TESTIMONIO DEL EMBAJADOR ROGER F. NORIEGA

ANTE LA CAMARA DE REPRESENTANTES DE LOS ESTADOES UNIDOS

SUBCOMITE SOBRE TERRORISMO, ANTI-PROLIFERACION Y COMERCIO

COMITE DE ASUNTOS EXTERIORES

20 de marzo 2013, Washington D.C.

Señor presidente del subcomité, lo felicito a usted y a los demás miembros del subcomité por centrar su atención en la amenaza global que representa Hezbolá, y le doy las gracias  por haberme invitado a compartir mis puntos de vista sobre la creciente presencia de esta organización en las américas que ha introducido una amenaza a nuestro vecindario.

Este fin de semana pasado marcó el 21 aniversario del bombardeo en 1992 de la Embajada de Israel en Buenos Aires que terminó  con la vida de 29 personas. Dos años mas tarde, un coche bomba destruyó un centro judío en corazón de la capital argentina, acabando con la vida de ... Read More

TESTIMONY OF AMB. ROGER F. NORIEGA BEFORE THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, NON-PROLIFERATION AND TRADE

“Hezbollah’s Strategic Shift:  A Global Terrorist Threat”

1:30 PM, Wednesday, March 20, 2013

2172 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC

Mr. Chairman, I applaud you and other members of the Subcommittee for focusing attention on the global threat posed by the terrorist group Hezbollah and for inviting me to share my insights on that organization’s growing network in the Americas that carries this threat to our doorstep.

This past weekend marked the 21st anniversary of the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which murdered 29 people and injured about 250 others.  Two years after that attack, the Jewish Community Center in Argentina’s capital city was leveled by another car bomb, leaving 85 persons murdered and hundreds more wounded.  Mr. Chairman, this is Hezbollah’s despicable legacy in the Americas.  And that ... Read More

TESTIMONY OF AMBASSADOR ROGER F. NORIEGA

BEFORE THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, NON-PROLIFERATION AND TRADE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

March 20, 2013, Washington, DC

Mr. Chairman, I applaud you and other members of the Subcommittee for focusing attention on the global threat posed by Hezbollah, and I thank you for inviting me to share insights on that terrorist organization’s growing network in the Americas that carries this threat to our doorstep.

This past weekend marked the 21st anniversary of the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which murdered 29 people.  Two years later, a car bomb leveled the Jewish Community Center in the heart of Argentina’s capital, leaving 85 persons murdered.

Mr. Chairman, this is Hezbollah’s despicable legacy in the Americas.  And that terrorist group – along with its sponsor, Iran – has returned to the scene of the crime.

During the last decade, Hezbollah has extended its reach quickly and ... Read More

It is bad enough that the U.S. national security establishment is ignoring the Iran/Hezbollah threat in the Americas.  Now, Argentina’s president Christina Kirchner has made matters worse by agreeing to help Iran whitewash its terrorist legacy.  This week, her regime announced an accord with Tehran to form a joint “truth commission” to examine the deadly 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, the worst terrorist attack in the history of the continent.

Successive Argentine investigations have implicated Iranian officials – including then “cultural attaché” Mohsen Rabbani and current defense minister Ahmad Vahidi — in a car-bombing that leveled the five-story building killing nearly 90 people and injuring hundreds more.  (The bloody fingerprints of Iran and Hezbollah are all over a bombing of the Israeli embassy in the Argentine capital in 1992.)

Now, the Kirchner regime has agreed to work with Iran to jointly name a panel of experts from third countries to again sift through the evidence ... Read More

BY MARY O’GRADY

Until more than 2,700 innocents were slaughtered at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, the worst terrorist attack in the Americas was the July 18, 1994, bombing of the Israel-Argentina Mutual Association (known by its Spanish initials as AMIA) in Buenos Aires. The blast from a van packed with explosives ripped through the five-story brick building that housed the Jewish community center and triggered its collapse. Eighty-five people were killed and more than 150 injured.

In the years that followed, the Argentine government showed little interest in bringing the perpetrators to justice, and the trail seemed to go cold. Then, in 2005, then-President Néstor Kirchner named Alberto Nisman as special prosecutor in the case and backed a new investigation.

