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January 29, 2009
Exclusive: CRC Open-Source Intelligence Briefs
Maj. W. Thomas Smith Jr., Director of the Counterterrorism Research Center
GULF OF ADEN: The U.S. Navy’s Combined Task Force 151, a new counter-piracy task force aimed at thwarting the growing threat of international piracy (which we reported here) – has also “been instructed to track Iranian arms shipments.”
Last week, FOX News reported that one of CTF 151’s ships had intercepted and searched a Cypriot-flagged Iranian vessel that was initially believed to be transporting arms to Hamas.
According to the report: “The search turned up ammunition that included artillery shells. But one official said that since Hamas is not known to use artillery, officials are now uncertain who the intended recipient was. They're asking Egypt to do another search when the ship arrives in port. Israeli officials said they believe the ship was headed for Hizballah, not Hamas.”
VENEZUELA: As we reported last week, Hizballah, Hamas, and al Qaeda continue coordinating efforts with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and (as has been widely reported for months) establishing Venezuela as a “terrorist bridge to other Latin American countries.”
This week, testifying before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said: “I'm concerned about the level of, frankly, subversive activity the Iranians are carrying on in a number of places in Latin America, particularly South America and Central America," said Secretary Gates. "They're opening a lot of offices and a lot of fronts behind which they interfere with what is going on in some of these countries."
IRAN: Speaking of Iran, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John R. Bolton – writing in the Washington Times – says: “Direct U.S.-Iranian negotiations will not change the fundamental [existing] policy equation, or the reality that there are no incentives that will dissuade Iran from trying to acquire nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, keeping the United States ‘at the table’ will play to the Obama administration's every instinct to show that its diplomacy is better than Mr. Bush's, thus prolonging the negotiations and giving Iran all the time it needs to perfect its weapons and delivery capabilities.”
Heritage Foundation senior fellow and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Brookes, writing for Townhall magazine, says: “Tehran insists its burgeoning nuclear program is for peaceful power generation, designed to augment Iran’s significant oil and natural gas reserves. (Iran has the world’s third-largest oil and second-largest natural gas reserves.)But an avalanche of evidence tells a different story. It says Iran is involved in a nuclear weapons program that may become operational this year, according to a growing chorus of experts, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ supposed nuclear watchdog.”
Guantanamo Bay: Experts including Iraq war veterans and former terrorist prosecutors contend closing the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and suspending the military commission’s trials of terrorists is nothing less than foolish, and may in fact pose a serious threat to U.S. national security
“Revelations that released Guantanamo Bay inmates are rejoining al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations, coupled with the news that a terrorist convicted in civilian court is being released early, have many questioning the president’s wisdom.”
(more here and here)
(more here and here)
— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. at uswriter.com.
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