The Iranian Infiltration of Latin America, Part 1

In 1994 a terror bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) building, a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, killed 85 people, most of them Jews. It was the most deadly terror attack in Argentine history.

On May 30, 2013, after many years of extensive investigation Alberto Nisman, the lead prosecutor in the case, issued a 502-page report with his findings. He concluded that there was overwhelming evidence that the Islamic Republic of Iran was responsible for AMIA bombing. In the process of their work on the case, the investigators uncovered an extensive network of Iranian infiltration, not just in Argentina, but in all of Latin America, from the Caribbean Islands to Tierra del Fuego.

There are, of course, contrary opinions about who bears responsibility for the AMIA bombing. For an example, see this piece in The Nation, which asserts that there is no real evidence of Iranian culpability in the attack.

On the day the report was released, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies issued a 31-page summary (pdf) of the Nisman report. Excerpts from the summary will be published here in several installments.

The FDD press release on the report noted:

Argentina’s Prosecutor for the AMIA investigation Alberto Nisman released a ground-breaking report detailing Iran’s extensive terrorist network in Latin America. Focusing both on the 1994 bombing of the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) center in Buenos Aires and more broadly on Iran’s use of cultural, religious, and educational centers as covers for illegal and terrorist activities, the report raises serious concerns about the ongoing threat to U.S. allies in the Western Hemisphere and globally.

Nisman’s 7-year investigation uncovered devastating evidence that the AMIA plot was orchestrated and planned by high-level Iranian officials including former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati and former Revolutionary Guard chief Mohsen Rezaei, both of whom are candidates in Iran’s presidential election to take place on June 14.

Iranian officials continue to operate with impunity despite Interpol red notices for Rezaei, former Iranian Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahijan, former cultural attaché Mohsen Rabbani, who oversees the Hezbollah network in Latin America on behalf of the Qods Force, and Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, and Argentine indictments for Velayati and former President Hashem Rafsanjani.

Nisman’s report also highlighted that Iran’s terror networks throughout Latin America were used as part of the thwarted 2007 attack on JFK Airport in New York, which experts say could have rivaled the attack on 9/11 had it not been uncovered. “Nisman’s investigation revealed how Iran exploits the vulnerabilities of America and our allies to set up illicit financial and terrorist networks. Policy makers around the world should draw on Nisman’s investigation and expertise to develop strategies to counter Iran’s global network,” FDD Executive Director Mark Dubowitz said.

Below is the introduction to the FDD summary report.

Introduction

For the first time in the Argentine and world judicial history, it has been gathered and substantiated in a judicial file, evidence that proved the steps taken by a terrorist regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran, to infiltrate, for decades, large regions of Latin America, through the establishment of clandestine intelligence stations and operative agents which are used to execute terrorist attacks when the Iranian regime decides so, both directly or through its proxy, the terrorist organization Hezbollah. These actions have been taking place within the so-called “export of the revolution”, which was never masked by Tehran and is, in fact, written in their own constitution.

Throughout a lengthy and very strong indictment of more than 500 pages, released today [May 30, 2013], the General Prosecutor of the AMIA case, Alberto Nisman, based on countless reports, evidence, testimonies, court and investigative records related to other countries of the region, North America and Europe and rulings of foreign courts against the Iranian regime, was able to corroborate and strengthen with new evidence, the responsibility of the Iranian regime in the AMIA bombing, stressing — in particular — the higher degree of responsibility that Mohsen Rabbani and Samuel Salman El Reda had in the attack, taking into account that both have international arrest warrants and red notices from Interpol. Also, the Prosecutor proved the way in which the fundamentalist terrorism sponsored and financed by Iran operates and hides in Latin America, its networks and operational system.

This intelligence and terrorist network had already caused devastating consequences in Argentina in 1994 and almost struck again in the United States in 2007, when the blowing of fuel pipes and tanks of “John F. Kennedy” New York’s International Airport was dodged by the timely intervention of US law enforcement agencies, which — in this case — led to the arrest of the plotters and their conviction to life imprisonment. Several of those terrorist were veteran Iranian intelligence agents that were active in the region. Among them was Guyanese citizen Abdul Kadir, whose importance lies in his close relationship and hierarchical subordination to Mohsen Rabbani.

