From a friend, in Cairo

My Fellow Americans:

My life has taken a dark turn (so to speak.) I am being stalked by a powerful, menacing Halfrican American! I went to Istanbul not too long ago and was followed there by none other than Barack Obama. Now I'm in Cairo and Obama's coming here. I swear to Allah, if the man shows up in Porter Ranch I'm calling the cops!

Meanwhile, unlike Turkey, where the excitement prior to the Messiah's visit was palpable, here in Egypt, not so much. The Egyptian attitude ranges on the excitement scale from total indifferenence to somewhat annoyed about the abominable two day traffic snarl Barack's visit will invariably create.

Why the difference in attitude, you ask? Well, I think for a couple of reasons. First of all, since this is a Muslim country, they are always looking for a reason to be pissed and/or "dissed." Since Obama chose to go to Turkey as his first Muslim country, every other Muslim country is now insulted. Not to mention, among Muslim countries Turkey is not considered a real Muslim country, so that added insult to injury.

Second of all, since the Turkey visit Obama has made yet more decisions about the War on Terror (and therefore Muslims) that are none too popular around here. In fact, there was a political cartoon in the newspaper depiciting Obama in a cowboy hat and boots, basically saying that there was no difference between Obama and George W. Bush. (If only that were true.)

Nonetheless, Cairo is on high security alert, Muslim style. Although the exact location of Obama's speech is supposed to be a state secret, it was nonetheless published on the front page of all the newspapers along with photos of Cairo University preparing the campus for his visit. Plus maps of the campus. There will be 300 well chosen students and 2,700 Egyptians with wasta ( political influence) attending. No motorcade, as he is arriving by helicopter. I'm sure more security details will be leaked as soon as they are available.

Meanwhile, there are tons of American security people staying at my hotel. Leon Panetta could easily hold a staff meeting in the fittness center or lounge any time of the day or night. But, boy do those guys have their work cut out for them. If Obama survives this visit without incident then we'll know he really is the Messiah.

Meanwhile, as we say in New York, not for nothin' but it turns out Sean Penn is also in town. Penn is shooting a movie here, the Valerie Plame story. He plays her vile, lying husband, Joe Wilson. (Type casting?)

Obama, Sean Penn, suddenly Cairo is lousy with famous Americans, or alternatively, one could say lousy, famous Americans are all over Cairo.

(name withheld by request)

Obama Stalkee

Hugo Chávez's Jewish Problem

It is up to all of us who remember Hitler (no, not the pretend one the hate-Bushies foisted on everyone) and World War II and the Nazi extermination camps Chelmno, Auschwitz- Birkenau, Belzek, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek, Stutthof and the rest (between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany established about 20,000 camps to imprison its many millions of victims) to understand this:

...there is something else, aside from simple anti-Americanism, at work in Chávez's foreign policy. He and his supporters are in the grip of another age-old obsession, albeit one with a few indigenous twists: an obsession, that is, with the supposedly excessive power of world Jewry, and in particular of Venezuela's few, prosperous, and increasingly imperiled Jews.

Read more about the man that Sean Penn, Cindy Sheehan, Harry Belafonte and other Democrats worship (almost as much as they worship their God, Obama).

Did George W. Bush do this?

Putin's opponents are made to vanish from TV

...or this?

Chávez decree tightens hold on intelligence

Sean Penn and others in this country had better wake up and grow up and start realizing the real differences between fascism and freedom or else they might just lose what they have. Then they would realize how they fucked up but it would be too late. If they were all on an island by their stupid selves, I wouldn't mind, but unfortunately I will end up in the same mess as them. The difference is that I can actually tell the difference between freedom and fascism...and it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure it out.

Sean Penn gets free cocaine?

Hugo Chavez's criminal paradise

Under the anti-globalization president, Venezuela has become a haven for global crime.

By Moises Naim
November 10, 2007

While President Hugo Chavez has been molding Venezuela into his personal socialist vision, other transformations -- less visible but equally profound -- have taken hold in the country.