In October 2006, Mr. Nisman indicted seven Iranians and one Lebanese-born member of Hezbollah for the mass murder. Interpol issued “red notices” for their arrest. But six years later ... Read More

Testimony of Ambassador Roger F. Noriega

Before the United States House of Representatives

Committee on Homeland Security

Subcommittee on Oversight

Friday, November 16th, 2012

Mr. Chairman, I applaud the Subcommittee for your continued efforts to study and expose the evolving threats to the U.S. homeland that are developing beyond our borders – including the menacing cooperation between narcotraffickers and the Islamic terrorist group Hezbollah in our hemisphere.

Mr. Chairman, there is a growing body of evidence that this narcoterrorist alliance in our neighborhood is aided and abetted by the governments of Venezuela and Iran – two regimes bound together by a relentless hostility against U.S. security and interests.

To put it bluntly, this is not just criminal activity – it is asymmetrical warfare.  How is it being waged?

Hezbollah conspires with drug-trafficking networks in Mexico and Central and South America as a means of raising funds, sharing tactics and “reaching ... Read More

Testimonio del Embajador Roger F. Noriega ante la Cámara de Representantes de los Estados Unidos

Comité de Seguridad Nacional

Subcomité de Supervisión

Señor Presidente del Comité, aplaudo los continuos esfuerzos del Subcomité por estudiar y exponer las amenazas al territorio de los EE.UU. que se desarrollan mas allá de nuestras fronteras y su constante evolución – incluyendo la preocupante cooperación entre el narcotráfico y el grupo terrorista Hezbollah en nuestro propio hemisferio.

Señor Presidente del Comité, hay un creciente cuerpo de evidencia que comprueba que la alianza narcoterrorista que se desarrolla en nuestro vecindario cuenta con la complicidad de los gobiernos de Irán y Venezuela – dos regímenes vinculados por su implacable hostilidad contra la seguridad y los intereses de los EE.UU.

Para decirlo sin rodeos, esto va mas allá de la actividad criminal – se trata de una guerra asimétrica. ¿Cómo se está librando?

Hezbollah conspira con las redes del narcotráfico en ... Read More

BY JOSEPH HUMIRE

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in India and Georgia, the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has pointed the finger at Iran. This marks the second time in two months that Israeli officials have publicly alluded to the fact that Iran is engaging in terrorist activity on foreign soil.

Late last year, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said that Iran is developing a “terrorist infrastructure in Latin America that lies dormant for a time and at any moment can attack U.S. interests or the United States,” as well as “Israelis or Jews or any other country that opposes their political posture.”

This raises the question—is Latin America vulnerable to the next Iranian orchestrated terrorist attack?

The answer is yes and should not be surprising as Iran has already been implicated in the second largest terrorist attack in the Western Hemisphere—that of the  bombings in 1992 at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires ... Read More

Aspectos destacados del testimonio del Embajador Roger Noriega ante el Comité de Relaciones Exteriores del Senado, Subcomité para el Hemisferio Occidental, Cuerpos de Paz, y Narcóticos

Febrero 16 del año 2012

El director de Inteligencia Nacional, James R. Clapper, declaró a principios de este mes que “las autoridades iraníes” de más alto nivel “están ahora más dispuestas a realizar un ataque en Estados Unidos ….” El general Clapper también informó que el líder supremo de Irán, Ali Jamenei, probablemente estaba enterado de las acciones descubiertas en octubre donde supuestos líderes de cárteles de la droga mexicanos conspiraron con Irán para perpetrar un supuesto atentado terrorista en el corazón de la capital de nuestra nación.

Basándonos en decenas de entrevistas con expertos de todo el mundo, con testigos en la región y en una gran cantidad de documentos oficiales venezolanos e iraníes se hacen las siguientes conclusiones:

TESTIMONY OF AMBASSADOR ROGER F. NORIEGA

BEFORE THE UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE,PEACE CORPS, AND GLOBAL NARCOTICS AFFAIRS

HEARING ON

“IRAN’S INFLUENCE AND ACTIVITY IN LATIN AMERICA”

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Room 419, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC

Mr. Chairman, I applaud you and other members of the Subcommittee forinitiating a review of Iran’s activities in Latin America.

