In 2006, the United States was optimistic about the Spanish government’s initiative to act as a mediator between the Syrian government of Bashar Assad and Hizballah over the latter’s disarmament. Then-Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos made a series of trips to Damascus, which the United States saw as a positive sign to try to defuse the volatile situation in the Middle East. In a series of cables sent by the US Embassy in Madrid and released by the Wikileaks website, American diplomats advised Washington that Spain could play a constructive role in the region. On August 3, 2006, the US Ambassador in Madrid at the time, Eduardo Aguirre, reported Moratinos as saying that Syria had … [Read more...] about Spain’s Syrian efforts received US backing
Moratinos
FARC, ETA and Al Qaeda: the terror connection
When the US Drug Enforcement Administration announced in December that it had arrested three suspected Al Qaeda operatives in Ghana and brought them to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges, investigators unveiled some astonishing allegations. The defendants had offered to help rebels of South America’s oldest active guerrilla front, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), traffic cocaine into Spain using North African routes. While there had been speculation regarding such a connection in the past, this was the first time US law enforcement authorities had linked the dots between Islamic extremists and the FARC in a criminal indictment. Then in early March, … [Read more...] about FARC, ETA and Al Qaeda: the terror connection