Security Secretary confirms Al-Qaeda related terrorist threats against two Argentine malls.

[forest444]

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Argentine Security Secretary Sergio Berni appeared on television today to confirm that a terrorist threat had been made against two popular malls in the Buenos Aires area. Joined by the Director of the Federal Intelligence Agency, Oscar Parrilli, and its Deputy Director Martín Mena, Berni told reporters security forces would remain deployed at those locations for the next 24 or 48 hours.

According to Berni, a terrorist threat dated October 27 was received by an Argentine embassy abroad, targeting the Abasto Mall, in Buenos Aires, and the Unicenter Shopping Center, located in the northern Buenos Aires suburb of Martínez.

The notice warned about "possible attacks committed within the next days by members of Ansar Dine group, an organization linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.”

The Security Ministry immediately issued an alert and reinforced security in both malls. “We are working locally and internationally,” Secretary Berni explained, adding that the country's four federal forces and both the Metropolitan and Federal police forces were working together.

Read more: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/202019/security-secretary-confirms-terrorist-threats-says-no-reason-to-panic

[Beacool]

1. Why are they targeting Argentina?

Iran was behind the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community's AMIA/DAIA building, but why the new threats?

[forest444]

3. Elections are three weeks from now.

One can only guess, of course; but that may have something to do with it.

It's no secret the CIA backs the right-wing opposition candidate, Mauricio Macri (who also enjoys the staunch support of all three major media groups in Argentina, as well as the church, the banks, and big landowners). If this turns out to be true (we'll have to wait until the next Wikileak), the intent seems to be the fanning of voter discontent - and what better way to do that than to make people afraid to go to the mall.

Since it's also established fact that the CIA and Al-Qaeda go way back (it was in fact created by CIA as "the database", and worked together in Afghanistan against the USSR), and since they're still being used for major regime change operations (remember: ISIS was 'Al-Qaeda in Iraq' until recently), there's no reason to think they can't be called on for minor regime change missions as well.

Why? Argentine debt restructuring, which got the country out of default in 2005, resumed payments to its bondholders, and has been far more successful than the boobs at the WSJ and The Economist believed it could possibly be. The problem? Adamant opposition from Washington - by neocons especially, but even by the Obama White House.

A Macri victory would mean the end for debt restructuring efforts - a self-imposed end, rather than by way of vulture fund extortion (since this tactic has failed).

[Beacool]

5. Thanks for the response.

I think that Macri will probably win. Cristina Kirchner has not been a popular president. I was in Buenos Aires when people were holding "cacerolazos" protests. Basically taking to the street and banging pots and pans. It was all sorts of people, some looked like they had just gotten off work and still were in suits. They were protests all over the country. Protesting against perceived corruption in her administration, rising crime and her attempts to get Congress to amend the Constitution so that she could run for a third term.

People are not happy either about an open borders policy that has allowed some unsavory elements to get into the country, such as the Mexican drug cartels and Colombian gangs of thieves. Argentina has free education (including college) and socialized medicine. They have had these rights for decades and some of the other Latin countries do not. Therefore, many people want to emigrate to Argentina. They also have the highest standard of living in Latin America.

[forest444]

6. Ah, yes. The Argentine Tea Baggers.

I'm somewhat familiar with Buenos Aires myself, and I'm sorry your trip had to be marred by those idiots.

What you saw, actually, were Argentine right-wingers seizing what they thought was a good political opportunity (polls of those who participated revealed that fully 98% were opposition voters). And far from spontaneous, the pot bang parades were largely planned on social media by right-wing figures, many with ties to the brutal (and economically ruinous) 1976-83 dictatorship.

One of its leaders was Carlos Manfroni, a well-known local op-ed writer who believes among other things that "progressivism is a Jewish, Masonic construct, an infectious disease," "artists are parasites," and that "democracy and freedom are the stinking legacy of the French Revolution." Far from being on the fringes, these sentiments are actually quite common among Buenos Aires right-wingers (many of whom supported, and still defend, the last dictatorship). Indeed, the parades were peppered with scenes like this without so much as a batted eyelash from the other caceroleros:



Having said that, I agree that Scioli has an uphill battle ahead of him. While it's true that most of the rest of the country is a lot more populist politically (Cristina Kirchner still has a 50% approval nationwide), it's difficult for any populist - even a centrist like Scioli - to win when you have a country where all three major media groups look like Fox News.

Can you imagine if, instead of CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, we had Fox1, Fox2, and Fox3? The Presidency would be out of reach for any Democrat (which, as you know, was Reagan's plan when he had the FCC illegally authorize Fox News in 1985).

It's Macri's to lose, no doubt about it. Which is sad, because in Argentina those who forget the past...well, you know.

[MowCowWhoHow III]

2. Tera Tera Tera?

Second round of voting between the two leading candidates in the general election due to take place on 22 November

[forest444]

4. Bingo.

We'll never know, of course (short of a massive new Wikileak); but since the CIA and AL-Qaeda have always been thick as thieves, and since the CIA is believed to be very much on the side of vulture funds and of their Argentine puppets (the right-wing Mauricio Macri and his pro-profitization gang), a disruption like this would make perfect sense in that context.