Hezbollah Is A Terrorist Group

[Rasputin]

Hezbollah Can't Be Crushed?

Conventional wisdom is with the senior Israeli officer, but in fact popular, religious movements have been crushed by military force many times, and in all parts of the world.

The Zanj movement formed in 868 CE in the vast delta where the Tigris meets the Euphrates. Zanj autonomy flourished for 15 years under Ali bin Muhammad, who claimed descent from Imam Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law. He further claimed to be the mahdi (messiah) and to have directly “received surahs of the Quran.” Tens of thousands followed him under a green and red banner that read, “God has purchased the souls of the believers and their property, for they have attained to Paradise fighting in the way of God.” The revolt was crushed in a series of battles and massacres where the dead are said to have numbered in the tens of thousands. Muslim historians characterize Ali bin Muhammad as a bloodthirsty impostor and his followers as insubordinate black slaves. It may be more accurate to think of the Zanj as Muslims who, like their contemporaries the Kharajites, were committed to a simple theology and to principles of economic leveling not unlike those of radical Protestant reformers. We cannot be certain because we do not have a Zanj version of history, only Zanj-minted coins that read “al Mahdi Ali b. Muhammad.”

The Cathar religion arose in Languedoc (Occitania), now incorporated into southern France. Whether it is conceptualized as a Christian heresy or a version of Manichaeanism, there can be no doubt that this was an intensely popular religious movement. The Catholic Church decided to wipe out the Cathars in an armed crusade. The fighting went on for twenty years and included such incidents as the massacre of 20,000 Cathars - the entire population of Béziers and its surrounding villages - on July 22, 1209. By the end, the Cathars were no more.

The Czech Hussites earned the condemnation of the Church in 1415 for adherence to doctrines that the Church called heresy, and which historians call proto-Protestant. They successfully defended an independent Czech Hussite state against large Catholic armies for twenty years, before agreeing to strike a compromise with the Church. Large numbers of devoted Hussites rejected the political compromise. Many were killed in battle with a combined Czech/Catholic army near Prague on May 30, 1434. Surviving “Warriors of God” were eliminated in a series of small battles, captures, and hangings.

On February 5, 1597, Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi decided to crush Christianity in Japan. He considered the rapid increase, geographic concentration, and intense devotion of Christians to be threats to the state. The newly introduced religion had over 300,000 adherents, of whom between 5,000 and 6,000 were executed, many by crucifixion. Christianity as a movement was eliminated from Japan.

I could multiply examples of large populations united by intense religious commitment that have been crushed by the state power. Not obliterated – remnants of Japanese Christianity survived underground, for example – but crushed to the point where a movement no longer existed.

I am certainly not defending the morality of Hideyoshi’s actions, or the crushing of the Cathars, Hussites, or Zanj. I am simply pointing out that popular religious movements can be forcibly destroyed. If some policy makers and pundits actually believe that it is impossible to crush a popular religious movement, they are wrong. Hezbollah can be crushed as completely as the Cathars were.

What the unnamed Israeli officer might have said, is something like this:

Israel seeks to significantly weaken Hezbollah in order to reduce Hezbollah’s capacity to slaughter the innocent in community centers, embassies, and private homes.

We could crush Hezbollah if we so chose. We could do it with a combination of military actions, arrests, and trials, and through the elimination of Hezbollah schools, Hezbollah television, and the other institutions that promulgate Hezbollah’s murderous ideology.

We are making this choice not because we lack the power to destroy Hezbollah, we have that capacity. We are exercising restraint because the Jewish State —at some considerable risk to itself—values human life, even the lives of those who would destroy us. We have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but hope rather that the wicked will turn from their evil ways and live.

[Rasputin]

Democrat Bill Nelson Meets Terrorist Supporting Syrian Dictator

I know I’m late on this news, but I had to share it. Its absolutely disgusting. Remember the accusations that Democratic leaders were meeting with Hamas? LGF asks Has the burden of proof just shifted?




The U.S. has limited diplomatic ties with Syria because of its support of Hezbollah and Hamas, which the U.S. deems terrorist organizations, and U.S. President George W. Bush has expressed reluctance to seek help from Damascus on Iraq until the Syrians curb that support and reduce their influence in Lebanon.

Nelson, a Democrat, was named to the Senate Intelligence Committee this week and said he was on a fact-finding mission to the region. He left later for Amman, Jordan.

Syrian officials say Damascus is encouraged by the report by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which urged President George W. Bush to abandon his policy of trying to isolate Syria and Iran and resume attempts to end the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Assad “clearly indicated a willingness to cooperate” in controlling its border with Iraq, Nelson told reporters in a conference call following the meeting with Assad. The U.S. says foreign fighters often enter Iraq across that boundary.

Nelson said he reported the information to embassy officials and will brief his congressional committees on the trip. He said he expects Senators John Kerry, Christopher Dodd and Arlen Specter to also visit Syria.

