The recent unclassified Pentagon assessment of Iran's military power released last month to Congress shows official reporting is finally catching up to reality on the ground in regard to Iran's Latin American activities. The increase comes at a time of deep economic troubles for the Chávez government in Venezuela, as noted by the Hudson Institute's Jaime Daremblum.

It is also only the most public looks at how Venezuela and Iran are enhancing their military partnerships, particularly in field of asymmetrical warfare where both states are hoping to use their non-state proxies to take on the "Empire," meaning the United States. For a range of views on this, see my chapter and others in Woodrow Wilson Center publication Iran in Latin America: Threat or Axis of Annoyance?

The assessment contains several interesting nuggets, including that Iran's highest priority is the survival of the regime, and hence its fixation with asymmetrical warfare and its outreach to groups that oppose U.S. interests. This includes the Boliviarian states of Latin America. (For those who read Spanish, I have an article in the most recent Poder magazine on some of these issues). The DOD assessment does not discuss Iran's blossoming financial network across the region.

Some of the key findings that relate to Latin America and Iran's MO in the region:

Diplomacy, economic leverage, soft power and active sponsorship of terrorist and paramilitary groups are tools Iran uses to drive its aggressive foreign policy. In particular, it uses terrorism to pressure or intimidate other countries and more broadly to leverage its strategic deterrent.

The Iran regime uses the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - Qods Force (IRGC-QF) to clandestinely exert military, political, and economic power to advance Iranian national interests abroad. The IRGC-QF global activities include: gathering tactical intelligence; conducting covert diplomacy; providing training, arms and financial support to surrogate groups and terrorist organizations; and facilitating some of Iran's provision of humanitarian and economic support to Islamic causes.

Support for extremists takes the form of providing arms, funding and paramilitary training. In this, IRGC-QF is not constrained by ideology; many of the groups it supports do not share, and sometimes openly oppose, Iranian revolutionary principles but Iran supports them because they share common interests or enemies.

Yes, all of this is to lay the groundwork for understanding Iran's relationship to Chávez and other Bolivarians, because there is little else in common between Socialism for the 21st Century and a reactionary Islamist theocracy.

IRGC-QF maintains operational capabilities around the world. It is well established in the Middle East and North Africa, and recent years have witnessed an increased presence in Latin America, particularly Venezuela. If U.S. involvement in conflicts in these regions deepens, contact with IRGC-QF, directly or through extremist groups it supports, will be more frequent and consequential.

That is the scenario we are facing in Latin America. And it is a dangerous and unpleasant picture.

NOTE: My blog has been down several days due to an electrical outage where the server is hosted. Now back up and running. Thanks for your patience.

I wrote the blog below a couple of days ago, before the other (or what appears to be another in many drops concerning the Muslim Brotherhood) shoe dropped: Yousef Nada, the godfather of the international Muslim Brotherhood was taken off the United Nations Security Council sanctions list

Mark Hosenball at Newsweek, being one of the few reporters left in the business who has any idea who Nada is and why he is important,wrote a good summary of the issue, including the fact that the U.S. had to sign off on the action at some level.

Despite the sign-off at the UN, Nada remains a designated individual on the U.S. sanctions list. Who knows for how long?

Nada was a seminal figure in the international MB movement, and his Bank al Taqwa, in the Bahamas, was one of the financial centers for Hamas (and, according to U.S. public statements at the time, al Qaeda), before being shut down. He has appeared in numerous important roles trying to bridge the Sunni-Shiite divide in the Muslim world, befriending Khomeini in Iran, Saddam in Iraq (and unsuccessfully working to broker a peace deal in the Iran-Iraq war), and has identified himself as the Muslim Brotherhood's foreign minister.

There is much more, but one will have to read Hosenball, Isikoff and my older stuff about that.

So far the MB is winning every battle and rapidly recapturing the ground lost in the dark days after 9/11, when their role in radicalization and financing of radical Islam was recognized and confronted, at least briefly.

My older blog is here:


The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report has found that the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), the Saudi charity whose Philippine and Indonesian offices have been designated as terrorist entities by the U.S. Treasury Department, has reopened a U.S. office, this time in Florida.

