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Iran: Quds Force in Venezuela
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/201...orce_venezuela
Iran: Quds Force in Venezuela April 22, 2010 | 2253 GMT Summary A recently published U.S. Department of Defense report claims that members of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force (IRGC-QF) currently are operating in Venezuela. STRATFOR sources claim that the relatively limited number of IRGC-QF in Venezuela are focused on intelligence operations, paramilitary training for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and security assistance for the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Though the IRGC-QF presence brings certain benefits to the Venezuelan government, Chavez also has an interest in keeping their proxy militant focus on Colombia. Analysis U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates submitted a report to Congress in April on the current and future military strategy of Iran. Included in the report is a claim that the Quds Force, the overseas operations arm of Iran’s elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has developed a significant presence in Latin America, particularly in Venezuela. STRATFOR sources connected to this Iranian military unit have confirmed a small but notable presence in Venezuela. Though IRGC-QF members in Venezuela are believed to be providing some security assistance to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan leader does not appear interested in incurring reprisals from the United States and is consequently trying to direct the anti-U.S. activities of the IRGC-QF toward neighboring Colombia. As the Pentagon report states, IRGC-QF members usually are stationed in foreign embassies, charities and religious or cultural institutions as intelligence officers to develop ties with the Shiite diaspora and other potential allies. The U.S. military even has labeled incoming and outgoing Iranian ambassadors to Iraq as IRGC-QF members. On a more narrow scale, the IRGC-QF arms, funds and trains various paramilitary groups as an extension of Iran’s well-developed militant proxy arm. The IRGC-QF is believed to have worked with proxies to orchestrate major attacks against U.S. and U.S.-allied targets, including the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia and a number of insurgent attacks targeting U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. By keeping this elite unit in reserve in various pockets of the globe, Iran has the ability to carry out attacks under plausible deniability. The reality of Iran’s retaliatory options — made possible by the IRGC-QF — has factored heavily into U.S. war-gaming exercises against Iran. Joined by their mutually hostile relationship with the United States, Iran and Venezuela have grown to be close allies in the past several years. A good portion of this relationship consists of rhetoric designed to grab the attention of Washington, but significant forms of cooperation do exist between the two countries. STRATFOR sources have indicated many of the inflated economic deals signed between Iran and Venezuela and the establishment of the Banco Internacional de Desarrollo (an Iranian banking subsidiary headquartered in Caracas) are designed to facilitate Iran’s money laundering efforts while providing the Venezuelan government with an additional source of illicit revenue. The Iranian-Venezuelan relationship also extends into the militant proxy world. Though this information has not been confirmed, STRATFOR sources claim the current IRGC-QF presence in Venezuela is limited to roughly 300 members. This estimate could well be on the high side, considering the likelihood that it includes all IRGC-QF paramilitary trainers and personnel working under diplomatic, business and religious cover. Many of these IRGC-QF members are focused on developing relationships with Venezuelan youth of Arab origin, who are viewed as potential intelligence and militant recruits. Some of these recruits are brought to Iran for training, and STRATFOR sources claim that several Hezbollah trainers are included among the IRGC-QF personnel. However, these efforts remain limited given the relatively small size of the Shiite community in Venezuela, believed to be less than one percent of Venezuela’s Muslims, which comprise roughly four percent of the population. A portion of IRGC-QF members are believed to interact with militants belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia’s largest paramilitary group. The Chavez government is widely believed to provide direct support for FARC rebels and smaller Colombian paramilitary groups, but the Venezuelan president also appears wary of the IRGC-QF interaction with these groups. A STRATFOR source has indicated that IRGC-QF links with FARC are designed to give Iran the option of targeting U.S. interests in Colombia should the need for retaliation arise (for example, in the event of a U.S. military strike on Iran). The source says the IRGC-QF does not have a presence in Colombia but supports FARC from the paramilitary group’s sanctuary along the Venezuelan border. While it remains highly doubtful that Iran would be able to exert the necessary influence over FARC to direct their attacks against U.S. targets, simply having FARC as the main culprit for attacks in Colombia could provide Iran with the plausible deniability it seeks in such attacks. The Venezuelan government appears to be benefiting in part by hosting the IRGC-QF, but, like Iran, wants to ensure some level of plausible deniability. A STRATFOR source claims that some IRGC-QF members have been integrated into Venezuela’s National Guard and police force, where they provide assistance to the Chavez government in containing the opposition. IRGC-QF and Hezbollah personnel also are believed to be involved in irregular warfare training for some Venezuelan army units, in addition to FARC. Chavez has publicly endorsed the concept of “asymmetric warfare” in his restructuring of the Venezuelan army to guard against potential military threats from Colombia and the United States. That said, Chavez also is wary of IRGC-QF activities directed at the United States. According to the source, Chavez has strongly cautioned Iran against allowing IRGC-QF to target U.S. interests in Venezuela itself. Despite his heated rhetoric against the United States, the Venezuelan president does not wish to invite a strong U.S. reprisal and would rather keep their militant focus on Venezuela’s main regional rival, Colombia. See also: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...R4xXMlDPSTmhBw http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...rt-claims.html http://www1.voanews.com/english/news...-91767204.html |
As usual, the US neglects Latin America. We do this at our peril. The history of the past 60 years has been forgotten: Castro, Che, Allende, Somoza, FMLN, Noriega, and Sandinistas just to name a few. Now they have the likes of FARC, Evo Morales, and Hugo Chavez. If you blink, foreign policy speaking, LATAM will bite you in the backside every time. We're going to have to fight the LATAM campaign of the 1980s all over again.
