CAIR Threatens Muslims With $25,000 Penalty by David Gaubatz

September 3, 2008 – Washington, DC: The Mapping Sharia Project, a research project sponsored by the Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE), is issuing an alert that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a self-described public interest civil rights law firm, may have engaged in criminal fraud.

Mapping Sharia calls for a full investigation by the appropriate government agencies. The victims of this fraud may also be due compensation for their losses and suffering. Reliable sources have produced solid information that Morris Days, the Manager for Civil Rights at the CAIR MD/VA chapter, who was widely publicized by CAIR as one of its civil rights attorneys, was in fact not an attorney, and failed to provide services for Muslim American clients who came to CAIR for assistance and who paid for Days’ services. Not only has CAIR not revealed the facts about Days and his fraudulent, criminal behavior, but as of yesterday, September 2, 2008, the CAIR National office in Washington, D.C. continued to post articles at its website naming Days as an attorney. This amounts to a de facto cover-up of CAIR’s involvement in this criminal affair and a perpetuation of the fraud with CAIR’s assistance.

At the same time that CAIR promoted Days as a lawyer while knowing he was not, it continued to solicit donations for its “legal” representation of Muslims in civil rights cases. Prospective plaintiffs, who may have been victimized by CAIR’s fraud in the Morris Days affair, as well as any donors to CAIR who feel they have donated to CAIR under false pretenses thinking it was a legitimate and law abiding public interest law firm, should recognize that CAIR controls an extensive real estate asset portfolio, either owned directly by CAIR or by CAIR related companies. These assets are attachable and fair game for damages claims.

The evidence for the alert has been provided from Muslim American sources. A significant body of evidence has been obtained from these sources, which include individual citizens in several states, as well as Muslim American leaders who no longer support CAIR. Copies of pertinent documents are provided for download as pdf files at the Mapping Sharia website and provided here as links:

CAIR promotions of Morris Days as a lawyer: http://www.mappingsharia.us/uploads/application/24.pdf

CAIR Release Form for Morris Days’ “clients”:
http://www.mappingsharia.us/uploads/application/28.pdf

CAIR Real Estate Portfolio Documents (Deeds for CAIR, Greater Washington LLC and Zahara Investment Corporation):
http://www.mappingsharia.us/uploads/application/29.pdf

David Gaubatz, Director of Operations, Mapping Shariah Project
contact@mappingsharia.us

Pa. Biodefense Lab Faces Further Delays

The opening of a biodefense laboratory in Allegheny County, Pa., has been delayed again by additional technical problems, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 11).

Operations at the $5.6 million facility are on hold indefinitely until a ventilation system glitch can be fixed. The system would prevent potentially lethal disease material from escaping the facility.

“There's a variety of issues, the most serious dealing with the negative air pressure ventilation system for the Level 3 laboratory where the most serious pathogens will be tested,” said county Health Department chief Bruce Dixon. “I hope it's fixable. A lot of money has been invested. I think we're making progress but it's been a slow and arduous process.”

Other issues holding up work at the site include replacement of a door, implementation of a training program on laboratory maintenance and the requirement for federal certification.

The Biosafety Level 3 facility was completed in late 2007 and features ventilation systems, equipment and safety technology allowing for research on anthrax, plague and other potential bioterrorism agents. Its focus is expected to be on infectious disease testing.

The project has faced a series of obstacles since its inception in 2002, including withdrawal of $500,000 in federal funding and a water line that had to be replaced early this year. ....

Man Arrested Near Capitol After IED, Rifle, Ammunition Allegedly Found in Jeep

WASHINGTON, D.C. — DEVELOPING STORY:

A man is under arrest in Washington after an improvised explosive device, a rifle and some ammunition were allegedly found in his jeep, Capitol Police said Friday.

The man stopped to ask police for directions near the Capitol building at about 11 a.m. EDT Friday, at the intersection of 2nd and Independence Avenue Southeast, according to Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider.

The officer responding noticed a rifle case on the car seat and inspected the jeep, discovering the IED, rifle and ammunition. A canine unit was enlisted to help.

"They've all been rendered safe right now because they're in the custody of Capitol Police," Schneider told reporters at a briefing Friday.

