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April 27, 2009
Exclusive: CRC Open-Source Intelligence Briefs
W. Thomas Smith Jr., Director of the Counterterrorism Research Center
IRAN: Are American banks - recently bailed out by the American taxpayer - attempting to set up shop in a country that "holds military parades featuring banners proclaiming ‘Death to America' and whose President has declared: ‘I say accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible'?"
Read Robert Spencer at Human Events.
QATAR: Speaking of banks, Qatar's Doha Bank has been fined by the U.S. Treasury Department for "failing to report transactions potentially tied to terrorism."
Christopher Holton at the Center for Security Policy has more:
"The very capable folks at Money Laundering Alert sent out an email bulletin and posted an article online about the US Treasury Department recently fining Qatar's largest private bank, Doha Bank $5 million.
"The fine was imposed because Doha Bank failed to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) over 500 times over the past three years on transfers of money totaling $6.5 billion which could potentially involve terrorism funding.
"The article makes no mention of whether Doha's Shariah-Compliant operations were involved in these activities, though this wouldn't the first time in recent months that the U.S. Treasury went after an ‘Islamic' bank for failure to file Suspicious Activity Reports."
LEBANON: In a statement (published at NowLebanon), Joe Baini, pres. of the World Council for the Cedars Revolution, says, recent reports about "the activities of Hizballah in Africa, Latin America and some Arab countries, especially Egypt, [could potentially] damage the image of Lebanon and would lead to new sufferings for the Lebanese people."
Tom Harb, secretary general of the International Lebanese Committee for the Implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559, agrees.
"Hizballah is increasingly operating outside of Lebanon," says Harb, adding that the terrorist group also has a presence in the United States. "And if a terrorist attack were launched by Hizballah on the North American continent - and they currently have an operational ability to do so - the result for Lebanon might well-be disastrous, similar to Al Qaeda or the Taliban using Afghanistan as a base, setting that country up as a geo-target for offensive military operations."
An unnamed source also tells us: "Despite the blogging blather of Hizballah sympathizers and apologists - as well as corrupt journalists and others who pretend to be opposed to Hizballah [but who deceptively downplay their strength and activities] - those of us in the business of counterterrorism know that Hizballah is an extremely dangerous terrorist organization."
That's not simply the source's opinion. That's based on irrefutable open-source intelligence re: Hizballah's strength and worldwide operations since before the war with Israel in 2006, and to a greater degree since gaining tremendous political leverage through force of arms in Lebanon in May 2008.
The source adds, "Any international malevolence" Hizballah commits - particularly since the group holds seats in the parliament and has increasingly wormed its way and influence into Lebanon's Defense Ministry, establishing itself as both a seemingly legitimate homeland-defense branch (if you will) of the Lebanese Army an independent terrorist army (supported by both Iran and Syria) - gives the offended state justification to target Lebanon and its government.
Commenting on the 9th semi-annual Report of the Secretary General to the Security Council on the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, Harb says: "It is true, there has been progress favoring freedom and democracy in Lebanon since the issuance of the resolution in 2004, but there also have been huge steps back. And the most dangerous challenges facing Lebanon which are not even close to being resolved could explode on a moment's notice."
The report released by the office of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, concludes the outstanding challenge for Lebanon continues to be Hizballah and the Palestinian militias. The same elements that triggered the Lebanese civil war and the 2006 war with Israel still exist. And they do so in defiance of the UN.
- Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. at uswriter.com.
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