Iran is increasing its military and espionage presence rapidly throughout Latin America, according to U.S. and Israeli officials, turning the region into a major base for terrorism and subversion. The disturbing trend has been building for several years and has deep roots in a presence that Hezbollah, Hamas, and other terrorist groups have had in South America for at least two decades, experts say. Now, though, it’s becoming quite open, with Iran using its consulates to erect front...

Islam Islam is an Arabic word that can be defined as "to make peace." Islam is the religion founded by Mohammed, which considers the Koran as its holy book. In addition, Islam accepts the New Testament of the Christians and the Old Testament of the Jews as Divinely inspired works. Followers of Islam are known as Muslims (also: Moors, Turks, and Moslems) and, just as Jews and Christians, believe in only one God. Yet, over the centuries, Muslims have engaged in tremendous wars with...

Hezbollah could be one of the first security challenges faced by the new Obama administration. An official government report concludes the Iranian-backed Islamic terror group has been forming sleeper cells throughout the United States that could become operational. The report estimates Hezbollah could become a much more potent national security threat by 2014. The group was responsible for the 1983 Beirut Marine Barracks bombing, which killed 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French servicemen. ...

Mexico and Pakistan are at risk of a "rapid and sudden collapse," according to a recent report from the U.S. Joint Forces Command. The assessment comes as President-elect Barack Obama prepares to tackle international challenges including the conflict in Gaza, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and tensions between India and Pakistan. "In terms of worst-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and...

It sounds like the sort of gruesome tactic deployed by Islamic terrorists in Iraq. But this horrific scene occurred last month near the main road from Mexico City to the popular tourist destination of Acapulco on the Pacific coast. The soldiers were kidnapped as they left a nearby military barracks and then decapitated in apparent revenge for an army firefight with a narcotics gang in a nearby town that left three drug smugglers dead. Mexico's rapidly escalating drug wars claimed nearly...

Venezuelan flags and portraits of President Hugo Chavez have been flying high during protests in the West Bank against Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip. The Venezuelan president's decision on January 6 to expel Israel's ambassador from Caracas -- the only country apart from Mauritania to take such a step -- has made the left-wing South American leader a hero to Palestinians. Hamas has welcomed Chavez's "courageous decision," while Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanon's Hezbollah...

- Bernd Debusmann is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. - What do Pakistan and Mexico have in common? They figure in the nightmares of U.S. military planners trying to peer into the future and identify the next big threats. The two countries are mentioned in the same breath in a just-published study by the United States Joint Forces Command, whose jobs include providing an annual look into the future to prevent the U.S. military from being caught off guard by unexpected...

The Israeli incursions into Gaza have triggered protests all over the world with demonstrators calling for an immediate ceasefire. Public fury at the Israeli violence targeting the residents of Gaza has brought thousands of people in Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, Lebanon and Austria to the streets. Austria Austrian demonstrators gathered outside the United Nations Office in Vienna to protest Israel's incursion into Gaza. Protesters slammed Arab states for their silence...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has defied the United States unlike any other leader in the Western Hemisphere since Cuba's Fidel Castro. Chavez has strong ties with state sponsors of terror, suppresses democracy at home, and has worked to destabilize his neighbors. Recently, Chavez has also helped the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah establish a base in the Western hemisphere. For years, the U.S. State Department has stated its concern that Hezbollah raises funds "among the sizable...

One of the most brutal and destructive terrorist groups worldwide since its emergence in 1980-Peru’s “Shining Path” (Sendero Luminoso - SL) -continues to carry out attacks on Peruvian military, police, and civilian targets in 2008. Almost ten years after the group splintered during a “no-holds barred” offensive by Peruvian security forces, government officials and citizens alike express concern that a return to the past, when almost 70,000 Peruvians and others...