UK Guardian: US Nuclear Scientist secretly taped by FBI claiming he could bomb New York, Would provide 40 Nukes to Venezuela

From the Guardian:

A disgruntled, former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist promised to build 40 nuclear weapons for Venezuela and design a bomb targeted for New York City in exchange for “money and power,” according to secret FBI recordings released Wednesday. 

In the recordings, Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni tells an agent posing as a Venezuelan official that the bombs would prevent the United States from invading the oil-rich nation and brags to his wife that the passing of secrets would make him wealthy. 

“I’m going to be the boss with money and power,” the naturalized US citizen from Argentina is heard saying. “I’m not an American anymore. This is it.” 

Mascheroni said his New York bomb wouldn’t kill anyone but would disable the city’s electrical system and help Venezuela become a nuclear superpower. It was not known how realistic his New York bombing idea was. 

But he suggested that once Venezuela obtained a bomb, the country should explode it “to let the world know what we’ve got,” according to the recordings. 

The recordings were played Wednesday in US District Court in Albuquerque before a federal judge sentenced Mascheroni, 79, to five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release as part of a plea agreement.

In Venezuela, doctor flees after being accused of terrorism amid fever outbreak ---- UPDATED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST

In Venezuela, doctor flees after being accused of terrorism amid fever outbreak 

THIS NEWS IS FROM SEPTEMBER 23RD, but it might become significant. (It's probably nothing.)

Eleven days after news broke that an unknown disease had killed eight people in the city of Maracay, Venezuela, doctors have concluded that the deaths were caused by chikungunya, a mosquito-borne virus. Meanwhile, Ángel Sarmiento, the doctor who first announced the deaths, has fled the country after being accused of terrorism by President Nicolás Maduro.
Although officials initially speculated that the deaths were caused by an unknown hemorrhagic fever, six of the eight original fatalities tested positive for chikungunya when samples were analyzed in nongovernmental labs, says Julio Castro, the health minister of the municipality of Sucre and a professor in the Institute of Tropical Medicine at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). “We don’t think these deaths are due to an unknown or rare disease,” he told ScienceInsider, adding that “I have no doubt” that chikungunya is responsible.
After arriving in the Caribbean late last year, chikungunya has been sweeping the Americas. As of 19 September, the Pan-American Health Organization reported 729,178 suspected and 9537 confirmed cases in the region. There is no vaccine or cure for the disease, which is similar to dengue fever and causes joint pain. It is fatal in about one in 1000 cases.
Maracay’s cluster of nine fatalities, reported between 30 August and 15 September, has raised questions about exactly how many people are infected. The deadly cases are “the tip of the iceberg,” Castro believes. In a press conference on Monday, Castro and two other health professionals—Gustavo Villasmil, health minister of the state of Miranda, and Manuel Olivares, a doctor at UCV’s hospital—estimated that between 65,000 and 117,000 people in Venezuela are infected with chikungunya. They reached that figure by using World Health Organization standards for calculating the spread of epidemics. But it is dramatically higher than the official tallies released by Venezuela’s federal health ministry, which recognizes just 398 cases of chikungunya and three deaths.
Many infectious diseases, including malaria and dengue, are on the rise in Venezuela, where the public health system has been crippled by a lack of funds and medicine (including antifever drugs that can help treat the symptoms of chikungunya). Sarmiento’s comments about the deaths in Maracay appear to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back when it came to criticism of the government’s public health record, Villasmil says. Now facing prosecution, Sarmiento fled to an undisclosed location in Central America. Villasmil and Castro remain in Venezuela but have left their homes after participating in the press conference, as a precaution against retaliation.

Posted in Health, Latin America 


Mysterious outbreak of hemorrhagic fever syndrome in Venezuela kills ten 

 "An outbreak of a mysterious hemorrhagic fever syndrome in the Venezuelan state of Aragua and the country’s capital Caracas has left ten people dead in the last three weeks." 

Similar to Ebola, this syndrome causes patients to experience high fever, skin rashes and bleeding. It has been described as an aggressive disease that leads to a fatal deterioration of health within 72 hours. 

Doctors have urged government authorities to declare a state of emergency in Aragua state; however they have received resistance from a surprising source. 

The state Governor, Tareck El Aissami, has not only denied medical reports of the disease, but has accused the president of the Aragua state Medical Association, Angel Sarmiento, of “creating anxiety.” 

More on dear Governor: Tarek Al-Aissami, the Venezuelan Minister of Interior and Justice, one of the key figures of the Chavez's government, is accused by the media of having used this position to issue passports to members of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Born in Lebanon of Syrian descent in 1980; his father, Carlos Al-Aissami, was the head of the Venezuelan branch of the Iraqi Baath political party. According to reports, before the invasion of Iraq his father held a press conference in which he described himself as a Taliban and called Osama Bin Laden, "the great Mujahedeen, Sheik Osama bin Laden."[1] The Minister's great-uncle Shibli Al-Aissami was a prominent ideologist and assistant to the secretary general of the Baath party in Baghdad during the Saddam Hussein regime.[2] 

UPDATED --- 

There are two interesting comments to this point posted to the story ...

