>>3654806 (lb)

Re: Venezuela - Important to remember who the VP of Venezuela was up until June of this year. After being replaced, he now serves as Minister of Industries and National Production.

Tareck El Aissami

sauce: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/1878/venezuelan-minister-hezbollah

Venezuelan Minister Hangs Out With Hezbollah

February 11, 2011

Tarek Al-Aissami, the Venezuelan Minister of Interior and Justice, one of the key figures of the Chavez's government, is accused by the media of having used this position to issue passports to members of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Born in Lebanon of Syrian descent in 1980; his father, Carlos Al-Aissami, was the head of the Venezuelan branch of the Iraqi Baath political party. According to reports, before the invasion of Iraq his father held a press conference in which he described himself as a Taliban and called Osama Bin Laden, "the great Mujahedeen, Sheik Osama bin Laden."[1] The Minister's great-uncle Shibli Al-Aissami was a prominent ideologist and assistant to the secretary general of the Baath party in Baghdad during the Saddam Hussein regime.[2]

The Hezbollah's Connection

Al-Aissami started his political career as a student leader at the University of the Andes (ULA). He apparently had political control of the university dorms, which were allegedly used to hide stolen vehicles, make drug deals and smuggle in members of the guerrillas[3]. He then headed Onidex, the Venezuelan passport and naturalization agency inside the Interior Ministry.

Al-Aissami was appointed Minister in 2009, and designated to head Onidex by his close friend, Dante Rivas Quijada. The two attended the same university and is also reported to have ties to the Shiite movement Hezbollah.

There are also allegations that Al-Aissami is one of the people responsible for recruiting young Venezuelan Arabs to be trained in Hezbollah camps in Southern Lebanon.[4] Al-Aissami additionally seems to have helped establishing training caps inside Venezuela, complete with ammunition and explosives.[5] Reports claim that he was working directly with most-wanted terrorist Ghazi Nasr-Din[6], a Venezuelan diplomat also born in Lebanon.

The US Treasury Department added Ghazi Nasr-Din – along with Fawzi Kan'an, another Venezuelan born in Lebanon – to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists for their support of Hezbollah. Nasr-Din is also accused of having given Hezbollah donors information on bank accounts where the deposits would go directly to Hezbollah.[7]

In 2009, Al-Aissami participated in an event in support of Palestine in the Sheikh Ibrahim Mosque in Caracas. In that occasion, the Minister declared that beyond his governmental functions: "I am a son of Arabs, I am a Palestinian, I am an Iraqi […] Our revolution is also a revolution that fights for a free Palestine. You have to know that we are ready to give our life, if needed […] Viva Palestine, Viva Hugo Chavez, Viva the Revolution!"……