FARQaeda comes to Congress

Posted By Joshua Keating Friday, January 8, 2010 - 1:38 PM Share

Not sure if Florida Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Connie Mack's proposal to add Venezuela to the list of countries whose travelers will require extra scrutiny to enter the United States will go anywhere, but I was interested to see the FARC-al Qaeda alliance meme (I've been recently informed that the proper term is "El Qaeda") being used in Congress: 

For her part, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen cited DEA reports that demonstrate a Venezuelan connection in a new alliance formed between the FARC and al Qaeda, in which the oil producing nation plays the part of a ``massive airport for the use of the traffickers.''

``It is no surprise that Hugo Chávez allows Venezuela to serve as a massive airport for the use of traffickers. In fact the DEA has said that all the planes captured in West Africa left from Venezuela,'' Ros-Lehtinen said.

She explained that the recent arrest of three African agents of al Qaeda after a drug smuggling operation showed a new panorama of cooperation between Islamic extremist groups and those of South American narco-guerrillas.

``Groups like the FARC are finding new ways to sell drugs in Europe by means of al Qaeda in Africa. And al Qaeda is more than willing to use the drug trade to help finance its extremist agenda,'' Ros-Lehtinen said.

As I wrote earlier this week, the arrest of the three Africans, whose relationship to al Qaeda is still somewhat unclear, did not show a "new panorama" of anything. The men were arrested for making a deal with a DEA agent who was posing as a representative of FARC. Unless there's some unreported evidence, it's far from clear the al Qaeda and FARC are actually in cahoots.

Again, I'm not saying that the potential for such a partnership isn't there, but I wish that lawmakers would stop viewing this arrest as proof of a grand trans-Atlantic axis of evil.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

EXPLORE:LATIN AMERICA, DRUGS & CRIME, TERRORISM, U.S. CONGRESS
 

PAPICEK

12:24 AM ET

January 9, 2010

virtues of committee hearing video records...

I've found both Ros-Lehtinen and house Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman fairly aggressive and unnuaced on Iran. Like watching a session of the Knesset. Berman's often repeated insistence on, "crippling sanctions" against Iran keeps coming to mind.

Ros-Lehtinen seemed to be perfectly happy with this line, both in Secretary Clinton's introductory meeting with the committee just after she was nominated and elsewhere.

 

BURNINGCHROME

5:32 AM ET

January 10, 2010

WTH? Is J Keating being serious?

Really? Are you being serious?

US drug laws have corrupted much of Latin America by way of creating well financed Drug Cartels that have resources well beyond local governments.

Al Quaeda is always looking for lawless parts of the world from which to operate. So you seriously think they won't have any interest in a lawless region with close proximity to a hated enemy?

You question that Islamic Extremism has connections to Leftist movements in South America? and Drug Traffickers?

The Left around the world routinely champions Islamic Extremism as an Ally against their common enemy, the Great Satan, the USA. You missed the photos of Ahmedinajad in South America? You really believe that the Left in South America is any less sympathetic to Islamic Extremism than their counterparts in other parts of the world?

The Taliban use opium to finance their activities, what are the chances that they know people down the line of distribution?

Just yesterday in the German press a big to do over Hizbollah being funded by trafficking cocaine from of all places South America, who would have guessed?

The Tri-Border frontier, Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina has been known for a long time as a base of operations for Hizbollah.

Hizbollah has been active for a long time in South America. It was Hizbollah and Iran that bombed Jewish targets in Argentina. That was almost 20 years ago. Islamic Extremists have only entrenched themselves further in South America as time has passed.

 

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