The officer took the unidentified man into custody; the vehicle is still being searched.

Library of Congress employees near where the jeep was stopped have been evacuated, and several roads have been closed while police continue their investigation.

.... The IED is on its way to the FBI facility in Quantico, Va., for analysis.

Qaeda video threatens more attacks on Denmark: SITE

DUBAI (AFP) — Al-Qaeda has released a video featuring a senior commander who was rumoured to have been killed in Pakistan in July, threatening more attacks after a suicide bombing on the Danish embassy in Islamabad, according to the SITE group which monitors Islamist websites.

"We have warned previously -- and we warn once more -- the Crusader states which insult, mock and defame our Prophet and Koran in their media and occupy our lands, steal our treasure and kill our brothers that we will exact revenge at the appropriate time and place," Mustafa Abu al-Yazid said in the video, SITE reported on Thursday.

The June embassy bombing killed six Pakistanis and came amid anger in the Muslim world over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed first printed in Danish newspapers in 2005.....

Obama Had Close Ties to Top Saudi Adviser at Early Age

(Compiler's note: We need to vet this man quickly. If all this is true, then the American people need to know it right upfront. It would be well that such would happen before he gets all the highly classified briefings.)

By: Kenneth R. Timmerman

New evidence has emerged that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was closely associated as early as age 25 to a key adviser to a Saudi billionaire who had mentored the founding members of the Black Panthers.

In a videotaped interview this year on New York’s all news cable channel NY1, a prominent African-American businessman and political figure made the curious disclosures about Obama. (See Video Clip Below) ....

The Saudi Connection

But al-Mansour’s sponsorship of Obama as a prospective Harvard law student is important for another reason beyond his Islamic and anti-American rhetoric and early Black Panther ties.

At the time Percy Sutton, a former lawyer for Malcolm X and a former business partner of al-Mansour, says he was raising money for Obama’s graduate school education, al-Mansour was representing top members of the Saudi Royal family seeking to do business and exert influence in the United States.

In 1989, for example — just one year after Obama entered Harvard Law School — The Los Angeles Times revealed that al-Mansour had been advising Saudi billionaires Abdul Aziz and Khalid al-Ibrahim in their secret effort to acquire a major stake in prime oceanfront property in Marina del Rey, Calif., through “an elaborate network of corporate shells in California, the Caribbean and Europe.”

At the same time, he was also advising Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in his U.S. investments, and sits on the board of his premier investment vehicle, Kingdom Holdings.

Prince Alwaleed, 53, is the nephew if King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia. Forbes magazine ranked him this year as the 19th richest person on the planet, with a fortune in excess of $23 billion. He owns large chunks of Citigroup and News Corp., the holding company that controls Fox News.

He is best known in the United States for his offer to donate $10 million to help rebuild downtown Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks. But after the prince made a public comment suggesting that U.S. policies had contributed to causing the attacks, Mayor Rudy Giuliani handed back his check.

"I entirely reject that statement," Giuliani said. "There is no moral equivalent for this (terrorist) act. There is no justification for it. The people who did it lost any right to ask for justification for it when they slaughtered 4,000 or 5,000 innocent people.”

Since then, Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Foundation has given millions of dollars to Muslim charities in the United States, including several whose leaders have been indicted on terrorism-related charges in federal courts.

He also has given tens of millions of dollars to Harvard and other major U.S. universities, to establish programs in Islamic studies.

The casual statement by Percy Sutton to NY1 is the first time anyone has hinted at a relationship between Obama and the Saudi royal family.

Although al-Mansour glosses over his ties to the Saudi mega-billionaire in some of his public talks, he has represented the Saudi’s interests in the United States, in Britain, and in Africa for more than a quarter century, according to public records.

He told Newsmax that he has personally introduced Prince Alwaleed to “51 of the 53 leaders of Africa,” traveling from country to country on the Saudi prince’s private jet.

He knows virtually every black leader in America, from the business community, to community activists, to the worlds of politics and entertainment.

When Michael Jackson was on the ropes in the mid-1990s following a series of lawsuits by the parents of children accusing him of sexual abuse, al-Mansour introduced him to Prince Alwaleed, whose Kingdom Entertainment signed a joint venture with Jackson in 1996.

