Hezbollah Read online

  41. Burgos and Nisman, 314–15; AMIA indictment, 154–55, 232.

  42. AMIA indictment, 154.

  43. Ibid., 158.

  44. Larry Rohter, “South America Region under Watch for Signs of Terrorists,” New York Times, December 15, 2002; “Hizbullah Gets Hit with the Conviction of a Collector,” ABC Color (Paraguay), September 30, 2007; “Drop a Course Link in the Drug Trade to the East,” ABC Color (Paraguay), May 6, 2006.

  45. “Hizballah Captive in Brazil Participated in 1994 Argentine Attack,” Estadao (Brazil), October 24, 2008.

  46. US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Targets Hizballah Fundraising Network.”

  47. Ibid.

  48. US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Designates Islamic Extremist, Two Companies Supporting Hizballah in Tri-Border Area,” press release, June 10, 2004.

  49. Jeffrey Goldberg, “In the Party of God: Hezbollah Sets Up Operations in South America and the United States,” The New Yorker, October 28, 2002.

  50. United States of America v. Bassam Gharib Makki, Affidavit of FBI Agent James Bernazzani Jr., pp. 2–5.

  51. Goldberg, “In the Party of God: Hezbollah Sets Up Operations.”

  52. Burgos and Nisman, 314.

  53. Blanca Madani “Hezbollah’s Global Finance Network: The Triple Frontier,” Middle East Intelligence Bulletin 4, no.1 (January 2002).

  54. US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Designates Islamic Extremist.”

  55. Ibid.

  56. Marc Perelman, “U.S. Hand Seen in Paraguay’s Pursuit of Terrorism Suspect,” Forward, January 17, 2003.

  57. AMIA indictment, 156.

  58. US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Designates Islamic Extremist.”

  59. Ibid.

  60. Ibid.

  61. Associated Press, “Brazil Probes Hezbollah Link in Murder of SLA Man’s Cousin,” Haaretz (Tel Aviv), March 13, 2002.

  62. Perelman, “U.S. Hand Seen in Paraguay’s Pursuit”; FBI Most Wanted Terrorists List, “Mohammed Ali Hamedei.”

  63. Rohter, “South America Region under Watch”; Jose de Cordoba, “Is Jungle Junction a Terrorist Hideaway?” Wall Street Journal, November 28, 2001.

  64. Rohter, “South America Region under Watch.”

  65. Perelman, “U.S. Hand Seen in Paraguay’s Pursuit.”

  66. Ibid.

  67. Burgos and Nisman, 313.

  68. Ibid.

  69. US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Designates Islamic Extremist.”

  70. Chilean Department of Foreign Affairs, Investigation Police (presentation, The Chilean-American Conference of Future Geopolitical Trends, Santiago, March 6–7, 2002).

  71. Burgos and Nisman, 314.

  72. “Film Piracy, Organized Crime, and Terrorism,” Appendix B (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2009), 59.

  73. Cordoba, “Is Jungle Junction a Terrorist Hideaway?”; Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, with the Department of Defense, “A Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups,” May 2002, 32.

  74. US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Designates Islamic Extremist.”

  75. “Chief Extremist Arrested in Foz Trying to Flee to Angola,” ABC Digital (Paraguay); “Two Lebanese Suspects ‘Key’ to Hezbollah Tri-border Activity,” ABC Color (Paraguay), November 27, 2002 (Spanish); Goldberg, “In the Party of God: Hezbollah Sets Up Operations.”

  76. “Hong Kong Mafia Was Linked to Hizbullah in the Tri-Border,” ABC Digital (Paraguay), November 22, 2002 (Spanish); “Chief Extremist Arrested in Foz Trying to Flee to Angola,” ABC Digital (Paraguay).

  77. “Argentine Prosecutors Link Tri-Border Hizballah Leaders to AMIA Attack,” ABC Color (Paraguay), May 28, 2003 (Spanish); Hudson, Terrorist and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area, 13.

  78. “Paraguay: Hizballah Financier Barakat Extradited from Brazil,” Program Summary Excerpt from Sistema Nacional de Television – SNT TV (Paraguay), November 17, 2003; “Film Piracy, Organized Crime, and Terrorism,” 64; Asunción La Nación, June 17, 2007, included in “Highlights: Paraguay Press 16–18 Jun 07,” Paraguay OSC Summary, Open Source Center, June 18, 2007.

