| Beretta Px4 Storm | |
|---|---|
 Right-side view of the Px4 Storm with rotating barrel lock | |
| Type | Semi-automatic pistol |
| Place of origin |  Italy |
| Production history | |
| Manufacturer | Beretta |
| Produced | 2004-Present |
| Variants | C, D, F, G, SC |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | Px4: 27.7 oz (785 g) (without magazine) Px4SC: 25.2 oz (715 g) (without magazine) |
| Length | Px4: 7.55 in (192 mm) Px4SC: 6.2 inch (158 mm) |
| Barrel length | 4.0 in (102 mm) |
| Width | Px4: 1.42 in (36 mm) Px4SC: 1.2 in (30 mm) |
| Height | Px4: 5.51 in (140 mm) Px4SC: 4.8 in (122 mm) |
| | |
| Cartridge | 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, |
| Action | Short recoil, locked-breech, rotating barrel lock |
| Feed system | Px4: 10, 14, 17 or 20 round box magazine Px4SC: 13 (9mm) or 10 (.40 S&W) box magazine |
| Sights | 3-dot luminescent |
The Beretta Px4 Storm is a semi-automatic pistol manufactured by Beretta of Italy and intended for personal defense and law enforcement use. The Px4 uses the same short-recoil, rotating barrel lock as the Beretta 8000 Models and uses exactly the same Operating System as the M9/92/96 series, while being completely different in design from either. Light-weight polymer construction with steel inserts, a modular trigger group, fully enclosing slide, Picatinny rail on the chin, and changeable backstrap options for the grip are a radical departure from previous Beretta designs.
Contents |
Design
Unlike the Beretta 92/96/M9 series, the Px4's trigger guard is rounded for better concealed carry. The takedown pin of earlier models is replaced by a spring-loaded bar, accessed via frame recesses at both ends, which must be grasped and pulled down simultaneously to release the slide. The slide spring is doubly captive, being inserted approximately an inch into the transfer block at one end and a receiving hole in the front of the slide at the other. It is a self-contained assembly, completely captured by the polymer guide. The magazine holds the top round directly behind the barrel's breech end so only a slight feed ramp is needed. This allows the barrel to fully support the case. The 6-R rifling of the barrel generates counter-clockwise torque which is harnessed by the locking system to reduce the amount of pressure on the rotating barrel lock's cam and pin system when unlocking. The steel transfer block's cam pin is 5mm wide and 2mm deep. The entire hammer unit mechanism can be removed from the Px4, without the use of special tools, as a single group. This allows easy access to the firing mechanism for cleaning. The Px4's design makes it impossible to assemble incorrectly from a field-stripped takedown.
The Px4 features an interchangeable, luminescent 3-dot sight system (coated in Super-LumiNova) for use in dark or low-light situations. With short exposure to any kind of light, the night sights' luminescence lasts up to 30 minutes. The weapon also incorporates a Picatinny rail under the muzzle to allow flashlights, laser sights and other accessories to be attached.
Removable and Interchangeable Parts
To aid the versatility of the Px4, a number of parts were designed to be removable and interchangeable. These parts include the backstrap, the magazine release button, the slide catch and the hammer unit mechanism. The backstrap is available in three sizes: slim, standard and oversized. The magazine release button can be mounted on either side of the weapon and replaced by one of three types: standard, large or combat (extended). The standard slide catch can be replaced with a slimmer version to avoid snagging when the weapon is drawn quickly from a holster.
Models
The Px4 is available in four models:
- Type F - Single and double-action. De-cocker. Manual safety.
- Type C - Single-action-only ("Constant Action"). Spurless hammer. No de-cocker. No safety.
- Type D - Double-action-only. Spurless hammer. No de-cocker. No safety.
- Type G - Single and double-action. De-cocker. No manual safety.
Px4 Subcompact
The Px4 Storm Subcompact is a compact Px4 chambered in 9 mm and .40 S&W. It has a DA/SA trigger. The Px4sc uses a tilt barrel system. Light-weight polymer construction with steel inserts, a modular trigger group, Picatinny rail on the chin, and changeable backstrap options for the grip. It is intended for personal defense and law enforcement use with a focus on concealed carry.
