Cola Goes Kosher for Passover

Atlanta, GA -If you’ve noticed Coca-Cola bottles with yellow-colored caps materialize each March and April, what you’re looking at is the result of a burgeoning market in parve soda. Most commercial sodas, with their heavy doses of corn syrup and traces of alcohol from grain, are forbidden.
Thirsty Passover observers have an Atlanta-based Orthodox rabbi, Tobias Geffen, to thank. In the 1930s, Geffen was given Coca-Cola’s famously secret list of ingredients and managed to persuade the company to create a real-sugar alternative for his congregants. “Because Coca-Cola has already been accepted by the general public in this country and Canada and because it has become an insurmountable problem to induce the great majority of Jews to refrain from partaking of this drink, I have tried earnestly to find a method of permitting its usage,” he said. Not wanting to be left out, Pepsi, Sprite, Sierra Mist and many others are now available in kosher form for Passover.

via vosizneias.com

At the time, Rabbi Geffen did not know that the formula for Coca-Cola is a closely guarded trade secret; however, once Rabbi Geffen inquired, the Coca-Cola Company made a corporate decision to allow him access to the list of ingredients in Coke’s secret formula provided he swore to keep them in utter secrecy. Geffen agreed to the terms. The company did not tell Geffen the exact proportions of each ingredient, but just gave him a list of contents by name.

When Geffen was given the list of ingredients, he discovered that one of them was glycerin made from non-kosher beef tallow. Even though a laboratory chemist told Geffen that the glycerin was present in only one part per thousand (one part in 60 is dilute enough to earn kosher certification), Geffen informed the Coca-Cola Company that, since this glycerin was a planned rather than accidentally added ingredient, observant Jews could not knowingly tolerate its inclusion. Coke failed to meet Geffen’s standards.

Back at the company’s laboratories, research scientists went to work finding a substitute for tallow-based glycerin and discovered that Proctor and Gamble produced a glycerin from cottonseed and coconut oil. When they agreed to use to this new ingredient, Geffen gave his hecksher, or seal of approval, for Coke to be marketed as kosher.

Still, a second problem vexed Geffen: the formula for Coke included traces of alcohol that were a by-product of grain kernels. Since anything derived from grains is chametz, or forbidden at Passover, Coca-Cola could not be certified kosher for use at Passover even after the formula was changed to include vegetable based glycerin. Coke’s chemists experimented and found that, during the Passover season, they could substitute sweeteners produced from beet sugar and cane sugar for grain-based ones without compromising Coke’s taste. They agreed to start manufacturing Coke with the new sugars several weeks before Passover each year.

Rabbi Geffen was pleased to have performed this service for the American Jewish people and the Coca-Cola Company. In his papers, which are housed in the archives of the American Jewish Historical Society, researchers can find a teshuva (rabbinic response) that Geffen wrote which includes the following:

Pepsi Throwback

"Because Coca-Cola has already been accepted by the general public in this country and Canada and because it has become an insurmountable problem to induce the great majority of Jews to refrain from partaking of this drink, I have tried earnestly to find a method of permitting its usage. With the help of G-d I have been able to uncover a pragmatic solution in which there would be no question nor any doubt concerning the ingredients of Coca-Cola."

Thanks to Rabbi Geffen, even the most observant Jews can feel comfortable that "things go better with Coke."

via jewishvirtuallibrary.org

the image is from... Time Magazine trying to sound like they don't hate Jews. Asshats don't convince anyone

The UN’s 50 Million Missing Refugees

In 2005, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) predicted that there would be 50 million refugees in 2010 due to climate change. An enterprising reporter wondered what happened to UNEP’s prediction, and found that those areas UNEP claimed were most at risk have actually gained population. How did UNEP respond? According to Anthony Watts, UNEP tried to erase the evidence of its initial claim — without success. It seems folks at UNEP were unaware of Google caches.
The original UNEP claim was ridiculous on its face, and UNEP’s subsequent effort to rewrite history is farcical. Regrettably, we’re unlikely to hear much about this story from the environmentalist community or those who allegedly police the politicization of science. And this is part of the problem. Climate change is real, and the evidence of a human contribution to the gradual warming of the atmosphere is strong. There’s no need to conjure fantastical projections of an impending climate apocalypse. But UNEP and various organizations insist on doing so nonetheless — indeed, UNEP is now claiming there will be 50 million climate refugees by 2020 — and the climate community raises not a peep. In the end, this ends up doing more to discredit legitimate concerns about climate change than to encourage action.

via volokh.com

interesting... and not surprised, but I see little evidence that Climate Change is real.