  79. US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Designates Islamic Extremist.”

  80. US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Targets Hizballah Fundraising Network.”

  81. Cordoba, “Is Jungle Junction a Terrorist Hideaway?”

  82. US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Targets Hizballah Fundraising Network.”

  83. Government of Argentina, Arrest warrant for Samuel Salman el Reda, Buenos Aires, June 2009; AMIA indictment, 197.

  84. Burgos and Nisman, 237–40; AMIA indictment, 232.

  85. Arrest warrant for Samuel Salman el Reda.

  86. AMIA indictment, 163.

  87. Ibid., 165.

  88. Ibid., 162–63, 232.

  89. Ibid., 163; Burgos and Nisman, 238.

  90. AMIA indictment, 165.

  91. Arrest warrant for Samuel Salman el Reda.

  92. Burgos and Nisman, 238–40.

  93. Ibid., 246–47.

  94. Ibid., 243.

  95. Ibid., 244, 374.

  96. Ibid., 91.

  97. US FBI, “International Radical Fundamentalism.”

  98. Burgos and Nisman, 94.

  99. Ibid., 108.

  100. Ibid., 219.

  101. Ibid., 243–45.

  102. Mark S. Steinitz, “Middle East Terrorist Activity in Latin America,” Policy Papers on the Americas, vol. 14, study 7, Center for Strategic and International Studies, July 2003.

  103. AMIA indictment, Expert Opinions of Ariel Merari and Bruce Hoffman.

  104. AMIA indictment, 28.

  105. Burgos and Nisman, 189–90.

  106. Ibid., 191.

  107. AMIA indictment, 30.

  108. Burgos and Nisman, 191–92.

  109. Ibid.

  110. AMIA indictment, 30; Burgos and Nisman, 192.

  111. Burgos and Nisman, 193.

  112. Ibid., 235–37.

  113. US Department of the Treasury, “Fact Sheet: Designation of Iranian Entities and Individuals for Proliferation Activities and Support for Terrorism,” October 25, 2007.

  114. Burgos and Nisman, 235–37.

  115. Ibid., 247.

  116. Goldberg, “In the Party of God: Hezbollah Sets Up Operations.”

  117. Ranstorp, “Hizbollah’s Command Leadership,” 319–20.

  118. US Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense, “Unclassified Report on Military Power of Iran,” April 2010.

  119. Burgos and Nisman, 175–76.

  120. Ibid., 15, 175–76.

  121. Ibid., 177–78.

  122. Ibid., 176.

  123. AMIA indictment, 71.

  124. Burgos and Nisman, 174, 177.

  125. Ibid., 242.

  126. “Report of the Task Force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): Analysis of the Attack on the Seat of the Mutual Israeli Argentinean Association (AMIA), 18th of July, 1994, Buenos Aires, Argentina,” August 1998 (original copy in Spanish, translated to English for the author by Yair Fuxman).

  127. Alexei Barrionuevo, “Inquiry on 1994 Blast at Argentina Jewish Center Gets New Life,” New York Times, July 18, 2009.

  128. Arrest warrant for Samuel Salman el Reda.

  129. Ibid.

  130. Goldberg, “In the Party of God: Hezbollah Sets Up Operations.”

  131. Burgos and Nisman, 310.

  132. Library of Congress, “Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups.”

  133. AMIA indictment, 234.

  134. Goldberg, “In the Party of God: Hezbollah Sets Up Operations.”

  135. “Argentine Prosecutors Link Tri-Border Hizballah Leaders to AMIA Attack,” ABC Color (Paraguay), May 28, 2003 (Spanish).

  136. Burgos and Nisman, 328–30.

  137. “Report of the Task Force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
: Analysis of the Attack on the Seat of the Mutual Israeli Argentinean Association (AMIA).”

  138. Rohter, “South America Region under Watch.”

  139. Burgos and Nisman, 215.

  140. Comments of FBI Special Agent James Bernazzani Jr. as cited in Burgos and Nisman, 312.

  141. Burgos and Nisman, 328.

  142. Rex Hudson, “Terrorist and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of South America,” A Report prepared by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, under an Interagency Agreement with the Crime and Narcotics Center Director of Central Intelligence, July 2003 (Revised December 2010), 14.

  143. Presentation of Israeli intelligence official at a conference conducted under Chatham House Rule, December 2010.

  144. Goldberg, “In the Party of God: Hezbollah Sets Up Operations.”

  145. Library of Congress, “Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups,” 19.

  146. Burgos and Nisman, 216–17.

  147. AMIA indictment, 71, 101, 135.

  148. Burgos and Nisman, 207.

  149. Arrest warrant for Samuel Salman el Reda.

  150. Ibid.

  151. Burgos and Nisman, 318.

  152. Arrest warrant for Samuel Salman el Reda.

  153. Burgos and Nisman, 15.

  154. Arrest warrant for Samuel Salman el Reda.

  155. Burgos and Nisman, 15.

  156. Ibid., 320–21.

  157. “Report of the Task Force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): Analysis of the Attack on the Seat of the Mutual Israeli Argentinean Association (AMIA).”

