LCCC NEWS BULLETIN
APRIL 30/2006

Below news from miscellaneous sources for 30/04/06
State Department Says Hizbullah Is Supporting Anti-U.S. Groups in Iraq-Naharnet
Hezbollah, Illegal Immigration, and the Next 9/11FrontPage magazine
Hezbollah admits to support of militant groups in PA-Ha'aretz
Tense atmosphere prevails at roundtable talks, sources say-Monsters and Critics
Deadlock over Lebanon president-BBC News - UK
Iran's Gaza Front-St.Louis Jewishlight.com
Israeli security officials believe that Palestinians have smuggled-JTA
PFLP-GC leader Jibril says will fight US if it attacks Iran-Ha'aretz
Lebanon's National Dialogue fails to resolve key issues-Arab American News
Lebanese politicians fail to reach solution on presidency-Monsters and Critics.com
US: Iran Biggest Supporter of Terror-Zaman Online

US: Iran Biggest Supporter of Terror
By Foreign News Desk, Istanbul - April 29, 2006
zaman.com - The US State Department's annual report on terrorism named six countries that support terrorism in the world: Iran as the biggest supporter of terrorism, as well as Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. According to the report, more than 11,000 terrorist attacks were organized in 2005, with most of these events taking place in Iraq. In total 14,602 people were killed in terrorist attacks, 8,300 of them in Iraq. The report also noted Kurdish Workers’ Party’s (PKK) terrorist activities increased in 2005, adding the organization is trying to establish an independent Kurdish state in Northern Iraq, Iran and a part of Syria. The 2005 report called Loui Sakka "An important international terrorist," who was arrested in Turkey last year and is connected to al-Qaeda. The report maintains even if al-Qaeda has lost most of its power, it is still planning attacks in the US.

PFLP-GC leader warns Israel, U.S. against attacking Iran
By The Associated Press
The leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command warned the United States and Israel on Friday that if they attacked Syria or Iran, members of his militant organization would fight them.
"We will not allow any aggression against Syria or the Islamic Republic of Iran," Ahmed Jibril told a rally of about 1,000 supporters in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital."I say it frankly, we will not only be on their side, we will be in the forefront," said Jibril. Jibril's PFLP-GC is a small militant group, based in Damascus, that earned notoriety for its attacks on Israel in the past. It has long been on the U.S. State Department's terrorist list. Jibril was among the radical Palestinian leaders who met President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when the Iranian leader visited Damascus in January.
The rally, which marked the anniversary of the founding of his group in 1965, came as Western diplomats mobilized to censure Iran in the UN Security Council for ignoring a resolution that demanded it cease uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for power generators or material for nuclear warheads.
The United States has repeatedly said it seeks to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program through diplomatic channels, but that a military option is not ruled out. On Friday the U.S. State Department issued its annual report on terrorism, which relisted Syria as a country that sponsors terrorist groups, citing its support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian militant groups, such as Jibril's. The United States maintains sanctions against Syria on grounds of the terrorism issue as well as the accusation that it fails to stop fighters crossing into Iraq to join the insurgency. "You must understand that the pressures on Syria and Islamic Iran are primarily because of their stand on the Palestinian cause," Jibril told the rally. "If the United States of America and this Zionist entity [Israel] believe that they can change the regimes in Syria and Iran, then we tell them: 'Think whatever you wish, but the Palestinians inside and outside [the West Bank and Gaza] will remain on the side of Syria and Iran'," Jibril said. Jibril has long refused to recognize Israel or the Palestinian interim peace accords with Israel.
In the 1960s through 1980s, his PFLP-GC hijacked an Israeli airliner, machine-gunned another at Zurich's airport, and blew up a Tel Aviv-bound Swissair plane, killing all 47 aboard. In 1987, a PFLP-GC guerrilla flew from Lebanon into Israel on a hang-glider and killed six soldiers before being shot dead.Middle East News

Lebanese politicians fail to reach solution on presidency
Apr 29, 2006, 8:29 GMT
Beirut - Lebanese political leaders failed to reach an agreement on whether to remove the country's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud from power, following a tense new round of negotiations between the deeply divided leaders on Friday.
'We did not reach an agreement on the issue of the presidency... the issue is still under discussion and we will discuss it in the next round of talks which is due to be on May 16,' House Speaker Nabih Berri told reporters after the meeting.
'The atmosphere is tense,' a source close to one of the participating leaders told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.
Friday's discussions were the sixth round of talks between leaders, aimed at finding agreement on a wide variety of national issues. This last round discussed calls for the removal of Lahoud from power as well as the disarming of the militant group Hezbollah.
Lebanon has been in political turmoil since the February 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. His death sparked a national and international outcry which resulted in the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanese soil after 29 years.
Two reports by a UN commission of inquiry have implicated senior Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in Hariri's assassination in a massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront.
A number of Lebanese political leaders have called for the resignation of President Emile Lahoud, who is deemed to be too closely allied to Syria.
At the last round of talks on April 3, Lebanese leaders had said they would use one more round to discuss calls for Lahoud to resign, before moving on to the issue of disarming the Shiite militant movement Hezbollah, which was called for in a UN resolution last year that also demanded the Syrian troop withdrawal.
Both issues will now be discussed further during the next round of talks.
'The issue of Hezbollah arms was postponed until the next session,' Berri said.
Anti-Syrian Christian leader Samir Geagea, had previously admitted that the removal of Lahoud was 'going to take a miracle.'
Another Christian leader, Michel Aoun, who defected from the majority coalition to join the pro-Syrian camp, said the failure 'of removing Lahoud by the parliamentary majority should lead to a change of government.'
Lebanese leaders are divided over the disarmament of the military wing of Hezbollah, whose fighters took credit for bringing about Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 after 22 years of occupation.
The group has vowed to carry on its guerrilla war to free the disputed Shebaa Farms border area, which Israel seized from Syria along with the Golan Heights in 1967, but is claimed by Lebanon. Syria now backs Lebanon's claim to the land.
