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HEZBOLLAH IN LATIN AMERICA—IMPLICATIONS 

FOR U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON 

COUNTERTERRORISM 

AND INTELLIGENCE 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

JULY 7, 2011 

Serial No. 112–35 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/ 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY 

PETER T. KING, New York, Chairman 

LAMAR SMITH, Texas 

DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California 

MIKE ROGERS, Alabama 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida 

PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia 

CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan 

TIM WALBERG, Michigan 

CHIP CRAVAACK, Minnesota 

JOE WALSH, Illinois 

PATRICK MEEHAN, Pennsylvania 

BEN QUAYLE, Arizona 

SCOTT RIGELL, Virginia 

BILLY LONG, Missouri 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

BLAKE FARENTHOLD, Texas 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

BENNIE G. THOMPSON, Mississippi 

LORETTA SANCHEZ, California 

SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas 

HENRY CUELLAR, Texas 

YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York 

LAURA RICHARDSON, California 

DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

JACKIE SPEIER, California 

CEDRIC L. RICHMOND, Louisiana 

HANSEN CLARKE, Michigan 

WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts 

KATHLEEN C. HOCHUL, New York 

VACANCY

MICHAEL J. RUSSELL, Staff Director/General Counsel 

KERRY ANN WATKINS, Senior Policy Director 

MICHAEL S. TWINCHEK, Chief Clerk 

I. LANIER AVANT, Minority Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON COUNTERTERRORISM AND INTELLIGENCE 

PATRICK MEEHAN, Pennsylvania, Chairman 

PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia, Vice Chair 

CHIP CRAVAACK, Minnesota 

JOE WALSH, Illinois 

BEN QUAYLE, Arizona 

SCOTT RIGELL, Virginia 

BILLY LONG, Missouri 

PETER T. KING, New York (Ex Officio) 

JACKIE SPEIER, California 

LORETTA SANCHEZ, California 

HENRY CUELLAR, Texas 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KATHLEEN C. HOCHUL, New York 

BENNIE G. THOMPSON, Mississippi (Ex Officio) 

KEVIN GUNDERSEN, Staff Director 

ALAN CARROLL, Subcommittee Clerk 

STEPHEN VINA, Minority Subcommittee Director 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

STATEMENTS

The Honorable Patrick Meehan, a Representative in Congress From the State 

of Pennsylvania, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and 

Intelligence: 

Oral Statement ..................................................................................................... 1 

Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 2 

The Honorable Jackie Speier, a Representative in Congress From the State 

of California, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Counterterrorism 

and Intelligence .................................................................................................... 3 

WITNESSES

Mr. Roger F. Noriega, Visiting Fellow, The American Enterprise Institute: 

Oral Statement ..................................................................................................... 5 

Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 7 

Mr. Douglas Farah, Senior Fellow, The International Assessment and Strategy Center: 

Oral Statement ..................................................................................................... 12 

Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 15 

Mr. Ilan Berman, Vice President, American Foreign Policy Council: 

Oral Statement ..................................................................................................... 26 

Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 28 

Ms. Melani Cammett, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director, 

Middle East Studies Program, Brown University: 

Oral Statement ..................................................................................................... 34 

Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 35 

(1) 

HEZBOLLAH IN LATIN AMERICA—IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY 

Thursday, July 7, 2011 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON COUNTERTERRORISM AND INTELLIGENCE, 

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:54 p.m., in Room 

311, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Patrick Meehan [Chairman of the subcommittee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Meehan, Cravaack, Speier, Cuellar, 

Higgins, and Hochul. 

Also present: Representatives Duncan and Green. 

Mr. MEEHAN. Good afternoon, and thank you for your patience 

and your recognition of the requirement that the first responsibility 

we have to do is to be on the floor to vote. But I am very appreciative of all of our witnesses. 

The Homeland Security Committee Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will come to order. The subcommittee is 

meeting today to hear testimony on the threat to the U.S. homeland as a result of Hezbollah operations in South and Central 

America. 

I would also like, before we begin, unanimous consent to sit and 

question a witness. I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman 

from Texas, Mr. Green be authorized to sit for the purpose of questioning witnesses during the hearing. 

Okay. Today’s hearing is the fourth subcommittee hearing aimed 

at educating Members of the myriad of terrorist threats to the 

homeland from various parties of the world. So far we have heard 

from experts that have—on the threat posed by AQAP in Yemen, 

the terrorist threat emanating from Pakistan, and the ramifications of unrest in the Middle East and North Africa on U.S. 

counterterrorism efforts. 

Today we will dive deeper into Hezbollah’s growing operation in 

Latin America and what the implications are for the United States 

homeland security. Hezbollah is one of the most sophisticated global terrorist organizations in the world, and as Members of Congress, particularly on this subcommittee and this committee, it is 

incumbent upon us to do everything we can to understand that 

threat. 

As a former United States attorney in Philadelphia, I initiated 

investigations into terrorist activities, but it included Hezbollah activities that had a direct connection to Latin America. These inves-
2 

tigations exposed Hezbollah’s vast network throughout the region 

and ended in convictions. 

The U.S. intelligence community and law enforcement have been 

concerned about the terrorist threat emanating from the Tri-Border 

area which connects Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay in South 

America. So the nexus of Hezbollah to the U.S. homeland security 

is certainly without question. 

It is important to remember that before September 11, 

Hezbollah, not al-Qaeda, was responsible for more American deaths 

than any other terrorist organization. Doing everything we can to 

ensure that Hezbollah does not have a staging ground and a safe 

haven in Latin America is vitally important. 

Indeed, it was former Homeland Security Secretary Michael 

Chertoff who warned that while Hezbollah, ‘‘makes al-Qaeda look 

like a minor league team,’’ it poses the greatest threat to American 

National security. 

We really want to hear the intentions and the impressions of the 

panel here today to help us try to get a real accurate assessment 

of what we think Hezbollah means in Latin America and its relationship to the United States. It is also worth noting that 

Hezbollah has been operationally active in Latin America. Most notoriously is the group being implicated in the 1992 attack on the 

Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, and 2 years later at the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association building in Buenos Aires, attacks 

which killed and injured hundreds of civilians. 

Regardless of the circumstances which may lead Hezbollah to 

launch an attack on the homeland, Hezbollah is already working 

with like-minded allies and hostile regimes in Latin America to undermine American National security by raising funds, spreading 

anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda, recruiting operatives, 

laundering money, and smuggling weapons and drugs, all activities 

that have a direct impact on the United States homeland security. 

Moreover, the alliance between one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world, Hezbollah, the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism in Iran, a sworn enemy of the United States, and 

Venezuela, all in the backyard of the United States, when you put 

that together, you have a fully functioning, easily accessible terrorist network with a ready capacity to act, if so inclined. 

So it is with this background in mind that we are attempting to 

create awareness and to have a frank examination to gauge the full 

threat of the nature of this threat to the homeland. So I look forward to hearing from today’s witnesses. 

I would like to do, as well, if she should come in to attendance, 

I would like to acknowledge the newest Member of our subcommittee, the gentlelady from New York Ms. Hochul, and I welcome her to the subcommittee. 

I would also like to extend recognition that Congresswoman RosLehtinen and her Committee on Foreign Affairs have been looking 

at much the same issue with great impact. 

[The statement of Chairman Meehan follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN PATRICK MEEHAN

Hezbollah is one of the most sophisticated global terrorist organizations in the 

world. It is the responsibility of this subcommittee to examine threats of possible 

terrorist attacks. We must remember that before September 11, Hezbollah—not al- 
3 

Qaeda—was responsible for more American deaths than any other terrorist organization. Today’s hearing was a significant step toward enhancing awareness about 

Hezbollah’s activities in Latin America and understanding this very serious threat 

to Americans here at home. 

Law enforcement and the intelligence community have long been concerned about 

the terrorist threat emanating from the Tri-Border area connecting Argentina, 

Brazil, and Paraguay in South America. It has been widely reported that Hezbollah 

is working with like-minded allies and hostile regimes in Latin America to undermine American National security. Its activities include skirting United States sanctions, raising funds, spreading anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda, recruiting operatives, laundering money, and smuggling weapons and drugs. The growing 

nexus between international terror networks and drug-trafficking organizations 

throughout Latin America is a dynamic and emerging issue facing the counterterrorism and intelligence community. 

While serving as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Congressman Meehan initiated investigations into Hezbollah’s activities in Philadelphia 

that had direct connections to Latin America. These investigations exposed 

Hezbollah’s vast networks throughout the region and ended in convictions. 

The witnesses at today’s hearing included: the Honorable Roger Noriega, Visiting 

Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research; Mr. Douglas 

Farah, Senior Fellow Financial Investigations and Transparency, International Assessment and Strategy Center; Mr. Ilan Berman, Vice President, American Foreign 

Policy Council; and Dr. Melani Cammett, Director, Middle East Studies Program, 

Brown University. 

This is the fourth hearing the subcommittee has held aimed at educating Members about the myriad terrorist threats to the homeland from various parts of the 

world. Earlier this year, the subcommittee heard from experts on the threat posed 

by AQAP in Yemen, the terrorist threat emanating from Pakistan and the ramifications of unrest in the Middle East and North Africa on U.S. counterterrorism efforts. 

Mr. MEEHAN. So at this point in time I would like to recognize 

the Ranking Member of the subcommittee, the gentlewoman from 

California, Ms. Speier, for any comments she may have. 

Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Chairman, thank you, and thank you to our distinguished panelists for joining us today on a topic that I think is 

very worthy of our consideration. 

Hezbollah has been linked to some of the most horrific terrorist 

attacks against the United States, including two bombings in 1983 

against the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, 

which together killed hundreds of Americans. 

Hezbollah has close ties to Iran and Syria, two state sponsors of 

terrorism, and many have accused the group of acting as an Iranian proxy militia for attacks against Israel and other U.S. allies. 

Just as troubling, Hezbollah makes extensive use of the large Lebanese communities in the Western Hemisphere to help finance its 

operations through both legal and illegal means. 

The group reportedly conducts extensive illicit financing activities in Latin America, including drug trafficking, counterfeiting, 

and contraband smuggling. The epicenter of these activities is the 

Tri-Border Area, an undergoverned border region where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay meet, where the local law enforcement authorities have been unable to counter the activities of numerous 

terrorists and criminal organizations. 

While we know Hezbollah raises money in Latin America, we do 

not know the true extent of its operations. How much funding does 

Hezbollah truly receive from its activities, both legal and illegal, in 

Latin America? 

We also do not know the true impact of Iranian influence on 

Hezbollah’s activities in the region, particularly in Venezuela, 

where President Cha ́vez continues to strengthen ties with Iran. 
4 

We also know that Hezbollah’s activities are not confined to 

South America. It has sympathizers that have been linked to a variety of smuggling and fundraising activities here in the United 

States. In 2002, for example, a large cigarette-smuggling ring in 

North Carolina was disrupted. The cell had been sending proceeds 

from its smuggling operations to Hezbollah since at least 1995. 

More recently, in 2007, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions against several ‘‘charitable’’ organizations in the United 

States for serving as fronts to support Hezbollah and Iran. 

These cases illustrate the broad network that Hezbollah has established in the Western Hemisphere to finance its activities. 

Though Hezbollah’s supporters continue to provide financial and 

moral aid from the Western Hemisphere, it is worth noting that 

the State Department’s 2009 Country Reports on Terrorism indicate that there are no known Hezbollah-related operational cells in 

this hemisphere. It is important to discover whether this is still the 

case. 

Back in Lebanon, Hezbollah continues to be important, integrated into the Lebanese society, providing important social services and holding key positions in government. At the same time, 

four Hezbollah members were just indicted by the Special Tribunal 

for Lebanon for their possible connection to the 2005 assassination 

of former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafiq Hariri. We do not know 

how these developments in Lebanon may disrupt the fragile peace 

there, or whether they will encourage Hezbollah to turn to terrorism and attack Israel. 

In Syria, protests continue to threaten the Assad regime, a regime that has been providing financial and logistical support to 

Hezbollah for some time. As with the special tribunal, it is difficult 

to gauge how the Syrian unrest may affect Hezbollah, if President 

Assad is ousted, with a new regime less supportive of Hezbollah 

and Iran provokes the group into action, particularly if the United 

States supports peace efforts. Would regime instability in Syria increase or decrease Hezbollah’s operational capabilities and influence in the region? 