  158. Sebastian Rotella, “Deadly Blasts and an Itinerant’s Tale,” Los Angeles Times, April 17, 1999.

  159. “Report of the Task Force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): Analysis of the Attack on the Seat of the Mutual Israeli Argentinean Association (AMIA).”

  160. Burgos and Nisman, 324–25.

  161. Ibid.

  162. Dos Santos, the shadowy figure warned that terrorists with whom his Iranian ex-girlfriend was involved were preparing to bomb a Jewish target in Buenos Aires, reportedly cultivated a romantic relationship with Fat Nora so he could smuggle goods across the border. See “Report of the Task Force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): Analysis of the Attack on the Seat of the Mutual Israeli Argentinean Association (AMIA); See also Rotella, “Deadly Blasts.”

  163. Martinez may have been an employee of Telledin’s, or the name may have been a fake. See “Report of the Task Force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): Analysis of the Attack on the Seat of the Mutual Israeli Argentinean Association (AMIA).”

  164. Ibid.

  165. Burgos and Nisman, 15.

  166. Ibid., 15, 21, 248; “Report of the Task Force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): Analysis of the Attack on the Seat of the Mutual Israeli Argentinean Association (AMIA).”

  167. Burgos and Nisman, 15.

  168. Arrest warrant for Samuel Salman el Reda.

  169. Ibid.

  170. “Iran as a State Sponsoring and Operating Terror,” Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (Israel), Special Information Bulletin, April 2003.

  171. Burgos and Nisman, 333, 337–39, 354–55.

  172. Article in Clarin newspaper, as cited in Burgos and Nisman, 345.

  173. Burgos and Nisman, 334; Marc Perelman, “Argentine Authorities Said to Seek Arrest of Iranians in 1994 Bombing,” Forward, November 18, 2005.

  174. Burgos and Nisman, 299; United States of America v. Bassam Gharib Makki, Affidavit of FBI Agent James Bernazzani Jr.; William R. Long, “Islamic Jihad Says It Bombed Embassy; Toll 21,” Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1992; Bergman, Secret War with Iran, 170; US Department of State, Patterns of Global Terrorism 1992, Washington, DC, April 1993, 1, 9.

  175. Bergman, Secret War with Iran, 170–71.

  176. Burgos and Nisman, 301–2.

  177. Bergman, Secret War with Iran, 171.

  178. Burgos and Nisman, 301.

  179. Long, “Islamic Jihad Says It Bombed Embassy.”

  180. USA v. Bassam Gharib Makki, Affidavit of James Bernazzani Jr.

  181. Statement of Ambassador Philip Wilcox, Terrorism in Latin America/AMIA Bombing in Argentina.

  182. Burgos and Nisman, 302.

  183. US CIA, “Lebanon’s Hizballah,” 8–9.

  184. Burgos and Nisman, 305–6.

  185. AMIA indictment, 84–85.

  186. Burgos and Nisman, 152.

  187. Author interview, Alberto Nisman, March 21, 2010.

  188. AMIA indictment, 31, 125.

  189. Ibid., 166.

  190. “Barakat Traveled to Iran with Paraguayan Passport” (Spanish), ABC Color (Asunción), June 9, 2003; Burgos and Nisman, 313.

  191. Bergman, Secret War with Iran, 172.

  192. Burgos and Nisman, 301.

  193. US CIA, “Lebanon’s Hizballah,” 8.

  194. Library of Congress, “Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups,” 21.

  195. AMIA indictment, 231–32; Burgos and Nisman, 309.

  196. United States of America v. Bassam Gharib Makki, Affidavit of FBI Agent James Bernazzani Jr.; Long, “Islamic Jihad Says It Bombed Embassy.”

  197. Burgos and Nisman, 305.

  198. AMIA indictment, 139–40.

  199. Bergman, Secret War with Iran, 171.

  200. Ibid.

  201. Burgos and Nisman, 239.

  202. AMIA indictment, 102.

  203. Burgos and Nisman, 228.

  204. US CIA, “Lebanon’s Hizballah: Testing Political Waters.”

  205. Burgos and Nisman, 377.

  206. “Panama Jews Fear Sabotage in Crash,” Jerusalem Post, July 21, 1994; “Bomb Caused Plane Crash, Panama Official Says,” New York Times, July 21, 1994.

