when he said during the 2012 presidential campaign that Russia is “our number one geopolitical foe.”</p>
<p>First, consider Russia’s nuclear arsenal. According to a <a href="http://bos.sagepub.com/content/69/3/71.full.pdf">Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists study</a> published in May 2013, it was estimated that, as of March 2013, Russia had “a military stockpile of approximately 4,500 nuclear warheads, of which roughly 1,800 strategic warheads are deployed on missiles and at bomber bases.” Russia is also “modernizing its nuclear forces, replacing Soviet-era ballistic missiles with fewer improved missiles. In a decade, almost all Soviet-era weapons will be gone, leaving a smaller but still effective force that will be more mobile than what it replaced.”</p>
<p>While these are only estimates, since Russia is not transparent about how many nuclear weapons it has, the size of Russia’s arsenal and its ambitious modernization program do not connote the image of weakness that Obama wants to paint of Russia as a mere “regional” power. By way of comparison, the United States “has an estimated 4,650 nuclear warheads available for delivery by more than 800 ballistic missiles and aircraft,” according to a <a href="http://bos.sagepub.com/content/70/1/85.full.pdf">Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists study</a> published in January 2014.</p>
<p>These numbers and Russia’s modernization strategy should be placed in the context of a very disturbing statement made last December by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Dmitry Rogozin: “We have never diminished the importance of nuclear weapons—the weapon of requital—as the great balancer of chances.” Rogozin has said that Russia was prepared to use nuclear weapons if attacked first even by only conventional weapons.</p>
<p>Russia is also on the march far from its immediate neighborhood and much closer to the United States. According to Gen. James Kelly, commander of U.S. Southern Command, who discussed his concerns regarding the increased presence of Russia in Latin America at a Senate hearing earlier this month, there has been a “noticeable uptick in Russian power projection and security force personnel. It has been over three decades since we last saw this type of high-profile Russian military presence.”</p>
<p>Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced last month plans to build military bases in such countries as Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, as well as outside of Latin America including Vietnam, the Seychelles, and Singapore. “The talks are under way, and we are close to signing the relevant documents,” Shoigu said. Russia is also on the lookout for refueling sites for Russian strategic bombers on patrol.</p>
<p>Russia is already a major arms supplier to Venezuela, whose navy has conducted joint maneuvers with Russian ships. At least four Russian Navy ships visited Venezuela last August, the Venezuelan daily El Universal reported.</p>
<p>“Two Russian Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers flew last October from an airbase in southwestern Russia and landed in Venezuela in routine exercise,” Russia&#8217;s Defense Ministry announced, according to the Voice of Russia. “The nuclear-capable bombers, which took off from the Engels airbase in the Volga region, ‘flew over the Caribbean, the eastern Pacific and along the southwestern coast of the North American continent, and landed at Maiquetia airfield in Venezuela,’ the ministry said in a statement.”</p>
<p>Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela, is so enamored of Putin that he expressed support last year for the Russian president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. During a visit to Moscow by Maduro last summer, Maduro and Putin reaffirmed, in Putin’s words, &#8220;their wish for continuing their course towards strategic cooperation in all sectors.&#8221;</p>
<p>Putin was the first Russian president to visit Cuba since the collapse of the Soviet Union. <a href="http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/01-08-2012/121804-russia_army_base-0/">Pravda quoted Putin</a> as declaring in 2012 that Russia gained the consent of the Cuban leadership to place “the latest mobile strategic nuclear missiles ‘Oak’ on the island,” supposedly as a brush back against U.S. actions to create a buffer zone near Russia. Last month, according to a report by Fox News Latino, “the intelligence-gathering ship Viktor Leonov docked in Havana’s harbor without warning.” It was reportedly armed with 30mm guns and anti-aircraft missiles.</p>
<p>Left-wing Argentinian President Cristina Fernández is intent on forging closer relations with Russia, inviting Russia to invest in fuel projects. In return for Russia’s support of Argentina’s quest to annex the Falkland Islands, Fernández supported Putin’s grab of Crimea. Crimea &#8220;has always belonged to Russia,&#8221; she said, just as the Falkland Islands have &#8220;always belonged to Argentina.&#8221; She added that the Crimean referendum was &#8220;one of the famous referendums of self-determination.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa praised Russia as a “great nation” during a visit to Moscow last October after Putin pledged to invest up to $1.5 billion into new domestic energy projects in Ecuador. Correa said Ecuador was also interested in buying Russian military equipment.</p>
<p>Brazil is planning to purchase short-to-medium-range surface-to-air Pantsir S1 missile batteries and Igla-S shoulder-held missiles from Russia. It has already bought 12 Mi-35 attack helicopters. This is all part of what Brazil views as a growing strategic relationship with Russia, as Brazil leads efforts to counter U.S. electronic surveillance that included alleged spying on Brazilian citizens. &#8220;More than buying military equipment, what we are seeking with Russia is a strategic partnership based on the joint development of technology,&#8221; said Brazilian Defense Minister Celso Amorim after meeting with his Russian counterpart.</p>
<p>After Daniel Ortega, the leader of the Sandinista revolution, returned to power in Nicaragua in 2007, Russia and Nicaragua have moved in the direction of a strategic economic and military relationship. In October 2013, for example, Nicaragua and Russia signed a memorandum of international security cooperation. Russia’s Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev noted during his visit to Nicaragua that “Nicaragua is an important partner and friend of Russia in Latin America,” pointing to the coincidence of views of the two countries’ authorities “on many issues.” For his part, Ortega said: “We are very grateful and very much appreciate the Russian people’s support of our country.”  Ortega welcomed the arrival of two Russian strategic bombers Tupolev Tu-160.  Ortega added that Putin had sent him a letter, in which the Russian leader reaffirmed his “readiness to continue to work together with our country.”</p>
<p>According to a March 2014 report by the Strategic Culture Foundation, a progressive, pro-Russian think tank, Nicaragua’s</p>
<blockquote><p>parliament has ratified a cabinet resolution allowing Russian military divisions, ships and aircraft to visit the republic during the first half of 2014 for experience sharing and training of military personnel of the Central American republic. Furthermore, the parliament has approved the participation of Russian military personnel in joint patrols of the republic&#8217;s territorial waters in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean from January 1 through June 30, 2015.</p></blockquote>
<p>Russia is also forging a closer relationship with El Salvador, which has been led by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (“FMLN”) that arose out of a left-wing guerrilla movement from the country&#8217;s 1979-1992 civil war. Leftist ex-guerrilla Sanchez Ceren has just won the presidential election. He can be expected to build on the “Federal Law On Ratification of the Agreement on the Foundations of Relations” between the Russian Federation and the Republic of El Salvador, signed by Vladimir Putin in November 2012. It was the first interstate agreement between the two countries since they established diplomatic relations in 1992.</p>
<p>In fact, given Ceren’s background &#8211; one of five top guerrilla commanders during the civil war that left 76,000 dead and over 12,000 missing &#8211; we can expect a more avowedly anti-U.S. government that will welcome Russia’s outstretched arms. After all, the FMLN leadership during the civil war described its own ideology as “Marxism-Leninism.”</p>
<p>On a regional level, the Strategic Culture Foundation has reported that the Central American Common Market, which includes Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador, “advocates the creation of a free trade zone with the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.”</p>
<p>Foreign ministers from members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and Russia declared their intention, after meeting in Moscow last May, that they were working to establish a means of continuous dialogue “to discuss and synchronize positions on international issues.” CELAC includes thirty-three countries in the Americas, but the United States and Canada are excluded.</p>
<p>&#8220;Imperial Russia never left, to be blunt,&#8221; Stephen Blank, senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council said as quoted in Deutsche Welle. “What they&#8217;re looking for in Latin America is great-power influence, they have never forsaken that quest. There&#8217;s no doubt that Moscow is dead serious about seeking naval bases and port access in Latin America.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the Middle East, also out of range of Russia’s “immediate neighbors,” Russia continues to prop up the Assad regime in Syria with increased shipment of arms. Reuters reported in January 2014 that “[I]n recent weeks Russia has stepped up supplies of military gear to Syria, including armored vehicles, drones and guided bombs.” Putin also managed to out-maneuver Obama regarding the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons program, buying more time for Assad and enhancing his legitimacy.</p>
<p>Moreover, Russia is running interference for Assad at the United Nations Security Council, where Russia, along with China, vetoed a series of resolutions aimed at condemning and sanctioning the Assad regime. Its veto power in the Security Council puts Russia in parity with the other four permanent members of the Security Council – the U.S., the United Kingdom, France and China. As Russia demonstrated with regard to Syria as well as the veto it recently exercised to block a Security Council resolution on Crimea, Russia is exploiting this lever of “soft power” to exert its influence on the global stage.</p>
<p>Russia is also continuing to cultivate stronger ties with Iran, while also participating in the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program that include the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany. Russia is one of Iran’s leading trading partners, selling Iran nuclear technology and arms. When Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif visited Moscow last January he extended an invitation to Vladimir Putin to visit Tehran. Putin replied: “I hope to visit you in Tehran very soon. We have a large bilateral agenda. This relates firstly to our trade and economic ties, of course.” Putin also went out of his way to praise the Iranian regime, declaring that the nuclear negotiations were advancing because of “the efforts of the Iranian authorities and the stance of the Iranian authorities.” More recently, because of the mounting tensions over the Ukraine crisis, Russia has threatened to stop cooperating with respect to the nuclear negotiations with Iran. That may not mean very much, considering Russia’s existing back door dealings with Iran that reduce Iran’s economic incentives to negotiate in good faith. However, just by making this threat and having it paid attention to in Washington and other world capitals, Russia has made a point regarding its influence beyond its “immediate neighbors.”</p>
<p>Finally, there is the whole battleground of cyber warfare which has no geographical boundaries. An article in the winter 2014 publication of <i>inFocus Quarterly</i>, titled <a href="http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/4924/russian-cyber-capabilities">“Russian Cyber Capabilities, Policy and Practice”</a> by David J. Smith, Senior Fellow and Cyber Center Director at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Washington and Director of the Georgian Security Analysis Center in Tbilisi, paints a grim picture.</p>
<p>“Russia—its government and a motley crew of sometimes government-sponsored but always government-connected cyber-criminals and youth group members—has integrated cyber operations into its military doctrine,” according to Mr. Smith. Russia “has used cyber tools against enemies foreign and domestic, and is conducting strategic espionage against the United States.”</p>
<p>After describing the multifaceted Russian approach to information warfare and the government’s close links with the “thriving cyber-criminal industry” and extensive well-trained youth groups all too happy to sell their services to the government, Mr. Smith concluded:  “In sum, Russia—in its capabilities and its intent—presents a major cyber challenge to the United States.”</p>
<p>Russia is not a superpower on the order of the former Soviet Union. But Putin’s animosity towards the United States, coupled with Russia’s expanding role internationally through alliances with countries in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, Russia’s exploitation of its permanent member status on the UN Security Council and its nuclear arms and cyber warfare capabilities, all add up to a very dangerous geopolitical foe.  President Obama needs to wake up to the fact that Vladimir Putin will not be content to play only in his own neighborhood, and that he has a variety of tools at hand to cause serious mischief far from Russia’s own borders.</p>
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		<title>A Castro Groupie&#8217;s Strategy to Reduce Violence</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/humberto-fontova/a-castro-groupies-strategy-to-reduce-violence/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-castro-groupies-strategy-to-reduce-violence</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Sep 2013 04:02:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Humberto Fontova]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Castro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cuba]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[firearms]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gun owners]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latin America]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=202806</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[CFR’s Julia Sweig wants American gun–owners fingerprinted.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/gtw.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-202810" alt="gtw" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/gtw.jpg" width="300" height="208" /></a>This month the Council on Foreign Relations released a “Policy Innovation Memorandum” titled “A Strategy to Reduce Gun Trafficking and Violence in the Americas.” The memo was authored by the CFR’s “Senior Fellow for Latin American Studies,” Julia F. Sweig.</p>
<p>According to Ms. Sweig, the “policy” that needs “innovation” is U.S. gun laws.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>In brief:  because too many people are shooting each other in <i>Latin America</i>. “The flow of high-powered weaponry from the United States to Latin America and the Caribbean exacerbates soaring rates of gun-related violence in the region,” asserts <a href="http://www.cfr.org/arms-industries-and-trade/strategy-reduce-gun-trafficking-violence-americas/p31155">her memo.</a></p>