In five rounds of national talks since March 2, leaders successfully reached agreement on the establishment of an international court to try those responsible for Hariri's killing.
Lebanese leaders also agreed to dismantle Palestinian military bases in Lebanon, to work to normalize relations with Syria and to work towards a final delineation of borders between the two countries.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

State Department Says Hizbullah Is Supporting Anti-U.S. Groups in Iraq
A high-ranking U.S. State Department anti-terrorism official has accused Hizbullah and its main backer Iran of helping some Iraqi groups against American forces stationed in the country. The official spoke during a briefing on the State Department's annual report on worldwide terrorism that singled out Iran as "the premier state sponsor of terrorism, provid(ing) a national safe haven for its own operatives and members of al-Qaida and Hizbullah." U.S. Counterterrorism Coordinator Henri Crumpton, answering a reporter's question about Iran said:
"Iran supports Hizbullah. They really are the paymasters for Hizbullah. Hizbullah, in turn, are working with some of the Iraqis inside Iraq."He accused Tehran of providing Hizbullah and Palestinian groups with extensive funding, training and weapons and "working directly with some of the Iraqi paramilitary forces, militia" and providing "support, financial and otherwise."
Crumpton praised the Lebanese government that he described as "fragile" for its efforts to disarm militias in the country in compliance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559.
"We believed they are working diligently…They are working against Palestinian rejectionist forces and we're trying to help them," Crumpton said.
He said Hizbullah presents "a greater challenge" to Lebanese authorities as the group has been legitimized through representation in parliament and its network of social services.
"But they're also a terrorist organization and there are limitations to what the Lebanese government can do, given its fragile nature and given the complex political alliances there," Crumpton said.
The 2005 report, that called Hizbullah "the most significant terrorist group" in Lebanon pointed out that the Lebanese government still recognizes the Party of God as a "legitimate resistance group."
It said however, that Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's cabinet has "made impressive gains against terrorist groups operating in the region."
It said the government has taken "small but significant steps" to curb the activities of groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and Fatah al Intifada, both Palestinian militant factions operating in Lebanon.
It said the Lebanese army has strengthened border control posts and increased patrols along the Lebanese-Syrian border in order to prevent the flow of arms to groups operating out of the country.
However, the report noted that although Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon last April, it still maintains intelligence services in the country and continues to send arms to Hizbullah and Palestinian factions there.
"Given that the government of Lebanon does not exercise authoritative control over areas in the Hizbullah-dominated south and inside the Palestinian-controlled refugee camps, terrorists can operate relatively freely in both locations," the report said.
It said Hizbullah, that continues to call for the destruction of Israel, is using south Lebanon as a staging ground for its operations against the Jewish state and providing support to Palestinian groups in their confrontation with Israel. It also noted that the group has publicly acknowledged providing support for "terrorist attacks" inside Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.
The report said that Lebanon and Syria have not fully abided by Resolution 1559, which calls for respect for the sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon and the end of foreign interference in Lebanon.
However, it noted that Lebanon has indicated it will abide by its international obligations, including the resolution's call to disarm all militias adding that Lebanese leaders believe Hizbullah's disarmament should be accomplished through "national dialogue" rather than force.
Beirut, 29 Apr 06, 08:25

Hezbollah, Illegal Immigration, and the Next 9/11
By LTC Joseph Myers and Patrick Poole
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 28, 2006
AUTHORS NOTE: This article was prepared and approved before the London Times report this past weekend which verified that longtime Hezbollah terror chief, Imad Mugniyah, has been tapped by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to initiate attacks against the West, especially the U.S., in the event that any preemptive strikes are made against Iran's nuclear facilities. In the following article we identify Mugniyah and his extensive role in a number of attacks on Americans since the 1980s and have assumed that any action taken by Hezbollah would be directed by Mugniyah, but this new supporting information was important enough and directly relevant to the discussion at hand to warrant us including this author’s note to call our reader's attention to it. This new report reinforces our argument made here that Hezbollah and its operations inside America and throughout Latin America pose an immediate national security risk that should be among the primary topics of consideration in the ongoing border security debate.
“Death to America was, is, and will stay our slogan!” – Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah Secretary-General (“Hezbollah Vows Anew To Target Americans”, Los Angeles Times, April 17, 2003)
In the prosecution of the Global War against Terror (GWOT) initiated only after the horror of 9/11, an important threat to the United States fell from the public radar screen while al-Qaeda, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and the regime of Saddam Hussein became the primary targets. That important threat was the Iranian-backed terrorist organization, Hezbollah.
Operating out of their stronghold in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah has successfully waged a war against Israel for more than two decades and has provided ample financial, training and logistical support for the Palestinian terrorists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Hezbollah’s particular expertise has been in teaching the art of suicide bombing, which it introduced to the Palestinian groups in 1993; and in constructing elaborate “mega-bombs” to inflict massive casualties.
In addition to their terror networks, Hezbollah also operates several Arabic-language newspapers and a satellite TV station, Al Manar (The Lighthouse), to broadcast their jihadist propaganda to the Middle East, North Africa, South America, and Europe. These media outlets spread Hezbollah’s toxic ideology of pan-Islamism, Shi’ite martyrdom, jihad theology, Khomeini-style theocratic political theory, and virulent anti-Semitism.
Hezbollah’s hatred is not limited to Israel, but extends to America. Islamic radicals see America as the primary purveyor of decadence, moral depravity, and secularism in the world. Ideologically, for many Muslims, America also stands as great of a threat to Islam as we view Islamist terror ideology as a grave threat to us. For that reason, recent events related to Hezbollah should punctuate that reality and should give political and national security officials pause as they discuss issues of Homeland Security disaster response and readiness, border security and illegal immigration.
Most notably, last month FBI Director Robert Mueller testified to Congress that his agency had dismantled a Hezbollah smuggling operation bringing terror personnel across the border from Mexico.“[T]his was an occasion in which Hezbollah operatives were assisting others with some association with Hezbollah in coming to the United States,” Mueller said. “That was an organization that we dismantled and identified those persons who had been smuggled in. And they have been addressed as well.”
