Hezbollah in Venezuala

On the Venezuelan side of the Guajira Peninsula, a territory shared with Colombia, the members of the tribe of the Wayuu walk across political boundaries without restrain. They were there before Venezuela and Colombia existed and they think of themselves as a nation. Recently a disturbing group has appeared, as alien visitors, in their desert landscape: Hezbollah. The Islamic fanatics of Hezbollah are rapidly infiltrating the tribe of the Wayuu. They are indoctrinating the members of this tribe, to convert them into Islamic fanatics in charge of disseminating the terrorist message that has already created chaos, death and misery in the Middle East. The Hezbollah group invading Venezuela is doing its work openly in the Venezuelan side of the Guajira Peninsula. They are disseminating, via Internet, a strategy "to change Venezuela," including: ... ...The propaganda appearing on the Web presence of the Venezuelan subsidiary of Hezbollah [hosted by Microsoft] talks about installing the kingdom of God in Venezuela by imposing a military-theocratic type of government, an explosive mixture similar to what already exists in Iran. It claims: "The brief enjoyment of life on earth is selfish. The other life is better for those who follow Allah." Where have we heard this before? In the leaflets that encourage the suicide missions of children and teenagers in Palestine.

Is the Venezuelan Hezbollah for real or is just the product of pranksters with a macabre sense of humor? Available photographs suggest they are for real. This ghoulish presence in Venezuelan territory certainly deserves an immediate investigation and decisive action, if true, to eradicate such a horrible pest from our country. The problem is that Chávez is supporting Hezbollah in the Middle East and will most probably support their criminal work in Venezuela. Would the U.N. or the OAS take note?

Latin America Overview

Snip:

Argentina Relatively free of terrorist problems in recent years, Argentina was the site of the single most destructive terrorist act in Latin America in 1992. On 17 March a car bomb virtually destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people and injuring 242. The Islamic Jihad organization, an arm of the Lebanese Hizballah, took responsibility for the attack, claiming it was in retaliation for the Israeli attack that killed Hizballah leader Sheikh Musawi in February. When the authenticity of this claim was questioned, the group responded by releasing a videotape of the Israeli Embassy taken during surveillance before the bombing. The bombing focused attention on Hizballah activity in Latin America, where communities of recent Shiite Muslim emigres in the remote border areas of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay could provide cover for international terrorists.

http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/terror_92/latin.html

Tri-Border Area. In recent years, U.S. concerns have increased over activities of the radical Lebanon-based Islamic group Hizballah (Partyof God) and the Sunni Muslim Palestinian group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) in the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, which has a large Muslim population. According to the 2003 terrorism report, the TBA “has long been characterized as a regional hub for Hizballah and Hamas fundraising activities, but it is also used for arms and drug trafficking, contraband smuggling, document and currency fraud, money laundering, and the manufacture and movement of pirated goods.” The 2004 report asserts that was no credible evidence that operational Islamic terrorist cells exist in the TBA countries. Allegations have linked Hizballah to two bombings in Argentina: the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 30 people and the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires that killed 86 people. Asnoted in the 2004 terrorism report, all 22 Argentine defendants charged in the 1994 bombing were acquitted by a three-judge panel that faulted the investigation of the original judge and prosecutors. The acquittal prompted protests by Argentina’s largeJewish community. (For additional information on Argentina, see CRS Report RS21113,Argentina: Political Conditions and U.S. Relations.)

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:h87CJm4LymIJ:leahy.senate.gov/issues/foreign%2520policy/PDFS/LatinAmericaTerrorism.pdf+Hizballah+central+america&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=8

Location/Area of Operation

Operates in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, and southern Lebanon. Has established cells in Europe, Africa, South America, North America, and Asia.
(many links at bottom with great info)

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/hizballah.htm

Venezuela: Terrorism Hub of South America?
http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/rm/2006/68968.htm

Hizballah in South America
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cJsLJ3N5npI

How Hizballah Hijacks the Internet
The group pops up on unwitting Web sites around the world in order to communicate, recruit and fundraise

Snip:

Burton said shutting the sites down is a "double-edged sword." As a former U.S. counterterrorism official, he sees the value of keeping the sites up so intelligence services can collect "forensic" evidence. "It's important to see what they are saying," he says, noting that Hizballah has resource bases in Indonesia and the tri-border area (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay) of South America. Given Hizballah's links to Iran, which offers its operatives diplomatic cover around the world, according to Burton, monitoring Hizballah's Internet presence is vital as part of the "cat and mouse" game with Western intelligence. But shutting them down also limits their fundraising, recruiting and propaganda efforts, Burton said.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1224273,00.html

Government Stands by Hizballah's ESO Listing
(Australia, worth a read)

Snip:

While Hizballah's ESO is based in Lebanon, reliable sources indicate it has an international infrastructure including cells and business enterprises (both legal and illegal) in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and South America, from which it derives significant financial support. In the Tri-Border area of South America alone it is estimated that Hizballah has raised hundreds of millions of dollars through activities such as drug and arms smuggling and product piracy. In 2004, US authorities uncovered a number of individuals in the US who were providing material and financial support to Hizballah.

http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/WWW/MinisterRuddockHome.nsf/Page/Media_Releases_2006_Third_Quarter_1552006_-_4_August_2006_-_Government_Stands_by_Hizballah_ESO_Listing

Treasury Designates Islamic Extremist, Two Companies Supporting Hizballah in Tri-Border Area
(must read... a keeper)

http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js1720.htm

Hizballah Finances: Funding the Party of God
(A Must Read... link also to entire chapter)

Snip:

Charitable Fronts

Several Iranian and Hizballah-run charities provide additional funding. For example, by its own admission, the “Martyr's Organization” (Bonyad-e Shahid), headed by Muhammad Hasan Rahimiyan, supplies charitable funds for Hizballah-affiliated suicide bombers. In 2001, Paraguayan police searched the home of Hizballah operative Sobhi Mahmoud Fayad in Ciudad del Este, a town along the so-called “Tri-Border Area” between Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. There, they found receipts from the Martyr's Organization for donations Fayad had sent totaling more than $3.5 million. Authorities believe he had sent more than $50 million to Hizballah since 1995.

Criminal Enterprises

Hizballah also depends on a wide variety of criminal enterprises, including smuggling, fraud, drug trafficking, and diamond trading efforts in North America, South America, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Some reports even suggest that al-Qaeda and Hizballah have formed tactical, ad hoc alliances with various other terrorist organizations in order to cooperate on money laundering and other illegal activities.

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2266

U.S. Coalition Against Terrorism Should Include Latin America
(Very important, note the date)

http://www.defenddemocracy.org/research_topics/research_topics_show.htm?doc_id=184341&attrib_id=7449

Iranian-backed terrorism in South America
http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news_en.pl?l=en&y=2002&m=4&d=30&a=7

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