“Jackson and Alwaleed became pals in 1994, when a mutual friend from Alwaleed's college days in California arranged a lunch meeting aboard the prince's yacht in Cannes,” Time magazine reported about the new partnership in 1997.

The mutual friend was al-Mansour.

“As a black American, I am exceedingly proud at the American people’s response to Barack Obama’s candidacy,” said CORE’s Niger Innis. “But to deny that he has long-standing ties to left-wing elements in our polity is to deny reality. If you want to be president of the United States, it is not racism if you ask these kind of questions, and he has to come up with an answer, hopefully the truth.”

Sutton gives no clues as to why al-Mansour would be raising money to help Obama go to law school. Obama has said during his campaign that he paid his way through Harvard with student loans.

For Jesse Lee Peterson, founder of the Los Angeles-based Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND), these latest revelations about Obama’s ties to Saudi financiers were an important wake-up call.

“To me, this opened up more questions about Barack Obama and his relationship to the Muslim world,” Peterson told Newsmax.

“A lot of people are caught up with the emotional aspect of Barack Obama, the movie star aspect, the false promises that he’s going to take care of everyone and their Mama.”

But when the full story of Obama’s ties to radical preachers such as Wright and to black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan comes out, Peterson believes that Obama’s star power will fade.

“I think there’s more to this story and to Barack Obama than we realize,” Peterson said. “As all the truth comes out before the election, I don’t think he has a chance. I can’t see American’s taking that kind of risk.”

The Obama campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Congress Undermines America's Infrastructure by Looting the Highway Trust Fund

(Compiler's note: Yes, this is a national security issue. When will we ever hold Congress accountable. Simply carrying the checkbook does not imply that they have money.)

by Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D.

WebMemo #2046

Recent projections by the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office reveal that the highway trust fund will run out of money during FY 2009. Unless the fund is replenished soon, federal spending on highways could decline significantly as the fund reverts to a spend-as-you-earn basis until a permanent remedy is enacted. Until then, one solution is to re-concentrate the fund's focus on highway investment and safety by abandoning the many low priority and non-transportation diversions that now encumber the federal program.[1]

A Funding "Crisis"?

The soon-to-be-empty trust fund is a direct consequence of recent congressional overspending in excess of the fuel tax revenues that replenish the fund as well as decades of congressional mandates allowing non-highway interests access to the highway trust fund. In FY 2008, these mandates are estimated to have diverted approximately 38 percent of trust fund spending to projects and programs of little value to the motorist's mobility needs.

Despite the fund's depletion, some in Congress are advocating that the next highway reauthorization bill (scheduled for October 2009) should include a very substantial increase in federal transportation spending. Leaders of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure want total spending raised from the current $286 billion to nearly a half a trillion dollars. Achieving this rate of spending would likely require a doubling of the federal fuel tax from its current level of 18.3 cents per gallon.

Those seeking more transportation spending justify the tax increase as the necessary cost of resolving the nation's infrastructure "crisis." But as this author noted in a recent piece in the Wilson Quarterly, the so-called crisis seems limited exclusively to the infrastructure managed by Congress, and legislative mismanagement—not the level of funding—is a large part of the problem.[2]

Raid on the Funds

Among the many reasons these congressional tax-and-spend schemes will fail to relieve worsening traffic congestion and road deterioration is that less than two-thirds of current federal surface transportation spending is devoted to the general purpose roads that the typical motorist or truck driver (who finances the fund) use in the ordinary course of travel. The other third goes to a growing collection of costly diversions that have little to do with the mobility needs of the average motorist or to the economically essential movement of freight.

In the last highway reauthorization bill (P.L. 109-59), the largest diversion from the authorized $52 billion in total spending from the highway trust fund (including $1.8 billion in general revenues) for FY 2008 is the $9.7 billion in direct spending for transit programs (trolleys, buses, commuter rail, etc.). Transit riders are also the greatest beneficiary of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program, which absorbs $1.7 billion from the trust fund. Although transit riders account for only 1.6 percent of surface travel passengers, they receive a subsidy from the motorists amounting to approximately 20 percent of trust fund spending.