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Spitting Season Has Started

Like many other interactive forums on the web, Twitter seems to encourage a nastiness of discourse which would rarely be encountered during in-person exchanges between people who disagree with one another. Sweden is no exception to this trend, and tweets in Swedish can be as nasty as any in English. In the following example a leftist monopolizes all the nastiness, as is often the case.

Erik Svensson is a professor of biology at the University of Lund who calls himself a “Marxist” on his Twitter account. On Friday he exchanged a series of tweets with Ingrid Carlqvist of Dispatch International, and the conversation was a notably vitriolic one on his part. Actually, “vitriol” fails to do justice to the level of bile that emerged from Dr. Svensson’s keyboard when confronted by an Islam-critic and — gasp! — Christian.

Below are excerpts about Erik Svensson’s Twitter love-fest with Ingrid Carlqvist from Avpixlat. Many thanks to our Swedish correspondent LN for the translation:

Professor wants to spit in Ingrid Carlqvist’s face

[…]

Erik Svensson is a professor of biology at the University of Lund, Sweden. In an exchange of opinions on Twitter about religion with among others Ingrid Carlqvist of Dispatch International, the professor jumps in and provides an outlet for his misogynistic attitude.

[…]

ES:   As an atheist, I reject all religions. But Islam stipulates that one should give to the poor. Plenty.
    […]
IC:   And hate kafirs, hate homosexuals, follow the “laws of God”, beating women, marry off children with cousins… etc. Not good.
 

When Carlqvist emphasizes that she criticizes Islam as a whole, and not individuals, ES has difficulty defending himself.

ES:   Just as you have the right to spread your Islamophobic propaganda, I have the right to criticize and mock you.
    […]
ES:   In the right to free expression is included the right to consider SD [Sweden Democrat] activists as brain-dead idiots.
    […]
ES:   I’m criticizing you as a representative of an Islamophobic newspaper (DI) and a racist movement. You have to endure that. Are you easily offended?
    […]
ES:   Just as Joseph Goebbels did, you make the lie your primary tool. You have no journalistic honor.
ES:   … Christianity is a vile religion and @ingridcarlqvist is one of this religion’s many vile representatives
IC:   Christianity has had its plagues on the road to enlightenment. Islam, however, shall never be altered.
ES:   @ingridcarlqvist is a nuisance and never changes. In truth, a vile and little person.
 

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/27/2013

A new round of deadly violence erupted in Cairo and other Egyptian cities as Muslim Brotherhood supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi clashed with police. Witnesses said police fired live rounds into the crowd, and at least 74 people were killed.

In other news, Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, the driver of the train that derailed on Wednesday in Spain, has been charged with reckless homicide for the deaths of 78 people killed in the crash. Mr. Garzon is still in the hospital recuperating from his injuries.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

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The Pogo Project, Part 1

And now for something completely different…

After the onset of my eye affliction (macular degeneration) a few months ago, I decided to attempt to read everything I really, really want to read, in case the efficacy of the treatments declines, and leaves me unable to read anything at all.

My first and most important goal was to reread the rest of Jack Vance’s books. That task has been accomplished, so I have now moved on to the second one, which is to reread all the Pogo books, or at least the first eight or nine years, before the strip stopped being particularly funny.

Readers who only know Pogo from the days after it became famous — the “We have met the enemy and he is us” period in the late 1960s — may not realize that in its early days Pogo was one of the funniest things ever printed, in comic strips or otherwise. During the Golden Age of Pogo — from 1949 to 1957, roughly — there was nothing funnier you could read, and there has been nothing funnier since. At least not in English — if you can call the language used by Walt Kelly “English”. He referred to it as “swamp-speak”, the peculiar and mutable dialect he created for the dwellers of Okefenokee Swamp.

Much of the humor in the strip may be lost on everyone except Americans. Non-native speakers of English will have trouble making sense of the puns and other word play, and deciphering the fractured grammar and vocabulary may be impossible. Brits and Australians will have an easier time, but Pogo is thoroughly embedded in American culture, and Americans — especially those of a certain age, who have knowledge of the last century or so of our history, politics, and popular culture — will get the most out of these panels.

Walt Kelly has been compared with Charles Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, for his creative genius with the English language. But unlike Carroll, Kelly delivered his linguistic delights in the newspaper every day for about eight years. No one since William Shakespeare has torqued the English language into such fantastical new shapes.