Chikungunya? Early reports said epidemiologists ruled that out in the first eight cases... Another report said autopsy revealed multiple complications in victims:
hepatomegaly, strong steatosis, congestive spleen, pale kidneys,
hemorrhagic enterocolitis, erosive pleuritis and petechiae in the upper
limbs… (they didn't die from a fever). All had same symptoms [hemorrhagic fever] all died within 72 hours... seems they've got more of a problem if chikungunya now causes such a virulent form of hemorrhagic fever... (US too since it's now in Florida) The government was too quick to go after the doctors, they suppress information and I don't trust them at all...chikungunya? I don't know but I think not.
Kathy Stuart no2msmBS • 7 days ago

I do have to agree with you that the information that this Chikungunya does seem a bit specious as it was one of the first diseases that the medical spokesperson said had been ruled out. It is also, as far as I have read not known to cause the terrible symptoms from which these patients died. There is a Dengue varient that does cause hemorrhagic symptoms.

As for the US having a problem with Chikungunya it is all over the country, initially brought home by travelers and is now spreading through mosquitoes. There are at this time around 600 known cases in the US. Most so far imported but some locally acquired.

WHAT IF THIS IS BIO-TERROR, NOT SIMPLE EBOLA?

ON the Sean Hannity Radio Show a caller named “Mike” who claimed to be a scientist and  CEO of a large corporation during which he claimed that the government is in fact lying and that the disease currently causing problems in Dallas, TX and throughout West Africa is not Ebola but in fact the Marburg Virus (listen at this link towards the 24:50 mark). 

The caller was indeed verified by Hannity’s staff so the conversation was quite disturbing not just because of his conclusions, but the other drastic paths his information could lead anyone with a brain into concluding.

The Soviet Union had an extensive biological warfare division and unfortunately for the United States, much of what was created by their labs might be intact or worse, in the hands of other nations or powers more willing to use these weapons to achieve their goals of weakening the U.S. and its allies. 

The PBS science program, NOVA, did a story on the BioWarriors  back in November of 2001. 

This extract from the transcripts of Nova Online from the program is beyond chilling:

Horrors of the Soviet program NOVA:

What happened to the Soviet program in 1972? They signed the same international treaty the U.S. signed, ostensibly banning offensive BW research, didn’t they? Patrick: 

In 1972, just as they signed the Biological Convention, the Soviet Union expanded their program. Since they didn’t have the United States to follow, they went out on their own. And at that point they started concentrating on lethal agents. 

They weaponized anthrax. They weaponized smallpox. They weaponized Yersinia pestis or plague. They weaponized Marburg virus. They grew it to high concentrations in guinea pigs. Now, it takes a lot of guinea pigs to produce the amount of dry powder they had on hand when supposedly their program came to an end. 

They produced a very, very effective, scary product with Marburg virus. 

NOVA: Why is that so scary? 

Patrick: Because Marburg virus is lethal. It only takes one to two virus particles to cause an infection of the respiratory tract. There is no vaccine. And once you contract the disease, there is only one way to go, and that’s death. So it is very scary.

Journal of the American Medical Association report by Luciana Borio, MD issued on May 8, 2002 (PDF  here).

HISTORY AND POTENTIAL AS BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS

Hemorrhagic fever viruses have been weaponized by the former Soviet Union, Russia, and the United States. There are reports that yellow fever may have been weaponized by North Korea. The former Soviet Union and Russia produced large quantities of Marburg, Ebola, Lassa, and New World arenaviruses (specifically, Junin and Machupo) until 1992. 

Soviet Union researchers quantified the aerosol infectivity of Marburg virus for monkeys, determining that no more than a few virions are required to cause infection. Yellow fever and Rift Valley fever viruses were developed as weapons by the US offensive biological weapons program prior to its termination in 1969. 

The Japanese terrorist cult Aum Shinrikyo unsuccessfully attempted to obtain Ebola virus as part of an effort to create biological weapons. Several studies have demonstrated successful infection of nonhuman primates by aerosol preparations of Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, and New World arena-viruses. 

Arguments asserting that the absence of effective antiviral therapy and vaccines would make these viruses too dangerous to develop as weapons are not supported by the historical record. 

In 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classified the HFVs as category A bioweapon agents, based on the potential to cause widespread illness and death, ease of dissemination or person-to-person transmission, potential for major public health impact, and requirement of special action for public health preparedness.

AND THEN THERE'S THIS:

BREAKING: DHS Search of Mobile Home Park Linked to Missing Liberian Muslims?

Gotnews.com reported earlier this week about two Muslim men who were missing from a Liberian freighter’s passenger manifest.

Our law enforcement source confirms that this search by DHS of a mobile home park in the Cheasepeake, VA area is related to the missing Muslim men.

WAVY.COM reports:

Department of Homeland Security executed search warrants in a Chesapeake trailer park Friday morning.

DHS investigators searched the Edmonds Corner mobile home community on Ike Street, according to DHS spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell. Cutrell confirmed officials were on the scene around 9 a.m. on Oct. 3. 
Man treated for Ebola-like symptoms in Sarasota

AND THEN, BACK IN VENEZUELA:

Autopsy reveals multiple complications in victims of fever syndrome
The Medical Association of Aragua state is still waiting for the test results of the samples taken from the dead patients

Tuesday September 16, 2014 05:52 PM
Pictures, medical reports and autopsy data are being gathered by members of the Medical Association of Aragua state, central north Venezuela, where nine people have died in the last few days reportedly from a hemorrhagic fever syndrome. Another person died in Caracas on Sunday from the same condition.

