According to The Washington Post’s gossip section, a Maryland resident named Michael McMahon was on one of the grounded London-DC flights and was interrogated thoroughly by the FBI. Michael McMahon just happens to be the alias of a major IRA terrorist. The Maryland McMahon took all of this the right way – saying he didn’t mind the delay because these are the procedures necessary to catch terrorists. (Although hopefully better screening procedures could have spared McMahon, who has never even been to Ireland, the inconvenience.)

Apparently during the interrogation, the FBI told him there were IRA-al-Qaeda links. Later, FBI and Irish Embassy spokespeople stated that they were unaware of such a connection. That being said, the IRA is well-connected to nasty folks in the Middle East. The IRA goes way back with the PLO. Irish terrorists trained in Palestinian camps in Lebanon, Libya, and Yemen. Those links remain effective, rhetorically the IRA remains loudly supportive of Arafat and the PLO and operational links are also apparently intact. After the fighting in Jenin, a British explosives expert noted the similarity in tactics and bomb designs discovered in Jenin to those in Belfast. In another incident, in March 2002, a sniper killed 10 Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint. The sniper left his rifle behind – an IRA trademark.

The Palestinian terror groups are linked to Hezbollah, which in turn is a link to terrorism throughout the Muslim world. At the same time, the IRA’s international activities aren’t limited to the Middle East. In August 2001, 3 IRA operatives were arrested in Columbia, where they were training the FARC in bomb design. This indicates that the IRA is more than ready to share its expertise. While a grand Green-Green alliance may not be likely, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that IRA operatives will support other terrorist activities around the world. In short, we should be thankful that American law enforcement is paying attention to IRA activities and movements.

That being said, London is well-known to be the center of al-Qaeda’s operations in Europe and has the infrastructure to support Islamist terror worldwide. Odds are it was activity in this sector that led to the grounding of five London-DC flights.

An elite US-trained Columbian special forces team recently captured Nayibe Rojas, aka Sonia, a major FARC leader in southern Columbia. This is another important tactical success for the Columbian Army, following closely the capture of FARC finance chief Simon Trinidad. These tactical successes are important in disabling and defeating Latin America's largest and most dangerous terrorist organization. The FARC also has a leading role in the drug trade and has well-established links with terrorist groups worldwide.

Unfortunately, these tactical successes may be overshadowed by a strategic disaster. Next door, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is fighting for his political life. Chavez is a an anti-American populist who is supporting far-left groups across Latin America and is sending subsidized oil to Cuba - in exchange for thousands of Cuban "sports trainers" working in Venezuela. Internationally Chavez is chummy with various rogues such as Iran - he even drove around Baghdad with Saddam.

If he can survive the recall attempt (and he already alleging fraud, while devaluing Venezuela's currency to pay for social works programs) than the FARC will have a powerful new patron (with far more freedom to collaborate with Middle Eastern terrorists). Latin America could quickly go from being a secondary foreign policy concern to becoming a major problem.

This would a true shame since Columbia is finally, after decades of terrible war, beginning to roll up the FARC.

Hezbollah is riding high these days as the only Arab force that has consistently defeated the United States and Israel. The recent Hezbollah-Israel prisoner exchange may inspire Hezbollah to start kidnapping US and allied personnel in Iraq. They’ve done it before.

The lopsided prisoner exchange is only the latest in a long series of Hezbollah successes. The truck bombings in the early 1980s against US installations in Lebanon that forced the US-led peacekeeping force out of Lebanon inspired bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Lebanon’s war against the Israeli presence in southern Lebanon culminated in May 2000 in Israel’s complete withdrawal and the collapse of Israel’s ally the South Lebanon Army. Israel’s withdrawal was one factor inspiring the Palestinian violence that began in September 2000.

The prisoner exchange, in which Israel released over four hundred individuals held for terrorism in exchange for three bodies and one person, was unbalanced and has been interpreted throughout the Arab world as a sign of Israel’s weakness. A few voices have noted that it shows Israel’s sense of responsibility towards its citizens (one of the bodies returned was of an Israeli Arab serving in the IDF.) This is a compelling argument, but these exchanges often explode on Israel. In 1985 Ahmed Jibril, head of the PFLP-GC, traded three Israeli soldiers he had captured in the 1982 Lebanon war for over 1000 Palestinian terrorists. Jibril had prisoners from every Palestinian faction released in order to build the PFLP-GC’s profile within the Palestinian movement. One of the prisoners released was Hamas founder Sheikh Yassin. His return revitalized Hamas, allowing it to spearhead the first Intifada.

Hezbollah hostage taking is not limited to Israel – the Iran-Contra scandal, which rocked the second term of the Reagan administration, was caused by Hezbollah’s taking American hostages in Lebanon (they also took British, French and other Europeans hostage). The US and France paid Iran off with cash and reduced support for Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war, in exchange for hostage releases.

As Hezbollah builds infrastructure in Iraq it is all too conceivable that taking foreign hostages will soon become part of their strategy. While this method has been successful against the United States, it may prove even more effective against US allies that are ambivalent about participating in Iraq in the first place.