With all this uncertainty, we are left asking whether the group 

is still the ‘‘A Team’’ of terrorists, as Deputy Secretary of State 

Richard Armitage suggested in 2003, or whether it is evolving into 

something else. Some of our witnesses’ testimonies suggest 

Hezbollah is probably not currently directly targeting the U.S. 

homeland. So the question then is, what events could change that 

calculus among Hezbollah’s leaders? 

As the events in the Middle East and the Arab Spring continue 

to unfold, we must keep a close eye on Hezbollah’s strategies and 

ensure we have the intelligence and resources to respond to the 

changing threat environment here at home and globally. 

So, again, I would like to welcome our distinguished witnesses, 

and I look forward to gaining many insights from you. I also want 

to welcome our newest Member, Ms. Hochul, from the great State 

of New York, to our subcommittee. I yield back. 

Mr. MEEHAN. Thank you, Ms. Speier. 

Other Members of the committee are reminded that opening 

statements may be submitted for the record. 
5 

I would also like, at this time, to ask unanimous consent that the 

gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. Duncan be authorized to sit 

for the purpose of the questioning of witnesses during the hearing. 

Hearing none, welcome, Mr. Duncan. 

We are pleased to have four distinguished witnesses before us 

today on this important topic. Let me remind each of you, we strive 

to try to take this remarkably complex issue and put it down to 5 

minutes. But I know you will do your best to summarize your testimony. Ideally, we will be able to explore the concepts that you 

raise. 

Today’s first witness is former Ambassador Roger Noriega. Ambassador Noriega is a former U.S. ambassador to the Organization 

of American States and also served as Assistant Secretary of State 

for the Western Hemisphere Affairs in the George W. Bush administration. Prior to that he worked here in Congress on the staffs of 

the House International Relations Committee and the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. 

Presently he is a visiting fellow with the American Enterprise Institute and has written exhaustively on a variety of issues in Latin 

America and on AEI’s Latin America Outlook series, using the 

breadth of his experience to provide commentary on the pressing 

regional and security issues and how they affect U.S. interests. 

Ambassador Noriega, welcome back to Capitol Hill. You are now 

recognized to summarize your testimony. 

STATEMENT OF ROGER F. NORIEGA, VISITING FELLOW, THE 

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE 

Mr. NORIEGA. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Ranking 

Member, Members of the subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to testify on this subject today. I thank the committee, subcommittee for addressing this issue, which I think requires much 

more attention than it is getting today. 

Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Venezuela, is a determined and 

deadly enemy of the United States that has made substantial 

progress in the last 6 years to increase its activities in Latin America. This push is the result of a conscious offensive strategy to 

spread its influence, legitimize its cause, and advance its violent 

jihad and operational capabilities on our doorstep. 

Unless our Government and responsible partners in Latin America act soon, I believe there will be an attack on U.S. personnel, 

installations, or interests in the Americas, as soon as Hezbollah 

leaders make a calculation that they are capable of carrying out 

such an operation without implicating their Iranian masters in 

that operation. 

Of particular interest to this subcommittee, I am sure, are a series of published reports that Hezbollah operatives have provided 

weapons and explosives training to drug-trafficking organizations 

that operate across the U.S. border with Mexico. My conclusion is 

that U.S. authorities know more than they are willing to say publicly about this subject, and this Congress is right to insist on a 

thorough explanation of the threat and of our effective countermeasures. 

Our research has identified at least two networks associated with 

Hezbollah growing at an alarming rate in Latin America. One is 
6 

operated by Hezbollah itself, aided by its collaborators, particularly 

from Venezuela. Another is managed by a cadre of notorious 

operatives on behalf of the Iranian Qods Force. These networks 

conduct fund-raising, money laundering, narcotics trafficking, proselytization, recruitment, and training in the Americas. We can 

identify more than 80 operatives in at least 12 countries throughout the region, with the greatest areas of concern being Brazil, 

Venezuela, and the Southern Cone. 

A key operative in the Hezbollah network in Latin America is a 

man named Ghazi Atef Salameh Nassereddine Abu Ali. His photograph is shown here with his brothers. He is a man who was born 

in Lebanon, became a Venezuelan citizen just 10 years ago, and is 

now Venezuela’s No. 2 diplomat in Damascus, Syria. Along with 

these two brothers, Abdallah and Oday, Nassereddine manages a 

network that raises and launders money and recruits and trains 

operatives to expand Hezbollah’s influence in Venezuela and 

throughout Latin America. 

The individual who oversees the parallel Hezbollah network on 

behalf of the Qods Force is Mohsen Rabbani, whose picture is 

shown here. He is a high-ranking Iranian, wanted by prosecutors 

in Argentina for his role in the terrorist bombings in Buenos Aires 

in 1992 and 1994. Rabbani was posted in Argentina at the time as 

the cultural attache ́ of Iran in Buenos Aires. Although Rabbani is 

the object of an Interpol red notice, he travels frequently in the region. He was in Venezuela as recently as March 2011 and in Brazil 

last September. 

According to sources in Brazilian intelligence, who were cited by 

the investigative journalist Leonardo Cortino in the important Brazilian magazine VEJA, at least 20 operatives from Hezbollah, alQaeda and Islamic Jihad operate in Brazil as a hub for terrorist 

activity. Reportedly, Rabbani has recruited dozens of Brazilian followers to his cause. 

In addition, Rabbani taps a cadre of persons he has recruited in 

Argentina to spread Hezbollah’s influence throughout Central and 

South America. 

Mr. Chairman, allow me to cite a few examples and show the potency of this threat to the U.S. homeland. At least one member of 

the terrorist network who was accused of plotting to detonate fuel 

tanks and pipelines at JFK’s International Airport in 2007 met 

with the man, Mohsen Rabbani, in Iran and was subsequently arrested by U.S. authorities—I’m sorry, by Trinidadian authorities en 

route to Venezuela, where he planned to board a Conviasa flight 

to Tehran, a regularly scheduled flight from the Venezuelan airline 

Conviasa to Tehran. 

One of Rabbani’s principal collaborators in the Americas is the 

Sunni radical imam in Brazil who, as far back as 1995, hosted alQaeda leader Osama bin Laden and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik 

Mohammed. 

In August of last year, President Hugo Cha ́vez of Venezuela 

hosted a secret summit in Caracas of some of the world’s most notorious terrorist leaders right here in our hemisphere, including 

Hamas’ Supreme Leader Khaled Meshal, Hezbollah’s Chief of Operations, and the Secretary General of the Palestinian Islamic 

Jihad. 
7 

In conclusion, recent public statements suggest that U.S. diplomats, at least, are unaware of the increasing operations and 

reach of Hezbollah in this hemisphere. By contrast, U.S. law enforcement, particularly the DEA, have made great efforts to assess 

and to confront the threat. But this requires a whole-of-government 

approach, including an interagency review of the problem, to understand, assess the transnational and multifaceted nature of this 

threat; to educate friendly governments in the region about what 

is happening; and to implement effective measures, unilaterally 

and with willing partners, to disrupt and dismantle these operations. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

[The statement of Mr. Noriega follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ROGER F. NORIEGA

JULY 7, 2011 

Mr. Chairman, Members of the subcommittee, I very much appreciate this opportunity to testify before you today. I would also like to thank you and the committee 

for your leadership on this very important issue that, quite frankly, does not get 

the attention it deserves among the many competing foreign threats and policy priorities. 

It is well known that Hezbollah acts as a proxy for Iran—specifically, of the Qods 

Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. These determined and deadly enemies of the United States have made substantial progress in the last 6 years to 

expand their influence and operations in Latin America. Their expanding activities 

are the result of a conscious, offensive strategy to carry their fight to our doorstep, 

which receives indispensable support from the regime of Venezuelan leader Hugo 

Cha ́vez. 

Our research—from open sources, subject-matter experts, and sensitive sources 

within various governments—has identified at least two parallel terrorist networks 

growing at an alarming rate in Latin America. One is operated by Hezbollah, aided 

by its collaborators, and another is managed by a cadre of notorious Qods 

operatives. These networks cooperate to carry out fundraising, money-laundering 

schemes, narcotics smuggling, proselytization, recruitment, and training. We can 

identify more than 80 operatives in at least 12 countries throughout the region 

(with the greatest areas of concern being Brazil, Venezuela, and the Southern Cone). 

Of particular interest to this subcommittee, no doubt, are the several published 

reports, citing U.S. law enforcement and intelligence sources, that Hezbollah 

operatives have provided weapons and explosives training to drug trafficking organizations that operate along the U.S. border with Mexico and have sought to 

radicalize Muslim populations in several Mexican cities. The U.S. and Mexican governments have declined to share information publicly on these cases. (Our inquiries 

to at least one Mexican official about a specific arrest of a suspected Hezbollah operative in Mexico in June 2010 were met with the response, ‘‘Don’t ask about that.’’) 

It is clear that this is a potential threat that has captured the attention of authorities on both sides of the border. This Congress and the American people have the 

right to know how our Government is working with Mexico to meet this challenge 

to our common security. 

Hezbollah has a very clear modus operandi that it is applying in the Americas. 

By infiltrating or establishing mosques or ‘‘Islamic centers’’ throughout the region, 

Hezbollah is spreading its influence, legitimizing its cause, and advancing its violent 

jihad on our doorstep. It also is raising funds through various criminal and commercial operations, recruiting converts from among disaffected youth and others, and 

developing its operational capabilities in our own Hemisphere. 

Unfortunately, the Hezbollah threat in the Americas is not new: It is implicated 

in the deadly terrorist bombings in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1992 (of the Israeli 

Embassy) and 1994 (of a Jewish Community Center). However, today, Hezbollah’s 

presence in Latin America is growing significantly with the support of the Cha ́vez 

regime in Venezuela. Cha ́vez, who has a track record of supporting Colombian 

narcoterrorists, has cooperated with Iran to provide political support, financing, or 

arms to Hezbollah, Hamas, or Palestinian Islamic Jihad in this Hemisphere and 

elsewhere. For example, Venezuela’s Margarita Island has eclipsed the infamous 

‘‘Tri-Border Area’’—the region where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay come together 
8 

in South America—as a principal safe haven and center of Hezbollah operations in 

the Americas. 

A key operative in the Hezbollah network in Latin America is Ghazi Atef Salameh 

Nassereddine Abu Ali, a man who was born in Lebanon, became a Venezuelan citizen about 10 years ago, and now is Venezuela’s No. 2 diplomat in Syria. Along with 

at least two of his brothers, he manages a network that raises and launders money 

and recruits and trains operatives to expand Hezbollah’s influence in Venezuela and 

throughout Latin America. Nassereddine was black-listed by the U.S. Department 

of the Treasury in June 2008 for his fundraising and logistical support on behalf 

of Hezbollah. However, testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs 

last month by State Department officials suggests that they are unaware of the very 

important role he now is playing to expand that terrorist group’s reach beyond Venezuela. 

Using his diplomatic status, Nassereddine has built and consolidated relationships with Hezbollah officials in the Middle East, first in Lebanon and now in Syria. 

Meanwhile, his brother Abdallah Nassereddine, maintains relationships in the 

broader Islamic community via a multi-national organization known as the Federation of Arab and American Associations. (FEARAB has affiliates throughout South 

America and the Caribbean with most regional meetings held in Sao Paulo or Buenos Aires.) All the while, their younger brother, Oday Nassereddine, has established 

a powerbase in Venezuela by setting up training operations on Margarita Island, 

and is now recruiting adherents via the Circulos Bolivarianos in Barquisimeto, 170 

miles southwest of Caracas. (The Circulos Bolivarianos are ubiquitous neighborhood 

monitoring committees made up of the most radical followers of Hugo Cha ́vez.) 

The individual who oversees the parallel Hezbollah network on behalf of the Qods 

Force is Mohsen Rabbani, a high-ranking Iranian wanted by prosecutors in Argentina for his role in the 1992 and 1994 Buenos Aires attacks. At that time, Rabbani 

was credentialed as a cultural attache ́ at the Iranian embassy in the Argentine capital. Today, he relies on a network of Argentine converts that he cultivated during 

that period to recruit operatives throughout the region who are selected for 

radicalization and terrorist training in Venezuela and in Iran (specifically, Qom). 

Although Rabbani is wanted by Argentina and is the object of an Interpol ‘‘red 

notice,’’ he travels periodically to the region. For example, Rabbani was in Venezuela in March 2011, and in Brazil last September, where he and his brother (who 

lives in Brazil) have recruited dozens of followers to their radical cause. According 

to sources in Brazilian intelligence, who were cited by an investigative article in the 

important Brazilian magazine VEJA, at least 20 operatives from Hezbollah, alQaeda, and the Islamic Jihad are using Brazil as a hub for terrorist activity. 

