Once Again a Terror Plot in Latin America

In 1992, Hezbollah was successful in bombing a Jewish community center, killing 85 and injuring more than 300. So, it is no surprise that Iran and it’s proxies are at it again.

There is no effort anywhere to stop the flow of migrants all unknown.

Record half million people crossed the treacherous Darién Gap in 2023

Jungle between Colombia and Panama marks the start of the dangerous trek north from South America to the United States.

A record 520,000 people crossed the treacherous jungle between Colombia and Panama known as the Darién Gap in 2023, more than double the number reported the year before, according to new figures from the government of Panama.

The people who made the journey that marks the start of the dangerous trek north from South America to the United States last year were mostly from Venezuela, Ecuador, Haiti and China, according to the numbers from Panama’s migration agency.

Around a quarter of the people who crossed were minors, said Samira Gozaine, who heads the agency. More here

France24:

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told the media that authorities had been on high alert as Buenos Aires hosts the Pan-American Maccabiah Games, bringing together some 4,000 athletes.

She said the country had received intelligence from the United States and Israel on the potential threat, and that the three suspects had booked a hotel near the Israeli embassy.

“We have neutralized the arrival of a possible terrorist cell in the country,” the security ministry wrote on social media.

The three were arrested on December 30, and one of them was found with Venezuelan and Colombian passports in his name.

Bullrich said the three had been awaiting the arrival of what her ministry earlier described as “an international shipment of a 35-kilo parcel originating in the Republic of Yemen.”

Argentina has the largest Jewish community in Latin America, which has been targeted by two major attacks in the past. Link

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This planned attack came multiple months after an Iraqi national was arrested for lurking outside of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, shortly after a series of bomb threats.

Three men from Syria and Lebanon were arrested in Buenos Aires and Avellaneda this week, the Argentine Federal Police (PFA) said.

The suspects were waiting for a 35-kilogram package to arrive from Yemen for their planned attack, the police said, adding that the package was addressed to the home of one of the suspects.

The police said they were paying extra attention to the security of the event following email threats and reports of suspicious people lurking around the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.

In October, an Iraqi national who was being investigated for falsifying Argentinian documents was arrested outside of the Israeli embassy while having phone conversations the same week the embassy received a series of bomb threats.

One of the three suspects arrived in Argentina from Syria. He was traveling with additional passports from Venezuela and Colombia, Argentinian media outlets reported. The other two suspects arrived from Lebanon. All three suspects arrived on separate international flights to Buenos Aires, the reports said. Link

This is a condition that requires top attention not only from the CIA but also from the FBI Miami Field Office which is chartered with international investigations under Memoradum of Understanding in the Legal Attache Program.Latin Migrants Shift Sights From U.S. to Neighbors - WSJ More here

Two months ago, Brazil said it had foiled an attack on its soil following the arrest in São Paulo of two men suspected of being linked to Hezbollah.

The group is considered a terrorist organisation by the UK, the US, Argentina, Israel and Gulf Arab countries among others.

 

One Sided Human Rights When it Comes to Gangs and Terrorists

We continue to watch in horror and fear the deadly terror in Israel and Gaza and rightly so. It must be known however, these types of attacks and terror go far beyond the Middle East. There is an organization funded by the usual. George Soros but also other nefarious people and that is the Human Rights Watch. (travel over to Wikipedia and read their summary, it sounds great but the reality is not so much)

As we pray for the hostages to not only survive but to be released in Gaza, it is happening in other corners of the world including what the Russians have done to Ukrainian citizens and especially children and then there is Haiti and Africa. Human Rights Watch is not so into caring about those locations.

Let’s begin with Haiti as it is news to all of you. It was just a week ago that the Associated Press reported the following in part:

A heavily armed gang surrounded a hospital in Haiti on Wednesday, trapping women, children and newborns inside until police rescued them, according to the director of the medical center, who pleaded for help via social media. Ulysse said members of Haiti’s National Police force responded to his call for help and arrived with three armored trucks to evacuate 40 children and 70 patients to a private home in a safer part of the city. Among those delicately evacuated were children on oxygen, he said.

Ulysse identified those responsible as members of the Brooklyn gang, led by Gabriel Jean-Pierre, best known as “Ti Gabriel.” Jean-Pierre also is the leader of a powerful gang alliance known as G-Pep, one of two rival coalitions in Haiti.

The Brooklyn gang has some 200 members and controls certain communities within Cite Soleil, including Brooklyn. They are involved in extortion, hijacking of goods and general violence, according to a recent United Nations report. Earlier this year, at least 20 armed gang members burst into a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders and snatched a patient from an operating room. The criminals gained access after faking a life-threatening emergency, the organization said.

