Canadian RCMP escorts one terror suspect at Buttonville Airport, Ontario.

Two men were arrested and charged with plotting a terrorist attack against a Canadian passenger train with support from al-Qaida elements in Iran, canadian police said Monday. The case bolstered allegations by some governments and experts of a relationship of convenience between Shiite-led Iran and the predominantly Sunni Arab terrorist network.

Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35, had “direction and guidance” from al-Qaida members in Iran, though there was no reason to think the planned attacks were state-sponsored, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner James Malizia said.READ MORE HERE

DUBAI: Iran on Tuesday denied involvement in a plot to derail a passenger train in Canada that police say was backed by al Qaida elements based in Iran.READ MORE HERE

According to newspaper The Times of India, a US government source said Iran was home to a little-known network of al-Qaida fixers and “facilitators” based in the Iranian city of Zahedan, very close to Iran’s borders with both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The source said they serve as go-betweens, travel agents and financial intermediaries for al-Qaida operatives and cells operating in Pakistan and moving through the area.

According to the source, they do not operate under the protection of the Iranian government, which periodically launches crackdowns on al-Qaida elements, though at other times it appears to turn a blind eye to them. It is also an area where Iranian authorities have battled a insurgency of their own in recent years from Sunni Muslims complaining of discrimination.

The Jundollah group, believed to be based across the border in Pakistan, has claimed several attacks including a bombing that killed 42 people in 2009, and attacks on mosques in Zahedan and elsewhere in the region. Iran says Jundollah has links to al Qaida and has accused Pakistan, Britain and the United States of supporting it to stir instability in the region, allegations that they deny.

The Americas Post - Victim Sheila Nabb poses with husband Andrew under happier circumstances. Photo Credit: Facebook

The governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa has promised an extensive probe into what happened to a Canadian woman hospitalized after she was badly beaten at a posh Mexico resort.

Sheila Nabb, 37, was vacationing with her husband  Andrew, at the all-inclusive Hotel Riu Emerald Bay resort last week when she was found inside a hotel elevator with serious injuries to her face.

The official statement released Wednesday said investigators are collaborating with Canadian authorities to keep them informed as the case advances.  The governor also expressed concerns to Mexican media that the incident could hurt tourism revenue.  He said surveillance cameras at the resort could provide some clues but investigators are hoping to speak with Nabb.

Nabb had been expected to undergo facial reconstructive surgery Wednesday or Thursday, but family members said she has contracted pneumonia, a condition common with a tracheotomy — a hole made in the windpipe to ease breathing.  She has been sedated again with the surgery rescheduled for later this week.

Ice meth bag

The Sinaloa is nowadays the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico, with The Zetas in second place.

The Sinaloa Cartel seems to be expanding on a massive level of methamphetamine production, filling the void left by the virtual  dissolution of the cartel La Familia that was once the principal in the production and illegal trafficking of synthetic drugs.

It is believed that the cartel is trading tons of drugs and chemical precursors that are processed in industrial scale operations.

The increasing involvement of the Sinaloa cartel in this activity comes as the government claims to have dismantled the cartel “La Familia”, arresting key figures and killing his leader.

Mexico is again the main source of the methamphetamine consumed in the U.S., according to reports from U.S. intelligence agencies.

Methamphetamine production has grown tremendously in the last three years, as confirmed raids on laboratories and seizures of drugs.

Mexican authorities have made two high-profile operations in the last two months in Queretaro. They confiscated nearly 500 tons of precursor chemicals and they seized 3.4 tons of pure methamphetamine, worth about 100 million dollars.

The authorities said they were not able to calculate the value of the precursors that were probably aimed at an illegal industrial laboratory located underground, 100 meters long and built four feet underground in a farm in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.

Tons of chemicals used for meth production were seized by mexican police. Credit Photo AP

“We believe the drugs are from the Sinaloa Cartel,” said a Mexico-based American agent to magazine Milenio, who noted that the cartel can send their cargo along with cocaine, heroin and marijuana entering the U.S. illegally.

“Now you may be interested to have more control over the methamphetamine market. While” La Familia drug distribution in the United States does not have the network available to the Sinaloa cartel,” he said.

The agent could not be identified for security reasons.