While the FBI believes that the national security threat from this particular Hezbollah operation has been neutralized, there are many questions that should be asked:
What is the level of threat Hezbollah presents to American interests at home and abroad?
What are the indicators that Hezbollah is preparing terrorist or military operations inside the U.S. Homeland?
What is the size, location, and capabilities of Hezbollah cells in the U.S.?
Who are the leaders of U.S. cells and subordinate cell members?
What are the personal and professional connections/relationships with Hezbollah leaders abroad?
What are their means of communications and what languages (Persian, Arabic, French, Spanish, English) are spoken?
What targets would Hezbollah consider or select? -- synagogues, churches, transportation hubs, schools, power plants, malls, financial centers, government facilities, military facilities, aircraft....
Are their indicators of reconnaissance, surveillance, plans, or patterns of activities?
Have any members or sympathizers penetrated local or state police, FBI, Customs/Border Patrol, national intelligence organizations?
Where are the training locations in the U.S.; in Latin America and the Caribbean, in the Middle East?
What are the types of training received; duration of training; levels of competence achieved?
What types of equipment, technology and weapons are acquired in the U.S.; acquired abroad and brought into the U.S.? Are their active sources of supply?
Where are the logistics and support cells; in the US or Latin America and the Caribbean?
Are they receiving third country assistance from Syria, Venezuela or Cuba?
What are the likely methods of attack: suicide bombings, car bombs, conventional assaults, aircraft hijacking, CBRN, nuclear weapon?
We should hope that the FBI and the rest of our national intelligence agencies have some good answers to these questions.
The Worldwide Threat of Hezbollah
Prior to the 9/11 attacks by al-Qaeda, Hezbollah was responsible for more terrorism-related American deaths than any other organization in the world. It should be remembered that Hezbollah was killing scores of Americans when Osama bin Laden was still a Westernized playboy living in France. Organized in the early 1980s by Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah quickly racked up an impressive resume of terror against the U.S.:
Hezbollah made its debut in April 1983 by slamming a truck laden with explosives into the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 63, including 19 Americans. After the attack, the embassy was moved to another location, which was also bombed in September 1984. The Reagan administration took no official action against the terrorism organization.
Still in its nascent stages of organizational development but emboldened by their successful attack on the U.S. Embassy, Hezbollah launched another suicide bombing against the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983, causing 241 deaths. Simultaneous with the attack on the Marine forces, Hezbollah bombed the barracks of French peacekeepers. An attack on Italian peacekeepers was foiled. Four months after the bombing, President Reagan ordered the withdrawal of American forces from Beirut, with France quickly following suit.
Throughout the 1980s, Hezbollah was behind the kidnapping of many Westerners in Lebanon throughout the 1980s, including the capture and brutal murder of CIA Beirut Station Chief, William Buckley. Journalist Terry Anderson was kidnapped and would eventually spend 2,454 days in captivity, along with several officials from the American University of Beirut. In order to secure the release of the hostages, the Reagan administration covertly organized an arms-for-hostages deal with Hezbollah’s primary state-sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran, which would only result in the release of three American hostages. Eventually, the related Iran-Contra scandal would paralyze the Reagan presidency.
In June 1985, Hezbollah terrorists seized TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome, and diverted the plane to Beirut. When the terrorists demands were not met, a US Navy Seabee diver on board, Robert Dean Stethem, was shot and his body dumped on the airport tarmac. Other American military personnel were savagely beaten. The plane’s passengers and crew were held for 17 days. In the weeks that followed, Israel released a number of Shi’ite prisoners, though U.S. officials deny that there was a covert deal. Only one hijacker was ever captured and held for several years in Germany.
In 1990, Hezbollah captured, tortured, and eventually hanged Marine Corps Colonel Richard Higgins, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran who was on duty as an unarmed United Nations peacekeeper in Lebanon. His body was not recovered for another year. The story of Higgins’ life, captivity and murder is memorialized in a book written by his wife, Marine Lt. Col. Robin Higgins, Patriot Dreams: The Murder of Colonel Rich Higgins.
A Saudi Hezbollah cell was involved in providing al-Qaeda operatives with explosives training in their June 1996 attack on the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 American Air Force servicemen and injured 372 others. According to then-FBI Director Louis Freeh, in his 2002 Congressional testimony to the Joint Intelligence Committee: “The direct evidence obtained strongly indicated that the 1996 bombing was sanctioned, funded and directed by senior officials of the government of Iran.”
Many terrorism analysts and experts rate Hezbollah as the best organized and most competent Islamist terrorist organizations in the world. With an annual budget of likely well over $100 million coming from Iran, Syria and its criminal operations in the West, it boasts more than 25,000 men under arms. Having pushed Israel out of its security zone in southern Lebanon and the American and French peacekeepers out of Beirut, they are arguably the most successful terrorist organization of the modern era.
In a speech in September 2002, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage described the danger of the organization: “Hezbollah may be the A team of terrorists and maybe al-Qaeda is actually the B team.”
In a November/December 2003 Foreign Affairs article, Should Hezbollah Be Next?, national security expert Daniel Byman makes the same point about Hezbollah’s impressive track record compared to al-Qaeda:
In the U.S. Demonology of terrorism, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda are relative newcomers. For most of the past two decades, Hezbollah has claimed pride of place as the top concern of U.S. counterterrorism officials. It was Hezbollah that pioneered the use of suicide bombing, and its record of attacks on the United States and its allies would make even bin Laden proud…In the course of its 20-year history, Hezbollah has amply demonstrated its hostility, its lethality, and its skill. (pp. 56-57)
Former CIA Director George Tenet has also added his voice to the chorus identifying Hezbollah as a terror threat equal to that of al-Qaeda: “Hezbollah, as an organization with capability and worldwide presence, is [al-Qaeda’s] equal, if not a far more capable organization. I actually think they’re a notch above in many respects.”