It so happens that just a few of these islands and other places most at risk have since had censuses, so it should be possible for us now to get some idea of the devastating impact climate change is having on their populations. Let’s have a look at the evidence:
Bahamas:

Nassau, The Bahamas – The 2010 national statistics recorded that the population growth increased to 353,658 persons in The Bahamas.  The population change figure increased by 50,047 persons during the last 10 years.

St Lucia:

The island-nation of Saint Lucia recorded an overall household population increase of 5 percent from May 2001 to May 2010 based on estimates derived from a complete enumeration of the population of Saint Lucia during the conduct of the recently completed 2010 Population and Housing Census.

Seychelles:

Population 2002, 81755
Population 2010, 88311

Solomon Islands:

The latest Solomon Islands population has surpassed half a million – that’s according to the latest census results.
It’s been a decade since the last census report, and in that time the population has leaped 100-thousand.

Meanwhile, far from being places where people are fleeing, no fewer than the top six of the very fastest growing cities in China, Shenzzen, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhuhai, Puning and Jinjiang, are absolutely smack bang within the shaded areas identified as being likely sources of climate refugees.
Similarly, many of the fastest growing cities in the United States also appear within or close to the areas identified by the UNEP as at risk of having climate refugees.
More censuses are due to come in this year, and we await the results for Bangladesh and the Maldives - said to be places most at risk - with interest.
However, a very cursory look at the first available evidence seems to show that the places identified by the UNEP as most at risk of having climate refugees are not only not losing people, they are actually among the fastest growing regions in the world.

via asiancorrespondent.com

Britain's Guardian reported October 12, 2005:

Rising sea levels, desertification and shrinking freshwater supplies will create up to 50 million environmental refugees by the end of the decade, experts warn today. Janos Bogardi, director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University in Bonn, said creeping environmental deterioration already displaced up to 10 million people a year, and the situation would get worse.

"There are well-founded fears that the number of people fleeing untenable environmental conditions may grow exponentially as the world experiences the effects of climate change," Dr Bogardi said. "This new category of refugee needs to find a place in international agreements. We need to better anticipate support requirements, similar to those of people fleeing other unviable situations." [...]

Hans van Ginkel, UN under-secretary-general and rector of the university, said: "This is a highly complex issue, with global organisations already overwhelmed by the demands of conventionally recognised refugees. However, we should prepare now to define, accept and accommodate this new breed of refugee."

via newsbusters.org

THE SKY IS FALLING... THE SKY IS FALLING... THE SKY IS FALLING...

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Muslims Are Not a Minority

The most persistent myth of the Western Dhimmi narrative is that Muslims are a minority and must receive special protection and accommodation. But Muslims are not a minority. There are 1.5 billion Sunni Muslims worldwide, outweighing Catholics as the next largest religious faction at 1.1 billion and Hindus at 1 billion. They are still a minority of the overall population in Western countries, but a demographically trending majority.

