And, apparently this wasn’t just an arrest of some mid-level admin guy who was out raising money for the organization. Nope, this was an arrest of someone who was already far along the way towards implementing a terrorist attack in Bangkok. A BIG terrorist attack. And, people think that somehow Hezbollah won’t ever get to them?

They are already in South America and Mexico. They have already been found in the US and Canada.

They just stopped a massive terrorist bombing in Thailand. How long do you think it’s going to be before they fail to stop a massive terrorist bombing in the US?

And, what do you think will happen to your rights as an American citizen when THAT happens?

If you thought that the TSA was bad, wait till there are US troops on the streets and FEMA in your towns.

Come on America. Wake up. How many warnings do you need?

I worry that there aren’t many warnings left.

Are you ready?

This came in from STRATFOR:

A Hezbollah Threat in Thailand?

January 19, 2012, by Ben West

On Jan. 12, Thai authorities arrested a man they say was a member of the Lebanon-based Shiite militant group Hezbollah who was plotting an attack in Bangkok. In uncovering the plot, Thai police cite cooperation with the United States and Israel going back to December 2011. Bangkok is indeed a target-rich environment with a history of terrorist attacks, but today Hezbollah and other militant and criminal groups rely on the city as a business hub more than anything else. If Hezbollah or some other transnational militant group were to carry out an attack in the city, it would have to be for a compelling reason that outweighed the costs.

The suspect was identified as Hussein Atris, who was born in Lebanon but acquired Swedish citizenship and a passport after marrying a Swedish woman in 1996. Atris was arrested on immigration charges as he was trying to board a plane at Suvarnabhumi airport, Bangkok’s main international airport. Police said another suspect is still at large and possibly already out of the country. Atris’s arrest on Jan. 12 was followed by a statement the next day from the U.S. Embassy warning U.S. citizens in Bangkok of the potential foreign terrorist threat in the country and encouraging them to avoid tourist areas. Other countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Israel, issued similar warnings. Thai police have responded by increasing security in tourist areas like Bangkok’s Khao San Road and the island of Phuket.

Then, on Jan. 16, some 200 Thai police officers searched a three-story commercial building in a town along the coast 32 kilometers (about 20 miles) southwest of Bangkok. Information on the location and contents of the building was said to have been provided by Atris after two days in custody. On the second floor of the building, officers found 4,380 kilograms (about 10,000 pounds) of urea-based fertilizer and 38 liters (about 10 gallons) of liquid ammonium nitrate — enough materials to construct several truck bombs comparable to the one detonated at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad in 2008. Urea fertilizer can be used to manufacture the improvised explosive mixture urea nitrate, which was the main charge used in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The compound is also frequently used in improvised explosive devices in Iraq and to some extent in Afghanistan. On the ground floor of the same building, police found reams of printing paper and 400 electric table fans in cardboard boxes.

The following day, a Bangkok court charged Atris with illegal possession of explosive materials. As in many other countries, a permit is required for handling such large amounts of fertilizer in Thailand.

Read the rest of the article here (while you can).

It is routinely used by Bedouin to smuggle all kinds of things into Israel – drugs, prostitutes, weapons and terrorists. Until now, Egypt has had a tight control on access to the Sinai and few weapons and terrorists have been able to gain access. Not so now.

Libyan weapons are flowing unchecked into the Sinai and terrorists are having a field day – with a free hand to do what they want. This is NOT good news to anyone that wants to see peace in the Middle East. Hamas no longer needs to just shoot rockets into Israel from Gaza, they can now launch attacks over land on Eilat and into southern Israeli cities.

And, to think that Barack Obama celebrated this “Arab Spring” that is shaking out Arab dictatorships.

Israel raises alarm over Sinai-Gaza cooperation
Jan 16 01:35 PM US/Eastern, AFP

Israel is facing a growing security threat to its south because of the changes brought on by the Arab Spring which is not likely to disappear any time soon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

“The security problem which is developing as a result of changes in the Middle East is getting worse, and is expected to continue for years,” Netanyahu told MPs at the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and defence, in remarks communicated by a spokesman.