<p>“[R]ecent federal gun control measures have run aground on congressional opposition,” laments Ms Sweig.</p>
<blockquote><p>“[T]hough the Senate rejected measures to expand background checks on firearms sales, reinstate a federal assault-weapons ban, and make straw purchasing a federal crime, the Obama administration can<strong> </strong>still take executive action to reduce the availability and trafficking of assault weapons and ammunition in the Americas[.]&#8220;</p></blockquote>
<p>In brief: to foil Latin American criminals (many of whom cross the southern U.S. border essentially at will) the CFR urges the U.S. president to use every ounce of his executive power and privilege to further gut the constitutional self-defense rights of U.S. citizens. Our President needs to roll up his sleeves, spit on his hands, and ram through regulations that have been repeatedly thwarted by the elected law-makers of the American people.</p>
<blockquote><p>“The White House should back state and local legislation, in Maryland and Connecticut, which ban the sale of assault rifles (actually: semi-automatic deer-hunting rifles) and high-capacity magazines, broaden existing background check requirements for firearms purchases, and modernize gun-owner registries by requiring, among others, that buyers submit their fingerprints when applying for a gun license.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>All of the above to show our “Latino” neighbors “that United States can be a legitimate partner in “combating transnational crime” and to “fulfill our shared responsibility for regional security.”</p>
<p>As seen, Senior Fellow Julia Sweig professes great concern for curbing “transnational crime” and enhancing “regional security.” But much of her career consists of lobbying for the interests of Castro’s Cuba, historically (and still) the top benefactor of Latin America’s most murderous gun-runners, drug-gangs and terrorists, not to mention the regime that came closest to igniting a worldwide nuclear war.</p>
<p>&#8220;Thanks to Fidel Castro, we are now a powerful army, not a hit and run band,&#8221; boasted Tiro-Fijo, the late commander of FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.)  The FARC’s 50 year murder toll, by the way, far surpasses that of Hezbollah, the Taliban <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1594036675/">and Al Qaeda combined.</a></p>
<p>When Julia Sweig visited Cuba in 2010, accompanied by <i>The Atlantic’s </i>Jeffrey Goldberg, something caught Goldberg’s eye:</p>
<p>“We shook hands,” he writes about the meeting with Fidel Castro. “Then he greeted Julia warmly. They (Castro and Sweig) have known each other for more than twenty years.”</p>
<p>Sweig’s promotional services for the Castro regime reached a level where the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency top Cuba spycatcher, Chris Simmons (now retired), named her a Cuban “Agent of Influence.”  Some background:</p>
<p>In 25 years as a U.S. Military Counterintelligence officer, Lieut. Col. Simmons helped end the operations of 80 enemy agents, some are today behind bars. One of these had managed the deepest penetration of the U.S. Department of Defense in U.S. history. The spy&#8217;s name is Ana Montes, known as “Castro’s Queen Jewel” in the intelligence community. “Montes passed some of our most sensitive information about Cuba back to Havana” said then-Undersecretary for International Security, John Bolton.</p>
<p>Today she serves a 25-year sentence in Federal prison. She was convicted of &#8220;Conspiracy to Commit Espionage,&#8221; the same charge against Ethel and Julius Rosenberg carrying the same potential death sentence for what is widely considered the most damaging espionage case since the “end” of the Cold War. Two years later, in 2003, Chris Simmons helped root out 14 Cuban spies who were promptly booted from the U.S.</p>
<p>In brief, retired Lieut. Col. Chris Simmons knows what he’s talking about.</p>
<p>Ms. Sweig indeed holds preeminence in one field. No “scholars” in modern American history thanks the “warm friendship” and “support” of six different communist spies and terrorists in the acknowledgments of their book, three of whom were expelled from the U.S. for terrorism and/or espionage, two for a bombing plot whose death toll would have dwarfed 9/11. Some background:</p>
<p>On Nov. 17, 1962, the FBI cracked a plot by Cuban agents that targeted Macy&#8217;s, Gimbel&#8217;s, Bloomingdale&#8217;s and Manhattan&#8217;s Grand Central Terminal with a dozen incendiary devices and 500 kilos of TNT. The massive attack was set for the following week, the day after Thanksgiving. Macy&#8217;s get&#8217;s 50,000 shoppers that one day. Had those detonators gone off, 9/11’s death toll would have almost certainly taken second.</p>
<p>Here are pictures of some of the Cuban terrorists upon arrest. <a href="http://babalublog.com/2013/08/10/the-council-on-foreign-relations-julia-sweig-pushes-for-stronger-sanctions-against-american-deer-hunters-but-lifted-from-terror-sponsoring-regimes/">Note the names<i>:  Elsa Montero</i> and <i>Jose Gomez Abad.</i></a></p>
<p>Now here’s an excerpt from the acknowledgements in Julia Sweig’s book <i>Inside the Cuban Revolution</i>, written in collaboration with the Castro-regime:</p>
<blockquote><p>“In Cuba many people spent long hours with me, helped open doors I could not have pushed through myself, and offered friendship and warmth to myself during research trips to the island…Elsa Montero and Jose Gomez Abad championed this project.”</p></blockquote>
<p>In addition to these two KGB-trained terrorists, the CFR’s Julia Sweig thanks the “warm friendship and championship of” of Ramon Sanchez Parodi, Jose Antonio Arbesu, Fernando Miguel Garcia, Hugo Ernesto Yedra and Josefina Vidal for their “warmth, their friendship and their kindness in opening Cuban doors.”</p>
<p>All the above have been identified by Lieut. Col Chris Simmons as veteran officers <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1594036675/">in Castro’s KGB-trained intelligence services. </a></p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
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		<title>Terror-Haven Latin American Countries Bash NSA</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/latin-american-foreign-ministers-bash-u-s-surveillance-program/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=latin-american-foreign-ministers-bash-u-s-surveillance-program</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Aug 2013 04:24:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[al Qaeda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[American surveillance program]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latin America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorist]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Why the likes of Venezuela and Argentina have no grounds to complain. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/surv.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-199707" alt="surv" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/surv-450x321.jpg" width="315" height="225" /></a>Five foreign ministers from member states comprising the Latin American Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) trade bloc, led by Venezuela’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Elías Jaua, met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on August 5th to condemn the United States for spying on them. They expressed their serious concerns about alleged U.S. electronic surveillance of their countries as disclosed by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden.</p>
<p>Aside from the Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs, the other attendees at the meeting included H.E. Mr. Héctor Timerman, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina; H.E. Mr. David Choquehuanca, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bolivia; H.E. Mr. Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil; and H.E. Mr. Luis Almagro, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay.</p>
<p>Following the closed-door meeting with the Secretary General, the foreign ministers met with reporters. Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Jaua delivered a long monologue in Spanish describing what was discussed at the meeting. U.S. spying, he said, constituted a violation of fundamental human rights of citizens of his country and of all countries of the world.</p>
<p>Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Patriota then summarized in English the message he and his colleagues delivered to the Secretary General, which he characterized as an “alert.”  He said that the Snowden allegations had &#8220;grave implications,&#8221; raising questions regarding &#8220;respect to individual rights, the right to privacy, and the right to information.&#8221;</p>
<p>The members of MERCOSUR, Patriota said, advocate the adoption by multilateral institutions of standards for the regulation of the Internet, particularly with respect to cyber security, and called for international sanctions in response to the alleged actions of U.S. intelligence agencies. He did not elaborate on what form such sanctions might take.</p>
<p>Patriota also said that the group questioned the grounding of the aircraft carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales last month.</p>
<p>According to a read-out of his meeting with the MERCOSUR ministers, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon noted, as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had stated recently, that there were important rights and privacy issues at stake in connection with the surveillance.  He also reiterated that a head of state and his or her aircraft enjoy immunity and inviolability.</p>
<p>In remarks to the UN Security Council the following day, Patriota said that the “interception of telecommunications and acts of espionage in our region” constituted “a violation of our citizens’ human rights” as well as acts “in defiance of the sovereignty” of nations.</p>
<p>Argentina is currently a member of the Security Council and is assuming its rotating presidency this month. Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner decided to come to New York to preside over the August 6<sup>th</sup> meeting of the Security Council and formally present MERCOSUR’s concerns about the U.S. surveillance program to the Council. She said she had discussed with the UN Secretary General &#8220;the needs to establish regulations of a global nature to ensure and protect sovereignty of states and privacy of citizens in the world.&#8221;</p>
<p>Unsaid is the dangerous threat to all countries in the region, including the United States homeland, posed by Iran and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah which MERCOSUR countries, particularly Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil, have allowed to grow with relative impunity in their countries. Instead of confronting head-on this escalating terrorist threat which can result in mass fatalities among their civilian populations, these governments have chosen to condemn the United States for taking legitimate defensive measures against the terrorists’ physical presence in close proximity to the United States.</p>
<p>Venezuela in particular is a legitimate target for U.S. electronic surveillance because of its government’s extensive ties to Iran and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah.  Argentina and Brazil have also served as breeding grounds for Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations.</p>
<p>Roger Noriega, a former United States ambassador to the Organization of American States and Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told House of Representatives lawmakers at a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in March 2012 that Hezbollah has infiltrated Venezuela’s governmental bodies. Mr. Noriega said that Venezuela has helped Iran to use Venezuelan financial institutions to launder money and evade financial sectors. It has also enabled Iran to set up terrorist training facilities on the country’s Margarita Island.</p>
<p>“Hezbollah is not a lone wolf,” Noriega said. “In this Hemisphere it counts on the political, diplomatic, material and logistical support of governments – principally Venezuela and Iran – that have little in common but their hostility to the United States.”</p>
<p>The Venezuelan regime under Chavez’s rule sent weapons to Hezbollah. Iran in turn has provided the Venezuelan military with weapon systems and is reported to be building missile bases in Venezuela. Indeed, said Noriega, “Venezuela plays a singular role as a platform for the Hezbollah threat in the Americas.”</p>
<p>If anything the situation is getting even worse under Chavez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro.</p>
<p>Venezuela may be the worst security threat in the Latin American region by virtue of its well-established ties to Iran and Hezbollah. But it is not alone.  There are also Iranian-Hezbollah terrorist networks in other Latin American countries, including MERCOSUR members Argentina and Brazil, according to former U.S. Ambassador Noriega’s congressional testimony.  For example, he detailed the continuing role in terrorist recruitment played by Hojjat al-Eslam Mohsen Rabbani, who served as the cultural attache at Iran’s embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Rabbani was reported to be the mastermind behind the two terrorist attacks against Jewish targets in Buenos Aires in 1992 and 1994 that killed 144 people.</p>
<p>Operating more recently from the city of Qom in Iran and relying on his disciples in Argentina to identify and recruit more operatives for terrorist training in the Latin American region, Rabbani has overseen the spread of a parallel Hezbollah network beyond Argentina and Venezuela. One of their key targets is Brazil, to which Rabbani – referred to by the Brazilian magazine Veja as “the Terrorist Professor” – has traveled regularly to meet his brother, founder of the Iranian Association in Brazil.</p>
<p>According to Brazilian and U.S. intelligence sources, cited by the Veja magazine in 2011, at least 20 operatives from Hezbollah, al Qaeda, Hamas and two other unnamed groups have been using Brazil as a hub for terrorist activity. They have been planning attacks, raising money and recruiting followers. “Without anybody noticing, a generation of Islamic extremists is appearing in Brazil,” said Alexandre Camanho de Assis, who was coordinating Brazil’s network of public prosecutors across 13 states at the time.</p>
<p>Brazil will be potentially ground zero for terrorist attacks when it hosts the World Cup tournament in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016.</p>
<p>I asked Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Aguiar Patriota about the reported activities of terrorists in and around Brazil. While declaring that the reports were “unconfirmed,” he did not deny there was a potential problem. Apparently, he is not particularly worried about Iran’s role as a state sponsor of terrorism, including within Latin America. Just a few days before coming to New York to join his colleagues in condemning the United States at the United Nations, Patriota visited Tehran to attend the oath taking ceremony of the new Iranian President Hassan Rowhani. Evidently oblivious to multinational economic sanctions imposed on Iran for its nuclear arms development program, Patriota assured the Iranians that his “presence in Tehran indicates to what extent Iran is important for Brazil as both sides are keen on widescale economic and commercial cooperation.”</p>
<p>Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, who has complained about the diversion of his plane suspected of carrying the fugitive Snowden, has also opened his country’s doors to Iran. For example, Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi was in Bolivia in 2011 to inaugurate a training facility built by Iran for the purpose of teaching asymmetric warfare. Vahidi did not make any secret of the purpose of this facility. While in Bolivia he told the media, “Powerful Iran is ready to deliver a firm response to any hostile and unwise behavior by the United States.” Vahdi, by the way, had a hand in in the 1994 Iran-Hezbollah bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina.</p>
