LCCC NEWS BULLETIN
APRIL 2/2006
Below news from miscellaneous sources for 2/04/06
Saad Hariri meets hard line Palestinian leader-Bangkok Post
Distorting Siniora's Stance.By: Walid Choucait-Dar Al-Hayat
18 indicted in smuggling conspiracy-Monsters and Critics.com
FBI's Mueller: Hezbollah Busted in Mexican Smuggling Operation-NewsMax.com
Christians are 'moderating force' in Lebanon, says leading-Catholic News Service
IDF: Iran, Syria, Hizbullah enhance PA involvement-Jerusalem Post
Nineteen indicted in racketeering scheme Defendants' counsel deny Arab American News
Fadlallah reminds country of resistance achievments-Daily Star

Saad Hariri meets hard line Palestinian leader
Beirut (dpa) - The leader of the Lebanese anti-Syrian majority in parliament, Saad Hariri, has met with pro-Syrian Ahmed Jebril, head of the hardline Palestinian movement - the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) - a statement from Hariri's office said Saturday.
Sources close to Hariri said the meeting focused on the future of the PFLP-GC bases located in the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon and in Naameh, 15 kilometres south of Beirut.
Lebanon is under pressure by the world community to implement UN resolution 1559 which calls for the disarmament all Lebanese (Hezbollah) and Palestinian factions on its territories.
There are some 367,000 Palestinian refugees living in 12 refugee camps across Lebanon. Security inside the camps are manned by Palestinian factions but the Lebanese army maintains checkpoints outside the entrances of all shanty towns.
Lebanese political leaders who have been meeting since March 2 to end the political crisis which engulfed the country following the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, have decided to solve the issue of the Palestinian armed presence within six months.
Ahmed Jebril's bases have been the target of several Israeli air strikes in the past few years in retaliation for attacks carried by the group on northern Israel from southern Lebanon. Israel ended its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in May 2002. Jebril lives in Damascus and is a very close ally of Syria, Iran and the Shiite Lebanese movement Hezbollah.

Distorting Siniora's Stance…
Walid Choucair Al-Hayat - 01/04/06//
There was an intentional endeavor to distort the stance of the Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in the Arab League Summit in order to justify the attack thereon. All the man asked was for the summit to come up with a resolution stressing "the right of the Lebanese people to resist, liberate their territory and defend its honor in the face of the Israeli violations and ambitions." This is instead of the expression that was mentioned in the decision and that upholds that "the Lebanese resistance is an honest and natural expression of the right of the Lebanese people to liberate their territory and defend their honor…"
PM Siniora wanted to grant the right of resistance to the Lebanese people, since the practical interpretation of this right entails political and constitutional mechanisms that take into consideration the components of the institutions. Here, the conflict arises: how can this right be practiced? Through or beyond the government? This is put forth on the agenda of the national dialogue. When there is an intentional endeavor to distort Siniora's stance in order to wage an attack against this stance, by distorting it, the goal becomes different than the one proclaimed.
It is clear that the Lebanese agreed on maintaining the resistance until the liberation of Shebaa farms, which they also agreed to liberate through diplomatic means in order to establish the Lebanese sovereignty thereon. This can be achieved by acquiring a Syrian document that would stand for an agreement between the two governments, approved by the UN to call on Israel to withdraw from the farms. But it is also clear that the conflict is ongoing over the fate of the resistance after the liberation of Shebaa farms and the release of the Lebanese detainees in the Israeli prisons. Will it remain as is or will it join the Lebanese army? It was not anticipated that the Lebanese parties would solve the conflict over the fate of the resistance following the liberation of Shebaa farms during the national dialogue. The implicit understanding between them was the issue would be deferred and the national dialogue meeting will conclude its sessions with a general memo regarding the resistance arms. The memo would link the issue to a complex process related to the so-called "defensive strategy of the Lebanese State in facing the Israeli violations and ambitions." This outcome requires much more time, that could be measured in months or in years. Everybody is aware that the issue of the resistance's arms is linked to the regional situation. Hence, it is hard for the Lebanese to agree thereon outside this regional frame, at least in the near future. Thus, on the sidelines of the national dialogue meeting, the idea of forming a committee to put forth a strategic defense scheme was raised. After a gradual implementation, the resistance's arms issue will be dealt with.
Then, why is this attack on Siniora? Is it a counter-attack by the allies of Damascus on the request to dismiss the President of the Republic, Emile Lahoud? Has the issue of maintaining the resistance, from Hezbollah's angle, grown to be linked to the stay of Lahoud? Is it a replica of the Syrian argument saying that the extension of Lahoud's mandate came about as a result of the scarcity of substitutes thereof who support Syria in facing the pressure? The argument would be then that there is no substitute for Lahoud to support the resistance?