“The state of Israel is required to strengthen its defence and attack capabilities immediately, which costs a lot of money,” he said.

“Libyan arms continue to flow into Gaza through Sinai,” he said, indicating that there were “more than 10,000 missiles” in the coastal enclave, some of which had a range “surpassing 40 kilometres (24 miles).”

The ongoing reconciliation process between Fatah and Hamas would force Israel to demand that Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip would be under similar terms as Fatah-controlled West Bank, Netanyahu said.

“Fatah-Hamas unity would force us to demand that the Gaza Strip be demilitarised,” he said.

He accused Iran of using the Egyptian Sinai as a staging area for launching attacks on Israel.

“Terror elements have entered the region, they’re using the area as a platform for terror, Sinai has become a destination for Iran,” he said, noting that in an attack last summer a missile was shot at a helicopter, which managed to dodge it.

Read the rest of the article here.

Anyone who sits down and looks at the mess that Hamas has made of Gaza would say the same thing. There is just no way that Israeli public opinion will allow Gaza to continue shooting rockets at Israeli civilians. The more those rockets kill, the closer Israel gets to yet another invasion of Gaza.

Why hasn’t the Israeli army invaded before now?

Because the Israeli army doesn’t actually enjoy going to war.

Most armies don’t, but Israel’s army is particularly conflict-averse. This is partly because it is a citizen army with only a tiny core of professional soldiers, but it is also true because of the character of Israelis themselves.

Israelis do not like violence.

Seriously.

Of course, if you are a reader of the New York Times, you won’t believe this, but that’s your problem. NYT readers will need to find a different site than this one to validate preconceived notions.

Now, I’m not saying that Israelis are little angels. They aren’t. They are like people anywhere else – except, maybe a bit noisier. (Israelis are LOUD.)

Anyway, this is the irony that surrounds Israel. Israel is constantly forced to do things that perpetuate a completely inaccurate stereotype.

And no one seems to want to point out that the violence coming FROM Gaza is a direct result of Israel handing Gaza over to the Palestinians.

Here’s the article in Israel Today that got me thinking about this:

Israel says it will have to invade Gaza again

One of these days, the rest of the world will wake up and realize that Israel was right all along. Unfortunately, the ‘rest of the world’ only tends to do that when it is far, far too late.

Which is too bad, because now they have arrived at our back door and started to weave their way into the narco terrorist and narco trafficking networks in Central and South America. The question in everyone’s mind now is how far they’ve penetrated into the United States.

Not ‘whether’. It’s too late for that question. The question is ‘how far’.

Outside of the inner circles of power in Iran, I don’t think that there is anyone who really knows how far Hezbollah has penetrated the United States. But, do we really need to know?

It should be enough to know that they are here and that it is time to do something about it. But, something tells me that our heads are still in the sand.

Where is there an Israel when you need one?

Here’s another excellent program by Erick Stakelbeck:

Here’s the report that Erick refers to in his program:

AEI OUTLOOK SERIES

The Mounting Hezbollah Threat in Latin America

By Roger F. Noriega, José R. Cárdenas  |  Latin American Outlook

(October 2011)

View this Outlook as a PDF

Subscribe to the Latin American Outlook series

Over the last several years Hezbollah and its patrons in Iran have greatly expanded their operations in Latin America to the detriment of inter-American security and US strategic interests. Today, Hezbollah is using the Western Hemisphere as a staging ground, fundraising center, and operational base to wage asymmetric warfare against the United States. Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and other anti-American governments in the region have facilitated this expansion by rolling out the welcome mats for Hezbollah and Iran. US policymakers must increase their attention to this problem, expand their assets in the region, and develop a comprehensive strategy to combat this threat in a sustained and meaningful way.

Key points in this Outlook:

• To ward off its international isolation and undermine US influence in the region, Iran, with its Hezbollah proxy in tow, has made a major diplomatic and economic push into the Western Hemisphere.
• Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and other radical anti-American populists have made common cause with Iran and Hezbollah in waging asymmetric warfare against the United States.
• Hezbollah’s criminality in the region has multiplied as it has established deeper relations with transnational criminal organizations.
• Evidence indicates Hezbollah is sharing its terrorist experiences and techniques with Mexican drug cartels along the US border.