<p>As for Edward Snowden, who has gained asylum in Russia for at least one year, Venezuela may become this weasel’s ultimate destination. He said that Venezuela had his &#8220;gratitude and respect for being the first to stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the powerless&#8230;&#8221;</p>
<p>Snowden is obviously snowed by his own delusions fed by the anti-American propaganda he has absorbed, as he turns to police states like Russia and Venezuela for supposed protection. The Venezuelan government, directly or through proxies serving as a parallel security force, regularly spies on its own people. For example, a well-known Venezuelan journalist, who published a couple of articles in 2011 about a developing corruption scandal in the energy sector that implicated members of Hugo Chavez’s government, found a satellite tracker in his car, his e-mails hacked into, his confidential notes missing, and his elderly mother subjected to threatening phone calls from Venezuela’s intelligence service.</p>
<p>Jews have been given special attention by the Venezuelan government’s clandestine spying operations.</p>
<p>“As part of the security apparatus of the regime, many Venezuelans are under surveillance,” said Sammy Eppel, a Jewish columnist at the Venezuelan daily El Nacional, a leading opposition newspaper. “The Jewish community is obviously perceived as some sort of threat that warrants those actions.”</p>
<p>Morales’ Bolivia is also a rat’s nest of surveillance and routine invasions of its citizens’ privacy. Spying targets have included members of the opposition party, such as it is, and journalists. In fact, the surveillance is so widespread in Bolivia that a senator from Morales&#8217; Movement Toward Socialism party said it was no big deal. “We all know there exists state security system, and that system has to keep up on the movements of political parties, unions,” the senator said. “Everybody&#8217;s done it.”</p>
<p>What the United States has done is to institute an electronic surveillance program that is designed to be sophisticated and widespread enough to pick up intelligence on terrorist plots before they are brought to lethal fruition. The revelations in the last several days of a well-advanced terrorist plot, learned from interceptions of high level al Qaeda communications, underscore the importance of having such intercept capacity in place. The Latin American countries harboring terrorists, or simply pretending the problem does not exist within their borders, have allowed a threat to security in the entire region to get out of hand. They have no legitimate grounds to complain about measures the United States decides to take to protect the lives of its own citizens from any resulting terrorist spill-over.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
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		<title>Press Freedom Under Attack in Latin America</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/jlaksin/press-freedom-under-attack-in-latin-america/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=press-freedom-under-attack-in-latin-america</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/jlaksin/press-freedom-under-attack-in-latin-america/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:16:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[daniel ortega]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hugo Chavez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latin America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[press freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rafael Correa]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=121933</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Leftist dictators launch a war on their countries' media.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/chavez-correa-ortega.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-121934" title="chavez correa ortega" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/chavez-correa-ortega-300x205.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="205" /></a></p>
<p>Journalism watchdog Reporters Without Borders recently made headlines when it demoted the United States in its annual rankings of press freedom for an alleged &#8220;crackdown&#8221; on reporters covering Occupy Wall Street. Not only was that downgrade <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/01/31/press-freedom-in-peril/">deeply tendentious</a>, but it served to obscure a far graver threat to press freedom: the ongoing assault on independent media in Latin America.</p>
<p>The rise of populist left-wing leaders in Latin America has been an unmitigated disaster for the independent press. For all their appeals to democracy, strongman leaders like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Ecuador&#8217;s Rafael Correa, and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega have been unwilling to submit to democratic scrutiny from the media. Intolerant of dissent, they have launched crackdowns on journalists and media owners with the ultimate goal of curtailing the influence and independence of the press and eliminating one of the few remaining challenges to their power. To a troubling extent, they have succeeded.</p>
<p>Hugo Chavez has long been on the frontlines of the war against the media. Since becoming president in 1999, Chavez has worked to build up a loyalist media empire that would drown out independent and critical media – or, in Chavez’s neo-Marxist parlance, free him from the “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12902155">media dictatorship of the bourgeoisie</a>.” In 2005, for instance, he set up <a href="http://blog.heritage.org/2011/03/24/does-obama-have-an-answer-to-chavezs-telesur/">TELESUR</a>, a state-run network that functions as his personal propaganda outlet. If there is to be a media dictatorship in Venezuela, Chavez clearly intends to run it himself.</p>
<p>At the same time, Chavez has tried to crush the country&#8217;s independent media. Government regulations have forced the closure of radio and cable television stations critical of his government, while independent media outlets have been forced to shut down after the government denied their broadcasting licenses. Such has been the fate of Venezuela&#8217;s oldest private channel, Radio Caracas Television. RCTV was forced off the air in 2007, after the government refused to renew its license because it did not toe Chavez&#8217;s party line. That left just one independent channel in Venezuela, Globovision, a problem the government solved in December 2010 by becoming a <a href="http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=111463589">minority shareholder in the company</a> and forcing a Chavez crony onto Globovision&#8217;s board of directors. In this hostile environment, journalists and media directors understandably have chosen self-censorship rather than risk losing their job by angering the Chavez government.</p>
<p>Chavez isn’t alone in seeing independent media as a threat to his regime. In Ecuador, the leftist President Rafael Correa has taken his Venezuelan ally’s strategy of media intimidation and politically driven censorship even further. Given that Correa hails from academia, where he was a professor of economics, there was early hope that he would take a more lenient view of press independence. Instead, in what the <em>Washington Post </em>has called “the most comprehensive and ruthless assault on free media underway in the Western Hemisphere,” Correa has tried to deploy Ecuador&#8217;s laws and the judiciary to bring the media to heel and to silence his critics, all while subjecting journalists to legal and personal harassment.</p>
<p>One recent example of these tactics is Correa’<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/opinion/an-assault-on-democracy.html">s campaign</a> against the Ecuadoran newspaper <em>El Universo</em>. The campaign traces its origins to September 2010, when Correa tried to enter a police station in the capital of Quito to calm police officers angry about a new government law limiting bonus pay and extending the time required for promotions. When the angry police officers rioted, Correa sought safety in a police hospital and ultimately had to call in the military to come to his aid. Shots were fired in the ensuing rescue. The incident prompted a column from <em>El Universo</em> editorial page editor Emilio Palacio, in which he called Correa a “dictator” and implied that Correa had ordered the military to fire on the hospital, putting civilians&#8217; lives at risk. Outraged, Correa denied the charges and claimed that the column was defamatory. Spurning the paper&#8217;s offer to publish a statement in response, Correa instead filed suit against Palacio and the paper’s owners, citing “aggravated defamation of a public official.” In July of 2011, Palacio and the owners were sentenced to three years in jail while the paper was hit with $40 million in fines. Suspiciously, five different judges presided over the case. The defense also presented evidence that the harsh verdict, issued in just 24 hours by yet another surrogate judge, was ghostwritten by Correa’s personal lawyer. Whatever the truth, critics have pointed out that the Ecuador&#8217;s strict libel laws will inevitably <a href="http://www.as-coa.org/article.php?id=3516">lead to more media self-censorship</a>.</p>
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		<title>FARC Cashes in on Mexican Drug War</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/farc-cashes-in-on-mexican-drug-war/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=farc-cashes-in-on-mexican-drug-war</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jun 2010 04:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Al-Shabaab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Argentina]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Arrest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brazil]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chavez of venezuela]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chihuahua]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[city]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ciudad juarez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Colombia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[colombian drug traffickers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dr. de Berliner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dr. Maria Velez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drug]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[enforcement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[enforcement documents]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FARC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[group]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hezbollah]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hugo Chavez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latin America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lebanon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Madrid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mario Ernesto Villanueva]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[May]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mexican drug lords]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mexico]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Braum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York Times]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Paraguay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Raul Reyes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[revolutionary armed forces of colombia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[somalia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sudden collapse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[threat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S. Al-]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S. Olavo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[united-states]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Venezuela]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[violence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[violence in mexico]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=62014</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Marxist terrorist group backed by Chavez jumps in.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/farc.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-62017" title="farc" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/farc.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="316" /></a></p>
<p>Mexico’s drug war is still raging, with over 22,000 people having been <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36485196/ns/world_news-americas/">killed</a> since 2006. Now, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, often referred to as the FARC, are teaming up with the drug lords. The Marxist terrorist group’s ties to Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and other organizations make the conflict to the south a major threat to the United   States.</p>
<p>The violence in Mexico is severe. In the first two days of May, 25 people were <a href="http://www.alternet.org/rss/breaking_news/181170/drug_war_violence__sweeps_mexican_border_state,_25_dead/">killed</a> in Chihuahua, with several of the murders happening in Ciudad Juarez. As the month of May began, 62 people had been killed in the city over the previous week, bringing the total to 850 lives lost in that city alone in 2010. Last year, the Joint Forces Command <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,479906,00.html">warned</a> that Mexico and Pakistan were the two countries most at risk of “rapid and sudden collapse.” There have been arrests of high-profile drug lords, but the violence and corruption continues.</p>
<p>The latest arrest of Mario Ernesto Villanueva Madrid revealed how deeply he had corrupted Mexican law enforcement. Documents captured after his arrest found that he was bribing those commanding the police and soldiers searching him, which explains how he was able to avoid capture for 11 years. The <em>New York Times</em> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/world/americas/12mexico.html">described</a> Madrid as running “a sophisticated counterintelligence operation.” The drug lords are growing bolder, and instead of opening fire when they are pursued, they are now on the offensive. They are directly attacking the police, soldiers, and those serving the government.</p>
<p>Dr. Maria Velez de Berliner, the President of the <a href="http://www.lat-intel.com/">Latin Intelligence Corporation</a>, told FrontPage that the brutality of the Mexican drug lords now surpasses that of the Colombian drug traffickers, which is quite a feat.</p>
<p>“If this situation continues, the time will probably come when Mexico will replace Colombia as the largest producer and exporter of cocaine,” she said.</p>
<p>Now, it is known that the FARC is teaming up with the drug lords, offering a major source of income for their own operations and potentially providing the criminals with the military expertise they need to further destabilize Mexico. The FARC connection also gives Hugo Chavez the ability to covertly attack Mexico and the United States and gain intelligence. It also means that other terrorist groups that are connected to FARC or the drug lords have the ability to send arms and operatives into the U.S. if they are willing to pay for it.</p>
<p>The leader of the FARC until 2008, the late Raul Reyes, is now known to have written a letter to his top commanders confirming that a relationship with the Mexican drug lords existed. He was enthusiastic about the new partnership, saying it would allow them to double their profits. It is estimated that FARC already makes $1 billion annually through its work with drug lords. According to Michael Braum, a former operations chief for the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Mexican criminals <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/world/Mexican-drug-dealers-strengthen-ties-to-Colombia-terrorist-93988399.html">want</a> to buy “multiton quantities of cocaine directly from South America.”</p>
