The Americas Post - Yes, U.S. Marine Generals carry their own rifles. Photo Credit: USMC

President Barack Obama has chosen a Marine to run U.S. military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean out of the Southern Command in Miami.

The new Southcom leader is Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly, who enlisted in 1970 and was followed by both sons to the Corps as well.  The youngest, 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, was killed on patrol in Afghanistan in 2010.

The Pentagon announced Kelly’s promotion in a brief statement Friday afternoon.  Pending the required Senate confirmation, there was no immediate word on when he would succeed Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, the current commander.

Over six feet tall and in his 60s, Kelly is currently senior military advisor to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, served multiple deployments in Iraq and worked as a Defense Department representative on Capitol Hill.   He commanded troops in Fallujah, Iraq, and at one time  had tens of thousands of Americans and Iraqi soldiers under his command.  A 1976 graduate of the University of Massachusetts, he joined the Marines before going to the university, served for two years as an enlisted infantryman out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., and left as a sergeant.

Sources were unable to confirm whether Kelly previously served in the Caribbean and Latin America.  More than 1,000 Defense and other government employees work out of Southcom headquarters in Doral, which he has been chosen to run, on a range of Defense projects from humanitarian relief operations to the detention center at Guantánamo.  Southcom also runs regional training exercises that team up U.S. forces with foreign armies and navies, which senior Pentagon officials have pointed to as the future of a  downsized U.S. military force across the globe.

The Americas Post Security News. U.S. Armed Forces, including this fighter, shift operations to the cloud. Photo Credit iStockPhoto

To defend the U.S. military’s information assets, Pentagon leaders say defense computers must be tied to the cloud — meaning an online environment that can be centrally locked down. Yet it’s difficult to police parts of that environment manufactured or even housed in countries that stand accused of cyberespionage, experts say.

The shift of military operations to the cloud  will require protecting electronics manufactured in Asia from supply chain tampering, say some private security auditors. But that won’t necessarily mean inspecting every network component made in China

“Our clouds are running off of hardware that’s built in China,” said…READ MORE HERE

The Americas Post - Honduran criminals won't have Peace Corps volunteers to prey on anymore

Worsening drug and organized-crime violence in Central America has forced the Peace Corps to pull out of Honduras and halt the flow of new volunteers to Guatemala and El Salvador, that organization has announced.

Last month Peace Corps officials reviewed worsening conditions and decided to withdraw all 158 volunteers from Honduras in January and suspend training for 29 recruits.  That evacuation has now been carried out.

The Americas Post - Al-Saadi Gadhafi wanted to go Al Puerto Vallarta. Photo Credit: AP

Mexican authorities said Wednesday that a surviving son of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and three other relatives planned to enter Mexico under false names and hide at a Pacific coast resort.

The plan to smuggle in al-Saadi Gadhafi allegedly involved two Mexicans, a Canadian and a Danish suspect, all of whom have been arrested according to Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire.

The plot was discovered by Mexican intelligence agents in September as al-Saadi fled Libya shortly after his father’s downfall.  He never made it as far as Mexico, ending up in the Western African country of Niger where he currently resides.

The plotters allegedly flew to Mexico, opened bank accounts and bought safe houses in several parts of the country, including one just outside Puerto Vallarta.

“The great economic resources which this criminal organization has, or had, allowed them to contract private flights,” Poire told a news conference.

Poire named Canadian Cynthia Vanier as the group’s ringleader.  He said she had been picked up on Nov. 10 and is now under house arrest with three other suspects on suspicion of document falsification, human smuggling and organized crime.

Poire said Vanier “was the direct contact with the Gadhafi family and the leader of the group, and presumably was the person in charge of the finances of the operation.”

The plot also allegedly depended on a Mexican woman living in the United States, who Poire said obtained the falsified Mexican identity documents.

A Danish man acted as “the logistic liaison” for the plan, Poire said.  He said the alleged conspirators also traveled to Kosovo “and several Middle Eastern countries.”

The Mexican officials made no mention of Moammar Gadhafi himself being involved in the plan, and Poire did not say which relatives may have planned to accompany the son to Mexico. The elder Gadhafi fell from power in late August and was killed in Libya on Oct. 20.