[Rasputin]

More than five years have elapsed since September 11, 2001.
Vastly more is now known about the international terrorist danger to the United States based on both experience and intelligence. That knowledge demonstrates that, at present, international terrorism is insufficiently menacing to the American people's security to satisfy any sensible constitutional notion of war or armed conflict within the United States.
No additional terrorist plots in the nation have succeeded. Embryonic plans or conspiracies have been detected and prosecuted in civilian courts. Only three American citizens have been detained by President Bush as unlawful enemy combatants: one was deported to Saudi Arabia; and another is undergoing prosecution in a civilian court for allegedly providing material assistance to a foreign terrorist organization.
The number of alien unlawful enemy combatants detained at Guantanamo Bay runs into the hundreds, and virtually all were captured thousands of miles from American shores. Not a single alleged international terrorist has been prosecuted by a military commission for an alleged war crime. And Americans do not shy from domestic travel or shopping for fear of a terrorist attack.
Approximately 3,000 died from the September 11 abominations. But 20,000 are murdered annually in the United States. Their perpetrators are apprehended and prosecuted through customary law enforcement tools. The nation is not placed on a war footing to conduct military operations against suspected would-be murderers within the United States.
Last week, the Israeli Supreme Court in the case of the Public Committee against Torture in Israel v. The Government of Israel (Dec. 11), addressed whether the State of Israel was in a state of "armed conflict" with terrorism. Answering in the affirmative, the court elaborated recurring scenes of horror that have been conspicuously absent in the United States since September 11, 2001: "In February 2000, the second intifada began. A massive assault of terrorism was directed against the State of Israel, and against Israelis, merely because they are Israelis. This assault of terrorism differentiates neither between combatants and civilians, nor between women, men, and children. The terrorist attacks take place both in the territory of Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, and within the borders of the State of Israel. They are directed against civilian centers, shopping centers and markets, coffeehouses and restaurants. Over the last five years, thousands of acts of terrorism have been committed against Israel. In the attacks, more than 1,000 Israeli citizens have been killed. Thousands of Israeli citizens have been wounded. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed and wounded during this period as well.... In these terrorist attacks, the terrorist organizations use military means par excellence, whereas the common denominator of them all is their lethality and cruelty. Among those means are shooting attacks, suicide bombings, mortar fire, rocket fire, car bombs, et cetera."
The severity of the terrorist danger to Israel is further underscored by its repeated successes despite Shin Bet, Mossad, and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), the gold standard for thwarting international terrorism.
To conclude that the United States, like Israel, is also engaged in armed conflict with terrorism holds alarming legal implications. President Bush has insisted the entire world is a battlefield in clashing with al Qaeda because Osama bin Laden has pledged to kill Americans -- whether civilian or combatant -- anywhere they can be found.
But if the United States is a battlefield of the armed conflict, then the president would be correspondingly empowered to direct the nation's security forces to kill suspected members of al Qaeda or sister terrorist organizations in the United States suspected of involvement in the planning, launching or execution of terrorist attacks.
Suspicion is neither proof beyond a reasonable doubt nor a preponderance of the evidence. It is not even probable cause. It is simply a nonfrivolous worry that an unlawful enemy combatant may be afoot, which accommodates many mistakes, as with Canadian-Syrian Maher Arar. Innocent civilians in the United States could be legally killed in targeting suspected al Qaeda combatants, for example, Jose Padilla, if an armed conflict with international terrorism here were deemed ongoing. In a parallel situation, Israeli security forces have killed approximately 150 civilians who were in proximity of targeted terrorists during the last five years. Hundreds of others have been wounded.
It is conceivable that international terrorism in the United States has been stifled since September 11 because of President Bush's assertion of powers appropriate for armed conflicts within the nation, for example, the warrantless interceptions of phone conversations or e-mails of American citizens suspected of al Qaeda connections. But the president has not shouldered that burden of proof. No convincing evidence has been forthcoming to either Congress or the public establishing that -- in light of what is known today -- terrorism within U.S. boundaries can be thwarted and punished with reasonable safety to our people only if the entire nation is treated as engulfed in armed conflict.
To be sure, President Bush has not yet used lethal military force against suspected al Qaeda members in the U.S. But he is already enshrining in law a sweeping definition of armed conflict that will lie around like a loaded weapon ready for use by any incumbent who claims an urgent need, to paraphrase Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson.

[Rasputin]

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge in Washington has cleared the way for family members of 19 Americans killed in a terror attack in Saudi Arabia to sue the government of Iran.

US District Judge Royce Lamberth found the Iranian government partly responsible for the 1996 attack at Khobar Towers.

The judge relied heavily on testimony by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who investigated the bombings. Freeh said two Iranian government security agencies and senior officials provided funding, training and help to the Hezbollah terrorists. They're blamed for blowing up a dormitory that housed US Air Force pilots and staff.

A Wisconsin man whose son was killed in the explosion says he's pleased by the opinion. He says it shows the attack has not been forgotten.

[Rasputin]

Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, proclaimed himself neutral -- "I don't take sides for or against Hezbollah; I don't take sides for or against Israel," he said -- there appears to be problems of Hezbollah activities within his and fellow traveler Rep. John Conyer's own backyard.

A Dearborn Heights MI, man pleaded guilty on recently to charges of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and using illegally obtained funds to help finance the terrorist group Hezbollah.

Youssef Aoun Bakri, 36, pleaded guilty in federal court as he stood before US District Judge Gerald E. Rosen. The original indictment charged Bakri and other defendants with operating a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes and counterfeit goods, producing counterfeit cigarette tax stamps, and laundering money.

Most troubling was the fact that part of the profits made from the illegal enterprise were given to Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization (DFTO), according to the indictment.

Bakri faces maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Two other defendants, Imad Majed Hamadeh, 51, of Dearborn Heights and Theodore Schenk, 73, of Miami Beach, Fla., have already entered guilty pleas to basically the same indictment.