<p>Dr. Maria Velez de Berliner said that the “FARC is not interested in attacking the U.S, they don’t have the field capability to do so.” However, she warns that FARC’s business with other terrorists and drug traffickers does threaten the U.S.</p>
<p>Olavo de Carvalho, a philosopher from Brazil who has written extensively about the activity of the Marxists in Latin  America, agreed with her, saying that the FARC will not initiate military operations against the U.S. in the near-term.</p>
<p>“…but they can give strategic support to Mexican gangs operating in American territory, exactly as they did with several Brazilian gangs, transforming them from mere bunches of criminals into powerful and well-armed organizations. This is a serious and imminent threat,” he said.</p>
<p>The instability in Mexico is directly benefiting Hezbollah, which is now tied to the Venezuelan government and possibly the FARC. The smuggling routes used by the Mexican drug lords are being utilized by Hezbollah, using “the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels,” <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/27/hezbollah-uses-mexican-drug-routes-into-us/">said</a> Braun. The terrorist group has a long history of engaging in drug trafficking in order to fundraise.</p>
<p>“They [Hezbollah] are doing the same thing in Latin  America that they are doing in the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon, and providing medical and social services,” Dr. de Berliner said.</p>
<p>She also mentioned that the FARC is working with Chinese gangs in the tri-border area of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. These gangs could potentially buy and upgrade the FARC’s semi-submersibles and use them in their human trafficking efforts, allowing them to potentially insert operatives into the U.S.</p>
<p>Al-Qaeda also will benefit from the FARC’s new ventures, and could conceivably pay them, or the Mexican drug lords, to help them smuggle in operatives. In fact, Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia, Al-Shabaab, may have already done so as someone connected to the group oversaw the <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/crime/Feds-can_t-find-270-Somalis-they-say-Va_-man-illegally-helped-come-to-U_S_-84799152.html">smuggling</a> of 270 Somalis into the U.S. through Mexico.</p>
<p>FARC has already begun using Al-Qaeda members in West  Africa in order to deliver drugs to Europe. Three members of Al-Qaeda have been <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6034L920100104">arrested</a> in West  Africa and were extradited to the U.S. in December. The DEA’s director of South America’s Andean region says that “All of the aircraft seizures that have been made in West  Africa, and we’ve made about a half a dozen of them, had departed from Venezuela.”</p>
<p>The separatist Basque ETA terrorists of Spain have entered into an alliance with the FARC as well, an unsurprising development considering the hostile relationship between Spain and Venezuela. A Spanish court has charged a Venezuelan official and a dozen FARC and ETA members with terrorism-related offenses, and Venezuela is refusing to extradite the suspects.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/19/AR2010051905472.html">evidence</a> against them stems from seizures made by the Colombians that provided evidence that ETA members attended FARC camps from 2003 to 2008, located near Machiques in Venezuela. The ETA members provided explosives training for at least five FARC units, and two former FARC operatives have confirmed seeing ETA members training at their camps in 2008. The ETA members traveled with Venezuelan military officers, proving that Chavez’s government is involved in the relationship. This is a reminder that Chavez and other leaders often use the terrorists they support as a liaison with other groups, providing them with deniability.</p>
<p>The crisis in Mexico can not be seen in isolation. The worst enemies of the United   States and the West are seeing it as a platform with which to expand their own capabilities. The debate about how the open border facilitates illegal immigration must be modified, because the problem goes much further than that. Terrorist groups are using the strife in Mexico and the open border to fundraise and sneak their operatives into the U.S. as we speak.</p>
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		<title>The Revolution Within</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/joseph-puder/the-revolution-within/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-revolution-within</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/joseph-puder/the-revolution-within/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jun 2010 04:06:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Puder]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[american enterprise institute]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amir]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amir Abbas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[amir abbas fakhravar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brutal dictatorship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Craig Snider]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[evin prison in tehran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fakhravar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freedom and democracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freedom institute]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IFI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Institute]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iranian opposition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islamic  Republic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latin America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[law schoo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[movement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North American]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OIL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[opposition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[opposition movement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Organization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philadelphia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reagan administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[regime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resident fellow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Richard Perle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[student]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tehran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Washington]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[How the Iranian Freedom Institute and the Green Youth can topple the Iranian regime  ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/gallery-iranelection5.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-62060" title="gallery-iranelection5" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/gallery-iranelection5-300x192.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="192" /></a></p>
<p>Amir Abbas Fakhravar, 35, is a “graduate” of the infamous Evin prison in Tehran.  His friendly and youthful exterior hides a painful period of torture and isolation for five years &#8211; including 8 months in solitary confinement. When you ask Amir about his state of mind following his harrowing experience, he shrugs his shoulders saying “they broke my wrist, my knee, and few bones, but never broke my spirit.”</p>
<p>Fakhravar arrived in the U.S. four years ago and found no coherent voices speaking for the Iranian opposition movement.  “I thought that the Iranian opposition had an organization here, but nothing existed in 2006.” And when he gathered some of the opposition figures, he quickly learned that they had little information about the real situation in Iran.  Even more dismaying, according to Fakhravar, was the ignorance of U.S. policy makers regarding Iran.</p>
<p>With mentoring from Richard Perle, former Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration (1981-1987), and currently a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and critical help from Philadelphia’s Craig Snider, who has dedicated himself to fight for freedom and democracy for the Iranian people, Fakhravar established the Iranian Freedom Institute (IFI).</p>
<p>The Iranian Freedom Institute &#8211; a Washington DC based think tank, has set its goal to inform and educate American policy-makers, and the public in general, on the real state-of-affairs inside Iran.  Utilizing the latest technology, the IFI hopes to influence U.S. policy towards Iran, and simultaneously, educate the freedom-loving people of Iran who are living under a brutal dictatorship.</p>
<p>Affiliated with the IFI is the Confederation of Iranian Students (CIS) – created by Fakhravar and Arzhang Davoodi, a teacher, writer and the co- founder of Confederation of Iranian Students (who also spent six years in Islamic Republic jails and still has nine more years to serve).  Earlier in 1994 while he was in medical school (he subsequently graduated from law school), Fakhravar helped in establishing the Independent Student movement in Tehran.  Fakhravar and Davoodi proceeded to form the nucleus of an independent worldwide student organization.  In 2002 they organized a student conference and three-years later, they launched <a href="http://www.cistudents.com/">CIS</a>, which today has a membership of 6200 students.</p>
<p>The Confederation of Iranian Students should not be confused with the Islamic Republic’s student organization cautions Fakhravar, which was created by the mullah regime, paid for by them, and run by them, according to Fakhravar.</p>
<p>One of the CIS’s goals is to bring down the Islamic Republic dictatorship according to Fakhravar.  “We have a three step plan,” he says.  1. Show the Iranian people and the world that the ruling Iranian regime is not democratic but rather a brutal dictatorship.  “We have already succeeded on that part of the plan,” Fakhravar added.</p>
<p>The second goal is to “cut the lifeline of the mullahs in power” by pushing for a worldwide embargo on Iranian oil.  The $83 billion Iran earns from its oil sales is the only revenue that enables the Islamic Republic of Iran to pay for the nuclear program and provide the Revolutionary guards (RG) – the regime’s praetorian guards- with high incomes, which in turn insures their loyalty to the regime.</p>
<p>According to Fakhravar “if the regime fails to pay the RG salaries – which are three times the average, the RG, who have long lost their revolutionary fervor and have gotten used to the ‘good life,’ are more than likely to abandon the regime.”</p>
<p>Oil revenue is also used by the Islamic Republic to fund Hezbollah and Hamas operations against Israel, to subvert the Sunni-Arab Gulf regimes and, to build cells in Latin America. “Our aim is to request that the governments of the U.S. and Canada impose sanctions on North American and European companies who buy oil from the Iranian regime,” Fakhravar stated.  He added, “We also plan to present such proposals to the G-8 and the G-20 to place sanctions on their respective companies.”</p>
<p>The third part of the plan, as Fakhravar sees it, is to build a free, democratic, and secular Iran.  “We need in addition to our existing website to set up Internet, satellite TV, and radio stations in order to educate the Iranian people inside of Iran, and the opposition parties outside of Iran. “</p>
<p>According to Fakhravar, the Iranian opposition groups “are confused and they don’t know what they want.”  He quickly added, “We wrote a manifesto or call it a constitution for a new Iran.”  Fakhravar recruited lawyers from the Green movement as well as a number of judges to draft a new constitution for Iran.</p>
<p>The Green Movement in Iran brought 4.5 million demonstrators into the streets of Tehran last June and Fakhravar is confident that the people of Iran, especially the younger generation, want a change. He reminds those he speaks with that, “The Iranian people have been repressed for over 30 years, and they want freedom.”  Many of the young people in Iran are turned off by Islam as a result of the corruption and abuses by the Islamic regime.  In Iranian schools, Shiite-Islam is presented as superior to all other religions and they are taught that killing Jews, who are presented as sub-humans, is permitted.  Fakhravar has no doubt that the Khamenei/Ahmadinejad regime would test a nuclear bomb on Israel.</p>
<p>Iran is, however, a nation of young people.  70% of Iranians are under the age of 35 and these young people respect Israel and love America.   In recent demonstrations the young protesters used posters with a modification of the regime’s slogans – instead of “Down with Israel,” they crossed out the word Israel and replaced it with Russia.</p>
<p>During last year’s demonstrations in Tehran following the sham elections which gave Ahmadinejad a second term as President of Iran, the Green Youth shouted “Obama, are you with them (the regime) or with us.”  Obama’s decision to continue to negotiate with the Khamenei/Ahmadinejad Islamic regime gave this evil regime legitimacy, according to Fakhravar.</p>
<p>Asked about where he sees Iran in five years, Fakhravar replied, “We will have a free, democratic and secular Iran.  It will be a friend of Israel and an ally of the U.S. ”</p>
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		<title>The Appeaser</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/william-r-hawkins/the-appeaser/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-appeaser</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:01:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[William R. Hawkins]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[afghanistan pakistan]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[attempt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Beijing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brasilia]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[changing climate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Clinton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economic upheaval]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[end]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[England]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=61660</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The troubling unwillingness of Obama to confront our enemies and protect our friends. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/obamam.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61696" title="obamam" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/obamam.gif" alt="" width="400" height="319" /></a></p>
<p>The National Security Strategy (NSS) released by the Barack Obama administration on May 27 is not so much a look forward as a look back. It is an attempt to return to the optimistic days following the end of the Cold War when it seemed a peaceful new world order was possible. In 1999, President Bill Clinton claimed “perhaps for the first time in history, the world’s leading nations are not engaged in a struggle with each other for security or territory. The world clearly is coming together.” President Obama says essentially the same thing in the opening paragraph of his cover letter to the NSS when he notes that “globalization”—the buzz word of the post-Cold War era &#8212; has “made peace possible among the major powers.” The dangers that remain are of a different sort, “from international terrorism and the spread of deadly technologies, to economic upheaval and a changing climate.”</p>