The first outcome of this controversy and row over the stance vis-à-vis the layout of the Arab League's resolution about the resistance, starting in Khartoum and extending to Beirut, is that the controversy is no longer about the dismissal or substitution of Lahoud but has been deliberately shifted to the critical issue related to the resistance. What paves the way for this shift is the distortion of Siniora's stance by accusing him of seeking to strike out the "resistance" right from the texts of the Arab League, while he wants to link it to the choice of the Lebanese people.
Damascus' allies felt that the request of the majority to dismiss Lahoud has been hindered and may be deferred. Thus, they decided to wage a counter-attack, by targeting Siniora, the representative of the majority. They also targeted the advocates of dismissing the President of the Republic. Syria allies and Damascus itself felt that the achievements of the national dialogue meeting with respect to the bilateral relations (diplomatic relations), the Palestinian arms, and Shebaa farms entail an implementation of its clauses on the Syrian side. In fact, the active Arab countries insisted and specified that the national dialogue meeting should bring about results as a condition to support Lebanon in order to implement it. Is another crisis essential to deviate the attention from the due implementation of what has been agreed upon in the dialogue up until now by overstating the crisis with Siniora?

IDF: Iran, Syria, Hizbullah enhance PA involvement
By JPOST.COM STAFF-Mar. 31, 2006
A senior IDF official said Friday night that Iran, Syria and Hizbullah have enhanced both their involvement in the territories, as well as the amounts of money they transfer for terrorist attacks. According to Israel Radio, the officer added that in northern Samaria, especially in Nablus, different terror organizations, headed by Islamic Jihad, were working together to carry out attacks.

18 indicted in smuggling conspiracy
Mar 31, 2006
DETROIT, MI, United States (UPI) -- Eighteen people have been indicted in Detroit in an alleged conspiracy to smuggle cigarettes and fake Viagra to raise funds for Hezbollah terrorists. The grand jury indictment charged that the tobacco-smuggling operation was based in Dearborn, Mich., moving up to $500,000 a week in untaxed or low-taxed cigarettes, the Detroit News said. The indictment charges that tens of thousands of generic virility tablets were sold as if they were name-brand Viagra manufactured by Pfizer, and shipped from China and Eastern Europe.
The indictment said the enterprise operated from North Carolina and Florida in addition to the Dearborn area -- as well as Lebanon, Canada, Brazil, Paraguay and China. It said alleged crimes were perpetrated in Michigan, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina and West Virginia from 1996 to 2004.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said this week that his agency busted a smuggling ring organized by the terrorist group Hezbollah that had operatives cross the Mexican border to carry out possible terrorist attacks inside the U.S.
"This was an occasion in which Hezbollah operatives were assisting others with some association with Hezbollah in coming to the United States,” Mueller told a House Appropriations subcommittee during a Tuesday hearing on the FBI's budget.
In a stunning revelation, Mueller admitted that Hezbollah had succeeded in smuggling some of its operatives across the border, telling the House committee: "That was an organization that we dismantled and identified those persons who had been smuggled in. And they have been addressed as well.” Hezbollah was responsible for the single most deadly terrorist attack against the U.S. before 9/11 - the Oct. 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 243 U.S. troops.
In November, an al-Qaida operative who was on the FBI's terrorist watch list was captured near the Mexican border, housed in a Texas jail and turned over to federal agents, according to Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas.
"A confirmed al-Qaida terrorist, an Iraqi national, was held in the Brewster County jail," Rep. Culberson told ABC Radio host Sean Hannity. "He was captured in Mexico. This was within the last six weeks. He was turned over to the FBI."

Christians are 'moderating force' in Lebanon, says leading politician
By Doreen Abi Raad
Catholic News Service
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -- Christians in Lebanon are a "moderating force" because their beliefs promote tolerance, said a Lebanese general often mentioned as a potential presidential candidate.
Gen. Michel Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, the largest Christian bloc in the Lebanese Parliament, said Christians were "like a transitional culture between the West and the East ... like a human bridge between both sides."
Aoun, a Maronite Catholic, said he thought it was "very symbolic for relations" that a memorandum of understanding between his movement and Hezbollah, which represents the Shiite Muslim community, was formally presented in February at St. Michael Maronite Catholic Church in Beirut. A day earlier, a Catholic church in Beirut was attacked by Islamic extremists protesting caricatures of the prophet Mohammed. Aoun also noted that St. Michael's is on the border of the Green Line, the area that witnessed intense Christian-Muslim fighting during Lebanon's 1975-90 war.