Despite these warnings, U.S. officials prioritized the threats focusing on al-Qaeda and Iraq. That notwithstanding, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, emphasized that the American response to the 9/11 attacks did not change the organization’s stance towards America:
Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility to the Great Satan [America] is absolute…Regardless of how the world has changed after 11 September, “Death to America” will remain our reverberating and powerful slogan: Death to America!
This was a theme Nasrallah restated in a February 2005 speech [video]: “We consider the current administration an enemy of our [Islamic] nation…Our motto, which we are not afraid to repeat year after year is ‘Death to America.’”
Based on religious elements of Shi'ite martyrdom theology, Khomeini’s Islamic triumphalism and modern nationalist ideology, Hezbollah has forged a rigid policy of utilizing suicide bombings, revolutionary political action and developing extensive terror networks around the world to accomplish its stated goals of extinguishing the state of Israel, pushing America entirely out of the Middle East and establishing Iranian-style Islamic republics around the globe.
With reliable financial resources from Iran, controlling a sizeable political bloc in the Lebanese parliament, broadcasting their Islamist hate-ideology on their own al-Manar television network aired all over the Middle East and Europe, and arming and training many of the other Islamist terror organizations, including al-Qaeda, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah is considered the sophisticated elder brother in the world of Islamic terror.
As one high-ranking FBI official has said, “Hezbollah makes al-Qaeda look like Sunday-schoolers, children, kindergartners.”
Hezbollah Operations in the U.S. and Latin America
Hezbollah’s deadly network isn’t limited to the Middle East. In fact, in the past 20 years Hezbollah has created an extensive web of operations within the United States itself – a sophisticated terror network better established here than any other terrorist organization in the world. The network is organized and directed by Hezbollah’s Special Security Apparatus, the group’s international terror unit.
According to Tom Diaz and Barbara Newman, co-authors of the recently published book, Lightning Out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil (Presidio Press, 2005), active Hezbollah cells have been identified in Boston, New York, Newark, Atlanta, Miami, Tampa, Charlotte, Louisville, Detroit, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland. Diaz and Newman quote former FBI Hezbollah unit director, Bob Clifford, as saying, “they are the best light infantry in the world and can strike the United States anytime, anywhere.”
The recent revelation by FBI Director Robert Mueller about the Hezbollah smuggling ring out of Mexico just barely scratches the surface of the group’s activities inside the US. Hezbollah engages in a wide variety mid-level crime ranging from cigarette smuggling to credit card fraud to selling fake Viagra, intentionally keeping their operations from getting too large to prevent raising the attention of law enforcement authorities. Hezbollah operatives have also been observed working out of New York Indian reservations to avoid detection and arrest.
Among the Hezbollah operations in the U.S. that have been uncovered by state and federal authorities are:
According to Diaz and Newman, one of the most well publicized incidents of a Hezbollah terror cell operating in the US involved a hit team sent here to kill President Clinton’s former national security advisor, Anthony Lake. Lake was moved into the Blair House across from the White House until the threat was neutralized.
Bob Clifford, former head of the FBI Hezbollah unit, told Diaz and Newman about a Hezbollah operative that was working at Boston’s Logan Airport – where American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, two of the four hijacked 9/11 flights, originated. According to Clifford, the FBI agent that told Logan security authorities about the potential threat was himself investigated for wrongdoing after the Hezbollah operative lost his job, though the agent was eventually cleared. Clifford claims to have arrested more than one hundred Hezbollah operatives in the US during his tenure at the FBI.
DEA officials busted an elaborate methamphetamine drug ring in January 2002 operating in Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Phoenix and several cities in California that funneled money back to Hezbollah. At least 136 people – most from the Middle East – were arrested and 36 tons of pseudoephedrine, 179 pounds of methamphetamine, $4.5 million in cash, eight properties, and 160 cars used for transport were seized.
According to investigative journalist Steve Emerson in his book, American Jihad, a Hezbollah cell operating in Charlotte, North Carolina was busted in a FBI sting in a July 2000 operation that netted 18 arrests. The accused were indicted for providing training, communications equipment and explosives to Hezbollah, which the federal indictment said were intended to “facilitate its violent attacks”.
In 2001, federal officials discovered a Hezbollah fundraising cell in Charlotte, North Carolina that was purchasing untaxed cigarettes and selling them illegally in Michigan. In a year and a half, the network sold $7.9 million worth of cigarettes illegally, with most of the money being returned to Hezbollah headquarters in Lebanon.
In 2003, the FBI raided the Dearborn, Michigan home of Mahmoud Kourani. He was indicted for harboring an illegal alien and conspiracy to provide material support to Hezbollah. Kourani’s brother is the chief of military security for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Kourani admitted to being smuggled across the Mexican border into the U.S. in the trunk of a car after arriving in Mexico on a visa he obtained from the Mexican consulate in Beirut after paying a consulate official $3,000.
In March 2006, indictments involving another Hezbollah smuggling ring uncovered in Detroit were unsealed. The suspects are accused of bootlegging cigarettes, counterfeiting tax stamps, selling phony Viagra tablets, and hijacking shipments of toilet paper to fund Hezbollah activities.
The criminal activities serve the higher purpose of funding the thousands of personnel that Hezbollah maintains in the U.S., providing them financial means to insulate themselves further into American society. The proceeds from criminal activity also provide funding for high technology military equipment purchases here and in Canada to be sent back to Lebanon to improve Hezbollah capabilities against the Israeli military. In a recent case, Canadian authorities took down a Hezbollah cell that had received from Beirut a shopping list of equipment to obtain, such as night vision goggles, laptops, cell phones that could be used to remotely detonate explosions and intelligence drones.
Many mainstream US media outlets dismiss the internal threat Hezbollah poses to the US, and have contributed to the reshaping of the organization’s image from terrorist organization to Lebanese political party and charitable organization. In 2005, a New York Times editorial praised the softening attitude of the Bush administration towards Hezbollah: “It’s so great that the Bush Administration is going along with our allies to treat Hezbollah as a political entity. Maybe they can demilitarize them or make them less extreme.”