IIRO was not a run of the mill Saudi charity, but one backed strongly by the Saudi government. As described by Matthew Epstein and Evan Kohlmann in March 2003 Congressional testimony:

U.S. counterterrorism investigators have discovered a letter under the MWL/IIRO
letterhead among numerous Al-Qaida documents recovered in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The letter, dating from the late 1980s, summarized a meeting held between Al-Qaida leaders and representatives of Muslim charitable organizations in which the attendees ultimately agreed to launch “attacks” from MWL offices in Pakistan.

The two presented evidence from Canadian trials of an al Qaeda supporter where an IIRO leader confirmed the direct links between IIRO and the Saudi government, saying, "Let me tell you one thing. The Muslim World League, which is the mother of IIRO,
is a fully government funded organization. In other words, I work for the Government of
Saudi Arabia. I am an employee of that government."

As a result of the overwhelming evidence assembled against IIRO, the Canadian
government (among others) has classified it as “secretly fund[ing] terrorism,” officially branding it a terrorist charity, the two testified.

The 2006 Treasury designation stated that the reason for the action:

the Philippine and Indonesian branch offices of the Saudi-based International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) for facilitating fundraising for al Qaida and affiliated terrorist groups. Treasury additionally designated Abd Al Hamid Sulaiman Al-Mujil, the Executive Director of the Eastern Province Branch of IIRO in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

"It is particularly shameful when groups that hold themselves out as charitable or religious organizations defraud their donors and divert funds in support of violent terrorist groups," said (Stuart) Levey. "We have long been concerned about these IIRO offices; we are now taking public action to sever this link in the al Qaida network's funding chain."

According to the GMBDR, the new IIRO was registered in Hialeah, Florida, on April 28, 2009. The previous, now defunct U.S. branch was the IRO (Islamic Relief Organization). The GMBDR notes that

After appearing dormant since the 2002 raids, and its DC corporate registration revoked, the new IIRO presence in the US seems designed to preserve the organization’s ties to the Muslim World League (MWL), the IIRO’s parent organization. The registered agent for IIRO USA, is Malik Sardar Khan who listed a residential address in Miami and who also serves as IIIRO USA Secretary-Treasurer.

It is hard to imagine why an organization with recognized ties to terrorist organizations, and one whose U.S. branch was under serious investigation since the late 1990s (see Glenn R. Simpson, "US Had Data on Virginia Group in Terror Probe as Early as 1997, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 16, 2002, p. A4 for details), would be allowed to reopen, or that such a reopening would escape official notice.

Yet, as with all things associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and its legacy organizations in this country, the official attitude has been to retreat and reach out, in the face of overwhelming evidence such tactics do no good. We knew who these groups were before, and only grudgingly took action against them. We now have forgotten who they are and seem to be unwilling to take any action whatsoever.

While Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has long viewed criticism of his autocratic rule and growing abuses as part of the impending Yanqui invasion, he has suffered two significant blows in the past week and the United States was not part of either. The developments are further signs that Chávez is finally being understood as an anti-democratic strongman who consistently supports terrorist groups that the rest of the world shuns.

The most recent blow came from a Spanish judge who linked the Chávez government to support for the Basque terrorist organization ETA, as well as the Colombian FARC, in attempts to assassinate senior Colombian officials.

The allegations, made in a court document by investigating magistrate Eloy Velasco, said that the Chávez government had acted as an intermediary between Eta and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) guerrilla group.

"There is evidence in this case which shows the Venezuelan government's co-operation in the illegal association between Farc and Eta," the magistrate said as he issued international arrest warrants for six alleged Eta members and seven Colombians believed to be members of Farc.

At the center of the controversy is Arturo Cubillas, an alleged Eta member who works in Venezuela's ministry of agriculture, who was named as the main link among the three groups: the Venezuelan government, FARC and ETA. Cubillas, who has lived in Venezuela since 1989, is married to a senior member of Chávez's government.

The allegations appeared to confirm Colombian intelligence reports that the FARC and ETA have worked together often and exchanged technological know-how and training.

The judge said that two Farc members, Victor Vargas and Gustavo Navarro, had travelled to Spain twice to identify possible targets among the Colombian community for assassination.