Two of Rabbani’s favored Argentinean disciples are now operating in Chile. Sheik 

Karim Abdul Paz, who studied under Rabbani in Qom, is the Imam of a cultural 

center in Santiago, and Sheik Suhail Assad is a Professor at the University of 

Santiago. Both have publicly stated that they are sympathetic to Hezbollah. Suhail 

travels frequently throughout Central and South America, meeting with local Muslim communities. 

As recently as 2 weeks ago, a U.S. State Department official told this Congress 

that Hezbollah activity in the Western Hemisphere was confined to ‘‘fundraising’’— 

as if that were comforting. The fact is, that assertion grossly understates the growing Hezbollah threat in our Hemisphere, as my foregoing testimony indicates. 

Please allow me to provide some additional anecdotes to illustrate my contention 

that Hezbollah is on the move in the Americas, and its activities represent a grave 

and growing threat to the U.S. homeland: 

• At least one member of the terrorist network plotting to detonate fuel tanks and 

pipelines at New York’s JFK International Airport met with Mohsen Rabbani 

in Iran; he was subsequently arrested en route to Venezuela where he planned 

to board a flight to Teheran. 

• One of Rabbani’s principal collaborators in the Americas is the Sheik Khaled 

Razek Tak el-Din, a Sunni radical from the Sao Paulo Guarulhos mosque, which 

is linked to members of the Treasury Department-designated Tri-Border network that provides significant financial and logistical support to Hezbollah in 

Lebanon. As far back as 1995, Tak el-Din hosted al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin 

Laden and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. 

• Last spring, two Iranian Hezbollah operatives were conducting terror training 

on Venezuela’s Margarita Island for persons brought there from other countries 

in the region. Colombian authorities have reported to me that Hezbollah operates in areas of their country where the narcoterrorist group FARC (Fuerzas 

Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia) has a presence. 

• The cocaine kingpin Walid Makled, several of whose companies did business 

with the Hezbollah operative and Venezuelan diplomat Ghazi Nassereddine, 
9 

confirmed in a televised interview on April 3 that Hezbollah conducts fundraising and operates cocaine labs in Venezuela with the protection of that government. 

• On November 4, 2009, Israeli commandos intercepted a shipment of grenades, 

Katyusha rockets, 500,000 rounds of ammunition, and other Russian and Iranian arms aboard the cargo vessel, Francop, which was carrying these weapons 

from the Venezuelan port of Guanta to Syria, where the intended recipient was 

Hezbollah. 

• Hugo Cha ́vez hosted a terror summit of senior leaders of Hamas (‘‘supreme 

leader’’ Khaled Meshal), Hezbollah (unnamed ‘‘chief of operations’’), and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Secretary General Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad 

Shallah) in Caracas on August 22, 2010. That extraordinary meeting was organized at the suggestion of Iran, and the logistical arrangements were made by 

Nassereddine. In addition to the summit, operatives from other countries gathered in Caracas to meet with these terrorist chieftains. 

• The Venezuelan airline, Conviasa, conducts regular flights between Caracas 

and Damascus and Teheran. The Hezbollah networks use these flights and others to ferry operatives, recruits, and cargo in and out of the region. 

In summary, Mr. Chairman, due to the ‘‘official’’ support from some governments 

in Latin America (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and others), and the unwillingness of others to recognize the threat, we can expect to see the Hezbollah 

presence in Latin America become more active and deadly in the coming years. The 

apparent terminal illness of the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Cha ́vez might reduce 

that country’s risky support for Hezbollah; unfortunately, that terror network has 

metastasized in the Americas, and our research indicates that the most tempting 

target for Hezbollah in the region is Brazil, one of the world’s 10 largest economies 

with an estimated population of 1 million Muslims. 

As it stands today, I believe the Hezbollah/Iranian presence in Latin America constitutes a clear threat to the security of the U.S. homeland. They have the motivation, and they have been steadily increasing their capacity to act. In addition to 

operational terrorist activity, Hezbollah also is immersed in criminal activity 

throughout the region—from trafficking in weapons, drugs, and persons—all of 

which threaten our security. 

The more broad implication for U.S. homeland security is that Hezbollah—via 

Iran and Venezuela—has engaged the United States in an offensive strategy of 

asymmetric warfare on our doorstep. It is aiming to win the mental battle of attrition and the moral battle of legitimacy—particularly with the youth in Latin America. Unless our Government recognizes and responds to their efforts, our ability to 

protect our interests and our homeland will be gradually and dangerously diminished. 

U.S. and other government authorities have identified and sanctioned some of the 

leaders of these networks. However, recent public statements suggest that U.S. diplomats are unaware of the increasing operations and reach of the Hezbollah network. By contrast, U.S. law enforcement agencies—led by the Drug Enforcement 

Administration—have made great efforts to assess and confront this threat by building cases against foreign officials and sanctioning commercial entities that provide 

support to this criminal terror organization. However, this dangerous network requires a whole-of-government strategy, beginning with an inter-agency review to understand and assess the transnational, multi-faceted nature of the problem, to educate friendly governments on what is happening, and to implement effective measures unilaterally and with willing partners to disrupt and dismantle their operations. 

If our Government and responsible partners in Latin America fail to act, I believe 

there will be an attack on U.S. personnel, installations, or interests in the Americas 

as soon as Hezbollah operatives believe that they are capable of such an operation 

without implicating their Iranian sponsors in the crime. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 
10 
11 
12 

Mr. MEEHAN. Thank you, Mr. Noriega, Ambassador Noriega. 

Our next witness will be Mr. Douglas Farah, a senior fellow at 

the International Assessment and Strategy Center who focuses on 

financial investigations and transparency. Mr. Farah consults for 

United States and European government agencies, specializing in 

research writing and training on transnational organized crime, 

terror-financed armed groups, and their effects on states, with particular focus on the Western Hemisphere and Africa. Bringing a 

wealth of first-hand experience through his 30-year career as an investigative journalist, he has provided numerous expert testimonies 

to Congressional committees. 

A graduate with honors from the University of Kansas, Mr. 

Farah’s most recent scholarly work is entitled Terrorist-Criminal 

Pipelines and Criminalized States: Emerging Alliances. He has authored two books: One, Blood from Stones: The Secret Financial 

Network of Terror; and Merchant of Death: Viktor Bout and the 

New World Order. 

Mr. Farah, you are now recognized to summarize your testimony. 

STATEMENT OF DOUGLAS FARAH, SENIOR FELLOW, THE 

INTERNATIONAL ASSESSMENT AND STRATEGY CENTER 

Mr. FARAH. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. Members of 

the committee, I agree with Ambassador Noriega. This is a very 

important subject to which we pay insufficient attention to. 

In order to understand the threat Hezbollah poses, it is important to understand the regional context in which the group’s presence is growing. Its chief sponsors, as has been noted, Iran and 

Syria, are designated state sponsors of terrorism, and they have 

spent the last decade building ties into criminalized governments 

in Latin America that also support violent terrorist groups. 
13 

There is some concern about Venezuela providing the technology 

for the increasingly sophisticated narco tunnels now being found 

along the U.S.-Mexican border that strongly resemble the types 

used by Hezbollah in Lebanon. Retired law enforcement officials 

have publicly discussed the appearance in recent years of arrested 

gang members entering the United States with Farsi tattoos and 

other items that are possible indicators of Iran’s influence in that 

field. 

As a senior DEA official recently noted, cocaine proceeds entering 

the coffers of Islamic radical groups such as Hezbollah can lead to 

an ‘‘unlimited source of cheap and easy revenue to carry out potential terrorist attacks.’’ 

A joint DHS and State Department symposium last year concluded that the confluence of illicit networks and corruption in an 

enabling environment can facilitate not only the movement of 

drugs, arms, stolen, or pirated goods and trafficked persons, but 

also smuggling of terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, WMD 

materials, and other dangerous weapons. This trend is particularly 

powerful when taken in concert with the increasingly blurred lines 

between certain terror groups and criminal activities. 

I think what you are seeing in Latin America is the creation of 

this enabling environment that is discussed in this report and the 

distinct blurring or the very visible blurring of lines between terrorism and criminal activities in the group. Hezbollah’s presence in 

this enabling environment has grown in scope and sophistication 

over the past years as Iran has successfully built close alliances 

with several governments in Latin America; not just the government of Venezuela, but the governments of Nicaragua, Bolivia, and 

Ecuador as well, the self-described ‘‘Bolivarian Alliance.’’ These alliances afford Iran and its proxy elements state control and effective immunity for its covert activities. 

Hezbollah’s growing presence is a significant part of a larger and 

more dangerous pattern of the criminalization of these Bolivarian 

states closely allied with Iran. These countries, in turn, support another designated terrorist organization that produces an estimated 

70 percent of the world’s cocaine and 90 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC. The relationship between these alliances with 

Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua with Iran seems paradoxical. It is between groups espousing seemingly irreconcilable 

world views, the theocratic Shiite Muslim fundamentalism and socialism for the 21st Century. What binds it together is the common 

aim of asymmetrical military defeat of the United States, according 

to their own writings. 

The criminalization of multiple states in our hemisphere acting 

in concert is a threat, but the seriousness of the threat grows enormously when the central element that the governments and their 

nonstate proxies share is a hatred for the United States and a publicly stated desire to inflict significant damage on the homeland. 

These groups together have access to hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit revenues annually. 

The roots of this unlikely ideological combination can be found, 

as I discuss in my written testimony, in the Iranian Revolution of 

1979 and the writings of Ilich Sa ́nchez Ramirez, better known as 
14 

Carlos the Jackal, a Venezuelan citizen who, until his arrest in 

1994, was the world’s most-wanted terrorist. In his 2003 book, Revolutionary Islam, written from prison where he is serving a life 

sentence, the Jackal praises Osama bin Laden and 9/11 as part of 

a justified armed struggle of Islam against the West. ‘‘From now 

on, terrorism is going to be more or less a daily part of the landscape of your rotting democracies,’’ he wrote. 

Sa ́nchez Ramirez and Cha ́vez maintain a warm and public 

friendship, and the repeated public praise of Cha ́vez for the Jackal 

can be seen as a crucial element of Bolivarian ideology. 

As I further discuss in my written testimony, Cha ́vez adopted as 

official Venezuelan military doctrine this book, which is Peripheral 

Warfare and Revolutionary Islam: Origins, Rules and Ethics of 

Asymmetrical Warfare, by the Spanish politician and ideologue 

Jorge Verstrynge. The tract is a continuation of the exploration of 

Sa ́nchez Ramirez’s thought, incorporating the explicit endorsement 

of the use of weapons of mass destruction to destroy the United 

States. Copies of this book have recently been found in FARC 

training camps in Colombia for the first time, showing the crosspollination of this ideology from Venezuela into its proxies operating in Colombia and elsewhere. 

It is important to note that the relationship Hezbollah has developed with criminal and terrorist groups in Latin America has escalated from one of mutual accommodation and benefit in the spheres 

of money laundering, contraband, and financing to more direct and 

deadly forms of collaboration. Currently there are numerous cases 

being prosecuted in the United States that shed new light on the 

direct cocaine-for-weapons deals between Hezbollah and the FARC. 

One case that illustrates the breadth of this emerging alliance is 

Operation Titan, executed by Colombia and U.S. officials in 2008 

and still on-going, although much of it is now classified. Colombia 

and U.S. officials, after a 2-year investigation, dismantled a drugtrafficking organization that stretched from Colombia to Panama, 

Mexico, the United States, Europe, and West Africa. Most of the 

drugs originated with the FARC in Colombia, and some of the proceeds were traced to Lebanese expatriate networks funding 

Hezbollah directly. Other cases are cited in my testimony. 

As cocaine trafficking shifts significantly to transit—— 

Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Farah, could you do your best to try to—— 

Mr. FARAH. Yes. 

Hezbollah’s presence in Latin America is growing, and the organization remains the premier terrorist organization in the world. 

The core shared belief of these varied actors is that the United 

States is the primary enemy that needs to be destroyed, that WMD 

is a legitimate option to achieve that end, that the Iranian Revolution offers a model for defeating the United States, and the ability 

to wage sophisticated asymmetrical warfare is the key to their future. Because of that, I believe it is a real and growing threat in 

the hemisphere. 

Thank you. 