Regardless of how many hospitals and schools Hezbollah builds in Lebanon in their attempt to increase their absolute social control over that country, dismissing Hezbollah’s networks in the U.S. and their criminal activities here as petty crime is to greatly understate the terror threat that they pose to the American homeland. Hezbollah surely appreciates the image makeover provided by American mainstream media, but it clearly has no intentions in changing its policies regarding the use of terror against American interests.
Hezbollah’s ability to smuggle terrorist personnel and equipment into the U.S. seemingly at will, potentially to launch terrorist attacks against America, makes their activity south of the border all the more important. It should provide much-needed clarity to the present discussions in Washington D.C. about our border security and illegal immigration.
In testimony before the House International Relations Committee in 2002, Mark F. Wong, the State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism warned Congress, “Hezbollah has a global reach and a bloody track record in this hemisphere.”
The list of Hezbollah activities in Latin America is extensive:
The greatest hub of terrorist activity in Latin America is in the border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, known as the Triple Frontier or Tri-Border Area, which has long been known as a haven for smuggling, counterfeiting, money laundering and drug trafficking. Officials estimate that at least 30,000 Middle Eastern immigrants reside in the Triple Frontier, with Hezbollah being the most active and dominant group in the area. In a detailed October 2002 New Yorker report, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg found that many immigrants in the area have established business with the help of loans provided by Hezbollah, businesses which are “taxed” by Hezbollah at 20 percent of gross revenues after the loans are paid off. Erick Stakelbeck of the Investigative Project cites Paraguayan Interior Minister Julio Cesar Fanego as saying that Hezbollah received anywhere from $50-$500 million from illegal activities in the Triple Frontier from 1999 to 2001 alone.
A research report issued by the Library of Congress Federal Research Division, Organized Crime and Terrorist Activity in Mexico, 1999-2002, quotes (p. 43) Mexican former national security advisor and ambassador the United Nations, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, as saying that “Spanish and Islamic terrorist groups are using Mexico as a refuge.” The report also cites an El Norte Spanish-language news report that there are approximately 400,000 Arabic speakers in Mexico mostly located among the large Lebanese and Palestinian communities of the northern city of Monterrey, nearby the U.S.-Mexican border.
According to a Dec. 2003 report by Terrence Jeffrey of Human Events, the Mexican consul in Beirut, Imelda Ortiz Abdala, was arrested by Mexican authorities in November 2003 for her role in helping to smuggle Arab migrants into the U.S. from Mexico by selling Mexican visas, including the one sold to Mahmoud Khourani. Jeffrey has also recently written more about the Hezbollah/Mexico connection.
Hezbollah was responsible for the greatest anti-Semitic attack since the Nazi Holocaust when a suicide truck-bomb drove into the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, killing more than a hundred people. As a result, Jewish synagogues and cultural centers around Latin America have been turned into virtual fortresses to protect them.
In May 2001, Mexican authorities announced that measures were being increased to dismantle terror training camps along the US border run by Hezbollah and the Spanish Basque Fatherland and Liberty Party (ETA).
In 2005, Mexican authorities arrested Amer Haykel, a British citizen of Lebanese birth, who was sought by US authorities for his connection to the 9/11 attacks. Haykel was arrested near the U.S. border in the northwest Mexican state of Baja California.
According to a June 2005 BBC report, Ecuadorian officials busted up an international Hezbollah drug ring run out of a Lebanese restaurant in Quito, in which authorities say cocaine was obtained in Colombia and trafficked to Europe, the Middle East and the rest of South America. Up to 70 percent of the profits from each $1 million shipment went to Hezbollah. In addition to the suspects arrested in Ecuador, 19 other people were arrested in connection with the Hezbollah drug ring in US and Brazil.
One major Hezbollah terrorist, still at large, has had his hands in all of the attacks against America — Imad Mugniyeh — chief of Hezbollah’s military operations. Reports indicate that Mugniyeh and Osama bin Ladin have met to establish a concordant and exchange technical expertise. National Security expert Patrick Devenny has called Mugniyeh, Tehran’s Terror Master, and has identified his critical role in Hezbollah’s operations in North and South America. Even in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, 20-year CIA veteran Robert Baer has said: “He is the most dangerous terrorist we’ve ever faced. He’s a pathological murderer. Mugniyeh is probably the most intelligent, most capable operative we’ve ever run across, including the KGB or anybody else.”
Estimates vary widely on the number of Muslim and Middle Eastern migrants that live in Latin America. Ironically, if one would refer to the CIA Factbook, the source document used by researchers, intelligence analysts and policy official for basic data on countries around the world one would almost conclude there are no Muslims at all in Latin America. Since 9/11 and the start of the GWOT one would think Islamic demographic data would be an important data point for the Factbook, no matter how large or small the demographics. One problem of course is the lack of good census data; in Brazil for example, their 2000 census reflect only 27,000 Muslims while other information estimates their population at upwards of 1.3 million. If countries have no clear idea of the number of immigrants resident in their country or the number of Muslims it is unlikely they will have a clear picture of the degree and scope of their domestic terrorist threat either.
To be clear, not all or even most Muslims are involved in terrorist activities, but where large populations reside allows Hezbollah and other Islamic terrorist operatives to move freely, inside or outside Latin America. Many legitimate business owners in Hezbollah-controlled areas are forced to pay “taxes” to help finance Hezbollah operations.
In terms of U.S. foreign policy considerations, officials should pay particular attention to four disturbing trends related to Hezbollah and Islamist activities in Latin America:
It is too quiet down South. U.S. Southern Command spokesmen readily admit that most terrorist activities in Latin America involve support cell activity: recruitment fundraising, proselytization. The official line is that there is no “credible reporting” of operational cells in Latin America. From an intelligence perspective, the credibility of reporting turns on one’s standard of credibility. That is not the same as saying there is “no reporting” of operational cells in Latin America, and support cell members can always become operational.