He said the Farc members had relied on Eta for support during their visit, and attempts had also been made to find a way of killing President Alvaro Uribe during a visit to Spain.

The investigating magistrate said that up to half a dozen Eta members had travelled to Venezuela to train Farc members in the use of C4 explosives and mobile telephones as detonators.

Members of the Venezuelan armed forces appeared to have accompanied them on at least one occasion, he added.

He also said that several Eta members had also travelled through Venezuela to Farc camps in Colombia to receive training there.

The other, earlier incident was sparked by an unusually blunt 300 page blistering report by the human rights branch of the normally-timid Organization of American States documenting the multiple and ongoing abuses of the Chávez government.

The report asserts that the state has punished critics, including anti-government television stations, demonstrators and opposition politicians who advocate a form of government different from Chávez's, which is allied with Cuba and favors state intervention in the economy.

The report outlines how, after 11 years in power, Chávez holds tremendous influence over other branches of government, particularly the judiciary. Judges who issue decisions the government does not like can be fired, the report says, and hundreds of others are in provisional posts where they can easily be removed.

The commission said some adversaries of the government who have been elected to office, such as Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma, have seen their powers usurped by Chávez.

"The threats to human rights and democracy are many and very serious, and that's why we published the report," Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, a member of the commission who specializes in Venezuela, said by phone from his home in Brazil.

In both cases Chávez reacted as he has in the past, by threatening, blustering, and personally attacking those documented his abuses, rather than substantively addressing any of the allegations. He shares this characteristic with Rafael Correa and Evo Morales, who, rather than debate the merits or truth of any criticism simply attack the messenger.

But slowly the mask is slipping on the creator of 21st Century Socialism. Rather than ushering in a new era of poverty reduction, social justice and prosperity, he is presiding over an increasingly criminalized state with one of the highest murder rates in the world, rampant corruption and shrinking freedoms. Viva la revolución!

Relatively unnoticed in Colombia, the government confirmed the death of Edgar Tovar, a senior FARC commander and one of the group's chief ties to Mexican drug cartels.

Tovar, AKA Gentil Gomez Marin or Angel Gabriel Losada Garcia, was the commander of the FARC's 48th Front, which operates primarily along the Ecuador/Colombia border, which has recently grown into the main cocaine conduit for supplying Mexican drug cartels. This makes him a key figure in the FARC's financial structure.

With the FARC leadership being relatively unable to communicate with each other and the contacts with the Mexican organizations a closely guarded among a few members of the 48th Front, Tovar's death is a significant blow. It removes one of the key facilitators of a terrorist group in dealing with transnational organized criminal groups.

Because of these ties, as outlined in my recent Ecuador study Tovar was a primary target for the Colombian police and military. Tovar had also been in charge of the security of Raul Reyes, the FARC's second-in-command, killed in Ecuador on March 1, 2008 by a Colombian attack.

One of the most interesting elements about the FARC in recent times is how groups like the 48th Front, which provide much of the logistical support for the rest of the FARC while collecting most of the cocaine money, have become more independent from the General Secretariat.

Internal intercepted communications of the FARC in recent months have shown that, despite pleas for money by the Secretariat, the 48th Front has simply refused to comply, and has shown in marked disinterest in fighting the Colombian military.

Given the FARC's dependence on the 48th Front's trafficking network (it works closely with the 29th Front, which is in charge of much of the weapons procurement), such defections could be lethal.

I and others have predicted the core FARC that still claims to have an ideological compass will be greatly reduced over time as the group becomes more and more criminalized. As the illicit trade becomes an ever-more dominant reason for existence - no longer tied to benefiting the revolution but entirely tied to personal gain - this fracturing will continue.

Working closely with Tovar is Oliver Solarte, the hands-on manager of the 48th Front's cocaine network. He lives on the Ecuador side of the San Miguel River, controlling the area around Puerto Nuevo, where his family lives, owns lands, runs brothels and supermarkets and generally displace the Ecuadoran state as the real authority.

Despite the wealth of knowledge on Solarte (also detailed in the Ecuador report), the Ecuadoran authorities have been unable and/or unwilling to apprehend him. This could be in part because he is in charge of paying the bribes to the Ecuadoran military and police that operate in the area, insuring that the cocaine flows with impunity and that the Mexican buyers who arrive are not bothered.