[The statement of Mr. Farah follows:] 
15 

1 Rep. Sue Myrick, ‘‘Myrick calls for Taskforce to Investigate Presence of Hezbollah on the 

U.S. Southern Border, June 23, 2010, http://myrick.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=22- 

&itemid=558. 2Statement of Anthony P. Placido, deputy administrator for intelligence, Drug Enforcement 

Administration, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National 

Security and Foreign Affairs, March 3, 2010. 3 ‘‘Chair’s Report: Transpacific Symposium on Dismantling Transnational Illicit Networks,’’ 

Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, and Department of Homeland Security U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, February 2010, 

p. 3. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF DOUGLAS FARAH

JULY 7, 2011 

Chairman Meehan, Ranking Member Speier, and Members of the subcommittee, 

thank you for the opportunity to testify here today on a significant and growing 

threat to U.S. security in the Western Hemisphere: The presence of Hezbollah and 

its primary sponsor, the government of Iran, with its full arsenal of intelligence and 

specialized military units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the 

Qods Force. The threat is not limited to the region and the homeland alone, but 

more broadly its aims include an ability to hold the United States at risk in terms 

of exercising options in other theatres, most specifically with respect to Iran, Syria, 

and the Middle East, including Israel. 

In order to understand the threat Hezbollah poses it is important to understand 

the regional context in which the group’s presence is growing. Its chief state sponsors—Iran and Syria who also are designated state sponsors of terrorism—are more 

than a decade into developing a range of close ties to criminalizing states in Latin 

America which also support violent criminal and terrorist groups. 

In addition to its growing presence in Latin America, Hezbollah has a long-standing smuggling network in West Africa, traditionally used for moving contraband diamonds and other commodities and now involved in the trafficking of cocaine from 

Latin America to Europe. It also has an established presence in the United States 

and Canada, as the committee, intelligence, and law enforcement communities 

know. 

There is growing concern that Hezbollah is providing technology for the increasingly sophisticated narco tunnels now being found along the U.S.-Mexican border, 

which strongly resemble the types used by Hezbollah in Lebanon. Numerous former 

intelligence and law enforcement officials have publicly discussed the appearance in 

recent years of arrested gang members entering the United States with Farsi tattoos and other goods that could indicate a Hezbollah influence.1

As a senior DEA official recently noted, ‘‘There are numerous reports of cocaine 

proceeds entering the coffers of Islamic Radical Groups (IRG) such as Hezbollah and 

Hamas in Europe and the Middle East. The danger of DTO’s and IRG’s profiting 

from the lucrative cocaine trade can lead to an unlimited source of cheap and easy 

revenue to carry out potential terrorist acts.’’2

The threat therefore is neither remote, discontinuous nor contained, nor is it as 

well understood as it should be. This—and the overall criminal/terrorist/compromised state challenge of which it is a part—requires more integrated analytical, 

intelligence, diplomatic, and security approaches driven by a strategic assessment 

of the threat. 

As a joint DHS and State Department symposium concluded: 

‘‘The confluence of illicit networks and corruption in an enabling environment could 

facilitate not only the movement of drugs, arms, stolen or pirated goods, and trafficked persons, but also smuggling of terrorists, weapons of mass destruction 

(WMDs), WMD materials, and other dangerous weapons and technologies that 

threaten global security. This trend is particularly powerful when taken in concert 

with the increasingly blurred line between certain terror groups and the criminal 

activities that fund them. For instance, organizations such as Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, 

the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Taliban, the Kurdistan 

Worker’s Party (PKK), have been known to engage in criminal enterprises for profit 

or to advance a terror agenda.’’3

A strategy considering all aspects as part of a whole, rather than separated into 

lanes such as terrorism, narcotics, WMD, threat finance, human and contraband 

smuggling, energy, state corruption, and others, is necessary. 

Over the past 2 years or so, ranking U.S. military and law enforcement leadership 

have begun to articulate this complex threat, and the need for a more comprehensive approach, implicitly one adequately resourced and comprising all elements of 
16 

U.S. power—diplomatic, informational, military, and economic. The failure to so engage will negatively affect the United States in each of those dimensions. It will undercut a mainstay pillar of our security, reverse the democratic and economic gains 

of the 1980s and 1990s Latin America democratization which we did so much to enable and significant cost, and it ultimately will cost U.S. lives, including possibly 

terrorist attacks. 

UNDERSTANDING THE ACTORS, RELATIONSHIPS, AND PIPELINES

As my submitted CV indicates, I was born of U.S. missionary parents in Latin 

America, and have worked there as an investigative journalist, as a subject matter 

expert, and an advisor and trainer on democratic governance and anti-corruption 

issues for some 30 years. I bring broad cultural, historical, and operational understanding and strong networks across the political spectrum, from guerilla leaders 

to Ministers of Justice. With this background, I must state that my fieldwork in 

many different parts of Latin America over the past 3 years clearly established that 

Hezbollah has developed a significant presence in the region, augmented by thousands of sympathizers who contribute monetary and non-monetary resources to the 

organization. 

This presence has grown in scope and sophistication over the past years as Iran’s 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has successfully built close alliances with several governments in Latin America, led by Hugo Cha ́vez in Venezuela. These alliances afford 

Iran and its proxy elements state cover and effective immunity for its covert activities. This includes: Unfettered access to global banking facilities, ports, and airports; 

mining of precursor elements for WMD and advanced weapons systems fabrication; 

and, a regional base for infiltration and contingency operations aimed at undermining the United States and its interests, while also abetting corruption and the 

notable build-up in conventional arms manufacturing. 

These corrosive activities, taken together, are accelerating the weakening of 

states—hollowing-out of many of the first-generation democracies and their constitutional and civil society processes, and setting a predicate for a reassertion of authoritarian rule and ruin in these states and their neighbors. These states’ survival and 

growth are critical to long-term regional and U.S. security. 

Concurrently we see the further empowerment, training, and technological support of the oppressive security apparatuses in the increasingly undemocratic 

Bolivarian states provided by the Iran-Hezbollah-ICRG/Qods forces combine. Other 

outside powers, notably China and Russia further compound these problems (as 

might, in the future, the still-nascent presence of radical Sunni groups related to 

the Muslim Brotherhood). However Iran, Hezbollah, and the ICRG/Qods forces are 

the sharpest edge of this sword at present, and the one most openly aimed at the 

United States, and least tractable to diplomacy. 

All of this comes at the expense of U.S. influence, security, and trade—including 

energy security and hence economic and infrastructure security (Venezuela is the 

4th-largest supplier of U.S. petroleum imports, just behind Mexico; indeed Latin 

America is our 2nd-largest source of supply overall, only slightly behind the Middle 

East). While this hearing focuses on Hezbollah, the non-state, armed branch of radical Shi’ite Islamists, one cannot ignore the direct relationship of this organization 

to state sponsors. As the DIA noted last year: 

‘‘The Qods Force stations operatives in foreign embassies, charities, and religious/ 

cultural institutions to foster relationships with people, often building on existing 

socio-economic ties with the well established Shia diaspora. At the same time, it engages in paramilitary operations to support extremists and destabilize unfriendly regimes. The IRGC and Qods Force are behind some of the deadliest terrorist attacks 

of the past three decades, including the 1983 and 1984 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and annex in Beirut, the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, the 

1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, the 1996 

Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, and many of the insurgent attacks on Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces in Iraq since 2003. Generally, it directs and supports groups actually executing the attacks, thereby maintaining plausible 

deniability within the international community. 

‘‘Support for these extremists takes the form of providing arms, funding, and paramilitary training. In this, Qods Force is not constrained by ideology; many of the 

groups it supports do not share, and sometimes openly oppose, Iranian revolutionary 

principles, but Iran supports them because of common interests or enemies. 

‘‘The Qods Force maintains operational capabilities around the world. It is well established in the Middle East and North Africa, and recent years have witnessed an 

increased presence in Latin America, particularly in Venezuela [author emphasis]. 

As U.S. involvement in global conflicts deepens, contact with the Qods Force, di-
17 

4Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess, Jr., Director, Defense Intelligence Agency, ‘‘Iran’s Military 

Power,’’ Statement before the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services, April 14, 

2010. 5 ‘‘Top-ranking member of Colombian FARC Narco-Terrorist Organization Convicted on U.S. 

Drug Charges, Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Justice, February 20, 2007. 

The DEA describes the FARC as a violent narco-terrorist guerrilla group operating in Colombia, 

controls large portions of Colombia and finances its violent conflict with the Colombian government by engaging in drug trafficking, augmented by other means including kidnapping and extortion. Drug trafficking is the lifeblood of the FARC because it enables the FARC to acquire 

weapons, ammunition, and equipment necessary to carry on its violent attacks. DEA estimates 

that the FARC controls approximately 70 percent of the Colombian cocaine trade, and approximately 80 to 90 percent of the cocaine shipped to the United States comes from Colombia. The 

FARC produces and distributes thousands of kilograms per month for export to the United 

States and other countries. 6 Anthony H. Cordesman, ‘‘Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the al Quds Force, and other Intelligence and Paramilitary Forces (Working Draft),’’ Center for Strategic and International Studies, August 16, 2007. 7See for example: Jay Solomon, ‘‘Iran Funnels New Weapons to Iraq and Afghanistan,’’ Wall 

Street Journal, July 2, 2011, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527023037634045- 

76420080640167182.html?KEYWORDS=iran+weapons. 

rectly or through extremist groups it supports, will be more frequent and consequential.’’4

It is within this context of the merging of state and non-state armed actors that 

I would like to address the issue of Hezbollah in Latin America and the threat the 

organization poses to the U.S. Homeland. Hezbollah’s growing presence is a significant part of a larger and more dangerous pattern of the criminalization of the selfdescribed ‘‘Bolivarian’’ states in Latin America closely allied with Iran. These countries, in turn, support another designated terrorist organization that produces an estimated 70 percent of the world’s cocaine and up to 90 percent of cocaine in the 

United States—The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas 

Revolucionarias de Colombia—FARC).5

The relationship between these ‘‘Bolivarian states’’ (Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, 

and Nicaragua) and Iran is crucial to understanding the threat that Hezbollah in 

Latin America poses. This relationship, among groups espousing and actively pursuing seemingly irreconcilable world views—theocratic Shiite Muslim fundamentalism and Socialism for the 21st Century—is bound by a common aim of the asymmetric defeat of the United States, and a shared view in favor of an authoritarian 

state that tolerates little dissent and encroaches on all aspects of a citizen’s life. 

This constitutes a core element of the threat. 

Hezbollah’s influence in Latin America extends to the nature of aggression and 

diplomacy employed by Cha ́vez and his Bolivarian comrades. Iran and Hezbollah 

are among the foremost practitioners today of the franchising model of a state sponsor allocating certain elements of statecraft to non-state armed actors involved in 

transnational organized crime and terrorist activities. 

As one study noted, 

‘‘The Quds are also believed to play a continuing role in training, arming, and funding Hezbollah in Lebanon and to have begun to support Shi’ite militia and Taliban 

activities in Afghanistan... The Quds has offices or ‘sections’ in many Iranian 

embassies, which are closed to most embassy staff. It is not clear whether these are 

integrated with Iranian intelligence operations or if the ambassador in each embassy has control of, or detailed knowledge of, operations by the Quds staff. However, there are indications that most operations are coordinated between the IRGC 

and offices within the Iranian Foreign Ministry and MOIS.’’6

Recent headlines reaffirm that such Iranian proxy arming is a growing source of 

lethal attacks against the United States in both Iraq and Afghanistan presently 

with the new weapons shipments leading directly to the deaths of American troops.7

The nature of the threat to the United States, then, is not merely the drugs in 

the criminal pipelines and multiple transnational criminal activities that directly affect us every day. It is the establishment of political and financial influence and 

military presence by Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that enjoys the state sponsorship of Iran and, to a lesser degree, Syria, in concert with states that are hospitable to its movements and that are replicating its model, particularly south of 

our border. 

A central common element between Iran and its Bolivarian allies is the willingness to use non-state allies participating in criminal and terrorist activities as instruments of statecraft. As the DIA noted, the Qods Force supports proxy forces 

while retaining plausible deniability, and the primary force is Hezbollah. Venezuela, 

in turn, also hosts not only the FARC, but the ETA Basque separatist terrorist orga-
18 

8For a fuller discussion of the criminalization of these states and the role of non-state armed 

actors see: Douglas Farah, ‘‘Terrorist-Criminal Pipelines and Criminalized States: Emerging 

Threats,’’ PRISM, National Defense University, PRISM 2, no. 3, pp 15–32. 9Frank Lo ́pez Ballesteros, ‘‘Venezuela e Ira ́n unen su vision sobre terrorismo,’’ El Universal, 

June 27, 2011, accessed at: http://internacional.eluniversal.com/2011/06/27/venezuela-e-iranunen-su-vision-sobre-terrorismo.shtml. 

nization, the Bolivarian Continental Movement (Movimiento Continental 

Bolivariano—MCB). 