Steve Preisler, an industrial chemist who wrote the book “Secrets of methamphetamine production,” says that “the amounts involved are staggering.”

“This is a huge amount of materials for production, allowing them to dominate the market,” said Preisler.

Preisler, who is considered by many the “father” of modern production of methamphetamine and was detained for three and a half years more than two decades ago, said that more efficient production methods generate half the weight of the precursors, between 200 and 250 tonnes of synthetic drugs with a street value of billions of dollars.

Officials from the Federal Police, the Army and the Attorney General’s Office refused to reveal who owned the lab and precursors.

The supply of methamphetamine rose from 2007 and it is estimated that this is due to the production of Mexico, the U.S. Department of Justice.

The seizure of methamphetamine in the United States remains stable. In 2008 and 2009 were seized 8.16 tons and 8.27 respectively, but in Mexico it went from 0.37 tons in 2008 to 6.72 tons in 2009, according to a UN report.

Not yet circulated the statistics of seizures in 2010, but U.S. officials predict that probably were higher than in 2009.

Authorities confiscated 200 tons of precursor chemicals on the Mexican port of Manzanillo last year, as the Attorney at the time described as the largest raid in the history of Mexico. The seizure last month in Queretaro was twice as large.

The capture of meth labs has also increased significantly, the report said international narcotics control the U.S. State Department 2011. The number of dismantled laboratories rose from 57 in 2008 to 217 in 2009. In early 2010, maintaining a similar level.

The figures show “that (output) is intended only for domestic consumption and the United States.”

The mexican government says its offensive against “La Familia” cartel is one of the great successes of its war against drug trafficking and organized crime.

Its founder, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, died in a clash of two days with the Federal Police in December and his right hand, Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas, who allegedly ran the business of methamphetamine, was arrested in June.

U.S. officials say that other bands try to fill the void left by “The Family”.

The criminals are using the old method of production known as “P2P”, these ingredients are easy to smuggle and can be produced from other substances that are not prohibited. Such ingredients have become more popular since the Mexican government prohibited the main component of methamphetamine, pseudoephedrine, in 2007.

Authorities say the P2P method produces a weaker drug, but the World Drug Report of the 2007 United Nations said that Mexican cartels are producing huge amounts of pure methamphetamine.

The soldiers found a sophisticated underground lab near Mazatlan, in Sinaloa, on June 26. It was a two-story structure with an elevator and ventilation systems, kitchen and bedrooms. The complex could be reached only through a tunnel of 30 meters, whose income was hiding under a shed for a tractor.

The American officer said that the deposit of Querétaro dismantled in July apparently supplied the underground laboratory of Sinaloa.

Some speculate that the Sinaloa cartel is trying to expand beyond the United States. Malaysian police arrested in March 2008 a gang of  three Mexicans in a laboratory and seized nearly 30 kilos of methamphetamine.

The U.S. agent would not confirm that they were individuals working for the Sinaloa cartel, but noted that the three were from the Sinaloa State.

“Were there showing the locals how to make methamphetamine? Or was it an experiment of the Sinaloa cartel to see if they could penetrate the market in that part of the world,” he asked.

The presence in Asia would be a natural step for the cartel, since most of the precursor chemicals used in Mexico come from that region.

U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy navigating the Arctic Ocean (Photo Credit to Martin Jakobsson, Stockholm University)

Among the consequences of  global warming, the Arctic Ocean has become a more strategic region for the United States and Canada. Russian economic and military interests in the Arctic are common knowledge. They are neighbors up there, and the Arctic has strategic and security value for both Americans and Russians.

One of the U.S. protagonists in the protection of American interests in the Arctic Ocean is the United States Coast Guard (USCG).

The important role of the USCG will require higher budgets, more personnel,  better equipment  and more boats to patrol the area and respond to incidents, according to Coast Guard Commander Adm. Robert Papp, who testified Friday at a field hearing of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee in Anchorage, Alaska.

Admiral Papp  said the Coast Guard has been unable to run exercises inside the Arctic Circle due to a lack of suitable vessels that can sail those difficult waters.

Papp informed the Senate that the USCG conducted some limited coastal drills  during open water (ice-free) periods, but now Papp said in written testimony that  “the Coast Guard will require specialized vessels, aircraft, and crews trained to operate in extreme climates”.

