Iran Moving Aggressively in Latin America

Seems like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela is not the only one who is entering into
new strategic alliances with Iran while much of the world is backing away.

It is not much of a surprise that Nicaragua's new/old president Daniel
Ortega has, according to my sources who have seen the documents, already
signed agreements to send a small group of "diplomats" to Tehran for
intelligence training.

In addition, Nicaragua will support Iran's nuclear ambitions and other
Iranian positions. In exchange, Nicaragua will get a hydroelectric plant, a
motorcycle factory and other economic toys. This is all in concert with
Venezuela, who, as today's Washington Post reports, Chavez is consolidating
his control in Venezuela while buying support of other nations. Along with
his "brother" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Chavez is pledging a $2 billion
investment fund for the region.

Chavez and Ahmadinejad are certainly free to spend their money as they see
fit. The aid is given without the stringent marco economic conditions of the
loans from the World Bank and IMF. Fine.

But there are conditions nonetheless, and it is truly unbelievable to read
that there are those who think this is all done from the altruistic natures
of Chavez and Ahmadinejad.

The deals will include support for Iran in myriad forms. One of them is
expanding Iranian influence (and hence the influence of Hezbollah and other
radical Shiite groups) through intelligence penetrations, "cultural"
exchanges and general access to these countries.

Iran is likely to strike similar deals with Ecuador and Bolivia. While
training is fine, it is unlikely the schools to be attended are on the
niceties of diplomatic ins and outs. As far as I can tell, that is not a
notable forte of Iran, at least as it relates to diplomatic activities in
the Western Hemisphere.

The deal with Ortega, whom I covered extensively in the 1980s and 1990s is
particularly troubling because of Ortega's long history in facilitating the
clandestine movement of terrorists and his willingness to grant citizenship
to members of the Red Brigade, under assumed names, along with more than 100
known terrorists and criminals. (This is amply documented in reports just
after Ortega left office in 1990, when the massive, illegal granting of
citizenship was discovered).

But one of my most vivid memories, and most interesting stories I
investigated at the time, was the massive underground bunker that Ortega and
his intelligence apparatus kept in the heart of Managua. Its existence
became known in 1992 when some of the explosives inside blew up, causing a
fire and prompting an investigation Ortega could not control.

Inside were literally hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of false IDs, blank
passports (including diplomatic), money, weapons-everything needed to aid a
non-state group if needed. Much of it been used by the FMLN in El Salvador,
but there were records going to international terrorist organizations around
the world.

Ortega's brother Humberto was so alarmed by the explosion that he showed up
in the darkness of the early morning, in his pajamas, to try to begin a
cover-up.
Ultimately, what was most dangerous was not that the Sandinistas and Ortega
had mounted the infrastructure, with help from the Cubans and Soviet bloc,
to maintain links to like-minded groups.

It was that, two years after losing the elections and long after the Contra
wars ended, no one in the Sandinista leadership, certainly not Ortega, had
ever told the new government of the existence of the cache, or moved to
remove either the documents or the weapons.

Ortega, through years of struggle, and later as president of a government
that grew increasingly repressive, learned how to build clandestine
operations as well as how to run sophisticated intelligence apparatuses.
That apparatus has been largely dismantled, but the knowledge and training
remain.

It is hard to imagine those going to Iran will not come back with more of
the latest intelligence hardware, software and training. And it is hard to
imagine that Hezbollah and the Quds Forces operatives will not enjoy the
facilities that Ortega has put at the disposal of terrorist groups in his
past presidency.

http://www.douglasfarah.com/article/...in-america.com

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