  207. Statement of Ambassador Phillips, Terrorism in Latin America/AMIA Bombing in Argentina.

  208. “Lebanese Group Claims Responsibility for AMIA and Panamanian Aircraft Bombing,” Voice of Israel, July 23, 1994, acquired through BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, July 25, 1994.

  209. US FBI, “International Radical Fundamentalism.” See also the finding of Hezbollah expert Magnus Ranstorp that Hezbollah (with help from Iran) was behind attacks in Argentina, Panama, and London in the wake of the July 1994 peace agreement signed between Israel and Jordan. Magnus Ranstorp, “Hizbollah’s Command Leadership.”

  210. Hudson, Terrorist and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area, 35, 19.

  211. “Two Lebanese Are Linked to Hezbollah in the East” (Spanish), ABC Color (Asunción), November 27, 2002; “Argentine Prosecutors Link Tri-Border Hizballah Leaders to AMIA Attack,” ABC Color (Paraguay), May 28, 2003 (Spanish).

  212. Perelman, “Clandestine Operation Targeted Arab Suspects,” The Forward, January 17, 2003.

  213. Rotella, “Jungle Hub for World’s Outlaws.” See also Hudson, Terrorist and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area, 77. According to Hudson, Kadi is the same as Marwan Safadi who, according to the Nisman/Burgos AMIA report, may also have played a role in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center in New York (see Burgos and Nisman, 315). Re Kadi/Safadi, see also “Lebanese Prisoner in Miami Is the Cousin of Individual Involved in Attack” (Spanish), ABC Color (Asunción), February 24, 2010.

  214. US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Designates Islamic Extremist.”

  215. Hudson, Terrorist and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area, 18; Goldberg, “In the Party of God: Hezbollah Sets Up Operations.”

  216. Author interview, former FBI agent, Washington, DC, February 23, 2011.

  217. Allan Woods, “Ottawa Was Terror Target, U.S. Reports,” National Post (Canada), February 9, 2004.

  218. Author interview, former FBI agent, Washington, DC, February 23, 2011.

  219. AMIA indictment, 154.

  220. US Congress, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Transnational Drug Enterpri
ses (Part II): Threats to Global Stability and U.S. Policy Responses: Hearing before the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, 111th Cong., 2d sess., March 3, 2010, Statement of Anthony P. Placido.

  221. Wege, “Hizballah’s Bekka Organization,” 29–38.

  222. Ron Ben Yishai, “Hizbullah’s Drug Link: The Ayatollahs Allowed Drug Traffic as a Weapon against Israel,” Yediot Ahronot (Tel Aviv), June 6, 1997.

  223. US Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 1, 2011, 365.

  224. Author interview, DEA agents, Washington, DC, June 18, 2010.

  225. US Department of Justice, “Operation Green Ice (1992),” DEA History Book 1990–1994; Andelman, “Drug Money Maze,” 94–108.

  226. Author interview, DEA agents, Washington, DC, June 18, 2010.

  227. Ibid.

  228. Library of Congress, “Global Overview of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist and Other Extremist Groups”; Yishai, “Hizbullah’s Drug Link.”

  229. US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, “International Radical Fundamentalism: An Analytical Overview of Groups and Trends,” November 1994, declassified on November 20, 2008.

  230. US Congress, Senate Armed Services Committee, Posture Statement of Admiral James G. Stavridis, United States Navy Commander, United States Southern Command, 111th Congress, 1st sess., March 17, 2009, 12.

  231. Jo Becker, “Beirut Bank Seen as a Hub of Hezbollah’s Financing,” New York Times, December 13, 2011.

  232. Ibid.

  233. Chris Kraul and Sebastian Rotella, “Drug Probe Finds Hezbollah Link,” Los Angeles Times, October 22, 2008.

  234. US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Designates Medellin Drug Lord Tied to Oficina de Envigado Organized Crime Group,” press release, July 9, 2009.

  235. Associated Press, “17 Arrested on Curacao for Involvement in Hezbollah-linked Drug Ring,” Guardian (London), April 29, 2009.

  236. “Police Crack Down on Curacao Drug Ring with Ties to Hizbullah,” Naharnet, April 29, 2009.

  237. Statement of Ambassador Philip Wilcox, Terrorism in Latin America/AMIA Bombing in Argentina.

  238. Statement of Tommy Baer, Terrorism in Latin America/AMIA Bombing in Argentina.

  239. Benjamin Birnbaum, “General in Latin America Trains Eye on Middle East,” Washington Times, July 29, 2010.

  240. US Congress, House Armed Services Committee, Fiscal Year 2013 National Defense Authorization Budget Requests from U.S. Southern Command and U.S. Northern Command: Hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, 112th Cong., 2d sess., March 6, 2012, Statement of Douglas Fraser.