Venezuela has become a major hub for international crime syndicates. What attracts them is not the local market; what they really love are the excellent conditions Venezuela offers to anyone in charge of managing a global criminal network.

A nation at the crossroads of South America, the Caribbean, North America and Europe, Venezuela's location is ideal. Borders? Long, scantly populated and porous. Financial system? Large and with easy-to-evade governmental controls. Telecommunications, ports and airports? The best that oil money can buy. U.S. influence? Nil. Corrupt politicians, cops, judges and military officers? Absolutely: Transparency International ranked Venezuela a shameful 162 out of 179 counties on its corruption perception index. Chavez's demonstrated interest in confronting criminal networks during his eight years in power? Not much.

While this situation has so far been rather invisible to the rest of the world, it is patently clear to those in charge of fighting transnational crime. Anti-trafficking officials in Europe, the United States, Asia and other Latin American countries are paying unprecedented attention to Venezuela. These officials are not particularly interested in Venezuelan politics or in Chavez's policies. All they care about is that the tentacles of these global criminal networks are spreading from Venezuela into their countries with enormous power and at great speed.

The numbers speak volumes: About 75 tons of cocaine left Venezuela in 2003; it is estimated that 276 tons will leave the country this year. Before, the main destination was the United States; now, Europe is increasingly the target. Italy and Spain are two new important and lucrative end-user markets, and earning in euros is undeniably better than getting paid in dollars these days.

A senior Dutch police officer told me that he and his European colleagues are spending more time in Caracas than in Bogota, Colombia, and that the heads of many of the major criminal cartels now operate with impunity, and effectiveness, from Venezuela. The cartel bosses aren't exclusively Colombians -- there are Asians (especially Chinese) and Europeans too. Caracas' most posh neighborhoods are home to important kingpins from around the world, including some from Belarus, a country that Chavez notably has visited several times.

Venezuela appears near the top of lists compiled by the anti-money-laundering authorities as well. Money moves in and out, and not just through electronic inter-bank transfers. The combination of private jets, suitcases full of cash and diplomatic immunity has opened up new possibilities. Recently, one Venezuelan member of the boliburguesía -- the new mega-rich -- was caught carrying at least one suitcase full of money. He was discovered by a customs officer in Buenos Aires but not arrested. Turns out he was traveling on an executive jet with senior members of the government of Argentina's president, Nestor Kirchner.

In Uruguay, an outraged legislator dropped this bombshell a few weeks ago: A group of Venezuelans had engineered the sale of Iranian arms and munitions to his country, using Venezuelan companies as a cover to bypass the U.N. embargo on Iran's arms trade. Likewise, the guerrillas in Colombia seem to have no trouble acquiring weapons -- many of which come through Venezuela-based arms dealers.

Diamond traders are doing equally well. "Venezuela is allowing massive smuggling of diamonds," stated a recent report by Global Witness and Partnership Africa, two respected nongovernmental organizations. They recommended that Venezuela be expelled from the Kimberley Process, the U.N.-sponsored mechanism designed to combat the smuggling of "blood diamonds" -- the gems sold to fund military conflicts around the world.

And as if diamonds, guns, drugs and tainted money weren't enough, human traffickers have made their way to Venezuela as well. The country has become a haven for human traffickers because its laws offer so little protection to their victims, especially women. It is also a major stopover for illegal immigrants from China, the Middle East and other parts of Latin America who are on their way elsewhere. They can obtain a Venezuelan passport in a matter of hours.

The great paradox of this terrible story is that, despite Chavez's constant denunciations of globalization, he hasn't protected Venezuela from its worst consequences. His nation has been globalized -- by criminal gangs. And they import and export corruption, crime and death. And that may be more critical in shaping Venezuela's future than any of Chavez's political experiments.

Moises Naim is the editor of Foreign Policy magazine and the author of "Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global Economy."