Saturday, August 18, 2018

Post-America in the VSG era: still not taking the web of threats seriously

This ought to be a bracing upside the head for all of us:

Iranian-backed militants are operating across the United States mostly unfettered, raising concerns in Congress and among regional experts that these "sleeper cell" agents are poised to launch a large-scale attack on the American homeland, according to testimony before lawmakers.
Iranian agents tied to the terror group Hezbollah have already been discovered in the United States plotting attacks, giving rise to fears that Tehran could order a strike inside America should tensions between the Trump administration and Islamic Republic reach a boiling point.
Intelligence officials and former White House officials confirmed to Congress on Tuesday that such an attack is not only plausible, but relatively easy for Iran to carry out at a time when the Trump administration is considering abandoning the landmark nuclear deal and reapplying sanctions on Tehran.
There is mounting evidence that Iran poses "a direct threat to the homeland," according to Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee and chair of its subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence.
A chief concern is "Iranian support for Hezbollah, which is active in the Middle East, Latin America, and here in the U.S., where Hezbollah operatives have been arrested for activities conducted in our own country," King said, referring the recent arrest of two individuals plotting terror attacks in New York City and Michigan.

"Both individuals received significant weapons training from Hezbollah," King said. "It is clear Hezbollah has the will and capability."

After more than a decade of receiving intelligence briefs, King said he has concluded that "Hezbollah is probably the most experienced and professional terrorist organization in the world," even more so than ISIS and Al Qaeda.
Asked if Iran could use Hezbollah to conduct strikes on the United States, a panel of experts including intelligence officials and former White House insiders responded in the affirmative.

"They are as good or better at explosive devices than ISIS, they are better at assassinations and developing assassination cells," said Michael Pregent, former intelligence officer who worked to counter Iranian influence in the region. "They're better at targeting, better at looking at things," and they can outsource attacks to Hezbollah.

"Hezbollah is smart," Pregent said. "They're very good at keeping their communications secure, keeping their operational security secure, and, again, from a high profile attack perspective, they'd be good at improvised explosive devices."

Others testifying before Congress agreed with this assessment.

"The answer is absolutely. We do face a threat," said Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who has long tracked Iran's militant efforts. "Their networks are present in the Untied States."
Iran is believed to have an auxiliary fighting force or around 200,000 militants spread across the Middle East, according to Nader Uskowi, a onetime policy adviser to U.S. Central Command and current visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

At least 50 to 60 thousand of these militants are "battle tested" in Syria and elsewhere.
"It doesn't take many of them to penetrate this country and be a major threat," Uskowi said. "They can pose a major threat to our homeland." 

Hezbollah also has a significant presence in Latin America, which it regards as a forward operating base.

It's also quite adept at projecting a facade of legitimacy for money-laundering purposes:

These Hezbollah operatives exploit loopholes in the U.S. immigration system to enter America under the guise of legitimate business.
Operatives working for Hezbollah and Iran use the United States "as a staging ground for trade-based and real estate-based money laundering." They "come in through the front door with a legitimate passport and a credible business cover story," Ottolenghi said. 

So our national-security apparatus is on the case, right? Well, not exactly:

The Trump administration has offered tough talk on Iran, but failed to take adequate action to dismantle its terror networks across the Middle East, as well as in Latin American and the United States itself, according to CAP's Katulis.
"The Trump administration has talked a good game and has had strong rhetoric, but I would categorize its approach vis-à-vis Iran as one of passive appeasement," said Katulis. "We simply have not shown up in a meaningful way." 

And consider the VSG's remarks a while back about how the US ought to just let Russia take the lead in straightening Syria out in light of this:

"Iran is increasing Hezbollah's capability to target Israel with more advanced and precision guided rockets and missiles," according to Pregent. "These missiles are being developed in Syria under the protection of Syrian and Russian air defense networks." 

It always comes down to which side has the greater degree of determination, the side wishing to impose and spread its darkness, or the side that is just existing and spreading prosperity and otherwise minding its own business - and assuming that no one would go to that kind of bother.