In the UK more people attend mosques than the Church of England, that makes Muslims the largest functioning religious group there. Mohammed was the most popular baby name last year, ahead of Jack and Harry. In France, in this generation, more mosques have been built than Catholic churches and in southern France there are already more mosques than churches. Mohammed-Amine is the most popular double name, ahead of Jean-Baptiste, Pierre-Louis, Leo-Paul and Mohammed-Ali.
In Belgium, 50 percent of newborns are Muslim and empty Belgian churches are being turned into mosques. The most popular baby name is Mohammed and of the top 7 baby names, 6 were Muslim. A quarter of Amsterdam, Marseilles and Rotterdam and a fifth of Stockholm is already Muslim. The most popular baby name in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam and The Hague is... Mohammed.
Europe's Muslim population doubled in the last generation, and is set to double again. By 2025, (a decade and a half away), a third of all births in the EU will be Muslim. The demographic writing is already on the wall. A third of Muslims in France and Germany are teenagers or younger, as compared to a fifth of the native population. A third of Muslims in the UK and Belgium are under 15 versus a fifth of the native population. Counting all age groups, they're a minority. But in generational demographics, Muslims are swiftly becoming a majority.
Looking at these numbers it is hard to argue that Muslims are a minority. They are not a majority at the moment, but majorities are not just a statistical snapshot, but a cultural and demographic trend. Countries are not defined by the past, or even by the present, but by the future. By the direction in which they are headed. And Europe's future is a Muslim majority. Most European governments have accepted that and are acting on it. There may currently be more warm European bodies than Muslim ones, but the culture is being steered by the assumption of an Islamic future.
America is not nearly as vulnerable to the Muslim demographic bomb, because it is less socialist and more multicultural. It also has no former Muslim colonies, like England or France. Or at least it didn't have any before. But the liberation of Iraq has touched off a swarm of 'refugees' moving to the United States. While some of them are Christian, the majority are Muslim. By law we are obligated to accept 5,000 a year. The 2008 target for Iraqi immigration was 12,000, far more than most of the former Soviet Union combined. Not significant numbers alone, but they are part of a bigger picture.
In 2005, almost 100,000 Muslims became legal residents of the US. In 2009, it was 115,000. And the numbers continue to rise each year. That means that already they make up around 10 percent of immigrants to the US. The number of Egyptian and Syrian immigrants has more than doubled since 9/11. The number of Turkish immigrants has more than tripled. The number of Afghanis has tripled. Somalis have gone up from nearly 3,000 to nearly 14,000 a year. Pakistan hit a high of 21,000 in 2009 and Saudis are up by 50 percent.
Not nation shattering numbers in and of themselves, but let's look at them in relation to birth rates.
The United States birth rate was 13.5. Pakistan's birth rate is 24.1. Egypt's birth rate is 24.6. The Saudi birth rate is 19.3. The Afghani birth rate is 37.3. The Somali birth rate is 42.7. What this means is that we are importing Muslim immigrants with a birth rate that twice or even three times higher than our own.

The United States birth rate is already inflated by its own immigrants, including large numbers of Latinos and the million plus Muslims already in the US, so the baseline numbers are even worse. But these numbers are bad enough, as the social services departments of Amsterdam or Malmo could tell you. We are not importing 115,000 Muslims a year. No, we're importing as many as 2,500 Muslim babies a year into our demographic pool.
Compare that to the 25,000 Korean immigrants in 2009, from a country with an average birth rate of 8.5. Increase Korean immigration fivefold until they outnumber the annual number of Muslim immigrants, and you still aren't even importing a 1,000 babies a year. A thousand Somali immigrants are the demographic equivalent of 5,000 Korean immigrants because the Somali birth rate is 5 times the Korean birth rate. The 25,000 Korean immigrants represent a mere 212 babies a year, but the 14,000 Somalis represent 600 babies a year.
This is how demographic suicide creeps up on nations. And this also is an incomplete picture. The Korean-American intermarriage rate is at over 50 percent. There are no statistics for Somali intermarriage rates in the US, but Muslims do not leave their religion upon marriage. And in Sweden and Norway, Somali intermarriage rates are very low. Which means the Little Mogadishus growing across the United States are not going anywhere. And given time, there will be a Little Mogadishu in your city too.
Despite all this Mohammed won't be the most popular baby name in the United States any time soon. But a Muslim population boom will sneak up on us. It already is. Yet population-wise Muslims are a minority. But are they really?
There are two kinds of minorities. The first kind come from countries where they were a minority or under foreign rule. The Irish, Jews, Tibetans, Armenians and Norwegians are all examples of that. The second kind of minority isn't really a minority at all. This 'minority' immigrates from countries where they are the ruling majority. They are not persecuted and are not escaping anything except living in a failed state.
These "Majority Minorities" are designated as minorities by political correctness, but they don't think of themselves as minorities or act like minorities. They are used to being the dominant culture and when they are hostile, it is not because of a sense of persecution, but xenophobia. While they are labeled minorities-- they actually behave like majorities.