UN: Haitian Gangs Invading Central Haiti source and read more here

By the way, the United Nations actually has a permanent peacekeeping office in Haiti….so much for that, even while the United States is often encountering migrants fleeing from Haiti. Oh yes, Human Rights Watch is completely tied to policies from the United Nations also.

Now let’s move back over to Ukraine shall we?

CBS News reported only last week about 19,000 children kidnapped by Russian forces and the real numbers could be as high as 300,000 in total.

As an example:

Last October, Nikita was living in a boarding school for disabled children when the Russian authorities ordered all 86 kids there to be transferred deeper into Russian-controlled territory.

Polina (translated): I came home after work, I opened Instagram and there was a picture of my child– Nikita. With a caption, Russia is taking children.

Polina says the Russians played a cruel game of hide and seek – moving Nikita at least three times in eight months – including to an orphanage in Russia

Then The Guardian reported last March the following in part:

What do we know about the Ukrainian children taken by Russia?
The court’s pre-trial judges said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population, and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children”. The judges said they had chosen to unseal the names of the suspects in an effort to prevent further crimes.

Reports first emerged last spring that Ukrainian children in occupied territory were being taken to Russia, and even being adopted by Russian families. Russia has presented its actions as a humanitarian mission to save Ukrainian children from the war. But Ukraine has accused Russia of genocide and described its actions as a war crime.

Who are the children involved?
The alleged abductees include children taken from Ukrainian state institutions in the occupied areas, children whose parents had sent them to Russian-run “summer camps” from which they never returned, children whose parents were arrested by the Russian occupying authorities, and children who were orphaned by the fighting.

Where are the children from?
The vast majority of Ukrainian children taken by Russia are from occupied areas of southern and eastern Ukraine: Kherson region, Kharkiv region, Zaporizhzhia region, Donetsk and Luhansk region, as well as a small area of Mykolaiv region.

How many children have been taken?
Russia has admitted to holding at least 1,400 Ukrainian children it describes as orphans, though it said at least 2,000 had travelled to Russia unaccompanied. In addition, several hundred children from the occupied territories remain in Russia after they attended “re-education” camps with the consent of their parents but were then not returned.

What has happened to the orphans?
Since the invasion, at least 400 Ukrainian orphans have been adopted by Russian families, according to the Ukrainian Regional Center for Human Rights, which has calculated its figure from statements by the Russian state. Russia has said 1,000 more are waiting to be adopted.

Lvova-Belova, the Russian children’s commissioner, has herself described “adopting” a 15-year-old child from Mariupol, the south-eastern Ukrainian city that was devastated and occupied by Russian forces.

But many of these Ukrainian children have living relatives, who are often desperately searching for them. About 90% of Ukrainian children who were living in state care at the time of the invasion were “social orphans”, meaning they had relatives but those family members unable to take care of them.

How about China? Well they have an estimated 40,000 child slaves in Congo mining for cobalt and lithium for batteries, mostly for the EV industry. Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) published a summary from a congressional hearing the exploitation of children in Africa for the economic and global agenda for China.

There is a foundation called Walk Free Foundation that studies modern day slavery and publishes an index. The estimate is 30 million people worldwide are living in modern day slavery from places such as India, China and Africa.

Bringing it closer to home, with the protests across America to Free Palestine, no one says enough about the fear from violence and theft for individuals and businesses with smash and grabs and now crash and grabs, meaning stolen cars are used to break into businesses.

So. exactly where are the leaders of any sort? Where is the Human Rights Watch? Where is the Department of Justice which by the way formed a legal team to work at the Hague for the International Criminal Court? How about Interpol and Red Notices or the FBI? How about the District Attorneys do some real work on car-jacking, human trafficking, the sex trade, migrant crime., cartel narcotic trafficking…and all the rest.

Where are the protectors if no one is above the law?

 

You Need to Know this about BRICS

BRICS is a collection of countries that launched in 2010 to dominate the global economy. BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Just recently, a BRICS summit was held in Johannesburg to discuss the next mission and that is oil and the expansion of alternative currencies.

Russia's president Vladimir Putin speaks via video link during a press conference on the closing day of The Brics summit at the Sandton Convention Center on August 24, 2023

Getty Images  Image caption, Vladimir Putin addressed the summit via a video link

Russian President Putin attending by video link since he is under arrest by the International Criminal Court for war crimes yet that has not stopped the emerging threat BRICS is about to impose on the global stage…control of at least 30% of the world’s oil industry.

Putin in his remarks states that Western powers with their ‘neo-liberalism’ pose a threat to traditional values in developing countries.

Several additional countries were extended an invitation to join BRICS and they include Saudi Arabita, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. If these countries accept the invitation to join, collectively 30% of the world’s GDP would be under BRICS. China pushed the hardest for the expansion of the bloc as a way to counter Western dominance.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan attempted to play down the bloc’s expansion plans.