Poire said that false documents were issued in the names of “Daniel Bejar Hanan, Amira Sayed Nader, Moah Bejar Sayed and Sofia Bejar Sayed.”  The Gadhafi name does not appear anywhere in the documents.

The Americas Post - The new club is open but the US and Canada are not invited.

A newly formed Latin American and Caribbean organization has issued statements in support of Argentina’s claim to sovereignty over the British-ruled Falkland Islands and against U.S. sanctions on Cuba at the end of its first two-day summit.

However, the 33-member Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, or CELAC, declined to engage in stronger anti-Western rhetoric as some had feared at a meeting hosted by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.  Instead, its 22 final declarations spoke in general terms of the need to combat global ills like price speculation, drugs, terrorism, nuclear arms and cruelty to migrants.

“I don’t think we’re exaggerating if we call it a historic day,” said Chavez, 57.  ”United in our differences, we must demand respect,” he told the assembly. “No more interference; we’ve had enough.”

For Chavez the summit achieved two goals: setting up a regional body without the United States, and allowing him to showcase his recovery from cancer treatment.  He and other left-wing leaders like Raul Castro of Cuba, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador say the hemisphere-wide Organization of American States (OAS)  is a tool of Washington.

Conservative-led nations like Colombia, Chile and Mexico were able to keep CELAC from appearing overly radical however, with relatively mild final declarations  and next year’s meeting set for Santiago, Chile.  And the communiques over the Falklands – or Malvinas islands as they are known in Argentina – and the U.S. embargo on Cuba were already standard positions within the region.

The final declaration backed Argentina’s “legitimate rights” and urged Britain to resume negotiations.

“The Argentine government has shown a permanently constructive attitude and willingness to reach, via negotiations, a peaceful and definitive solution to this anachronistic, colonial situation on American soil”, it stated.

On Cuba, CELAC, whose countries total almost 600 million in population and  about $6 trillion in GDP, urged Washington to respect U.N. votes and lift trade sanctions in place for decades against the communist government.

Chavez, who survived cancer surgery in June, presided over lengthy sessions and speeches, frequently intervening to add his own anecdotes and opinions.

He plans to run for re-election in 2012, and his opponents used the summit to mount some protests in an attempt to embarrass him in front of his Latin American counterparts.  Activists beat pots and pans around the city on Saturday night in a traditional “cacerolazo” demonstration. Some banners were also briefly unfurled over roads saying “Welcome to Crime City” – before police removed them.

The protection of intellectual property rights (IPR, e.g., fighting piracy, counterfeiting, and contraband) has been a U.S. concern. The Duarte government made significant efforts to improve IPR protection, but the United States Trade Representative maintains that the country continues to have problems due to its porous border and ineffective prosecutions. In 2003, U.S. and Paraguayan officials signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen legal protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in Paraguay. In December 2007, the MOU was revised and extended through 2009, and in November 2009 the agreement was extended again through 2011.45

U.S. Assistance

The United States provided about $13.1 million in foreign assistance to Paraguay in FY2008 and an estimated $26.1 million in FY2009.46 The increase in FY2009 was due to a one-time addition of $10 million for health and economic growth assistance resulting from the October 2008 meeting between President Lugo and former President Bush.

Under the Obama Administration’s FY2010 request, Paraguay would receive $13.9 million in assistance, with $2.1 million to support Global Health and Child Survival, $5.8 million in Development Assistance, $425,000 in International Military Education and Training, $750,000 for Foreign Military Financing, $500,000 in International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement assistance, and $4.3 million for the continuation of a Peace Corps program in the country, with approximately 200 volunteers.