<p>That the world looked like the classical liberal model expounded by Clinton in 1999 was doubtful even then. A decade later, the cracks are even larger. Five months before the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, a Chinese fighter rammed a U.S. Navy EP-3 reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea, an area Beijing has been trying to claim as sovereign territory. The rise of China and the emergence of other ambitious powers herald not a new world but a new cycle in the old world of international rivalry. The NSS explicitly rejects the “world as it is” in its attempt to fashion “the world we seek.” But the NSS does not lay out a path between worlds; it simply assumes the new world already exists.</p>
<p>There are still a few odds and ends to be cleaned up from the Bush administration, such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The NSS pledges “a focus on defeating al-Qa’ida and its affiliates in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and around the globe” but sees no real dangers after that which would require a military effort. Though the NSS identifies the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (nuclear and biological) as problems, the two most menacing rogue states, North Korea and Iran, are to be dealt with through diplomacy. As the NSS states on page 23, “If North Korea eliminates its nuclear weapons program, and Iran meets its international obligations on its nuclear program, they will be able to proceed on a path to greater political and economic integration with the international community. If they ignore their international obligations, we will pursue multiple means to increase their isolation and bring them into compliance with international nonproliferation norms.” This is at best a containment policy.</p>
<p>But how can Pyongyang or Tehran be contained, let alone “isolated” when they have friends among the other major powers? The NSS depends on there being a consensus among the powers on issues like non-proliferation within a general spirit of cooperation. That is not how world politics is evolving.</p>
<p>According to the NSS, “The European Union has deepened its integration. Russia has reemerged in the international arena as a strong voice. China and India—the world’s two most populous nations—are becoming more engaged globally. From Latin America to Africa to the Pacific, new and emerging powers hold out opportunities for partnership, even as a handful of states endanger regional and global security by flouting international norms.” Under the Obama policy, “We are working to build deeper and more effective partnerships with other key centers of influence—including China, India, and Russia, as well as increasingly influential nations such as Brazil, South Africa, and Indonesia—so that we can cooperate on issues of bilateral and global concern, with the recognition that power, in an interconnected world, is no longer a zero sum game.”</p>
<p>The integration of the EU is being called into question by the sovereign debt crisis that has ripped through Greece and has threatened to spread to Spain, Portugal, and Ireland. The single euro currency, once thought to be an alternative to the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, is in free fall. Euro skeptics in England, France, Holland and Germany are balking at “saving” the Mediterranean and Eastern members of the bloc.</p>
<p>The NSS singles out Brazil for special praise saying, “We welcome Brazil’s leadership and seek to move beyond dated North-South divisions to pursue progress on bilateral, hemispheric, and global issues.” Yet, Brazil just brokered a deal with Iran over its nuclear enrichment program meant to shield it from a new round of UN sanctions being pushed by the U.S. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had told President Obama personally at the Nuclear Security Summit that he would not back additional sanctions on Iran, and repeated this stance when meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Brasilia immediately after the two leaders left Washington. The Hu-Lula meeting took place within the larger context of a BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) summit where the emerging powers coordinate policies formulated primarily against the positions of the United States and EU.</p>
<p>South Africa joins the mix in BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, China), a coalition at the UN that opposes the American and European demand for mandated limits on green house gas emissions to fight alleged global warming. Supported by Russia and the group of 77 developing nations, BASIC represents the world’s rejection of President Obama’s obsession about climate change that appears repeatedly in the NSS as a priority global threat.</p>
<p>The core value of BASIC and its allies is unrestricted economic growth, which means intensified competition in domestic and world markets. For some time, American officials have made it clear that unless China, India and Brazil provide substantial market access to U.S. exports commensurate with their high economic growth rates, there can be no conclusion to the Doha Round of trade talks. These negotiations have been stalled virtually from their inception in 2001 due to a fundamental clash of national interests.</p>
<p>The Obama administration has hailed China and Russia for supporting a draft sanctions proposal against Iran at the UN. Yet, Beijing and Moscow watered down the resolution to prevent it from crippling the Tehran regime. Most importantly, Russia and China will be allowed to continue investing in Iran’s energy sector, which will boost the country’s revenues which the mullah’s use to finance their aggressive foreign policy as well as nuclear development. To improve relations, the Obama administration dropped sanctions against Moscow’s state arms export agency and three Russian entities previously found to have transferred technology or weapons to Iran. The UN sanctions proposal would also allow the Russians to sell S-300 air defense missiles (which have an anti-missile capability) to Tehran. So even if the UN Security Council adopts the resolution, it will not “isolate” Iran from its main international backers.</p>
<p>Nor is international rivalry confined to economics and rogue states. China’s massive military modernization program, led by new weapon systems designed to attack U.S. and allied forces across Asia, is not mentioned in the NSS. To do so would have undermined the fanciful vision of a peaceful, cooperative world. It would also have called into question why the Obama Pentagon is cutting back on the high-end conventional forces, from armored units and air superiority fighters to missile defense and naval shipbuilding, that would be needed to not only counter rising “peer” competitors like China but to defeat major regional powers like North Korea and Iran.</p>
<p>The NSS attempts to conjure up a world in which an NSS is not needed, but the Obama administration does not have the power to change the true, dangerous nature of global politics. What the NSS reveals is the unwillingness of President Obama to deal with the world as it is. Thus, America will remain vulnerable, as its leaders are continually blindsided by the strategies of adversaries they cannot bring themselves to think about.</p>
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		<title>Obama&#8217;s Empty Gestures</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/rick-moran/obamas-empty-gestures-3/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obamas-empty-gestures-3</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/rick-moran/obamas-empty-gestures-3/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 May 2010 04:01:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Rick Moran]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=60727</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When will the administration honor Daniel Pearl's memory with real action on global free press?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/obamar.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60730" title="obamar" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/obamar.gif" alt="" width="375" height="359" /></a></p>
<p>There was an emotional ceremony at the White House on Monday when President Obama welcomed slain journalist Daniel Pearl&#8217;s surviving family members to witness the signing of the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act.</p>
<p>Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was brutally murdered in Pakistan as he was following up some leads on al-Qaeda financing in early 2002. Four Pakistanis <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/15/world/4-in-pearl-murder-are-found-guilty-in-pakistan-court.html">were convicted</a> in Pearl&#8217;s murder in July of that year. The mastermind of the kidnapping and murder, however, may have been Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who confessed to the murder under interrogation by the CIA.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/world/18press.html">New York Times</a>, the Freedom of the Press Act &#8220;requires the State Department to expand its scrutiny of news media restrictions and intimidation as part of its annual review of human rights in each country. Among other considerations, the department will be required to determine whether foreign governments participate in or condone violations of press freedom.&#8221;</p>
<p>This is certainly good news. According to Freedom House&#8217;s <a href="http://freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&amp;release=1177">annual survey</a>of press freedom in 196 countries, the indicators fell for the 8th straight year:</p>
<ul>
<li>Significant declines outnumbered gains by a 2-to-1 margin. Notable regional declines were registered in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, as well as the Middle East.</li>
<li>Declines in important emerging democracies demonstrate the fragility of press freedom in such environments. Namibia and South Africa, two of the new democracies, dropped from Free to Partly Free. Worrying declines were also registered in Mexico, the Philippines, and Senegal.</li>
<li>The only area to show overall improvement was the Asia-Pacific region, spurred by notable gains in South Asia that included status changes in Bangladesh and Bhutan from Not Free to Partly Free and a numerical score jump for the Maldives.</li>
<li>Governments in China, Russia, Venezuela, and other countries have been systematically encroaching on the comparatively free environment of the internet and new media. Sophisticated techniques are being used to censor and block access to particular types of information, to flood the internet with antidemocratic, nationalistic views, and to provide broad surveillance of citizen activity.</li>
<li>Journalists are increasingly the victims of assault and murder, a trend fueled by impunity for past crimes.</li>
</ul>
<p>We give Egypt billions of dollars in aid every year and yet, President Mubarak and his security services have gotten into the very bad habit of arresting journalists and even <a href="http://egymonitor.blogspot.com/2010/04/egyptian-blogger-arrested.html">bloggers</a> who write on subjects that the state deems &#8220;dangerous.&#8221; It&#8217;s certainly dangerous to the journalists but beyond that, there doesn&#8217;t seem to be much rhyme nor reason to the practice except to clamp down on dissent.</p>
<p>Of course, you take your life in your hands if you write anything against the regime in Iran. Entire newspapers have been shut down by the mullahs since the disputed election last year and there is no sign that they are letting up in their campaign to silence critics.</p>
<p>Perhaps President Obama will want to do something about his friend Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, who has shut down <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCTV">opposition TV stations</a>and engaged in media intimidation. Freedom House lists Venezuela as &#8220;Not Free,&#8221; <a href="http://freedomhouse.org/images/File/fop/2010/FOTP2010Global&amp;RegionalTables.pdf">ranking it a dismal 163</a> our of 196 nations. Just don&#8217;t let Sean Penn hear you call Hugo a &#8220;dictator,&#8221; though. He favors having <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCTV">journalists arrested </a>who call Chavez the &#8220;D&#8221; word.</p>
<p>Mexico, South Africa, India, and Italy are all listed as &#8220;Partly Free.&#8221; Freedom House uses a broad range of criteria to determine it&#8217;s rankings<a href="http://freedomhouse.org/images/File/fop/2010/Methodology2010--final5May10.pdf">based on a point system.</a> The legal, political, and economic environment for the press in each country is given a numerical score of 0-40 in each. The totals reveal whether a country is &#8220;Free,&#8221; &#8220;Partly Free,&#8221; or &#8220;Not Free.&#8221; Only 69 countries are judged as having a &#8220;Free&#8221; press in their 2010 survey.</p>
<p>While a welcome addition to our criteria for giving aid and adjudging a level of support our State Department can offer a nation, one has to wonder how seriously the president and his appointees will actually take this new law. As Jennifer Rubin points out in a piece in <a href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/295551">Commentary&#8217;s Contentions blog</a>, this administration has fallen down in its support for press freedom in countries where the weight of our words is desperately needed:</p>
<blockquote><p>Has Obama done anything about the suppression of media critics in Egypt (other than prepare a lucrative financial package for the Egyptian government)? Has Obama made this a priority with any thugocracy? No. And when signing a bill in the name of someone who elevated and personified the freedom of expression, Obama at least could have departed from his campaign to delete the name of our enemies from the public lexicon.</p></blockquote>
<p>Meanwhile, at the United Nations, it&#8217;s business as usual for the enemies of the free press. <a href="http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=9b8e3a6d-795d-440f-a5de-6ff6e78c78d5">Anti-blasphemy measures </a>are being pushed by the usual suspects in the Muslim world in a clear effort to stifling criticism of Islam.</p>
<p>In addition, the UN Human Rights Council <a href="http://www.internationalfreepresssociety.org/2009/04/spencer-the-un%E2%80%99s-jihad-against-free-speech/">has drafted rules</a> designed to &#8220;protect&#8221; Islam from &#8220;political cartoonists and bigots.&#8221; This attitude seems widespread at the United Nations, who recently celebrated &#8220;World Press Freedom Day&#8221; on May 3rd. How devoted the UN is to press freedom is a matter open for debate. UNESCO, sponsor of World Press Freedom Day, defines &#8220;Fundamental Principles concerning the Contribution of the Mass Media&#8221; in what must be considered a <a href="http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13176&amp;URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&amp;URL_SECTION=201.html">novel manner:</a></p>
<blockquote><p>2. Access by the public to information should be guaranteed by the diversity of the sources and means of information available to it, thus enabling each individual to check the accuracy of facts and to appraise events objectively. To this end, journalists must have freedom to report and the fullest possible access to information. Similarly, it is important that the mass media be responsive to concerns of peoples and individuals, thus promoting the participation of the public in the aggregation of information.</p>
<p>3. With a view to the strengthening of peace and international understanding, to promoting human rights and to countering racialism, apartheid and incitement to war, the mass media throughout the world, by reason of their role, contribute to promoting human rights, in particular by giving expression to oppressed peoples who struggle against colonialism, neo-colonialism, foreign occupation and all forms of racial discrimination and oppression and who are unable to make their voices heard within their own territories.</p></blockquote>