"Fighting terrorism and keeping our citizens safe from its reach, is the Department of Justice's number-one priority. Raising money for designated terrorist organizations, like Hezbollah, is a serious crime which will be vigorously pursued in the Eastern District of Michigan,” US Attorney Stephen Murphy said.

"Together, we will use all of the legal tools available to us to disrupt criminal activity that funds terrorist organizations," he said.

According to Brian M. Moskowitz, special agent in charge of the Immigration & Customs Enforcement's Office of Investigations in Detroit, "ICE will continue to work with other law enforcement agencies to dismantle criminal organizations. Racketeering is a serious crime, and ICE will continue to investigate those who exploit our borders to facilitate their criminal enterprise."

The indictment charges that between 1996 and 2004, a group of individuals worked together in a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes, counterfeit Zigzag rolling papers (used for rolling marijuana cigarettes), and counterfeit Viagra; to produce counterfeit cigarette tax stamps; to transport stolen property; and to launder money.

The enterprise was international in scope and operated from Lebanon, Canada, China, Brazil, Paraguay and the United States.

Also named in the indictment and awaiting a January 7, 2007 trial dates are: Karim Hassan Nasser, 37, of Windsor, Ontario; Fadi Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud, 33, of Dearborn, Mich.; Majid Mohamad Hammoud, 39, of Dearborn Heights; Jihad Hammoud, 47, of Dearborn; Ali Najib Berjaoui, 39, of Dearborn; Mohammed Fawzi Zeidan, 41, of Canton, Mich.; and Adel Isak, 37, of Sterling Heights, Mich.

Others charged in the indictment, who are currently wanted as fugitives and believed to have left the United States are: Imad Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud, 37 of Lebanon, formerly of Dearborn; Hassan Ali Al-Mosawi, 49, of Lebanon; Hassan Hassan Nasser, 36, of Windsor, Ontario; Ali Ahmad Hammoud, 64, of Lebanon; Karim Hassan Abbas, 37, formerly of Dearborn; Hassan Mohamad Srour, 30, of Montreal, Quebec; Naji Hassan Alawie, 44, of Windsor, Ontario; and Abdel-Hamid Sinno, 52, of Montreal, Quebec.

US law enforcement is coordinating their efforts with the Canadian intelligence and security services and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to capture the fugitives who escaped into Canada.

The indictment alleges that Imad Hammoud, along with his partner, Hassan Makki, ran a multimillion dollar a year contraband cigarette-trafficking organization headquartered in the Dearborn, Mich., area between 1996 and 2002.

Makki pleaded guilty in 2003 in federal district court in Detroit to racketeering and providing material support to Hezbollah. Some of the cigarettes were supplied to the organization by Mohamad Hammoud, who was convicted in 2002 in federal district court in Charlotte, NC, of, among other crimes, racketeering and providing material support to Hezbollah.

Makki and Mohamad Hammoud, who were not charged in the indictment, were identified as un-indicted coconspirators. They both are currently serving prison sentences in related cases for their activities in this matter.

The indictment charges that the group would obtain low-taxed or untaxed cigarettes in North Carolina and the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in New York and bring them into Michigan and the State of New York for the purpose of evading tens of millions in state cigarette taxes. The enterprise obtained large profits by reselling the cigarettes at market prices in Michigan and New York. The enterprise sometimes used counterfeit tax stamps to make it appear as though state taxes had been paid.

The indictment additionally charges that portions of the profits made from the illegal enterprise were forwarded to Hezbollah. Some members of the enterprise charged a "Resistance Tax," a set amount over black-market price per carton of contraband cigarettes which their customers were told would be going to Hezbollah. Some members of the enterprise also solicited money from cigarette customers for the "orphans of martyrs" program run by Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon to support the families of persons killed in Hezbollah suicide attacks and other terrorist operations.

[Rasputin]

"This [resolution] will not damage the nation of Iran, but its issuers will soon regret this superficial and nil act". With these ominous threats, the Iranian President responded yesterday to the unanimous vote by the UN Security Council on a resolution imposing sanctions on his country for breaching the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to which Iran is a signatory.


The question now is how will Ahmadinejad carry out his threats? To start with, he can make things even more annoying for the US in Iraq. But then, listening to the Iranian envoy addressing the Security Council yesterday immediately after the vote, one sees that Iran's seething anger is primarily aimed at Israel, a country with which it does not share any border or have any territorial problems. Instead of addressing Iran's own failures at cooperating with the international community, the Iranian ambassador ranted over the supposed double standard between how the UN deals with Iran and Israel.

Ahmadinejad has consistently issued threats to annihilate and wipe out the State of Israel off the surface of the earth. He even recently held a conference in Tehran to which he invited all the respectable skinheads, neo-Nazis, and pseudo-intellectual revisionists to denigrate the Holocaust as a means to render the existence of the State of Israel of a lesser value, and in turn, to justify the objective of eliminating it. While this writer believes that the State of Israel, like many countries in the Middle East for that matter, is a historic anomaly that should never have displaced the original inhabitants of Palestine, the fact is that all the nation-states that emerged after the two world wars in the Middle East and which are today in existence are recognized by virtually all the community of nations, including the artificially-drawn countries of Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, Iraq and, yes, Israel. The point today, almost a century after the emergence of this Middle East from under the Ottoman Empire, is that nothing should justify the use of violence, let alone nuclear weapons, to annihilate entire peoples and countries. If the Iranian logic described above is to be accepted, then the United States, Canada, Mexico, and all of Latin American should be disbanded, the land returned to the original Indian inhabitants, and their European colonists deported back to Europe, all of today's Islamic countries should return to their pre-Islamic religions in order to reverse the Arab-Islamic military conquest, occupation, and forced Islamization and Arabization between the 8 th and the 14th centuries, the Turks should reclaim their Ottoman empire over the Middle East – after all they ran it for 400 years from 1516 to 1918 – and so on.
Of a more immediate relevance to Ahmadinejad's threats is the fact that Israel is right next door to Lebanon , and so the Lebanese should be doubly concerned:


One, like it did this past July to delay the very resolution finally made yesterday at the UN, Iran is likely to again use the Hezbollah terrorist organization, which it created in Lebanon in the early 1990s, to execute its threats against the international community by, for example, targeting the UNIFIL forces now separating Hezbollah from the Israeli border under the August 2006 UN resolution 1701. Lest we forget, Iran used Hezbollah's terrorist bombings, hostage-taking, and assassinations in the Lebanon of the 1980s to drive out all Western forces from Lebanon and hand the country over to the Syrian regime, which in exchange allowed Hezbollah to conduct a war of attrition against Israel from the south of the country.


Two, if Iran's nuclear weapons were to somehow make it into the hands of Hezbollah, then the Iranian threat becomes all the more ominous to Lebanon which will be transformed, yet again, into a killing field – this time an apocalyptic one – of foreigners settling their scores over the bodies of the children and people of Lebanon. Indeed, the Lebanese "opposition" rioting for weeks now in downtown Beirut to topple the Lebanese government, run the existing Lebanese institutions to the ground under the pretense of "reforming" them, and seize power under the banner of Hezbollah, is in fact a cover for inviting Iran to use Lebanon as its nuclear and "live" testing ground.


As recently as this past August, Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah declared in an interview with the Iranian magazine "Risalat Al-Hussein" [The Message of Hussein] that "It is the wish of Hezbollah to one day establish an Islamic Republic [in Lebanon] because Hezbollah believes that the establishment of an Islamic government is the only way to achieve stability in society, and it is the only way to resolve social differences, even in a society consisting of diverse minorities". The prospects of the New Year are looking increasingly encouraging for the Lebanese: Living under a Hezbollah-led Islamic Republic of Lebanon that is supplied with Iranian-made nuclear weapons. Let the fireworks begin!

[Rasputin]

Israeli Deported for Conspiring to Equip Hezbollah

United States deportation officers on Wednesday night deported an Israeli citizen back to the Jewish State after he served a six-month prison term in New York for conspiracy to export military technology to the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah.

Tomer Grinberg, 33, was found guilty in US District Court, Southern District of New York last April of being a co-conspirator in attempting to ship night-vision goggles and infrared aiming scopes to Hezbollah, whose publicly stated goals include destruction of the state of Israel.

On May 19, 2004, Grinberg and a co-conspirator were arrested as they prepared to ship the restricted military equipment to Greece for recipients from Hezbollah.

Grinberg, of Na'Ria, Israel, was released into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers for deportation after completing his criminal sentence at the federal correctional institution in Allenwood, PA, on December 28. During his sentence, ICE put Grinberg into removal proceedings and an immigration judge ordered him removed last November.

In fiscal year 2006, 190,349 illegal aliens including 87,888 with criminal convictions were removed from the US.

“Identifying and removing criminal aliens is one of the keys to protecting national security and promoting public safety in Pennsylvania and throughout the country,” said Thomas Decker, ICE Field Office Director in Philadelphia.

“Last year, of the 3,572 illegal aliens removed through the Philadelphia field office, nearly 70% had criminal convictions,” he noted.

Grinberg was identified through an ICE Office of Detention and Removal's Criminal Alien Program or CAP. The program focuses on identifying criminal aliens who are incarcerated in federal, state and local facilities and ensuring that they are not released into the community by securing a final order of removal before the termination of their sentence. Since June, ICE has processed more than 4,337 inmates in federal prisons eligible for removal.

Grinberg was escorted by ICE deportation officers and arrived in Tel Aviv at 5:30 a.m. (local) Thursday where he was met by Israeli security agents.

[Rasputin]

Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, proclaimed himself neutral -- "I don't take sides for or against Hezbollah; I don't take sides for or against Israel," he said -- there appears to be problems of Hezbollah activities within his and fellow traveler Rep. John Conyer's own backyard.

A Dearborn Heights MI, man pleaded guilty on recently to charges of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and using illegally obtained funds to help finance the terrorist group Hezbollah.

Youssef Aoun Bakri, 36, pleaded guilty in federal court as he stood before US District Judge Gerald E. Rosen. The original indictment charged Bakri and other defendants with operating a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes and counterfeit goods, producing counterfeit cigarette tax stamps, and laundering money.

Most troubling was the fact that part of the profits made from the illegal enterprise were given to Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization (DFTO), according to the indictment.

Bakri faces maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Two other defendants, Imad Majed Hamadeh, 51, of Dearborn Heights and Theodore Schenk, 73, of Miami Beach, Fla., have already entered guilty pleas to basically the same indictment.

"Fighting terrorism and keeping our citizens safe from its reach, is the Department of Justice's number-one priority. Raising money for designated terrorist organizations, like Hezbollah, is a serious crime which will be vigorously pursued in the Eastern District of Michigan,” US Attorney Stephen Murphy said.

"Together, we will use all of the legal tools available to us to disrupt criminal activity that funds terrorist organizations," he said.