As oil companies prepare to start exploratory drilling in the Arctic Ocean, the Coast Guard has been conducting exercises with skimming systems and oil recovery systems around Alaska  to avoid a new environmental disaster like the one in the Gulf of Mexico.

However, no exercises have occurred north of the Arctic Circle to date, Papp informed to the Senate, as oil recovery systems cannot operate in areas with too much ice.

Admiral Papp defended the White House fiscal 2012 budget´s  request for more funding of research and development on oil detection and recovery in icy water, in order to extend the U.S. capability for skimming and recovery systems.

Papp said the USCG is interested in regularly transitting ice-laden waters,  opening seasonal bases for air and boat operations in the Arctic and developing a force structure that can operate in extreme cold and ice.

The Coast Guard only has one active boat that can sail through icy seas — the Healy, a medium icebreaker, which is used for scientific research.  The USCG now plans to bring a heavy icebreaker, the Polar Star, back into service by 2013 after a major refurbishing.

Investment in more resources for the USCG is very important as oil companies are increasingly moving into the Arctic, Papp said. Shell  has submitted a plan to start exploring wells in the Arctic in the spring of 2012,  and other companies like ConocoPhillips and Statoil may soon follow.

President Santos welcomed Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, two days before FTA inauguration

On Wednesday, Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed hope that a trade boom will result following a Free Trade Agreement between both countries that became effective on August 15th .

Santos also stressed that his government is working to reduce security risks for oil companies, in view of recent attacks blamed on guerrillas.

The Colombian president received Prime Minister Harper early in the government house, who arrived from Brazil for a one-day visit to Colombia. At the end of the day he planned to leave for Costa Rica.

The two countries signed in 2008 the text of the treaty in 2008, ratified by the legislatures of the two countries, which takes effect next week and is expected to raise trade.

In 2010, Colombia exported goods and products to Canada worth 532 million dollars, mainly coffee, oil, flowers and textiles, and imported Canadian items valued at 823.4 million dollars, from aircraft and barley to fertilizers and paper.

In a brief statement to the press at the end of their meeting, Santos was asked about how safe it was for Canadian companies operating in the jungle, in view of recent attacks by rebel groups.

The president said that in spite of successes in the area of ​​security, such illegal groups were not completely defeated.

“We still have a region to cover and there are remote areas where these terrorist groups are still present … their presence at this time is weak.  They are somewhat desperate, but they are not defeated,” said Santos.

The government works, said Santos, to provide “guarantees and security so all businesses can operate without restriction in our territory.”

Stephen Harper in Latin America.-

Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Brazil and Colombia, looking to revitalize relationships in South America.

Canada wants to look to other markets and become less reliant on the U.S. as a trading partner.

In that sense, Harper knows that Brazil has become a rising star in the world. Brazil´s economy grew by 7.5 per cent last year and claims to be the world’s 5th largest economy. Like Canada, it is resource rich and poised to weather world economic storms in good shape.

Harper visited Colombia to inaugurate the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement.

The Canadian government knows that smaller, bilateral agreements to open trade and relationships between countries make increasing sense.

In that sense, Prime Minister Stephen Harper launched a spirited defense Wednesday of the new free-trade agreement with Colombia – saying that long-standing security risks in the country are improving, and opponents of the deal who cite human rights abuses are phonies who actually want to erect a protectionist trade wall.

“No good purpose is served in this country or in the United States by anybody who is standing in the way of the development of the prosperity of Colombia,” said Harper. “Colombia is a wonderful country with great possibility and great ambition. And we need to be encouraging that every step of the way. That’s why we have made this a priority to get this deal done. We can’t block the progress of a country like this for protectionist reasons.”

Cyber Attack is essential to modern warfare

Experts within Security company McAfee have discovered a plot with an series of 72 cyber attacks on the networks of the United Nations, governments and corporations, all over the world.

McAfee said it believed that, due to the well organized series of attacks,  there was one “state actor” behind the attacks but declined to name it. Yesterday on CNN “The Situation Room” other security experts said the evidence points to two countries Russia and China, but mainly China.

These attacks occured during the last five years, and according to the new policies of the U.S. Defense Department, if these attacks were intentionally launched by a country, it could be defined as an “act of war”.