He said that due to Brics countries’ divergence of views on critical issues, he did not see it as “evolving into some kind of geo-political rival to the United States or anyone else”.

BBC posted in part by Sarang Shidore, director of the Global South programme at the Quincy Institute in Washington:

‘US can’t set all norms’

Nevertheless, the Brics expansion does represent a shift.

“No longer is it a world where the US can set all the norms, or drive all the institutions. There’s no question about that. But a replacement? No, I would say much more of a complementarity than a replacement that is on the horizon,” Mr Shidore added.

So for a group that says they all value and respect each other’s opinions, maybe no-one won or lost. It really was just a diplomatic gathering with some give and take.

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President Biden does not take issue with any of this since he continues with his war on domestic oil production. He just blocked and restricted oil and gas development in the Gulf and millions of acres of land giving eco groups all they want.

Does this look like the United States has energy stability now or in the future?

Image

New composition of BRICS will control 80% of world oil production With the addition of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran to the BRICS, the Union will be able to control the lion’s share of the world’s oil production. The same goes for the sharp GDP growth of the new BRICS countries. It will amount to 30% of world GDP and exceed $30 trillion.

This is now a global oil cartel….oh add in OPEC.

 

 

Does Iran Really Have a Hyper-sonic Missile System?

Primer: Raytheon claims successful innovations for the defense of these missiles.

We’re using our decades of expertise to deliver digitally engineered, end-to-end offensive and defensive technologies to help keep the world safe. And the innovation never stops.

To accelerate hypersonic advances, we partner in creative ways that bring proven technology together with cutting-edge developments in heat management, propulsion and sensing. Teaming across the industry enables us to move advanced hypersonic capabilities out of laboratories, into test environments and into the hands of warfighters at top speed.

The question is what does Saudi Arabia or Israel have for offensive and defensive platforms? No ideas just yet.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran claimed on Tuesday that it had created a hypersonic missile capable of traveling at 15 times the speed of sound, adding a new weapon to its arsenal as tensions remain high with the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program.

The new missile — called Fattah, or “Conqueror” in Farsi — was unveiled even as Iran said it would reopen its diplomatic posts on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia after reaching a détente with Riyadh following years of conflict.

The tightly choreographed segment on Iranian state television apparently sought to show that Tehran’s hard-line government can still deploy arms against its enemies across much of the Middle East.

“Today we feel that the deterrent power has been formed,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said at the event. “This power is an anchor of lasting security and peace for the regional countries.”

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace program, unveiled what appeared to be a model of the missile. Hajizadeh claimed the missile had a range of up to 1,400 kilometers (870 miles).

That’s about mid-range for Iran’s expansive ballistic missile arsenal, which the Guard has built up over the years as Western sanctions largely prevent it from accessing advanced weaponry.

“There exists no system that can rival or counter this missile,” Hajizadeh claimed.

That claim, however, depends on how maneuverable the missile is. Ballistic missiles fly on a trajectory in which anti-missile systems like the Patriot can anticipate their path and intercept them. Tuesday’s event showed what appeared to be a moveable nozzle for the Fattah, which could allow it to change trajectories in flight. The more irregular the missile’s flight path, the more difficult it becomes to intercept.

Iranian officials did not release footage of a Fattah successfully launching and then striking a target. Hajizadeh later said that there had been a ground test of the missile’s engine.

A ground test involves a rocket motor being put on a stand and fired to check its abilities while launching a missile with that rocket motor is much more complex.

Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds in excess of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, could pose crucial challenges to missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability. Iran described the Fattah as being able to reach Mach 15 — which is 15 times the speed of sound.

China is believed to be pursuing the weapons, as is America. Russia claims to already be fielding the weapons and has said it used them on the battlefield in Ukraine. However, speed and maneuverability isn’t a guarantee the missile will successfully strike a target. Ukraine’s air force in May said it shot down a Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missile with a Patriot battery.

Gulf Arab countries allied with the U.S. widely use the Patriot missile system in the region. Israel, Iran’s main rival in the Mideast, also has its own robust air defenses.

In November, Hajizadeh initially claimed that Iran had created a hypersonic missile, without offering evidence to support it. That claim came during the nationwide protests that followed the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the country’s morality police.

Tuesday’s announcement came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to begin a visit to Saudi Arabia.

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The Iran Nuclear Facility Deep Deep Underground

It has long been declared by the mullahs of Iran that their nuclear development operation was only for peaceful purposes. Well then why hide it? Associated Press did some good reporting that many other news outlets picked up. This should change the newly formed relationships now in the Middle East and those European leaders need a sobering and honest rethink of Iran.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Near a peak of the Zagros Mountains in central Iran, workers are building a nuclear facility so deep in the earth that it is likely beyond the range of a last-ditch U.S. weapon designed to destroy such sites, according to experts and satellite imagery analyzed by The Associated Press.