Beretta is marketing the PX4sc as the most advanced Subcompact sidearm in existence. It is lightweight and small. The barrel is stainless steel, to help prevent corrosion from perspiration. The magazine release button is both changeable (two sizes included) and reversible. Finally Beretta’s patented SnapGrip Magazine Extender, extends the grip size down for a more secure grip.
Joint Combat Pistol
Additionally, the Px4 has been announced in .45 ACP designated as the Px4 Storm SD (Special Duty). Notable optional additions are the desert tan frame color and the longer barrel to facilitate the use of a suppressor, and is now available in a sub-compact format.
Usage
 | This section does not cite any references or sources. (October 2007) Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Canada — The PX4 was chosen after extensive trials to be issued to the Canada Border Services Agency starting in 2007.[1]
United States — Dare County North Carolina Sheriff’s Office has become the first exclusive Beretta Storm agency, purchasing seventy Cx4 Storm Patrol Rifles to replace their patrol shotguns, and seventy Px4 Storm Pistols as their official sidearm.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana ordered 1,400 Px4 Storm (9mm) pistols to be used as their main duty weapon.
Wheeling, WV, Ohio County Sheriff's Department selected the Beretta PX4 Storm (.40 cal.) as the official patrol pistol for the agency.
The Providence, Rhode Island Police Department also selected the Beretta PX4 Storm (.40 cal.) as the pistol of choice for the agency
The United States Coast Guard also selected the Beretta PX4 Storm (.40 cal.) as the pistol of choice for the agency
See also
- Beretta Cx4 Storm Pistol-Caliber Carbine
- Beretta Rx4 Storm 5.56mm Semi-Automatic Rifle
External links
PX4sc
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Exclusive: An early Israeli general election is becoming unavoidable
May 5, 2008, 10:50 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile’s political sources report that circles closest to Ehud Olmert, prime minister and leader of the Kadima party see little hope of him surviving the political fallout from the new, as-yet unpublished police investigation against him.
Tuesday, May 6, is seen as marking the critical point in the inquiry, after which the police and general prosecution will move quickly to draw up an indictment.
Whether or not Olmert escapes conviction at the end of the road, his position as prime minister is becoming untenable ahead of the legal battle to clear is name.
Our sources do not credit the reports that Monday, May 5, visiting US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice leaned hard on Olmert to mark President George W, Bush’s May 14 visit with a declaration defining the final frontiers of a Palestinian state acceptable to Israel. They say Rice is fully aware he is in no state for radical decisions that would finalize Israel’s state borders as well.
Israel’s parties have begun looking ahead to an autumn 2008 general election. A vacuum is beginning to form in the conduct of Israel’s most pressing security and other matters because of the prime minister’s shrinking authority.
Foreign minister Tzipi Livni as acting prime minister would step into Olmert’s shoes to head a caretaker government until elections, if he stepped down or was otherwise barred from carrying out his duties. In prospective Kadima primaries, transport minister Shaul Mofaz and others would challenge her for the party leadership.
Labor leader, defense minister Ehud Barak, is believed to be exploring a pact with Livni to form a new party bloc to fight Likud. New party factions may spring up. There are no clear answers as yet on the manner of Olmert’s departure or its short-term impact on the shape of the government coalition.
Exclusive: Saudi Crown Prince Sultan is dying
May 3, 2008, 10:25 PM (GMT+02:00)
Crown Prince Sultan
DEBKA-Net-Weekly 347 2 first disclosed May 2 that Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, America’s staunchest ally in the royal house, Minister of Defense and head of the Sudairi branch of princes, is dying of cancer at his villa in Geneva, Switzerland.
His brother, interior minister Prince Nayef, is standing by in Riyadh expecting to succeed him. And he will not have too long to wait before he reaches the throne. King Abdullah, at 85, is praised by Western analysts for the wise reforms he has introduced but some of the younger princes say he is no longer up to coping with the stresses and strains of his royal duties and most days he takes several hours off to rest.