According to Brian M. Moskowitz, special agent in charge of the Immigration & Customs Enforcement's Office of Investigations in Detroit, "ICE will continue to work with other law enforcement agencies to dismantle criminal organizations. Racketeering is a serious crime, and ICE will continue to investigate those who exploit our borders to facilitate their criminal enterprise."

The indictment charges that between 1996 and 2004, a group of individuals worked together in a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes, counterfeit Zigzag rolling papers (used for rolling marijuana cigarettes), and counterfeit Viagra; to produce counterfeit cigarette tax stamps; to transport stolen property; and to launder money.

The enterprise was international in scope and operated from Lebanon, Canada, China, Brazil, Paraguay and the United States.

Also named in the indictment and awaiting a January 7, 2007 trial dates are: Karim Hassan Nasser, 37, of Windsor, Ontario; Fadi Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud, 33, of Dearborn, Mich.; Majid Mohamad Hammoud, 39, of Dearborn Heights; Jihad Hammoud, 47, of Dearborn; Ali Najib Berjaoui, 39, of Dearborn; Mohammed Fawzi Zeidan, 41, of Canton, Mich.; and Adel Isak, 37, of Sterling Heights, Mich.

Others charged in the indictment, who are currently wanted as fugitives and believed to have left the United States are: Imad Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud, 37 of Lebanon, formerly of Dearborn; Hassan Ali Al-Mosawi, 49, of Lebanon; Hassan Hassan Nasser, 36, of Windsor, Ontario; Ali Ahmad Hammoud, 64, of Lebanon; Karim Hassan Abbas, 37, formerly of Dearborn; Hassan Mohamad Srour, 30, of Montreal, Quebec; Naji Hassan Alawie, 44, of Windsor, Ontario; and Abdel-Hamid Sinno, 52, of Montreal, Quebec.

US law enforcement is coordinating their efforts with the Canadian intelligence and security services and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to capture the fugitives who escaped into Canada.

The indictment alleges that Imad Hammoud, along with his partner, Hassan Makki, ran a multimillion dollar a year contraband cigarette-trafficking organization headquartered in the Dearborn, Mich., area between 1996 and 2002.

Makki pleaded guilty in 2003 in federal district court in Detroit to racketeering and providing material support to Hezbollah. Some of the cigarettes were supplied to the organization by Mohamad Hammoud, who was convicted in 2002 in federal district court in Charlotte, NC, of, among other crimes, racketeering and providing material support to Hezbollah.

Makki and Mohamad Hammoud, who were not charged in the indictment, were identified as un-indicted coconspirators. They both are currently serving prison sentences in related cases for their activities in this matter.

The indictment charges that the group would obtain low-taxed or untaxed cigarettes in North Carolina and the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in New York and bring them into Michigan and the State of New York for the purpose of evading tens of millions in state cigarette taxes. The enterprise obtained large profits by reselling the cigarettes at market prices in Michigan and New York. The enterprise sometimes used counterfeit tax stamps to make it appear as though state taxes had been paid.

The indictment additionally charges that portions of the profits made from the illegal enterprise were forwarded to Hezbollah. Some members of the enterprise charged a "Resistance Tax," a set amount over black-market price per carton of contraband cigarettes which their customers were told would be going to Hezbollah. Some members of the enterprise also solicited money from cigarette customers for the "orphans of martyrs" program run by Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon to support the families of persons killed in Hezbollah suicide attacks and other terrorist operations.

The US Secretary of State has designated Hezbollah a foreign terrorist organization. An entity may be designated as a foreign terrorist organization if the Secretary of State finds that: (1) the organization is a foreign organization; (2) the organization engages in terrorist activity; and (3) the terrorist activity of the organization threatens the security of US nationals or the national security of the United States.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Intelligence Division of the New York City Police Department maintain that Hezbollah terrorist cells are deeply entrenched in the United States. One of Hezbollah's largest headquarters is located in Toronto, Canada, but they claim they are members of the political-wing of Hezbollah and not its military

[Rasputin]

Shiite Muslim militants are a growing threat to the U.S., the nation's top intelligence official said today.

Al-Qaeda, the Sunni Muslim terrorist group behind the Sept. 11 attacks, is still considered the chief danger, yet Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group, has grown more confident and may expand military operations beyond Lebanon, particularly if it becomes convinced the U.S. is targeting it, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte told the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim party, is seeking to topple Lebanon's pro-U.S. leadership. It battled Israel in Lebanon in July and August, calling itself a victorious defender of Lebanon when Israel withdrew. The U.S. classifies Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

``As a result of last summer's hostilities, Hezbollah's self-confidence and hostility toward the U.S. as a supporter of Israel could cause the group to increase its contingency planning against U.S. interests,'' Negroponte said.

Negroponte's comments are part of the U.S. intelligence network's annual report on the threats facing the country. As in years past, the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies found terrorism and the spread of nuclear weapons as the biggest perils, he said.

Also testifying before the committee were Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Michael Maples, and Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research Randal Fort.

Iraq

The February bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, a Shiite shrine, has energized Shiite extremist operations throughout the region, including those of the Shiite-dominated Iranian government, Negroponte said. Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been blamed for the bombing.

Shiite militias in Iraq have accused the U.S. of favoring the Sunnis, and increasingly they're fighting the U.S.-led coalition.

The Shiite-dominated government of Iran is supplying arms to the Shiite militant groups as part of a broader strategy to become the dominant power in the Middle East, Negroponte said.

