Alleged Hezbollah Supporter Detained

USA Today ^ | 6/22 | Associated Press

[mdittmar]

Police in southern Brazil detained a Lebanese immigrant Saturday who is wanted in Paraguay for suspected links to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah.

The Supreme Court ordered Assad Ahmad Barakat's detention after Paraguay requested his extradition, federal police spokesman Gledston Campos said. The court did not say when it might rule on Paraguay's extradition request.

[mdittmar]

Some background info:

Meanwhile, investigators were closely monitoring the activities of a much bigger fish - Assad Ahmad Barakat, the alleged ringleader of Hezbollah's financial network in the Triple Frontier. Barakat arrived in Paraguay as a teenager in 1985, having earlier fled the civil war in Lebanon with his father, a chauffeur for a Lebanese politician. According to investigators, Barakat set up a large network of businesses in Ciudad del Este that were involved in illicit fundraising for Hezbollah. In 2000, however, he fled to Brazil, where he is openly living with his Brazilian wife and children.

[McGavin999]

Great news! One by one they're going down.

[mdittmar]

From the article in my comments.:

While frequently reiterating Brazil's solidarity with the United States to combat international terrorism, Brazilian officials have nevertheless refused to extradite Barakat or undertake the kind of close cooperation that Paraguay has, stating that these are internal matters which will be handled by appropriate agencies within their own country.

Maybe the heat is being turned up on all the countries harboring these lowlifes.

[McGavin999]

Yep, most want to be with us and not with the terrorists ;o)

[lentulusgracchus]

Yup, fits my pistol just fine, and of course there's another post about the Canadian RCMP bagging another scumbag for extradition on a Dutch warrant, in connection with the plot against the U.S. embassy in Paris. Looks like the international security community is hard at work, degrading Osama's operation.

There was a Stratfor comment making the e-mail rounds today, to the effect that Al Q'aeda decided a few months ago, after doing a reassessment after the Taliban fell apart on them, to decentralize down to guys at Barakat's level, who would be roughly equivalent to middle management. Their senior cadres are holed up in Pakistan or caves in Afghanistan and pretty much out of the loop because they can't communicate easily without compromising their location to the NSA. So this was the obvious next step, in order to keep their operations going.

[lentulusgracchus]

the large Arab community in an area where Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil converge.

Now, that's interesting.....when did that happen, and how?

Someone needs to put a call in to CIA to map the Arab communities around the world. Because this arrest clearly indicates that that is where Al Q'aeda's dispersing middle cadre are heading to. Two or three of them got bagged in Morocco recently and are singing like canaries, telling how they were assembled in a group in Paki by second-level Al Q'aeda operatives who'd been in direct communication with Bin Laden's top commanders, and told to disperse themselves to their home areas and undertake operations of their own there. The Moroccan group were tasked against Royal Navy and U.S. Navy shipping transiting the Straits of Gibraltar.

[mdittmar]

Leads me to believe all our embassies,ships,etc. better be on the highest alert.

The next attack may not be in the States.

[Shermy]

They seem to pop up near traditional smuggling areas, and oil producing areas. Like the mafia.

U.S.: Ecuador Has Terror Problem

[lentulusgracchus]

Al Q'aeda may be in S. America buying drugs for their own fundraising efforts. Remember, they used a legitimate tanzanite-trading business in East Africa and a honey business as well for fundraising. It may just be business, and if so, the South Americans may well do business with them.

We've put pressure on their businesses elsewhere by applying financial muscle. They may feel the need to go where our writ runneth not, to find people who will do business with them. They still need money.