Other fund diversions include the Enhancement program ($647 million), the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) ($470 million), Recreational Trails ($80 million), and a transfer of $925 million to the Department of Interior for roads in national parks and forests. Altogether these leakages will absorb more than 26 percent of fund spending in 2008.

The next largest series of diversions are the four major earmarked programs: High Priority Projects, Projects of Regional and National Significance, Transportation Projects (Section 1934 of P.L. 109-59), and the National Corridor Infrastructure Improvement Program. All are authorized to spend $4.5 billion, bringing the diversion share to 35 percent.

About $155 million will be spent on scenic byways, ferry boats, magnetic levitation and tax evasion deterrence, while $408 million will be spent on administrative overhead. More than $570 million will be spent on another twelve mandated programs, including bicycles, racial profiling, historic covered bridges, community preservation, innovative finance, and Safe Routes to Schools (which also supports bicycles). Bringing up the rear are the federally mandated Metropolitan Planning Organizations—whose focus is increasingly directed to land use planning, transit and economic development—which receive $302 million.

Motorists Ripped Off

Altogether, these diversions absorb an estimated $19.6 billion in trust fund spending, or about 38 percent of the total spent from the trust fund. As a consequence, motorists will receive only about 62 percent of what they have paid into the fund for general purpose roads and safety programs. Redeploying these diverted funds back to roads used by the motorists and truckers who fund the system would yield the equivalent of a 50 percent increase in new spending for road improvements and capacity increases.

Conversely, to achieve the same goal by increasing taxes would require a tax increase of $1.67 for each dollar to be spent on roads, since the extra $0.67 would be required by the existing diversions, which traditionally share equally in any funding increase. Thus, in order to return the lost $19.6 billion to roads, fuel taxes would have to be increased by $32.7 billion. These wasted funds are a key reason why the nation's roads are in such bad shape and why congestion is getting worse.

Even More Diversions

Although the sensible policy response would be to pare back the number and cost of the existing diversions, some in Congress have already introduced legislation that would add even more diversions to the depleted trust fund. In 2008, Senator Dick Durbin (D–Ill.) introduced S.3360 to give Amtrak access to the highway trust fund to purchase new railcars. Bill co-sponsor Senator Tom Carper (D–Del.) claims that the legislation would divert $400 million each year in motorist-paid gas taxes to Amtrak, which serves only one half of 1 percent of intercity passenger travel.

Another potential major diversion could come from Representative Jim Oberstar's (D–Minn.) H.R. 3246 (the Regional Economic and Infrastructure Development Act of 2007), which would authorize federal funding for five new regional commissions that would be similar to the ARC, which has access to the highway trust fund. Although the bill in its current form does not give these new commissions such access, it is likely that its final version would include that privilege in order to create regional parity and because the Delta Regional Authority, which will be reconstituted as a "commission" under H.R. 3246, already has access to the trust fund (Section 1308).

States Know Best

Under the circumstances, the combination of existing diversions and the new ones likely to be enacted over the coming year suggest that the federal transportation program will become more costly and less effective. As a consequence, proposals to shift transportation responsibility and revenue sources back to the states are now even more compelling. One such proposal—Senator Jim DeMint's (R–S.C.) Transportation Empowerment Act (S.2823)—would do just that by "turning back" the highway program and its source of revenues to the states.

Russian units raid Georgian airfields for use in Israeli strike against Iran – report

The raids were disclosed by UPI chief editor Arnaud de Borchgrave, who is also on the Washington Times staff, and picked up by the Iranian Fars news agency. The Russian raids of two Georgian airfields, which Tbilisi had allowed Israel to use for a potential strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, followed the Georgian offensive against South Ossetia on Aug. 7.

Under the secret agreement with Georgia, the airfields had been earmarked for use by Israeli fighter-bombers taking off to strike Iran in return for training and arms supplies.

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that flying from S. Georgia over the Caspian Sea to Iran would sharply trim the distance to be spanned by Israeli fighter-bombers, reducing flying time to 3.5 hours.

Northern Iran and the Tehran region, where most of the nuclear facilities are concentrated, would be within range, with no need to request US permission to pass through Iraq air space.

Russian Special Forces also raided other Israeli facilities in southern Georgia and captured Israeli spy drones, says the report.