Among the attacked, the list  includes the governments of the United States, Taiwan,  Vietnam , India , South Korea and Canada; the International Olympic Committee (IOC); the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); the World Anti-Doping Agency; and an array of companies, from high-tech enterprises to defense contractors.

In the case of the United Nations, McAfee told media that the hackers broke into the computer system of UN Secretariat in Geneva in 2008, hid there until 2010, and quietly hacked secret data. In the hands of a totalitarian state, this secret information about human rights violations,  could be very dangerous for the task teams and informers working in the field.

“Even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators,” said McAfee’s vice president of threat research, Dmitri Alperovitch in a 14-page report released on Wednesday.

McAfee discovered the cyber-spying campaign in March this year,  during  an investigation into security breaches at defense companies.

Usin a remote access tool (RAT) some of the attacks lasted just a month, but the longest went on and off for 28 months, according to McAfee.

China or Russia?

Jim Lewis, a cyber expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said to CNN that it was very likely China is responsible for the cyber-attacks “because some of the targets had information that would be of particular interest to Beijing,…everything points to China. It could be the Russians, but there is more that points to China than Russia” .

The systems of the International Olympic Committee and other IOC constituents were breached before the 2008 Beijing Games.

Continental China views Taiwan not as the “nationalist China” but just as a renegade province, and there is always tension between the two states.

Since there is no formal accusation against China,  Beijing has no comment on the report.

However, in January the Stock exchanges in Britain and the United States find out they were the victims of cyber attacks, according to a report of The Times newspaper on January 31st.

At that moment, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) was investigating a terrorist cyber-attack on its headquarters in 2010 ” while US officials have traced an attack on one of its exchanges to Russia,” according to the British newspaper.

Cyber attacks on governments and companies increased more than 500 percent over the last two years.

The U.N. started an investigation, while the U.S. Defense Dept do not know who is the responsible.

All of these attacks, indicate that soon governments will try to regulate the Internet to avoid crime and spionage.

Security in Canada is improving

The police-reported crime rate, which measures the overall volume of crime, continued its long-term downward trend in 2010, declining 5% from 2009. At the same time, the Crime Severity Index, which measures the severity of crime, fell 6%.

The national crime rate has been falling steadily for the past 20 years and is now at its lowest level since 1973.

Canadian police services reported…READ MORE HERE

Ecstasy tablets similar to these were sold through social networking sites in Brazil.

A young brazilian man, 25,  suspected of dealing Ecstasy through the social networking site Facebook, was arrested by officers of Precinct 12 (Copacabana), in Barra da Tijuca in western Rio do Janeiro.

The commissioner responsible for the action, Antenor Lopes Martins  Jr explained that the alleged criminal lived in the neighborhood of Espirito Santo (Holy Spirit) and came often to Rio de Janeiro  to sell synthetic drugs to students of upper middle class. At the moment of the arrest, the suspect has 1,250 ecstasy tablets, hidden in his underwear, said the police officers to brazilian media.

The man was arrested late Friday night (July 29th). Police said he was acting as a wholesaler in drug trafficking. The delegate said that young residents of Barra da Tijuca bought Ecstasy with the suspect, and then resold the drugs in clubs and private parties in the neighborhoods south and west areas of the city.

Antenor Junior  said it has identified five young people suspected of participating in the scheme. The commissioner found that through Facebook, the arrested man was negotiating the sale of drugs, including passing his bank account nr for deposit. Police said the suspect was using social networking to hire people to join the gang.

The sheriff said the drugs seized were dubbed by users as “oranges of Canada.” The tablets had the orange and maple leaf, symbol of the Canadian flag, printed.

“Our investigations indicate that this scheme has been operating for some months. These young upper middle class teengaers bought  300 tablets, and then resell to other consumers, “said Antenor Junior .

According to the police officer, the drug was imported from Canada and European countries. The police try to identify the person who brought the ecstasy into Brazil.

The suspect will be charged with drug trafficking and association for the trafficking. Putting the two crimes, the penalty can reach 15 years in prison.

“I’ll get the blocking of the accounts of people already identified as participants in the scheme. Then I will send the request to the Justice of an arrest warrant for these people, “said the delegate. RETURN TO HOMEPAGE

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