Prince Nayef, the would-be king, who is roughly 75 years of age – a mere spring chicken on the Saudi royal geriatric scale – has managed to push his way to the front of the race for the throne despite his unpopularity. A scion of the Sudairi branch of the royal family, he is disliked for his bad temper, cantankerousness, hidebound opinions and close ties with the most extremist clerical circles.
Aged 83, Sultan contracted cancer many years ago. In late March, he moved to his palace in Rabat, Morocco, where Saturday, April 26, his condition took a turn for the worse. A special royal aircraft flew the Crown Prince to Geneva, Switzerland and handed him into the care of his regular Swiss doctors. There was nothing they could do at that point except place him in an induced coma to spare him pain.
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Israeli police commissioner defends gag order on new charge against PM Commissioner
May 4, 2008, 7:34 PM (GMT+02:00)
Police commissioner Dudi Cohen
Dudi Cohen, in his first statement on the fifth corruption probe launched against Ehdud Olmert, said Sunday, May 4, the good of the investigation takes precedence over the public’s entitlement to information. The team needs space. No individual is above the law.
Olmert’s former personal assistant Shula Zaken is under house arrest after she was questioned on the case for the second time. He too faces further questioning.
DEBKAfile: The political scene is in an uproar amid low expectations of the Olmert government’s life expectancy. The police and attorney general are widely criticized for keeping the case against the prime minister under close wraps by court order. As rumors abound, political leaders are constrained from making decisions on how to proceed for lack of daylight. Many assert that under the pressure of this sort of probe Olmert is not fit to carry on conduct state business.
Foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who is also acting PM, said at a joint news conference with visiting US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice Sunday afternoon: The investigators must be allowed to do their job. I have full confidence in the law enforcement authorities.
This was her answer to a question about whether the new inquiry would affect the negotiations she is holding with the Palestinian leader Abu Ala under US auspices. Livni confirmed that the talks would continue.
Responding to the same question, the US secretary said the investigation was an internal Israeli affair.
In an effort to generate an air of business as usual after he was questioned Friday on a charge described as extremely serious, the prime minister chaired the regular cabinet meeting in Jerusalem Sunday as usual. He will meet Rice again after greeting her when she arrived Saturday night.
Who Put “Deep Throat” up as Olmert’s Nemesis?
DEBKAfile Special Analysis
May 3, 2008, 9:47 PM (GMT+02:00)
What brought the unnamed accuser from America to the door of the Israeli police at this time? According to an Israeli paper, he laid before police investigators strong evidence of a new and grave corruption charge against prime minister Ehud Olmert, the fifth case opened against him thus far – all predating his two-year term as prime minister.
The attorney general Menahem Mazuz found the material substantial enough to order the police to question the prime minister under caution within 48 hours, raising one of the many questions on which a court gag order has condemned the public to ignorance.
Israeli politicians are in a dither but treading on eggs until they too find out what it is all about, why now and whether Olmert can weather the new scandal.
Until Saturday, May 3, the government rested on a slender majority of 67 out of 120 Knesset members, of which Olmert’s Kadima holds 27. Some members of his senior coalition partner, Labor, began demanding his suspension. But Labor’s leader, defense minister Ehud Barak, sent his wishes to the prime minister to come clean out of the probe and denied holding consultations with his advisers about the party’s next step. Olmert cannot afford to let Labor’s 19 members quit.
A junior coalition partner, the Pensioners party, responded to the looming scandal by three of its seven lawmakers splitting off and crossing the floor to the opposition. They have thrown in their lot with the ex-Russian Arkady Gaydamak, giving him a foothold in the Knesset and a boost to his political ambitions without having to fight an election.
The Olmert government was stripped down to a fragile majority of 64.
In the view of DEBKAfile’s political sources, Olmert’s anonymous accuser was put up to opening his can of worms by a party seeking to cloud Israel’s forthcoming 60th anniversary celebrations to which a glittering gallery of invited foreign guests, led by US president George W. Bush, is invited.
