LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
August 09/12

Bible Quotation for today
Saint Luke 12,32-34: "‘Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
The fearful in Damascus/By Ali Ibrahim/Asharq Alawsat/August 08/12
Realism…Finally/By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 08/12
Iran Courts Latin America/By Ilan Berman/Middle East Quarterly/August 08/12
Post-Assad Syria: Words and Actions/By Abdullah Al-Otaibi/Asharq Alawsat/August 08/12
Victims of Syrian propaganda/By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Alawsat/August 08/12

Gunmen Storm Nigerian Church, Kill 19
Nigerian Islamists Tell Nigerian Christian President to Convert to Islam or Resign
Washington, D.C. (August 7, 2012) –International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that yesterday gunmen carried out attacks at Deeper Life Church in the town of Otite, Kogi State, killing 19 worshippers. The Christians were conducting Monday night service at the time of the attack. The perpetrators have not been identified, but in the past similar attacks against Christians have been carried out by members of Boko Haram, an Islamic radical group, seeking to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria. “Members of Boko Haram are killing Christians. They want to Islamize the North. Their targets are Christians, the security men and the police. Many Christians have already left the north. For those of us remaining in the North, we worship under heavy presence of military. This time the church was attacked because the service was held on Monday,” said a Christian leader in an interview with ICC. This latest anti-Christian violence came two days after Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, told Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, to convert to Islam or resign otherwise the violence will continue. ICC’s Jonathan Racho said, “We are extremely concerned by the continuous killings of Christians in Nigeria. Nigeria has become a killing zone for Christians. The government of Nigeria has utterly failed to protect its citizens from the murderous Boko Haram sect. We urge actions by the United States and other members of the international community to pressure Nigeria to deal forcefully with Boko Haram.”

"14 Egyptian helicopters join battle against renewed Islamist attack
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report August 8, 2012/ Egyptian attack helicopters went into action Wednesday morning, Aug. 8, firing missiles to break up pitched battles between Salafi Bedouin gunmen and the three Egyptian positions and checkpoints they attacked overnight at Sheikh Zuwayed east of El Arish. Witnesses report at least 20 Salafists killed and some Egyptian casualties among officers and men. Not just helicopters, but according to some reports Egyptian fighter jets also took off from El Arish airfield to beat back the Islamist offensive, the second in three days. It was the first time in the 39 years since the October 1973 Egyptian-Israeli Sinai war that Egyptian warplanes were deployed in the skies of the peninsula.
Sunday’s attack in which 17 Egyptian soldiers were killed and the Israeli border breached appears to have been the start of a general Sinai offensive by well-armed Salafi Bedouin gangs, adherents and followers of Al Qaeda. Northern Sinai has become their first battlefield.
Yet until now, debkafile’s military and counter-terror sources report that the regular Egyptian army has not initiated an offensive campaign against the Salafi gunmen proliferating in the Sinai Peninsula. While opting for a defensive posture, the soldiers were forced to fight back when they were attacked early Wednesday.
The army has in fact decided to focus on establishing a buffer zone around El Arish to sterilize it against assault. It has carefully avoided going after the Islamist terrorists’ strongholds at Jebel El Halal and Al-Mahdia, deep in the central Sinai mountains. Both house small training facilities where Bedouin fighters were instructed in the “arts” of coordinated terror tactics which they employed Sunday against Egyptian and Israeli targets.The Israel Defense Ministry’s political coordinator Amos Gilead defined Salafi Bedouins’ goal in a radio interview Wednesday as being “to drown the Israeli-Egyptian peace pact in rivers of blood” while dragging the entire Middle East into armed strife. According to debkafile’s sources, the Salafi gunmen who broke through to the Israeli side of the Sinai border Sunday in an armored truck packed with half a ton of explosives were not after an Israeli civilian location but the base of the IDF’s Bedouin Reconnaissance battalion nearby. They planned to repeat there the massacre they had just perpetrated at the Egyptian Mansoura base on the other side of the border.
Had they succeeded, the Salafist terrorists would have accomplished three strategic feats:
1. The first simultaneous terrorist attack on two armies. It would have toppled the Egyptian and Israeli security deployments along their common border in Sinai;
2. A mortal blow to the Bedouin unit, which is an important buttress of Israel’s combat array around the Gaza Strip;
3. Bedouin would have triumphed against Bedouin, so sparking a vendetta between the tribes of Sinai and the Israel Negev.

Elias Bejjani Condemns the Nigerian Church Massacre
August 08/12
Matthew 05/11-12: ""Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers. Be happy and glad, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven. This is how the prophets who lived before you were persecuted."
In my capacity as a Canadian - Lebanese Human Rights Activist and political commentator, I strongly and with the harshest terms condemn the barbaric and terrorist attack that viciously targeted a Nigerian Church in the town of Otite, Kogi State, on Monday August 06/12, killing 19 innocent worshippers and injuring many others while conducting a night service.
Canada and the free world countries, as well the Muslim and Arab nations are required urgently to take all needed measures via the UN or any other available means to put an end this on going, evil and bloody war against Christians in Nigeria.
What is sad and shocking at the same time is that the Boko Haram terrorist Islamic fanatic organization that is waging this religious war against the Nigerian Christians is not yet put on the Terrorist lists in many Western countries.
Meanwhile the Nigerian government, the UN and all the global human Rights bodies have an obligation to intervene and stop these blood thirsty murderers and put them on trial to pay for their crimes of hatred.
My deepest sympathies are extended to the families and friends of those killed in these attacks, and I wish a speedy recovery to the injured.
May the souls of these innocent victims rest in peace
Back ground
Nigeria church attacked, 19 killed
Associated Press : Abuja, Wed Aug 08 2012/Gunmen fired on a worship service in a church in central Nigeria, killing at least 19 people, including the pastor, and wounding others in a nation often divided by religion, the military said Tuesday. The attack targeted a Deeper Life church in the town of Otite in Kogi state, about 250 km southwest of Nigeria’s capital Abuja. Blood stained the floors of the church as police and soldiers surrounded it Tuesday morning, witnesses said. It was unclear how many people were wounded in the attack Monday night. The gunmen surrounded the church in the middle of a worship service and opened fire with Kalashnikov assault rifles, military spokesman Lt. Col. Gabriel Olorunyomi said. The church’s pastor was among the dead. Soldiers searched for gunmen through the night, but had made no arrests as of Tuesday morning, Olorunyomi said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Kogi State police spokesman Simon Ile declined to comment Tuesday about the attack. National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Yushau Shuaib said his agency had dispatched rescuers to the area Tuesday. The attack comes as Nigeria faces continuing attacks from a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram. Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sacrilege’’ in the Hausa language of Nigeria’s Muslim north, has attacked churches in the past, though never as far as south. However, Boko Haram likely carried out a February prison break in the town of Koton-Karifi in Kogi state that freed 119 inmates. That attack mirrored a massive prison break in the northeastern city of Bauchi in September 2010 when Boko Haram freed about 700 inmates.

Canada Condemns Attack on Nigerian Church
August 7, 2012 - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following statement:
“I am deeply saddened by the cowardly murder by gunmen of parishioners who were gathered in worship at a church in the town of Otite in Kogi state, Nigeria.
“Canada urges all people in Nigeria to work with the Nigerian government to counter terrorism and bring to justice those responsible for this reprehensible crime. No one should have to practise his or her faith in fear. Canada will continue to stand up for religious freedom. “On behalf of all Canadians, I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those killed in these attacks, and I wish a speedy recovery to the injured.”