In 2009, the Department of Defense also provided Paraguay one-time security and stabilization assistance authorized under Section 1207 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In FY2009, Paraguay received a total of $6.69 million in “Section 1207” funding divided between counternarcotics and development accounts to support democratic consolidation and reduce violence in eastern Paraguay during the country’s transition from one-party rule to multi-party democracy.47

In addition to regular foreign assistance funding, Paraguay signed a $34.65 million Threshold Program agreement with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in May 2006. Those funds, which are administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), are targeted to strengthen the rule of law and build a transparent business environment.48 The program has been credited with reducing the time it takes to start a business in Paraguay by half, among other accomplishments. In May 2009, the USAID-administered program was renewed with the signing of a second two-year MCC Threshold program for $30.3 million.49 The program supports anti-corruption efforts by Paraguay’s government in law enforcement, customs, health care, and judicial sectors. The MCC program also aims to increase public support for anti-corruption efforts.50 Paraguay also signed an agreement with the United States in 2006 under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act that provided Paraguay with $7.4 million in debt relief in exchange for the Paraguayan government’s commitment to conserve and restore tropical forests in the southeastern region.

Counternarcotics Cooperation

Paraguay is a major transit country for illegal drugs destined primarily for neighboring South American states and Europe. It produces over half of the marijuana grown in South America. The Chaco region in the northwestern part of the country adjacent to Bolivia is a major transshipment point for illegal drugs, along with the tri-border area (TBA) with neighboring Argentina and Brazil. A 1987 U.S.-Paraguay bilateral counternarcotics agreement was extended in 2006.

U.S. counternarcotics efforts in Paraguay have focused on providing training, equipment and technical assistance to strengthen the country’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD), and to combat money laundering and corruption. The United States assisted in the completion of a helicopter pad and support facilities for SENAD. According to the State Department’s February 2009 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, SENAD continued to make progress against illegal narcotics trafficking in 2008 with record seizures of marijuana, although cocaine seizures were markedly down. The report notes that President Lugo has said he wants to reverse Paraguay’s status as a “major drug transit country.” Currently, SENAD agents are civil servants and they are not issued weapons. The Paraguayan Senate rejected a bill that would have made the SENAD an autonomous institution with the power to regulate its agents as law enforcement agents who can carry and use weapons. The bill had passed the Chamber of Deputies. This defeat is considered by some to be a major setback. Finally, INCSR notes that SENAD’s work is limited by budget constraints, weak laws and pervasive corruption. After President Evo Morales of Bolivia kicked out the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in late 2008, 10 of the 56 agents working in that country were redeployed to Paraguay in early 2009.51

In April 2009, bills entitled the “U.S.-Paraguay Partnership Act of 2009” were introduced in the House (H.R. 1837) and Senate (S. 780). On September 14, 2009, the ATPDEA Expansion and Extension Act of 2009 (S. 1665) was introduced in the Senate.52 Each of these bills would amend the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (Title XXXI of the Trade Act of 2002, P.L. 107-210) to extend trade preferences to Paraguay. Currently, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru benefit from the ATPDEA in exchange for cooperation under anti-narcotics agreements.53 Bolivia lost its eligibility for the program in 2008 when the Bush Administration determined that Bolivia no longer met the anti-narcotics cooperation requirements.

Tri-Border Area and Terrorism

The United States is particularly concerned about illicit activities in the tri-border area (TBA) of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil, where money laundering, drug trafficking, arms smuggling, and trade in counterfeit and contraband goods are prevalent. The tri-border region is loosely controlled due to porous borders, a lack of surveillance, weak law enforcement and pervasive local corruption, especially in the Paraguayan border city of Ciudad del Este. The United States has worked closely with the governments of the TBA countries on counterterrorism issues through the “3+1” regional cooperation mechanism, which serves as a forum for discussions, and the United States has provided anti-terrorism and anti-money-laundering support to Paraguay.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent a team of specialists to the tri-border region to investigate trade-based money laundering in 2006, and has assisted the Paraguayan government in developing a Trade Transparency Unit to examine discrepancies in trade data in order to detect customs fraud, trade-based money laundering or the financing of terrorism.54

U.S. Treasury officials have held workshops in the region to encourage more banking sector involvement in efforts against money laundering. The U.S. embassy’s legal adviser in Asunción held training courses for local investigators and prosecutors to combat possible terrorism links.55

The United States has been concerned for a number of years that the radical Lebanon-based Hezbollah and the Sunni Muslim Palestinian group Hamas have used the TBA to raise funds from the region’s sizable Muslim communities by participating in illicit activities and soliciting donations. Nevertheless, according to the State Department’s annual terrorism report for 2008 (issued in April 2009), there is no corroborated information that these or other Islamic extremist groups have an operational presence in the TBA.