That party, whether domestic or foreign, wants to get rid of Ehud Olmert.
The step may connect with the battle Israel has fought to debunk the National Intelligence Estimate in which 16 US agencies concluded that Iran gave up nuclear weapons development in 2003.
The NIE’s purpose was to hold President Bush back from exercising America’s military option against Iran before he leaves the White House. Israel’s strenuous battle to devalue the estimate put that option back on the table in March. Olmert may have trodden on the toes of powerful American interests.
The anonymous informer against the prime minister turned up a few days after disclosures about Syria’s shattered North Korean reactor, which were clearly coordinated by the White House and the Israeli government.
Add to this the impatience in parts of the US administration with Olmert’s foot-dragging on his promised breakthrough in peace talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas by the end of 2008. Saturday night, May 3, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice started her 15th visit in two years to Jerusalem and Ramallah with little hope of progress.
Impatience on another score was demonstrated by transport minister Shaul Mofaz, former chief of staff and defense minister. After leading Israel’s strategic talks with US officials in Washington, he issued two dire warnings.
One was that Iran may attain command of uranium technology before the end of the year – which means the ability to produce nuclear bombs by next March or April.
This warning carries a critical time frame for an American or Israel military attack: June, July or August, 2008. The window of action is then narrowed by the fall and approaching winter. After that it will be too late
In another speech, Mofaz warned that the Olmert-Livni talks with Palestinian leaders will inevitably force Israel to strip itself of its most vital strategic national assets.
The connection between the two warnings is obvious. Iranian leaders make no secret of their plans to eradicate the Jewish state or their sponsorship of Hamas and Hizballah, which openly acclaim their dedication to the same goal.
Mofaz’s warnings recalled the almost forgotten rhetoric of past Israeli prime ministers.
Israeli history has ruled that none lasted long when they came close to giving up vital security assets. Shimon Peres survived for a year in 1996 after his move to continue the concessions made under the Oslo Framework Accords; Ehud Barak was toppled in 2000 as head of government and defense minister when he shrank from fighting the Palestinian uprising and sought an accommodation with Yasser Arafat instead.
Olmert is said to be on the point of giving up parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians and, according to a message carried by Turkish go-betweens to the Syrian ruler, offering to hand over the Golan as well.
The American whistleblower may have been sent - not just as Olmert’s private nemesis but to cut short his “peace talks” before he and foreign minister Tzipi Livni give too much away, and also as a wake-up call for action against Iran and its proxies, Hamas and Hizballah.
...................................................................................................................................................................THIS IS A MUST READ
Have you heard of the Republic of Lakota? According to a group of Sioux Indians, it is a sovereign nation—within the territorial United States, including parts of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Nebraska. They have appealed to foreign nations to recognize their independence from the U.S. So far, they’re out of luck.
Most of us haven’t even heard of the Lakota nation. If we had to quantify our level of concern that we’ll ever see the Republic of Lakota on a future National Geographic map, it would probably fall somewhere between “insignificant” and “punch line.”
But let’s think about this. After all, last September, the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous people that some believe bolsters the Lakotas’ legal case. For that matter, Kosovo, a chunk of Serbia, declared independence in February—and it managed to get several nations, including the U.S., to accept the idea.
So let’s just briefly imagine a similar scenario playing out in America. It’s a stretch, but stay with me. There’s a point to this.
Imagine the UN passing several declarations establishing the Lakotas’ historical and legal claim to their own nation. Indians nationwide immigrate there to take it over demographically. Many whites move out, and soon the Lakota nation becomes something of a de facto state of its own.
Under heavy international pressure, the U.S. government decides that, in the interest of keeping peace, it is best to relinquish control of the area. It encourages whites to leave—and finally undertakes to forcibly remove those who insist on staying.
Most Americans are upset by this turn of events, but then the situation turns seriously dangerous. Reports of terrorists smuggling weapons into the Lakota nation are confirmed when rockets begin to descend on U.S. cities—Omaha, then Sioux Falls, then Denver. The government responds with a degree of force—and is roundly condemned by other nations for doing so—but the rockets keep coming.