Notorious Islamic Hate-Preacher Pardoned by Muslim Brotherhood President
by Raymond Ibrahim • Aug 7, 2012 at 1:59 pm
Cross-posted from Jihad Watch
http://www.raymondibrahim.com/2012/08/notorious-islamic-hate-preacher-pardoned-by
Wagdi Ghoneim, the Islamic cleric whose many terrorist-connections and activities got him exiled from Egypt where, under Mubarak's rule he was sentenced to do five years in prison, has, according to several Arabic news sites, just received a general pardon from Egypt's new president, Muhammad Morsi. Wagdi Ghoneim: Coming back to Egypt to help set it aflame. Ghoneim is especially renowned for his hate-mongering and constant incitements to kill Christians, Jews, and secular Muslims. Most recently, he praised Allah for the death of Coptic Pope Shenouda, cursing him to hell and damnation—even as many Egyptians were mourning him during his state funeral. Perhaps because of the scandal caused by this news of Ghoneim's pending return, those close to President Morsi are now denying that the Muslim Brotherhood President has pardoned him. Even Ghoneim's own website, which originally boasted of his coming return to Egypt, has removed the notice. Of course, considering that Morsi is calling for the release of the terrorist Blind Sheikh—not to mention has released Egypt's most violent jihadis—pardoning yet another cleric who constantly calls for the death and destruction of infidels is hardly out of the ordinary.

Christian Victim of Acid Attack Harbors No Hate Towards Muslim Attackers
By Jonathan Racho/08/7/2012 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) — A Ugandan pastor, who was the victim of an acid attack by Muslims, told ICC that he doesn’t hate his Muslim attackers and wants them to believe in Jesus Christ. “My message to my attackers is simple; I hold no grudge against them. They wished me death but I wish them life today and forever in Christ Jesus our Lord,” said Pastor Umar Mulinde in his statement to ICC. Pastor Mulinde was a Muslim leader before he converted to Christianity and started a church. He successfully brought many Muslims to Christ and openly opposed the call for Sharia law in Uganda. He was attacked on December 24 near his church in Uganda’s capital of Kampala. He is currently receiving medical care in Israel. In his message to Christians around the world, the pastor warned about the danger of radical Islam: “The vision of Islam is all about world dominance and no country should think to be safe from radical Islam.”He also asked Christians to respond to the plight of the persecuted church around the world. He said, “Christians around the world should support the millions of Christians who are seriously being persecuted because of their faith. This happens mainly in Middle East and now in Africa too.”

Assad vows to crush Syria rebellion
AFP – ..President Bashar al-Assad vowed on Tuesday to crush the 17-month rebellion against his regime and to cleanse Syria of "terrorists", as his troops engaged rebels in key battleground city Aleppo.
"The Syrian people and their government are determined to purge the country of terrorists and to fight the terrorists without respite," he was quoted by state news agency SANA as telling visiting senior Iranian envoy Saeed Jalili. Assad had earlier appeared on television for the first time in more than two weeks in a meeting with Jalili, a top aide to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Jalili offered Assad his country's backing, saying Tehran would "never allow the resistance axis -- of which Syria is an essential pillar -- to break.
"What is happening in Syria is not an internal issue but a conflict between the axis of resistance on the one hand, and the regional and global enemies of this axis on the other," he added.
Iran has accused Turkey and Gulf Arab countries of arming the Syrian opposition in collusion with the United States and Israel, to overthrow the Assad regime.
Jalili was previously quoted as saying "the crisis in Syria must be solved internally, through national dialogue, and not through the intervention of external forces".
He added: "The Syrian people are hostile to any plan supported by the Zionists and the US".
Later, Jalili called for an end to "all foreign intervention" in Syria, adding that Tehran rejects "any party imposing its will through military intervention".
Assad said his country was "able to defeat foreign plans targeting the resistance axis and Syria's role in it".
Tehran also sent its foreign minister to Ankara and a letter to Washington holding them responsible for the fate of 48 kidnapped Iranians.
In Aleppo, clashes rocked several central areas of the city while the army also shelled rebel-held areas in the east, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The fighting in and around Aleppo killed at least 20 people, the watchdog said, adding that the nationwide toll was 122.
Aleppo has been bracing for a major ground offensive after a senior security official said the army had completed a buildup of some 20,000 troops.
Near Homs in central Syria, opposition gunmen attacked an electricity company housing compound, killing 16 people, including Alawites, Christians and Sunnis, the Observatory said.
And rebels attacked an oil field in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, triggering clashes in which four rebels and six soldiers were killed, it added.
Defected ex-premier Riad Hijab was in neighbouring Jordan firming up his plans after his defection to the opposition, which Washington said showed the regime was crumbling.
In that vein, Jordan's King Abdullah II said Assad might make a "worst case scenario" retreat to an Alawite stronghold if he falls from power.
Some experts have also predicted that if Damascus falls to rebels, Assad could take refuge among Alawites in the northeastern mountains of Syria, where opposition forces say he has already been stockpiling weapons. "I have a feeling that if he can't rule Greater Syria, then maybe an Alawi enclave is Plan B," Abdullah said in an interview with US television network CBS.
"That would be, I think for us, the worst case scenario -- because that means then the breakup of Greater Syria.
"That means that everybody starts land grabbing which makes no sense to me. If Syria then implodes on itself that would create problems that would take decades for us to come back from."
King Abdullah predicted Assad would keep up his brutal crackdown to cling to power because he "believes that he is in the right.
"In his mentality, he is going to stick to his guns... I think the regime feels that it has no alternative, but to continue... I don't think it's just Bashar. It's not the individual. It's the system of the regime."
Meanwhile, following the Damascus talks, Jalili told Al-Alam that Tehran was using "all means possible" to secure the release of its 48 abducted citizens.
Tehran says they are Shiite pilgrims, while their rebel captors insist they are members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi headed to Turkey to demand Ankara's assistance in securing the release of the Iranian hostages amid growing concern for their fate.
Salehi later said "Turkey has links with the opposition in Syria, so we think Turkey can play a major role in freeing our pilgrims".
Earlier, Iran said that, "considering that the (rebel) Free Syrian Army -- which claims to have abducted the Iranian pilgrims -- is backed by Turkey, the visit by the foreign minister aims to warn and remind the Ankara government of its responsibilities in this matter".
Tehran delivered a similar message to Washington in a letter transmitted through the US interests section of the Swiss embassy.
"Because of the United States' manifest support of terrorist groups and the dispatch of weapons to Syria, the United States is responsible for the lives of the 48 Iranian pilgrims abducted in Damascus," Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian quoted the letter as saying.
A letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon highlighted reported comments by Syrian rebels that three of the Iranians had been killed in government shelling.
"I would like to seek the cooperation and the good offices of your excellency for securing the release of these hostages," Salehi wrote.
"The kind cooperation of the relevant United Nations offices in responding to this request of government and the families of the hostages will be highly appreciated," he added.
In other developments, outgoing UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan and Lebanon said they would not send a representative to a meeting on the Syria conflict to be hosted by Iran on Thursday.
Iran had called on Monday for a ministerial meeting among states that have taken a "realistic and principled stand" on the Syrian crisis.
Diplomatic sources at the UN meanwhile said Tuesday the UN Security Council would hold a ministerial meeting on the conflict on August 30.
The meeting has been called by France as president of the Security Council for August, sources from several countries said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no official announcement has yet been made. Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was not yet sure that Russia and China, which have vetoed three council resolutions on Syria, would attend at ministerial level.
And on the humanitarian front, more than 22,000 Iraqis have fled Syria in less than three weeks, while 12,600 Syrians have done so since the beginning of the year, the UNHCR said.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation said Syrians urgently need life-saving medicines, and the World Food Programme said 1.5 million people in rural areas would need food aid in the next three to six months.And Britain announced a grant of £10 million ($15.6 million, 12.6 million euros) to aid thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.