<p>We Americans prefer the simple, &#8220;Congress shall make no law&#8230;&#8221; found in the First Amendment. It would appear that UNESCO has narrowed that definition considerably.</p>
<p>This is important because of the Obama administration&#8217;s clear preference for bending to the will of the United Nations on a variety of issues, most recently when Iran <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/29/elects-iran-commission-womens-rights/">was given a seat </a>on the UN Commission on Women&#8217;s Rights and President Obama remained silent. If we acquiesce on this, what other nonsense will the Obama administration put up with?</p>
<p>Despite its noble goals, it would seem to be a pipe dream to expect the State Department to do more than go through the motions when it comes to fulfilling the requirements of the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act. Given the large number of states who routinely violate that freedom, we should expect a business as usual attitude, especially from this president, whose outreach to thugs and tyrants around the world regardless their treatment of journalists – or their people &#8211; continues.</p>
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		<title>The Toothless Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/joseph-klein/the-toothless-nuclear-nonproliferation-treaty/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-toothless-nuclear-nonproliferation-treaty</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/joseph-klein/the-toothless-nuclear-nonproliferation-treaty/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 May 2010 04:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=60263</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How Obama's useless nuclear disarmament endangers us all.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/iran-nuclear-testing-wide-horizontal.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60332" title="Iran nuclear facility" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/iran-nuclear-testing-wide-horizontal.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="302" /></a></p>
<p>Every five years or so the United Nations hosts a foreign minister level conference to review the implementation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).  The United Nations has been hosting the latest such review conference this month.</p>
<p>This year, Iranian strongman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad decided to join the party.  He delivered, on the first morning of the review conference, his customary condemnation of Israel and of the United States while defending his country’s nuclear program.</p>
<p>Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke later the same day, accusing Iran of being the only country attending the UN review conference that is acting with impunity when held to account by the International Atomic Energy Agency and Security Council.  Iran, she said, is consistently violating its obligations under the NPT.   That was a good start, but then she rhetorically crouched into a defensive position.</p>
<p>Clinton said that President Obama had come to office with “an open hand” extended to the Iranian regime.  We “reached out” in many ways, she said, without elaborating and without acknowledging the fact that we have wasted over a year in this futile exercise while Iran marches on towards developing nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>Then, in order to show how transparent the United   States really is, Clinton announced that the Obama administration had decided to unilaterally reveal the number of nuclear arms in our arsenal.  She reiterated Obama’s unilateral pledge to develop no new nuclear weapons.  And, in an implied threat to Israel, Clinton said that the United States was &#8220;prepared to support practical measures&#8221; towards the objective of a nuclear-free Middle East – a stalking horse pushed by Egypt and other Muslim countries in the region to force Israel to give up its suspected nuclear arsenal without any means of assuring that Iran or the other Islamic countries would desist from pursuing their own nuclear arms ambitions.  This was not just feel-good rhetoric.  U.S. officials are reportedly in talks with Egypt over a plan to make the Middle East a nuclear-free zone.</p>
<p>Some have criticized Israel for not joining the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refusing to declare its suspected nuclear arsenal.  However, Israel has observed the conduct of rogue states that have joined the NPT like North   Korea, which quit the treaty once it had successfully tested nuclear weapons, and Iran which regularly flouts its NPT obligations.  Faced with existential threats from Iran and its armed terrorist surrogates, Israel is correct in asserting that there must be real peace in the Middle  East before agreeing to any nuclear-free zone.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton also mentioned in her speech at the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference that the Obama administration would submit Protocols to the Senate for ratification regarding nuclear-free zones in Africa and the South Pacific.  However, our Secretary of State said nothing about maintaining a nuclear-free zone in Latin America even though there is a real threat of the spread of nuclear arms technology from Iran and North   Korea to Venezuela.  The reason for Clinton’s silence on Latin America, I believe, was not to embarrass Brazil, whose foreign minister addressed the UN conference immediately after Clinton.</p>
<p>Brazil, according to some reports, is busy moving forward with its own nuclear development program.  It has already had three secret military nuclear programs between 1975 and 1990, and is now embarking on the building of nuclear-powered submarines.  During his election campaign, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized the NPT, calling it unfair and obsolete.  Although Brazil has signed the treaty, it has placed restrictions on inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency and has defended Iran’s nuclear program.</p>
<p>President Obama has called Lula, as the Brazilian president is called, “my man.”  Obama said he “loved this guy,” calling him “the most popular politician in the world.” Yet Lula is the same man whose pals include Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.  He is the same man who said that there was “no fraud in the Iranian election,” congratulating President Ahmadinejad on his stolen election.   He is the same man who decided to open a Brazilian embassy in North Korea shortly after Kim Jong Il’s missile testing. And he is the same man who laid flowers in the terrorist Yasser Arafat’s grave, but refused to follow the custom of other visiting presidents to Israel of laying down flowers in the grave of Theodor Herzl, revered in Israel as its founder.</p>
<p>Obama loves Lula and trusts him more than he trusts the leader of one of our closest allies, Israel.  He is willing to press Israel to give up its nuclear deterrent in pursuit of a nuclear-free Middle East that Iran is certain to ignore, while giving Lula (not to mention Hugo Chavez in Venezuela) a free pass to possibly pursue a nuclear arms capability.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton’s speech to the UN Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference was yet another demonstration of the appeasement policies that the Obama administration is recklessly pursuing.  It wants to show the world the virtues of nonproliferation by unilateral actions that put our security at risk.</p>
<p>The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is ineffective and Clinton even admitted in her speech that it would not be fixed anytime soon to give it the enforcement teeth that it would need.  Yet the treaty appears to be a centerpiece of President Obama’s nuclear disarmament policy along with unilateral actions he is taking.</p>
<p>Not once did we hear Clinton mention the only multilateral mechanism that has proven effective in preventing dangerous nuclear proliferation &#8211; the Proliferation Security Initiative.  This Bush administration initiative involved naval surveillance and interdiction to stop the transport of nuclear arms materials and missile technology to and from states and non-state actors of proliferation concern.  It was used successfully, for example, to effectively end Libya’s nuclear ambitions.</p>
<p>President Obama has expressed support for enhancing the PSI, but there is scant evidence to date that he means it.  Instead of emphasizing muscular diplomacy to stop dangerous nuclear proliferation backed by a credible threat of interdiction, Obama wants to lead the way to total nuclear disarmament.  He may lead the way, but the world’s dictators who get their hands on nuclear materials will surely not follow.</p>
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		<title>Rising World Powers Align</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/william-r-hawkins/rising-world-powers-align/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=rising-world-powers-align</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/william-r-hawkins/rising-world-powers-align/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Apr 2010 04:00:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[William R. Hawkins]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=58791</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Washington pushes further away.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Lula_BRIC_2008.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-58794" title="Lula_BRIC_2008" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Lula_BRIC_2008-300x178.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="178" /></a></p>
<p>The coalition of major developing nations known as BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) continues to pull closer together while becoming more alienated from the United States. The Obama administration has made constant pushes to limit BASIC&#8217;s economic growth in an effort to curb their greenhouse gas emissions. However, the agenda of BASIC at the United Nations has been to pressure the industrialized nations (America, Europe, Japan) to commit to ambitious cuts in emissions while staying free of any restrictions on their own activities. They have also demanded technical and financial support to speed the transfer of production capabilities from the West to the Third World.</p>
<p>The three core members of BASIC are also part of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China.) The BRIC group met in Brasilia on April 14-16 to draw up a common plan for a “new international order” to be presented at the G20 meeting in June. The BRIC nations account for 42% of the world&#8217;s population but only 15% of the world&#8217;s gross domestic product. Promoting economic growth to improve per capita incomes and living standards is their top priority, but they believe they will need greater political clout in world affairs to gain the wealth they seek.</p>
<p>The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs&#8217; <a href="http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zxxx/t682900.htm">report</a> on the meeting between President Hu Jintao of China and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil at BRIC emphasized “investment cooperation&#8221; between the two countries which would entail that &#8220;both sides&#8230;actively encourage two-way investment&#8230;in the areas of energy, mining, agriculture, industry and infrastructure construction.” Brazil has been leery of China’s economic pattern in Latin America which resembles that of the old colonial model. Beijing trades manufactured goods for raw materials and fuel which stunts the economic development of its trading partners. In the case of Brazil last year, 76.8% of exports to China were basic products and 98.1% of Chinese imports were manufactured goods. Trade rose from $6.7 billion in 2003 to $36.1 billion last year, with China surpassing the United States as Brazil’s main trading partner.</p>
<p>In the wake of the international financial crisis, any inflow of capital is welcome in Latin America. China has been investing in the mining and the oil industries and in building infrastructure. A common interest in promoting growth and a shared antipathy towards the United States is pulling Brasilia and Beijing together despite concerns in Brazilian industrial circles about the influx of Chinese goods. The developing countries hold the American banks responsible for the financial crisis, which they see as another negative manifestation of U.S. &#8220;hegemony.” Calls for global financial reform and a “multipolar” world were major BRIC themes articulated by all four nations.</p>
<p>The first BRIC meeting was held in June, 2009. The central topic was the need to move trade away from dependence on the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. At Brasilia last week, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev again raised this issue. His <a href="http://eng.kremlin.ru/speeches/2010/04/13/0911_type104017_225331.shtml">statement</a> called for “multilateral cooperation in nuclear energy, aircraft engineering, space exploration and nanotechnologies. Such cooperation can be enhanced through financial interaction of the BRIC countries, in particular in the form of agreements on the use of national currencies in mutual trade.” While still well short of calling for a new non-dollar reserve currency, in its final statement, BRIC called for a greater role of its members in the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.</p>
<p>At the BRIC summit, President Hu <a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-04/16/c_13254287.htm">spoke</a> of the same goals of an international transfer of wealth as China has insisted upon in the UN climate talks. He said the developed countries should honor their commitments of increased assistance, debt relief, market access and technology transfer while helping developing countries promote economic growth and improve people&#8217;s well-being. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh joined in, calling for a “multipolar” world order in which the UN would play a central role.</p>
<p>The unity on economic goals provides a foundation which allows Beijing and Moscow to pull Brasilia and New Delhi in their direction on other strategic issues. Though Iran was not mentioned in the final BRIC communiqué, Lula made Brazil’s opposition to new UN sanctions on Tehran known at the close of his private meeting with Hu. Indeed, Brazil’s position seemed identical to China’s.</p>
<p>Though President Obama tried to give the impression that he had persuaded President Hu to support new sanctions on Iran when they met at the Nuclear Security Summit, this was not the case. When Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Jiang Yu was asked about this at a press conference April 13, he <a href="http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw/s2510/t679545.htm">stated</a>, “On the Iranian nuclear issue, our position has been consistent&#8230;.Sanctions and pressure are not the fundamental way out. Relevant actions of the UN Security Council should be conducive to the turn-around of the situation and proper settlement of the issue through dialogue and negotiation.” News <a href="http://community.washingtonpost.com/ver1.0/Direct/Process">reports</a> cited Brazilian officials as saying that their country shares “great affinity” with China over what course to take on Iran.</p>
<p>The visit to Brazil by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in March proved a failure. Clinton had urged Brazil, who currently holds one of the rotating seats on the UN Security Council, to support sanctions. But she had combined talks about Iran with discussions about how to move the UN climate talks forward, a combination that did not go over well. Brasilia kept its distance from Washington DC on both issues.</p>