The growing cooperation between Hezbollah and drug-financed revolutionary terrorist groups in South America, such as the Colombian FARC and the Peruvian Shining Path, which has raised the concerns of the Organization of American States.
The developing connections between Hezbollah, al Qaeda, and violent Latin American gangs, such as El Salvadoran gang MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha), which is reported to have up to 50,000 members working in the U.S. A 2004 Washington Times article reports that at least one high-ranking al-Qaeda lieutenant, Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, has been spotted meeting in Honduras with MS-13 officials; other reports indicate his presence in Panama and possible surveillance of the Panama Canal. MS-13 operates an extensive alien smuggling ring out of Matamoros, Mexico, just across the border from Brownsville, Texas, and has been documented to have smuggled non-Mexicans into the U.S.
A fourth analytical consideration is the movement of Islamic proselytization and conversion in Latin America and known trends for radical Islamists to recruit and obtain converts in prisons. It is likely these two trends would extend to gangs and the Islamic radicalization of gang members would then justify their criminal activities under extant Islamist jihad doctrines, psychologically and morally legitimizing their criminal activities.
Final Considerations
We began this discussion by mentioning FBI Director Robert Mueller’s recent testimony to Congress about busting up a Hezbollah Mexican smuggling ring. But several years ago, Director Mueller admitted in a very candid moment while speaking to the Senate Intelligence Committee that a wave of suicide bombers being unleashed throughout America was “inevitable”. At the time, he wasn’t aware that an Associated Press reporter was in the room to record his comments.
When asked about the possibility of suicide bombings in America, Mueller said, “I think we will see that in the future – I think it’s inevitable,” adding that, “There will be another terrorist attack. We will not be able to stop it. It’s something we all live with.”
In the weeks ahead as Congress resumes the debate over border security, this admission from one of the government’s top law enforcement authorities should be noted. As one blogger put it sarcastically, “Hezbollah is coming to America to blow up things American’s won’t.” Mueller’s statements should make the point that illegal immigration is not just about poor Mexicans trying to find a decent living; it is also about America’s enemies entering our country with every intention of causing mayhem, destruction and death.
In the next few weeks and months, we may observe an escalating series of events that will lead to the next 9/11. As one U.S. intelligence official has stated:
If Iran becomes the focus of Phase Three [on the War on Terror], it could send a message to the U.S. that it is not like Iraq, that it has the means to strike us at home, with a network of cells that it placed here a long time ago. The Iranians wouldn’t take credit for blowing up a McDonald’s, but we would know, and they would know we know.
It is too early to predict how the current diplomatic crisis over Iran’s nuclear weapons program will play out, but Americans should assume that any potential military hostilities could result in Hezbollah striking American interests across the globe and here in the US Homeland. Possibly the Iranian ayatollahs may decide that preemptive Hezbollah suicide attacks against America might serve as a deterrent to U.S. military action against their nuclear facilities. A strategic wave of Hezbollah suicide bombings, and well coordinated military attacks in America could very well make the horror and tragedy of the last 9/11 look like a distant memory. Few realists doubt that we live in a dangerous world and most Americans understand that ‘freedom is not free,’ nonetheless, in the aftermath of another terrorist outrage on U.S. soil, new government commissions won’t impede Americans demanding accountability.
Hezbollah’s known domestic activities, to include the smuggling operation, not to mention unknown and yet unidentified ones, makes the question of America’s border security as an important national security consideration as any other. Yet ironically America’s border security is not even discussed in the newly published National Security Strategy. The security of other countries borders are more discussed in this and in the previous 2002 strategy than our own borders today.
America’s enemies have identified this vulnerability; according to a March 2005 Time Magazine report, al-Qaeda lieutenant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi instructed jihadists to bribe their way into Honduras and cross the U.S. southern border to attack soft American targets. From an intelligence perspective the indicators and warnings of the threat cannot be clearer.
The U.S. is faced with the rising nuclear threat from Iran. The announcement just a few days ago that the Islamic Republic has successfully produced enriched uranium quickly leading them to producing weapons-grade material makes the present discussion more exigent. As President Bush told the graduates of West Point in 2002, “The gravest danger to freedom lies at the crossroads of radicalism and [nuclear] technology.”
If the U.S. is forced into preemptive military action against Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons, it should be expected that the long-established Hezbollah network in the US will be activated and attempt retaliation by their primary state-sponsor. We will learn the extents and limits of Hezbollah’s military capabilities within the U.S., our own intelligence capabilities, and whether our immigration and border policies were adequate.
**LTC Joseph Myers is the Senior Army Advisor to the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB in Alabama. Patrick Poole is a freelance writer and public policy researcher; he maintains the blog Existential Space.

Deadlock over Lebanon president
BBC 29/4/06: Opponents of Lahoud cannot agree on a successor
Politicians in Lebanon have resumed their discussions on whether to dismiss the pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud.
But correspondents say that even those political blocs in favour of removing him are unable to agree a replacement and the dispute may not be resolved. The delegates are also expected to discuss another complex issue: what to do about disarming the Hezbollah militia, in line with a UN resolution. Hezbollah's leader refuses to allow his men to be integrated into the army.
It is the sixth round of talks aimed at ending Lebanon's political paralysis since elections which brought an anti-Syrian majority to power.

Tense atmosphere prevails at roundtable talks, sources say
Apr 28, 2006,
Beirut -A tense atmosphere prevailed during roundtable talks on Friday as the deeply divided Lebanese political leaders resumed their crucial discussions to try to solve the political crisis in the country.
'The atmosphere is tense,' sources close to a leader participating in the talks told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.
The sixth round of talks is expected to discuss the removal of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud from power along with the disarming of Hezbollah. Lebanon has been in political turmoil since the February 2005 murder of Hariri and the later withdrawal of Syrian troops after 29 years on Lebanese soil.
At the last round of talks on April 3, Lebanese leaders decided to discuss calls for Lahoud to resign one last time before moving on to the issue of disarming the Shiite militant movement Hezbollah, in line with UN resolution 1559.