Imagine further if immigrants, both legal and illegal, begin to demand that the U.S. give up an enormous chunk of the Southwest—the entirety of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas—to form a new independent nation. We’ll call it Mexifornia, to use Victor Davis Hanson’s term. Imagine non-whites, most of whom don’t speak English, becoming the heavy majority. They form their own schools, and the curriculum includes virulent anti-white propaganda. A small but growing percentage of the immigrants begin to grow violent, staging increasingly brutal riots in U.S. cities bordering the Mexifornia region.
Imagine, over time, civil unrest and terrorist attacks becoming somewhat common all across America. Tussles in the streets—a bombing on a subway, in a deli, at a dance club. Local police forces are overwhelmed. A general, growing sense of dread and hopelessness spreads.
In order to address the growing security threat, the U.S. decides to reinstitute the draft, obligating everyone 17 years old and up—both men and women—to serve. The military swells to almost 10 times its present size: 8 million active troops and 19 million reservists—27 million total. Imagine going to town and regularly seeing U.S. soldiers openly carrying automatic rifles. Imagine seeing a private security guard outside nearly every restaurant. Imagine security checkpoints everywhere—when you’re parking at a school, when you’re entering a hospital, when you’re going to church.
And still, imagine the news continuing to report ongoing rocket attacks on U.S. cities. Virtually everyone in the country has been personally affected: a family member or acquaintance has experienced a missile attack or personally participated in a military strike against the secessionists.
Imagine if every time Washington takes action to protect Americans by retaliating against the terrorist perpetrators, it is accused by the UN and the international press of escalating the violence and destroying any chance of peace.
Imagine, then, the Mexican president saying he intends to wipe the U.S. off the map. Meanwhile he is robustly pursuing a nuclear program—a program that could easily produce nuclear weapons that would enable him to fulfill his pledge.
And so on. You get the picture.
This scenario is improbable to the point of being ridiculous. Except that, as you’ve surely realized by now, we’re not really talking about the Republic of Lakota, or the United States.
We’re talking about the Jewish state of Israel.
In that nation, something very close to what we’ve just imagined is reality.
Israel is, in many ways, the UN’s top enemy, the subject of almost continuous reprimand and censure. International pressure on Israel to turn the other cheek to terrorist violence and to relinquish territory it won in fundamentally defensive wars against Arab aggression is immense. Not long after Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, the terrorist group Hamas took over and has since launched thousands of rocket attacks at Israeli civilian population centers. The loss of the West Bank to Israel would be comparable to the loss of our fictional, five-state Mexifornia to the U.S.—yet it too is on the table for discussion.
Our scenario above didn’t even address the fact that Israel faces the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah on its border with Lebanon, Syria on its northern border, and an increasingly radical Egypt on its southern border—in addition to Iran itself, whose president has vowed to wipe it off the map, not far to its east.
The Jewish state is on a permanent war footing, with a mandatory draft and an enormous military (proportionally speaking, just as I described above in U.S. terms). The rifle-toting soldiers are everywhere, as are the security guards by the restaurants.
To Israelis, most of these things are practically invisible. For this American writer, however, walking the streets of Jerusalem for a week revealed a myriad of signs of the edginess—and in some cases, the weariness—of a people under attack. The nation’s parting sentiments were the layers of security I had to pass through just to get on the plane home: I counted nine of them, including a detailed 28-minute interrogation.
The perils Israel faces are very real and very serious. If comparable crises prevailed in the United States, the effect on the nation would be devastating.
For the Jewish state, however, war has been a way of life since it was born nearly 60 years ago. The Jews don’t fear confrontation. In many ways they seem to embrace it.
Their familiarity with danger, however, has a major downside.
The Jews have survived so many life-threatening situations—and not just in the wars Israel has endured as a state, but throughout the history of this oft-maligned and downtrodden people—that there seems to be a sense of inevitability about their surviving whatever the future may bring as well.