The photos and videos from Planet Labs PBC show Iran has been digging tunnels in the mountain near the Natanz nuclear site, which has come under repeated sabotage attacks amid Tehran’s standoff with the West over its atomic program.

With Iran now producing uranium close to weapons-grade levels after the collapse of its nuclear deal with world powers, the installation complicates the West’s efforts to halt Tehran from potentially developing an atomic bomb as diplomacy over its nuclear program remains stalled.

Completion of such a facility “would be a nightmare scenario that risks igniting a new escalatory spiral,” warned Kelsey Davenport, the director of nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association. “Given how close Iran is to a bomb, it has very little room to ratchet up its program without tripping U.S. and Israeli red lines. So at this point, any further escalation increases the risk of conflict.”

The construction at the Natanz site comes five years after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the nuclear accord. Trump argued the deal did not address Tehran’s ballistic missile program, nor its support of militias across the wider Middle East.

But what it did do was strictly limit Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 3.67% purity, powerful enough only to power civilian power stations, and keep its stockpile to just some 300 kilograms (660 pounds).

Since the demise of the nuclear accord, Iran has said it is enriching uranium up to 60%, though inspectors recently discovered the country had produced uranium particles that were 83.7% pure. That is just a short step from reaching the 90% threshold of weapons-grade uranium.

As of February, international inspectors estimated Iran’s stockpile was over 10 times what it was under the Obama-era deal, with enough enriched uranium to allow Tehran to make “several” nuclear bombs, according to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

President Joe Biden and Israel’s prime minister have said they won’t allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon. “We believe diplomacy is the best way to achieve that goal, but the president has also been clear that we have not removed any option from the table,” the White House said in a statement to the AP.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Near a peak of the Zagros Mountains in central Iran, workers are building a nuclear facility so deep in the earth that it is likely beyond the range of a last-ditch U.S. weapon designed to destroy such sites, according to experts and satellite imagery analyzed by The Associated Press.

The photos and videos from Planet Labs PBC show Iran has been digging tunnels in the mountain near the Natanz nuclear site, which has come under repeated sabotage attacks amid Tehran’s standoff with the West over its atomic program.

With Iran now producing uranium close to weapons-grade levels after the collapse of its nuclear deal with world powers, the installation complicates the West’s efforts to halt Tehran from potentially developing an atomic bomb as diplomacy over its nuclear program remains stalled.

Completion of such a facility “would be a nightmare scenario that risks igniting a new escalatory spiral,” warned Kelsey Davenport, the director of nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association. “Given how close Iran is to a bomb, it has very little room to ratchet up its program without tripping U.S. and Israeli red lines. So at this point, any further escalation increases the risk of conflict.”

The construction at the Natanz site comes five years after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the nuclear accord. Trump argued the deal did not address Tehran’s ballistic missile program, nor its support of militias across the wider Middle East.

But what it did do was strictly limit Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 3.67% purity, powerful enough only to power civilian power stations, and keep its stockpile to just some 300 kilograms (660 pounds).

Since the demise of the nuclear accord, Iran has said it is enriching uranium up to 60%, though inspectors recently discovered the country had produced uranium particles that were 83.7% pure. That is just a short step from reaching the 90% threshold of weapons-grade uranium.

As of February, international inspectors estimated Iran’s stockpile was over 10 times what it was under the Obama-era deal, with enough enriched uranium to allow Tehran to make “several” nuclear bombs, according to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

President Joe Biden and Israel’s prime minister have said they won’t allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon. “We believe diplomacy is the best way to achieve that goal, but the president has also been clear that we have not removed any option from the table,” the White House said in a statement to the AP.

The Islamic Republic denies it is seeking nuclear weapons, though officials in Tehran now openly discuss their ability to pursue one.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations, in response to questions from the AP regarding the construction, said that “Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities are transparent and under the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.” However, Iran has been limiting access for international inspectors for years.

Iran says the new construction will replace an above-ground centrifuge manufacturing center at Natanz struck by an explosion and fire in July 2020. Tehran blamed the incident on Israel, long suspected of running sabotage campaigns against its program.

Tehran has not acknowledged any other plans for the facility, though it would have to declare the site to the IAEA if they planned to introduce uranium into it. The Vienna-based IAEA did not respond to questions about the new underground facility.

The new project is being constructed next to Natanz, about 225 kilometers (140 miles) south of Tehran. Natanz has been a point of international concern since its existence became known two decades ago.

Protected by anti-aircraft batteries, fencing and Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the facility sprawls across 2.7 square kilometers (1 square mile) in the country’s arid Central Plateau.

usaf gbu57 bomb 3D Model in Projectiles 3DExport Details and source here

Bunker buster developed in the United States, which would take several to deal with this hidden nuclear facility.