Study: Iran to Attack US, Israel

Malkah Fleisher Study: Iran to Attack US, Israel

Just two days after US President Barack Hussein Obama shared a controversial and landmark handshake with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez at the Summit of the Americas, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has released a study analyzing the flowering alliance between the increasingly anti-Western Latin America and the virulently anti-Israel Iran. The study was conducted at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC), a non-governmental organization dedicated to Israeli intelligence and terrorism issues.

According to the study, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is using anti-Western Hugo Chavez as a springboard into several Latin American countries, such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador, where he intends to establish a religious, terrorist, political and economic foothold in South America. Iran has already made major inroads in its relationship with Venezuela and Bolivia, largely based on shared anti-American sentiments.



Iran will utilize this developing relationship to challenge the United States, parts of Asia, and Africa, said the study.

The Islamic Republic will also leverage petrodollars and Muslim operatives positioned throughout key Latin American countries to implement a radical anti-Western agenda, fight America's anti-nuclear policy, and to slash international economic sanctions according to the IICC.

In addition, the report warns that Iran may launch anti-American and anti-Israel terror attacks through intelligence and terror networks in South American countries.

Ahmadinejad, who hosted a "World Without Zionism" conference in 2005, promoting his goal to "wipe Israel off the map", has already succeeded in wounding Israeli diplomatic relations in the region, with Israel's diplomatic core being forced out of Chavez's Venezuela and Bolivia during the anti-terror Operation Cast Lead in January 2009.

Khomeini-inspired Shi'ite Islamic and Iranian revolutionary propaganda is being exported by Iran into non-Muslim and Muslim communities in Latin America, in large part through its terror proxy, Hizbullah, which is raising funds for operation by uniting with South American drug and crime cartels.

The IICC report cites several U.S. intelligence and military officials expressing concern over rising Iranian activity in Latin America, and increasing numbers of converts in the region to Islam.

Chavez and Obama exchanged a warm greeting on Friday, and again on Saturday, at which time Chavez presented Obama with a book on American and European imperialism in South America.

Chavez, who said being in Iran's capital city of Tehran made him feel "like arriving at one's own home", told reporters he shared a good moment with Obama, who he called "intelligent." The Venezuelan dictator once referred to former US President George W. Bush as "the devil" at a meeting of the United Nations.

Venezuela and Israel enjoyed a strong relationship in the past, with Venezuela voting in favor of Jewish statehood at the United Nations on November 27, 1947.