Financing ISIS Below the Rio Grande

August 3, 2016 ...   RED FLAG [WARNING]

"Worse Than Ransom: $400 Million in Cash from U.S. to top state TERROR sponsor"

• Cash makes tracing proceeds to end receivers extremely difficult.  

• "What will IRAN do with $400 Millions in euros, Swiss francs and other currencies flown to Tehran on a cargo plane?"  ANS: Whatever Iran wishes.
  

• P.O.T.U.S. and his State Department will have plausible deniability if some portion of it is sent to Venezuela under the guise of sorely needed "food assistance", then funneled off to support Latin American versions of ISIS.

 December 28, 2016 ... 

"Spanish Military Report: Islamic Terrorists Operate, Raise Cash in Latin America to Attack U.S."

• "Venezuela, Mexico, Peru and Chile also have large and rapidly growing Muslim populations. Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean islands on the northern edge of Latin America, are identified as “especially worrisome” because local authorities reported that 70 of their citizens traveled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS."

• The report cites a 2012 article in a military publication from Trinidad that compares the growth of radical Islam in the country to a group of violent Muslims that tried to overthrow the government in 1990. 
  

•  "The top Al Qaeda leader in Mexico was identified in the State Department records, via a September 2004 cable from the American consulate in Ciudad Juárez, as Adnan G. El Shurkrjumah. ...  [B]efore he died Shukrijumah helped plan several U.S. attacks, including plots to bomb Oprah Winfrey’s studio and detonate nuclear devices in multiple American cities."

Submarines are always silent and strange. 

Prediction of the Next 5 Years

Background

The final sentence summarized our previous post:

"In other words, POTUS and his State Department will have plausible deniability if some portion of  it [the $400 Million in Cash from U.S. to top state TERROR sponsor] is sent to Venezuela under the guise of sorely needed "food assistance", then funneled off to support Latin American versions of ISIS." 

Conflicted Analyses

Administration's Opinion

US Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN on Sunday that recent terror attacks by Islamist extremists were a result of ISIS being “on the run”.

Contrarian View 

“These guys have all the energy and unpredictability of a populist movement.”   - Michael Hayden, retired Air Force general who led the CIA from 2006 to 2009.  Analysts expect further attacks are likely to continue and are likely to become worse.  source

Our Analysis 

The current Washington administration has habitually employed public deception (lies), incentivization (bribery) and threats (extortion) to hide fecklessness in affairs of state. Even the former head of our U.S. State Department often lied publicly according to details confirmed by FBI Director Comey.   

Barack Obama wishes above all else to preserve his presidential legacy.  Did payment of $400 Million to Iran require a commitment from Hassan Rouhani to assure no part of the $400 Million reaches Ansar al-Khilafah #Brazil until Brazil's Summer Olympic games are over? 
No, that promise had to be even longer, at least until a year when Obama will have had not a single day in office (plausible deniability) --- 2018 at the earliest. 

M.E.'s Prediction

"Millions will be sent to Venezuela under the guise of sorely needed "food assistance", then funneled off to support Latin American versions of ISIS."  

Will the Latin American recipient of Iran's $Millions via Venezuela be Ansar al-Khilafah #Brazil?  Not Brazil for two reasons:

1. Brazil's huge off-shore oil deposits are uneconomical in the current economy.  After Brazil'z Summer Olympics Ansar al-Khilafah #Brazil could become a terrorist relic, but...
2. ISIS affiliated groups rejoice in spreading geographically as much as in dealing fear. South America offers more lucrative sources of ongoing terror financing than Brazilian oil.  By 2019 the names of new ISIS groups in countries such as Argentina and Chile may be as familiar to North Americans as Nigeria's Boko Haram, which  pledged allegiance to ISIS in March 2015, and then expanded its attacks to neighboring countries. 

Will North Americans remember what Islamist apologist Obama did to help ISIS grow and spread?

Such memories are irrelevant to the media (never again to be mentioned) when plausible deniability created by lawyers has been approved by more lawyers. 