I have been to several organized crime and terrorism conferences in recent weeks and have sought to help focus on what the definition of "victory" should be in counter-narcotics efforts, be they in Colombia, Mexico or elsewhere.

Eliminating key financial and logistical operators like Tovar have an important degrading effect on the trafficking organizations. But the degradation of capabilities is usually temporary and, even if it is more long-lasting, it simply makes the trafficking structures less efficient and less profitable.

If they are less efficient and less profitable, they are less able to corrupt and murder, but also harder to target because the structures are somewhat atomized, rather than being centralized.

But if they are atomized, they become a problem that does not challenge the state, but rather can become a local police or military problem, where enough space for the state to reassert control can be created, further weakening the criminal and/or terrorist structures.

And that, I think, is the definition of victory, at least in the mid-term. Pushing the problem elsewhere, reducing the challenges to the state and atomizing the criminal structures so they can be dealt with at a local level are the best that can be hoped for given the profitability and endless supply of consumers.

The U.S. Justice Department today handed down a new indictment against Viktor Bout and his Syrian-American partner Richard Chichakli, alleging the Merchant of Death with laundering money and attempting to buy two aircraft in the Unites States through a series of front companies.

The indictment may add to Bout's legal woes, and certainly is a blow to Chichakli, who has been happily holed in Moscow, with occasional trips to Damascus while using his website to mock the U.S. government, along with you truly and others. The indictment and Interpol alert will likely keep him holed up in Moscow, at least for a while.

Chichakli, who prided himself on his ability to create fetching fruit platters, fled the United States when his assets were frozen by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets control. He used Lufthansa frequent flier miles to purchase his ticket, as he had no money available, and then proceeded on to Syria, before joining Viktor in Moscow.

Bout, of course, is still in a Thai jail, awaiting an appeals court decision on whether he can be extradited to the United States to stand trial for attempts to knowingly sell surface to air missiles and other lethal equipment to undercover agents posing as FARC operatives. Last year a lower court ruled that Bout could not be extradited, and the appeals court ruling will be final.

The charges may be used to try give the Thai court more reason to authorized Bout's extradition to the United States. It will also certainly make Chichakli, who helped Bout set up his operations in the UAE in the 1990s while acting as his accountant, a less mobile figure.

Bout's attempt to buy the aircraft show how mobile his network - which supplied the Taliban in Afghanistan, the FARC in Colombia and other terrorist groups - had become. The indictment alleges Bout and Chichakli wired some $1.7 million through the United States on behalf of a front company named Samar Airlines, to purchase two Boeing aircraft in the United States.

"Viktor Bout was originally charged in March 2008 with conspiring to kill Americans by selling millions of dollars worth of weapons to Colombia-based narco-terrorists. Further investigation has revealed additional criminal activities by Bout including money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy. The additional charges contained in the newly unsealed superseding indictment amply illustrate the extraordinary breadth of Bout's deadly criminal enterprise," said DEA administrator Michele Leonhart.

The move violated the executive order that banned any U.S. company or bank from doing business with Bout. The companies doing business with Bout were not fully identified and the indictment alleges that both Bout and Chichakli hid their involvement in Samar Airlines in order to avoid sanctions.

It is not clear what the aircraft would be used for. Bout's aging fleet of Soviet era aircraft had suffered a series of accidents, where difficult to maintain and costly to keep running. Perhaps that is one of the reasons he was keen to move over to Boeings.

"Viktor Bout allegedly made a career of arming bloody conflicts and supporting rogue regimes across multiple continents, even using the U.S. banking system to secretly finance a private fleet of aircraft. The United Nations and the United States have long-standing sanctions against Bout that stem from, among other things, his support of the most violent and destabilizing conflicts in recent African history. Until his arrest in March 2008, Bout had found a way to circumvent these sanctions, successfully evading the rule of law. This Office is committed to working with our partners in the United States, at the United Nations, and around the world to bring transnational criminals like Viktor Bout to justice," said U.S. Attorney PREET BHARARA.