Beginning everybody. Welcome to books and books. The cultural heart of south florida. Tu first and foremost have get you to silence your cell phones we dont have any eruptions that would be great. Also dont forget to go to our webpage. You can give us your email address. We do it £. 60 every month. You can pick up our calendar events on the counter when youre buying yours book this evening. Dont forget to visit us at all of our stores. Keep an eye out for that. We are happy to have with us this evening Vanessa Neumann and blood profits. To introduce our author we have a good friend and colleague please welcome russell. [applause] thank you very much. Its a pleasure to be here and one of the reasons that the nasa asked me to do this was number one because we are partners in a Consulting Company which does phenomenal consulting and this book is just an example and result of that which she will tell you about. But also ramon is a likeminded individual u. S. Exiled now in this country as a former mayor who was chased out, but both of them im not venezuela although i ran the Daily Journal newspaper for many years in venezuela which i bought from manassas grandfather who was of those leading industrialists who came to the country and help build venezuela and put people to work and give it hope and modernize the country. But these two people are both sort of venezuela exiles and will eventually hopefully go back, knock w on wood and help make venezuela great again. And i think thats the important thing. Both of themm are obviously intelligent and a shining example of what venezuela has lost. Because if you giving us the benefit of the wisdom instead of in venezuela putting that was to work to make that country had its place and world what should be for country were the Largest Oil Reserves in the world instead of on the brink of bankruptcy. Having said that, but then taking with him and as i wanted to introduce ramon because the mayor is a shining example of the future of venezuela. He will do the actual introduction for the beautiful and talented and incredibly intelligent doctor vanessa. [applause] thank you, russ, for your kind words. I will go into if thats okay with you . [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] na[speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] [applause] im going to switch into english, is that okay . Okay. I can switch back. [speaking in spanish] sorry, i said i was going to speak in english. Sorry. I was listening to you, i instantly went into spanish. The adventure, trajectory of working on this book has been an unexpected adventure and i was very nervous when it came out because its deeply personal, its what i call professional autobiography. I originally we wanted to write this very geeky book, Defense Department type of language about disrupt the criminal network and deny and disrupt and destroy, the flattening network, dynamics and i said, nobody is going to read this thing. Do you want to write about a book thats technical or do you want to write a book okay, i will write a book that people will read. Andok member of organization of Economic Cooperation development,f i was under an Advisory Group and leader of the groups on countering elicit trade. And their big concern was that all the money starts with consumers and we had elicit trade in pharmaceuticals, tobacco and and luxury goods and industry that would Work Together and said what we really need to do is to raise attention dto this problem and i said, i think iveio got a book. You know, have been working for a while. The journey has been as ramon mentioned, and ross was deeply involved, raising awareness of the Goldman Sachs transactions, the hunger bonds, that was kicking around, i call them the blood bonds and at the time the book was basically into the publisher. That is not in the book but that the maduror. Regime volume 2 has certainly given us a lot of material. How the book storms it and how i got into this, i have a doctorate in philosophy, political pelosi and theories philosophy and theories of justice and people lead lives like value, geeky philosophers terms. Live a live with dignity, make money,an and more with your individual values and dignity intact. What i saw in venezuela early on and i started writing about it in 99, the minute chavez got elected, and then as i moved i was living in the united kingdom, i was living in london and also in the book, the Guardian Newspaper published this Deputy Editor about the wonders of the revolution of chavez n and how it was this grt come upins of american imperil imperialism and wonderful deliberation. And i thought, no it isnt. They are ceasing the means of production and taking everybodys right to lead life with dignity. I called them very angry and told them that i wanted to write ngan editorial in response and i did and i kept at it and i actuallyha ended up bizarrely on tv on news night debating Samuel Moncada whod was at the time the ambassador of venezuela to the uk. And we had at the time become personal friends, the venezolana in london. Im not sure i can name another one and came to engagement parties and dinners and said i dont like your boss, chavez, he said, thats okay, dont worry about it, we are friends. Okay, now, ofnd course, he is he was the number two in the Foreign Ministry and is now appointed as ambassador to the un. As i started speaking out the uribe, president uribe got invitation from the white house of colombia to come out and see progress with intrigue integration and i got invited and to see reintegration of colombia with guys with big guns and helicopters and snipers with 60 other military and political commanders. I was the only one nonmilitary commander, i was a journalist, i was the only journalist covering how you got these people to put down their weapons and reintegrate into society. The kids with the legs blown off from stepping on land mines because they plant land mines to protect the coca crops and then going to bogota, they are