I’ll present a series of four-panel daily strips in each post of this project, as scanned from my ancient and damaged copies of the books and lovingly repaired by digital means. These do not necessarily comprise “the best of Pogo”, but simply the funniest selections that are more or less complete in a single day’s strip. Some of the most hilarious episodes ran for ten or twelve days, and don’t make as much sense in isolated pieces. The Sunday strips are another matter: they are simply too big to reproduce in a blog format.

I’ll have more to say about Walt Kelly and Pogo, but first here’s a strip from the second book, I Go Pogo, which collected material from 1951 and 1952. The characters are Bun Rabbit, Howland Owl, and Churchy La Femme (the turtle). The context is Bun Rab’s mission to celebrate as many holidays as possible at the same time:

I won’t try to explain any of the humor, because I’d just end up waving my hands and gesticulating. I will say, however, that the referenced date is September 25, 1513, and “Mr. Balboa” is Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who first glimpsed the Pacific from the top of a hill on that day.

The dialect of the characters is obviously loosely based on that of Southern blacks. When Walt Kelly first created Pogo — in comic books, before the newspaper strips — the possum was a sidekick of a little black boy named Bumbazine, who lived at the edge of Okefenokee swamp in Georgia.

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Nidal Hasan Speaks Up

The killer shrink of Fort Hood, Major Nidal Hasan, is acting pro se in his defense for his upcoming trial, and, boy, does he have a fool for a client.

Maj. Hasan delivered a statement yesterday to Fox News in which he apologized to his fellow mujahideen for letting them down, and repented before Allah for his service in the U.S. Army.

So much for four years of dedicated effort by the Obama administration and the media to avoiding discussing JIM in connection with Fort Hood.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this news clip:

Below are excerpts from the accompanying Fox News article:

Acting as his own attorney, accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan has released a statement to Fox News claiming that the U.S. military is at war with his religion.

[…]

“My complicity was on behalf of a government that openly acknowledges that it would hate for the law of Almighty Allah to be the supreme law of the land,” the 42-year-old Army psychiatrist said. Hasan then apparently asked if this was a war on Islam. “You bet it is,” he said. “I participated in it.”

The statement, which begins “In the name of Almighty Allah, the most gracious and the most merciful, my name is Nidal Hasan, Major Nidal Hasan, and I would like to convey a message to the world,” runs more than six pages.

Hasan also says he regrets his years in the Army, claiming that his service was inconsistent with his religious beliefs. “I would like to begin by repenting to Almighty Allah and apologize to the (Mujahideen), the believers, and the innocent. I ask for their forgiveness and their prayers. I ask for their forgiveness for participating in the illegal and immoral aggression against Muslims, their religion and their lands,” he said.

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Tolerance, Respect, and the Islamic Conquest of France

The young woman in this video speaks with eloquence and common sense about the Islamization of France, and the absurdity of any French self-chastisement over the country’s lack of “tolerance”. If an ordinary citizen can reason so lucidly about what is happening to France, why can’t French political leaders do the same?

We all know the answer to that question — or at least the regular readers of this and similar sites do.

Many thanks to Oz-Rita for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/26/2013

Six people who produce or retail electronic cigarettes have gone on a hunger strike in front of the Italian parliament building in Rome. They are protesting the increase of the tax levied on their product, which is now set at 58.5%.

In other news, according to the latest crime statistics, 1.1 million people were murdered in Brazil in the 32 years from 1980 to 2011, making the country the seventh most violent in the world.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, McR, Papa Whiskey, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

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Give us Lots of Refugee Camps!

The following article about yet another “refugee” camp in a German city was published last week in Politically Incorrect. JLH, who translated the piece for Gates of Vienna, includes this note:

From PI, a lively discussion of the refugee camps in Berlin-Kreuzberg with some observations that apply to our own situation. Kreuzberg is the district that turned its long-term SPD mayor into a blunt critic of integration and immigration policy. Now it has a Greenie.

The translated article:

Give us Lots of Refugee Camps!
by Falko Baumgartner

What do Communism and Multiculturalism have in common? Both are ideologies which look more broken the closer you look. A current example of vegetating Multiculturalism is the refugee camp in left-green Kreuzberg. Here is a clash of cultures: Turkish Kreuzberg, eco-Kreuzberg, leftover-German (non-Berliners) Kreuzberg, and for some months now, Afro-Kreuzberg.

