Antonio Salas OPERATION PRINCESS EuropaPress

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Other videos on "Operation Princess"

The Evidence Against Chávez Mounts

By DOUGLAS FARAH. I have not had time to write much recently, but two recent events point to the increasingly overt ties between the Chávez government and international terrorist organizations.

The first, Chávez's help to bring the FARC in Colombia and the Spanish ETA together, I already discussed at some length here.

 New revelations are now being published about Chávez's direct (although repeatedly denied) ties to Hezbollah and other radical Islamist groups. A new book, El Palestino, by Spanish journalist Antonio Salas documents armed camps in Venezuela where the FARC, Hezbollah, ETA and others all train together.

 

In the book, which comes out later this week, the author says he posed as a Venezuelan Palestinian interested in jihad and ended up traveling around the world after fabricating a new identity. His employer, Antena 3 of Spain, has released some of the hidden camera video he shot to verify his experience.

According to the book's publicity, "It was in Venezuela that he received his baptism of fire. He found that just around the city of Caracas there are six terrorist training camps. There he learned to shoot every kind of weapon. His time there coincided with the training of members of the FARC, ETA and other groups."

 

There have long been reports of these camps from credible sources, but video and direct, publicly available documentation and first hand experience has not been. This is in keeping with Chávez's broader goals of creating an alliance of state and non-state actors to wage asymmetrical warfare against the United States. It is, quite likely, the worst of all worlds for the rest of Latin America, and beginnings of the solidifying joint venture that will eventually pose and existential threat to the United States.

 

Both Chávez, with the FARC, and Iran with its Hezbollah proxy, have the same goal in this endeavor. Each of the proxies has relevant experience and resources the other does not, and both have a long history of adaptation and co-learning from other terrorist groups, regardless of political/theological differences.

 

Chávez has also made no secret of his desire to spread armed revolution across Latin America to rid the continent of non-Bolivarian governments, or transform the governments to the Bolivarian way.

 

Hence his support, through the Movimiento Bolivariano Continental, (Continental Bolivarian Movement), to the FARC, the Tupac Amaro movement in Peru, the Mapuches and MIR in Chile, etc. etc.

This support is likely to increase as Chávez's internal situation deteriorates. With the highest homicide rate in the hemisphere, water and electrical rationing, inflation running at more than 30 percent and his popularity in a steady decline, he is likely to be desperate for anything that can give him a boost.

 

Iran, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador have enormous stakes in Chávez's survival, no matter what the cost. So one can expect the region to be roiled by something he cooks up to fabricate a crisis.

The U.S. response so far has been muted to Chávez and his lethal alliances. There are no good options for a response, but it is increasingly clear that the day of reckoning is drawing near.

 

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Douglas Farah is an award-winning investigative journalist, author of "Blood From Stones:The Secret Financial Network of Terror", and Senior Fellow in Financial Investigations and Transparency at the International Assessment and Strategy Center. He blogs on the Counterterrorism Blog and also at http://www.douglasfarah.com/.

Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/the-evidence-against-chvez-mounts#ixzz3VgoGCVzv
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Antonio Salas OPERATION PRINCESS EuropaPress 1

Book, Video Show Hizballah Training Near Caracas

Evidence of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez's Islamist terror connections continues to mount, writes veteran journalist Douglas Farah. He describes a new book, El Palestino, authored by Spanish journalist Antonio Salas, which says there are six terrorist training camps around Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. Groups training at the camps include the Colombian FARC, the Spanish Basque ETA organization, and Hizballah.

In the book (currently available in Spanish), Salas says he posed as a Venezuelan Palestinian interested in jihad and was able to travel around the world. His employer, the Spanish television network Antena 3, has released some of the hidden-camera video he took while working undercover with the terrorists.

For years, there have been reports about the existence of these camps, but Salas apparently is the first person to provide video and firsthand experience training in them. According to Antena 3, Salas joined a Venezuelan "faction" of Hizballah, where he met members of other terrorist organizations like Hamas and the FARC.

"This is in keeping with Chavez's broader goals of creating an alliance of state and non-state actors to wage assymetrical warfare against the United States," Farah wrote. "Both Chavez, with the FARC, and Iran, have the same goal in this endeavor. Each of the proxies has relevant experience and resources the other does not, and both have a history of adaption and co-learning from other terrorist groups, regardless of political/theological differences."

As living conditions in Venezuela continue to deteriorate, he added, Chavez may well seek to foment crises and support armed revolution in Latin America:

"With the highest homicide rate in the hemisphere, water and electrical rationing, inflation running at more than 30 percent and his popularity in a steady decline, he is likely to be desperate for anything that can give him a boost. Iran, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador have enormous stakes in Chavez's survival, no matter what the cost. So one can expect the region to be roiled by something he cooks up to fabricate a crisis."

 http://www.investigativeproject.org/1973/book-video-show-hizballah-training-near-caracas#

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