Uribe's own past ties to paramilitary organizations, the political influence wielded by the groups and the alleged direct participation in the groups by his cousin and close adviser Mario Uribe, now jailed, have seriously undermined his government's credibility in the international arena, even as his administration successfully tackled the Marxist FARC forces.

Perhaps this is a sign that the AUC leaders, despite their political and military patrons, will finally face justice in the same way the FARC is pursued.

The AUC, along with the FARC, was designated a terrorist entity by the US in 2001, a designation shared by the EU and other groups.

"Among those extradited were Salvatore Mancuso, Rodrigo Tovar, Diego Fernando Murillo, Hernán Giraldo and Ramiro Vanoy. Along with others, they have been accused of ordering the slayings of thousands of people over a generation, from poor peasants to leftist politicians, journalists to union activists."

That encapsulates one of the great tragedies of Colombia-the political violence has been endemic for generations. This group of paramilitary leaders, responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, as well as the export of tons of cocaine, reaches back decades in its criminal activity.

While I have spent much time on the FARC and its alliance with Venezuela (Hugo Chavez) and potential alliance because of that tie, to Iran, the AUC has been an equally destructive force inside Colombia.

While not posing the national security threat to the United States nor possessing the same explicitly anti-American agenda the FARC does, the AUC has been a larger drug trafficking force and wreaked havoc for years on the civilian population. My full blog is here.

As I write this, I do not know the Administration's position on this section, but as a matter of principle it usually opposes any Congresional action designed to mandate or limit Executive Branch discretion in foreign policy. The section is already reduced in scope from its original version, which added more conditions. In light of the discovery of North Korean personnel working at the Syrians' nuclear sites, the Administration wil be hard-pressed to publicly justify opposition to this provision. I assume that the Administration will work quietly to remove the section from the Senate version, its usual M.O. in these situations, but I predict that the Senate will include this section. Then we'll see if the President vetoes this bill over this or any other section (and whether Congress moves to pass it separately).

The full text of Section 306, as of today, is below.

The government though not ruled out the use of military explosives in these blasts (e.g.RDX), enough evidence of cocktail bombs emerged during initial mopping of the blast sites. Mobile phones, Iron pipes, wires and plastic substances, splinters and timer devices found with mangled bicycles and bikes. Looking at these findings, fingers of suspicion pointed at the Islamic terror alliance: Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HuJI)- Lashkar e Toiba- Student Islamic Movements of India (SIMI). HujI has revolutionized use of mobile phones, commercial explosives and chemicals (Neogel-90) in most of terror strikes recently, e.g. in Mecca mosque blasts in Hyderabad last year.

Last October (2007) for the first time, terror struck Rajasthan when an explosion at the famous Ajmer Sheriff (Dargah of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti ) in Ajmer that left two persons dead and over 15 others injured.

Pictures

Blasts rocks the Pink City

Serial blasts leave trail of destruction

CTB Contributing Expert Frank Hyland, a former CIA and NSA official who also writes for the Jamestown Foundation, and Zeyno Baran, Director of the Center for Eurasian Policy at the Hudson Institute and a former CTB Contributing Expert, will serve as Commentators for the seminar after the Ambassador speaks. Closing comments will be made by Professor Edgar H. Brenner, Co-Director of the Inter-University Center for Legal Studies and co-editor of Turkey: Terrorism, Civil Rights and the European Union (2008).

My co-chair, Professor Yonah Alexander, is Director of the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies and co-editor of Turkey: Terrorism, Civil Rights and the European Union. Professor Alexander was a panelist in our February 12 panel, "The Evolution of U.S. Counterterrorism Policy" and in our April 15 panel, "Iran and the United States: Outlook for the Next Decade?"

The event is co-sponsored by the Counterterrorism Foundation; the Hudson Institute; the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies, the International Center for Terrorism Studies at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and the Inter-University Center for Legal Studies at the International Law Institute.

To RSVP, contact Jenn Zewin by e-mail or call 703-562-4522 with your name and affiliation. Acceptances only, please.