Think of those immigration rallies where Mexican immigrants wave their flag and taunt and insult passerby, or demand their language everywhere and treat any opposition as a violent attack on their privileges. They are acting like the majority culture-- which in their minds they are. Much like the way pre-state Texans responded to Mexican demands. But the absurdity of PC protocols insists that the descendants of European settlers from Spain with their European language are a racial minority, even though they are a majority in their own countries and on the continent.
Muslims are also "Majority Minorities", who act with all the entitlements and privileges of a majority. When Somali cabbies refuse to carry airport passengers with duty free liquor or almost half of Muslims in the UK want Sharia law--  they are behaving as if they already are the majority entitled to force their culture, their law and their religion on the minority. And in their eyes, we are the minority, because they have no cultural tradition of how to be minorities. The Irish, the Jews and African-Americans have a cultural memory of being persecuted that they retain in song and story. But Muslims have rushed to wipe away the shame of briefly living under European colonialism by casting back to the golden age when they were the oppressors, reviving the Caliphate and lashing out violently at even the slightest criticism of their religion.
Muslims in America and Europe are still numerical minorities, but they act like majorities. And they are doing everything they can to become majorities. Treating them like minorities is a mistake, that Europe has already come to regret and that we are only beginning to learn the folly of. Muslims can either be a minority or a majority. If they choose to act like a majority, imposing their culture, religion and worldview on others-- then they should be treated like one.

via sultanknish.blogspot.com

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Norway, PFLP and the Itamar killings

Israel has arrested two PFLP members for the Itamar killings. As recently as in 2009 the youth wing of a Norwegian political party raised funds for the PFLP.

Read about the PFLP association of the arrested youths here. Read our fact page on Norway and the PFLP. Excerpt below:
Rød Ungdom (Red Youth), the youth wing of Rødt (Red), raised funds for PLFP in the summer of 2009. See below for an unauthorized translation from Rød Ungdom’s web-site featuring an interview with their leader, Mari Eifring.

Rød Ungdom’s summer camp has a long tradition of collecting funds for political movements the organization is engaged in solidarity work for. Previously money has been collected for the Labor party of Kurdistand and the Maoist-party in Nepal. The collected funds from this year’s camp, which started on Utøya on Tuesday, goes to the Palestinian liberation movement PFLP.
…
We must recognize the Palestinian’s right to resist the occupying force of Israel. The situation in the Middle East is similar to a war, and you do not become a terrorist by fighting against an occupation, says Eifring. Earlier this year she travelled with two other representatives from RU to Palestine, and met among other PFLP’s parliament representative Khalida Jarrar (picture). – It was strange to meet a politician, a member of the Palestinian legislative assembly, who is counted as a dangerous terrorist.

There is an interesting interview with Khalida Jarrar on Al-Masakin news agency, where Ms.Jarrar among other replies to this question:

via israelwhat.com

image via redantliberationarmy.wordpress.com

and tadamon.ca

figures the Norwegian Nazi Socialists were behind this

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar does PUBLIC RELATIONS for Islam

Abdul-Jabbar should stop writing and start reading his violent religion.....

American basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will visit Israel in July and meet with Rabbi Israel Meir Lau to discuss a film that he is making about World War II, the rabbi said recently.

The film is based on the book "Brothers in Arms", which Abdul-Jabbar co-authored and deals with the American troops who liberated Nazi concentration camps in the end of World War II. Abdul-Jabbar's own father served on the 761st Tank Battalion, which liberated the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany.
Among the Jews rescued from the camp were two children: Rabbi Lau and his brother, Naftali Lavie. Abdul-Jabbar and Lau met for the first time 14 years ago, during the former's first visit to Israel.
"The fact that such a famous basketball player, and a Muslim, is about to attach himself to the Holocaust issue is very exciting," he said. "I will certainly give my blessing to this initiative."
The retired athlete will arrive early in July as a guest of the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Consulate in New York, and will participate in the Jerusalem Film Festival, where he will present the basketball documentary that he produced, "On the Shoulders of Giants."
Lau said that Abdul-Jabbar's father, Ferdinand L. Alcindor, had a dying wish: "That his son visit Israel, and meet the little boy that he rescued from Buchenwald and turned into a prominent rabbi."
Lau said he clearly remembers how an African American solider came up to him during the liberation, picked him up, and told the residents of the German city of Weimer: "Look at this sweet kid, he isn't even eight yet. This was your enemy, he threatened the Third Reich. He is the one against whom you waged war, and murdered millions like him."
Decades later, Lau said, his rescuer's son found him.