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Big Teddy :munchin |
Fight the battles again
We operated for nine years to get the communists out of LATAM and now look at it. Danny Ortega was elected as president of Nicaragua, the G's in El Sal didn't get properly demobilized and gave us MS13, the FARC is stronger than ever, Bolivia is a Venezuelan puppet, and on it goes.
Maybe it's a good thing that there's a remake of Red Dawn in the works. Folks better wake up. |
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With our national attention turned to the ME, Hugo thinks he can just play fast and loose. He is getting in bed with muchachos he don't want to be in bed with when all is said and done. It's one thing for him to play kissy face with Fidel, but the Iranians.... man he is like a kid poking an electrical socket with a butter knife to see if it sparks. :rolleyes::rolleyes: He needs a lead hearing aid. AM |
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/201...straits_hormuz
Brief: IRGC Detains Vessels In Straits Of Hormuz April 24, 2010 | 1421 GMT Naval patrol units of Iran’s elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), briefly stopped French and Italian vessels in the Straits of Hormuz, Iranian state media reported April 24. According to the reports, the two ships were stopped by IRGC naval forces engaged in the Great Prophet 5 military exercises that have been in progress for three days. Iranian forces reportedly boarded the two vessels, inspected them to assess whether they were in compliance with environmental regulations, and were allowed to sail after it was concluded that they were not in violation of any regulations. STRATFOR cannot confirm this report at this time. It is not clear whether such an incident truly took place and if it did, what types of vessels were stopped and for how long. If it did happen, then it was an attempt by Iran to show that it is prepared to interfere with international energy-related traffic in the event of an attack. Thus far, the Iranians have been using a mix of rhetoric and war games to send a message to the United States that the cost of military action against the Islamic republic would be very high. By stopping ships (albeit briefly) in the Straits of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf (through which 40 percent of the world’s seaborne oil supplies flow), Iran is trying to complement verbal threats with a practical demonstration of its intent. Such an offensive move on the part of the Iranians, assuming it actually happened, will escalate already growing tensions over Iran’s controversial nuclear program and place pressure on U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration to respond to the Iranian provocation. |
Have I read to many Tom Clancy novels?…Iranian quads in SA = oil rig…NK act of war with the ship sinking and now the aggressive land grab…is it possible that these events are a coordinated/related strategy of a partnership among declared enemies of the US?
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Globa...-tensions-grow http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...5rx8gD9FA0UKG0 http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/04...-lawmakers-say Leading to: http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/...hat-s-war-talk |
Concur with Penn, Green Light, et al. It is indeed hard not to arrive at these conclusions. For too many generations the US has ignored LATAM as nothing more than a tourist destination or a labor pool.
It's taken years for this to evolve to this point and the solution will probably take just as long to fix. How do we fix it...I don't know. |
I recall that during a period of heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran in 2007, an American college kid wrote a white paper in which he defined Iranian victory conditions in a Persian Gulf conflict as the sinking of an American aircraft carrier.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...QqNCjZ3PUWgHtg Iran Guards fire five missiles: media (AFP) – 5 hours ago TEHRAN — Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards fired five missiles on Sunday as part of ongoing war games in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, state media reported. The shore-to-sea and sea-to-sea missiles struck at a single target simultaneously, state television reported. Fars news agency named two of those tested as the Noor (Light) and Nasr (Victory) missiles. It said a third, having a range of over 300 kilometres was also fired, but did not name it. The Guards have been conducting a military drill since Thursday in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow strategically located waterway through which 40 percent of world's seaborne oil supplies pass. Iran's missile programme has raised concerns in the West which is already at loggerheads with Tehran over its controversial nuclear project. The Islamic republic boasts of having missiles that can hit targets in arch-foe Israel. |
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It's time. Bring it back! :D
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And FARC just gets bigger and better trained...:munchin Was just thinking...what if Iran wiped Israel off the map? It would be the 12th step, every Christian and Muslim country in the world would be pretty pissed at the Holy land being radiated. "And Russia's new shipping container cruise missile system with potential customers for the formidable Club-K system include Kremlin allies Iran and Venezuela" http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/...ia-weapon.html Keep kissing ass Mr. President |
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...GqCrAD9FBLRQG2 ....Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said they will devote every available resource to a comprehensive investigation of the explosion. The two Cabinet secretaries signed an order establishing the next steps for a joint investigation that began last week into the causes of the explosion of the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. The U.S. Coast Guard, as part of the DHS, and the Minerals Management Service, part of Interior, share jurisdiction for the probe. Investigators will have the power to issue subpoenas, hold public hearings, call witnesses, and take other steps that may be needed to determine the cause of the incident.... :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...0,645089.story ...."This is a spill of national significance," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters at the White House briefing. The designation means that assets from around the country and especially from other coastal areas can be used to fight the spill.... :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1272395702575.shtm Secretary Napolitano and Secretary Salazar Launch Full Investigation of Deepwater Horizon Incident in the Gulf of Mexico Release Date: April 27, 2010 For Immediate Release Contact: Clark Stevens (DHS), 202-282-8010 Kendra Barkoff (DOI), 202-208-6416 Washington, D.C. - As they emphasized the importance of continued vigilance and interagency coordination in the joint response to the Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today laid out the next steps for the investigation that is underway into the causes of the April 20** explosion that left 11 workers missing, three critically injured, and an ongoing oil spill that the responsible party and federal agencies are working to contain and clean up. "As we continue to work with our federal, state, local and private sector partners to respond to this ongoing incident, we must also effectively determine and address its causes," said Secretary Napolitano.... |
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The 8th Grp Flash is very fine, but I think the 12th Grp. Flash with its three bolts and its overall graphic image is the best, and therefore should be reactivated and formed as an AD Grp.
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I heard that today on the radio, and saw on Fox this evening that Offshore Drilling Plans Under Gun After Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill And I thought of Penn's comments..... |
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