singing songs, narco corridos howw they are smuggling cocaine with colombia to venezuela with the protection of chavez and this was, before really way out there but it was opening discussed in colombia and i came back to caracas and i said to my brother, i just went to medellin. Why are we talking all the trash and i was really quite that vulgar, im afraid, of of la farc and then disrupting our own country, so the story started with that and then i started pulling the thread also on the relationship with hezbollah and i flew to lebanon and i said, i want to find out whats the relationship between venezuela and hezbollah and my beg plan was fly, meet hezbollah guys and ask them and thats actually what i did and that actually worked and thats in the book and now if you dont mind, im going to read you a little section from that, the reason i want to read from that a little bit is because it was in the news lately and that for political revealed how the Obama Administration had all this information that they were getting from a number of people about the Venezuelan RegimeDrug Trafficking and giving money to hezbollah and the involvement of hezbollah in venezuela and that was a very hard topic when i came back from lebanon and many people working on that and suddenly emails didin not get returned because thema Administration Policy had been, we are going to make a deal with iran on the nuclear deal and the fact that the people negotiating the nuclear deal are also involved in Drug Trafficking is not something that we want to bring in or meddling with venlz wella. Ti the problem isso thats now 30 million of my comepatriots. Thosehe profits from Drug Trafficking are in the bodies of my compatriots. Theres going to be volume two. After making a lot of noise, i got attention of corporations whoo said, hey, you seem to have credibility in the space, we have our goods are being smuggled and ironically it was tobacco, oil, big Corruption Case for 2 billiondollar case and other issues like that and i traveled to the book covered adventures in guatemala, chasing down counterfeit what was counterfeit Sporting Goods funding Islamist Groups in panama and i get to panama and they said, we dont speak spanish, we speak arabic within the colon free trade zone, who are you . Look at the time. I think i need to go home. So that adventure is in there. What ive realized is two things, how global the problem is and its sport gambling, people worked on the fifa case, sport gambling for chinese triads, tobacco funding alshabaab and russian covert operations and we and the world is so interconnected and whenever you see drugs, you also see weapons and you also see people and i was at the at the meeting, the oecd and they said, so the connections between corruption and elicit trade, what is the connection and it was very simple, theres never been a case of elicit trade without corruption. One of the things i became concerned with, the book was originally titled grievance and originally what we see is free trade grows, so does elicit trade, so grievance greed is you see terrorist groups are increasingly becoming involved in transnational organized crime. They were there. Smuggling stuff because you have to buy weapons. The money was there to buy the weapons for the revolution, increasingly the weapons are there to protect the money. And to protect the money and to protect that business, what has happened in venezuela the case of criminal organization. They moved from grievance to greed as motivation. Other thing that i examined in the book and motivated for that title, that working title was that they take your personal grievance and in many cases, i saw it in lebanon, panama and again you see it in venezuela, they take your grievance of marginalized group, im here to liberate you, you angry people, i will represent you politically, vote me in, and athen you vote them in and basically its the same that we saw before and all they do is they take control over the foreign currency exchange, the means of production and Everything Else and enrich themselves and they exploit your grievance for their greed, if you dont mind, give me one second. This is where i realize i left my reading glasses behind. Thank you. I might. Thank you. Let me try, will let me try h that. So this is about my landing in in this is about my landing in baru, meeting the colonel and was supposed to be informing me about the connections between between hezbollah. U day after i landed, lee who was my editor at a magazine i was writing for at the time invited me to the christening, they were catholics, maronite founded in lebanon across before the muslims. I had asked i talked about how i wanted to speak to somebody, a who, who told you to speak to him said my host when i asked him act the shake whose name i had been given after a dinner in new york. I didnt answer. Let me guess, he looked back at me, no wonder the americans have no idea what is going on in this country. He paused. Hes not even a real shake, you know, hes a farce, maybe, so but he was clearly a man many nonmuslims knew quite well and generated strong responses and that interested me. When we left the christening i called the shake and gave lee my cell phone number for him to call me back. The next day lee and i were standing on the sidewalk when hisne phone rang, it was the shake. Hello, sir, thank you for calling me back, i was referred to you by a mutual friend, he spoke no english. He spoke no french. I spoke no arabic. I handed the phone to lee who did speak arabic, shake told when i should meet him in one hour. You know this place i asked lee, sure, itst the business district, just a couple of miles that way. In back of taxi with lee giving driver the address, lee would not be joining me having his own interview to do, we would meet up at the end of the day. I realized that we wouldnt i wouldnt how would we know each other, i waited outside when the cars pulled up, if i made myself obvious he would find me. Mercedes pulled up with