Anti-Syrian Christian leader Samir Geagea, has admitted that the removal of Lahoud is 'going to take a miracle.'
Hardline Christian leader Michel Aoun, who defected from the majority coalition to join the pro-Syrian camp said the failure 'of removing Lahoud by the parliamentary majority should lead to a change of government.'
Lebanese leaders are divided over the disarmament of the military wing of Hezbollah, whose fighters were widely credited with bringing about Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000 after 22 years of occupation.
The group has vowed to carry on a guerrilla war to free the disputed Shebaa Farms border area, which Israel seized from Syria along with the Golan Heights in 1967 but is claimed by Lebanon with Damascus approval.
In five rounds of national talks since March 2, leaders reached agreement on the establishment of an international court to judge those responsible for Hariri's killing.
Lebanese leaders have also agreed to dismantle Palestinian military bases in Lebanon, to work to normalize relations with the former powerbroker Syria and to define borders between the two countries.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Hezbollah publicly admits to support of militant groups in PA
By The Associated Press
BEIRUT - The leader of Hezbollah acknowledged giving militant Palestinian factions financial and political support, but denied arming them, in an interview published on Thursday.
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah did not name the groups in an extensive interview with the Lebanese daily As-Safir, but Hezbollah is known to have close ties to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
"They have fighters and expertise. They can produce a missile by logging on to the Internet," Nasrallah said.
"What they need is financial, political and media support. And we do not deny that we help them on those fronts," he added.
It was the first time that the Hezbollah leader, a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, publicly acknowledged funding Palestinian militant groups - an accusation made by Israeli officials.
Nasrallah said his group used to channel weapons to Palestinian militants but stopped in December 2001 after Jordanian authorities arrested three Hezbollah members carrying Katyusha rockets from Syria bound for the West Bank.
"After the Jordan incident and arrest of a number of our brothers, the Palestinians told us, 'This is costing you politically and is a burden for the fighters. Send us the money and we will take care of it ourselves,'" Nasrallah said, adding that the Palestinian militants got their weapons from "the mafia and Israeli officers."
Nasrallah has repeatedly called on various Palestinian factions to step up their armed uprising against Israel as the only way to liberate their country from Israeli occupation. But he has denied past Israeli accusations that Iran-backed Hezbollah was directing suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis, or that it was a key sponsor of Palestinian violence.
His latest remarks take on added significance with the emergence last month of a Hamas-led Palestinian government. The United States and the European Union cut off funds to the Palestinian Authority because of Hamas' refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel.
Nasrallah said Hamas should not have to recognize Israel. "The people gave [Hamas] their confidence based on their commitment not to recognize Israel," he said.
Hamas and Hezbollah are both on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations, but are regarded in much of the Arab world as legitimate resistance movements against Israel. Hezbollah fought the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon until troops withdrew in May 2000, but still launches occasional attacks on Israeli forces in a disputed area where the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet.

Opinion | From American Jewish Committee
Iran's Gaza Front
By Yehudit Barsky
While the world is focused on Iran's program to produce nuclear weapons, there is another, lesser-known project with perilous ramifications on which Iran has exerted great effort — hijacking the Palestinian Authority from within.
Iran has been supporting terrorist organizations for more than a quarter-century. Following its creation of Hezbollah in Lebanon in the early 1980s, Iran went on to provide financial and logistical support to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Both organizations continue to receive funding and support from Iran today.
In recent months, however, Iran has focused more of its attention and largesse on Hamas, which won 58 percent of the Parliament seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections. In an effort to bolster its image as a reformist party among Palestinians, Hamas has refrained from carrying out terror attacks for the moment. At the same time, it has been transferring Qassam rockets to other terror organizations such as Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which continue to launch attacks from Gaza against Israel.
On the opposite side of the Palestinian political spectrum, Iran has set its sights on terrorist organizations that are part of the Palestinian Authority's Fatah organization. Fatah, founded by Yasser Arafat, remains the main political party in the Palestinian Authority, currently led by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Since 2000, Iran has invested increasing amounts of funds, training, and logistical support that is dispensed via Hezbollah to Fatah affiliates in the West Bank and Gaza, effectively opening a new front for Iran and Hezbollah's war against Israel.
An indication of the extent to which the Palestinian Authority became a client of Iran was the January 2002 attempted delivery of arms purchased by the Palestinian Authority from Iran with the assistance of Hezbollah. The arms delivery was thwarted when the Israeli Navy intercepted and seized the 4000-ton Karine A, a Palestinian freighter that was transporting 50 tons of Iranian manufactured weapons, including missiles equipped with Tandem-Charge warheads capable of piercing heavy armor, and 122 mm Katyusha rockets with a range of 12 miles. Other weapons included Strela anti-aircraft missiles, mortar tubes and bombs, land mines, Russian manufactured wire-guided Sagger missiles, ammunition, anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and explosives.
The Iranian effort to infiltrate the Palestinian areas has only increased. Hezbollah serves as a conduit for the distribution of Iranian funds to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Tanzim, both affiliated with Fatah, for terror attacks against Israelis.
Thus, there are an ever-increasing number of terror operatives from these factions that now work for Iran. As of October 2004, 80 percent of the terror attacks that took place in or originating from the West Bank against Israelis were coordinated by Hezbollah. Nearly all of the terror activities carried out by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were reportedly directed and financed by Hezbollah and Iran. Hezbollah reportedly awards bounties of $5,000 for each Israeli killed by Fatah terrorist cells. As a result, these operatives remain agents of the Fatah factions in name only.
Viewed as a whole, Palestinian organizations funded by Hezbollah were responsible for 20 percent of terror attacks against Israelis in 2004. Nine million dollars — nearly 10 percent of Hezbollah's $100 million annual budget — was devoted to funding Palestinian terrorist groups operating in Palestinian Authority areas. Each cell was provided between $5,000 and $8,000 a month by Hezbollah for expenses, including arms, cell phone calling cards, and spending money.