The MCB is a FARC-founded political umbrella group made up of remnants of 

Latin America’s violent Marxist movements and its allies in Europe, the United 

States, and Latin America. The core mission of the group is to legitimize the FARC’s 

internal and international image as a revolutionary army driven by ideology rather 

than a criminal organization fuelled by the drug trade. It also is a staunch defender 

of Cha ́vez and his Bolivarian allies and a favorite forum for calling for armed action 

against the United States and for armed revolution against the democratically elected government of Colombia. 

One thing both Hezbollah and the FARC have is common is a demonstrated willingness to work with outside groups that do not share their same ideology or theology, but who share a common enemy. 

An important element in the criminalized relationships among all these groups 

are the ‘‘pipelines’’ or series of overlapping pipelines that these state and non-state 

actors need to move products, money, weapons, personnel, and goods virtually anywhere and at anytime, without detection and for enormous profits.8

These pipelines are perhaps best understood as a series of recombinant chains 

whose links can couple and de-couple as necessary to meet the best interests of the 

networks involved. In the current context I am discussing state and non-state criminal/terrorist organizations who are able to move goods from Iran across the northern 

tier of South America, through Central America and Mexico and penetrate our borders with impunity. 

The criminalization of multiple states in our hemisphere, acting in concert, is a 

threat across many obvious and less obvious fronts. But the seriousness of the 

threat grows enormously when the central element these governments and their 

armed non-state proxies Hezbollah and the FARC share is a hatred for the United 

States and a publicly stated desire to inflict significant damage on the homeland. 

This is the reality we face. These groups together, as have access to hundreds of 

millions of dollars in illicit revenues annually, and billions of dollars more in state 

revenues that are allocated without transparency or internal supervision and accountability in respect of their nominally democratic host polities. 

As I will describe in detail, they share a doctrine of asymmetrical warfare against 

the United States that embraces the use of weapons of mass destruction, massive 

civilian casualties as acceptable collateral damage and the underlying belief that the 

acquisition of nuclear weapons to destroy the United States is a moral or religious 

imperative. This is not a statement of capacity, but a clear statement of intention. 

The first does not necessarily imply the ability to accomplish the latter, but it is 

an indication that these intentions need to be taken seriously, particularly given the 

level of resources available to them. Hezbollah, viewed by many in our intelligence 

community as the most effective, well-structured, and militarily proficient terrorist 

group in existence, brings a host of skills and abilities to bear in this regard. While 

these capabilities had been deployed in our hemisphere before with lethal effect (the 

1994 AMIA bombing), they have not been previously deployed under the protection 

of a network of friendly governments, with access to diplomatic status and immunity and operational freedom. 

Last month a senior Venezuelan official publicly endorsed the Iranian position 

that the United States ‘‘arms international terrorists and finances their activities.’’ 

He added that ‘‘discrimination and humiliation of nations is the primary cause of 

terrorism... the type of terrorism implemented by imperial powers attacks the 

sovereignty of nations and the laws that regulate armed conflicts.’’9

One need only look at how rapidly Iran has increased its diplomatic, economic, 

and intelligence presence in Latin America to see the priority it places on this 

emerging axis, given that it is an area where it has virtually no trade, no historic 

or cultural ties and no obvious strategic interests. In Bolivia recently the Iranian 

embassy reportedly asked for more than two dozen spaces for in the international 

school for children of their newly-arrived diplomats there. This is an indication of 

how rapidly the diplomatic mission is expanding despite having very few overt operations under way. 

The gains—in financial institutions, bilateral trade agreements, state-to-state 

shipping by land and sea that undergo no outside review, security forces and intel-
19 

10For a more complete look at Iran’s presence in Latin America, see: Douglas Farah, ‘‘Iran 

in Latin America: An Overview,’’ Iran in Latin America: Threat or Axis of Annoyance, Woodrow 

Wilson International Center for Scholars, Cynthia J. Arnson et al, editors, June 2009, accessed 

January 21, 2011, at: http://www.douglasfarah.com/pdfs/20090620lDFIraninLatAmJune2009-1.pdf For a look at the anomalies in the economic relations and banking relations, 

see Douglas Farah and Glenn Simpson, ‘‘Ecuador at Risk: Drug, Thugs, Guerrillas and the ‘Citizens’ Revolution,’ ’’ International Assessment and Strategy Center, January 2010. The EDBI was 

sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for violating 

sanctions in regards to nuclear proliferation activities and aiding the IRGC. 11 United States Department of Treasury, ‘‘Export Development Bank of Iran Designated as 

a Proliferator,’’ Press office of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, October 22, 2008. OFAC also 

designated a sister bank of EDBI operating in Venezuela as the Banco Internacional de 

Desarrollo (BID). In the MOU between Ecuador’s central bank and EDBI, the EDBI offers to 

open a branch office of BID in Ecuador as well. 12 ‘‘Venezuela/Iran Alba Resolved to Continue Economic Ties with Iran,’’ Financial Times Information Service, July 15, 2010. 

ligence training, and state visits for Latin America (eight state visits between 

Cha ́vez and Ahmadinejad alone since 2006)—are almost entirely within the 

Bolivarian orbit (although there are signs of involvement elsewhere in both Central 

and Latin America, particularly efforts with mixed results to establish broad new 

ties with Brazil). 

What is of particular concern is that many of the agreements signed, such as the 

agreement to create a dedicated shipping line between Iran and Ecuador, visa-free 

flights to and from Caracas, Tehran, and Damascus, or the announced intention of 

the internationally sanctioned Economic Development Bank of Iran (EDBI) to deposit $120 million dollars in the Central Bank of Ecuador, follow no normal economic rationale.10

The OFAC designation of the Iranian bank states that: 

‘‘EDBI provides financial services to multiple MODAFL-subordinate entities that 

permit these entities to advance Iran’s WMD programs. Furthermore, the EDBI has 

facilitated the on-going procurement activities of various front companies associated 

with MODAFL-subordinate entities. Since the United States and United Nations 

designated Bank Sepah in early 2007, the EDBI has served as one of the leading 

intermediaries handling Bank Sepah’s financing, including WMD-related payments. 

In addition to handling business for Bank Sepah, the EDBI has facilitated financing 

for other proliferation-related entities sanctioned under U.S. and U.N. authorities.’’11

The Bolivarian states have jointly declared their intention to help Iran break 

international sanctions, holding a joint press conference in Tehran to announce their 

determination to ‘‘continue and expand their economic ties to Iran’’ with confidence 

that ‘‘Iran can give a crushing response to the threats and sanctions imposed by the 

West and imperialism.’’12—by which they primarily mean the United States. 

The multiple mining activities of radioactive elements, the significant investment 

in financial institutions, the recruitment and training of personnel from across the 

region by both Venezuela and Iran, and the constant high-level contact among the 

Bolivarian leaders and Iran all indicate a desire on the part of both parties (Iran 

and the Bolivarian states) to form a mutually beneficial and self-reinforcing alliance. 

As noted above, of particular concern are the credible reports of on-going and extensive Iranian training and equipping of the intelligence services of the Boliviarian 

states, particularly Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador. This includes both equipment, 

primarily for communications intercepts, and training trips of Bolivarian state officials and military-age youth cadres to Iran. 

It is also notable that in Bolivia and Ecuador, knowledgeable sources reported a 

significant increase in the Iranian military attache ́s being assigned to the region. 

This is unusual as the countries have traditionally have had little military interaction, and an indication of the increasing military-to-military ties that are developing. It is also worth noting that Hezbollah’s entre into countries is often through 

the offices of the military attaches under diplomatic cover, who often operate as a 

separate entity within the embassies. 

THE CHANGING NATURE OF THE TIES

Before going into the origins of this seemingly paradoxical alliance, it is important 

to note that the relationships Hezbollah has developed with criminal and terrorist 

groups in Latin America has escalated from one of mutual accommodation and benefit in the spheres of money laundering, contraband, and financing to a more direct 

and deadly forms of collaboration. 
20 

13While much of Operation Titan remains classified, there has been significant open source 

reporting, in part because the Colombian government announced the most important arrests. 

See: Chris Kraul and Sebastian Rotella, ‘‘Colombian Cocaine Ring Linked to Hezbollah,’’ Los Angeles Times, Oct. 22, 2008; and ‘‘Por Lavar Activos de Narcos y Paramilitares, Capturados 

Integrantes de Organizacio ́n Internacional,’’ Fiscalı ́a General de la Republica (Colombia), Oct. 

21, 2008. 14 ‘‘Treasury Targets Hizbullah in Venezuela,’’ United States Department of Treasury Press 

Center, June 18, 2008, http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/hp1036.aspx. 15Orlando Cuales, ‘‘17 arrested in Curacao on suspicion of drug trafficking links with 

Hezbollah,’’ Associated Press, April 29, 2009. 16 United States District Court, Southern District of New York, The United States of America 

v Jamal Yousef, Indictment, July 6, 2009. 

There has been significant and well documented reporting on Hezbollah’s financial 

ties to the contraband center of the Tri-Border region of Paraguay, Argentina, and 

Brazil, the contributions of the Lebanese diaspora communities on Isla Margarita 

and elsewhere, and the significant profits Hezbollah has derived for some time by 

taxing a range of illicit activities among the Lebanese diaspora communities. 

This type of activity, in many ways, was little different from that of many other 

transnational criminal networks, and was largely financial. However, the 1994 Iranian government-sponsored bombing of the AMIA building in Buenos Aires, Argentina, using Hezbollah operatives in the Tri-Border region, is a powerful reminder 

that these groups can and do operate militarily in Latin America. 

There is now-growing evidence of the merging of the Bolivarian Revolution’s 

criminal-terrorist pipeline activities and those of the criminal-terrorist pipeline of 

radical Islamist groups (Hezbollah in particular) supported by the Iranian regime, 

This presages a series of new security challenges for the United States and its allies 

in Latin America. 

Currently there are cases being prosecuted in the United States that shed new 

light on direct cocaine-for-weapons deals between Hezbollah operatives and the 

FARC. 

One case that illustrates the breadth of the emerging alliances between criminal 

and terrorist groups is Operation Titan, executed by Colombian and U.S. officials 

in 2008 and still on-going. Colombian and U.S. officials, after a 2-year investigation, 

dismantled a drug trafficking organization that stretched from Colombia to Panama, 

Mexico, the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Most of the drugs originated with the FARC in Colombia, and some of the proceeds were traced through 

a Lebanese expatriate network, to the funding Hezbollah.13

Colombian and U.S. officials allege that one of the key money launderers in the 

structure, Chekry Harb, AKA ‘‘Taliban’’, acted as the central go-between among 

Latin American drug trafficking organizations and Middle Eastern radical groups, 

primarily Hezbollah. Among the groups participating together in Harb’s operation 

in Colombia were members of the Northern Valley Cartel, right-wing paramilitary 

groups and the FARC, demonstrating the ecumenical adaptive nature of Hezbollah’s 

criminal associations and of the ‘‘recombinant networks’’ system. 

Other recent cases include: 

• In 2008, OFAC-designated senior Venezuelan diplomats for facilitating the 

funding of Hezbollah. 

One of those designated, Ghazi Nasr al Din, served as the charge d’affaires of 

the Venezuelan embassy in Damascus, and then served in the Venezuelan embassy in London. According to the OFAC statement in late January 2008, al Din 

facilitated the travel of two Hezbollah representatives of the Lebanese parliament to solicit donations and announce the opening of a Hezbollah-sponsored 

community center and office in Venezuela. 