Since you announced your inquiry, the Director of National Intelligence, James R.Clapper, testified earlier this month that “Iranian officials” at the highest levels “are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States….” General Clapper also reported that Iran’s so-called “supreme leader” Ali Khamenei was probably aware of the bizarre plot discovered last October to conspire with supposed Mexican drug cartel leaders to commit a terrorist bombing in the heart of our Nation’s capital.i Only because ... Read More

POR EMILI J. BLASCO

La fluida relación que Irán está teniendo con diversos países de Iberoamérica, singularmente Venezuela, pero también Bolivia y Ecuador —Ahmadineyad ha visitado además Nicaragua y Brasil— está agudizando la tensión entre la república islámica y EE.UU. La denuncia de que elementos del régimen de Teherán quisieron utilizar a carteles mexicanos para asesinar al embajador de Arabia Saudí en Washington ha abierto los ojos en el norte del continente sobre el movimiento de peones que Irán está haciendo en el sur.

Esas relaciones son para Irán una vía de escape de las sanciones. Busca compensar su escasez de uranio con extracciones en Venezuela, Bolivia y Ecuador, donde tiene acuerdos sobre «minerales estratégicos», como crípticamente dice el convenio firmado con Quito. A Washington le preocupa que el extremismo islamista tenga donde hacer pie para atacar a EE.UU. Así lo indica un informe del Departamento de Defensa citado por el «Wall ... Read More

BY CASTO OCANDO & JORGE MOTA

Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri

Diplomat and Iranian academic, Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1953. He began his university studies in 1971 in Florence, Italy, where two years later he founded the first Islamic Association for Iranian Students in Italy. There he received his first undergraduate diploma and later a PhD in architecture. He also completed a PhD in Strategic Science that he achieved in Tehran.

Opposed to the monarchic regimen of Sha Mohammad Reza Pahlevi, Ghadiri was designated to his first diplomatic functions immediately after the triumph of the revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Sha.

During his diplomatic career he worked as Iran’s ambassador in Australia and Mexico. Ghadiri developed an interest for languages: he speaks English, Spanish, Italian and Farsi, his mother tongue.

During his stay in Mexico, Ghadiri had a very active administration. According to a cable from the State Department from ... Read More

Investigadores del gobierno en Washington aducen que funcionarios iraníes habrían participado en planes de asesinar a embajador de Arabia Saudita en esta capital.

BY JOSEPH HUMIRE

For some, the news that Iranian linked operatives came close to perpetrating another terrorist attack in this hemisphere came as a shock. For even more, the mention of Argentina as a secondary target and Mexican drug cartels as an intended conduit was not only shocking but also rather confusing.

Is Iran active south of the U.S. border? Are our southern neighbors at risk?

The answer to both these questions is a resounding, ”Yes!” Prior to the September 11 terror attacks in 2001, the largest terrorist attack on this side of the globe was carried out in Buenos Aires, Argentina when Iran’s proxy Hezbollah bombed the Israeli embassy and Jewish community center in 1992 and 1994.

These successful terrorist attacks in Buenos Aires that killed a total of 114 people and injured hundreds more, were orchestrated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF). The IRGC-QF is the same entity that is currently implicated ... Read More

El mes pasado, la presidenta del Comité de Relaciones Exteriores de la Cámara de Representantes Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, el presidente del Subcomité para Asuntos del Hemisferio Occidental Connie Mack y el miembro del Subcomité David Rivera, enviaron una carta a la secretaria de Estado Hillary Clinton para hacerle saber que actualmente existe evidencia que sugiere la cooperación entre Venezuela, Argentina e Irán, y su interés compartido en la obtención de tecnología nuclear. El ex funcionario del Consejo de Seguridad Nacional José Cárdenas, revela la respuesta desdeñosa del Departamento de Estado en un artículo esta semana.

En lugar de hacer el menor esfuerzo para conectar las pistas sobre lo que estos regímenes hostiles podrían estar tramando, el Departamento de Estado se apresuró a sofocar la investigación, diciendo el 27 de julio que, “No tenemos ninguna razón para creer que Venezuela sirve como un interlocutor entre Irán y Argentina en materia nuclear, ni que ... Read More

Last month, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; chairman of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, Rep. Connie Mack; and subcommittee member, Rep. David Rivera, sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling attention to a paper trail suggesting cooperation among Venezuela, Argentina, and Iran as well as their shared interest in obtaining nuclear technology.  Former NSC official Jose Cardenas reveals the Department’s dismissive response in a piece this week.

