"DDupin" wrote in message
news:20040110204336.26181.00002526@mb-m15.aol.com...
> I wonder how many of the U.S. visitors to Brazil have Brazilian origins.
These are admitted to Brazil with their Brazilian passports. The law
actually requires that Brazilian citizens cannot enter Brazil using another
country's passport. I have also heard of horror stories of some people that
have relinquished their Brazilian citizenship and later tried to enter
Brazil.
So to the Tourist Office, these count as "returning tourists/visitors", and
not as "U.S. resident tourists/visitors".
> But what about the contention made in the NY Times article that there are
Al
> Queada cells in the Iguacu Falls area? Is there any basis for that?
The accusation did not surprise me, frankly. The things about the Triple
Border are that i) It has a large Arab minority, and ii) It has a large flux
of people and goods, and iii) There is a lot of illicit business with
trafficking and money laundry going on, mostly because of drugs. The
situation of the border is not unlike that of Mexico/U.S.. There has been
minor funding operations starting from the Iguaçu Falls and linked to al
Qaeda, so the Time Magazine surmised. Nevertheless I doubt that there is a
single portion of any part of the planet which satisfies both of the
conditions above and have not have a problem of this kind, U.S. included.
The true important thing, after September 11, is not whether something like
money laundry for terrorist organizations have happened, but what the
countries are doing to prevent that these operations from continuing.
Surely enough, the last word from the U.S. ambassador in Brazil is that
there is no longer an active al Qaeda cells in the Falls region. (see
http://www.front.inf.br/1064009228.php ) In her words:
"In the past there was a lot of speculation, even among U.S. government
officials, that there was a flux of capitals from that region (Iguaçu Falls)
to the Middle East, which could be destined to extremists groups like
Hizbollah. Today it is clear that there is no evidence of terrorist groups
in the region."
"We have a deep collaboration with Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, tracking
the flux of money. I believe that the vast majority of people that send
money to the Middle East does so for noble and legal interests. They can,
for instance, send money to the Palestinian Authority, which is legally
constituted as a political and governmental organization."
"Everybody knows that there is a large rate of criminality in the Triple
Border, with traffic of weapons and money laundry. I think that there is no
country more preoccupied with this than Brasil, which tackles the problem of
traffic of weapons in the favelas. As far as the existence of terrorist
cells, I repeat, we do not have any knowledge of that. And I am not the
first one to say this. The secretary of state, Mr. Colin Powell already said
that."
Somehow I don't expect the author of the NYC article, Mr. Larry Rohter, to
mention any of the facts above. One would imagine that cross-checking one's
information would be the first duty of a reporter, so there.
B.
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