Interpol arrests Hizbullah agent from tri-border area of South America
Interpol arrests Hizbullah agent from tri-border area of South America
LONDON — Interpol has arrested a suspected Hizbullah agent said to have financed weapons smuggling from the United States.  Interpol, the international police organization, said it arrested Moussa Hamdan, suspected of being a financier of Hizbullah based in the so-called tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The area, dominated by Shi’ites, has been a leading source of money and drugs for the Iranian-supported Hizbullah.
Lebanese-American Moussa Hamdan is escorted upon his arrival to a courthouse in Asuncion on June 16, for a preliminary hearing on charges of helping to finance Hizbullah.   Reuters/Stringer
In a statement on June 15, Interpol said the 38-year-old Hamdan, born in New York City, was arrested in Ciudad del Este, regarded as a Hizbullah stronghold. Hamdan has been sought by the United States on suspicion of financing insurgency groups.  Interpol representative in Paraguay Jose Chena said a decision would be made by August 2010 on whether to extradite Hamdan to the United States. Hamdan has been identified as a member of a Hizbullah ring that sought to ship weapons from the United States to Syria. In November 2009, Hamdan was indicted along with three others on charges of conspiring to export weapons from Philadelphia to the Syrian port of Lataki. The indictment said Hamdan financed plans for the Hizbullah cell to export 1,200 U.S.-origin Colt M-4 machine guns to Syria as well as providing fraudulent passports, counterfeit money and stolen genuine money.  Officials said Hamdan has been purchasing and transporting stolen goods — including cellular phones, laptop computers and automobiles — to raise funds for Hizbullah. The cell was identified and dismantled in an FBI investigation that included an undercover agent.  “Defendants Moussa Ali Hamdan, Dib Hani Harb and Hasan Antar Karaki generated additional funds for Hizbullah by selling fraudulent passports,” the Justice Department said.    U.S. downplays significance of Hizbullah presence in South America
WASHINGTON — The administration of President Barack Obama has downplayed the Hizbullah presence in South America.  The State Department, contrary to assessments by Congress, asserted that Hizbullah does not maintain an operational presence in South America. The department said Hizbullah was restricting its activities in South America to fundraising.  “We have no credible information to indicate that Hizbullah has an operational presence in Latin America,” State Department counter-terrorism coordinator Daniel Benjamin said.  In testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 8, Benjamin portrayed Hizbullah as using South America to raise funds. He said similar Hizbullah operations have also been conducted in other regions.  “Hizbullah’s network of financial support knows no borders, with active operations in many places around the globe, including Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America,” Benjamin told the subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs.  The State Department assessment appeared to differ with that of the Congressional Research Service, which linked Hizbullah to drug traffickers in several South American states. The congressional report, which echoed the State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2008, was released in April 2009.  “International terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hizbullah, have also reportedly raised funding for their terrorist activities through linkages formed with [drug trafficking organizations] in South America, particularly those operating in the tri-border area of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina,” CRS said.  Law enforcement officials said Hizbullah has used South America for drug and arms smuggling, money-laundering and counterfeiting. They cited the case of Moussa Hamdan, arrested in Paraguay and sought by the United States on charges of financing Hizbullah plans to ship 1,200 machine guns from the United States to Syria.  Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Ryan Crocker, who recently was ambassador to Iraq, said the State Department was playing down the Hizbullah presence in South America. Crocker, who also testified to the subcommittee, disputed the department’s assessment and said drug trafficking in South America was a key facilitator of Hizbullah operations.  “So I would call that operational, and I think it deserves perhaps more of a focus than it’s gotten,” Crocker said.  Sen. Robert Casey, chairman of the subcommittee, warned that Hizbullah was becoming a threat to the United States. Casey said Hizbullah, with an arsenal of at least 40,000 missiles and rockets, was threatening U.S. allies in the Middle East.  “The main concern we have now growing out of the hearing,” Casey said, “is the buildup in arms and weapons in Hizbullah as it threatens Israel directly, because they’ve taken action against Israel in the past, the recent past, and how that destabilizes the region. That’s, I think, the most central concern right now.”Copyright © 2010   East West Services, Inc.   All Rights Reserved.  Geostrategy-direct is an e-mail newsletter delivering exclusive information of strategic and geopolitical significance to subscribers who follow international developments.
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