Rather than make the slightest effort to connect the dots on what these hostile regimes might be up to under our noses, the Department rushed to quash the inquiry, saying in a July 27 reply, “We have no reason to believe that Venezuela serves as an interlocutor with between Iran and Argentina on nuclear issues, nor that Argentina is granting Iran access to its nuclear technology.”

Here is some of the evidence (which was ... Read More

La oferta de Irán de cooperar con Argentina en la investigación del atentado de 1994 contra el centro comunitario judío (AMIA) en Buenos Aires es sorpresiva, particularmente  por la aparente complicidad de Teherán en el ataque. Alberto Nisman, fiscal independiente que investiga este acto de de terrorismo, reaccionó a la oferta y desafío a Teherán a entregar a los funcionarios iraníes que organizaron el atentado. En contraste, la reacción del ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Argentina, Héctor Timmerman,  nos hace cuestionar la verdadera naturaleza de la relación entre los gobiernos de Kirchner y Ahmadinejad.

El lunes fue el decimoséptimo aniversario del atentado que destruyó el centro judío AMIA en el corazón de la capital Argentina, que cobró la vida de 85 personas. Dos años antes, a pocas cuadras de distancia, la embajada de Israel en Argentina fue destruida en otro ataque que causo la muerte de 29 personas. Las autoridades argentinas ... Read More

Iran’s offer to cooperate with Argentina in the investigation of the 1994 bombing of the Jewish Community Center (AMIA) in Buenos Aires is shocking, in light of Tehran’s apparent complicity in that attack. Alberto Nisman, the independent prosecutor in the terrorism case, reacted to the offer by challenging Tehran to surrender the Iranian officials who organized the bombing. By contrast, the rather obsequious reaction of Argentina’s foreign minister, Hector Timmerman, raises troubling questions about the true nature of the relationship between the Ahmadinejad and Kirchner governments.

Monday marked the 17th anniversary of the car-bombing, which leveled the AMIA center in the heart of Argentina’s capital, killing 85 people; two years earlier, a few blocks away, the Israeli embassy was destroyed in another attack, which claimed 29 lives. Argentine and U.S. authorities have concluded that both bombings were the work of a Hezbollah cell coordinated and supported by the Iranian embassy. Iranian ... Read More

BY LUIS FLEISCHMAN

The Committee on Homeland Security met on July 7th to discuss Hezbollah’s growing influence in Latin America. Testifying at the hearing were Roger Noriega, former Under Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere and American Ambassador to the Organization of American States; Douglas Farah, Senior Fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center and a former Washington Post journalist; Ilan Berman, Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council; and; Dr. Melanie Cammett, professor at Brown University.

Many of the points raised at the hearings have been written before including by authors at the Menges Hemispheric Security Project but new material was presented, as well.

Roger Noriega stated that Hezbollah continues to penetrate the Western hemisphere by establishing alliances with Mexican and other drug cartels and by trying to take control of existing mosques in order to spread its radical message.

Noriega also spoke about the Venezuelan government’s complicity in encouraging ... Read More

El reciente anuncio por parte de la administración de Obama, en relación a las sanciones impuestas contra la empresa estatal petrolera de Venezuela PDVSA,  a causa de sus tratos ilícitos con Irán, es una señal esperanzadora, que indica que el poder ejecutivo está tomando en cuenta las llamadas de atención que demuestran el apoyo irresponsable de Hugo Chávez a la estrategia Iraní que pretende sostener su programa nuclear y promover el terrorismo en el vecindario de EE.UU . Si las autoridades estadounidenses piensan seriamente en confrontar esta amenaza, deben enfocar su atención en Conviasa, que es la aerolínea controlada por el gobierno de Chávez y que transporta terroristas y armas en nuestro vecindario.

Hay mucho que investigar. Es ampliamente conocido que Conviasa opera vuelos regulares entre Caracas, Teherán y Damasco. El vuelo con destino a Irán, fue inaugurado en 2004, la parada en Beirut se agregará en poco tiempo. Que una línea aérea de América ... Read More