A recent example of plausible deniability is what has prevented Hillary Clinton's prosecution for intentional violation of U.S. secrecy laws which could not be proven to the satisfaction of Director Comey's FBI.  Instead, Clinton was branded as grossly negligent, which for any Republican would instantly signal incompetence. 

Think how much better U.S. leadership will become if the public consciously prevents crafty, scheming, ambitious attorneys from winning so over half of elected offices.    

Submarines are always silent and strange.

 
 

 

ANSWERS: Levity QOTW from 6 JAN 2016

Background

Related information, photo(s) and links for questions are found in the original posting here. 
Each question below (with the missing blanks filled in) was the title of  ICELAND REVIEW ONLINE's  "MOST POPULAR" news stories highlighted on the front page, January 5, 2016:

Questions of the Week with ANSWERS

(Fill in the Blanks and Name the Country)
    ____(1)_____ Hikers Respond to Criticism   ANS:  British

   Charged for Flying People into ____(2)_____ Area.  ANS:  Eruption

    Killing of Basques Now Banned in West ____(3)_____   ANS:  West Fjords

     _____(4)_____ Couple Arrrested in Brazil  ANS:  Icelandic
 
    Body of Tourist Found on  _____(5)_____  ANS:  Snæfellsnes

Name the country  _____(6)_____   ANS:  Iceland

Name its related news publication _____(7)_____  ANS:  ICELAND REVIEW ON LINE

Submarines are always silent and strange.

 

Submariner Quote of the Week, Undisclosed SSGN Damage, QTOW

Submarine Quote of the Week (serious)

Recalling a conversation with one of the first female officers admitted to the force, who had a nasty encounter with a sailor ranking beneath her, Gallo said:
“He told her, ‘You’re a woman, I’m not listening to you. You can’t tell me what to do.’” - Amanda Gallo, RPI student (Navy Scholarship program), due to graduate in May and enter the Submarine Force in 2017.  

  

Undisclosed damage (silent and strange)

("This story is developing") The CO of Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Georgia (Blue) was relieved at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia, during an investigation into a Nov. 25 crash that caused approximately $1 million in damage, a Navy statement said. The Georgia was reportedly returning to port when it struck a channel buoy and ran aground. The investigation remains open. story

Molten Eagle:  Hull not compromised. Completed repairs following the "grounding" and is expected to re-enter the water this week, officials told IHS Jane's on 5 January. The undisclosed $1 million damage was repaired relatively fast attesting to this sub's valuable roles in national security. So, what damage could leave the hull intact but take about $1 million to repair?  (a) propeller(s), (b) sonar, (c) something more silent and strange -- a secret.

Questions of the Week (Levity)

Name the Country & Fill in the Blanks

Some readers may appreciate ironic levity implied by the titles of a serious news publication's Most Popular stories recently:

• ____(1)_____ Hikers Respond to Criticism

• Charged for Flying People into ____(2)_____ Area.

• Killing of Basques Now Banned in West ____(3)_____

•  _____(4)_____ Couple Arrrested in Brazil

• Body of Tourist Found on  _____(5)_____

Name the country  _____(6)_____

Name its related news publication _____(7)_____

ANSWERS: SATURDAY, 9 JAN 2016.

UPDATE: Brazil's Coming Used Submarine Sale

BACKGROUND (from August 28, 2009)

Brazil intended to build five submarines by 2021 with France (Scorpene class subs), of which one would be nuclear. Construction was slated to commence in 2016.

The original $160M estimate (for the n-sub) to $9.5 billion U.S. dollars for all, will be paid in 2026, five years after launch. [Former President Luiz Inacio da Silva's government agreed in 2008 to purchase five submarines, including a nuclear-powered one, from France for 6.7 billion euros].

If Hugo Chavez is still in power, Venezueula would like to buy 1 or 2, depending upon condition, and immediately sell the HDW 209 to Iran. Ahmadinejad (if still in power) plans to upgrade the HDW 209 using Russian assistance.