The last is a so-called “wild” protest camp of circa 100 black African asylum seekers on Oranienplatz, protected by supporters, as is familiar from the camp dispersed in Munich’s Rindermarkt. The demand is naturally the same: unlimited right of residence for camp members. But it would be best to award it to all persons in Germany. That could potentially be 7,000,000,000 people or, to put it another way, 20,000 per square kilometer. Colonialism today is an import from Africa and Asia, compliments of the Antifa. Let Germany kick the bucket. Left radicalism is smart enough to recognize that its dream of a final solution can be accomplished most rapidly and most fundamentally with unregulated mass immigration.

The camp is a big field test, a brave step in the leftist university city of Berlin from gray theory to live, multicultural reality. Every day, local residents can personally experience the fact that immigrant societies are conflict societies. Experience means seeing, hearing and, during he heat of summer, smelling. Several media outlets such as PI, the Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung or Blu-News have reported on the impossible conditions and growing tensions between the protesting refugees and Kreuzberg residents. Below, I would like to analyze briefly the logic of the protests and describe why the laissez-faire policy of the Green district mayor, Franz Schulz, could prove to be a boomerang. For more than a year, the movement of refugee protests across the country has followed the same pattern. Politicized asylum seekers — just as brazen as they are desperate — slip into the role of compliant peasants, while the asylum lobby in the background pulls the strings. Illegally erected, makeshift camps are intended to attract the greatest possible interest from the media and poke the nose of the always-interested “well-to-do mob” deeply into this diversity. The planning and execution of the action are accomplished by a left-radical support network which takes over the work of propaganda, demanding the right to remain for everyone — nothing more nor less than the complete and permanent doing-away with Germany itself. The low points of the street fighting are presided over by the party-organized multi-culti aristocracy, above all the Left party and the Greens, who pseudo-objectively “interpret” for the public the course and goals of the asylum extortion. Schulz, for instance, who has been demonstratively unmoved for months by the colorful activity in the camp on Oranienplatz. His perfidious calculation: the closer Africa is brought to Berliners’ front door, so much more is increased the pressure on the population and the Berlin senate to accede to the refugees’ demands.

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Sexual Abuse in Islam

Muslim spokesmen in the West and their apologists among our politicians and in our media would have us believe that the “Asian” sex-slavery gangs in Britain are an anomaly, a misinterpretation of Islam, and “have nothing to do with Islam”. However, if one studies Islamic theology and culture, it becomes easy to understand why the rape of infidel women is in fact an intrinsic part of Islam.

Mark Durie is an Australian theologian and Anglican pastor. In the presentation below, Dr. Durie gives a talk and a slide show introducing his audience to the historical, cultural, and theological background for sexual abuse in Islam.

The presentation, entitled “From Pakistan to the Streets of Oxford – Understanding the Ideological Foundation of Sexual Abuse in Islam”, was given at the Q Society of Australia in Melbourne on July 18, 2013:

Hat tip: Nilk.

Bully or Hermit?

Our Austrian correspondent AMT sends a European’s review of a book about American foreign policy, and includes this prefatory note:

The following book review was written by a student of International Relations at a university in central Europe. I believe this book may be of interest to Gates of Vienna readers, as it describes United States foreign policy from a interesting and different point of view from, say, foreign policy icons such as Henry Kissinger.

Book Review:

Special Providence — American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World
by Walter Russell Mead

“God has a special providence for fools, drunks and the United States of America.” — Attributed to Otto von Bismarck

Those interested in the foreign policy of the United States can be divided roughly into two groups: those who believe the US pursues an isolationist foreign policy, and those who think the US wants to take over the world. As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Henry Kissinger asks whether America even needs a foreign policy. (It does.)

Walter Russell Mead takes on a topic of long-time contention among politicians, scholars, and students: does the United States have a foreign policy to speak of? Did it ever? What is it, if it even exists? How does it compare to that of Europe? And with this we come to the two main premises of this very readable book:

1.   What works in European foreign policy — i.e. Continental realism — does not necessarily work in and for the United States. On the one hand, Europeans play a game of chess (“If you move your piece here, I’ll move mine over there.”) On the other hand, the United States has traditionally been more driven by economics. Meade argues that these two views do not correlate: “It’s like using a map of Oregon to plan a trip to Georgia.” America simply does not work in the style of Metternich or Bismarck.
2.   In contrast to Metternich’s view that politics is all and economics merely a second thought, in the Anglo-American tradition it is economic success that creates the financial backbone for power. Because continental realism is unable to explain American reality, Meade introduces a new paradigm. He argues that American foreign policy is shaped by four schools of thought based on four presidents: Jefferson, Hamilton, Wilson and Jackson. Thereby Meade cleverly offers every American the opportunity to identify with one of the schools, even though American foreign policy is shaped by a combination of these schools at all times.
 

