(Analyst's note: Extremely troubling. Dr. Walid Phares is reported here with an interesting statement on "today's news" and that is “The presence of Hezbollah and the Pasdaran in Venezuela and the tri-border area are half a decade old, and its presence in Africa at least a decade. What has been delaying the findings so long?" We must also consider Dr. Phares' statement against the reality of our lack of meaningful border controls on our southern borders over this same period. Read all these details and more regarding North America, Iran, and Cyberspace in this analysis. )
NORTH AMERICA: Walid Phares, posting on his Facebook account, says he is “satisfied” that some of his conclusions published in his book ‘The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad’ (2008) and portions of his Congressional briefings since 2006 have been confirmed in the just-released Defense Dept. report to Congress. “I am only wondering why were the conclusions of the report so late?” Phares writes. “The presence of Hezbollah and the Pasdaran in Venezuela and the tri-border area are half a decade old, and its presence in Africa at least a decade. What has been delaying the findings so long?”
Phares discussed the report to Congress this week, here.
“Iran is increasing its paramilitary Qods force operatives in Venezuela while covertly continuing supplies of weapons and explosives to Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the Pentagon's first report to Congress on Tehran's military.
“The report on Iranian military power provides new details on the group known formally as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), the Islamist shock troops deployed around the world to advance Iranian interests. The unit is aligned with terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, North Africa and Latin America, and the report warns that U.S. forces are likely to battle the Iranian paramilitaries in the future. …”
IRAN: Phares also writes that he is “watching the Iranian ‘war exercises’ in the Gulf,” and asks, "Against whom are these war reheasals? … To me, it looks like the Pasdaran are training to attack U.S. and international naviesin the area.”
This week, “CIA Director Leon Panetta is warning that cyber space could open up the door for a digital Pearl Harbor on the nation's power grid. Panetta, speaking to the Sacramento Metro Chamber in California, says the U.S. faces thousands of daily attacks from hackers in Russia, China and Iran and other countries. He says an attack on the power grid could cripple the country and that cyber terrorism is a new area of concern for the CIA.”