UPDATES

Brazilian police to probe nuclear submarine programme - Folha - Reuters, TodaySAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian federal police are investigating potential irregularities in a military programme that aims to build a nuclear-powered submarine in partnership with France by 2023, newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Wednesday.

The investigation that began in March of 2014 has jailed some of Brazil's most senior engineering executives and caused Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known, to write off more than $2 billion in corruption-related losses. 

Dozens of lawmakers, mostly from President Dilma Rousseff's governing coalition, have also been implicated for allegedly taking bribes in the kickback scheme, which has spiralled into Brazil's largest-ever corruption scandal.

The 7.8 billion reais ($3.95 billion) program will turn out the first conventional submarine in 2015 and the nuclear-powered submarine will be commissioned in 2023 and enter operation in 2025, the Brazilian Navy said. -  Mar 1, 2013    

 [Now, even these June 24th 2015 (last month's) estimates are unlikely]:
The first Scorpene-class vessel is expected to be completed by 2016 and to be commissioned in 2018, while the other three SSKs are scheduled for completion in 2022. The construction of the first SSN is planned to end in 2023 with entry into service slated for 2025.  - June 24, 2015
Hugo Chavez is out of power, and Venezueula can no longer afford to buy 1 or 2 of Brazil's existing sub fleet (four Tupi-class and one HDW Type 209 subs) and immediately sell the HDW 209 to Iran, which probably had planned to upgrade the HDW 209 using Russian assistance. Now, Brazil may have to lease the Type 209 to Kim Jong-un.  [Sure, that is what will happen, NOT!]


Submarines are always silent and strange.

Dismiss China Strategy No Longer

Background (Timeline)

Beset by internal strife, China abandoned its naval efforts, and by 1500, it was a capital offense to build a seagoing junk with more than two masts.

March 1997 -  The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLA) Navy's makes its first voyage with port visits including Mexico, Peru, Chile.

May 15, – September 23, 2002 - PLA Navy's first circumnavigation of the globe.

May 10, 2007 - Now, you are starting to see what has really been behind the U.S. policy on Mexican immigration. Were China to garner a foothold in Mexico, Canada, or South America, the current Taiwan standoff could become weakened in China's favor. Vigilis

**********

M.E.:  When will a Chinese aircraft carrier first dock in Mexico?

**********

Updates (Current Facts, Events and Quotes)

December 10, 2012 -  According to a Congressional Research Service report on Chinese naval modernization, the PLA Navy comprises 275 vessels: 75 warships, 60 submarines, 55 amphibious ships and 85 small missile boats. The U.S. Navy has 285 ships and submarines.

September 2012 - The PLAN commissioned its first aircraft carrier, the 74,406-ton Liaoning.

June 25, 2013 - American strategic influence would be confined "east of the Pacific midline" as it is displaced by Chinese power throughout East Asia, including Australia. China’s goal is to force the U.S. out of the Western Pacific. - Col. Lui Mingfu, PLA’s National Defense University.

June 25, 2013 - "For years the Chinese have condemned countries having overseas bases. ..We have seen ship visits but we haven’t seen efforts to build and sustain a base overseas. Someday that may come. ... I think we could do with fewer carrier battle groups and putting that money towards attack submarines fleet, which is of primary importance, he said. That is America’s sharpest weapon.” - Lyle Goldstein, Associate Prof., China Maritime Studies Institute, U.S. Naval War College. 

September 3, 2013 - In the first visit of the Chinese navy to Argentina, a Chinese navy fleet set off for Chile, Brazil and Argentina.  - The Global Times

 

September 5, 2013 - "The quest for global naval power runs parallel to competition for control of markets in Latin America.. The two largest world economies, the United States, and China are vying for control of these markets.  ...China has sought to be the prime lender in Latin America, loaning $110 billion dollars thus exceeding the World Bank’s contribution for the past two years."  - Terence Rosenthal, China’s Pivot to Latin America, Center for Security Policy, September 5, 2013

Submarines are always silent and strange.