Jim sent this in:

US federal officials successfully obtained indictments against twelve members and associates of FARC, the notorious Colombian terrorist and drug-trafficking group, according to documents obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police’s Terrorism Committee.

Specifically, the 57th Front of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and taking a U.S. citizen hostage.

The first indictment — for material support of a terrorist organization – unsealed on Monday, charges Luis Fernando Mora-Pestana, aka “Virgilio Antonio Vidal Mora,” aka “Silver” and Julio Enrique Lemos-Moreno, aka “Andres,” who are leaders of the FARC’s 57th Front, along with Front associates Harold Ruben Segura Alvarez, aka “John Jairo,” aka “Cientifico;” Juanito Cordoba-Bermudez, aka “Juanito,” aka “Chechere;” and Cecilio Costa, aka “Cesar Perea,” aka “Costa;” with conspiracy to provide material support to the FARC.

Juanito Cordoba-Bermudez is in custody in the Southern District of New York. The material support indictment has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Denny Chin.

The second indictment – for hostage-taking – charges Mora-Pestana, Lemos-Moreno; Carlitos Lnu; Alexis Lnu, aka “Alexi;” Fnu Lnu, aka “El Indio;” Roque Orobio Lobon, aka “Roque Orobio Tobon;” aka “Mello,” aka “Tachuela;” Edilberto Berrio Ortiz, aka “El Gavilan;” Alejandro Palacios Rengifo, aka “El Gato,” aka “Yimi;” and Anderson Chamapuro Dogirama, aka “El Tigre,” aka “Dairon;” for their roles in the kidnapping of an American citizen for ransom in April 2008.

Roque Orobio Lobon is currently being held by Colombian authorities. The hostage-taking indictment has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff. Mora-Pestana and Lemos-Moreno are the only defendants charged in both indictments.The remaining defendants in the material support and hostage-taking indictments are at large.

Created in 1964, the FARC is structured as a paramilitary organization, with approximately 10,000 armed guerillas organized into seven “blocs;” 68 numbered “Fronts” (including the 57th Front); nine named “Fronts” and four urban “militias.”

The FARC is dedicated to the violent overthrow of Colombia’s democratically elected government and has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of State. The 57th Front operates in the territory within Colombia’s Choco Department, which borders Panama. The 57th Front supports the FARC’s terrorist activities through narcotics trafficking and kidnapping for ransom, including the kidnapping of Americans and other foreign nationals.

The hostage-taking indictment relates specifically to the 57th Front’s April 4, 2008, kidnapping of an American citizen. Mora-Pestana authorized financing for the kidnapping, and Orobio-Lobon and others carried out the kidnapping in the Costa del Este neighborhood of Panama City. The defendants held the victim for ransom, which they demanded from the victim’s relatives, informing the relatives that they would never see the victim alive again if the ransom was not paid. The victim was released in February 2009, after a member of the victim’s family paid the ransom.

The material support indictment recounts multiple discussions among the defendants regarding FARC logistics, supplies and weapons, as well as the seizures by authorities of a variety of weapons and material during February through September 2008. The material support indictment also covers the aftermath of a Feb. 22, 2008, attack by five FARC guerillas on a Panamanian police patrol boat and their subsequent capture in possession of substantial FARC weaponry and material.

Mora-Pestana and Cordoba-Bermudez in particular discussed the FARC’s response to the event, and on Feb. 27, 2008, a communiqué, purporting to be issued by a FARC element warned the government of Panama of consequences from its capture of the five attackers and that the 57th Front had been ordered to kidnap Panamanian officials to force an exchange of captives with the prisoners, if the prisoners were not released.

Other defendants discussed plans to engineer the five guerillas’ escape from a Panamanian prison. (Three of the guerrillas involved in the attack on the Panamanian police boat are now in custody in the Southern District of New York on charges relating to that event. Their case is pending before U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley, III). The material support indictment also recounts discussions concerning the April 4, 2008, kidnapping in Panama and efforts to impede that investigation.

Each of the defendants in the material support indictment is charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Each of the defendants in the hostage-taking indictment is charged with two counts of hostage taking, each of which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

“As alleged in the indictments, the 57th Front is one of the most violent elements of the FARC. This group of guerrillas kidnapped a United States citizen, procured weapons and explosives, and trafficked cocaine to fuel the FARC’s terrorist activities,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. “The charges unsealed today mark another important step in our efforts to combat international narco-terrorism.”