Syrian activists say fighting in Aleppo is spreading as rebels try to gain more ground
By The Associated Press | The Canadian Press –
BEIRUT - Activists say fighting in Aleppo has spread to new areas as rebels try to expand their hold inside Syria's largest city.
Despite intense bombardment from government warplanes, helicopters and artillery, the rebels in Aleppo have now withstood two weeks of counterattacks by President Bashar Assad's troops and are clawing toward the city centre.Local activist Tamam Hazem says fierce clashes are going on in Bab Jnein and Sabee Bahrat districts near the heart of Aleppo. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also says fighting Tuesday has extended to new parts of the city. Aleppo is Syria's commercial hub and lies close to the Turkish border, where rebels have their rear bases. If the opposition were to gain control of Aleppo, it would be a major blow to the regime

Iran backs Assad as Syrian forces choke off Aleppo
By Hadeel Al Shalchi | Reuters
ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Syria's President Bashar al-Assad won a pledge of support on Tuesday from regional ally Iran as his forces tried to choke off rebels in the northern city of Aleppo.
Seeking to restore his authority after suffering the gravest setbacks so far in the 17-month-old uprising, culminating in the defection of his prime minister on Monday, Assad was shown on television meeting a senior Iranian official.
It was the first footage broadcast of the 46-year-old leader for two weeks, and came a day after Syria's new caretaker prime minister was televised chairing a hastily called cabinet session, possibly to rebut reports that other ministers had deserted along with premier Riyad Hijab.
Saeed Jalili, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said Iran would not let its close partnership with the Syrian leadership to be shaken by the uprising or external foes.
"Iran will not allow the axis of resistance, of which it considers Syria to be an essential part, to be broken in any way," Syrian television quoted Jalili as saying.
The "axis of resistance" refers to Shi'ite Iran's anti-Israel alliance with Syria's rulers - from the Alawite faith which is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam - and the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, with Iranian and Syrian support.
Damascus and Tehran have held Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states and Turkey, all allies of the United States and European powers, responsible for the bloodshed in Syria by supporting the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels. Western powers sympathetic to the rebels are concerned that anti-Western Sunni Islamists could benefit from a victory for the anti-Assad forces.
Iran's Fars news agency said Jalili told Assad that Iran was prepared to provide humanitarian aid to Syria.
On a fence-mending visit to Turkey, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he wanted to work with Ankara to resolve the crisis. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan described as "worrying" a comment on Monday by Tehran's top general, who blamed Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for bloodshed in Syria.
Iran has expressed fears for more than 40 Iranians it says are religious pilgrims kidnapped by rebels from a bus in Damascus while visiting Shi'ite shrines. Salehi wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon seeking his help to free them.
Rebels say they suspect the captives were troops sent to help Assad. A rebel spokesman in the Damascus area said on Monday three of the Iranians had been killed by government shelling. He initially said the rest would be executed if the shelling did not stop but later said they were being questioned.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, without naming Iran or Sunni powers, warned against a descent into "sectarian warfare" and said Washington would not tolerate "sending in proxies or terrorist fighters" to "exploit" Syria's conflict.
REBEL AMMUNITION
In Aleppo, rebels trying to fight off an army offensive said they were running low on ammunition as Assad's forces tried to encircle their stronghold in the southern approaches to the country's biggest city.Assad has reinforced his troops in preparation for an assault to recapture rebel-held districts of Aleppo after repelling fighters from most of Damascus.
"The Syrian army is trying to encircle us from two sides of Salaheddine," said Sheikh Tawfiq, one of the rebel commanders, referring to the southwestern Aleppo neighborhood which has seen heavy fighting over the last week.
Mortar fire and tank shells exploded across the district early on Tuesday, forcing rebel fighters to take cover in crumbling buildings and rubble-strewn alleyways.
Tanks have entered parts of Salaheddine and army snipers, using the cover of heavy bombardment, deployed on rooftops, hindering rebel movements.
Another rebel commander, Abu Ali, said snipers at the main Saleheddine traffic roundabout were preventing the rebels from bringing in reinforcements and supplies. He said five of his fighters were killed on Monday and 20 wounded.
But rebels said they were still holding the main streets of Salaheddine.
A fighter jet pounded targets in the eastern districts of Aleppo and shelling could be heard in the early morning, an activist in Aleppo said.
"Two families, about 14 people in total, were believed killed when a shell hit their home and it collapsed this morning," the activist said. The house was one street away from a school being used as a base by rebels, he said.
PREMIER DEFECTS
As Assad's forces battle to retake Aleppo, fighting has continued across the country. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the violence, said more than 270 people - including 62 soldiers - were killed in Syria on Monday, one of the highest death tolls in an uprising in which activists reckon at least 18,000 have died.
Sixty-four of those killed on Monday died in the city of Aleppo and its surrounding province, the Observatory said.
The president has suffered a series of blows in the last three weeks, from the bombing of his inner circle to the rebel gains in Aleppo, at border crossings and briefly in Damascus.
On Monday, Hijab denounced Assad's "terrorist regime" after fleeing the country.
The defection of Hijab, who like most of the opposition hails from the Sunni Muslim majority, was a further sign of the isolation of Assad's government around an inner core of powerful members of his minority Alawite sect.
Opposition figures, buoyant despite setbacks in recent weeks of fighting, spoke of an extensive and long-planned operation to spirit Hijab and his extended family over the Jordanian border.
A spokesman for U.S. President Barack Obama hailed Hijab's defection as a sign that the 40-year rule of Assad's family was "crumbling from within" and said he should step down.
Western leaders' repeated predictions of Assad's imminent collapse have so far proven premature, however.
The security forces have overwhelming superiority in firepower, which they have wielded against lightly armed rebels.
Hijab's defection was the latest sign of Sunnis abandoning Assad, but there has been no sign yet that members of his mainly Alawite ruling inner circle are losing their will to fight on.
(Additional reporting by Khaled Oweis, Mariam Karouny, Yara Bayoumy and Tom Perry in Beirut; Writing by Dominic Evans in Beirut; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

British bank accused of scheming with Iran to launder $250 billion
By Michael Gormley, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press
.ALBANY, N.Y. - A British bank schemed with the Iranian government to launder $250 billion from 2001 to 2007, leaving the United States' financial system "vulnerable to terrorists," New York's financial regulator charged Monday. In a statement released Monday night, Standard Chartered Bank said it "strongly rejects" and "contests" the New York regulators' portrayal of its transactions with Iranian banks. It said it voluntarily began reviewing the transactions since 2010 with U.S. regulators and the findings don't match the accusations levelled at the bank Monday.
State Financial Services Supt. Benjamin Lawsky signed an order that requires London-based Standard Chartered Bank to answer his questions following an investigation into "wire stripping," the practice of removing crucial identifiers in financial transactions.
The state agency called the bank a rogue institution and quoted one of its executives as saying: "You (expletive) Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we're not going to deal with Iranians."The bank conspired with its Iranian clients to route nearly 60,000 different U.S. dollar payments through Standard Chartered's New York branch "after first stripping information from wire transfer messages used to identify sanctioned countries, individuals and entities," according to agency's order.
The order said the transactions provided the bank with millions of dollars in fees at a time when such trade was restricted.
"The group does not believe the order issued by the DFS presents a full and accurate picture of the facts," the bank said Monday night in a fuller response to Lawsky's order. "The analysis, that the group shared with all the U.S. agencies, demonstrates that throughout the period the group acted to comply, and overwhelmingly did comply, with U.S. sanctions and the regulations."
The statement said "well over 99.9 per cent" of the questioned transactions with Iran complied with all regulations. The few transactions that didn't amounted to just $14 million, according to the bank. The bank said none of its Iranian payments was on behalf of any designated terrorist group.
"The group takes its responsibilities very seriously, and seeks to comply at all times with the relevant laws and regulations," the bank stated. "It is in this spirit we initiated this review and have engaged with the U.S. agencies."The bank also said it had no prior notice of the order.
A government official said Monday that the FBI's New York office has been investigating the matter to determine if criminal charges should be brought. The official wasn't authorized to discuss the probe and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. An FBI spokesman declined to comment.
The state agency said the bank's actions "left the U.S. financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes and deprived law enforcement investigators of crucial information used to track all manner of criminal activity." The bank stripped information from the money transfers that is used to identify countries being sanctioned and replaced it with false entries or returned it to Iran for "wire stripping" and resubmission, according to the order.
The bank "developed various ploys that were all designed to generate a new payment message for the New York branch that was devoid of any reference to Iranian clients," according to the order.
The order also identifies an October 2006 "panicked message" from a London group executive director who worried the transactions could lead to "very serious or even catastrophic reputational damage to the group."If proven, the scheme would violate state money-laundering laws. The order also accuses the bank of falsifying business records, obstructing governmental administration, failing to report misconduct to the state quickly, evading federal sanctions and other illegal acts.
Between 2004 and 2007, about half the period covered by the order, the department claims Standard Chartered hid from and lied about its Iranian transactions to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Before 2008, banks were allowed to transact some business with Iran, but only with full reporting and disclosure, the order states.
In 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department stopped those transactions because it suspected they helped pay for Iran to develop nuclear weapons and finance terrorist groups including Hamas and Hezbollah. The order states the bank has to provide information and answer to its questions to determine if any of its funding aided the groups or Iran's nuclear program.
The order said the bank operates in 70 markets as a leading international banker with clients who are among the largest corporations and financial institutions in the world. The order notes the bank states in its own documents that its success is because of its "moral compass" and a core value of "openness" that is based on "always trying to do the right thing."
It handles about $190 billion per day in business for its clients, according to the order