"So it is very symbolic for starting a new period," signified by the dialogue between his movement and Hezbollah, Aoun said.
"When I made the memorandum of understanding with Hezbollah, everybody was afraid of it," said Aoun. "They considered it like a plague. After, they realized that it was a good thing, and they agreed with us."
The United States considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization. However, the Lebanese government regards Hezbollah as a legitimate resistance movement fighting Israeli occupation of Lebanese territories. Hezbollah led a military campaign against Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon, which ended in 2000. It continues to fight Israel in the disputed Shebaa Farms area of southern Lebanon, in which the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet.
Aoun said Lebanon has a number of problems to deal with, and there is a lack of confidence among politicians.
"We admitted that dialogue is the only way to solve the problems," Aoun said of his Christian political party's understanding with Hezbollah. "So it's a step forward toward democracy."
Aoun returned to Lebanon last May after a 15-year exile in France imposed by the Syrian-controlled Lebanese government. He had led the Lebanese Army in the "war of liberation" against Syria, launched March 14, 1989.
From exile in Paris, he led the Free Patriotic Movement, which began as a resistance movement in 1990 and was officially declared a political party last September.
His testimony before the U.S. Congress was influential in the passage of the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Act, signed by President George W. Bush in May 2004. The act imposed economic sanctions on Syria for its occupation of Lebanon.
In March 2005, some 1 million Lebanese -- Christians, Muslims and Druze -- peacefully marched in a protest that resulted in the complete withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon one month later.
Aoun said that those governing Lebanon now "were used to ruling the country under the Syrian yoke, and they still have the same mentality. I think we need to have in office leaders who are really independent, free and sovereign."
However, he also said it was important to have good relations with Syria.
"In liberating Lebanon from Syria, we have to settle up good relations, and we have to build up peace," said Aoun. "And what we are doing with Hezbollah is in the right way: to have diplomatic and equal relations with Syria, without any tutelage."
Aoun and Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah are among Lebanon's 14 faction leaders participating in a series of national dialogue meetings to tackle areas of dispute. Participants agreed to push for diplomatic relations with Syria and to disarm Palestinian groups outside refugee camps in Lebanon.
However, the group failed to reach an agreement on the issue of Hezbollah's disarmament and the fate of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud. The talks were set to resume in early April.
Anti-Syrian politicians have waged a campaign to oust Lahoud, whose term ends Nov. 7. A replacement has yet to be agreed upon, but the Lebanese Constitution says the presidency must be held by a Maronite Catholic.
Aoun has publicly expressed his interest in the presidency but said he will not participate in any action intended to remove Lahoud from office. The general said he is backed by about 75 percent of Lebanon's Christians, and he has some Muslim supporters.
"They are pushing me to be a candidate for president," he said, adding that he feels he could serve his country in other ways, too. Aoun predicts that "the situation (in Lebanon) will get better and peace will be restored -- real peace."
For the Lebanese diaspora concerned about the homeland, Aoun said: "I can tell them that Lebanon will be stable. From Gen. Aoun, that means a lot to them. Because I don't say anything lightly."

Nineteen indicted in racketeering scheme
Defendants' counsel deny link to Hizbullah
DETROIT - A federal grand jury here charged nineteen individuals with operating a global racketeering conspiracy in an indictment unsealed this week, announced United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Stephen J. Murphy. The indictment alleges that portions of the profits made from the illegal enterprise were given to Hizbullah, which is listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
Nine of the individuals were arrested.
U. S. Attorney Murphy was joined in the announcement by Daniel D. Roberts, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit FBI; Valerie J. Goddard, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Brian M. Moskowitz, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Maurice Aouate, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation; and Michael Cleary, Special Agent in Charge, FDA-Office of Criminal Investigation.
The indictment charges that between 1996 and 2004, a group of individuals worked together in a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes, counterfeit Zig Zag rolling papers and counterfeit Viagra, to produce counterfeit cigarette tax stamps, to transport stolen property, and to launder money. The enterprise operated from Lebanon, Canada, China, Brazil, Paraguay and the United States. The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury on April 14, 2004, was sealed pursuant to a court order until this week.
Arrested by members of the Detroit Joint Terrorism Task Force ("JTTF") were: Karim Hassan Nasser, 37, of Windsor, Ontario; Fadi Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud, 33, of Dearborn; Majid Mohamad Hammoud, 39, of Dearborn Heights; Jihad Hammoud, 47, of Dearborn; Youssef Aoun Bakri, 36, of Dearborn Heights; Ali Najib Berjaoui, 39, of Dearborn; Mohammed Fawzi Zeidan, 41, of Canton; Imad Majed Hamadeh, 51, of Dearborn Heights; and Adel Isak, 37, of Sterling Heights.