Indeed The Croissant reported that Sheikh Abbassian Abbas, the Supreme Leader’s representative in Taybad (a city located near the Afghan border) responsible for the mobilization and recruitment within the Bassij (a militia at the service of the regime of the mullahs) was killed in an ambush in the city of Khafajia (in the province of Ahvaz, home to a mostly ethnic Arab population). Iranian authorities confirmed this information on 5/6/08.

Such incursions by Turkey worry many analysts who are concerned about the risks of accidental skirmishes and civilian casualties. Today my associate Samantha Rollinger and I have an article in the Middle East Times that assesses the risks posed by such Turkish raids. An excerpt:

We spoke with several analysts who felt that a miscalculated conflict between Turkish and American forces was simply not a realistic concern due to coordination between the two countries' militaries. Svante Cornell, research director for the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, told us that Turkey's ground offensive in February never could have occurred without coordination with the United States. "An accidental conflict between U.S. forces and Turkish forces is not even worth talking about," he said. "The Turkish military has a direct relationship with the U.S. military. The U.S. was informed, and was brought to a point of approving of it." Cornell emphasized that while the U.S. was likely displeased with Turkey's incursion, it understood that the intervention was inevitable due to PKK attacks against Turkey....

The PKK's location has also helped to keep civilian casualties from spiraling out of control during Turkish interventions. A senior American military intelligence officer told us that the PKK does not follow Mao Zedong's famous adage that "the guerilla is the fish and the people are the sea." Moreover, he noted that the PKK does not have a great deal of support in northern Iraq's large urban areas - thus inhibiting the group's ability to mix into the civilian population to the same extent as, for example, al-Qaida in Iraq.

You can read the whole article here.

The entire TerrorWatch episode can be viewed on the NEFA Foundation website.

Privately, FARC's leaders discussed in e-mails the reality that Chavez knew FARC was responsible. As FARC leader Raul Reyes concluded, "President Chavez is annoyed, but wants to treat this politically and with prudence." According to the e-mails, Venezuelan military leaders were increasingly upset at FARC's kidnapping, extortion and murder of Venezuelan cattle ranchers, but President Chavez wanted to keep things quiet in order to maintain a relationship with FARC despite the provocations due to FARC's ability to contribute regionally to extending the reach of Chavez's "Bolivarian revolution."

What those stories do not detail is Qatanani's history of attending radical conferences in the United States, nor his frequent use of incendiary rhetoric in speeches and sermons.

For the entire story, click here to go to the IPT's website.

UPDATE: News reports indicate that the trial, which had originally been scheduled to last just three days, has been extended. Testimony will resume on Monday, June 1. Please check the CT Blog and the IPT website for updates on the proceedings.

Documents reviewed by AP provided by Colombia from the computers seized by Colomba in the March 1 cross-border raid on FARC that killed Raul Reyes were described by AP as detailing years of close cooperation between top officials in Venezuela's government and military and FARC, including the construction of rebel training facilities on Venezuelan soil.

According to AP, the documents suggested that Chavez was preparing to loan the rebels at least $250 million to provide them with Russian weapons and possibly help them obtain surface-to-air missiles for use against Colombian military aircraft.

AP described the documents as framing "a joint strategic project between Venezuela and the Colombian rebels, with Venezuela even seeking rebel training in "asymmetrical warfare" in preparation for a feared U.S. invasion."

Meanwhile, on May 10, a Spanish newspaper reported that documents from the Raul Reyes computers seized by Colombia in the March 1 cross-border raid included an e-mail from FARC leader Ivan Marquez that Venezuelan head of state Chavez had discussed providing weapons to FARC with Belarus.

According to the Madrid newspaper, El Pais, a partially coded message mentioned a person the newspaper identified as Victor Sheiman, secretary of the Belarus Security Council and a close associate of Alexander Lukashenko, the hardline president of the former Soviet republic, as having discussed the provision of weapons with Chavez.

I just wrote on Hezbollah's coup for The Middle East Times. To read the whole article, please click here.

Here is an excerpt:

The Lebanese government last week tried to put a stop to Hezbollah's blatant takeover of the country. Authorities outlawed Hezbollah's illegal parallel telecom network and fired the airport's head of security, a Hezbollah ally who had authorized installations of spy cameras in order to monitor the movements of majority leaders.