Iran asks for U.N. help in freeing hostages in Syria, Libya
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran's foreign minister on Tuesday asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his help in efforts to free dozens of Iranian pilgrims and aid workers captured recently in Syria and Libya. "I would like to seek the cooperation and the good offices of Your Excellency for securing the release of these hostages," Ali Akbar Salehi wrote to Ban in a letter that Iran's U.N. mission provided to Reuters. "The kind cooperation of the relevant United Nations offices in responding to this request of (Iran's) Government and the families of the hostages will be highly appreciated," Salehi said.
The request for U.N. assistance was delivered a day after Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned a senior diplomat from the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which protects U.S. interests in Iran, to discuss the missing Iranians in Syria. In New York, a U.N. spokesman confirmed receipt of Salehi's letter, but did not have an immediate response. Iran has also sought the aid of Turkey, one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most outspoken critics, in freeing the Iranians held in Syria. "The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran calls for the immediate release of its abducted nationals and is of the view that using the hostages as human shields violates the international law and human rights of these innocent civilians," Salehi said. Syrian rebels determined to topple Assad accuse Iran of supporting the Syrian government, which has tried unsuccessfully for 17 months to crush an increasingly militant opposition. Tehran supports Assad, who has long been an ally of Iran.
IRAN ACCUSES U.S.
A busload of 48 Iranians was seized by the Syrian rebels on Saturday. Tehran says they were pilgrims visiting a Shi'ite Muslim shrine, denying suggestions that they were military personnel helping Assad put down the rebellion. A Syrian rebel spokesman said on Monday that three of the Iranians had been killed in a government air strike and the rest would be executed if the attacks did not stop. There has been no word of their fate since then. In Libya, seven Iranian aid workers were abducted on July 31 by an unknown armed group in the eastern city of Benghazi, the biggest operation of its kind against foreigners since the start of a revolt that toppled long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
The seven men, from an Iranian Red Crescent relief mission, were snatched from their vehicle in the heart of Benghazi on their way back to their hotel, security sources told Reuters.
The Tehran Times reported that a senior Iranian official told a Swiss diplomat on Monday that the U.S. government was responsible for protecting the lives of the abducted Iranians given the United States' support for the Syrian opposition.
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Iran had called in the Swiss diplomat, but said the United States had not received any official correspondence from Iran on the matter and he declined to provide further details. Asked if it was reasonable for Iran to hold the United States responsible for the Iranians, Ventrell replied: "that doesn't seem to make sense."
He also repeated U.S. accusations that Iran is helping Assad crush the opposition. "To us, it's just unconscionable that the Iranian government is ignoring the massacres of civilians in Aleppo and throughout Syria, and instead, finding new ways to try and prop up a regime who is killing many thousands of its own citizens," he said. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington; editing by Xavier Briand and Stacey Joyce)

5 wounded in south Lebanon gunfight
August 08, 2012/The Daily Star
SIDON, Lebanon: Five people, including a Lebanese girl and a young Russian woman, were wounded in the southern city of Sidon in an armed clash overnight between supporters of Sheikh Ahmad Assir and members of the Popular Nasserite Organization. Security sources told The Daily Star that two of the wounded were gunmen involved in the 70-minute gunfight in the Bab al-Serail Square of Sidon's old city. The other wounded were a Lebanese man identified as Toufik Baba, Palestinian teenager Rayyan al-Qayyem and a young Russian woman who was wounded by broken glass.
The sources said the gunfight broke out over an old dispute between the two sides.Terrified diners fled Bab al-Serail Square after the clash erupted.
Police are in pursuit of the gunmen. On Wednesday morning, Assir visited the site of the clash, calling on his men to "avoid getting dragged into any fight."

Lebanon to take ‘brave steps’ to secure hostages’ freedom: Mikati
August 08, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced Wednesday that the government will take “brave steps” to secure the release of the 11 Lebanese hostages kidnapped in Syria before Eid al-Fitr, the celebration that marks the end of Ramadan. “The Lebanese state, on the part of the president and prime minister, is exerting every effort in the case of the kidnapped Lebanese in Syria we are considering taking courageous steps to ensure their return to their families and their homeland before Eid al-Fitr,” Mikati told Cabinet. Eid al-Fitr is expected to fall sometime during the fourth week of August.
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel has said the Lebanese government is working behind the scenes to secure the release of the Lebanese hostages kidnapped in Syria three months ago.
Charbel also criticized the hostages' Syrian captors for allegedly not making concrete demands. “Our problem is that we don’t know the real demands of those who have taken the Lebanese hostage so that we can negotiate,” Charbel said in remarks published Wednesday by the local daily An-Nahar.
“This is why we held and still continue to hold talks with Turkey, which has advised us to keep the issue away from the media – which is what we did,” Charbel added.
A previously unknown group calling itself "Syrian Rebels in Aleppo" claimed to be holding the Lebanese shortly after their abduction in May, saying five of the hostages were members of Hezbollah. Hezbollah and the hostages’ families deny the claim. The group demanded that Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah apologize for comments he had made in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Nasrallah, a staunch ally of Assad, said the abduction would not change Hezbollah’s stance on the events in Syria.
Charbel pointed to a visit to Turkey he made along with Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour in search of a solution and said, “We’re still working within this framework."
Charbel’s remarks came hours after the 11 Lebanese pilgrims lashed out at the Lebanese government, accusing it of neglecting their case.
The hostages spoke late Tuesday evening to an LBCI television crew that traveled to Azaz on the Syria-Turkey border at the invitation of Abu Ibrahim, head of the captors.
Abu Ibrahim has said the kidnappers don’t want a ransom, but has demanded that the pilgrims’ release be negotiated with Zahle MP Oqab Saqr or Brig. Wissam Hasan, the head of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces Information Branch.
In their late Tuesday television appeals, the hostages insisted that their captors have made no material demands, and that all they ask for is Lebanon’s recognition of the Syrian rebels.
“We demand that the [Lebanese government] recognize the FSA before it negotiates our release,” hostage Ali Abbas told LBCI.
Two of the pilgrims’ relatives, who flew to Turkey with the television crew Tuesday to see what progress has been made in the case, were not able to meet the captives, LBCI said on its website.
The trip came after Abu Ibrahim called on reporters Monday to meet the pilgrims in Azaz. In addition to the LBCI crew, a team from Al-Jadeed TV also flew to Turkey to try to meet the hostages.
Abu Ibrahim did not make any demands.
The Syrian rebels who took the Lebanese men have repeatedly insisted that the pilgrims are their “guests,” as opposed to hostages.
The Shiite hostages were kidnapped after crossing into Syria from Turkey on May 22 while on their way back to Lebanon from a pilgrimage to Iran. Women and elderly men were allowed to leave.
Also Tuesday, a spokesman for the hostages’ families warned that Turkish nationals in Lebanon could face the same fate as the Lebanese hostages if Turkey does not work to resolve the case.
“The Turks said ‘the issue is not in our hands,’ but the source of the phone call [between the kidnapped and their relatives Monday] is Turkey and what the kidnapped said yesterday [Monday] confirms that they are under Turkish control,” Sheikh Abbas Zogheib said Tuesday. “Turkey is responsible, they can’t deny this.”