22 comments:

  1. Dunno how intelligent it is but Intel has it that China is said to be capable of hitting strategic US targets by air. It is now clear that whatever international order we dept we had pre-Trumo has vanished and that there's the perception at least that the US under this President whose actions you largely applaud. Surely this will be part of the blame for World War III which absolutely must be prevented

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  2. Trump’s obviously not doing something adequately since we have these sleeper cells

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  3. I see him stomping on international coalitions. Did you think that was going to work? The rest of the world hates Trump pretty much as badly as many here stateside do. But I know you largely dig his substance, if not his style.

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  4. I largely applaud his policy moves, it's true.

    But this is a biggie. I hope this hearing where this came to light leads to some substantive action.

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  5. International coalitions really don't have much bearing on this particular situation.

    But as I say, we need to address it. It has the not-so-faint odor of "catastrophic attack" wafting from it.

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  6. Your ilk called previous efforts to deal with Iran, Iraq, etc. appeasement. If that's appeasement, what we are doing now, going alone, is betrayal of our friends and throwing gasoline on fires. Netanyahu may be thrilled, but he's pretty much alone himself. Oh well, when we gonna be ready? Your ilk is sure throwing money at our military. Better seize more hard earned money from the peanut gallery because the corporations are going to be another fight to get them to kick in more now.

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  7. Your ilk's deep in the doo doo. Go gettum tigers!

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  8. The previous deal was appease. Our friends may feel betrayed about it, but they need to get a wider perspective, beyond their big companies' contracts with Iran. That's pretty crappy of our "friends" to encourage the companies within them to do business with that evil regime.
    And by the way, the latest round of US sanctions is having the desired effect: The Iranian economy is tanking and causing civil unrest.
    Netanyahu likes it because Israel has been reassured that the United States has its back in the face of Iran's desire to destroy it.
    How is "my ilk" in deep doo-doo? Conservatives have never been the majority in Congress, whether Republicans or Democrats were in control. We;'re just in the position we've always been in: letting any and all know that if this country ever committed to abiding by the Three Pillars, it would fire on all cylinders.

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  9. The unhinged advocate of World War III is meeting today with the Big Bibi

    Bolton is an unhinged advocate for waging World War III," Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), said in a statement in response to the news Thursday night. "Congress must do everything in its power to convince Trump to reconsider this decision and exert maximal pressure to constrain Bolton's ability to impose irreparable harm to the U.S. and global security. Bolton now represents the greatest threat to the United States."

    Combined with his appointment earlier this month of current CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, the Bolton pick means "Trump may have just effectively declared war on Iran," Parsi argued. "As the world awaits Trump’s May 12 decision as to whether he will abandon the Iran nuclear deal, all of the signs now point to a decision to move to war footing."

    https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/03/22/trump-picks-unhinged-advocate-world-war-iii-john-bolton-national-security-adviser

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  10. Again, the question must be asked: Do you white a West-hater like Parsi because you actually align with this recipe for America’s destruction or just to be contrary?
    Bolton as “unhinged” all one needs to know to see that Parsi’s off-the-charts wacky
    None of these people ever mention the ongoing misuse tests, or the sleeper cells discussed in this post, or the continuing pronouncements by Khameini or Quds Force head Soleimani.

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  11. I can quote many many from all spectrums and you know it like I said, your ilk is now deep in Netanyahu's do do. The whole world is watching and waiting for you to prevent World War III, unless God wants it of course. That idea has certainly been thrown around.

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  12. Explain why it is up to the United States to prevent WWIII and not, say, Iran, or North Korea, or Russia or China.

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  13. It's up to all the leaders and their countries. Duh!

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  14. Trump and Israel going it alone. Tear into it then.

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  15. What would you have an “international coalition” do about these sleeper cells in the US?

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  16. Short Term: Get rid of the sleeper cells

    Long Term: Attack the reason why there are sleeper cells in the US

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  17. Ah! So you are in favor of bringing down the Iranian regime!

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  18. I'm in favor of avoiding WW III. It must be avoided but Jehovah always gets what Jehovah wants, right? Still every human attempt must be made to avoid WWIII. Maybe it's no big deal to Jehovah who has to understand though beyond understanding Himself, but it's a big deal to the birds, the flowers, the trees and me, if not thee. I know, OK, so what? Keep laying off the talk about Satan and maybe Rick will return. I liked him

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  19. I’m trying to follow your logic here. Getting rid of and avoiding future Iranian sleeper cells by avoiding World War III is a nonsequitor unless I’m missing something

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