In its continuing efforts to infiltrate and carry out terror attacks in Israel, Hezbollah created "Unit 1800," a secret wing of the organization that has recruited Palestinians to collect intelligence information. The unit is reportedly taking control over Hamas, Fatah, and other Palestinian terror groups. Most recently Hezbollah has established a "forward command" post in Gaza that serves as a link between terrorists in the West Bank and Hezbollah's leadership in Lebanon.
Although Iran's war against Israel started 27 years ago, its efforts over the past several years indicate stepped up attempts to take over Palestinian organizations that are directly involved in the conflict. Through its investments in the activities of various Palestinian terror organizations, Iran seeks to increase its legitimacy among Palestinians. From there it hopes to gain an increasing foothold within the Palestinian Authority, and ultimately take control from within.
Iranian President Ahmadinejad's declaration that Israel should be "wiped off the map" is not only being implemented via his country's efforts to build a nuclear weapon. Iran has and continues to use all means at its disposal to wage a proxy war against Israel. While some may view President Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of Israel and Iran's development of nuclear weapons as a possible threat for the future, Iran's Gaza front indicates that the war has already begun.
**Ms. Barsky is the director of the American Jewish Committee's Division on Middle East and International Terrorism.

Opinion
From American Jewish Committee
Iran's Gaza Front
By Yehudit Barsky
While the world is focused on Iran's program to produce nuclear weapons, there is another, lesser-known project with perilous ramifications on which Iran has exerted great effort — hijacking the Palestinian Authority from within.
Iran has been supporting terrorist organizations for more than a quarter-century. Following its creation of Hezbollah in Lebanon in the early 1980s, Iran went on to provide financial and logistical support to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Both organizations continue to receive funding and support from Iran today.
In recent months, however, Iran has focused more of its attention and largesse on Hamas, which won 58 percent of the Parliament seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections. In an effort to bolster its image as a reformist party among Palestinians, Hamas has refrained from carrying out terror attacks for the moment. At the same time, it has been transferring Qassam rockets to other terror organizations such as Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which continue to launch attacks from Gaza against Israel.
On the opposite side of the Palestinian political spectrum, Iran has set its sights on terrorist organizations that are part of the Palestinian Authority's Fatah organization. Fatah, founded by Yasser Arafat, remains the main political party in the Palestinian Authority, currently led by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Since 2000, Iran has invested increasing amounts of funds, training, and logistical support that is dispensed via Hezbollah to Fatah affiliates in the West Bank and Gaza, effectively opening a new front for Iran and Hezbollah's war against Israel.
An indication of the extent to which the Palestinian Authority became a client of Iran was the January 2002 attempted delivery of arms purchased by the Palestinian Authority from Iran with the assistance of Hezbollah. The arms delivery was thwarted when the Israeli Navy intercepted and seized the 4000-ton Karine A, a Palestinian freighter that was transporting 50 tons of Iranian manufactured weapons, including missiles equipped with Tandem-Charge warheads capable of piercing heavy armor, and 122 mm Katyusha rockets with a range of 12 miles. Other weapons included Strela anti-aircraft missiles, mortar tubes and bombs, land mines, Russian manufactured wire-guided Sagger missiles, ammunition, anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and explosives.
The Iranian effort to infiltrate the Palestinian areas has only increased. Hezbollah serves as a conduit for the distribution of Iranian funds to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Tanzim, both affiliated with Fatah, for terror attacks against Israelis.
Thus, there are an ever-increasing number of terror operatives from these factions that now work for Iran. As of October 2004, 80 percent of the terror attacks that took place in or originating from the West Bank against Israelis were coordinated by Hezbollah. Nearly all of the terror activities carried out by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were reportedly directed and financed by Hezbollah and Iran. Hezbollah reportedly awards bounties of $5,000 for each Israeli killed by Fatah terrorist cells. As a result, these operatives remain agents of the Fatah factions in name only.
Viewed as a whole, Palestinian organizations funded by Hezbollah were responsible for 20 percent of terror attacks against Israelis in 2004. Nine million dollars — nearly 10 percent of Hezbollah's $100 million annual budget — was devoted to funding Palestinian terrorist groups operating in Palestinian Authority areas. Each cell was provided between $5,000 and $8,000 a month by Hezbollah for expenses, including arms, cell phone calling cards, and spending money.
In its continuing efforts to infiltrate and carry out terror attacks in Israel, Hezbollah created "Unit 1800," a secret wing of the organization that has recruited Palestinians to collect intelligence information. The unit is reportedly taking control over Hamas, Fatah, and other Palestinian terror groups. Most recently Hezbollah has established a "forward command" post in Gaza that serves as a link between terrorists in the West Bank and Hezbollah's leadership in Lebanon.
Although Iran's war against Israel started 27 years ago, its efforts over the past several years indicate stepped up attempts to take over Palestinian organizations that are directly involved in the conflict. Through its investments in the activities of various Palestinian terror organizations, Iran seeks to increase its legitimacy among Palestinians. From there it hopes to gain an increasing foothold within the Palestinian Authority, and ultimately take control from within.
Iranian President Ahmadinejad's declaration that Israel should be "wiped off the map" is not only being implemented via his country's efforts to build a nuclear weapon. Iran has and continues to use all means at its disposal to wage a proxy war against Israel. While some may view President Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of Israel and Iran's development of nuclear weapons as a possible threat for the future, Iran's Gaza front indicates that the war has already begun.
***Ms. Barsky is the director of the American Jewish Committee's Division on Middle East and International Terrorism.

Report: Katyushas smuggled into Gaza
Israeli security officials believe Palestinians have smuggled dozens of Katyusha rockets into the Gaza Strip.
The Associated Press quoted anonymous officials Friday as saying that Israel could re-enter Gaza to counter the threat, but will not do so in the immediate future. Terrorists have intensified Kassam rocket attacks on Israel in recent weeks, but those crude rockets are inaccurate. The Katyushas, the favored weapon of Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, are more precise and lethal. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last September.