The fearful in Damascus
By Ali Ibrahim/Asharq Alawsat
When the Prime Minister of a regime defects approximately two months after his appointment, and information is leaked suggesting that he was negotiating to flee the country for some time prior to the decision to appoint him, then a question needs to be asked about the rest of the regime: Who is really in charge at a time when the pace of defections is increasing among staff and senior officials, and likewise we are witnessing internal infiltrations that have reached even the most important security strongholds, such as the bombing that occurred a few weeks ago killing prominent security leaders?
Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising, and the regime’s resort to the security solution in order to confront the demonstrations that were peaceful at first, a question emerged in the face of the absurdity of this solution, which any sane person knew would lead to a dead end: Who is the decision maker, is it al-Assad himself or is he a pawn for others? The passing days and bloody developments in Syria, and the leaks emerging here and there, confirm that he is the primary authority, and that the influential inner circle linked by common, perhaps family interests is running the crisis, while everyone around it has woken up and begun jumping from a ship on the verge of sinking.
Perhaps the most accurate assessment of the defection of the Syrian Prime Minister, along with two ministers and military leaders, came from the German Foreign Minister who announced that the Syrian regime is eroding quickly. It is not known whether there are signs of other splits among senior officials such as the Defense Minister, as reported, but the course of events indicates that perhaps there are many who want to jump ship from within the regime and are waiting for the right moment or the right conditions. This may be linked to guaranteeing the safety of their families, as it is noticeable that many of the defectors have only done so after securing their families and leaving with them, fearing the wrath of the regime that has said it will strike the families of those who turn against it.
It is puzzling that the narrow group that runs the regime now, headed by President al-Assad himself, seems to be infected with a state of semi-blindness, and cannot see the reality that the ship is sinking. With the increasing frequency of defections among senior executive officials and military leaders, and the loss of large parts of Syrian territory outside its control, the Syrian regime has entered a stage like the final phase of Gaddafi’s rule in Libya. It may be that the case for those remaining in the regime in Syria is different to Gaddafi in terms of the presence of external supporters both regionally and internationally, but even those will abandon the regime at some point, or bargain over it when they feel it is no longer useful.
It is certain now that this narrow group is eroding day by day and becoming even smaller, and it is likely that there are a many frightened officials in Damascus who are preparing to jump from the ship provided that they can ensure their safety. These people should be encouraged to abandon the regime as soon as possible, because jumping will be futile after the ship has sunk. It is no longer possible to defend the regime after the signs of its collapse are looming, and its decision makers have passed the point of no return after all this bloodshed. Those thinking of defecting should leave the inner circle to its fate, instead of associating with the regime any longer.

Realism…Finally
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat
After the 2006 war in Lebanon, which took place in the wake of Hezbollah’s kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers and claimed the lives of nearly 200,000 Lebanese, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah came out in response to a Saudi statement at the time, which had described the war as a Hezbollah “adventure”, to say that: “you gamble on your reason and we will gamble on our adventure”.
After that the principle of realism or rationality was turned into an insult, thanks to the Iranian media machine and its affiliates in our region, it became synonymous with subservience and surrender. It was emptied of all its content like other terms that have fallen victim to the Islamists, Arabists, the resistance movement and others with false slogans. Realism became an accusation that could spell the end of anyone who adopted it, or a sign that they were agents of Israel or America, but now all has changed. These days realism has become an Iranian commodity, purely because of the situation in Syria! Today, quite simply, Iran has come out calling for a conference to be held on the situation in Syria, with Tehran saying that only those with “realistic positions” towards what is happening will be invited! Now, thank God, realism has become a necessity for Iran and its agents in the region, even though this same realism was considered a shortcoming in the past; a cause for condemnation towards all those who advocated it…Now Iran and its agents in the region have become realistic! But is there really any element of realism in all that Iran does in Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Morocco, Egypt and so on? One might say that Iran must be a superpower in order to intervene in all these countries, but the answer is simple. Iran does not intervene to build, rather to destroy, exploiting sectarianism, its agents and terrorists. Sabotage is easier than building of course.
Therefore, the question now is what kind of realists, or rationalists, would answer Iran’s invitation to attend a conference on Syria? Anyone with an ounce of rationality will refuse to participate in a meeting that is purely intended to justify al-Assad’s crimes against the unarmed Syrians. Anyone who acts on the contrary has nothing to do with realism at all, which has now become a necessity for Iran.
The truth is that we must not only chastise Iran and Hezbollah for advocating realism today after cursing it in the past, but we should also chastise all those who believed them in our region, from politicians to intellectuals. Ever since the assassination of Rafik Hariri, through to the 2006 war in Lebanon, the Gaza war and other events in our region, we have read and heard shameful rhetoric from certain politicians and intellectuals who have justified Iran and Hezbollah, and al-Assad of course, and their crimes in the region. These intellectuals and politicians were deceived by the false slogans of the Iranian alliance, such as opposition and resistance, and unfortunately certain Saudi writers were among these intellectuals, both academic and non-academic. Should they not be ashamed of their populist stances now, especially as they hear Iran advocating realism when it considered it a disgrace in the past?
Thus the conference that Iran has called for today regarding Syria ought to be named the “conference for those implicated in the fall of al-Assad”, rather than a conference of realists, because Tehran’s allies, or those who believe them in our region, cannot be considered realistic or rational in any way.