The second individual, Fawzi Kan’an, is described as a Venezuela-based 

Hezbollah supporter and a ‘‘significant provider of financial support to 

Hezbollah.’’ He met with senior Hezbollah officials in Lebanon to discuss operational issues, including possible kidnappings and terrorist attacks.14

• In April 2009 police on the island of Curacao arrested 17 people for alleged involvement in cocaine trafficking with some of the proceeds then funneled 

through Middle Eastern banks to Hezbollah.15

• A July 6, 2009 indictment of Jamal Youssef in the U.S. Southern District of 

New York alleges that the defendant, a former Syrian military officer arrested 

in Honduras, sought to sell weapons to the FARC—weapons he claimed came 

from Hezbollah, and were going to be provided by a relative in Mexico.16

Such relationships between non-state and state actors provide numerous benefits 

to both. In Latin America, for example, the FARC and its non-state allies such as 

ETA, remnants of the Irish Republican Army and others gain access to Venezuelan 

territory without fear of reprisals, gain access to Venezuelan identification docu-
21 

17For a look at how the Ecuadoran and Venezuelan banks function as proxies for Iran, particularly the Economic Development Bank of Iran, sanctioned for its illegal support of Iran’s nuclear program, and the Banco Internacional de Desarrollo, see: Farah and Simpson, op cit. 18Office of the Spokesman, ‘‘Seven Companies Sanctioned Under Amended Iran Sanctions 

Act,’’ U.S. Department of State, May 24, 2011, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/05/ 

164132.htm. 19 Among those designated were Hugo Armando Carvaja ́l, director of Venezuela’s Military Intelligence Directorate for his ‘‘assistance to the FARC, (including) protecting drug shipments 

from seizure’’; Henry de Jesus Range ́l Silva, director of Venezuela’s Directorate of Intelligence 

and Prevention Services for ‘‘materially assisting the narcotics activities of the FARC’’; and 

Ramo ́n Emilio Rodriguez Chacı ́n, at the time Venezuela’s minister of interior and justice, described as ‘‘the Venezuelan government’s main weapons contact for the FARC.’’ See the full designation at: http://treas.tpaq.treasury.gov/press/releases/hp1132.htm. 20 ‘‘Treasury Targets Venezuelan Government Officials Support of the FARC,’’ U.S. Treasury 

Department Office of Public Affairs, Sept. 12, 2008. The designations came on the heels of the 

decision of the Bolivian government of Evo Morales to expel the U.S. ambassador, allegedly for 

supporting armed movements against the Morales government. In solidarity, Cha ́vez then expelled the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela. In addition to the designations of the Venezuelan officials, the United States also expelled the Venezuelan and Bolivian ambassadors to Washington. 21 ‘‘Chave ́z Shores up Military Support,’’ Stratfor, November 12, 2010. 22For a more complete look at the documentation of the Correa and Chave ́z ties to the FARC 

see: ‘‘The FARC Files: Venezuela, Ecuador and the Secret Archive of ‘Raul Reyes,’ ’’ International 

Institute for Strategic Studies, May 2011, http://www.iiss.org/publications/strategic-dossiers/ 

the-farc-files-venezuela-ecuador-and-the-secret-archive-of-ral-reyes/; Farah and Simpson, op cit.; 

Francisco Huerta Montalvo et al, ‘‘Informe Comisio ́n de Transparencia y Verdad: Caso Angostura,’’ December 10, 2009. 23For details see: Douglas Farah, ‘‘Into the Abyss: Bolivia Under Evo Morales and the MAS,’’ 

International Assessment and Strategy Center, June 17, 2009, http://www.strategycenter.net/ 

research/pubID.200/publdetail.asp. 

ments, and, perhaps most importantly, access to routes for exporting cocaine to Europe and the United States while using the same routes to import quantities of sophisticated weapons and communications equipment. In return, the Cha ́vez government offers state protection and reaps rewards in the form of financial benefits for 

individuals and as institutional and materiel benefits derived from the cocaine and 

contraband trade. 

Iran, whose banks are largely barred from the Western financial systems, benefits 

from access to the international financial market through Venezuelan, Ecuadoran, 

and Bolivian financial institutions, which act as proxies by moving Iranian money 

as if it originated in their own, unsanctioned financial systems.17 Venezuela also 

agreed to provide Iran with 20,000 barrels of gasoline a day—leading to U.S. sanctions against the state petroleum company PDVSA earlier this year.18

While the ties between Iran and Hezbollah are generally accepted, there is a reluctance in some parts of the policy community to acknowledge the similar type of 

relationship that Venezuela and other Bolivarian states have with the FARC. 

There is abundant evidence establishing Cha ́vez’s direct and personal involvement 

with the FARC, along with senior military and political officials, I will list only 

some of them. 

OFAC has designated numerous senior Venezuelan officials, including the heads 

of two national intelligence services, as terrorist supporters for direct support of the 

FARC in the acquisition of weapons and drug trafficking.19 Among those designated 

are Hugo Armando Carvaja ́l, director of Venezuelan Military Intelligence; Henry de 

Jesus Range ́l, director of the Venezuelan Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention 

Services; and Ramo ́n Emilio Rodriguez Chaco ́n, former minister of justice and 

former minister of interior—were responsible for ‘‘materially supporting the FARC, 

a narco-terrorist organization.’’ 

The designation statement accused Carvaja ́l and Range ́l of protecting FARC cocaine shipments moving through Venezuela, and said Rodriguez Chacı ́n, who resigned his government position just a few days before the designations, was the 

‘‘Venezuelan government’s main weapons contact for the FARC.’’20 In November 

2010 Rangel was promoted to the overall commander of the Venezuelan armed 

forces.21

Senior officials in Ecuador and Bolivia have also been publicly tied both to the 

FARC and the FARC’s drug trafficking activities. In Ecuador, a senior cabinet official met repeatedly with FARC leaders and there is strong evidence that the Correa 

campaign received several hundred thousand dollars in donations from the FARC.22

In Bolivia, senior members of president Evo Morales’ MAS party have worked closely with the FARC,23 and a senior police commander who ran the elite counter-nar-
22 

24Martin Arostegui, ‘‘Drug Scandal Shakes Bolivia,’’ Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2011. 25 ‘‘ ‘Jackal’ book praises bin Laden,’’ BBC News, June 26, 2003. 26See, for example: Associated Press, ‘‘Cha ́vez: ‘Carlos the Jackal’ a ‘Good Friend’ ’’ June 3, 

2006. 27Paul Reyes (translator) and Hugo Cha ́vez, ‘‘My Struggle,’’ from a March 23, 1999 letter to 

Illich Ramirez Sa ́nchez, the Venezuelan terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal, from Venezuelan 

president Hugo Cha ́vez in response to a previous letter from Ramirez, who is serving a life sentence in France for murder. Harper’s, October 1999, http://harpers.org/archive/1999/10/ 

0060674. 

cotics unit was recently arrested for trafficking cocaine and extradited to the United 

States.24

THE ORIGINS OF THE IDEOLOGICAL KINSHIP

As noted, the Cha ́vez model of allying with state sponsors of terrorism such as 

Iran while sponsoring violent non-state terrorist organizations involved in criminal 

activities and terrorism strongly resembles the template used by Hezbollah and 

Iran. 

In order to understand the relationship, it is important to understand the thinking of two significant ideological influences in the world of Hugo Cha ́vez about what 

they view as the seminal event in goal of destroying the United States. That event 

was the 1979 Iranian Revolution. 

While Iran’s revolutionary rulers view the 1979 revolution in theological terms as 

a miracle of divine intervention in which the United States, as the Great Satan was 

defeated, the Boliviarians view it from a secular point of view as roadmap to defeat 

the United State as the evil Empire. 

Among the first to articulate the possible merging of radical Shi’ite Islamic 

thought with Marxist aspirations of destroying capitalism and U.S. hegemony was 

Illich Sa ́nchez Ramirez, better known as the terrorist leader Carlos the Jackal, a 

Venezuelan citizen who was, until his arrest in 1994, one of the world’s most-wanted terrorists. In his writings, Sa ́nchez Ramirez espouses Marxism tied to revolutionary, violent Palestinian uprisings, and, in the early 2000s after becoming a Muslim, militant Islamism. 

In his 2003 book Revolutionary Islam, written from prison where he is serving a 

life sentence for killing two French policemen, Sa ́nchez Ramirez praises Osama bin 

Laden and the 9/11 attacks on the United States as a ‘‘lofty feat of arms’’ and part 

of a justified ‘‘armed struggle’’ of Islam against the West. ‘‘From now on terrorism 

is going to be more or less a daily part of the landscape of your rotting democracies,’’ 

he wrote.25

In this context, the repeated, public praise of Cha ́vez for Sa ́nchez Ramirez can be 

seen as a crucial element of the Bolivarian ideology, and an embracing of terrorist 

tactics to achieve justifiable ends. Cha ́vez ordered his ambassador to France to seek 

the release of Sa ́nchez Ramirez and on multiple occasions, including many times 

after 9/11, referred to the convicted terrorist as a ‘‘friend’’ and ‘‘true revolutionary.’’26 In a 1999 letter to Sa ́nchez Ramirez, Cha ́vez greeted the terrorist as a 

‘‘Distinguished Compatriot’’ and wrote that 

‘‘Swimming in the depths of your letter of solidarity I could hear the pulse of our 

shared insight that everything has its due time: time to pile up stones or hurl them, 

to ignite revolution or to ignore it; to pursue dialectically a unity between our warring classes or to stir the conflict between them—a time when you can fight outright 

for principles and a time when you must choose the proper fight, lying in wait with 

a keen sense for the moment of truth, in the same way that Ariadne, invested with 

these same principles, lays the thread that leads her out of the labyrinth...

‘‘I feel that my spirit’s own strength will always rise to the magnitude of the dangers that threaten it. My doctor has told me that my spirit must nourish itself on 

danger to preserve my sanity, in the manner that God intended, with this stormy 

revolution to guide me in my great destiny. 

‘‘With profound faith in our cause and our mission, now and forever!’’27

In fact, the Bolivarian fascination with the militant Islamist thought and Marxism did not end with the friendship between Cha ́vez and the jailed terrorist. Acolytes of Sa ́nchez Ramirez continued to develop his ideology of Marxism and radical 

Islamism rooted in their interpretation of the Iranian revolution. 

Since 2005, Cha ́vez has rewritten Venezuela’s security doctrine to scrub it of all 

outside (meaning U.S.), ‘‘imperialist’’ influences. To replace the old doctrine, Cha ́vez 

and the Venezuelan military leadership have focused on developing a doctrine centered on asymmetrical warfare, in the belief that the primary threat to Venezuelan 

security is a U.S. invasion. 
23 

28 In addition to Operation Titan there have been numerous incidents in the past 18 months 

of operatives being directly linked to Hezbollah have been identified or arrested in Venezuela, 

Colombia, Guatemala, Aruba, and elsewhere in Latin America. 29 Verstrynge, born in Morocco to Belgian and Spanish parents, began his political career on 

the far right of the Spanish political spectrum as a disciple of Manuel Fraga, and served in several senior party posts with the Alianza Popular. By his own admission he then migrated to 

the Socialist Party, but never rose through the ranks. He is widely associated with radical antiglobalization views and anti-U.S. rhetoric, repeatedly stating that the United States is creating 

a new global empire and must be defeated. Although he has no military training or experience, 

he has written extensively on asymmetrical warfare. 30 Verstrynge, op cit., pp. 56–57. 

The emerging military doctrine of the ‘‘Bolivarian Revolution,’’ officially adopted 

in Venezuela and rapidly spreading to Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador, explicitly 

embraces the radical Islamist model of asymmetrical or ‘‘fourth generation warfare,’’ 

and its heavy reliance on suicide bombings and different types of terrorism, including the use of nuclear weapons. This is occurring at a time when Hezbollah’s presence in Latin America is growing and becoming more identifiable.28

The main book Cha ́vez has adopted as his military doctrine is Peripheral Warfare 

and Revolutionary Islam: Origins, Rules, and Ethics of Asymmetrical Warfare 

(Guerra Perife ́rica y el Islam Revolucionario: Orı ́genes, Reglas y E ́ tica de la Guerra 

Asime ́trica) by the Spanish politician and ideologue Jorge Verstrynge.29 The tract 

is a continuation of and exploration of Sa ́nchez Ramirez’s thoughts, incorporating 

an explicit endorsement of the use of weapons of mass destruction to destroy the 

United States. 

Although he is not a Muslim and the book was not written directly in relation 

to the Venezuelan experience, Verstrynge lauds radical Islam for helping to expand 

the parameters of what irregular warfare should encompass, including the use of 

biological and nuclear weapons, along with the correlated civilian casualties among 

the enemy. 