Yes, there is the war-weariness, infamously articulated by Ehud Olmert in his “We are tired of fighting, we are tired of winning” comment. But coupled with that is the assumption that even if the Jews give away land, cave in to international pressure, negotiate with terrorists, botch a war, carve off chunks of their capital city, wildly alter their strategy against the enemy from week to week or even day to day—somehow they will still come out okay in the end.
And when evidence to the contrary mounts, that just means they need to think harder. Surely the solution is within reach.
Many of Israel’s best thinkers are at work on the problem, and proposed solutions are proliferating. Annex the West Bank to Jordan. Encourage Jewish emigration. Improve Israel’s international PR. Quadruple the size of Jerusalem. Build an airport and a highway loop to attract businessmen. Drive electric cars to reduce dependency on Muslim oil exporters. Promote women’s rights in Muslim countries. Throw the prime minister in jail. Do this or do that, and we’ll be fine.
At a February conference in Jerusalem pondering these possibilities, Shlomo Amar, the chief Sephardi rabbi of Israel, made a telling comment. He asked, “Where is the joy in Jerusalem the City of God?” Today, truly, it is a city existing under a black pall of crises, a city of friction, of anger, of fear.
It is a marked contrast to the prophecy in the book of Zechariah—perhaps Rabbi Amar was alluding to it—of a time when Jerusalem will be a picture of joy, its streets full of boys and girls playing, with old men and women looking on contentedly.
Jerusalem, the rabbi said, “is the core, the spring, the fountain of our lives. From there we derive our strength.” He then spoke of the Jews having been driven out of Jerusalem and scattered among the nations for millennia. But, he said, “Two thousand years of exile and murder could not erase Jerusalem from the hearts of the Jews. Jerusalem has never ceased to be the first thing in our prayers, our expectations, our hopes. It was always our highest wish.”
Such steadfastness is a wonderful quality. But that is not the most important point to draw from the history of which Rabbi Amar spoke.
That history begs some penetrating questions. Why were the Jews exiled? Why were they driven out, never to return until 1948? Why did God allow the very City of God to be trampled and the Jews to be decimated and scattered? It wasn’t because of a lack of ingenuity. And it is utterly naive to think that such a disaster couldn’t happen again.
The signs are everywhere that it will, and soon....................................................................................................................................
Is Chávez Helping Terrorists Go Nuclear?
Hugo Chávez has transformed Venezuela into a thriving hideout, breeding ground and launching pad for terrorism and the black market nuclear trade. Few see it, but this South American state is a large and most underreported threat to America’s national security.
On March 26, Colombian officials seized 66 pounds of uranium from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (farc) terrorist group. The uranium was buried along a road in the countryside south of Bogota. Information leading to the discovery came from the laptop computer of Raúl Reyes, a top farc leader killed by Colombian authorities March 1.
Reports said the uranium was “impoverished,” or depleted, meaning it lacked the concentrated radioactive material needed for a dirty bomb. Authorities also gave assurances that farc lacks the technology and resources to actually construct a nuclear bomb.
The Western media heard those facts and breathed a sigh of relief, perceiving the discovery of farc’s uranium cache to be an event of minor consequence. This view couldn’t be more wrong!
The Most Dangerous Black Market
That seizure marked the first time radioactive material has been linked to farc. It raises some critical questions: Why is farc in the major league of black-market uranium trade? Where did it get the uranium? And what was it planning on doing with it? So far, the most plausible explanation is that farc planned to sell the uranium to raise money, since joint American-Colombian eradication efforts against farc’s cocaine crops and operations are eating into its cash flow. That’s reasonable, though in reality the material was nearly worthless. But who would be interested in purchasing uranium, and how deep do farc’s connections with that entity run?
Matthew Bunn, senior research associate with Harvard’s Project on Managing the Atom, said he found it interesting that “a very professional terrorist organization like farc, with a good deal of experience in smuggling, apparently was interested in getting involved in buying and selling nuclear material for money. That suggests that someone who had serious nuclear material (unlike this material) and needed to move it from one country to another might have been able to make use of the farc’s capabilities” (Foreign Policy, March 28; emphasis mine throughout).