Israel was said to have used the two airfields to “conduct recon flights over southern Russia as well as into nearby Iran.” The US intelligence sources quoted by UPI reported that the Russian force also carried home other Israeli military equipment captured at the air bases.

Our sources say that if the Russians got hold of an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle complete with sophisticated electronic reconnaissance equipment, they will have secured some of the IDF’s most secret devices for spying on Iran and Syria.

When this happened before, Russian military engineers quickly dismantled the equipment, studied it and passed the technology on to Tehran and Damascus.

Muslim man linked to Hamas allowed to become permanent resident of U.S.

Back to back, another Muslim with "questionable" ties is exonerated in court. Though two federal agents assert he is linked to Hamas, the judge sides with his attorney who, after attending a Ramadan fast break in a mosque, concluded that the accused is a "man of great will." Update to this story.

"Terror claims against NJ Muslim leader rejected," from AP, September 4 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

NEWARK, N.J.: An influential New Jersey Muslim leader accused by some federal officials of having terrorist ties but praised by others as being an important ally won his fight to gain permanent U.S. residency Thursday.

A federal immigration judge in Newark ruled that Mohammad Qatanani, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, can remain in the U.S.

The ruling brought cheers, tears and applause from about a dozen Qatanani supporters who gathered in the courtroom.

"I would like to thank the judge for working hard in this case," Qatanani said. "This is a beautiful thing. The justice system in this country is great."

U.S. immigration authorities had sought to deport Qatanani on grounds that he failed to disclose on his green card application a prior arrest and conviction in Israel for being a member of Hamas, a group classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. ....

As Gustav Lands, There Are Lessons to Be Learned

(Compiler's note: Must read. rca)

By James Carafano, PhD

....Yet these initial impressions did much to shape public perceptions, leading Congress to push for proposals that did little to improve—and in some cases detracted from—the ability of the nation to prepare for large-scale catastrophes. If these mistakes are not to be repeated after Gustav, Washington will have to be more sober in assessing federal responsibilities for dealing with large-scale national disasters.

Dealing with Disasters

Regardless of how serious this storm turns out to be or the successes or failures of the response, the principles of responding to disasters probably will not change.

In “normal” disasters—whether terrorist strikes like 9/11 or a natural disaster such as a flood or snowstorm—a tiered response is employed. Local leaders turn to state resources when local resources are exhausted. In turn, states look to Washington when their means are exceeded. Both local and state leaders play a critical role in effectively communicating their requirements to federal officials and managing the response. In most disasters, local resources handle things in the first hours and days until national resources can be requested, marshaled, and rushed to the scene. That usually takes days. With the exception of a few federal assets such as the Coast Guard and Urban Search and Rescue, teams do not roll in until after the response is well under way.

....The federal government does have a unique and important role to play. Only the federal government can build a national response system to mobilize the resources of the nation in the face of a catastrophic disaster. In virtually every instance, however, state and local leaders will remain in charge, and national assets—whether they come from other states, the private sector, or the federal government—will be in support of their efforts. One lesson that should not be learned from the disaster of Hurricane Katrina is that all the answers to addressing the needs of America in the face of a catastrophic disaster are to be found in Washington. ....

Lessons Not to Be Learned

What Washington should not do in the wake of Gustav is follow the lead of Congress after Katrina and attempt to make national disaster response more “Washington-centric.” Centralized preparedness and response will never be timely and flexible enough to meet local needs in a large-scale disaster. In addition, such approaches undermine the Constitutional principle of federalism. Congress should reject efforts to make Americans more dependent on Washington. In particular, Congress and the Administration should:

• Stop doling out billions in homeland security grants. Rather than build up local capabilities, many communities use these funds to simply supplant their own emergency preparedness spending. The 9/11 Commission warned that grants were in danger of becoming “pork barrel” legislation. The Commission was right. Grants have made state and local governments more dependent on Washington but have done a poor job improving national capacity for responding to large-scale disasters.

• Stop over-federalizing disaster responses. The number of declared “federal disasters” has skyrocketed since the 1990s. Declarations and deployments, while “politically” popular, distract time and resources from preparing for truly catastrophic disasters such as Katrina, and they create the unrealistic expectation that in the event of a crisis, Washington will solve all the problems.