Central to Verstrynge’s idealized view of terrorists is the belief in the sacredness 

of the willingness of the fighters to sacrifice their lives in pursuit of their goals. Before writing extensively on how to make chemical weapons and listing helpful places 

to find information on the manufacture of rudimentary nuclear bombs that ‘‘someone with a high school education could make,’’ Verstrynge writes: 

‘‘We already know it is incorrect to limit asymmetrical warfare to guerrilla warfare, 

although it is important. However, it is not a mistake to also use things that are 

classified as terrorism and use them in asymmetrical warfare. And we have super 

terrorism, divided into chemical terrorism, bioterrorism (which uses biological and 

bacteriological methods), and nuclear terrorism, which means ‘the type of terrorism 

uses the threat of nuclear attack to achieve its goals.’ ’’30

In a December 12, 2008 interview with Venezuelan state television, Verstrynge 

lauded Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda for creating a new type of warfare that is 
24 

31 Bartolome ́, op cit. See also: John Sweeny, ‘‘Jorge Verstrynge: The Guru of Bolivarian Asymmetric Warfare,’’ www.vcrisis.com, Sept. 9, 2005; and ‘‘Troops Get Provocative Book,’’ Miami 

Herald, Nov. 11, 2005. 32For a more complete discussion of how Verstrynge’s concepts fit into Cha ́vez’s concept of 

the Bolivarian revolution see: Maria ́no Ce ́sar Bartolome ́, ‘‘Las Guerras Asime ́tricas y de Cuarta 

Generacio ́n Dentro Del Pensamiento Venezolano en Materia de Seguridad y Defensa,’’ (Asymmetrical and Fourth Generation Warfare In Venezuelan Security and Defense Thinking), Military Review, January–February 2008, pp. 51–62. 33 ‘‘Turkey holds suspicious Iran-Venezuela shipment,’’ Associated Press, June 1, 2009. http:// 

www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3651706,00.html. 34For a more complete look at this trend see: Douglas Farah, ‘‘Confronting Drug Trafficking 

in West Africa,’’ Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on African Affairs, June 23, 2009. 35See Farah, PRISM, op cit; and Benjamin Weiser and William K. Rashbaum, ‘‘Liberian Officials Worked with U.S. Agency to Block Drug Traffic,’’ The New York Times, June 2, 2010. 36 Among the largest was the May 1, 2007 seizure of 630 kilograms of cocaine aboard a Cessna 

aircraft in Nouhabidou, Mauritania. The airplane’s GPS showed it had taken off from Venezuelan territory. See: ‘‘Cocaine Trafficking in Western Africa: Situation Report,’’ UNODC, October 2007, pg. 9. In July 2008 another aircraft with 600 kilograms of cocaine and using a false 

Red Cross emblem on its tail, was seized in Sierra Leone. Another case in 2010 intercepted 

4,000 kilos that was to be flown from Venezuela to Monrovia, Liberia. See: ‘‘Manhattan U.S. 

Attorney Charges Three al-Qaeda Associates with Conspiring to Transport Cocaine through Africa for the FARC,’’ PR Newswire, December 18, 2009; Farah, PRISM, op. cit. 

‘‘de-territorialized, de-stateized and de-nationalized,’’ a war where suicide bombers 

act as ‘‘atomic bombs for the poor.’’31

Based on this book, Verstrynge was invited by Cha ́vez to give the keynote address 

to military leaders in a 2005 conference titled ‘‘First Military Forum on Fourth Generation Warfare and Asymmetric Conflict’’ held at the Venezuelan military academy. 

Following the conference Gen. Rau ́l Baduel, the army commander and Cha ́vez confidant, ordered a special pocket-size edition of the book to be printed up and distributed throughout the officer corps with explicit orders that it be studied cover to 

cover.32

This ideological framework of Marxism and radical Islamic methodology for successfully attacking the United States is an important, though little examined, underpinning for the greatly enhanced relationships among the Bolivarian states and 

Iran and their respective non-state proxies, most prominently Hezbollah. For Iran 

the benefits are numerous, particularly in building alliances with nations to break 

its international isolation. But it also affords the opportunity to mine strategic minerals for its missile and nuclear programs, position Quds Force and Revolutionary 

Guard operatives under diplomatic cover, greatly expand and enhance its intelligence gathering, and operate state-to-state enterprises that allow for the movement of just about any type of goods and material, and more generally acclimate 

to operations in Latin America, including those aimed toward the United States. 

One glimpse at the type of shipments such a relationship can used for came to 

light in 2009, when Turkish authorities randomly inspected some crates being 

shipped from Iran to Venezuela at the port of Mersin. The 22 crates were labeled 

‘‘tractor parts’’ but in fact carried equipment for establishing a laboratory for manufacturing explosives.33

THE WEST AFRICA COCAINE PIPELINE: ANOTHER DANGEROUS NEXUS

As cocaine trafficking routes shift significantly to transit West Africa en route to 

the European market, there is another avenue opening for Hezbollah in Latin America and potential ties to the FARC. 

The movement of drugs, particularly cocaine, through West Africa is the product 

of several developments in the overall drug trade, and the consequences are already 

devastating, as shown by the new wave of political instability and the creation of 

the continent’s first true ‘‘narco-states.’’34

The FARC has a well-established network, including financial handlers, already 

established in Europe, particularly in Spain, where a good portion of the cocaine enters the European Union. The organization also maintains a presence on the ground 

in West Africa to handle drug shipments, a role demonstrated in a high-profile series of busts by the DEA in Liberia.35 Hezbollah, as discussed below, has a long history in West Africa and controls most of the illicit trade pipelines in the region. 

It is interesting to note that most of the largest cocaine busts in West Africa have 

come aboard aircraft that departed from Venezuela.36 Since Cha ́vez expelled the 

Drug Enforcement Administration from Venezuela in 2006, and has halted all 

counter-narcotics cooperation, U.S. officials describe Venezuela as a ‘‘black hole.’’ 

Not only does the Venezuelan government’s attitude encourage drug trafficking by 
25 

37The most dramatic recent revelations of the complicity of senior Venezuelan officials in the 

cocaine trade came in the case of Walid Makled, the alleged link between the FARC and 

Hezbollah for drug trafficking activities. Makled was a well-known financial supporter of Cha ́vez 

who was designated a major drug trafficking kingpin by the United States. Makled was arrested 

in Colombia in October 2010, where he gave details of his monthly payments, totaling more than 

$1 million, to senior Venezuelan military officials, family members of sitting cabinet officials, 

and other senior officials. The Colombian decision to extradite Makled to Venezuela rather than 

the United States caused significant tension between the two countries and probably means that 

the bulk of the evidence he claims to possess will never see the light of day. Among the documents he presented in prison were checks of his cashed by senior generals and government officials and videos of what appear to be senior government officials in his home discussing cash 

transactions. For details of the case see: Jose ́ de Co ́rdoba and Darcy Crowe, ‘‘U.S. Losing Big 

Drug Catch,’’ The Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2011; ‘‘Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Indictment of one of World’s Most Significant Narcotics Kingpins,’’ United States Attorney, Southern District of New York, November 4, 2010. 

‘‘Makled: Tengo suficientes pruebas sobre corrupcio ́n y narcotra ́fico para que intervengan a 

Venezuela,’’ NTN24 TV (Colombia), April 11, 2011. 38See: Edward Harris, ‘‘Hezbollah Extorting Funds From West Africa’s Diamond Merchants,’’ 

Associated Press, 29 June 2004. 39 Hamid Ghiryah, ‘‘Hezbullah Officials Carrying Donations Reportedly Killed in Lebanese 

Plane Crash,’’ al-Siyasah (Kuwait), Dec. 29, 2003. For a broader look at the role of the Lebanese 

diaspora in West African illicit trade activities, see: Lansana Gberie, War and Peace in Sierra 

Leone: Diamonds, Corruption and the Lebanese Connection, The Diamond and Human Security 

Project, Occasional Paper 6, January 2003. 

the FARC and others,37 but Venezuela’s geographic proximity to West Africa make 

it an ideal launching pad. This is true for both maritime operations and the use of 

aircraft. 

In West Africa, Hezbollah has long maintained an operational presence and has 

had a significant role in the blood diamond trade and many other illicit activities. 

In addition, many in the Lebanese Diaspora community in West Africa, numbering 

several hundred thousand, pay a portion of their earnings to support Hezbollah in 

Lebanon, with the knowledge and acquiescence of the host government.38

The importance of this revenue stream was revealed when a charter flight bound 

for Beirut from Cotonou, Benin, crashed on takeoff on Dec. 25, 2003. On board was 

a Hezbollah ‘‘foreign relations’’ official carrying $2 million in contributions raised in 

the region. The money was said to represent ‘‘the regular contributions the party 

[Hezbollah] receives from wealthy Lebanese nationals in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Benin, and other African states.’’39

Given the prominence of the Lebanese Diaspora community and its members’ control of most of the existing pipeline to import and export illegal commodities, it is 

inevitable that those organizations and the drug trafficking groups will encounter 

each other and mutually benefit from each other because each has something the 

other wants and needs. Lebanese networks control the decades-old contraband networks and routes to Europe, while the drug traffickers offer a new and lucrative 

product for the existing pipeline. Violent clashes may take place, but the history of 

both groups indicates they will cooperate where useful. 

Given Hezbollah’s long-established presence on the ground in the region and the 

closeness of its operatives to that community, it is also reasonable to assume that 

Hezbollah and the drug traffickers, operating in the same permissive environment, 

will cross paths. It is precisely this type of environment that allows for the otherwise unthinkable alliances to emerge. 

Most are short-lived, centering on specific opportunities and operations that can 

benefit both groups, but others are longer-lasting and more dangerous. The adaptive 

nature of the actors and the networks make any number of recombinant forms and 

outcomes possible. This at once makes their detection, real-time monitoring, and effective disruption or interdiction by the United States and other government and 

international intelligence and enforcement system, as presently configured, nearly 

impossible. 

Drug trafficking in West Africa also directly strengthens those who seek not only 

to harm the United States but also to strangle the struggling liberal democracies 

in Latin America. These include Hugo Cha ́vez in Venezuela, his allies in Iran, the 

FARC, and Hezbollah. As noted above, the circumstances in West Africa are ideal 

for allowing many of these non-state criminal and terrorist organizations to greatly 

expand their cooperation. The money raised from the cocaine trade on the West Africa route brings all these threats closer to the United States. 

CONCLUSIONS

Hezbollah’s presence in Latin America is growing, and the organization remains 

the premiere terrorist organization in the world. It is growing both in economic ca-
26 

pacity and in its placing of operatives in the region through the rapid expansion of 

Iran’s diplomatic and intelligence missions, businesses, and investments. 

The threat posed by Hezbollah in Latin America to the U.S. homeland centers not 

only on the organization itself and its demonstrated capacity and willingness to attack the interests of the United States and its allies. It centers also on the organization’s relationship with a continuum of actors from states sponsors (Iran and Syria) 

to hospitable states (Venezuela and its Bolivarian allies) to allied terror and criminal entities (the FARC and its allies in the MCB). 

The core shared beliefs of these varied actors is that the United States is a primary enemy that needs to be destroyed; that WMD is a legitimate option to achieve 

that end; that the Iranian revolution offers model for defeating the United States; 

and that the ability to wage sophisticated asymmetrical warfare, which so far has 

reached its pinnacle in the 9/11 attacks on the Homeland, is central to their military 

doctrine. 

These states have embraced the concept of using designated terrorist organizations as proxies for furthering their regional goals and as instruments of statecraft. 

This has afforded state protection to these groups and accelerated the criminalization of the states themselves while also spreading support to fellow radicals seeking 

to subvert regional democracies toward similar ends. 

This combination of relationships—Iran to Hezbollah, Iran to Venezuela and the 

Bolivarian states; Venezuela’s ties to the FARC and the growing evidence of joint 

Hezbollah and FARC drug transnational and transcontinental trafficking activity 

combine to indicate that Hezbollah’s presence constitutes a significant threat to the 

U.S. homeland. To view Hezbollah as an isolated actor gaining a small foothold in 

Latin America, as is often done in policy circles, is to misunderstand the nature of 

the threat, the meaning of the realities on the ground, and their potential consequences. 

Mr. MEEHAN. Thank you, Mr. Farah. 

Our next witness is Mr. Ilan Berman. Mr. Berman is vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council. He has been a former 

consultant for the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, and provided expertise and counsel to a number of 

other Government agencies and Congressional offices. 

Mr. Berman also concurrently serves as associate faculty to the 

Missouri State University’s Department of Defense and Strategic 

Studies, a columnist for Forbes Magazine, and as editor for the 

Journal of International Security Affairs. 

Mr. Berman received his undergraduate degree from Brandeis 

University and went on to obtain a master’s from American University, and his juris doctorate from Washington College of Law, 

also at the American University here in Washington. 

Mr. Berman, we look forward to your testimony. 

STATEMENT OF ILAN BERMAN, VICE PRESIDENT, AMERICAN 

FOREIGN POLICY COUNCIL 

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. Thank you 

for the opportunity to come and testify before you today on this 

issue, which is, I believe, of paramount importance to—not only to 

our understanding of where we are and where we going in the 

struggle against international terrorism, but also to the safety and 

security of the U.S. homeland as well. 