Black-market activities are inherently dangerous, but few are more so than the illegal trade of nuclear materials and technology. The nature of the underground trade in uranium, particularly when it involves covert enrichment and construction of a nuclear weapon (the ultimate weapon of mass destruction), requires above all a rare willingness to risk everything for the cause, as well as expansive expertise and vast resources. The point is, 66 pounds of uranium didn’t accidentally fall into farc’s lap. farc is clearly—although we don’t know to what extent—involved in the international black-market trade of nuclear material.
That’s alarming when you consider the known members of the black-market nuclear trade!
Clearly, this seizure raises more questions than it answers. While many find assurance in the lack of answers, this is a naive approach. The truth is, these questions are extremely disconcerting—especially when considered against the growth of the South American terrorist network.
Mountains of evidence have arisen in recent years showing that South America is a hideout and breeding ground for the world’s most dangerous terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas. Pockets of South America—including areas in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, all of which have governments hostile to the U.S.—have become launching pads from which the world’s most venomous anti-American entities, particularly radical Islam, could strike the United States.
Now we learn that uranium is being illegally traded in the region. Even the weakest imagination ought to be able to conjure images of what the consequences for America could be!
Foreign Policy said Reyes’s laptop was the gift that just keeps giving. Tyler Bridges from the Miami Heraldfarc operations—especially a deadly military raid in a rebel camp in Ecuador after which Colombian authorities obtained computer documents belonging to slain guerrilla leader Raúl Reyes—indicate that the farc had established links in Venezuela, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Mexico” (March 31). explained why: “Anti-
Enter Chávez
Hugo Chávez is one of farc’s strongest allies. The Venezuelan president has successfully negotiated the release of prisoners held by farc, financed the terrorist organization to the tune of $300 million, allowed farcfarc’s terrorist activities and lamenting the death of Raúl Reyes. guerrillas to take refuge from Colombian troops at camps in Venezuelan territory and, more recently, made public statements supporting
Word on the street is that farc received the uranium from suppliers in Venezuela. That’s entirely possible. There have been whispers over the past two years that Venezuela is mining uranium with the help of Iran. Those claims were substantiated in September 2006 when Colombia’s former Defense Minister Camilo Ospina said that Caracas was secretly operating two uranium mines deep inside Venezuela. Ospina’s remarks were quickly disavowed by the Colombian government.
A growing pile of circumstantial evidence suggests that Venezuela, with Iran’s assistance, could be operating two covert uranium mines. Confirming it is difficult because Venezuelan officials have warned that any unauthorized aircraft flights in the vicinity of the mine locations will be subject to deadly force.
What is certain, and widely reported, however, is that Hugo Chávez has developed alarmingly close connections with Tehran and has transformed his nation into one of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest terrorist havens. According to Latin American current affairs analyst Vladimir Torres, Chávez has helped both Iran and radical Islam strengthen their presence in Venezuela and across the region. “Since March 2, 2007, Iran’s national airline, Iran Air, is flying on a weekly basis to Venezuela. The commercial Tehran-Caracas flight, with a stop in Damascus, Syria, allows for easy movement of passengers, given Venezuela’s lax immigration controls, the absence of visa requirements, and the reported ‘unofficial’ instruction to Venezuelan custom officers not to ask questions regarding whom and what comes and goes in the flight” (Sept. 26, 2007).
So despite the intense efforts and hundreds of millions of dollars spent by Western nations to implement national security measures designed to curb the travel of Islamic terrorists, these hate-filled individuals are traveling between Iran and Venezuela with frightening ease!
Plenty of evidence further proves the strengthening Iran-Venezuela relationship. Torres continued: “The Iranian embassies in some [South American] countries have increased their number of accredited diplomats to figures that seem out of proportion with their needs. The presence of more than 30 diplomats in Managua alone has already triggered suspicions regarding their mandate. There are substantiated reports of Hezbollah cells operating in Venezuela—particularly in Margarita Island, where real-estate businesses provide the cover for alleged drug-money laundering and fund-raising for the terrorist organization” (ibid.).
