A question about Hizballah and Mexico

townhall.com ^ | 1/28/04 | Terence Jeffrey

[kattracks]

Politicians serious about preventing another Sept. 11 should listen to the leader of Hizballah, and then read an indictment unsealed this month in Detroit.

"Let the entire world hear me," said Sheik Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27, 2002. "Our hostility to the Great Satan is absolute."

There's good reason to take this sheik seriously. In 1983, his Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorist group attacked the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Americans. According to the opinion of U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in the case of Peterson v. the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nasrallah attended the meeting in Baalbek, Lebanon, where the 1983 attack was planned. Until Sept. 11, it remained the deadliest terrorist strike ever against the United States.

The sheik's Sept. 27, 2002, rally in Beirut celebrated the Palestinian intifadah. It was broadcast live on Lebanese TV and monitored by the BBC.

"Regardless of how the world has changed after 11 September," Nasrallah said that day, "Death to America will remain our reverberating and powerful slogan: Death to America!"

Six months later, according to the BBC, Nasrallah warned Americans that if the U.S. invaded Iraq, "The region's people will receive you with rifles, blood, arms, martyrdom and martyrdom operations."

Now, turn to May 3, 2003. That's when FBI agents searched the Dearborn, Mich., residence of Mahmoud Kourani, a 32-year-old illegal alien from Lebanon.

In a statement submitted last week in federal court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Chadwell revealed words the FBI found on audiotapes there: "You alone are the sun of my lands, Nasrallah! Nasrallah!/. . . your voice is nothing less than my jihad."

"We offer to you Hizballah, a pledge of loyalty," said a tape. ". . . Rise for Jihad! . . . I offer you, Hizballah, my blood in my hand."

Kourani pleaded guilty to harboring an illegal alien. A judge sentenced him to six months. On Jan. 15, a second indictment was unsealed, charging Kourani with conspiracy to provide material support to Hizballah.

"Kourani was a member, fighter, recruiter and fundraiser for Hizballah," said the indictment. "Operating at first from Lebanon and later in the United States, Kourani was a dedicated member of Hizballah who received specialized training in radical Shiite fundamentalism, weaponry, spy craft, and counterintelligence in Lebanon and Iran."

"Kourani," Chadwell added in his statement, "is charged with conspiring with individuals at the highest levels of the terrorist organization, including one of his brothers who is the Hizballah chief of military security for southern Lebanon."

Kourani got to America, the prosecutors allege, with the help of a Mexican official.

"On approximately Feb. 4, 2001, Kourani surreptitiously entered the United States by sneaking across the U.S./Mexico border in the trunk of a car," wrote Chadwell. "He reached Mexico by paying $3,000 used to bribe an official in the Mexican Consulate in Beirut, Lebanon, to give him a Mexican visa."

Do prosecutors believe that official was Imelda Ortiz Abdala, the one-time Mexican consul in Beirut who was arrested by Mexico in November, according to the Associated Press, "on charges of helping a smuggling ring move Arab migrants into the United States from Mexico"? "They are not sure if that is the person that received the money," said Sandy Palazzolo, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Jeffrey G. Collins of Detroit. "They have information that she worked there during this time frame, but they don't know if that is in fact the person that he did bribe."

In a sentencing memorandum in Kourani's alien-harboring case, Chadwell told the court Kourani's "offense of conviction was part of a continuing scheme to bring illegal aliens to the United States from Lebanon through Mexico."

Kourani has pleaded not guilty to providing material support to Hizballah. I asked his attorney, Nabih Ayad, about the claim in the indictment that Kourani was a member, fighter, recruiter and fundraiser for Hizballah. "He denies all that," said Ayad. Kourani also contests the government's assertion that he bought a Mexican visa for $3,000 in Beirut. "My client told me specifically," said Ayad, "that he got it legitimately through the Mexican consulate."

Why did Kourani come to America? "I think why millions of Americans, the immigrants, come to the United States," said Ayad. "Basically, to make some money. . . . According to his statements to the FBI agents, he was here to make some money to go back with $10,000 for his wife and children."

Whatever the eventual outcome in this case, simple prudence demands that a question be asked of our political leaders: If they don't secure our borders against illegal immigration, how can they secure our country against Hizballah?

And Hizballah, as Sheik Nasrallah says, seeks "Death to America!"

©2003 Creators Syndicate

Contact Terence Jeffrey | Read Jeffrey's biography

[Bobby777]

TROP(tm) speaks once again ...

[Mr. Mojo]

Why did Kourani come to America? "I think why millions of Americans, the immigrants, come to the United States," said Ayad. "Basically, to make some money"

Yeah right. .....Another "willing worker," I presume.