The four schools Meade introduces deserve a closer look. Hamiltonians find much of America’s foreign policy rooted in that of Great Britain and see commerce as the main driver of peace, much like the original European Community. Freedom of the seas, the free flow of money, and freedom of cargo, i.e. freedom of the skies — all this is needed for the free movement of goods. Hamiltonians introduced the most important principle of US diplomatic history, namely the right to respond with force. Any interference with the freedoms enshrined in Hamiltonianism is considered the fastest way to the start of a war with the US.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/25/2013

The governor of Campania is warning that riots and unrest will erupt in Naples and southern Italy if the economic situation continues to deteriorate. Italy is expected to lose a total of 250,000 jobs this year, and southern Italy has been particularly hard-hit.

In other news, a bomb left behind a Sydney police station is thought to be a Muslim response to last year’s Hyde Park riots in Sydney, when Muslims clashed with police.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, McR, Nilk, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

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North Carolina Senate Passes ALAC-Inspired Bill

A few days ago North Carolina Senate became the latest state legislative body to pass a bill modeled on the “American Laws for American Courts” legislative initiative.

Below is an report on this happy occasion from The Raleigh News and Observer. The article includes the usual PC media spin; I’ve bolded a few relevant phrases for further discussion:

NC Senate Passes ‘Sharia Law’ Bill

Raleigh — The state Senate on Friday passed a bill that would keep courts from recognizing Sharia law.

While proponents of the legislation said it would keep people safe from foreign laws, critics derided the bill as sending a message of intolerance and bigotry to followers of Islam.

“Critics”? Which critics? Got any (non-Muslim) names?

Is it “intolerant” and “bigoted” to insist that the constitutions of North Carolina and the United States be the law of the land in North Carolina?

Notice that the newspaper reporter brought up “sharia” — the word is not in the bill. That is, the paper is making sure that its readers think about Islamic law as being contrary (or at least at variance with) the United States Constitution.

This is, perhaps, an unintended consequence of their knee-jerk politically correct journalistic spin.

The article continues:

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Halal Stickers and Product Tampering in Australia

An Australian candidate for political office is causing controversy by selling halal product stickers to raise money for his campaign. He is adamantly opposed to halal, especially unlabeled halal, and urges his supporters to put the stickers on halal items to inform culturally unenriched Australians about what they may be buying.

A peculiar incident of apparent product tampering has clouded what would otherwise have been a colorful, if contentious, political campaign:

Hat tip: Vlad Tepes.

Your Altar is Our Latrine

Vlad Tepes has a translated article from Gazzetta di Mantova about an incident of culturally enriched thievery that included additional activity that was far nastier than mere theft:

SERRAVALLE. First they gained entry to the rectory of Libiola and stole the money collected by the children of Grest, and then, still not happy, they entered the nearby church which, since last year’s earthquake, is a simple tensile structure made of plastic and defecated and urinated next to the altar. This was a contemptuous act of vandalism and sacrilege. The culprits were identified, because a woman saw them coming out of the tent. They were four boys of Moroccan origin, one resident in Serravalle, the others from Ostiglia and surroundings.

The incident happened on Thursday afternoon, but the parish priest, Father Eugenio Ferrari, has only yesterday made an official complaint to the police. That day the parish house of Libiola, inhabited by two nuns, was empty and locked because the sisters, along with the parish priest, had gone on a trip with the children of the Grest on a day trip to a mountain resort. Undisturbed, then, the criminals broke the lock of a back door and entered. They climbed upstairs and also forced the lock on the bedroom of the Sister Superior. In a bag in a drawer there were about eighty euro, the takings of the third week of Grest, plus a portion of the proceeds of a summer risotto organized by the group of children and parents. Having carried out the theft, the group was still not satisfied to leave. They wanted to leave their mark. A mark of vandalism, that because the place where it was made, also takes on the meaning of a provocation, a disgraceful affront.

Read the rest at Vlad’s place.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.