Rabbi Lau was the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1993-2003.
(h/t JB)

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com and via YNet

image via informazone.co.cc

I hope one of those Rockets hits this idiot. he's a large target

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Rep. Peter King (R) Demands Answers from Holder on Decision Not to Prosecute CAIR, its Co-Founder, and other Unindicted Co-Conspirators in Holy Land Foundation Case

In related news: DOJ Source: Gov’t Muslim ‘Outreach’ Jeopardized Active Terror Investigations.

Washington, D.C. (Monday, April 18, 2011) – ­U.S. Rep. Peter T. King (R-NY), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, has demanded an explanation from Attorney General Eric Holder as to why he decided not to prosecute the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), its co-founder Omar Ahmad, and other named unindicted co-conspirators in the Hamas terror finance case, United States v. Holy Land Foundation. The other unindicted co-conspirators include the Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust.
In a letter to Holder, King wrote: “I have been reliably informed that the decision not to seek indictments of the Council on American Islamic Relations (“CAIR”) and its co-founder Omar Ahmad, the Islamic Society of North America (“ISNA”), and the North American Islamic Trust (“NAIT”), was usurped by high-ranking officials at Department of Justice headquarters over the vehement and stated objections of special agents and supervisors of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas, who had investigated and successfully prosecuted the Holy Land Foundation case.
More...

via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

image via anti-cair-net.org

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Charles Manson Believes In Global Warming

There now, Al Gore gains a new friend:

Crazed cult leader Charles Manson has broken a 20-year silence in a prison interview coinciding with the 40th anniversary of his conviction for the gruesome Sharon Tate murders - to speak out about global warming.


The infamous killer, who started championing environmental causes from behind bars, bemoaned the 'bad things' being done to environment in a rambling phone interview from his Californian jail cell.


'Everyone’s God and if we don’t wake up to that there’s going to be no weather because our polar caps are melting because we’re doing bad things to the atmosphere.


'If we don’t change that as rapidly as I’m speaking to you now, if we don’t put the green back on the planet and put the trees back that we’ve butchered, if we don’t go to war against the problem...' he added, trailing off.


Manson, who described himself to his interviewer as a 'bad man who shoots people', brainwashed members of a commune known as The Family into butchering eight people including film director Roman Polanski’s pregnant wife Sharon Tate in July and August 1969.


Speaking to Vanity Fair Spain magazine of the killing spree he led his crazed disciples on, the 76-year-old said: 'I live in the underworld. I don’t tell people what to do. They know what to do.


'If they don’t know what to do they don’t come around me because I’m very mean, I’m very mean.'

via politikditto.com

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GREAT NEWS! Yousuf Al Qaradawi reported to be in coma

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who just two months ago enthralled two million Egyptians with his Jew hatred, is rumored to be in a coma.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Dubai: According to the Syrian News Network, renowned Islamic scholar Yousuf Al Qaradawi has fallen into a coma.

rot in hell

The report gave no source or link. No confirmation has been obtained so far. However, the news has spread quickly on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

via gulfnews.com

Haniyeh urges to take Israeli hostages

Hamas lawmaker Ahmad Bahar on Sunday urged Palestinian factions to form militant groups with the aim of capturing Israeli soldiers.

The deputized Palestinian Legislative Council speaker said kidnapping soldiers would pressure Israeli authorities to release Palestinian political prisoners. He made the remarks in a speech commemorating Palestinian Prisoners' Day in Gaza City.

via Maan News h/t challahhuakbar.blogspot.com
Haniyeh urges Palestinians to back Schalit swap deal
Speaking in Gaza, Hamas PM says group will not disappoint prisoners' families, says exchange deal would be victory for Palestinians.Speaking in Gaza, Hamas PM says group will not disappoint prisoners' families, says exchange deal would be victory for Palestinians.Hamas sources on Wednesday said they are "positively considering releasing a new tape of Gilad Schalit, but Israel will have to pay a price for it," reported Army Radio.Hamas sources on Wednesday said they are "positively considering releasing a new tape of Gilad Schalit, but Israel will have to pay a price for it," reported Army Radio. via jpost.com
play the game... and make sure those released from Israeli jails never get out of Gaza... alive

bankrupted itself by backing the revolution

the irony of all the rich snobs
...who love the "artist" Banksy...
Viva La Suckers!!!