To date, doctors do not know whether the disease is caused by a virus or bacteria. This will be determined by the test results of the samples sent last week to the National Institute of Hygiene (INH) in Caracas, the only place in Venezuela that has the adequate reagents.
[snip]
The doctors attending the meeting insisted that government authorities must declare a health emergency in Aragua state. They reported on 10 deaths from hemorrhagic fever syndrome, including one patient who died in Caracas on Sunday. Sources said that some culture samples were sent to a private laboratory to determine the causes of the disease.

For professional ethics, doctors would not disclose the names of the patients involved, but they provided details of the autopsy of one of the deceased that reveal the aggressiveness of the disease.

The autopsy report shows hepatomegaly, strong steatosis, congestive spleen, pale kidneys, hemorrhagic enterocolitis, erosive pleuritis and petechiae in the upper limbs.

Representatives of the Medical Association of Aragua state remarked that all the deceased had the same symptoms (high fever, skin rashes and bleeding).

Front Page Mag:

The Next 9/11
Posted by Matthew Vadum

The next 9/11-style terrorist attack may originate from the unlikeliest of places: socialist Venezuela. This is because that country’s Marxist president, Hugo Chavez, who has been busy creating his own version of the Warsaw Pact, is dropping hints that his nation’s territory might be used as the launch pad for an Islamist assault on the continental United States.

Some have difficulty taking the famously flamboyant Chavez seriously. He is, after all, the erratic fellow who blamed the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti on the U.S. He poses for photos with a parrot on his shoulder. He rants — and sometimes sings – on Sundays on his TV show about whatever pops into his head, whether it’s about his bouts with diarrhea or his unhappiness with his cabinet ministers.

But despite his eccentricities, it’s important to remember that Chavez openly works with the terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and FARC — a Marxist-Leninist narco-terrorist group in neighboring Colombia. Hamas and Hezbollah have offices in Caracas, and Chavez funds FARC. A congressional report indicates Iran’s fanatical Revolutionary Guard is active in Venezuela. A State Department report notes Venezuela’s close working relationship with terrorism-sponsoring Cuba.

Let’s follow the bread crumbs:

Chavez has made no secret of his abiding hatred of America and its freedoms. He calls capitalism “savagery” and President Barack Obama “a poor ignoramus.” Obama got off easy. Chavez referred to President George W. Bush as “the Devil.”

It’s no coincidence that Islamofascist fanatic Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, leader of Iran (the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism), and Chavez are good friends. Last year, Chavez and Ahmadinejad announced that their two countries had formed a “strategic alliance” to end U.S. “imperialism.” The two nations will seek to “establish a new world order based on humanity and justice,” the Iranian president said. Until recently, Venezuela had been helping Iran get through temporary problems with its oil refining capacity by shipping 20,000 barrels of gasoline a day to the Islamic Republic. The program, in operation since 2009, ended in February 2011 when Iran reportedly achieved self-sufficiency in gasoline production.

Chavez defends Iran’s allegedly peaceful nuclear energy program, and has plans to develop a nuclear program of his own. He denies that he intends to develop a nuclear weapons program. “Who in Venezuela could take on a project of that type? Who? We aren’t going to take it on.”

Not many were surprised when Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), the government-owned oil company that also operates CITGO in the U.S., unveiled a plan in October to invest $780 million in Iran’s South Pars field, the largest natural gas field in the world. PDVSA’s involvement with Iran is important because the company is regarded as a “black box” that funds Chavez’s overseas political ambitions. Oil export revenues fuel Chavez’s petro-diplomacy.

Meanwhile, Chavez’s friends in Iran have been reaching out to other left-of-center nations in the Americas. Iran recently donated a $2.5 million hospital in El Alto, Bolivia near La Paz. Iran has pledged $1.1 billion in development aid to Bolivia, which responded by seeking closer military ties to the emerging Middle Eastern power.

Chavez and Bolivia’s Marxist president, Evo Morales, see eye to eye. In fact, Chavez has called the partnership between Venezuela, Bolivia, and Iran, the “Axis of Annoyance” for its ability to vex the United States.

And Morales does not take a back seat to Chavez in denouncing their common foe. “Capitalism is the worst enemy of humanity,” Morales said, as he called for its destruction. “I would like to say that the origin of this crisis is the unbridled consumption and accumulation of capital in a few hands, the looting of natural resources, the commercialization of Mother Earth, and above all, I believe its origin lies in an economic model—capitalism,” he told the United Nations.

Other Chavez-friendly Latin American countries may join the socialist-Islamist entente. Iran has been courting Ecuador, whose government is headed by leftist president Rafael Correa. Last year, Ecuadorian Vice President Lenin Moreno signed an agreement with Iran to build three hydroelectric projects in Ecuador. Iran also has significant, though less extensive, ties to the left-leaning regimes in Brazil and Chile, but their association is likely to grow stronger.

Even without Iran’s help, Chavez has been attempting to export chaos to America for years. While the U.S. government was taking a beating in the media for its post-Katrina relief efforts, Chavez attempted to embarrass the Bush administration by providing aid to the Katrina-hit Gulf Coast.

Chavez had already been running a “public diplomacy” campaign in the U.S. to help bolster American support for his regime. The propaganda effort involved funneling discounted home heating oil to the nonprofit group Citizens Energy Corp., which is run by former Congressman Joe Kennedy II (D-MA). The nonprofit then distributed the oil to poor people, and useful idiot Kennedy was able to pose as a humanitarian. Kennedy went on TV a few years ago to berate the Bush administration, which he said “cut fuel assistance.” Kennedy praised his benefactor Chavez, claiming that Venezuelan socialism had helped to ease suffering in America. In a commercial, he said that “CITGO, owned by the Venezuelan people,” had helped poor Americans while their own government stood idly by.