The flow of sophisticated explosive devices from Iran to the groups appears to be increasing, which may indicate ``a more aggressive posture'' by Iran, Negroponte said.

Illicit Acts

Mueller, in prepared testimony, said Hezbollah is engaged in numerous illicit fund-raising efforts, including ``money laundering, credit card, immigration, food stamp and bank fraud as well as narcotics traffics.''

Over the past few years, the FBI has seized $5 million dollars in property owned by Hezbollah and its supporters, he said.

Negroponte, who President George W. Bush nominated last week to become deputy secretary of State, said Iraq is at a ``precarious juncture'' that can be escaped only by quelling violence in the Baghdad region.

``With political reconciliation stalled, Iraqis increasingly resort to violence,'' he said.

Bush last night said he was adding about 21,500 troops to the 132,000 now in Iraq to help secure the country, which has been torn apart by Shiite and Sunni fighting.

Negroponte also addressed other security concerns, saying that a ``post-Castro'' transition in Cuba had begun with little hope an ailing Fidel Castro will remain the country's leader for much longer.

Maples said overall attacks against coalition troops in Afghanistan doubled in 2006 compared with the previous year and that Taliban-led military operations will increase as early as March.

[Rasputin]

New Charges Possible in Hezbollah TV Case

Two New York men accused of trying to broadcast Hezbollah propaganda via satellite television could soon face additional criminal charges that they also streamed the programming over the Internet.

Government prosecutors say Javed Iqbal and Saleh Elahwal conspired to do business with Hezbollah's Al Manar TV network, which was designated a global terrorist entity by the American government last March.

Prosecutors said yesterday they were looking into what they said could be "additional criminal conduct of these defendants."

"That could spawn a new raft of charges," an assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case, Stephen Miller, told federal Judge Richard Berman yesterday, adding, "We are not sure where that's going to lead us yet."

During the war last summer between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Al Manar — Arabic for "the Beacon" — often telecast statements by the Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, inciting violence against America and glorifying suicide bombings, critics charge.

[Rasputin]

مصاحبه جديد حسن نصرالله با "الرای العام"
بمباران 34 روزه
حزب الله لبنان، اشتباه خود را
می پذيرد و از ملت عذر ميخواهد
نه من ناصرم و نه لبنان همه خاورميانه. من حتی داعيه
سياسی هم ندارم چه رسد به تبديل شدن به ناصراسلامی!




حسن نصرالله رهبر حزب*الله لبنان در گفتگوئی تازه با روزنامه کويتی «الرای العام» گرفتن کمک از جمهوری اسلامی را تائيد کرده و اضافه کرد:

«ما آماده دريافت هرگونه کمک تمام کشورهای اسلامی هستيم، حتی اگر مانند مصر روابط ديپلماتيک با اسرائيل داشته باشند.»

نصرالله با اشاره به بمباران 34 روزه لبنان توسط اسرائيل که به بهانه ربوده شدن دو سرباز اسرائيل توسط حزب الله لبنان آغاز شد گفت: می*پذيرم که در اين زمينه مرتکب اشتباهاتی شديم. شايد ما در پيش*بينی*هايمان اشتباه کرده *باشيم، تنها خداست که هيچگاه اشتباه نمی*کند، ما به خاطر بهای سنگين و خون*آلودی که مردم لبنان به اين خاطر پرداختند از مردم لبنان عذرخواهی می*کنيم. حزب*الله هيچگاه نسبت به قربانی شدن کودکان لبنان بی*تفاوت نيست، حتی زمانی که موضوع اهداف و ارزش*های راستين*مان مطرح باشد.

نصرالله در پاسخ به تبليغاتی که عمدتا از جانب جمهوری اسلامی به آن دامن زده می شود و وی را ناصر اسلامی خاورميانه لقب داده اند گفت: مقايسه ناصر و هر رهبر سياسی ديگری در دنيای عرب نادرست است. او رهبر يک انقلاب تاريخی بود و رئيس*جمهور بزرگترين کشور عربی. او در جنگ سوئز دستاوردهايی جهانی را محقق کرد ولی آرزوهای من از مرزهای جغرافيايی لبنان فراتر نمی*رود. برنامه سياسی من بر يک اصل تزلزل ناپذير بنا شده و آن خاتمه فشارها و تبعيض*های ديرپا عليه شيعيان در اين کشور است. ما می*خواهيم شيعيان نيز يک شريک واقعی و تاثيرگذار در رهبری و ساختن آينده کشور باشند و در کنار آن تهديد اسرائيل را نيز از ميان برداريم.

[Rasputin]

Officials say the confiscated weapons will go to the Lebanese army
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has said a lorry intercepted by the authorities was transporting weapons for its fighters.

Hezbollah has demanded the return of the lorry and the arms.

Lebanese government officials said that a vehicle had been stopped in Beirut after travelling from the Bekaa Valley, in the east of the country.

They said the lorry had been taken away for further examination and are refusing to return it.

The discovery of the weapons comes amid a political crisis in Lebanon that has raised fears of a return to civil war.

Opposition

An opposition alliance led by Hezbollah has vowed to bring down the government, and has demanded the formation of a new cabinet in which it has the power of veto.

I would have liked for Hezbollah to donate its weapons to the Lebanese army which last night managed to repel Israeli aggression against Lebanese territory

Elias Murr
Lebanese defence minister

The Western-backed government has rejected the demand.

Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war in the summer of 2006, during which more than 1,000 Lebanese were killed, mostly civilians.

A UN peacekeeping force is now helping maintain the cessation of hostilities on the border.

But on Wednesday, in the first such incident in decades, the Lebanese army and the Israelis exchanged fire.

'Rockets and launchers'

Lebanese Defence Minister Elias Murr is refusing to hand over the seized weapons to Hezbollah.

He said the arms should instead be given to the under-equipped army which had just confronted the Israeli army in south Lebanon.

Unconfirmed reports said the lorry contained rockets and rocket launchers concealed under a stack of hay.

According to Lebanese officials, the vehicle came from within the country and did not cross into Lebanon from neighbouring Syria. Damascus as well as Iran supports Hezbollah.

In a statement, Hezbollah called on the government to respect a policy statement adopted two years ago that describes the group as a resistance movement against Israeli occupation.

But under UN resolution 1701, which ended the war between Hezbollah and Israel last summer, the militant group is banned from re-arming.

The resolution has the backing of the Lebanese government.

Hezbollah and the government have been at odds for months and the confiscated weapons are only likely to increase the tension, BBC Beirut correspondent Kim Ghattas says.

The Shia group accuses Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and his allies of doing the bidding of the US and is demanding a new cabinet.

Tensions between the two sides led to violent clashes in January.

[Rasputin]

به گزارش شبكه خبر fcnn به نقل از راديو فردا ،جنگ و بحران در خاورميانه مخصوصا جنگ در عراق و درگيری حزب الله با اسراييل، در لبنان، موجب شده که برخی از بازرگانان عرب با آميختن ايدئولوژی و تجارت کالاهای جديدی را به بازار عرضه کنند.

در اواخر سال ۲۰۰۲ میلادی يک تاجر تونسی تبار به نام توفيق مثلوثی، «مکه کولا» را به بازار آورد.

وی اين نوشيندنی را به عنوان جايگزينی برای کوکاکولا و پپيسی کولا، که به گفته وی محصولات امپرياليسم هستند به بازار عرضه کرد و مورد استقبال برخی از بازارهای کشورهای عربی قرار گرفت.

مرکز اين شرکت هم اکنون در دوبی در امارات متحده است. به روی هر بطری نوشته شده که ده درصد سود اين شرکت صرف کمک به بچه های فلسطينی خواهد شد و ده درصد ديگر نيز به کارهای خيريه ديگر اختصاص می يابد.

«بی خردانه ننوشيد» شعاری است که بر هر بطری «مکه کولا» ديده می شود.

جنگ اخير لبنان يک مغازه دار لبنانی را به اين فکر انداخت که از محبوبيت نصرالله رهبر حزب الله، بهره بگيرد و عطری را به بازار عرضه کند.

اين عطر به نام مقاومت و با عکس نصرالله و يک قايق آتش گرفته متعلق به اسراييل به بازار آمد. به نوشته مجله نيو رپابليک قيمت عطر يک دلار بود و باعث تقاضای گسترده ای در لبنان و برخی کشورهای لبنانی شد.

علی خليل به مجله نیو ريپابليک می گويد که من حدود ۱۵ هزار بطری سفارش دادم و برای من که مغازه دار کوچکی هستم ريسک بزرگی بود. ولی خبر عطر بين مردم پيچيد و استقبال خوبی از آن شد.


وی می گويد مردم حتی برای دوستانشان در بحرين، ژاپن، آلمان و سوريه هم می خرند و هديه می فرستند. وی چند وقت پيش عطر مقاومت را در وزارت تجارت ثبت کرده است تا کسان ديگر به فکر تقليد و یا تقلب نيافتند.

[Rasputin]

جنبش حزب*الله لبنان با ابراز نگرانی از جنگ روانی ايالات متحده عليه جمهوری اسلامی در خصوص هرگونه ماجراجويی آمريکا و رژيم صهيونيستی عليه تهران و حمله به تاسيسات هسته*ای ايران هشدار داد. شيخ نعيم قاسم،* معاون دبير کل حزب*الله لبنان با تاکيد بر اينکه ,هرگونه ماجراجويی نظامی توسط واشنگتن و تل*آويو عليه تهران نتايج بسيار خطرناکی در منطقه خاورميانه دارد, گفت آنها بايد بدانند ماجراجويی نظامی در صورتی که گسترده باشد و شامل تعدادی از کشورها در منطقه نيز باشد نتايج بسيار خطرناکی برای همه خواهد داشت.

معاون دبير کل حزب*الله لبنان در گفت*وگو با خبرگزاری آسوشيتدپرس در پاسخ به اين سوال که در صورت حمله آمريکا به ايران آيا حزب*الله با حمله به اسرائيل اين اقدام را تلافی خواهد کرد يا خير گفت: ايران توان کافی برای دفاع از خود را دارد زيرا ابزار لازم را در اختيار دارد و همچنين مردمی استوار و رهبری دانا دارد.

بنابر گزارش آسوشيتدپرس، شيخ قاسم اين موضوع را کاملا مشخص نکرده که آيا حزب*الله در صورت حمله آمريکا به ايران درگير جنگ مي*شود يا خير ولی به اين موضوع اشاره کرده که در نتيجه اين حمله، اسرائيل ممکن است به لبنان حمله کند که در اين صورت حزب*الله پاسخ قاطعی به اسرائيل مي*دهد. وی در اين خصوص گفت: جنبش مقاومت حزب*الله در حال بررسی همه اقدامات لازم است. بنابر اظهارات شيخ قاسم حزب*الله دائما در حال تغيير تاکتيک*های جنگی خود است تا اسرائيل به قابليت*های نظامی نيروهای مقاومت پی نبرد.