Hezbollah’s presence in Latin America dates to the mid-1980s, when it began sending operatives into the notoriously lawless region known as the tri-border area (TBA)—where the borders of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay meet—to use it as a principal safe haven for fundraising, money laundering, recruitment, training, plotting, and other terrorist-related activities.[1]Their activity also includes drug and arms trafficking, counterfeiting, forging travel documents, and pirating software and music. Their resulting proselytizing has led to the creation of numerous Hezbollah cells, with an estimated 460 operatives in the TBA by mid-2000.[2]

It is impossible to quantify the level of criminal activity taking place in the TBA, but some estimate that Islamic extremist groups there and in other suspect areas in Latin America remit $300 to $500 million per year in illicit profits to radical Islamic groups in the Middle East.[3] US authorities have been well aware of the wanton criminality occurring in the TBA through the years and have cited some individuals and entities for providing financing to terrorist groups and achieved some extraditions, but the overall effort to combat the menace has been hampered by uneven levels of cooperation from the governments of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay.

Read the rest of the report here.

Anyone want to continue believing that what happens in Israel doesn’t affect the US?

There’s a saying that goes something like this: When things are bad, a Jew cries. When they get even worse, a Jew cries more. And when they even get worse, a Jew laughs. As indelicate as this may seem, the current situation makes me want to laugh.

I’m not sure that I could have said it better. Actually, I’m not sure that I could have said it at all, being that I’m not Jewish myself. My own thieving Scottish ancestors weren’t nearly as educated, long suffering or even erudite. (Of course, Clan Little was writ large in the annals of history as some of the best light cavalry in Europe – which is what happens when you make a habit of stealing horses.)

The situation is so bad, so ludicrously bad, you have to laugh. And no, I’m not talking about my ridiculous Scottish ancestors. (They were undoubtedly superb at stealing sheep.)

Our response to our current situation is so awful that laughing is the only option. The alternative is a self-loathing so profound that we’d all need therapy and heavy sedation – that is, if a miracle happened and we all woke up to reality and discovered the mess we’d made.

Trust me. It’s better to laugh. Reality is overrated.

Here’s the first part of his article as it appeared in Pajamas Media:

The Middle East Today: Ha, Ha, Ha! Stop! It’s Too Funny! I Can’t Take It Any More!

October 15, 2011 – 9:20 pm – by Barry Rubin

There’s a saying that goes something like this: When things are bad, a Jew cries. When they get even worse, a Jew cries more. And when they even get worse, a Jew laughs. As indelicate as this may seem, the current situation makes me want to laugh.

That’s so because things are more ridiculous than they are scary. As the advice and claims of others get increasingly absurd, you have no desire to listen to them. You just have to do what you know is right and stop having any doubts about it precisely because the arguments on the other side are just so historically inaccurate, factually false, and illogical.

For those joining the story late–a group that seems to include Western politicians, media and academic “experts”–here’s a little background. In 1993, Israel made an agreement with the PLO to try to achieve peace. It turned over the Gaza Strip and much of the West Bank to a Palestinian government. Israel accepted the establishment of large security forces, the supply of guns, and the transfer of billions of dollars of aid.

Israel made major offers of territory and concessions to Syria and the Palestinian Authority in 2000, after almost a decade of negotiation. The other side rejected those compromise solutions. The Palestinian leadership instead launched a five-year-long war of terrorism. They lost. Then Israel was attacked by Hizballah. The world intervened and made promises to Israel. These were broken. Then Israel was attacked by Hamas. It defended itself. Again it won, but the world rushed in to save Hamas and to condemn Israel.

Read the rest of his article, here.

If the world and/or civilization last long enough, Europe and America will be the laughingstock of history. Just as we lampoon Neville Chamberlain‘s “Peace in our time”, they will lampoon us for out ‘enlightened’ treatment of the Nazis of our day.

Lets just hope that we all survive long enough to satirize our mistakes.