While he was still a leftist, recovering community organizer Brandon Darby took a trip to Venezuela that quashed his remaining radical impulses. Darby traveled to Caracas in 2006 as part of a delegation from his own nonprofit, Common Ground, which was created to help rebuild New Orleans after it took a devastating hit from Hurricane Katrina. Darby wanted to have the Chavez government provide funding to keep the organization afloat. “I had this idea of having ‘Chavez trailers’ for displaced residents to live in. This would embarrass FEMA into supplying trailers,” he said. Darby said he didn’t realize when he came up with the concept that using money from abroad to influence the U.S. government might be illegal, but Chavez government officials he met with insisted it would violate U.S. law. “They told me I would get in trouble, and they wanted to work out a way to make the project happen,” he said.

During the month Darby was in Venezuela, government officials introduced him to executives working for PDVSA. They pressured Darby to journey to neighboring Colombia to meet with a group aligned with the narco-terrorists of FARC and to visit another revolutionary group in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

According to Darby, Chavez wanted to create a terrorist network in rural Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Senior officials in the Chavez government and in PDVSA told him they wanted him to create a revolutionary army of guerrillas in the swamps of Louisiana. Aghast, Darby refused, returned to America, and soon abandoned radicalism.

Instead of using the Red Cross in his post-Katrina relief efforts, Chavez called on radical left-wing charities, including the Vanguard Public Foundation and the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund. Apparently an informal charity, Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund maintains a MySpace page filled with rabidly anti-American propaganda. “Katrina put a spotlight on the horrors of racism, sexism, national oppression, poverty and environmental destruction in the U.S.,” the page lectures. It also demands that “the American Government [be put] on trial for its Katrina related crimes against humanity.”

As part of his outreach campaign in the U.S., Chavez has given $1.5 million to Casa de Maryland, a Washington, D.C.-area charity that advocates for illegal aliens. The grant is being paid by CITGO.

As we have seen, Chavez has already engaged in soft tactics aimed at undermining the United States. With a little help from his Islamist terrorist friends in Iran, he may one day soon decide to take his mischief to the next level.

Posts for Nov 7th: Lybian newspaper suspended, Al-Awlaki's influence, Spying AQ, Commemorating intifada, French "youths" attack Catholic Mass, Professor denies Holocaust, British Abu Hamza, Terrorist arrested, Kosovo's headscarf ban, "Education" for Islamic apostates, Mosque bombings, silence of Muslim leaders

1. Lybia: Pro-reform newspaper suspended. The Libyan government has suspended printing of a newspaper controlled by a reformist son of leader Muammar Gaddafi, local media reported, in what could be the latest phase in a power struggle inside the oil exporting state. The newspaper had accused the Govt of not tackling corruption.
2. UK: Al-Awlaki sermons influenced Muslim woman to stab British MP. Roshanara Choudhry, a 21-year-old student who has been jailed for life for trying to assassinate British MP Stephen Timms in May this year, told police she had wanted to die as a martyr after watching more than 100 hours of video sermons from the American-born extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki on the internet.
3. Terror: Spy agencies have infiltrated AQ. The case of Rahman (an ex-GITMO who spied the Taliban and who was killed after they discovered it), which Shah (the Taliban spokeman) recounted to The Associated Press, falls in line with a key aspect of the fight against terror — Western intelligence agencies, with help from Islamic allies, are placing moles and informants inside al-Qaida and the Taliban. The program seems to be bearing fruit, even as many infiltrators like Rahman are discovered and killed.
4. UK: Venezuelan embassy to commemorate intifada: The intifada was “at the forefront of the world struggle against white supremacist neo-colonialism and settler-colonialism,” according to the embassy.
5. France: "youths" throw stones and pine cones at Catholics during All Souls' mass: 150 people attending the memorial service for the dead late Tuesday afternoon in a church in a sensitive area of Carcassonne, were victims of two teenagers (between 13 and 14 years),who, after entering the building, they began throwing stones and pine cones to the faithful. One person was hit. In addition, a statue of the Virgin, targeted by the young snatchers, was damaged.
6. US: Vanderbilt radical professor denies Holocaust: Kaukab Siddique, associate professor of English at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, is an Islamic radical who demonizes Jews, mocks Holocaust victims and calls on Muslims to “liberate” Jerusalem.
7. UK: Citizenship restored to cleric wanted on terrorism charges on the US: A British government ruling stripping the Egyptian-born Muslim cleric known as Abu Hamza al-Masri of his British citizenship was struck down Friday by a special immigration court. But government officials said the court’s action would not affect the government’s plan to extradite the cleric to the United States, where he is wanted on terrorism charges. Officials in the office of Home Secretary Theresa May said no decision had been made on whether to appeal the immigration court’s ruling to a higher British court.
8. Germany: terrorist suspect arrested in Saarland region. The man demanded the release of an imprisoned member of the so-called Sauerland group which attempted to blow up US army bases in Germany in 2007.
9. Kosovo: Headscarf ban sparks debate over country's identity: The government decided to forbid the wearing of headscarves in public schools late last year, in accordance with the constitution that declares Kosovo – which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008 – a secular country. “The scarf in Kosovo is not an element of our identity. It’s a sign of submission of female to male, rather than a sign of choice“, Kosovo’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Vlora Citaku explains.
10. "Islam not invasive": "retreat centers" for Christian converts from Islam in Malaysia: A two-hour journey from the capital city of Kuala Lumpur revealed an isolated encampment where some Christian converts say they’ve been taken in order to be forced back to Islam.
11. Pakistan: Death toll in mosques' bombing over 70. The mosques belong to Ahmaddiya community. The death toll right now is of 95.
12. Salim Mansur: "We have a deadly silence of the Muslim leadership": " we have deathly silence of the Muslim leadership as non-Muslim minorities inside the Arab-Muslim world are routinely abused, their homes and places of worship under daily duress, and their hearts filled with fear of violent death in the hands of Muslim jihadis."

