Venezuela says building drones with Iran's help

Source

(Reuters) - Venezuela is building unmanned drone aircraft as part of military cooperation with Iran and other allies, President Hugo Chavez said, in a move likely to heighten U.S. anxiety over his socialist government's role in the region.

I just read about this. Can you imagine that Anti-American nut having drones just south of us? The report says their drones are not up to our 'Predator-class' drone which has air to surface Hellfire missiles'. But what is to prevent them from building something similar?

Why is this important? What might he do with drones to shipping in the region? Or to our allies? Do we have the makings of another Sadaam or Amadinijahd right in our own backyard?

Eh, who cares??? Really Dennis, this is no different than them having military aircraft (in fact it is just another aircraft). Not the end of the world and won't change a damn thing. The only thing that would worry me is the Mexican cartels getting them and using them, but I saw some reports that claim they already have a few from US sources (I do not know how true those reports are).

Who cares? You d@mn well better care. This is about far more than just drones. Iran is developing terrorist bases in aAtin America for forays against the US. A declassified Pentagon analysis released to Congress in 2010 said that Al Qoda (an elite branch of the Iranian military) has had an increased presence in Latin America, particularly Venezuela.

Iran is pouring money into Latin America to expand its terror operatins there..in our backyard. It earmarked $4.5 billion in 2011 according to New York's Dalty News to strengthen its influence in the region. Hezbollah's primary base of activity in LAtin America is in the remote border tri-broder area of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. The RAND corporation has identified this as the most important center for financing Islamic terrorism outside the Middle East. They've said that terrorists net $20 million annually from illicit activity such a drug traffiking. (Of course, we have no trouble in this country with drug trafficking coming across the border do we.).

Iranian asasins are already operating on US soil and have tried to assasinate a Saudi ambassador here in Washington.

Venezuela has attempted to help iran get around a UN arms embargo by selling 18,000 Iranian HK2002 automatic rifles to the Uruguayan armed forced on '07.

There was a report that stated that various european newspapers said that Iran was planning to base medium range Shahab 3 missiles in Venezuela and Chavez has leased military facilities to Tehran. Think thats not important either?

Israel's ex-foriegn minister Danny Ayalon accused Venezuela and Bolivia of supplying uranium to Iran to make nuclear power.

Venezuela and Iran have already signed 70 deals worth at least $17 billion in joint ventures. Amadinejad has visited Venezuela 4 times already. To ferry weapons and who knows what else, from Iran to Venezuela, the two nations have started regular direct flights between Caracas and Tehran. US intelligence is very worried about this because often there are no passengers except for the crew. They wonder whts int he cargo?

Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin American PRogram at the Woodrow Wilson Center has said that Venezuela is now a port entry for Iran in Latin America. Hugo Chavez has rolled out the red carpet for them.

So why worry?

If Iran developes a nuke, (whch appears likely), we could easily see another crisis similar to the one we had with Cuba in '62. I dont want nukes in my backyard. But of course, some seem to think the US is all-powerful and has nothing to fear.

Rig up a video camera an bang, you now have a low tech spy drone. Chavez is a third rate dictator who is bound to get overthrown sooner or later. He has also been a major contributor to the conflicts between Columbia and the FARC terrorist group.

Yeah, Chavez probably isnt the real problem. I think Iran gaining a foothold is the real problem. Hezbollah already gives Israel fits from across the border in Lebanon. I worry they will do the same to us in central and south america.

Dennis324 wrote:Yeah, Chavez probably isnt the real problem. I think Iran gaining a foothold is the real problem. Hezbollah already gives Israel fits from across the border in Lebanon. I worry they will do the same to us in central and south america.

Still Dennis, drones aren't really a game changer. I would be more worried if they were getting good Chinese or Russian aircraft or fix a small atomic warhead on one, but that is weight restrictive on a drone.

They could always go to Toys-R-Us, buy a boatload of R/C planes, pack 'em with explosive and use that.

As far as all the other stuff you mentioned, how the hell do you think people in other nations feel when they see our military presence across the globe???

I think they prolly feel exactly the same way.

Think about it for a moment.

Whatever.

Dennis324 wrote:Whatever.

Or don't think about it for a moment.

Bryant wrote:

Rig up a video camera an bang, you now have a low tech spy drone.

Think the issue here may not be spy drones, anyone with a credit card and an internet connection can get one of those put together easily enough (and they even have ones now that you can control from your iphone, and ones that look like cats). The issue is if they start building predator-style drones that are big enough to take missiles.