Accused ex-Hezbollah Member Referred To As “god of death”

San Antonio Express-News ^ | May 30, 2013 | Guillermo Contreras

[texanyankee]

In the defense's version, Wissam Allouche was a former linguist for the U.S. Army who ran a gas station in Northeast San Antonio as he became an American citizen.

But to counterterrorism officials, Allouche, 44, belonged to Hezbollah, falsely claimed to be a U.S. special forces officer during visits to Fort Sam Houston, and even tried to hook up with women at the post, possibly to gain access to sensitive information.

The two pictures emerged during a bail hearing Wednesday for Allouche, whose own statements recorded by investigators or stated in interviews often were contradictory about his allegiances to Hezbollah.

Allouche was arrested by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force here last week after being indicted on charges of not disclosing, during his quest to obtain his U.S. citizenship, his membership in the Amal militia and Hezbollah in Lebanon in the 1980s.

He's also charged with not disclosing his prior membership in those groups when he applied for a security clearance with the Defense Department as he sought a contracting job.

Before 2009, Allouche worked for L-3 Communications, which provides linguistic services for the U.S. military, and he was deployed for several months to Iraq. He has lived in the U.S. since about 2002, and once owned Windcrest Mobil, a gas station at Walzem Road and Interstate 35, his lawyer said.

He's not charged specifically with espionage or terrorism.

For more than three years, the task force has been investigating Allouche, and even used an undercover person to record conversations with him, authorities said.

The FBI raided his then-home in Universal City in 2011, and found documents which they claim he fabricated to falsely show he had security clearances, membership in U.S. special forces and Defense Department intelligence units.

Allouche entered a not guilty plea to the charges, and his lawyer, Cynthia Orr, challenged the government's characterization of her client.

Much of “the evidence comes from his disgruntled ex-wife and his disgruntled ex-father-in-law,” Orr told U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad.

Orr argued Allouche's past did not become an issue until 2010 — after a bitter divorce with Jennifer R. Allouche, a member of the U.S. Army. The two met in Germany in 1999, and they were married for 14 years, Orr said.

Their divorce was finalized in 2009 in Bexar County, a few months after Wissam Allouche became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

“No derogatory information was found about his character, loyalty and honesty,” an official with the Homeland Security Department wrote about Allouche, and he was granted citizenship.

But the department also asked the Joint Terrorism Task Force to take a look.

Army Criminal Investigations agent Jeff Cram, a member of the task force, testified that an investigation revealed Allouche's ties. And, Cram said, Allouche was seen by at least two people at Fort Sam dressed in U.S. military uniform displaying insignias from special forces.

If convicted of lying in his naturalization forms, Allouche faces up to 10 years in prison, and his citizenship would be revoked. He faces up to five years for the charge of lying on security-clearance forms.

[Venturer]

A woman scorned.

Maybe she should have thought twice before marrying a Muslim.

[Ken522]

Wonder what he looks like? I tried a search on “picture of Wissam Allouche” but just got articles about Hezbollah and this article in the San Antonio news ...