Post-Assad Syria: Words and Actions
By Abdullah Al-Otaibi/Asharq Alawsat
A war is raging on Syrian soil between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), together with al-Assad’s troops and the Shabiha forces. At the same time, there seems to be growing political clamor about Syria both internationally and regionally. Amidst such clamor, stances and policies are differing markedly, visions of a timely solution vary, and there are contradictory means and ways of achieving unharmonious and non-concordant objectives. In fact, this all is due to a state of global paralysis as a result of the Russian-Chinese veto in the Security Council, and also due to numerous external causes.
Indeed, the FSA is impressive, for it has emphasized time and again on the ground that it is the true representative of the Syrian people, who completely reject the Bashar al-Assad regime and its murderous gangs. It is thanks to its operations and the people's support that the FSA is notching up successes time after time in battles, although these are yet to provide a decisive end to the war. However, such battles are adding to the FSA’s credibility, undermining al-Assad's stances, and weakening the structure of the regime’s army and security apparatuses.
International equations and balances are at a standstill with regards to the situation in Syria, as everyone continues to search for a way out in a manner that can maintain their interests and international status; from Russia to the US. The Syrian people are unfortunate to have become the center of an international struggle that has nothing to do with them. Yet, they must shoulder all the consequences of delays, consultations and balances until an actual solution is attained whereby the most brutal regime in the modern world is exterminated.
Bashar al-Assad's vision of dragging the country into a civil war and his illusions of creating an Alawite state in the mountains have been boosted by the state of hesitation and tension the world is experiencing today. Internationally, all we hear are mere words and rising clamor without action. International powers seem to be adopting a louder tone with heated rhetoric to reflect their anger, yet the words are never transformed into actions.
In view of this situation, present-day Syria seems like a scene for a new Cold War between the East and the West, or the US and the European Union on the one hand, and Russia and China on the other. This time, different regional powers have emerged; Israel and Iran for example, the newly-formed radical axis, and the stable powers that were once part of the moderate axis. Syria is not Vietnam or Afghanistan, and certainly it is not Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Syrian case will not be determined by the size of massacres committed, even if they have an impact on international movements and resolutions, but rather by the interests of superpowers and the struggles of regional countries. All these interests are conflicting at a time of great transition across the world and the region, not just Syria. But the bloody struggle in Syria will have a profound impact, and the later a solution is found, the more complex and costly the result will be.
The al-Assad regime will fall, but the Syrian opposition remains dispersed, without solid leadership, and is now in a state of disagreement and lacks coordination. As things stand, the hesitant world will be complicit in the spread of backwardness across the Arab world, starting from Syria. Sectarianism and tribalism will grow, and a free rein will be given to racism. In this new scene everyone will pay a price, and the impact will not be limited to the Syrians and their current struggle.
I previously wrote about the illusions of the Alawite state that are firmly entrenched in al-Assad's mind (16 June and 7 July). I was surprised by the numerous reactions with a sharp, vengeful tone of a blatant sectarian nature. This mindset is the greatest engine behind al-Assad's policies, and Bashar and his family will seek to harvest this more in the future. Rational minds in Syria, the region and the world must pay attention to the magnitude of such a looming sectarian danger. They must take this into account before they finish with al-Assad's ouster, and perhaps even before ceasing the systematic bloodshed.
The FSA is fighting a major battle in Aleppo that is markedly different from all previous battles in Damascus. Aleppo is situated in the far north of Syria where the districts adjacent to the Turkish border have been under the FSA’s control for quite some time. The FSA is in full control of the roads in these areas so they can ensure continual logistic support for their troops, unlike al-Assad's army coming from Damascus, where the FSA can block off their supplies, attack them and undermine their destructive potential.
The FSA is fighting battles against the regime according to the principles of "guerrilla warfare". Its fighters are well drilled in the tactics of attacking and retreating according to these principles, which are certainly more successful than traditional military confrontations between the two armies. If the FSA had to defend fixed locations, it would sustain heavy causalities.
According to all indications, post-Assad Syria will be completely different to the country under al-Assad. Iran will be the biggest loser, and with it, all its agents in the region will emerge lose out as well; from Iraq, Lebanon to Hezbollah. In its feverish endeavor to back al-Assad in such a hopeless battle, Iran has exposed Hezbollah’s sectarian nature to those intellectuals and media representatives who were once deceived by empty slogans about "resistance". Hezbollah will suffer extensively from any future activities after a new state rises in Syria that rejects its discourse.
On the other hand, in Iraq, where widespread sectarianism has prevailed under Iran's auspices since 2003, the country will now face a Syrian state that harbors no positive sentiments towards the Iraqi government. In fact, the extensions of Arab Sunni tribes along the two border lines are already quite active, and this has forced al-Maliki to open the border for some Syrian refugees. Iraq will now have to handle this situation wisely and refrain from throwing itself into the Iranian incinerator to rescue al-Assad.
It is admirable that Syria's Arab friends and others are trying to move diplomatically in international institutions to adopt stances that expose the states championing the al-Assad regime. However, what is even better, as recent events have shown, is that the battle now is being decided on the ground by the Syrian people themselves.

Victims of Syrian propaganda
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Alawsat
A significant variable of the on-going troubles in Syria, propaganda has been used by both President Assad’s regime and the rebel forces in order to gain support and achieve their goals. It would appear however that the former has been more successful in effectively using it. This is evident in the manner in which, despite failing to stop the uprising, the regime has managed to clench its reign for this long with the support of a well-executed propaganda strategy.
A statement sent to the news agency Reuters is one of many claims made by the regime that are widely believed to be deceptive and highly steeped in propaganda. The statement held the apparent news that 1,000 soldiers, under the orders of the Free Syrian Army Commander and former Syrian Air Force Colonel Riad Al-Asaad, were killed amidst a crushing defeat of the rebel forces.
By no means is this the first deceptive act carried out by the regime. The forgery of various documents, photographs and the production of news in a variety of languages are done in order to sway the public in their favour; be it international opinion or their own people. Further inspection of their tactics shows that propaganda targeting the West portrays their revolutionary enemies as terrorists with ties to Al-Qaeda and Muslim fundamentalists. Their Arab neighbours, on the other hand, are fed the view that the uprising against the regime is a conspiracy resulted by a partnership by United States and France.
The messages aimed at the Syrian people greatly differ and, it would appear, vary according to their religious views and stance on the conflict. The Syrian Christian population are reportedly told that they are being attacked by Islamists, while those in support of the uprising are given the claims that the revolutionaries are in alignment with Israel and are against Islam and Arabs. They further state that weapons that were in the possession of the rebel forces and seized by the military were supplied by Israel.
The regime does not limit its efforts there as fake messages were also sent to the revolutionary forces. A source within the Free Syrian Army told Asharq Al-Awsat that when they grasped control of the town of Haffah, found in the Latakia governorate, from the regime’s security forces, they were sent a message which they believed to be from their commander ordering a tactical retreat from the town. In reality, this was a counter message from the regime which successfully resulted in the retreat of the FSA from Haffah.
Consequently, perhaps then it is a small wonder that some of the politicians and the media of the West hold pro-regime views of being misled by the well-oiled propaganda machine of the Assad’s regime. Another fact that emerged is that the Russian foreign media service also circulates the propaganda material of the Syrian regime apart from its own creations. It may however be argued that it is strange that a number of bloggers and researchers amidst us Arabs who, despite the ease with which they check their truthfulness, repeat the propaganda.
I was under the impression that forged propaganda explained Sultan Al Qassemi’s surprising alleged bias and use of false video clips and news reports in support of the revolution. When it emerged that he made quite a substantial mistake, it glaringly highlighted the prosperous strategy of the Syrian regime and its ability to not only mislead the West but experienced and learned Arabs alike. His words did not deserve to be said even a year ago at the initial stages of the uprising; all facts about the Syrian conflict are clear for the people in the region no matter what their preferences or affiliations are.
The Syrian regimes horrific actions surpass the images and videos we are shown from the battle zones and wrecked towns. Despite reports being heard of Iranians and Russians assisting the regime, the previous lack of images made it hard to believe.
When any news of soldiers fighting for the regime comes to light, Assad’s propaganda presents it as a move in towards freeing the Syrian people and saving them from their struggle for survival. The presence of the Iranian armed forces came was confirmed in the form of apparent concrete evidence. Reportedly, the hijacking of a bus by the rebel forces a few days ago revealed members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Attempting to portray them as pilgrims, the regime failed to successfully explain the presence of the Iranian soldiers due to the lack of foreign tourists, let alone pilgrims, in Syria at the present time. Additionally, there was a distinct lack of women and children on the bus; those captured in the video were able-bodied men of combat age.
It is easy to make comparisons and criticise from a distance and reduce all developments in Syria to pure political issues. However, seventeen months of continuous uprising is enough is enough to assert that development in Syria is not limited to politics. Reducing the conflict and presenting it as a product of political hostilities to distant readers with the help of media propaganda will not change the reality that has been unfolding before the citizens. Syrians would not have risked their risked their lives for such a long period of time if it was merely a question of politics. They are fighting to defend their families and their neighbourhoods. This is the real fact, not deception for political propaganda.
The regime’s extensive collection of weaponry and large army, reportedly half a million soldiers, in addition to an ,as of yet, uninterrupted surge of support from allies would have allowed it to assert to win the war easily If it were not for the fact that Assad’s forces are unsure of its plight and fighting unwillingly. However, Assad is now under siege in the capital; perhaps this new development signals the beginning of the end of his attempt for control.