The State Department’s 2008 terrorism report stated although Paraguay was generally cooperative on counterterrorism efforts, its judicial system is weak and politicized, the police force is widely viewed as ineffective and corrupt, and the country lacks strong anti-money laundering and terrorist financing legislation. In June 2008, Paraguay’s Congress improved money laundering legislation as part of a major overhaul of the penal code. However, according to the terrorism report, a bill to enact important criminal procedure reform to prosecute money laundering and terrorism was delayed for a year by the Congress’s Legal Reform Commission. Effective terrorist financing legislation will be critical to keep Paraguay current with its international obligations.

The terrorism report also maintained that Paraguay did not exercise effective immigration or customs control on its borders. Efforts to address illicit activity in the TBA were uneven because of a lack of resources, and corruption within customs, police, and the judiciary. With U.S. support, the government’s Secretariat for the Prevention of Money Laundering reportedly made progress against money laundering, including December 2008 raids on illegal exchange houses.

Under the MCC Threshold Program, the United States provided assistance with the training of judges, prosecutors and police in investigation techniques critical to money laundering and terrorist cases.

Paraguay made some progress on counterterrorism legislation in 2009. The Paraguayan Congress passed a measure in July 2009 that modifies the anti-money laundering law. The passed bill empowers the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money Laundering (SEPRELAD) in several ways. It elevates the agency to the level of a ministry that reports directly to the President, it broadens its capacity to require Suspicious Transaction Reports from a wider group of financial institutions, and it increases SEPRELAD’s power to audit financial institutions to ensure their procedures are adequate to prevent money laundering. In addition, the Executive has initiated legislation that would criminalize the offences of terrorism, terrorist association and terrorist financing. Attempts to gain the approval of Congress on such legislation were made in 2007, November 2009, and December 2009. In December 2009, President Lugo withdrew the counterterrorism legislation that would modify some aspects of the criminal code over objections raised by human rights organizations who argued that the new legislation threatened the international protection of human rights and may undermine freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. Paraguayan authorities, however, remain optimistic that a modified initiative may pass later in 2010.56

June S. Beittel is analyst in Latin American Affairs (UNACE) for CRS. Parts of this report were contributed by Mark P. Sullivan, Specialist in Latin American Affairs. This report was published by the Congressional Research Service under the title “Paraguay: Political and Economic Conditions and U.S. Relations,”

Yury Fedotov has a right to look concerned these days

Addressing the press after meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderón this week, United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Director Yury Fedotov stressed the impact that organized crime has on that region as well as other parts of the world.

“These criminals are responsible for the death and misery of people across the globe through their increasingly diversified illicit operations,” said Mr. Fedotov “We have to remember however that such violent crimes form part of a much bigger, worldwide picture in which we face a complex and shifting threat; we have to remember that while the crimes are often violently local, our solutions must be global.”

His two day visit followed UNODC discussions with the Mexican Government as the two aim for a strategic alliance against organized crime in Central America. The meetings with President Calderón and other senior Mexican leaders covered topics from human trafficking and migrant smuggling to illicit drugs and corruption.

Reflecting on those most affected by organized crime, Mr. Fedotov expressed solidarity with the people of Mexico:  ”On too many occasions, it is the citizens who have become victims while attempting to pursue a peaceful existence.” Referring to last month’s massacre at a Monterrey casino, the Director pledged continued support to Mexico, whose location between South and North America makes it ground zero for transit of illicit drugs as well as people.

Before traveling on to South America, the Director praised Mexico’s fight against organized crime and warned the international community against viewing this as a localized problem.  Calling for greater cooperation on both regional and global levels, Mr. Fedotov said “tackling organized crime and the criminals behind these networks without international collaboration is futile. If this is done without considering the wider region, we simply run the risk of having criminal networks relocate to a new country.”

Ahmadinejad visit cancelled "for health reasons"

The Venezuelan government announced Friday that a planned visit from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been suspended while president Hugo Chavez recovers his “full health” after recent cancer treatment.

