Free Republic

So long as the world is entertaining worst-case scenarios, the media does Americans no favors in omitting that Iran-Hezbollah has for years prepared to strike in their own hometowns. Weirdly absent from much of the professional speculation about where and how Iran will exact its promised “severe revenge” for the U.S. drone strike killing of Quds Force Gen. Qassem Suleimani is mention of the dead man’s highly suggestive hint. During a time of intense saber rattling between Iran and President Donald Trump in July 2018, Suleimani gave a speech during which he called out the American president: “Mr. Gambler, Trump!...

In recent years, Hezbollah has stepped up its activities beyond Lebanon’s borders. This uptick has been clearest in the Middle East—in Iraq, Yemen, and especially Syria—but plots have also been thwarted in South America, Asia, Europe, and now, possibly, the United States. Reports of Hezbollah activity in North America are not new, though such reporting tends to focus on the group’s fundraising, money laundering, procurement, or other logistical activities from Vancouver to Miami. But last month, the criminal prosecution and conviction in New York of the Hezbollah operative Ali Kourani revealed disturbing new information about the extent of Hezbollah’s operations...

Two Middle East immigrants in the United States have been arrested in connection with terrorist activities after the FBI found out their chilling ties to the terrorist organization known as Hezbollah. This is a wake-up call to every American. According to a news release from United States Attorney’s Office, District of New York, “Ali Kourani and Samer El Debek, a/k/a ‘Samer Eldebek,’ were arrested on Thursday, June 1, 2017, on charges related to their alleged activities on behalf of Hizballah[sic], a designated foreign terrorist organization. “ Kourani was reportedly living in the Bronx in New York, while Eldebek was living...

Hezbollah is a greater and more longstanding foundational threat to our homeland than ISIS. This was brought to the forefront last week when two Hezbollah operatives were arrested on charges of surveilling targets for the Iranian-backed terror group on our own soil. They were also naturalized citizens who were admitted from Lebanon as immigrants years ago. Sadly, this story received very little media coverage. President Trump would be wise to give a televised address making the case for his immigration moratorium and travel ban by using this case as a perfect case study for the need for smarter vetting and...

Former Dearborn, Michigan, resident Mahmoud Youssef Kourani was a secret Hezbollah agent sent to infiltrate America in February 2001. He stole over the Mexican border into California with a skill set that court records would later describe as “specialized training in radical Shiite fundamentalism, weaponry, spy craft, and counterintelligence,” picked up in Lebanon and Iran. Kourani got caught in 2004 and thrown in federal prison for raising money and recruits for Hezbollah, which pioneered the modern art of suicide truck bombing by blowing up American Marines in Beirut. But the enduring significance of Kourani isn’t that Hezbollah was able to...

Dearborn man pleas guilty to aiding terror group 3/2/2005, 3:36 a.m. ET The Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — A Dearborn man has pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist group. According to federal prosecutors, Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, 33, hosted meetings in his home in late 2002 where a guest speaker from Lebanon solicited donations for Hezbollah, which has been designated by the United States as a terrorist organization. The government didn't identify the speaker at the meetings. It said the money was intended for Hezbollah's orphans of martyrs program to benefit the families of those killed...

A man accused of hosting fund-raising meetings for Hizbullah at his home pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge, prosecutors said. Federal prosecutors announced Tuesday that Mahmoud Youssef Kourani hosted meetings in 2002 at which a speaker from Lebanon solicited donations for the group Hizbullah, which the United States has designated as a terrorist organization. Kourani, 33, pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist group, prosecutors said. The government has not identified the speaker. Prosecutors said the money was intended for a program that benefits orphans of fighters killed in Hizbullah operations or by the group's enemies....

Michigan man pleads guilty to aiding Hizballah Yet we are not even to question the loyalties of Muslims in America -- to do so would be "Islamophobia." This story shows why such pieties must be discarded. "Dearborn resident helped terror group," from the Detroit News, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm: DEARBORN -- A Dearborn man pleaded guilty Tuesday to providing material support to Hezbollah, a foreign terrorist organization. Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, 33, admitted to hosting meetings at his Dearborn home during Ramadan in 2002 and allowing a Lebanese man to solicit donations from people there for Hezbollah. The U.S. government...

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...

Alleged Hizballah 'Fighter' Snuck Into U.S. from Mexico Posted Jan 23, 2004 An indictment returned by a federal grand jury on November 19 alleges that a Hizballah "member, fighter, recruiter and fundraiser" snuck across the Mexican border into the United States in 2001, and then conspired here in the U.S. to "provide material support" to Hizballah, which is designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization. The indictment was unsealed January 15. Nabih Ayad, lawyer for the accused man, Mahmoud Kourani, told the Detroit Free Press that the charges against his client were wrong. There is "no shred...

<p>DETROIT — An indictment unsealed Thursday charges a Dearborn man with conspiracy to provide material support to Hezbollah (search), an Islamic militant group listed by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.</p> <p>The indictment accuses Mahmoud Youssef Kourani (search) of being a member, fighter, recruiter and fund-raiser for Hezbollah who operated in Lebanon and later within the United States.</p>