VENEZUELA, CUBA PROVIDING EASY ACCESS FOR ISLAMISTS TO US AND CANADA

REPORT: VENEZUELA, CUBA PROVIDING EASY ACCESS FOR ISLAMISTS TO US AND CANADA
by FRANCES MARTEL 6 Jun 2014

A report by the Secure Free Society reveals this week that Venezuela and
Cuba have been providing passports and national identification cards to
Middle Eastern immigrants, later used to surreptitiously enter the
United States and Canada, with Venezuela providing a passport to the
right-hand man of the head of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The study warns that both countries "offer Islamist extremists
facilities that pose a threat to security in North America," according
to Argentine news outlet Infobae. The Venezuelan government, in
particular, provided at least 173 passports, visas, and permits to
migrants from the Middle East between April 2008 and November 2012. It
was during this wave that Suleiman Ghani Abdul Waked, known as a
right-hand man to Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah, received his
Venezuelan papers.
The paper notes that the relative ease with which migrants moving West
into Latin America can receive credentials is a cause for alarm for the
United States and Canada. While Canada ended its diplomatic ties with
Iran and closed down the embassies of respective countries, Latin
America was the largest prior embarkation region for Iranian migrants
without the proper paperwork to receive refugee status in Canada between
2009 and 2011. From Latin America, they then moved north into Canada.
Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, was among the most trafficked migrant
intermediate points from the Middle East.
The links between the socialist Venezuelan government and radical
Islamists has long been a problem for North America, as Hugo Chávez
maintained close ties with the government of Iran that have persisted
into Nicolás Maduro's tenure. An AEI report in February also reveals
that Hezbollah has been working to cement its ties with Caracas. Ghazi
Atef Nassereddine, a Hezbollah operative sanctioned by the United
States, has allegedly been working to cement Venezuela's ties with
Syria, even helping contrive schemes to transfer Syrian oil to
Venezuelan refineries to avoid sanctions placed on President Bashar
al-Assad.
Cuba, meanwhile, the second country warned of in the report, has been
officially designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the United States
for decades, though mostly through its defense and involvement in the
work of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and providing
safe harbor for terrorists from international groups such as the Basque
separatist group ETA. Direct ties to aiding Islamist extremists would
evolve the threat from the Cuban government into something much more
significant to the national security interests of the United States.
The Secure Free Society is an independent, non-profit research and
educational center based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to publishing
research reports and organizing educational panels and events.

Link to full
report:http://www.securefreesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/CANADA_ON_GUARD_JUNE_20143.pdf

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/06/06/Report-Venezuela-Cuba-Providing-Easy-Access-for-Islamists-to-US-and-Canada