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Coiffed, groomed and impeccably suited, Mithal al-Alusi cuts an imposing figure at this trendy hotel. In the empty bar lounge, he makes himself at home to a breakfast of fresh fruit, strong coffee and a constant flow of cigarettes. The leader of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation is in town to promote his vision for a new Iraq and accept an accolade from an unlikely sponsor – the American Jewish Committee – who honored him with a Moral Courage award at their annual dinner last week. His act of courage was an attempt to break Iraq's long-standing taboo...

On April 7, 2013, the Bahraini government approved a proposal by parliament to compile a list of terrorist organizations and to enter Hizbullah onto it, and ordered the interior and foreign ministries to take steps to implement this resolution. This is an unprecedented move in the Arab world, which comes after the exposure of terrorist cells and attacks in Bahrain that are attributed to this Lebanese Shi'ite organization, and following Shi'ite protests in the kingdom that began in February 2011, which the Bahraini government claimed had been guided and funded by Iran and Hizbullah. The Bahraini authorities' fear of involvement...

Subhi Al-Tufayli: I know for a fact that the vast majority within Hizbullah strongly oppose [joining] the Syrian war. However, a resolute decision to participate [in the war] has been imposed upon them. Interviewer: By Iran? Subhi Al-Tufayli: Yes. Interviewer: Even Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah opposes this? Subhi Al-Tufayli: I don't want to name names, but I'm talking about the situation at hand. Everyone realizes how dangerous this is. First, of all, this is internal strife among Muslims, which will be devastating to all. This is the beginning of things to come. I say to the Shiites, to Hizbullah, and to...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. June 21 — Two brothers were convicted Friday of helping run a North Carolina-based support cell that funneled cigarette-smuggling profits to the militant group Hezbollah. Mohamad Hammoud, 28, accused of being the leader of the cell, was convicted of 16 counts that included providing material support to Hezbollah. Chawki Hammoud, 37, was found guilty of charges including cigarette smuggling, credit card fraud, money laundering and racketeering. Jurors deliberated 21 hours over three days. On Friday afternoon, they told the judge they were deadlocked on one count, a charge that Mohammad Hammoud conspired with others to provide material support...

The profit margin for organized crime from contraband tobacco has surpassed the drug trade according to a new report by the Virginia State Crime Commission as reported by Frank Green for the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "drug dealers are switching to cigarettes because there is plenty of money to be made, less violence and the penalties if caught are much lighter." Last year CNBC ran the documentary Cigarette Wars which claimed the United States "loses $5 billion in tax revenue every year from the trafficking of illegal cigarettes" as reported by Brian A. Shactman: "The crime has several variations, but it's extremely...

Man Sentenced For Cigarette Smuggling Suspect Must Repay State More Than $2 Million POSTED: 10:57 PM EST January 8, 2004 UPDATED: 11:06 PM EST January 8, 2004 DETROIT -- A Dearborn man convicted of taking part in a multi-state cigarette-smuggling ring was sentenced Thursday to 70 months in prison without the possibility of parole, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins said. Elias Mohamad Akhdar, 31, pleaded guilty in July to a charge of conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. He could have received up to 78 months in prison for the crime under federal sentencing guidelines. Akhdar...

Iran's, Syria-backed Arab-Islamic Terrorists: The Hezbollah Contents 1 Funding 1.1 Criminal funding1.2 South America1.3 U.S.1.4 Europe1.5 U.S. Mexican border 2 Regional plans3 Global Plans4 Violence outside Lebanon 4.1 Iraq4.2 Somalia4.3 Afghanistan4.4 Sudan4.5 Egypt4.6 Azerbaijan4.7 Europe4.8 Argentina 5 References Funding Dirty Money, Blood MoneyCriminal funding The Lebanese Shiite Terrorist Organization has been highlighted as a profile in "Crime and Terrorism" - Hezbollah's Criminal activity is widely in Lebanon and worldwide. [1], or what researches call: "various criminal enterprises to raise funds for Hezbollah." [2] Among the illegal, criminal methods of the Islamic group is wide fraud, drug trafficking, credit card...

DETROIT -- Two men pleaded guilty Friday to charges of conspiracy to violate the "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act" (RICO), U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Murphy announced today. Imad Majed Hamadeh, 51, of Dearborn Heights, and Theodore Schenk, 73, of Miami Beach, Fla., pleaded guilty here before U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen to the following charges: operating a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes, counterfeit Zig Zag rolling papers and counterfeit Viagra; producing counterfeit cigarette tax stamps; transporting stolen property; and money laundering. Sixteen other defendants faced the same charges. Some of the profits derived from the illegal...

Syria will "give Hizbullah everything" in recognition of its support and will follow the terrorist group's model of "resistance" against Israel, a Lebanese newspaper on Thursday quoted President Bashar al-Assad as saying. --snip-- Assad was quoted as saying Syria could "easily" respond to Israeli air strikes by "firing a few rockets at Israel."

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, several days after the alleged Israeli air raids on Syrian targets and as Washington steps up its Middle East peace efforts, AFP reported. The White House said in a short statement that Obama and Netanyahu, who is visiting China, spoke by telephone, and discussed "regional security issues and Middle East peace." U.S. officials have declined to comment in detail on air strikes allegedly carried out by Israel on targets near Damascus on Friday and Sunday, which reportedly destroyed Iranian missiles apparently destined for the Hizbullah terror group. But...

