Spain as a target for al-Qaeda, domestic impact of North African Jihadist terrorist networks under restructuring and likely consequences for national security. Summary: It is time to rethink the threat currently posed to Spain by Jihadist terrorism. This is due, on the one hand, to the frequent and aggressive targeting of Spain by the al-Qaeda leadership, with reiterated references to al-Andalus as part of a pan-Islamic caliphate, and, on the other, to the restructuring of the global...

The October 23, 2006 failed explosive operation in Caracas On October 23, 2006, the Baruta Municipality police found two explosive devices near the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela. One of the bombs was found in a box containing leaflets making reference to the Lebanese radical Islamic group Hezbollah. The local television news network, Globovision, reported one of the devices found in a flowerpot near the Embassy, while the other device found outside a school, near the diplomatic premises....

Disturbing report by the ISN on the growth of Islam south of the border. I would be more frightened by it if I did not know that there is a much larger threat of home-grown Islamists here in the United States, than in Mexico. But still, the threat is real. The ISN report tends to whitewash the rise of Islam in Mexico, citing lack of evidence of Muslim groups their to violent jihad. However, as we have said for a long time now, the threat is not just from jihadis committed to violence but to...

The ongoing controversy surrounding the debate over illegal immigration and border security issues in the United States, specifically as it applies to the porous U.S.-Mexico frontier and the status of millions of undocumented workers and other migrants that enter the country each year from Mexico, continues to dominate headlines. Although the overwhelming majority of those entering the United States from Mexico each day are in search of opportunity, many observers worry that it is only a...

Four years ago, The Economist ran a cover story on the winner of the Brazilian election, the socialist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It was an event of great hemispherical significance. Hence the headline: "The Meaning Of Lula." The following week, a Canadian reader, Asif Niazi, wrote to the magazine: "Sir, The meaning of Lula‚ in Urdu, is penis." What to do? Gaffney proposes Americans switch over to FFVs (flexible fuel vehicles ). He's right. The telegram has...

National Defense University Washington, D.C. The Pew Forum co-sponsored a symposium with the National Defense University's School for National Security Executive Education on "Religion, Conflict and the Global War on Terrorism in Latin America." A panel entitled "Islam and the Global War on Terrorism in Latin America" featured Col. Curtis Connell, USAF, and Vitoria Peres of Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora/MG, Brazil. The panelists examined Islam in Latin America,...

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the possibility of al-Qaeda infiltrating Latin America became a priority for U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials. However, the most publicized incidents of radical Islamist activity in Latin America have not been linked to al-Qaeda but instead to the Lebanese Shi’ite Hezbollah, which is ideologically and politically close to Iran. These include the March 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the July 1994...