a man wearing, rather different than the europeanized muslims of the brotherhood where i was saying. Vanessa, get in. I hesateed. I didnt anticipate this. Get in he repeated. I got in and shut the door and we go my house. We go my house. Your house . Yes. I didnt think many foreigners made it to this part. This sort of thing usually ends bad in youtube video, i thought. [laughter] we pulled up in narrow plain buildings. It was dark inside, all that was visible was stair way leading up. My heart thumped. No one would know where to find me. How would i escape if i got into trouble. We arrived at an apartment and he beckoned me into the softa. He made a call in arabic, not a word of which he could understand, french, colonel, speak english. Okay, i answered. About 20 minutes a man in military uniform arrived and introduced himself as colonel, he said he would be our interpreter, he was tourist forthright and physically strong to perfect military man but how much he was translating the clerics ideas and how much he was spousing his own would never be known and unreliable narrater indeed. I asked the shake via the colonel whether he they had ever seen drugs or money coming in from south america. Venezuela in particular. Money comes in from venezuela so much money, a room full of cash affirmed the colonel sweeping his arms up in gesture of large size, ive seen it. He was likely boasting about reach and involvement in dark international matterses. It was impossible for me to assess honesty without cooperation but if he was feeling talkative i would keep asking. How about the colombian cocaine, what did you know about that. Hezbollah has always had a relationship with the colombian farc, the election of hugo chavez in venezuela helped hezbollah a lot. The drugs that had been flown are now industrial airliners, military planes with government protection. It was inevitable that it was inevitable that south american cocaine traffickers and terrorists would become increasing important to hezbollah and other groups. While intelligence officials believe that hezbollah use today receive as muche as 200 million annually from primary iran and additional money from syria, both sources have largely dried up due to sanctions imposed on the former turmoil and the latter. The colonel proceeded how far they spread and iranian proxy, hezbollah he explained have close relationship with north korea and the army in iraq with one million fighters under the command of shiite cleric. On and on, because i want you to read the book, rather than have me read it to you [laughter] to buy it. But the story, the book sort of weaves a very personal perspective of having gone to these places and spoken to people, not all of whom wanted to answer questions, and try and find out what is really going on. And as ramon said, my objective in writing it really is for us to understand what are the consequences of the choices that we make. Particularly of the Financial Transactions in which we participate. Whether its the blood bonds, whether its the counterfeit handbag, whether its the narcotics, whether its, you know, i also have a case of novartis antimalarial drugs being given to a u. N. Organization that ended up, through corruption, funding an Islamist Group in west africa. So its absolutely everywhere. A friend of mine who works with me wasfr just down the street wn two bombs went off in small ya, in somalia, motion dish she mogadishu. So its been, what i wanted for us is, first, to understand our role and how interconnected we are in a world of commerce and in a world of morality, really, and causality. So the closing line of the book but you have to still read the rest of it is money does not need to money may not buy happiness, but it need not pay for misery. So i hope that you will buy the book. You can have a cocktail as you read it. [laughter] which you probably need. And i thank you so much for coming here this evening, and help us also, help us understand by understanding these connections and the links with corruption and how it is actually the other thing i say in the book, its actually the goal of these transnational organized crime groups and terrorist groups to eat away at the governments that are supposed to protect us. So the irony, what is particularly galling is that they make all the money by preying onn us as consumers and as citizens. And then they take their money and send it to london and new york or miami and geneva and countries where Property Rights are respected, where the rule of law will protect their money while they work to destroy your rule of law. And that is where the joke is ultimately on us. So thankus you very much for coming, and please buy book. [applause] do we do questions, or do you want to come up . Ramon, do you want to come up . Come up with me. So, you know gracias. Oh, yes. Support of venezuela libre. [laughter] ms. Thank you for coming. Russ, you would like to add something . Do we entertain questions . You stay up here with me. Okay. In espanol . Not a question, but a comment. The timely [inaudible] come up with the Obama Administration yep. Kind of information into precisely what your book addresses too. Very timely without have you got a lot of attention, or well, yes. Its getting more and more attention. Especially after that because of the political in the new york times. I think bloomberg is going to do something on it after the madness of christmas and new year. T and the daily beast, for whom i have also written on the links between citgo, russia and chavez, i wrote for them a couple of times, theyre also going to run an excerpt on the book. And, yeah. So its actually quite ironic that [inaudible] yeah, very timely. Yeah. Its a strange sensation to be writing about my work in this field triggered by, basically, my being angry about what i saw happening withpp my country, whh is really what started this all off, and have it come out basically as my country is basically imploded. Im also an american. Say, please, this