[Bobby777]

waaaaaaaay past time to seal those borders ...

[dinok]

Nasralah and Arafat both have American blood on their hands, yet we continue to coddle them and force Israel to accept radical Islamists next to them as neighbors.

History channel did a series on the Barbarians last week. I think we are Rome and the barbarians are knocking on our gates.

[11B3]

Seems like a couple dozen MOABs could finish this entire infitada real quick.

OK, it's my dream, but I'm sticking to it.

[dennisw]

Mexico is a lawless, wasted "nation" and so are we when we give amnesty to 12 million illegal aliens. So you say only 5 million of these will qualify for amnesty? So what will the other 7  million do? Leave and go home? Or will we start enforcing immigration laws and forcibly deport them?

Shamnesty is a crock

[SJackson]

Don't know about Hizbollah, but there are connections as well as mutual sympathy.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
October 18, 2000

On the Palestinian-Jewish Issue

La Raza's struggle for the land and for political and economic self-determination is not different from the struggle of the Palestinian people in Zionist Israel. We live in Aztlan under Anglo domination as the Palestinians live under Jewish domination. La Raza as well as the Palestinians lost the land through military aggression and both people now live in segregated regions within the larger nation. The Palestinian people as well as La Raza provide the hard labor necessary to prop up the national economies. Both Raza children and Palestinian children are victims of educational discrimination. The Palestinians as well as La Raza are considered people of color. So who should we side with in the present struggle in the Middle East? Will it be with the Jewish Zionists or with Islam? It is no secret that the United States as a whole is siding with the Jews, but should we? It is also no secret that the Jewish Lobby in America now also dominate large parts of the U.S federal government. It is estimated that over 32% of the Clinton Administration is of Jewish descent. Many are top level Federal Officials and includes the Secretary of Defense as well as the Secretary of State. In fact, the Department of State is now pretty much entirely Jewish. Most of the foreign Ambassadors are Jewish. This trend was begun by Henry Kissinger who is a Jew. This is very surprising considering that Jews only make about 2% of the total US population. Making these statements is not anti-semitic. It is stating facts. We do not hate Jews. We respect the contributions that many Jews have made to world culture. However, we reject Zionist racist Jews like the war criminal Ariel Sharon and appeal to all good Jews to do the same.

Israel can now be considered to be the 51st state. U.S. taxpayers are now sending over 8 billion dollars each year in economic and military aid. The sophisticated military weaponry being utilized against defenseless Palestinians are gifts from Uncle Sam. In fact, Israel now has nuclear and biological weapons, thanks to the United States. Why is the US providing so much to Israel? Well the selection of Joseph Lieberman as Vice Presidential running mate for Al Gore should give a clue.

Another clue should be provided by how the Israeli Army atrocities unfolded in the US media. At first, none of the Palestinian children murders were being covered by ABC, NBC or CBS. Not until the French and Italian media started broadcasting pictures of dead Palestinian children was the US media forced to cover some of the Israeli atrocities. Politicians, including Hillary Clinton running for US Senate in New York need a friendly media to be able to win elections.

La Raza is a victim of the same political and economic forces that are oppressing the Palestinian people and other people of color around the world. We must awaken to this fact and understand the hidden strategies and tactics being utilized to subjugate our people in order to devise effective counter-measures to neutralize them.

Tezcatlipoca
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Nation of Aztlan

Their emblem (California’s future flag?) Note the bomb, though likely meant to be thrown.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[Paul C. Jesup]

History channel did a series on the Barbarians last week. I think we are Rome and the barbarians are knocking on our gates.

No, we are worse off than Rome, for as corrupt as the Roman leaders were, they realized how dangerious the invaders were and they tried to stop them. While on the other hand, this country's leaders are actually opening the door to the invaders and welcoming them in at the expense of native born law-abiding citizens.

By the way, though I missed the Viking episode, I think the History Channel did a good job on those documentaries.

[Gritty]

In a sentencing memorandum in Kourani's alien-harboring case, Chadwell told the court Kourani's "offense of conviction was part of a continuing scheme to bring illegal aliens to the United States from Lebanon through Mexico."

These hard-working undocumented immigrants are just doing the jobs we lazy Americans refuse to do,... carrying on Jihad in the belly of The Great Satan!

[Bobby777]

yes, I think it is a very poor idea ... given all the factos, especially in a post-9/11 world ...

[Lysander]

I think we are Rome and the barbarians are knocking on our gates.

Agreed. There are a lot of similarities.