Saying it amounted to a declaration of war, Hezbollah used its overpowering force to seize most of the Sunni areas of Beirut and shut down the airport and the majority-owned media.

Why is anyone surprised by these latest events?

The Arab league and Western diplomats seem to be speechless and several nations asked their citizens to leave the country. But the writing was on the wall. In December 2007 in an article entitled, "Hezbollah in Beirut's driver seat," published by the Middle East Times, I wrote that "unsurprisingly Hezbollah has been planning and implementing a secret coup for some time using a multi-pronged strategy."

What has been a surprise and a major disappointment for the Lebanese people is the decision of the army not to get involved in the fighting. While it is true that the army needs to remain neutral since it is composed of personnel from the various religious communities, it is no secret that Hezbollah has infiltrated it. The army was perceived as the only functioning part of the government, but the past few days have shown that this was just a bad assessment. Finally this should not have come as a major shocker since the chief of the army and only presidential candidate, Gen. Michel Suleiman, appears to be more and more taking orders from Damascus.

As one of the leading lights on terrorism and the legal issues in that field, Jeff was able to regularly provide our readers with valuable insights and understanding on numerous fronts. As a board member, he was also able to help us navigate through tough decisions as the CTB has undergone enormous growth and works out its place in the CT community.

While his contributions will be missed here, his return to DOJ is a gain for the Department as it faces enormous challenges. So, Jeff, thank you for all your work here, and good luck in your return.

While INTERPOL is reportedly set to declare the contents of the computers captured after the March strike that killed FARC commander Raul Reyes, the Colombian government is quietly making use of the documents to inflict unprecedented damage on the guerrilla-criminal organization that is on the terror list of the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Police commander Oscar Naranjo, who has been in the war against drug trafficking organizations for years, says this is the first time in his career that the FARC is shrinking, rather than growing.

Another sign of the guerrilla's weakening are the numbers of desertions by combatants that had been with the FARC anywhere from five to 12 years, said Naranjo.

''It is their qualified combatants that are demobilizing,'' he said. ''What I'm seeing for the first time in the last 30 years is that the FARC are no longer growing -- to the contrary, '' they are shrinking.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the documents show Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in personally involved in helping the FARC, authorizing rest areas for their troops inside Venezuela, offering a $250 million loan to be repaid when the FARC takes power, and allowing senior Venezuelan officials provide weapons to the rebels. My full blog is here.

The Burning of TV Stations in Beirut

Unstoppable, including by the Lebanese Army which Commander Michel Sleiman has allowed the slaughter to occur the Pasdaran-founded militia is now hurdling towards the Druze Mountain and positioning its forces against the Sunni North and the Christian Mount Lebanon. Ironically, the geographical bases of Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon, are well guarded by the United Nations Interim Forces (UNIFIL). Per a UNSCR 1701 in 2006, more than 10,000 international troops are stationed across the southern parts of Lebanon, technically protecting the 200 Shia towns and villages from where the bulk of Hezbollah fighters came from. Hence, free from guarding their own areas, a dozen thousands well trained “Hezbollahis” have marched north to join another 5,000 already based in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

This huge force, by Lebanon’s standards, was joined by an undetermined number of real Iranian Guards, shipped from Tehran to man sophisticated weapons offered by the Khamanei regime as a gift to topple the democratically elected Government of Fuad Seniora. In addition, from the four corners of the country, Jihadist and ultra radical organizations have joined the fray including: The Nazi-like SSNP, the Amal Movement, the Wi’amWahhab pro-Syrian militia, and many others. And to top it, Damascus was able to neutralize the Lebanese Army which has been equipped recently by the United States. Its Commander, a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic was “convinced” by the Assad regime to open the passages to Beirut and all other regions for the hordes to thrust into their enemies’ backyards. Reminding us of the tales of Greek Antiquity, this Xerxes -Khomeinist- Army burst into the capital, whipping out the thin internal security forces and reigning in with brutality.

A translation of Mustafa Abu al-Yazid's letter can be downloaded from the NEFA Foundation website.