او در اين خصوص گفت:* ما همه تجربه*های جنگی خود را ارزيابی کرده و درس*هايی از آن ياد گرفته*ايم و در حال برداشتن گام*هايی برای تطبيق دادن آنها با واقعيت*های جديد هستيم، اين قدرت مقاومت و راز پيروزي*های آن است. معاون دبير کل حزب*الله در انتهای اين گفت*وگو همچنين با رد ادعاهای دولت آمريکا مبنی بر اينکه حزب*الله ابزار ايران و سوريه است گفت: دولت سينيوره مستقيما از آمريکائيها دستور مي*گيرد.

هشدار حزب*الله لبنان در خصوص هرگونه ماجراجويی نظامی عليه ايران در شرايطی صورت مي*گيرد که روزنامه اسرائيلی يعيدوت آهارونوت در روزهای اخير در گزارشی اعلام کرد که تمام گروههای مهم جهادی در سرزمين های فلسطينی در حال آماده شدن برای يک اقدام هماهنگ عليه اسرائيل بلافاصله پس از اقدام نظامی احتمالی تل*آويو عليه تهران هستند.

در همين خصوص ,ابوحامد, فرمانده گردان*های شهدای الاقصی در کرانه غربی گفت: ,راهبرد ما اين ياری رساندن به متحد مسلمانمان (ايران) در مقابل حمله دشمن است. تمام سازمان*های فلسطينی با يکديگر همکاری نزديکی را برای شليک راکت، بمب*گذاري*های شهادت طلبانه و اقدامات ديگر عليه دشمن صهيونيستی به انجام خواهند رساند,. يک فرمانده جهاد اسلامی در نوار غزه نيز با تائيد اين موضوع گفت که اسرائيل در صورت حمله به ايران با ,سورپرايزهای ويژه*ای, از سوی مبارزان فلسطينی مواجه خواهد شد. اين فرمانده با اشاره به اينکه ,آمريکا و اسرائيل به يکديگر گره خورده*اند, گفت که حمله نظامی به ايران، منافع آمريکا در خاورميانه را نيز به فهرست اهداف گروه*های فلسطينی اضافه خواهد کرد: ,آمريکا و صهيونيست*ها صددرصد با يکديگر هماهنگ هستند، مهم اين نيست که کداميک اين کار(حمله به ايران) را انجام دهد، ما هردو را هدف قرارخواهيم داد,.

[Rasputin]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Iranian ex-deputy defense minister who went missing in what may have been a Western intelligence operation is best known to Israel as the "founder" of Lebanon's Hezbollah, a retired Israeli spy said on Wednesday.

Ali Reza Asgari, 63, disappeared while on a trip to Turkey last month. Turkish newspaper Hurriyet said in an unsourced report that he was involved in Iran's nuclear program. If so, he would be a major asset for Western or Israeli interrogators.

A former official with Israel's foreign spy service Mossad, Ram Igra, said that before Asgari took up the Defense Ministry post he had been a commander with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the main sponsor of Shi'ite guerrilla group Hezbollah.

"In the 1980s and early 1990s, Asgari was responsible for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon. This is his real importance, not his connection to the Iranian Defense Ministry," Igra told Israel Radio.

"He lived in Lebanon and, in effect, was the man who built, promoted and founded Hezbollah in those years," Igra said. "If he has something to give the West, it is in this context of terrorism and Hezbollah's network in Lebanon."

Hezbollah is one of Israel's toughest regional enemies. It is also on the U.S. State Department's terrorist watch-list.

Western strategists have speculated that Tehran could order Hezbollah to attack American and Jewish interests abroad should Washington or Israel attack Iranian nuclear plants to prevent them making bombs. Iran insists its atomic plans are peaceful.

Iran has not given a detailed account of Asgari's career. But Iran's police chief said on Tuesday that he may have been kidnapped by Western spies "because of his Defense Ministry background." Hezbollah declined comment on the case.

"DEBRIEFED IN EUROPE"

Turkish, Arabic and Israeli media have suggested that Asgari, who vanished after checking into an Istanbul hotel on February 7, defected to the West, perhaps with his family.

According to the London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat on Wednesday, Asgari had been spirited out to a northern European country where he was being debriefed by military experts.

The reports have not received independent confirmation.

Israeli media have suggested Mossad may have had additional interest in Asgari given its efforts to retrieve Ron Arad, an Israeli airman who was captured by Iran-linked militiaman after bailing out over Lebanon in 1986. Arad later vanished.

Israel has accused Iran and Hezbollah of withholding information on Arad's fate, something that they both deny.

The stand-off over the missing airman has held up the second stage of a Hezbollah-Israel prisoner swap brokered by Germany in 2004. The issue was further complicated by Hezbollah's seizure of two Israeli soldiers in a deadly border raid last July, which sparked a 34-day offensive by Israel in Lebanon.

Igra, who was formerly in charge of Mossad's intelligence gathering on missing Israeli servicemen, played down Asgari's potential value regarding Arad.

"If we assume the Iranians have a role in his disappearance -- and this is an unproven assumption -- then Asgari has something to say about this," Igra said. "But if it's wrong, then Asgari will not say more than the Hezbollah leader tells us via the media, which is that Iran had nothing to do with it."