Posts for Nov 5th: Ramala's 5-Star Hotel, Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, Sexual Harrassment in Egypt, ISAF kills Haqqani network leader, Soutudeh in danger, US Human Rights reacord scrutinized in UNHRC,

1. Ramallah gets five star luxury hotel: The hotel, a franchise of the Swiss-based Movenpick chain, has 171 rooms and suites, an outdoor pool, and a fitness center, and cost $40 million.
   
2. UK: Jihadist webmaster Abdel Hameed Shehadeh held without bail in Brooklyn Federal Court: Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, 21, of Staten Island, was arrested last week in Hawaii, where he had tried in the past to travel to Somalia, but failed because he was on a “no fly” list.
   
3. Egypt: Challenging sexual harrassment on Cairo's streets: The project, called HarassMap, aims to create a map of the ‘hotspots’ of harassment in Cairo – that is, the places where harassment most frequently occurs.
   
4. Afghanistan: fifth Haqqani network leader confirmed killed during Paktiya operation: Intelligence reports later confirmed the death of the five Haqqani leaders as well as several additional Haqqani fighters. It is assessed the security force had broken up a Haqqani leadership meeting.
   
5. Iran: Life of Jailed Human Rights Lawyer at great risk: On Sunday, 31 October, Nasrin Sotoudeh, one of Iran’s most prominent human rights lawyers went on a dry hunger strike protesting her detention and ill treatment inside Tehran’s Evin prison. Her family reported that her health is quickly deteriorating.
   
6. UN: Cuba, Venezuela, Iran top the list of countries lining up to scrutinize US Human Rights during UN review: ccording to diplomats cited Wednesday by a Geneva-based NGO, U.N. Watch, Cuban officials “took the lead last week in circulating an advance sign-up sheet.” “We are concerned that Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and other non-democracies are planning to hijack the session to score propaganda points and drum up anti-American sentiment worldwide,” said the organization’s executive director, Hillel Neuer.
   
7. UK: Al-Qaeda terrorist arrested: Talking to the Royal United Services Institute, May revealed that an associate of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was arrested earlier this year and is suspected of planning an attack on the country. This terrorist unit has been blamed for the cargo bomb plot on the US just last week, which was intercepted. The bombs were found in printer cartridge packages in Dubai and Britain and were being mailed to the US. It’s believed that Anwar al-Awlaki, a US national and al-Qaeda leader, was the mastermind behind the attack from his base in Yemen.

The People's Cube.com

Couple Charged with Conspiracy to Sell Nukes to Venezuela

Ex-Los Alamos Scientist, Wife Indicted in Alleged Atomic Weapon Conspiracy
Published September 17, 2010
FoxNews.com

WASHINGTON -- A scientist and his wife who both once worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory before becoming outspoken critics were arrested Friday after an FBI sting operation and charged with trying to sell nuclear secrets to Venezuela.

The scientist, Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, is being detained until a hearing Monday morning in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His wife, Roxby Mascheroni, was released on a variety of conditions, including a monitor attached to her.

The investigation first drew attention last October when federal agents reportedly seized six computers, two cameras, two cellphones and hundreds of files from the scientist, Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni.

Mascheroni declared his innocence to The New York Times last year, saying, "If I were a real spy, I would have left the country a long time ago."

After their arrest Friday morning, the two appeared in federal court in Albuquerque, New Mexico and were accused of dealing with an FBI undercover agent posing as a Venezuelan agent. The government did not allege that Venezuela or anyone working for it sought U.S. secrets.

The pair were indicted for allegedly communicating classified nuclear weapons data to a person they believed to be a Venezuelan government official.

Accused in a 22-count indictment are Mascheroni, 75, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Argentina, and Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, 67, a U.S. citizen. Both were formerly contract employees at Los Alamos.

According to the indictment, Mascheroni told an undercover agent he could help Venezuela develop a nuclear bomb within 10 years and that under his program, Venezuela would use a secret, underground nuclear reactor to produce and enrich plutonium, and an open, aboveground reactor to produce nuclear energy.

Read the rest here.

Our Own Private Iran: Nukes on our Southern border. Nothing like re-living the 60's.

Jihad Jet-Lag? Venuzuelan Airline's Shaheed Shuttle Busted By FOX

FOX News has posted this exclusive report on a Venezuelan airline's "mystery flight" that appears to have been shuttling spies, jihadists, and arms between that country, Iran, and Syria.


EXCLUSIVE: Venezuela Cancels Round-Trip 'Terror Flight' to Syria and Iran
By Ed Barnes
Published September 14, 2010
FoxNews.com

A Venezuelan airline's “mystery” flight that shuttled among the capitals of three of the world’s most terror-friendly nations — Venezuela, Syria and Iran — has abruptly canceled its regularly scheduled departures amid accusations that it was used primarily to transport spies, terrorists and lethal cargo among the pariah counties.