The “game changing” weapons destroyed in an Israeli airstrike Friday before they could reach Hizbullah were sent by Iran, the New York Times reports, citing senior American officials. The strike reportedly targeted Fateh-110 missiles. The Fateh-110 has a range of up to 300 kilometers. Syrian sources gave the New York Times similar information, saying that Iran had sent arms and rockets to Damascus International Airport and planned to ship them on to Hizbullah. A diplomatic source in Lebanon previously told the AFP news agency that the airstrike destroyed surface-to-air missiles delivered by Russia. Israeli experts have warned in recent months...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl1908.aspx Treasury Identifies Kassem Rmeiti & Co. for Exchange and Halawi Exchange Co. as Financial Institutions of “Primary Money Laundering Concern” 4/23/2013 In First Use of Section 311 Against a Non-Bank Financial Institution, Treasury Acts to Protect the U.S. Financial System from Foreign Exchange Houses Tied to Global Narcotics and Money Laundering Networks and Hizballah WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today named two Lebanese exchange houses, Kassem Rmeiti & Co. For Exchange (Rmeiti Exchange) and Halawi Exchange Co. (Halawi Exchange), as foreign financial institutions of primary money laundering concern under...

The Muslim terrorist group Qa’adat el-Jihad claimed responsibility Saturday for a terrorist bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria. The bombing in Bulgaria last week killed five Israelis, one a pregnant woman. The Lebanese paper El-Nashra reported that the group, which has ties to Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility in an email to the Arab press.

SNIPPET: "BERLIN – Bulgarian police officers last summer arrested a Canadian citizen linked to the Iranian government who engaged in surveillance of the local Chabad center in the capital of Sofia, a well-placed and reliable local source told The Jerusalem Post last week, on condition of anonymity due to security reasons. An Iranian-sponsored female agent in her 50s, holding a Canadian passport, traveled from Istanbul to Sofia several weeks after the bombing of the Israeli tour bus in the Black Sea resort town of Burgas in July 2012. She was arrested on her first day in Sofia after the Bulgarian...

Some of you may remember the picture above and the post that went with it. The picture was taken at the train station in Bologna, Italy on August 2, 1980. I missed being there by a couple of days. Italy thought it had a deal with the PLO not to carry out terror attacks on its soil. It was wrong. The European Union is about to repeat the mistake. The EU may declare Hezbullah a designated terror organization, but only if they reach the conclusion that Hezbullah was behind the terror attack at a Bulgarian airport a few months ago....

SNIPPET: "But if the US can transport Abu Ghaith onto US soil and prosecute him for terrorist activities, why couldn't the Obama administration do the same with Musa Ali Daqduq, the senior Hezbollah commander who was captured in Iraq in 2007? The US Department of Justice had planned to prosecute Daqduq and the FBI was building a case against him. Daqduq was directly implicated in the kidnapping and murder of seven US soldiers in Karbala in January 2007. He was in US custody up until December 2011, just before the US withdrew from Iraq. Although the administration argued that it...

ON July 18, 1994, a van filled with explosives blew up outside the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people and injuring hundreds. It was the worst terrorist attack ever in Argentina, which has Latin America’s largest Jewish population... Argentine prosecutors obtained Interpol arrest warrants for six suspects and formally blamed Hezbollah for staging the attack and Iran for financing it. But bizarrely, Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, abruptly switched course last month and reached an agreement with the Iranian government that would set up a “truth commission” of international legal experts to analyze evidence from the...

Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah has been transferred to Iran to receive medical treatment due to cancer, a Lebanese website associated with the opposition to Hizbullah reported on Monday, according to Israel’s Channel 2 News. According to the report on the Sawt Beirut International website, Nasrallah’s condition recently deteriorated and he was evacuated to Tehran by an airplane sent on behalf of the Islamic Republic and which took off from the Rafiq al-Hariri International Airport in Beirut. The report, however, has not been confirmed by any other source and its reliability is unclear. Channel 2 News reported that while similar reports...

The head of Lebanon's Hizbullah movement, which is an Iranian proxy militia, warned Israel on Saturday not to think that a weakening of Bashar Assad's regime in Syria means his group is also weaker. "Those who think Syria is no longer a player and cannot help the resistance (Hizbullah)... and that the resistance is going through a period of weakness and confusion, are mistaken," Hassan Nasrallah said. "We have everything we need in Lebanon. We don't need to transport (arms) from Syria or Iran," he said, in a speech to his supporters broadcast on a giant video screen in southern...

An explosion on a bus transporting Israeli tourists at the airport near the city of Burgas in Bulgaria has reportedly left seven dead, five of whom are apparently Israelis. Bulgarian television said that the dead apparently include a Bulgarian tour guide. The destination is popular among Israeli youths and most of the casualties are reportedly youths. The Foreign Ministry has announced that it is sending personnel to the site. Voice of Israel Radio said that about 30 people are wounded, four of them seriously, quoting Bulgarian TV. It said that a suicide bomber boarded the bus before the explosion occurred,...