The_American_Revolution had been partly caused by the economic problems of two monarchies, England and France, the former of which began squeezing the Colonies in order to balance its own books, and the latter which bankrupted itself by backing the revolution. The British monarchy became a shell after centuries of internal conflicts caused in part by its constant need for new sources of revenue. The French Revolution was in turn caused more by a demand for financial accountability from a free spending monarchy, than by the grand ideas like Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite. Meanwhile America's own earliest conflicts between individual rights and the Federal government, such as the Whiskey Rebellion, were caused by the government's need for revenue.

With a massive rising national debt that threatens to consume the entire productive capacity of the United States, modern day America is going down the very same road as the Kings of France. And the process has been radically accelerated by the transformation of the role of government, from that of the "fence" around our rights, to the "provider" of rights, and beyond that government had also redefined rights as services. And just as it costs more to put a nanny in every home, than to hire a watchman for a single block, providing services takes government to a whole new spending level.

via sultanknish.blogspot.com

WE ARE FUNDING OUR OWN REVOLUTION! ...which will execute us, like the French Royalty. Pompous dreamers who did not see they were agitating their own murderers. It was the French royalty who brought the court to the suburbs... where they could watch their top people... centralization that would lead to easy control. Viva that Revolution we are doomed to repeat over and over again. Call it a fight and then build the Panopticon, only to find oneself slaughtered by ones owns walls.

image from  Banksy exhibition in Bristol via madameguillotine.org.uk

Hizballah in Venezuela: The Man Who Knows Too Much

Obama has destroyed the ability to influence it's allies. note Columbia will not extradite a Syrian drug lord to the U.S.... even though he wants to go... because he has information on Hezbollah selling drugs with Chavistan help. not just low level. Chavez wants to torture and kill this Syrian so Walid Makled doesn't rat him out.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's biggest problem was named Walid Makled. The Colombian government just confirmed, however, in an announcement from its Minister of the Interior and Justice, Hermán Vargas, that Venezuelan drug trafficker Walid Makled -- wanted by both Washington and Caracas -- will be extradited to Venezuela, not to Washington as the US had hoped.
This is a big victory of Venezuela over the US. Colombia, which had been the main ally of the US in Latin America, had good reason to feel abandoned by the Obama Administration and preferred to pursue its own interest with Venezuela. The Obama administration has still not ratified the free-trade agreements with Colombia; and President Obama avoided visiting Colombia on his recent, first Latin American tour.
Makled made it clear that he wanted to be extradited to the U.S., and has said he would give answers to most questions only to the U.S. prosecutor. Given the policy of rapprochement between the two Latin American countries, however, it seems that the Colombian government preferred to extradite Makled to Venezuela, where the wealth of information that Makled could have provided on drug trafficking, on Chavez's links with terrorism and on Hezbollah's operations in South America will be lost for good. The Venezuelan regime can now easily "silence" the drug kingpin, who fears for his life.
Makled, alias "El Arabe," a Syrian-born Venezuelan citizen, labelled by the U.S. government one of the world's top three drug kingpins, was arrested in Colombia last August in a joint operation of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Colombian police. Ever since, he has become the object of battle between the United States and Venezuela: both countries were asking for Makled's extradition to their soil.
Makled, whom the US Drug Enforcement Agency has accused of shipping up to 10 tons of cocaine a month from Venezuela to the United States, acknowledged bribing and collaborating with highest officials of Venezuela's government — including the general-in-chief, the head of military intelligence, the commander of the Navy and some 40 generals.
In the many interviews Makled has given from his prison in Colombia, he says he has videotapes and other evidence documenting his transactions with Venezuelan generals and senior government officials, provincial governors, members of Venezuelan Congress, cabinet secretaries. He describes making payments of about $1 million a month to Venezuelan high-ranking civilian and military officials. "If I am a drug trafficker, everyone in the Chavez government is drug trafficker," Makled has said.
Further, Makled claims to have information on Chavez's help to Hezbollah and other Middle Eastern terrorist groups operating in the Venezuelan soil. Makled stated in an interview that Hezbollah is "absolutely" active in Venezuela. He also has information on the flights between Venezuela and Teheran -- a serious source of concern for the US.
As the Washington Post puts it: "The Obama administration is about to lose an extraordinary opportunity to prosecute one of the world's biggest drug traffickers. It will fail to break up a network that annually smuggles hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States. And it will miss delivering a devastating blow to the most dedicated U.S. adversary in Latin America, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez."

via hudson-ny.org

image via connect.in.com

Obama pisses off allies. Why would Columbia cooperate with him?

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