It bothers the hell out of me when a major hotel chain allows a known Islamic extremist group to conduct a conference at their facilities in their attempt to recruit prospective terrorists here in the States.

For those who may have missed it, members of Hizb ut-Tahrir – a global network of Sunni with ties to Al Qaeda met Sunday at a local Chicago area Hilton hotel to host a conference titled, “The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam.”  And to think that this “group” professes not to condone or engage in terrorism not to mention that the State Department does not have them on their terrorist watch list.

Yet at the same time, some terrorism experts make the claim that this group is more dangerous than some that are on the list.  At least one person, Walid Phares – head of the Future of Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies – says:

“Hizb ut-Tahrir is one of the oldest, largest indoctrinating organizations for the ideology known as jihadism.”

He further stated that rather than training members to carry out terrorist acts like Al Qaeda, the group focuses instead on indoctrinating youths between ages of 9 and 18 to absorb the ideology that calls for the formation of an empire — or “khilafah” — that will rule according to Islamic law and condones any means to achieve it, including militant jihad.

Part of their strategy is to package themselves as a moderate organization, yet they have a published book that seems quite the opposite of how they claim to operate here in the States.  The book, “How the Khilafah Was Destroyed,” has a passage in it that says that anyone  who rules by a non-Islamic system should,

“either retract or be killed … even if this led to several years of fighting and even if it led to the killing of millions of Muslims and to the martyrdom of millions of believers.”

They also endorse the hijacking of planes assuming that the plane belongs to a country that is at war with Muslims.  And yet despite what this organization’s obvious goal is, the State Department does not have them on their terrorist watch list and as a result, can host conferences like this anywhere in the U.S.

The hotel which is hosting this conference isn’t totally blameless here, either.  Rick Harmon, general manager of the Hilton Oak Lawn, said that Hizb ut-Tahrir registered under its own name when it reserved the room for the conference.  All well and good except that the hotel didn’t so its due diligence and discover that some of the lectures included in this conference has such titles as, “Capitalism is Doomed to Fail,” “The Global Rise of Islam,” and the “Role of Muslims in America”.  Only after the contract was signed did they discover this.

Harmon’s excuse?  He said that the hotel is open to all kinds of meetings that do not necessarily reflect the hotel chain’s beliefs, adding:

“We’re United States citizens and an American business — if it’s legal, we’re able to host it, as long as it’s nothing that disrupts our other guests’ privacy and security.”

It is obvious here that the hotel dropped the ball.  They should have done some vetting of this oprganization; apparently the pursuit of the dollar was more important than checking these unsavories to ensure that they were not a terrosist organization – which they obviously are.

It would behoove the State Department to investigate this group and discover for themselves what they’re all about.  But folks, don’t just take my word for it.  Here is this terrorist organization’s website.  To go there, click here.  Take a look around then you decide.

Old news, but just as true today as it was months – years even – ago: sanctions levied against North Korea do not work.  The sham also known as the United Nations tried it, but to no avail.  The North Koreans were even given incentives once upon a time; that didn’t appease them, either.

So what does one do against a nation that tries to flex its muscles by firing missiles and performing underground nuclear tests?  Probably depends on who you ask, but on Sunday, Secretary of State Billary Hillary Clinton said that the Obama administration will consider putting North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The North Koreans were taken off the list back in October, but of course, their most recent actions have made other nations take notice and reassess their options towards them.  Clinton says that she’s looking for sanctions “with teeth” that will have consequences for the NorKors.  Another interesting twist to this web is the two journalists who were arrested and will go to trial in north Korea on spy charges.

That folks will no doubt be a bargaining chip the NorKors will try to use against the U.S. and anyone else; however, commons sense tells you that this is something that needs to be treated as a humanitarian issue and nothing else.  First of all, they’re television journalists and not spies.  But like any terrorist organization, they arrest them, detain them and then make up trumped-up charges in the hopes of receiving the maximum benefit.

But I kind of sense here that the North Koreans will combine the arrest of the two journalists with their missile launching escapades and try to extract some incentives from the U.N. Security Council.  Meanwhile, the U.S., under the clueless hand of President Obama, will in the meantime do little or nothing.

I expect that inevitably, a military solution will be the option utilized here since the U.N. and the Obama administration are paralyzed by a combination of fear and inaction – which is par for the course for all parties involved.