Seven of the nine were released on bond. Imad Majed Hamadeh's detention hearing will be held Monday and Karim Hassan Nasser's will be held on Tuesday.
Also named in the indictment, but not arrested because they currently reside outside of the United States were: Imad Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud, 37 of Lebanon, formerly of Dearborn; Hassan Ali Al-Mosawi, 49, of Lebanon; Hassan Hassan Nasser, 36, of Windsor, Ontario; Ali Ahmad Hammoud, 64, of Lebanon; Karim Hassan Abbas, 37, formerly of Dearborn; Hassan Mohamad Srour, 30, of Montreal, Quebec; Naji Hassan Alawie, 44, of Windsor, Ontario; and Abdel-Hamid Sinno, 52, of Montreal, Quebec.
Theodore Schenk, 73, of Miami Beach, Florida was not arrested but will be voluntarily surrendering himself for arraignment on April 10, 2006.
The indictment alleges that Imad Hammoud, along with his partner, Hassan Makki, ran a multi-million dollar a year contraband cigarette trafficking organization headquartered in the Dearborn, Michigan, area between 1996 and 2002. Makki pleaded guilty in 2003 in federal district court in Detroit to racketeering and providing material support to Hizbullah. Some of the cigarettes were supplied to the organization by Mohamad Hammoud, who was convicted in 2002 in federal district court in Charlotte, North Carolina, of, among other crimes, racketeering and providing material support to Hizbullah. Makki and Mohamad Hammoud, who were not charged in the indictment unsealed this week, were identified as unindicted co-conspirators. They both are currently serving prison sentences relating to their activities in this matter.
The indictment charges that the group would obtain low-taxed or untaxed cigarettes in North Carolina and the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in New York and bring them into Michigan and the State of New York for the purpose of evading tens of millions of dollars in state cigarette taxes. The enterprise obtained large profits by reselling the cigarettes at market prices in Michigan and New York. The enterprise sometimes used counterfeit tax stamps to make it appear that the state taxes had been paid.
The indictment charges that portions of the profits made from the illegal enterprise were given to Hizbullah. Some members of the enterprise charged a "Resistance Tax," being a set amount over black market price per carton of contraband cigarettes, which their customers were told would be going to Hizbullah. Some members of the enterprise also solicited money from cigarette customers for the orphans of martyrs program run by Hizbullah in Southern Lebanon to support the families of persons killed in Hizbullah suicide and other terrorist operations.
The U.S. Secretary of State has designated Hizbullah a foreign terrorist organization. An entity may be designated as a foreign terrorist organization if the Secretary of States finds that: (1) the organization is a foreign organization; (2) the organization engages in terrorist activity; and (3) the terrorist activity of the organization threatens the security of United States nationals or the national security of the United States.
"Fighting terrorism and keeping our citizens safe from its reach are the number one priorities of this office. The law enforcement agencies involved in the case must be applauded for their collective effort to bring together an investigation with this sort of global reach," U.S. Attorney Murphy said. "Together, we will use all of the legal tools available to us to disrupt criminal activity that funds terrorist organizations."
Daniel D. Roberts, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Detroit, Michigan advised "The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) will continue to aggressively identify, investigate and dismantle these criminal enterprises operating in the United States, as well as the rest of the world when their profits are used to support a foreign terrorist organization such as Hizbullah."
"Investigating contraband cigarette trafficking has been, is, and will continue to be a top priority for ATF, particularly when there is nexus to a known terrorist organization such as Hizbullah," stated Special Agent in Charge Valerie J. Goddard, ATF Detroit.
According to Brian M. Moskowitz, Special Agent in Charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of Investigations in Detroit, "ICE will continue to work with other law enforcement agencies to dismantle criminal organizations. Racketeering is a serious crime and ICE will continue to investigate those who exploit our borders to facilitate their criminal enterprise."
The FDA Office of Criminal Investigation under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael E. Cleary, Chicago Field office remains committed to working with their partners in law enforcement to protect the public’s health and safety.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
In announcing the indictment, Murphy commended the work of the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Special Agents of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service, the Food and Drug Administration, Michigan State Police and the Dearborn Police Department. The case is assigned to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kenneth Chadwell and Barbara McQuade.
Jim Burbic, attorney for Jihad Hammoud, said this: "First of all, there is no such person as Jihad Hammoud. Jay Hammoud was named Jay at birth and has never been known as Jihad. Secondly, if this case has anything to do with Hizbullah, would the government have agreed to a $10,000 personal bond? Our clients have never had anything to do with Hizbullah." Burbic's firm is handling the cases of the three Hammoud brothers.