“I am sorry, but we are no longer flying to Tehran and I do not know when the flights will resume. It was a flight that left Caracas on Tuesdays, but it no longer does,” Jenny Gil Romero, who handles international departures for Conviasa, the national airline that operates the flight, said in a message to FOX News.

Messages to the airline seeking further information went unanswered.

Romero's comments came in response to FOXNews.com's efforts to buy tickets on the regularly scheduled, 48-hour round trip from Caracas to Damascus to Tehran, then back again.

Intelligence analysts with both the CIA and Israel said that, despite the listing of the flight as a regular commercial route and a code share with Iran air -- Flight IR744 is also Flight VO3744 -- there was no way that anyone could buy a ticket and travel without being vetted by the Venezuelan or Iranian government.And without passport controls, flight manifests and other documents, it meant some of the world's most dangerous men could travel without fear of being uncovered.

Curiously, unlike most other bookings on the national airline, calls for reservations on this particular flight were routed to a cell phone in Argentina, rather than to Conviasa's regular service in Caracas.

The Venezuelan ambassador to the United States had defended the flights as recently as two weeks ago in response to criticism in a State Department report that cited the flight’s questionable route and procedures. (Click here to read the report.) Messages left at the Venezuelan embassy's press office and the ambassador's office were not returned, and a list of questions submitted to the embassy's press office was not answered.

For the past three years, every other Tuesday, Flight VO3744 would roll out to a secluded loading platform at Simon Bolivar Airport in Caracas. Shrouded from public view and unencumbered by the normal exit procedures, a select passenger list would board the flight.

Over the next 48 hours, according to Western intelligence agencies, Venezuelan opposition figures and a former Iran-based spy for the CIA, the flight would carry illicit, lethal cargoes -- such as explosives and possibly radioactive materials -- and provide safe passage to terrorists, spies, weapons experts, senior Iranian intelligence operatives and members of both Hezbollah and Hamas.

Reza Kahlili, the pseudonym for an Iranian who the CIA has confirmed once spied for the United States as a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, told FoxNews.com these "special flights" have been "instrumental in creating an Iranian dominated worldwide terror network that now reaches the United States." He said the flights were used to expand Iran’s efforts to create a base of operations in the Western Hemisphere.

Peter Brookes, a former Defense Department analyst and CIA employee now with the Heritage Foundation, said there was a steady stream of elite Al Quds officers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard who were transported to Venezuela aboard the flight and took up positions in the Latin American country’s intelligence service.

“We can’t say for sure what is going on, but it is clandestine and secretive,” he said.

Intelligence agencies are known to suspect the flight may be part of Iran’s program to build nuclear weapons. Venezuela has large deposits of uranium, and -- while raw uranium transport is unlikely by plane -- an Internet page in Caracas used by airline employees stated that the flights carried “radioactive materials.” The page was quickly shut down after the allegation was made, according to El Pais, a newspaper in Madrid, Spain.

Experts and Venezuelan opposition figures also say the influx of Iranians, as well as Hezbollah and Hamas operatives, into Venezuela on the flight was to prepare for a retaliatory strike against the U.S. if there was an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

According to Kahlili, the flight was used to transport Imad Mughniyeh, one of the most wanted men in the world, between Damascus and Tehran before he was assassinated in Lebanon in 2008. Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah operative, was believed responsible for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy as well as the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed over 350 people. He was also accused of planning the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1992.

More recently it was the flight to which Abdul Kadir, the Guyanese member of Parliament who was convicted in the attempted bombing of fuel pipelines at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, was headed when he was arrested. Kadir was accused at his trial of being an Iranian spy.

Alex Vros contributed to this article.

Iran: Increasing Qods Force presence in Venezuela

What a dreadful photo!!

Iran is increasing its paramilitary Qods force operatives in Venezuela while covertly continuing supplies of weapons and explosives to Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the Pentagon's first report to Congress on Tehran's military. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), the Islamist shock troops deployed around the world to advance Iranian interests, "maintains operational capabilities around the world," the report says, adding that "it is well established in the Middle East and North Africa and recent years have witnessed an increased presence in Latin America, particularly Venezuela."

Via.

More here and here.

Related: Ahmadinejad is now in Africa, increasing ties with Zimbabwe and Uganda.

Cross-posted from T&P.

Related articles by Zemanta

• A look at the Pentagon's Iran report (powerlineblog.com)

New Fidel Sighting....and Sunday Fun House Video

Cuban, Stalinist tyrant, Fidel Castro Ruz, purportedly meeting with Ecuadorian strongman, Rafael Correa in Havana.

Read corresponding article here. (Spanish)



*My sources tell me the "Zelayon" dance move is making waves in Latin America, especially in Panama!

The ALBA People

This Venezuelan, opposition created video is a pun on the Village People, performed by actors imitating the following ALBA-Legion of Doom members:

Raul Castro-Cuba
Mel Zelaya-Honduras
Rafael Correa-Ecuador
Daniel Ortega-Nicaragua
Evo Morales-Bolivia

Basically, the theme is that as Venezuela is going they way of Cuba internally, Hugo Chavez continues to send funds, aid and assistance to his lackeys & servants in the region, in order to carry out his particular brand of 21st Century socialism......(wait doesn't this sound eerily familiar? )

To learn more about the Legion of Doom's leadership, nation states, fellow travelers and hand maidens, go here and here.

As an aside, and please indulge since it's Friday, these two, female Venezuelan back-up singers gives you a a pretty good indication of why the current Miss Universe is Venezuelan & why that nation has won 5 titles!!!

