2010 Posture Statement http://justf.org/blog/2010/03/20/2010-posture-statement

General Fraser's written testimony included a lengthy section about Southcom's relief efforts in Haiti. The topic was not a point of focus during the question and answer periods of the House and Senate hearings. Instead, Iran's and Hezbollah's influence in the region, violence in Mexico, and the Venezuelan government's alleged links to the FARC came up repeatedly during both hearings

Senate hearing:Exchange between Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and General Fraser:Senator McCain: "How do you assess the threat of the cooperation between Iran and Venezuela.... As you know last week Spain's High Court said the Venezuelan government facilitated contacts between the FARC and ETA to plan the assassination of Colombian officials visiting Spain, including President Uribe. Do you have any information on that? And other activities on the part of the Venezuelan government?"

General Fraser: "I do not have any direct information on that. We have continued to watch very closely for any connections between illicit and terrorist organization activity within the region. We have not seen any connections specifically that I can verify that there has been direct government to terrorist connection. We are concerned about it. I'm skeptical. I continue to watch for it."

Senator McCain: "You have seen evidence of relationship between the FARC and the Venezuelan government. That's been published many times."General Fraser: "I know that there is evidence of FARC (McCain interrupts: "I mean they got the hard drives when they raided the FARC camp..."). There has been some old evidence, but I don't see that evidence and I can't tell you specifically whether that continues or not."

Exchange between Senator George LeMieux (R-FL) and General Fraser:Senator LeMieux: "Do you consider Venezuela to be the biggest destabilizing factor in region in terms of our national security interests?"General Fraser: "I wouldn't take it as far as the biggest destabilizing factor. They are continuing the pursuit of reducing U.S. influence in the region, and they are working with various countries and entities to try to enable that.

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