Iran Courts Latin America
by Ilan Berman/Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2012, pp. 63-69
http://www.meforum.org/3297/iran-latin-america
In October 2011, U.S. attorney general Eric Holder and FBI director Robert Mueller revealed the thwarting of an elaborate plot by elements in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington at a posh D.C. eatery, utilizing members of the Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel.[1]
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (left) hosted an Iftar (fast breaking) ceremony on Ramadan in Tehran, September 3, 2009, which was attended by Bolivian president Evo Morales (right) during a two-day official visit. Tehran is now believed to be extracting uranium from as many as eleven different sites in Bolivia close to the country's industrial capital of Santa Cruz.
The foiled terrorist plot, with its Latin American connections, focused new attention on what had until then been a largely overlooked political phenomenon: the intrusion of the Islamic Republic of Iran into the Western Hemisphere. An examination of Tehran's behavioral pattern in the region over the past several years reveals four distinct strategic objectives: loosening the U.S.-led international noose to prevent it from building nuclear weapons; obtaining vital resources for its nuclear project; creating informal networks for influence projection and sanctions evasion; and establishing a terror infrastructure that could target the U.S. homeland.
Building Western Hemisphere Alliances
Outreach to Latin America is seen by the Iranian regime first and foremost as a means to lessen its deepening international isolation. Since 2003, when its previously clandestine nuclear program became a pressing international issue, Tehran has sought to mitigate the mounting political and economic restrictions levied against it by the United States and its allies through intensified diplomatic outreach abroad.
Due to its favorable geopolitical climate—typified by vast ungoverned areas and widespread anti-Americanism—Latin America has become an important focus of this effort. Over the past decade, the regime has nearly doubled the number of embassies in the region (from six in 2005 to ten in 2010) and has devoted considerable energy to forging economic bonds with sympathetic regional governments.[2]
Far and away the most prominent such partnership has been with Venezuela. Since Hugo Chavez became president in 1999, alignment with Tehran has emerged as a cardinal tenet of Caracas's foreign policy. The subsequent election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the Iranian presidency in 2005 kicked cooperation into high gear with dramatic results. Today, the two countries enjoy an extensive and vibrant strategic partnership. Venezuela has emerged as an important source of material assistance for Tehran's sprawling nuclear program as well as a vocal diplomatic backer of its right to atomic power.[3] The Chavez regime also has become a safe haven and source of financial support for Hezbollah, Iran's most powerful terrorist proxy.[4] In turn, Tehran's feared Revolutionary Guard has become involved in training Venezuela's secret services and police.[5] Economic contacts between Caracas and Tehran likewise have exploded—expanding from virtually nil in the early 2000s to more than $20 billion in total trade and cooperation agreements today.[6]
Just as significantly, Venezuela has served as Iran's gateway for further economic and diplomatic expansion into the region. Aided by its partnership with Caracas and bolstered by a shared anti-American outlook, Tehran has succeeded in forging significant strategic, economic, and political links with the regime of Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador. Even Iran's relations with Argentina, where Iranian-supported terrorists carried out major bombings in 1992 and 1994, have improved in recent times, as the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has hewed a more conciliatory line toward Tehran.[7]
It would be a mistake, however, to view these contacts as simply pragmatic—or strictly defensive. The Iranian regime's sustained systematic outreach to regional states suggests that it sees the Western Hemisphere as a crucial strategic theater for expanding its own influence and reducing that of the United States. Indeed, a 2009 dossier prepared by Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that "since Ahmadinejad's rise to power, Tehran has been promoting an aggressive policy aimed at bolstering its ties with Latin American countries with the declared goal of 'bringing America to its knees.'"[8] This view is increasingly shared by the U.S. military: In its 2010 report on Iranian military power, the Office of the Secretary of Defense noted that "Iran seeks to increase its stature by countering U.S. influence and expanding ties with regional actors" in Latin America.[9]
To this end, Tehran is ramping up its strategic messaging to the region. In late January, on the heels of Ahmadinejad's very public four-country tour of Latin America, the Iranian regime formally launched HispanTV, a Spanish-language analogue to its English-language Press TV channel.[10] The television outlet has been depicted by Ahmadinejad as part of his government's efforts to "limit the ground for supremacy of dominance seekers"—a thinly-veiled reference to U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere.[11]
As Ahmadinejad's statement indicates, Tehran is pursuing a strategy that promotes its own ideology and influence in Latin America at Washington's expense. In this endeavor, it has been greatly aided by Chavez, who himself has worked diligently to diminish U.S. political and economic presence in the region under the banner of a new "Bolivarian" revolution.
Exploiting Resource Wealth
Since the start of the international crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions nearly nine years ago, it has become an accepted belief that Tehran's atomic program is now largely self-sufficient and that its progress is, therefore, largely inexorable. This, however, is far from the truth; in fact, the Iranian regime currently runs a considerable, and growing, deficit of uranium ore, the critical raw material needed to fuel its atomic effort.
According to nonproliferation experts, Tehran's indigenous uranium ore reserves are known to be both "limited and mostly of poor quality."[12] When Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi mapped out an ambitious national plan for nuclear power in the 1970s, his government was forced to procure significant quantities of the mineral from South Africa. Nearly four decades later, this aging stockpile has reportedly been mostly depleted.[13] As a result, in recent years, Tehran has embarked on a widening quest to acquire uranium ore from abroad. In 2009, for example, it is known to have attempted to purchase more than 1,000 tons of uranium ore from the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan at a cost of nearly half-a-billion dollars.[14] In that particular case, deft diplomacy on the part of Washington and its European allies helped stymie Tehran's efforts—at least for the time being.
The Iranian quest, however, has not abated. In February 2011, an intelligence summary from a member state of the International Atomic Energy Agency reaffirmed the Islamic regime's continued search for new and stable sources of uranium to fuel its nuclear program.[15] This effort has recently focused on two principal geographic areas. The first is Africa where Tehran has made concerted efforts to engage a number of uranium producers such as Zimbabwe, Senegal, Nigeria, and the Democratic People's Republic of Congo.[16] The second is Latin America where Tehran now is exploring and developing a series of significant resource partnerships.
The best known of these partnerships is with Venezuela; cooperation on strategic resources has emerged as a defining feature of the alliance between the Islamic Republic and the Chavez regime. The Iranian regime is currently known to be mining in the Roraima Basin, adjacent to Venezuela's border with Guyana. Significantly, that geological area is believed to be analogous to Canada's Athabasca Basin, the world's largest deposit of uranium.[17]
Bolivia, too, is fast becoming a significant source of strategic resources for the Iranian regime. With the sanction of the Morales government, Tehran is now believed to be extracting uranium from as many as eleven different sites in Bolivia's east, proximate to the country's industrial capital of Santa Cruz.[18] Not coincidentally, it is rumored that the now-infamous Tehran-Caracas air route operated jointly by Conviasa, Venezuela's national airline, and Iran's state carrier, Iran Air, will be extended in the near future to Santa Cruz.[19] Additionally, a series of cooperation agreements concluded in 2010 between La Paz and Tehran have made Iran a "partner" in the mining and exploitation of Bolivia's lithium, a key strategic mineral with applications for nuclear weapons development.[20]
Iran even appears to be eyeing Ecuador's uranium deposits. A $30 million joint mining deal concluded between Tehran and Quito back in 2009 has positioned the Correa regime to eventually become a supplier for the Islamic Republic.[21]
Regional experts note that Iran's mining and extraction efforts in Latin America are still comparatively modest in nature, constrained by competition from larger countries such as Canada and China and by Tehran's own available resources and know-how.[22] However, the region is unquestionably viewed as a target of opportunity in Iran's widening quest for strategic resources—both because of its favorable political operating environment and because states there (especially Bolivia) represent unknown quantities in terms of resource wealth. This raises the possibility that Latin America could emerge in the near future as a significant provider of strategic resources for the Iranian regime and a key source of sustenance for Iran's expanding nuclear program.
Establishing an Iranian Presence