<p>After the BRIC summit, President Hu had to return home to deal with the Tibet earthquake, but the Chinese delegation continued on to Venezuela as planned. The rabidly anti-American strongman President Hugo Chavez was <a href="http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/latest/story/0,4574,381863,00.html">offered</a> $20 billion in “soft loans” from the state-owned China Development Bank and a $16 billion investment package for oil development in the eastern Orinoco region. The loan will be paid back with increased oil exports to China. Venezuela has already increased oil shipments to China by 21% over the last year while cutting back exports to the U.S. Beijing’s strategy has been to lock up oil supplies rather than be dependent on a volatile world market where increasing demand is driving up prices.</p>
<p>Earlier in April, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-0403-venezuela-russia-20100403,0,4631128.story">traveled</a> to Venezuela and promised to help build a nuclear power plant. Putin also discussed arms sales and cooperation on a space program.</p>
<p>The coalition may expand further, as it has been suggested that Indonesia join both BRIC and BASIC.</p>
<p>The Obama administration seems asleep at the switch as new powers not only rise, but cooperate on strategic issues that directly target American interests. If the White House pushes Congress to adopt a crippling energy tax and other restrictions on domestic growth as a result of climate paranoia, the need to adopt universal mandates at the UN will be increased. Unilateral anti-growth policies by the U.S. would put American firms and workers at a terrible disadvantage in global competition. Yet, pushing for UN restrictions on the developing world to make stagnation more “symmetrical” will only make the BASIC-BRIC bloc stronger, with major negative consequences to U.S. security as well as to prosperity in the years to come.</p>
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		<title>Should I Stay or Should I Go?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/timothy-radcliffe/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=should-i-stay-or-should-i-go</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Apr 2010 04:03:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Timothy Radcliffe]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=58184</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a former Master of the Dominicans, I've decided the Church
is stuck with me, whatever happens.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/night.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58190" title="night" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/night.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="250" /></a></p>
<p><strong>This article is reprinted from <a href="http://www.thetablet.co.uk/">The Tablet.</a></strong></p>
<p>Fresh revelations of sexual abuse by priests in Germany and Italy have provoked a tide of anger and disgust. I have received emails from people all around Europe asking how can they possibly remain in the Church? I was even sent a form with which to renounce my membership of the Church. Why stay?</p>
<p>First of all, why go? Some people feel that they can no longer remain associated with an institution that is so corrupt and dangerous for children. The suffering of so many children is indeed horrific. They must be our first concern. Nothing that I will write is intended in any way to lessen our horror at the evil of sexual abuse. But the statistics for the US, from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2004, suggest that Catholic clergy do not offend more than the married clergy of other Churches.</p>
<p>Some surveys even give a lower level of offence for Catholic priests. They are less likely to offend than lay school teachers, and perhaps half as likely as the general population. Celibacy does not push people to abuse children. It is simply untrue to imagine that leaving the Church for another denomination would make one’s children safer.  We must face the terrible fact that the abuse of children is widespread in every part of society. To make the Church the scapegoat would be a cover-up.</p>
<p>But what about the cover-up within the Church? Have not our bishops been shockingly irresponsible in moving offenders around, not reporting them to the police and so perpetuating the abuse? Yes, sometimes. But the great majority of these cases go back to the 1960s and 1970s, when bishops often regarded sexual abuse as a sin rather than also a pathological condition, and when lawyers and psychologists often reassured them that it was safe to reassign priests after treatment. It is unjust to project backwards an awareness of the nature and seriousness of sexual abuse which simply did not exist then. It was only the rise of feminism in the late 1970s which, by shedding light on the violence of some men against women, alerted us to the terrible damage done to vulnerable children.</p>
<p>But what about the Vatican? Pope Benedict has taken a strong line in tackling this issue as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and since becoming Pope. Now the finger is pointed at him. It appears that some cases reported to the CDF under his watch were not dealt with. Isn’t the Pope’s credibility undermined? There are demonstrators in front of St Peter’s calling for his resignation. I am morally certain that he bears no blame here.</p>
<p>It is generally imagined that the Vatican is a vast and efficient organisation. In fact it is tiny. The CDF only employs 45 people, dealing with doctrinal and disciplinary issues for a Church which has 1.3 billion members, 17 per cent of the world’s population, and some 400,000 priests. When I dealt with the CDF as Master of the Dominican Order, it was obvious that they were struggling to cope. Documents slipped through the cracks. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger lamented to me that the staff was simply too small for the job.</p>
<p>People are furious with the Vatican’s failure to open up its files and offer a clear explanation of what happened. Why is it so secretive? Angry and hurt Catholics feel a right to transparent government. I agree. But we must, in justice, understand why the Vatican is so self-protective. There were more martyrs in the twentieth century than in all the previous centuries combined. Bishops and priests, Religious and laity were assassinated in Western Europe, in Soviet countries, in Africa, Latin America and Asia.</p>
<p>Many Catholics still suffer imprisonment and death for their faith. Of course, the Vatican tends to stress confidentiality; this has been necessary to protect the Church from people who wish to destroy her. So it is understandable that the Vatican reacts aggressively to demands for transparency and will read legitimate requests for openness as a form of persecution. And some people in the media do, without any doubt, wish to damage the credibility of the Church.</p>
<p>But we owe a debt of gratitude to the press for its insistence that the Church face its failures. If it had not been for the media, then this shameful abuse might have remained unaddressed.</p>
<p>Confidentiality is also a consequence of the Church’s insistence on the right of everyone accused to keep their good name until they are proved to be guilty. This is very hard for our society to understand, whose media destroy people’s reputations without a thought.</p>
<p>Why go? If it is to find a safer haven, a less corrupt Church, then I think that you will be disappointed. I too long for more transparent government, more open debate, but the Church’s secrecy is understandable, and sometimes necessary. To understand is not always to condone, but necessary if we are to act justly.</p>
<p>Why stay? I must lay my cards on the table; even if the Church were obviously worse than other Churches, I still would not go. I am not a Catholic because our Church is the best, or even because I like Catholicism. I do love much about my Church but there are aspects of it which I dislike. I am not a Catholic because of a consumer option for an ecclesiastical Waitrose rather than Tesco, but because I believe that it embodies something which is essential to the Christian witness to the Resurrection, visible unity.</p>
<p>When Jesus died, his community fell apart. He had been betrayed, denied, and most of his disciples fled. It was chiefly the women who accompanied him to the end. On Easter Day, he appeared to the disciples. This was more than the physical resuscitation of a dead corpse.</p>
<p>In him God triumphed over all that destroys community: sin, cowardice, lies, misunderstanding, suffering and death. The Resurrection was made visible to the world in the astonishing sight of a community reborn. These cowards and deniers were gathered together again. They were not a reputable bunch, and shamefaced at what they had done, but once again they were one. The unity of the Church is a sign that all the forces that fragment and scatter are defeated in Christ.</p>
<p>All Christians are one in the Body of Christ. I have deepest respect and affection for Christians from other Churches who nurture and inspire me. But this unity in Christ needs some visible embodiment. Christianity is not a vague spirituality but a religion of incarnation, in which the deepest truths take the physical and sometimes institutional form. Historically this unity has found its focus in Peter, the Rock in Matthew, Mark and Luke, and the shepherd of the flock in John’s gospel.</p>
<p>From the beginning and throughout history, Peter has often been a wobbly rock, a source of scandal, corrupt, and yet this is the one – and his successors – whose task is to hold us together so that we may witness to Christ’s defeat on Easter Day of sin’s power to divide. And so the Church is stuck with me whatever happens. We may be embarrassed to admit that we are Catholics, but Jesus kept shameful company from the beginning.</p>
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		<title>The Bigger the Government, the Less You Are Needed</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/dennis-prager/the-bigger-the-government-the-less-you-are-needed/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-bigger-the-government-the-less-you-are-needed</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:00:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dennis Prager]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[What the Left destroys in people.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/government.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-54665" title="government" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/government.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="302" /></a></p>
<p>Among the things left and right,  religious and secular, agree on is that one of the few real needs human beings  have is to be needed.</p>
<p>When we are not needed, life feels  pointless.</p>
<p>The need to be needed is universal.  Men need it; women need it. The sexes may feel needed in different ways, but the  depth of the need is the same. Many women feel particularly alive when needed by  their young children; many men feel worthy when needed by their family and/or  their work. That is why most women navigate difficult emotional straits when  their adult children leave home and assume independent lives, and why most men  find it so crushing to lose their job &#8212; not necessarily because of loss of  income, but because of the loss of meaning that comes from no longer being  needed.</p>
<p>Only when we are needed do we  believe we have significance. Give a boy a special task &#8212; just about any task  &#8212; and he blossoms. Give a girl a person &#8212; in fact, almost any living being &#8212;  who depends on her, and she blossoms.</p>
<p>Of course, there are also myriad  unhealthy ways of feeling needed. If an unwed teenage girl has a baby in order  to feel needed, it is usually a bad thing for her, for the child and for  society. If a boy joins a gang to feel needed/significant, it is bad for him and  society.</p>
<p>Though not consciously intending to,  over time, the left destroys people&#8217;s ability to be needed and, therefore, to be  or feel significant.</p>
<p>As I regularly note, the bigger the  government, the smaller the citizen. One can add: The bigger the government, the  less significant the citizen &#8212; especially men.</p>
<p>This is easy to explain because it  is definitional. The more the state does, the less its citizens are needed to  do. One well-known example is the way welfare robbed so many men of significance  when women and their children came to depend financially on the  state.</p>
<p>And it goes further than that. In  order to feel significant, men not only need to have others depend on them, they  also need to depend on themselves, on their own work and initiative. But that,  too, is destroyed as the state gets bigger. Fewer and fewer people work for  themselves (which leads to, among other things, the disappearance of that  quintessentially American ideal of the risk-taking  entrepreneur).</p>
<p>It gets worse. As being needed and  significant shifts from the individual to the state, the state increasingly  determines who is needed and who has significance.</p>
<p>That means, first of all,  politicians. Obviously, whoever controls the ever-expanding government has the  most significance in a society.</p>
<p>Another significant group in the  leftist state are media people. They are significant in a non-leftist state such  as America, as well. But there is a huge  difference. Since American media are largely independent of government, there  are a far greater number of significant media people in America than in the much smaller world of  consolidated state media in Europe or Latin  America. There is nothing like the BBC or French Radio and  Television in the United  States. Therefore, no one in American media is  nearly as powerful as are the heads of the BBC or RTF. So the American state  cannot anoint who is significant in media.</p>
<p>Another significant group in the  leftist state is intellectuals. They, too, are largely determined by the state,  which funds nearly all education and intellectual life. One reason intellectuals  in America and Europe are so  often estranged from American culture is that intellectuals have rarely had the  fame or significance here that they have had in Europe. There are no American intellectuals who have had  the celebrity or influence that Jean-Paul Sartre did in France, for  example.</p>
<p>So, too, artists take on greater  prominence as the leftwing state grows. And they, too, are funded and celebrated  by the state.</p>
<p>In the ever-expanding state that the  left creates, the vast majority of individuals lose significance in that they  are simply less needed as the state takes over many of their roles. Fifty years  ago, the men of the local Rotary Club had prestige and societal significance. So  did fathers. So did clergy. With the ascendance of the left and the expansion of  their state, much of their power and societal significance has  eroded.</p>
<p>Now, as the state expands further  into health care, the same will happen to doctors as power and prestige are  transferred from them to the heads of dozens of new government health regulatory  agencies. Over time, neither you nor your doctor will fully decide your  treatment.</p>
<p>Indeed, over time, if the left has  its way and the state keeps expanding, you will also not decide what temperature  to keep your house or how to get to work. Nor will you be needed to educate your  children (that is already the job of the state, and much of Europe now bans home schooling), or to raise and  discipline your children (the state will ensure you are doing it correctly, and  spanking is now illegal in 25 countries). Fathers will be needed primarily (and  after divorce, only) as providers of child and spousal support.</p>
<p>In  short, you will be needed essentially for one thing: to finance the one thing  that is truly needed &#8212; the state.</p>