• Stop expanding federal disaster insurance coverage. Congress is considering disaster insurance legislation that represents a bigger danger to the American economy than a catastrophic hurricane season. Congress continues to forget one of the best lessons from Hurricane Katrina: Despite the fact that Katrina was the most expensive disaster in U.S. history ($133.8 billion), the insurance market survived due to the reinsurance market. In fact, in some cases, the insurance companies were reporting sizable profits within one year.

Disasters from Disasters

Katrina was used as an excuse to try to make more federal spending and more federal control the answer for responding to disasters. Regardless of the outcome of Gustav and the sufficiency of the national response, some pundits and politicians will likely push for making national disaster preparedness and response more Washington-centric. Congress should reject such solutions. ....

Cops strip-search 'loitering' pro-lifers

The allegations in the case sound like a 3rd World dictatorship: Police officers talk over before the arrests what charges they'll use, there are no explanations when the arrests are made, the suspects are denied access to legal counsel while in custody, and cops subject suspects to semi-public strip-searches.

Only this was in Bel Air, Md., and the pro-life protesters subjected to the treatment now have brought a legal action against the officers and town for violating their Constitutional rights.

"The truth of the matter is that our clients were heckled, arrested, imprisoned, shackled, and strip-searched twice for exercising their First Amendment rights," said attorney Daniel Cox, who is allied with the Alliance Defense Fund is serving as local counsel. "No excuse exists for how our young clients were treated." .....

Islamic Jihadists Post 50K Bounty on McCain's Spiritual Advisor Pastor Rod Parsley

Courtesy of "Archangel" The Northeast Intelligence Network has secured an Islamic Jihadist threat posted just last night on the life of American Evangelical Pastor Rod Parsley. Pastor Parsley is the spiritual advisor to presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Senator John McCain. The threat offers a $50,000.00 bounty for the head of Pastor Parsley. Here is the text of the threat: ....

Calif. Legislature Passes Bill to Give Illegal Aliens Driver's Licenses

The California Legislature has passed a bill that would force the DMV to issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens. The bill currently sits on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk. ....

Now terror subs prowl Caribbean

(Compiler's note: Watch this one ... MUST READ -- they have a plan, and we need to learn what it is BEFORE they implement. rca)

The waters in the Caribbean and around Latin America for a long time have provided a path for illicit drugs to flow into the United States, but the U.S. Navy has increased its patrols in the region now looking for something else – Hezbollah terrorists, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The Navy, in trolling for mini-submarines sometimes used to transport drugs, has discovered that some of them apparently are being operated by Hezbollah.

The mini-subs are small semi-submersibles, made of fiberglass and capable of carrying up to four people plus a payload. They are popular with drug smugglers, and now the U.S. is concerned elements of Hezbollah have begun using them for drug-running or smuggling weapons.

"In 2006, we were tracking around three of these," said Navy Admiral James Stavridis, commander of U.S. Southern Command. "In the year 2007, (the number) jumped to about 30. This year so far, in three months, we've seen about 30."

In drawing the connection to Hezbollah, Stravridis said there is concern about the "tri-border area (of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay). It is, in my view, principally Hezbollah activity.

"There is clearly fund-raising, money laundering, drug trafficking," Stravridis added. "And, certainly a portion of the funds that are raised in that are making their way back to the Middle East."

The suspected Hezbollah activity is centered largely in the tri-border region, particularly Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, a focal point of Islamic fundamentalism to include the Sunni Hamas and Shiite Hezbollah.

Now it has branched beyond the tri-border area into other regions of Latin America to include Venezuela.

Indeed, as far back as 2000, Iran had designated the Hezbollah to be its liaison to Hamas and the Sunni Palestinian Islamic Jihad throughout Latin America.

Stravridis expressed concern over this linkage.

"(U.S. Southern Command) is concerned about linkage between the Iranian state and nascent Islamic radical terrorism in this region," Stravridis said.

Now, Iran itself is showing a growing presence in the region, to which sources claim the administration has paid little attention. This presence includes diplomatic and intelligence not only in Venezuela but also Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador.