A follow-up on my Minuteman post regarding Homeland Security

Overview

My previous post about the Minuteman Project pointed out that some of the participants have a concern over homeland security. And one of them, Tim Donnelly, asked "what the hell are we going to Iraq for?" Well, George his own self keeps saying over and over that "We're fighting the terrorists there so we don't have to fight them here." Bush's statement has some serious irony. See, since we have almost all of military tied up in Iraq, and since we have spent and continue to spend billions upon billions of dollars because of Iraq, it's not so much a case of us not having to fight any terrorists here as not being able to do so. Moreover, there just might be plenty of terrorists in a country that is much closer to our borders than Iraq. More specifically, I am talking about a country much closer to our southern border.

Venezuela is becoming a vexation

The October 6, 2003, issue of U.S. News & World Report had a most interesting article entitled "Terror Close to Home."

The oil-rich but politically unstable nation of Venezuela is emerging as a potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere, providing assistance to Islamic radicals from the Middle East and other terrorists, say senior U.S. military and intelligence officials. Bush administration aides see this as an unpredictably dangerous mix and are gathering more information about the intentions of a country that sits 1,000 miles south of Florida.

One thing that's clear is that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is fast becoming America's newest nemesis, U.S. officials say. He has forged close ties with Cuba's Fidel Castro and has befriended some of America's other notorious enemies, traveling to Saddam's Iraq and Qadhafi's Libya. Now, after surviving an attempted coup and a nationwide petition demanding his recall, Chavez is flirting with terrorism, and Washington is watching with increasing alarm.

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Middle Eastern terrorist groups are operating support cells in Venezuela and other locations in the Andean region. A two-month review by U.S. News, including interviews with dozens of U.S. and Latin American sources, confirms the terrorist activity. In particular, the magazine has learned that thousands of Venezuelan identity documents are being distributed to foreigners from Middle Eastern nations, including Syria, Pakistan, Egypt, and Lebanon.

For those of you without a map, Venezuela is on the northern end of South America. It is the eastern neighbor to Columbia, which connects to Panama, which connects to Costa Rica...and if you keep going north, you reach Mexico and then the vast U.S.-Mexico border. And that's just by land. A relatively short trip over the Carribbean Sea takes one to Cuba (or the other Carribbean islands), and from there it is a shorter trip across the Gulf of Mexico to the U.S.

Think about this for a moment, folks. According to the public pronouncements of the Bush administration, Iraq is Terror Central. That's why we are there (pardon me while a chase away another flying monkey). Even if those assertions are true, given the U.S. (excuse me, "coalition") military presence in Iraq and the level of military activity, it is not likely that the terrorists are in any position to plan, coordinate, oversee, and execute terrorist attacks against the U.S. If a terrorist group or network is intent on attacking the U.S., it makes sense to have a logistical base in a country far away from Iraq, for as long as we are tied up in Iraq how are we going to have the resources and ability to combat a terrorist base in a country far away from Iraq? It makes even more sense if that base is in country much closer to the U.S. It makes even more sense to have a logistical base in a country closer to the U.S. that is somewhat hostile to the U.S. (because the terrorists can get more protection and support from that government). And lastly, it makes even more sense if that country presents relatively easy access to the southern borders of the U.S. One could travel by land, thereby avoiding air and sea travel subject to heightened security since 9-11. One could gain access to the U.S. at many points along a very large border. One could travel through countries that do not necessarily crack down on illegal immigration. And one could potentially have access to already established people-smuggling operations. And then there is the possibility of having some sort of terrorist operation on Cuba, which presents other options.

Venezuelan-Middle Eastern ties

According to "Terror Close to Home," the Venezuelan government

has issued thousands of cedulas, the equivalent of Social Security cards, to people from places such as Cuba, Colombia, and Middle Eastern nations that play host to foreign terrorist organizations...U.S. officials believe that the Venezuelan government is issuing the documents to people who should not be getting them and that some of these cedulas were subsequently used to obtain Venezuelan passports and even American visas, which could allow the holder to elude immigration checks and enter the United States.

I feel oh so safe knowing that we are all tied up fighting the terrorists in Iraq while other terrorists from the Middle East could get into our country undetected. The article described other possible links with terrorists:

The suspicious links between Venezuela and Islamic radicalism are multiplying. American law enforcement and intelligence officials are exploring whether there is an al Qaeda connection--specifically, they want to know if a Venezuelan of Arab descent named Hakim Mamad al Diab Fatah had ties to any of the September 11 hijackers. The United States deported Diab Fatah to Venezuela for immigration violations in March 2002. A U.S. intelligence official says that Diab Fatah is still a "person of interest" and that his family in Venezuela is "a well-known clan associated with extremist and illicit activity" in northern Venezuela. But when U.S. officials sought Diab Fatah for further questioning, they were told by Venezuelan officials that he was not in the country. Diab Fatah may also be tied to the Caracas mosque of Sheik Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz, which has caught investigators' attention. One of the mosque's officials, also a Venezuelan of Arab descent, was recently arrested in London for carrying a grenade on a Caracas-London flight.

There are also Arab communities in Venezuela that are becoming sympathetic to Islamic terrorists. The article described Margarita Island, a free-zone on the north coast controlled by Lebanese and Iranian merchants. In a speech in September 2003, General James Hill, then the head of the U.S. Southern Command, explained that Margarita Island was home to support groups for Hamas and Hezbollah and that "These groups generate funds through money laundering, drug trafficking, or arms deals and make millions of dollars every year via their multiple illicit activities. These logistic cells reach back to the Middle East." Good thing we went to Iraq and are still there, huh?

Hugo and Fidel (as in Chavez and Castro)

Venzuelan president Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro are big buddies. "Terror Close to Home" said that the two men spoke on the phone daily. When Chavez came to power over 10 years ago, he decided to follow Castro's model. Over the years he has given large amounts of oil to Cuba (and continues to this day). Moreover, the article stated that Cubans are integral members of Venezuelan intelligence, Cubans form part of Chavez's personal bodyguard detail, that "Cuba provides military training to pro-Chavez organizations," and Venezuelan military personnel have gone to Cuba for training. All of that indicates that Venezuela ain't exactly friendly to the U.S.

The overall situation as of October 2003

Here is the closing paragraph of "Terror Close to Home:"

Given all that is happening in Chavez's Venezuela, some American officials regret that terrorism is seen chiefly as a Middle East problem and that the United States is not looking to protect its southern flank. "I'm concerned that counterterrorism issues are not being aggressively pursued in this hemisphere," one U.S. intelligence official said. "We don't even have flyovers" of Venezuela. Another intelligence official complains that terror suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. base in Cuba, are not being interrogated about connections to Latin American. The bottom line, when it comes to terrorism so close to U.S. shores, says the official: "We don't even know what we don't know."

(emphasis added). That was a year and a half ago, and we are still in Iraq and will be for the foreseeable future. Still the article described circumstances a year and a half ago. However, as the next post will show, Venezuela and Chavez have very much been in the news in the last two weeks.