Pres. Micheletti Standing Strong

Related Links:

Supreme Court chief Jorge Alberto Rivera vehemently rejects outside interference of a constitutional order carried out by the congressional branch, in conjunction with the Honduran military

Broad coalition of private sector demonstrates total support to the new constitutional government

Civil and political sectors from all walks of life offer their fidelity to Micheletti

Key members of cabinet participated, as well

Micheletti promotes investment, both foreign and domestic, unequivocally exclaims that Zelaya will never return as President, extols reconciliation in the future and promises to turn power over on 27 January 2010 after November elections

Micheletti demands "respect" from abroad, from those intertwining themselves in Honduras domestic matters

National Police has captured up to 120 foreigners infiltrated in country, majority of which are Nicaraguans and Venezuelans

Police force ready, willing and able to capture Zelaya, due to the 18 charges he has leveled against him

Supreme Electoral Tribunal investigating members of Zelaya's corrupt cabinet

Since Mel's ouster not one Venezuelan aircraft has landed in country with drug shipments nor violated air space, save Zelaya's infamous flyover of the airport

Zelaya agitators looking to disrupt nation with calls to strike

What a surprise, Sandinista Legion of Doom member, Danny Ortega, wants to alter the Nicaraguan constitution in order to seek indefinite re-election

Panama mediating as well, Foreign Minister meets Micheletti delegation

Canada conveys patience, urges Mel not to return precipitously

Legion of Doom member, Chile's President Bachelet, blasts the Micheletti government

Zelaya pressuring EU to suspend money and ties, will form an internal resistance, fomenting violence and rebellion

Three entry points that Mel is citing as possible avenues for his return to Honduran territory....can you say re-run?

Mel spent 10,000 USD in government funds to have his life size sculpture created, his bust and one of bloody terrorist, Che Guevara

He also had himself painted along with other former Presidents

Mel thanks fellow Legion of Doom member, the socialist bull dyke and daughter of a traitor, Pres. Bachelet from Chile

Marxist Venezuelan FM lambastes Israeli (first nation to recognize Micheletti) Deputy Foreign Minister, Dorit Shavit, who links the ALBA Legion of Doom nations to Iran and Hezbollah

Viva Honduras Libre

"Nobody, not Barack Obama and much less Hugo Chavez, has any right to threaten this country."

Honduran President Roberto Micheletti Bain

First and foremost, I would like to apologize for the delay in posting this material, but I had some personal issues and have been involved, to a certain degree, directly in the occurrences in Honduras over the weekend.

For the record my father was a "company" man for many years and conducted a plethora of activities in Latin America, especially Honduras during the Contras period in the '80's.

He has, moreover, been engaging in business in that Central American nation for well over 40 years...I know all aspects of Honduras quite well.

Let me commence by dispelling what many, even some on the right, have categorized as a "coup".

Amongst the best analysis which I can associate myself with, I cite the following links:

Our very own Pastorius who cited an incisive article from the WSJ by Mary Anastasia O'Grady, at The Astute Bloggers. (hey, where is my hat tip?)

The hard core Cuban American boys at Babalu Blog never disappoint.

The irrepressible Fausta who called this early for what it was and is here and here.

Creative Minority Blog also discerned the veracity of the events.

Susan at Wake Up America comes through again.

Right Wing News' John Hawkins rightly bashes the Obama administration's hypocrisy.

The New Nixon reinforces the "meddling" angle.

And last but not least I am honored to report to my fellow Infidels that Gateway Pundit elevated one of my comments yesterday and incorporated it into his post today:

More... Carlos Echevarria adds this:

Gateway, this is not a coup, this is the Honduran Armed Forces carrying out an order of the Supreme Court of Honduras and the congress, as well as military leaders that refused to buckle to Zelaya's attempt to fully Chavez-ize the nation....Today is a day of liberty in Honduras.

Yesterday was a Day of Days in Honduras.

I thank God that Roberto Micheletti Bain, former leader of the National Congress (as mandated by the Constitution) is now the de jure President of Honduras.

Whom would have ever advanced an argument that one day, the nation pejoratively referred to as a "banana republic", would by their actions demonstrate to United States and to the world an unbinding resolve and adherence to liberty, order and justice.

God Bless the glorious armed services of Honduras (whose special forces are trained by Americans and Israelis) which upheld the honor and decency of a nation which refused to condemn itself to darkness and tyranny.

As a final aside, today our dear family friend, whom had just met with my father on Thursday in Tegucigalpa, has been named Foreign Minister of Honduras, Dr. Enrique Ortez Colindres.

He is a career, senior level Ambassador with long tenures in France, under different administrations, and at the United Nations. A staunch anti-communist and pro-American to boot! (of course not Barry's Amerika)

So today, like yesterday, I exclaim, "God Bless Honduras y Viva Honduras Libre!!!"

Oh, and by the way, I have been apprised through back channels that the "Ambassadors" from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, etc. had been forcibly expelled and in the case of both the Cuban and Venezuelan diplomats, they were the recipients of thundering violence due to their obstreperous nature!!!

Iran and Venezuela, sitting in a tree.....

Iraq Better, Pakistan Worse, Iran the Most Active Terror Sponsor, Report Says
Friday, May 01, 2009
By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor

(CNSNews.com) - Along with a drop in terror attacks worldwide – significantly so in the case of Iraq – 2008 saw a dramatic rise in attacks in Pakistan and deterioration in Afghanistan, while Iran continued to facilitate terror. India was among countries hardest hit, and the situation in Yemen and Venezuela remained worrisome, according to a new State Department report.