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		<title>Charles Krauthammer: The Age of Obama: Anno Domini 2 &#8211; Heritage Foundation Lecture</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/jlaksin/charles-krauthammer-the-age-of-obama-anno-domini-2-heritage-foundation-lecture/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=charles-krauthammer-the-age-of-obama-anno-domini-2-heritage-foundation-lecture</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:46:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[agenda]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=48542</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the real world, as opposed to what French President Nicolas Sarkozy calls President Barack Obama’s “virtual world,” America faces the reality of Iran’s intransigence and aggressiveness; China’s headlong pursuit of its own national, regional, and global interests; Russia’s determination to regain its Near Abroad; the Arab states’ refusal to accept any kind of a [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In the real world, as opposed to what French<br />
President Nicolas Sarkozy calls President Barack Obama’s<br />
“virtual world,” America faces the reality of Iran’s intransigence<br />
and aggressiveness; China’s headlong pursuit of its<br />
own national, regional, and global interests; Russia’s determination<br />
to regain its Near Abroad; the Arab states’ refusal<br />
to accept any kind of a reasonable settlement of the kind<br />
that Israel has already offered under several governments;<br />
Syria’s designs on Lebanon; and Hugo Chávez’s designs on<br />
the weaker countries in Latin America. President Obama’s<br />
foreign policy agenda of gradual American retreat will<br />
have inexorable consequences: When erstwhile allies see<br />
the American umbrella being withdrawn, they will have to<br />
accommodate themselves to those from whom we were protecting<br />
them. If Obama proves impervious to empirical evidence<br />
and experience, all these accommodations, the<br />
weakening of alliances, the strengthening of centers of<br />
adversarial power in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Caracas,<br />
and elsewhere will continue until we are awakened by<br />
some cataclysm. Read the whole lecture <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2010/pdf/hl_1143.pdf">here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2010/pdf/hl_1143.pdf">hl_1143.pdf application/pdf Object</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Mexico’s Drug War</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/mexico%e2%80%99s-drug-war/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=mexico%25e2%2580%2599s-drug-war</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/mexico%e2%80%99s-drug-war/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:20:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
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		<category><![CDATA[Veracruz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[violence]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=48315</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How the bloody battle against Mexico’s drug lords could threaten America. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-48317" title="mexico_drug_war3_30954s" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/mexico_drug_war3_30954s.jpg" alt="mexico_drug_war3_30954s" width="583" height="421" /></p>
<p>The media is barely covering the bloody situation in Mexico, but the war against the drug lords there should be of the utmost concern to Americans. As high levels of violence and corruption continue to plague Mexican society, the U.S. needs to brace for a flood of narcotics, arms, and people seeking refuge crossing the border.</p>
<p>The drug war has <a href="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N19153111.htm">resulted</a> in about 17,000 deaths over the past three years, and Mexico has claimed the title of the country in the hemisphere with the highest number of journalists killed on its soil. To put that in perspective, about 1000 American soldiers have died fighting the war in Afghanistan since 2001. About 4400 Americans have died in Iraq since 2003.</p>
<p>A quick look at the resume of Teodoro Eduardo Garcia Simental, a top drug lord captured this month responsible for horrendous amounts of barbaric violence in and around Tijuana, shows the brutal nature of the conflict. He and his partners destroyed the bodies of hundreds of their victims by submersing them in tubs of acid, many of whom were kidnapped and held for ransom.</p>
<p><em>The New York Times</em> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/world/americas/13mexico.html">describes</a> the conflict as follows:</p>
<blockquote><p>“When it comes to gore, Mexico’s drug traffickers seem to compete among themselves for the title of most depraved. One will chop off the heads of victims. Another will string dead rivals from bridges or burn their genitals. Recently, hit men removed the face from a dead man and sewed it onto a soccer ball.”</p></blockquote>
<p>The capturing and killing of top figures in the drug trade in recent months has not had an immediate impact. The Official Secretary of the Federal Judiciary in Veracruz City was <a href="http://m3report.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/over-the-weekend-changes-in-the-drug-market-us-supports-change-in-cd-juarez-strategy/">found</a> beheaded with a message carved into her chest this month. January of 2010 has doubled the previous January as having the record of the highest number of murders in Tijuana with 70 people having lost their lives.</p>
<p>January 10 made the record for the <a href="http://m3report.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/the-latin-states-of-america/">bloodiest</a> single day in the conflict, with 69 assassinations in nine states, beating the previous number of 57. Ciudad Juarez has been <a href="http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/mexicos-ciudad-juarez-worlds-most-violent-city">named</a> by the Citizen Council for Public Security as the most violent city in the world, with an average of 191 murders per 100,000 residents.</p>
<p>The affects of the war in Mexico are not limited to that country. It is spreading to El Salvador, which is <a href="http://m3report.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/el-salvador-considers-drastic-measures-to-combat-crime/">considering</a> establishing a curfew, a mandatory closing time for businesses, and allowing the searching of homes without warrants. A dozen people on average were <a href="http://m3report.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/the-latin-states-of-america/">killed</a> every day in the tiny country in 2009. The other Central American countries are experiencing a similar rise in criminal and violent activity.</p>
<p>The inability of the government to bring stability and opportunity to its people is causing desperate measures to be implemented. Military offensives usually reserved for foreign wars are taking place on home soil. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/world/americas/21mexico.html">Possession</a> of small quantities of drugs for “personal use” has been legalized, including heroin, cocaine, LSD, and methamphetamine. There is even talk of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/22/mexico-drug-ballads-jail-threat">prosecuting</a> those who glorify the drug lords in pop culture.</p>
<p>It also affects the War on Terror. It is now known that the Colombian narco-terrorist group known as FARC, with Venezuelan backing, has partnered up with Al-Qaeda elements in West Africa. The Chavez government’s <a href="../2010/01/13/drugging-the-west-by-ryan-mauro/">involvement</a> in narcotics trafficking means they can use the drug lords to destabilize the hemisphere and expand their business opportunities. Terrorist groups and other non-state actors will benefit from having a new colleague that can help them ship people and supplies into the U.S. and engage in illicit fundraising, as Hezbollah <a href="http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/27/hezbollah-uses-mexican-drug-routes-into-us/">already has.</a></p>
<p>People from countries known to be strongholds for extremist groups are being caught entering Latin America in order to reach the United States. Four Somalis have been <a href="http://m3report.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/poverty-and-educational-problems-in-mexico/">found</a> hiding in a tractor trailer in Honduras. In Colombia, 71 illegal aliens from Somalia and Eritrea were <a href="http://m3report.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/the-latin-states-of-america/">intercepted</a> by the authorities in early January. The smuggling business, instability and poor control of America’s southwestern border provides an open opportunity for those wishing to do us harm.</p>
<p>This internal strife should cause Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and Senator John Kerry to reconsider their <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idINWAT01123220090326">assurances</a> in March of last year that Mexico was “in no danger of becoming a failed state.” The conflict is becoming closer to resembling a guerilla war, and if the drug lords succeed in carving out mini-states for themselves, the U.S. will see the chaos and criminal activity they cause spill over the border.</p>
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		<title>Drugging the West</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/drugging-the-west-by-ryan-mauro/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=drugging-the-west-by-ryan-mauro</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:15:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=45815</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Chavez becomes a major player in narcotics trafficking.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-45822" title="chavez" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/chavez.jpg" alt="chavez" width="450" height="294" /></p>
<p>On January 9, Hugo Chavez announced that two Venezuelan F-16s had been dispatched to intercept a U.S. P3 maritime patrol aircraft in his country’s airspace, presenting it as another example of American aggression. In reality, Chavez is trying to push back against U.S. anti-narcotics efforts because he knows that it will expose him as a drug king pin whose business is helping terrorists and poisoning Western societies.</p>
<p>As widely reported, Venezuela supports the Marxist narco-terrorist group called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, commonly referred to as FARC. This group has been <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/05/world/worldwatch/entry6058116.shtml">found</a> to be working with Al-Qaeda drug traffickers in West Africa, three of which were extradited to the U.S. in December. Faced with increased interceptions of cocaine from Latin  America directly to the U.S., the Venezuelans and their Colombian allies are instead transiting via West  Africa.</p>
<p>“All of the aircraft seizures that have been made in West  Africa, and we’ve made about a half a dozen of them, had departed from Venezuela. If you look at the range and refueling requirements, that’s the place you have to fly from,” Jay Bergman, the Drug Enforcement Agency’s director for South  America’s Andean region <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34699790/ns/world_news-americas/">told</a> <em>MSNBC.com.</em></p>
<p>Venezuela has become the number one supplier of cocaine to the U.S., Spain, and Colombia, with the amount <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8160639.stm">increasing</a> by four times between 2004 and 2007. Over half of the cocaine in the United   Kingdom, and possibly as high as two-thirds, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/2205687/Hugo-Chavezs-Venezuela-supplies-half-of-Britains-cocaine.html">arrives</a> via Venezuela. Since Chavez has come to power, the number of drug-related arrests in Venezuela has <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/2205687/Hugo-Chavezs-Venezuela-supplies-half-of-Britains-cocaine.html">fallen</a> dramatically, at one point to less than one-tenth of the number before he came to power.</p>
<p>The Venezuelan also uses FARC and its drug networks to support other forces friendly to their anti-American cause. As Iran and Chavez have gotten closer, so has Hezbollah with the FARC and Venezuelan officials. After Jose Manuel Zelaya was ousted from power in Honduras, it was claimed by the Honduran Foreign Minister that Zelaya and Chavez had been collaborating in sending cocaine to the U.S.</p>
<p>“Every night, three or four Venezuelan-registered planes land without the permission of appropriate authorities and bring thousands of pounds…and packages of money that are the fruit of drug trafficking…We have proof of all of this. Neighboring governments have it. The DEA has it,” he <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=8173824&amp;page=3">said.</a></p>
<p>This cannot be attributed to widespread corruption in Latin  America. This is a calculated effort on the part of Chavez’s government. In September 2008, the Treasury Department <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/18/AR2009071801785.html">blacklisted</a> three senior Venezuelan officials for their involvement in supporting FARC and their drug activity. This included the head of Venezuela’s military intelligence, the head of their overall intelligence community, and a former interior and justice minister.</p>
<p>On January 21, 2008, the White House’s drug czar dismissed the notion that the drug trafficking in Venezuela was not necessarily a government enterprise.</p>
<p>“Where are the big seizures, where are the big arrests of individuals who are at least logistical coordinators? When it’s being launched from controlled airports and seaports, where are the arrests of corrupt officials? At some point here, this is tantamount to collusion,” he <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/21/world/fg-chavez21">said.</a></p>
<p>Chavez is doing this because it works. It is a good intelligence tool, as it allows for the penetration of enemy institutions, and is a great fundraiser for covert activities and terrorists. Venezuela and their allies are able to profit off of the self-induced damage of Western drug addicts, and can use drug trafficking to support forces that wreak havoc upon their enemies.</p>
<p>Although no direct evidence of Venezuelan government support for Mexican drug gangs is available, their overall support for narcotics trafficking to the U.S. undoubtedly helps them wage war. In 2005, Mexico and Venezuela <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-11-14-mexicochavez_x.htm">severed</a> ties and recalled their ambassadors after Chavez accused President Vicente Fox of being a “puppy” of the U.S. and threatened him, saying “Don’t mess with me, sir, because you’ll get stung.” Although ties were restored in 2007, Mexico is still governed by the same political party as Fox under President Felipe Calderon, an opponent of Chavez.</p>
<p>Chavez has reacted to U.S. concern over this activity with dismissal. In 2005, he ended all cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Agency. He has actually accused the DEA of being the ones behind the drug trafficking in his country, and has <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/03/world/fg-drugs3">minimized</a> their presence to only two agents by not renewing their work visas. Chavez has publicly opposed the War on Drugs, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16302074/">describing</a> it in 2006 as “an excuse that imperialists have used for several years to penetrate our country, trample our people and justify a military presence in Latin America.”</p>
<p>Venezuela is not merely supporting drug trafficking due to corruption, make money, and support its FARC ally, but as an instrument of policy. And there should be a price to pay for that policy.</p>
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