Tehran's formal political and economic contacts with regional states are reinforced by a broad web of asymmetric activities throughout the Americas. Illicit financial transactions figure prominently in this regard. Over the past several years, Tehran's economic ties with Caracas have helped it skirt the sanctions being levied by the international community as well as to continue to operate in an increasingly inhospitable global financial system. It has done so through the establishment of joint companies and financial entities as well as the formation of wholly Iranian-owned financial entities in Venezuela and the entrenchment of Iranian commercial banks there.[23] Experts note that this financial activity exploits an existing loophole in the current sanctions regime against Tehran—one that leverages the freedom of action of Venezuelan banks to provide the Islamic Republic with "an ancillary avenue through which it can access the international financial system despite Western pressure."[24]
Tehran is also known to be active in the region's ubiquitous gray and black markets as well as its free trade areas—operating both directly and via its terrorist proxy Hezbollah.[25] Most notoriously, these include the so-called "Triple Frontier" at the crossroads of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil as well as Venezuela's Margarita Island.
The Iranians also boast an increasingly robust paramilitary presence in the region. The Pentagon, in its 2010 report to Congress on Iran's military power, noted that the Qods Force, the Revolutionary Guard's elite paramilitary unit, is now deeply involved in the Americas, stationing "operatives in foreign embassies, charities and religious/cultural institutions to foster relationships with people, often building on existing socioeconomic ties with the well-established Shia Diaspora" and even carrying out "paramilitary operations to support extremists and destabilize unfriendly regimes."[26]
This presence is most pronounced in Bolivia. Tehran has been intimately involved in the activities of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) since the formation of that Cuban- and Venezuelan-led geopolitical bloc—which also encompasses Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and a number of other nations—in the early 2000s. As part of that relationship, Tehran reportedly provided at least some of the seed money for the establishment of the bloc's regional defense school situated outside Santa Cruz. Iranian defense minister Ahmad Vahidi reportedly presided over the school's inauguration in May 2011, and Iran—an ALBA observer nation—is now said to be playing a role in training and indoctrination at the facility.[27] Regional officials currently estimate between fifty and three hundred Iranian trainers to be present in Bolivia.[28] Notably, however, a personal visit to the facility by this author in January 2012 found it to be largely unattended.
A Base for Attack?
Conventional wisdom in Washington has long held that Tehran's activism in the Americas is opportunistic—rather than operational. Yet Iran's growing asymmetric capabilities throughout the region have the potential to be directed against the U.S. homeland. This was hammered home by the foiled October 2011 plot, an attack which—had it been successful—would potentially have killed scores of U.S. citizens in the nation's capital in the most significant terrorist event since 9/11.
The incident represents a seismic shift in Tehran's strategic calculations. As Director of National Intelligence James Clapper observed in his January 2012 testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, in response to mounting international pressure and asymmetric activity against Tehran's nuclear program, it appears that "Iranian officials—probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamene'i—have changed their calculus and are now willing to conduct an attack in the United States."[29]
Latin America figures prominently in this equation. The foiled October 2011 plot suggests that Tehran increasingly deems the region an advantageous operational theater. Moreover, as its influence and activities there intensify, the Iranian regime will be able to field a progressively more robust operational presence in the Americas. Clapper concluded his Senate testimony with an ominous warning: "The Iranian regime has formed alliances with Chavez, Ortega, Castro, and Correa that many believe can destabilize the hemisphere," he noted. "These alliances can pose an immediate threat by giving Iran—directly through the IRGC, the Qods force, or its proxies like Hezbollah—a platform in the region to carry out attacks against the United States, our interests, and allies."[30]
Obstacles Facing Iran
Understanding these motivations is essential to assessing the significance of Latin America in Tehran's strategic calculus and to determining whether its efforts there are successful.
For the moment, Iranian regional inroads represent a work in progress. The Islamist regime has demonstrated a clear interest in Latin America over the past decade and is now striving to expand its influence there. As of yet, however, it has not succeeded in solidifying this presence—or in fully operationalizing its regional relationships and institutionalizing its influence. As experts have noted, despite Tehran's generous promises of economic engagement with regional states, precious little of this aid has actually materialized, save in the case of Venezuela.[31] Moreover, despite increasingly robust cooperation with regional states on mining and extraction, there is as yet no indication that Latin America by itself can serve as the answer for Iran's strategic resource needs.
Furthermore, an expansion of Tehran's footprint in the region is not necessarily inevitable. Over the past year, the health of the Islamic Republic's foremost regional ally, Hugo Chavez, has become increasingly critical, and the Venezuelan strongman is now believed to be in the terminal stages of cancer. Significant ambiguity abounds over Venezuela's future direction and, as a result, about the durability of the partnership forged between Caracas and Tehran under Chavez.
Tehran's expanding regional activism, therefore, can be understood at least in part as contingency planning of sorts: an effort to broaden contacts and ensure the continuance of its regional influence in a post-Chavez environment. In this context, the regimes of Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador are significant with Correa in particular increasingly considered a potential successor to Chavez as a standard bearer of the new "Bolivarianism"—and an inheritor of cooperation with Iran.[32] Tehran's future progress in solidifying and expanding those partnerships will serve as an important barometer of the long-term survival of its bonds to the region as a whole.
For their part, since October 2011, policymakers in Washington have begun to pay serious attention to Tehran's activities in the Western Hemisphere. Yet they have done little concrete to respond to it, at least so far. Despite heartening early steps (including new legislation now under consideration by Congress),[33] a comprehensive strategy to contest and dilute Iranian influence in the Americas remains absent.
Unless and until such a strategy does emerge, Tehran's Latin American efforts—and the threats posed by them to American interests and the U.S. homeland—will only continue to expand.
Ilan Berman is vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, D.C. This article is adapted from his February 16, 2012 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Global Narcotics Affairs.
[1] The New York Times, Oct. 11, 2011.
[2] Gen. Douglas M. Fraser, statement before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services, Washington, D.C., Mar. 30, 2011.
[3] China Central TV (Beijing), Jan. 10, 2012.
[4] The Washington Times, July 7, 2008.
[5] Agence France-Presse, Dec. 21, 2008.
[6] See, for example, Steven Heydemann, "Iran's Alternative Allies," in Robin Wright, ed., The Iran Primer: Power, Politics and U.S. Policy (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2010).
[7] Reuters, Dec. 5, 2011.
[8] YNet News (Tel Aviv), May 25, 2009.
[9] "Unclassified Report on Military Power of Iran," U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Washington, D.C., Apr. 2010.
[10] Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Washington, D.C.), Jan. 31, 2012.
[11] Arab News (Riyadh), Feb. 1, 2012.
[12] Associated Press, Feb. 24, 2011.
[13] Time, Apr. 27, 2010.
[14] Associated Press, Dec. 29, 2009.
[15] Ibid., Feb. 24, 2011.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Bret Stephens, "The Tehran-Caracas Nuclear Axis," The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 15, 2009.
[18] Author interviews, La Paz, Bolivia, Jan. 23-25, 2012.
[19] Author interviews, Santiago, Chile, Jan. 20-21, 2012.
[20] MercoPress (Montevideo, Ury.), Oct. 30, 2010.
[21] "Memorando De Entiendimento Entre El Ministerio De Minas Y Petroleos De La Republica Del Ecuador Y El Ministerio De Industrias Y Mineria De La Republica Islamica De Iran En El Sector Geologico Minero," Dec. 3, 2009.
[22] Author interviews, Santiago, Chile, Jan. 20, 2012.
[23] See, for example, Norman A. Bailey, "Iran's Venezuelan Gateway," Iran Strategy Brief, no. 5, American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, D.C., Feb. 12, 2012.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Rex Hudson, "Terror and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of South America," Library of Congress, Federal Research Div., Washington, D.C., Dec. 2010; "Unclassified Report on Military Power of Iran," Apr. 2010.
[26] "Unclassified Report on Military Power of Iran," Apr. 2010.
[27] Author interviews, Santiago, Chile, and La Paz, Bol., Jan. 20-24, 2012.
[28] Author interviews, Santiago, Chile, Jan. 20, 2012.
[29] James Clapper, testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Washington, D.C., Jan. 31, 2012.
[30] Ibid.
[31] Bailey, "Iran's Venezuelan Gateway."
[32] Jose R. Cardenas, "Iran's Man in Ecuador," Foreign Policy, Feb. 15, 2011.
[33] Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act of 2012, H.R. 3783, 112th U.S. Congress, 2d sess., Washington, D.C., Jan. 18, 2012.