Al-Qaeda and related networks, while losing ground, continued to pose “the greatest terrorist threat to the United States and its partners in 2008,” the annual report on terrorism said.

Overall, the number of terror attacks recorded around the world declined during 2008 by 20 percent, with 30 percent fewer fatalities, Russell Travers of the National Counterterrorism Center told a press briefing on the report’s release Thursday.

As it has for well over a decade, Iran continues to top the list of state sponsors of terrorism, where it has been since 1984.

-------

“Iran has long employed terrorism to advance its key national security and foreign policy interests, which include regime survival, regional dominance, opposition to Arab-Israeli peace, and countering western influence, particularly in the Middle East,” the report said.

It cited Tehran’s support for the Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah in Lebanon, militant Shia groups in Iraq, and select Taliban members in Afghanistan. Iran’s main tool for cultivating and sponsoring terrorism abroad, it said, was the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force.

The Qods Force’s involvement in Iraq included the provision of “lethal support, including weapons, training, funding, and guidance, to Iraqi militant groups that targeted coalition and Iraqi forces and killed innocent Iraqi civilians.”

Among other things, Iran supplied insurgents with especially lethal improvised explosive devices (IEDs), designed to overcome armored vehicle protection. The Qods Force, along with Hezbollah in Lebanon, also provided weapons training inside and outside Iraq for insurgents, the report said.

-------

Pakistan brought less promising news, however. Travers reported 1,839 incidents, which killed 2,293 people in Pakistan in 2008, a jump from 890 incidents in 2007 that cost 1,340 lives.

Pakistan was both a major target of terrorism last year and a terrorist safe haven. The report said al-Qaeda and allies had moved into “the remote areas of the Pakistani frontier, where they have used this terrain as a safe haven to hide, train terrorists, communicate with the followers, plot attacks and send fighters to support the insurgency in Afghanistan.”

The report said the Pakistan government’s authority in the areas near the border with Afghanistan continued to be challenged.

It identified the Taliban umbrella group, Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP), active in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas, as “the most public signal of broad local militant coordination aimed at attacking Pakistani security forces.”

---

Another government identified as uncooperative in counter-terror efforts was that of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The report noted Chavez’ “ideological sympathy” for Colombia’s FARC rebels and said his government had not systematically policed its border with Colombia to prevent the movement of armed terrorists or to interdict weapons or narcotics.

It also highlighted concerns about Hezbollah activity in Venezuela, noting the U.S. Treasury Department’s designation in June of a Venezuelan diplomat and a travel agency owner as Venezuelan Hezbollah supporters.

The report said passengers on weekly flights connecting Caracas with Tehran and Damascus “were reportedly subject to only cursory immigration and customs controls” on arrival in Venezuela.

“Venezuelan citizenship, identity, and travel documents remained easy to obtain, making Venezuela a potentially attractive way station for terrorists.”

In May 2008, Venezuela was re-certified as a country “not cooperating fully” with American antiterrorism efforts under U.S. arms export legislation


On the topic of Venezuela,

Does any of that come to the mind of Obama's administration? Apparently not, according to Hillary Clinton,

"We buy a lot of their oil,"
"Let's see if we can begin to turn that relationship."

After witnessing Obama's obviously entertaining (to them) powwow, Venezuela's escalating domestic repression, harboring of Hezbollah and building relationship with Iran, was not a deal breaker either.

And now, Iran and Venezuela have brokered a deal to make Venezuela even more dangerous:

Iran Stresses Aid to Venezuelan Army

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar Thursday underlined Tehran's all-out efforts to help Venezuela promote its defense capabilities and bolster its power of deterrence through bilateral Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) on military cooperation.

Speaking in a meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during his three-day visit to Caracas, Najjar presented a report on the process of defense cooperation between the two countries.

He also conveyed the best regards of the Iranian nation and government to the president and people of Venezuela.

Chavez, for his part, referred to the goals and ideals of the Bolivarian Revolution, and said, "The Bolivarian and the Islamic Revolutions have a lot in common and these commonalities have consolidated the two countries' bonds."

Stressing that Iran has a special place in Venezuela's foreign policy, Chavez referred to the two countries' armies, and underlined that armed forces of the two countries should be reinforced in a bid to help strengthen sustainable security.

The Iranian defense minister, heading a high-ranking military delegation, arrived in Caracas on Monday to promote ties between Iran and Venezuela.

Guess Obama will file that one away too.

Synagogue Desecrated in Venezuela

Watch silent video: Cameras capture the extent of the damage to the ransacked synagogue in Venezuela >>>
BBC: An armed gang has ransacked the oldest Jewish synagogue in the Venezuelan capital Caracas after occupying the building for several hours.

About 15 unidentified men broke into the building before daubing graffiti on the walls and desecrating scriptures.

They also called for Jewish people to be expelled from the country.

Jewish leaders say tensions have risen since Venezuela broke diplomatic relations with Israel this month over its recent military offensive in Gaza.

Elias Farache, president of Venezuela's Jewish Association, said the gang had tied and gagged security guards before destroying offices and the place where holy books were kept.

Anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli slogans were painted on the walls.

"Never in the history of Venezuela's Jewish community have we been the target of such an aggression," said Mr Farache.

"The climate is very tense. We feel threatened, intimidated, attacked." >>> | Sunday, February 1, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (US) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (US) >>>