Chavez, who returned from his fourth and last chemotherapy session in Cuba on Thursday, last week announced the visit would follow Ahmadinejad’s visit to the UN General Assembly.

Venezuelan chancellor Nicolas Maduro announced the postponement at the closing of a joint Iranian/Venezuelan working group that evaluated nine cooperation accords between the two countries.

“Upon the full recuperation of president Hugo Chavez, in the coming weeks or months we hope to have our dear brother president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad back”, Maduro said.

The suspended visit would have been the first since the US sanctioned Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA for doing business with Iran in violation of an international embargo, a move that the Chavez administration described as a new aggression by “the empire”.

The two presidents, both fierce critics of Washington, have developed more political and economic ties in recent years.  Chavez, who plans to run for re-election in 2012, had surgery in Cuba to remove a tumor in June.

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro

Venezuelan chancellor Nicolás Maduro gave assurances this week that Venezuela has made effective progress against drug trafficking since breaking relations with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham and our Publisher Victor Bjørgan during EISIC 2011, European Intelligence & Security Informatics Conference on Counterterrorism and Criminology.

On September 12th, and during the first day of the conference EISIC 2011 “European Intelligence & Security Informatics Conference, on Counterterrorism and Criminology,” the first keynote speech was given by the expert Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham Cyber ​​Security (BT) (*). The title of his presentation was “Data Mining for Malicious Code Detection and Security Applications”. Among the highlights of his academic dissertation BT defined the meaning of saying that data mining “is the process of posing queries and extracting patterns different from data using techniques”. About its use, she said the technology can be used in national security as well aganist cybercrime and security, like f.e. like to Prevent buildings, destroying critical infrastructure (power, telecom). Dr Thuraisingham said that also can Data Mining find out who the bad guys are, capable of carrying out those Terrorist Activities.
Defining Cyber ​​Security BT said it is a technology to Protect the computer and network systems due to Against Corruption last generation of malware like Trojan horses, worms and viruses, including the ultradangerous malware called RAMAL (Radioactive Adaptive Malware), as well as intrusion detection and auditing.

During the first part of the presentation, BT described her research (together with Prof Latifur Khan and students of the University of Texas) and said that some techniques like the Link Analysis technology can be used to trace the viruses to the perpetrators. Another technology called Classification can prevent future attacks depending on the data mining learned about the terrorists through emails and phone conversations. The technology can also separate between real threats and non threats at all, by reducing false positives and false negatives.

More into details of her speech, BT said that the researched techniques like the CFB Program can extract the code blocker malware from data, and make a control flow analysis. She also compared her System with another already in the market , the code blocker SigFree, and assured her system is better, performs better.   Her System can detect Malware that is evolving continuosly, even every milisecond, like the RAMAL (Radioactive Adaptive Malware). Currently, all last generation malware evolve continuosly and it is difficult to prevent for regular firewalls. Dr. Bhavani Thuraisimgham defined her anti RAMAL malware tech as the NCD Novel Class Detection, and the tool is the system based on NCD, the so called SNOD or SNODMAL).

Currently, the most advanced Malware goes undetected because a continuos change in behaviours , every milisecond, and the regular anti malware software can not keep up that speed.

BT assured that her SNOD hast the ability to detect new classes of malware and its changes. She used the SNODMAL, malware detector using SNOD.

She classified the Malware in two categories: Benign and Novel.

The usefullness of SNODMAL will extend to detect multiple novel malware classes and quarantine them.

Summarizing, BT also revealed that they are working to find the best way to detect where this malware attack comes from, and to be able to attribute the attack, where it come from with 100% certainty (to avoid false accusations). Several countries have been attacjed by these novel malware.

In regard to the privacy matter, BT affirmed that the extract of results of the data mining should be private, this is a legal matter, not only an ethical one.

Once her speech finalized and the round of questions ended, Dr. Bhavani Thuraisimgham met Victor Bjoergan , CEO of the U.S. based Global Security Services LLC,  also Publisher of TheAmericasPost.com and EuropeSecurityNews (this under construction). Both discussed the importance of developing these technologies, and its role anti Cybercrime and the strengthening of global security against terrorism.

(*) READ MORE ABOUT DR. BHAVANI THURAISINGHAM

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