When it comes to terrorist organizations and states seeking the destruction of the U.S., Venezuela is no respecter of persons. Hugo Chávez supports farc, he supports Iran, he supports Iranian-sponsored groups like Hezbollah, and he supports al Qaeda. Did farc’s uranium originate in Venezuelan mines jointly operated by Iran and Venezuela? Did it receive it from Iran, via Venezuela? More importantly, how many other caches of uranium, perhaps enriched uranium, are circulating in this South American terrorist network?
No one knows the answers to these questions. But the mountain of circumstantial evidence demands serious investigation!
Enter al Qaeda
Now let’s turn our attention to Syrian-born al Qaeda leader Mustafa Setmariam Nasar. Prior to being indicted in Spain for providing assistance to the plotters of the 9/11 attacks, Nasar went on a brief jaunt to Venezuela. Kenneth Rijock, a financial crime consultant for World-Check, tracked Nasar’s movements in Caracas. “Nasar lived openly in Venezuela for several months, traveling at all times with his Venezuelan government bodyguard, all the while wanted by Interpol for Spain, visiting Caracas’ most important mosque, and holding meetings with Hezbollah, eta, farc, eln and Cuban G-2 members, amongst others, in support of their criminal and political activities in Latin America” (March 29).
During his visit, Nasar was also reported to have conducted meetings with notorious Venezuelan terrorist Carlos Rafael Lanz Rodríguez. What do Nasar and Lanz have in common? “Lanz is presently the president of Venezuela’s state-owned aluminum company, Alcasa, which has been accused by former Venezuela government mining engineers of covertly mining uranium for export to Iran, under the cover of aluminum production” (ibid.).
So let’s get this straight. Carlos Rafael Lanz Rodríguez, a well-known terrorist in charge of Venezuela’s alleged covert uranium mines, conducted meetings with notorious al Qaeda operative Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, a man who traveled with a bodyguard supplied by Hugo Chávez and conducted meetings in Caracas with Hezbollah, eta (the Basque terrorist organization) and—surprise, surprise—farc!
Keeping up with these details is challenging. Perhaps that’s why so few media outlets take the time to investigate the story. But the point is, Hugo Chávez has transformed Venezuela into a thriving hub for international terrorist organizations of all shapes and sizes, their state sponsors, and participants in the black-market trade of nuclear materials and technology.
Americans in particular ought to be in an uproar by this news. “Venezuela is known as a major transit hub. This network consists of facilitators, document vendors, pilots, bus and truck drivers, sea captains, small hotels, money exchanges, restaurants and stores that all cater to illegal immigrants” (Dec. 13, 2006). [into America],” wrote Fred Burton from Stratfor, “and an entire industry has developed in Venezuela around the practice of illegal alien smuggling. There is an ‘underground railroad’ of sorts that begins in Caracas and stretches along various air, land and sea routes used to move migrants into the United States
So Venezuela is not only a hub and staging ground for international terrorist organizations and the nuclear black market, it is also a key pit stop for illegals entering the U.S.!
Why aren’t America’s leaders and the mainstream media ringing alarm bells about the nuclear storm brewing in South America? The terrorists are circling and our leaders are sleeping, just as the Bible said they would be.
Notice what the Prophet Isaiah wrote more than 2,500 years ago: “All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest. His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber” (Isaiah 56:9-10). Ferocious beasts—some possibly armed with crude nuclear weapons—have taken root in America’s underbelly, and our leaders are sleeping when they should be barking!
For the Trumpet staff, the shameful silence of our leaders is motivating. We witness this deafening silence and are moved to act, to warn, to blow the trumpet and to support and amplify the voice of God’s watchman.
If, when you learn about the nuclear storm brewing in Venezuela or the other catastrophes building, you feel an urge to act, then you need to learn more about the work of the Philadelphia Church of God. Begin by requesting a free copy of Mystery of the Ages. Then, if you are still keen, request a visit from one of our ministers.....................................................................................................................................
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