Let me start by referencing a quote that the Ranking Member 

mentioned. A year after the September 11 attacks, then-Deputy 

Secretary of State Richard Armitage made a telling assessment 

when he called Hezbollah, rather than al-Qaeda, ‘‘the A-Team of 

international terrorists.’’ What lies behind that assessment is, I 

think, a rather stunning network in terms of its breadth and its 

sophistication. 
27 

Hezbollah today is active on 5 continents, in 40 or more countries. It has an operating budget of perhaps as much as $20 million 

annually derived from various sources. Yet, despite this web of 

money and this web of activity, Hezbollah’s global footprint is fairly 

poorly understood. It is acknowledged here, as this hearing shows, 

but it is fairly poorly understood both in terms of its scope and also 

in terms of its potential impact on the United States and U.S. National security. 

In the Western Hemisphere specifically, Hezbollah has erected 

what could be called a stronghold south of the U.S. border. The TriBorder Area, where Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina intersect, is 

obviously the most active, and, in fact, it is very lucrative in the 

sense that it has been estimated that Hezbollah generates as much 

as $20 million annually from its activities in the Tri-Border region 

that go to finance and funnel the group’s activities throughout the 

world. 

But it is certainly not the only outpost that Hezbollah has created in the region. You have incidents of narcotrafficking and 

money-laundering enterprises in Colombia. You have instances of 

training camps and government assistance, including financial assistance, from Venezuela. You have, in Mexico, just south of the 

U.S. border, you have instances not only of the country serving as 

a fund-raising hub and a financial conduit to Hezbollah, but also 

as a base for infiltration into the United States. 

As this committee itself noted 5 years ago, Hezbollah agents and 

Hezbollah operatives have used the porous border between the 

United States and Mexico in the past to infiltrate. Although we 

don’t quite know the scope of that activity, what seems clear from 

on-going FBI investigations and on-going border security apprehensions is that that activity is still on-going. 

But, Mr. Chairman, you mentioned Hezbollah activity specifically 

in Latin America. I wanted to broaden the scope a little bit if I 

could and talk a little bit about the United States and Canada, because the footprint of Hezbollah extends not just south of our border, but also within the United States and north as well. 

Today, in the United States, law enforcement agencies believe 

that Hezbollah is present in active cells in no fewer than 15 cities, 

spanning from Los Angeles to New York, and that the organization 

not only has a fund-raising base in this country, but also has the 

capability, the operational capability, to strike targets if it chooses 

to do so. There is obviously an assessment that, because of the lucrative nature of Hezbollah’s activities in the United States, this 

isn’t a high priority at the moment. But there are precipitating factors that could change this calculus, among them a change of circumstance for Iran in the international standoff over its nuclear 

program. 

In Canada, you have also seen significant fund-raising activity 

from Hezbollah centering in Ottawa, in Montreal, in Vancouver 

and in Toronto, the latter specifically because of its proximity to 

the United States. And as a result, experts believe that Hezbollah 

is better-positioned in North America than any other terrorist 

group in the world, including al-Qaeda, which is, I think, a significant assessment. 
28 

1 Richard Armitage, ‘‘America’s Challenges in a Changed World,’’ remarks to the United States 

Institute of Peace, Washington, DC, September 5, 2002, http://web.archive.org/web/ 

20020917202341/www.state.gov/s/d/rm/2002/13308pf.htm. 2For a detailed overview of Hezbollah’s global activities, see the ‘‘Hezbollah’’ chapter of the 

American Foreign Policy Council’s World Almanac of Islamism, which is accessible on-line at 

http://almanac.afpc.org/hezbollah. 

I would note in closing that it is very hard to make an accurate 

assessment of both Hezbollah’s capabilities and Hezbollah’s intentions without taking into account the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

Hezbollah is an Iranian creation, and Hezbollah, in its charter, 

which was articulated publicly in 1985, pledged allegiance to the 

Velayat-e-faqih, the rule of the jurisprudent that governs the Iranian—the Islamic Republic of Iran. And as a result, a lot of what 

Iran is doing in the region is consistent with and, in turn, reinforced by Hezbollah’s activities in the region. 

Iran now is looking at Latin America specifically for three interlocking goals. It looks at Latin America as a way to ease its international isolation. Iranian officials understand very well that their 

nuclear program could leave them isolated, and so they are looking 

for international partners. It seeks access to critical resources, such 

as raw uranium, for example, through its partnership with Venezuela. It seeks to create an anti-American coalition that would 

further its objective of diminishing American power abroad. In all 

of these fronts, Hezbollah has served as an asymmetric proxy and 

as a force multiplier for Iranian interests. 

In closing, let me say that Hezbollah activities can properly be 

assessed today in the Western Hemisphere as support activities, 

activities that represent potential political, economic, organizational gain for the organization at large. But Hezbollah constitutes 

a significant potential threat. If political circumstances in Lebanon, 

political circumstances internationally with regard to Iran change, 

Hezbollah and the foothold that it has established on this hemisphere could potentially become a serious threat to U.S. National 

security directly. 

Thank you. 

[The statement of Mr. Berman follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ILAN BERMAN

JULY 7, 2011 

Chairman Meehan, distinguished Members of the subcommittee: Thank you for 

the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the Hezbollah terrorist organization, its capabilities, and its activities in the Western Hemisphere. It is an issue 

of critical importance to the on-going struggle against international terrorism, and 

to the safety and security of the U.S. homeland. 

A year after the 9/11 attacks, then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, 

in contextualizing the terrorist threat facing the country, made a telling assessment. 

‘‘Hezbollah may be the A-team of terrorists,’’ Mr. Armitage told an audience at the 

United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, ‘‘and maybe al-Qaida is actually the B-team.’’1 The description was apt, and remains so. With a presence in an 

estimated 40 countries on 5 different continents, the Lebanese Shi’ite militia represents one of the very few terrorist groups active today that possess a truly global 

presence and reach. 

This footprint extends not only to the greater Middle East and Europe, but to the 

Western Hemisphere as well.2 Over the past quarter-century, Hezbollah has devoted 

considerable energy and resources to establishing an extensive network of operations throughout the Americas. Today, its web of activity in our hemisphere 

stretches from Canada to Argentina, and encompasses a wide range of illicit activi-
29 

3 Rex Hudson, Terror and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of South 

America, Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, December 2010, http://www.loc.gov/ 

rr/frd/pdf-files/TerrOrgCrimelTBA.pdf. 4 Rachel Ehrenfeld, Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed—and How to Stop It (Chicago: 

Bonus Books, 2003), 145–48. 5 U.S. Department of State Coordinator for Counterterrorism Phillip Wilcox, Jr., Testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations, September 28, 1995, 

http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/bureaus/lat/1995/950928WilcoxTerrorism.html. 6See Gregory F. Treverton et al., Film Piracy, Organized Crime, and Terrorism (Santa 

Monica: RAND, 2009), xi, http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2009/RANDlMG742.- 

sum.pdf. 7 Ehrenfeld, Funding Evil, 147. 8 Chris Kraul and Sebastian Rotella, ‘‘Drug Probe finds Hezbollah Link,’’ Los Angeles Times, 

October 22, 2008, http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/22/world/fg-cocainering22. 9Wilcox, testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations. 

10Steven Moonblatt, ‘‘Terrorism and Drugs in the Americas: the OAS Response,’’ Americas 

Forum IV, no. 2 (February/March 2004), http://www.oas.org/ezine/ezine24/Monblatt.htm. 

ties and criminal enterprises, from drug trafficking to recruitment to fundraising 

and training. 

A STRONGHOLD SOUTH OF THE BORDER

It is something of a truism of American politics that policymakers in Washington 

pay only sporadic attention to the happenings in their own geopolitical backyard. 

The relatively low profile of Latin America in our National security policymaking 

is deeply counterintuitive, given the region’s proximity to the U.S. homeland. It is 

also potentially dangerous, because its political environment—marked by large 

ungoverned areas and typified by widespread anti-American sentiment—has created 

a fertile operating environment for a range of radical groups, including those from 

the greater Middle East. According to U.S. Government estimates, no fewer than six 

Islamic terrorist groups (including al-Qaeda and the Palestinian Hamas movement) 

are now active in Latin America.3

Hezbollah, however, is far and away the most prominent. Its presence in the region stretches back to the 1980s, when operatives—taking advantage of weak regional governance and with support from Iran—began to expand the organization’s 

already-substantial international drug-trafficking and smuggling activities from 

Lebanon’s Beka’a Valley to the ‘‘Tri-Border Region’’ at the intersection of Argentina, 

Brazil, and Paraguay.4 Hezbollah’s regional presence and capabilities were dramatically demonstrated in March of 1992, when the organization carried out a suicide 

bombing against Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 29 and injuring 242 others. Two years later, in July 1994, the group struck again, bombing the 

Argentine-Israel Mutual Association (known as AMIA) in Buenos Aires. These attacks, which still rank as the most devastating in South American history, led U.S. 

officials to conclude that Hezbollah had become ‘‘the major international terrorist 

threat’’ in the region.5

More than a decade-and-a-half later, Hezbollah’s footprint in the region remains 

extensive. It encompasses: 

The Tri-Border Region.—The lawless territory where Argentina, Paraguay, and 

Brazil meet continues to serve as the epicenter of Hezbollah activity in Latin America. Since the 1980s, the organization has exploited the region’s permissive political 

atmosphere and lack of governmental controls for a broad range of illicit activities, 

including smuggling, extortion, and narcotics trafficking. These enterprises are 

highly lucrative; the RAND Corporation has estimated that Hezbollah cumulatively 

nets some $20 million annually from the Tri-Border Region alone.6 As a result, experts say, the area constitutes the organization’s most significant source of independent funding.7

Colombia.—In 2008, U.S. and Columbian investigators capped a 2-year investigation by successfully dismantling a major transnational cocaine smuggling and 

money laundering ring originating out of Bogota, Columbia. The illicit network, run 

by Lebanese national Chekry Harb, was found to have funneled at least part of its 

profits to Hezbollah.8 Columbia, however, is more than simply a fundraising hub for 

Hezbollah; the organization is also known to have formed cells in the country, exploiting the sizeable Shi’ite Muslim community there.9 And, as a result of its narcotics trafficking activities, Hezbollah is also believed to have forged close and collaborative ties to the country’s premier terrorist group, the Revolutionary Armed 

Forces of Columbia, or FARC.10

Paraguay.—Paraguay, with its lack of comprehensive counterterrorism laws, similarly has emerged as a major fundraising hub. Hezbollah was estimated at one time 
30 

11 Julio A. Cirino, Silvana L. Elizondo, and Geoffrey Wawro, ‘‘Latin America’s Lawless Areas 

and Failed States: An Analysis of New Threats,’’ in Latin American Security Challenges: A Collaborative Inquiry from North to South (Newport, RI: Naval War College 2004), 24, http:// 

www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA430425&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf. 12 Casey L. Addis and Christopher M. Blanchard, Hezbollah: Background and Issues for Congress (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, January 3, 2011), http://www.fas.org/ 

sgp/crs/mideast/R41446.pdf. 13Wilcox, testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations. 14Martin Arostengui, ‘‘U.S. Ties Caracas to Hezbollah Aid,’’ Washington Times, July 7, 2008, 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/07/us-ties-caracas-to-hezbollah-aid/?page=1. 15 Cirino, Elizondo, and Wawro, ‘‘Latin America’s Lawless Areas and Failed States,’’ 22, 23. 16 Ely Karmon, ‘‘Iran and its Proxy Hezbollah: Strategic Penetration in Latin America,’’ Real 

Institute Elcano Working Paper, April 15, 2009, http://www.ict.org.il/Articles/tabid/66/ 

Articlsid/677/currentpage/4/Default.aspx; Alan Levine, ‘‘Hugo’s Hezbollah,’’ Front Page Magazine, December 11, 2008, http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=33373. 17Majority Staff report, A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border, 

Report of the Majority Staff, House Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Investigations, n.d., http://www.scribd.com/doc/2951526/InvestigaionsBorderReport. 18 ‘‘FBI’s Mueller: Hezbollah Busted in Mexican Smuggling Operation,’’ NewsMax, March 30, 

2006, http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/30/223801.shtml. 19 Jack Koury, ‘‘Mexico Thwarts Hezbollah Bid to Set Up South American Network,’’ Ha’aretz 

(Tel Aviv), June 7, 2010, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/mexico-thwartshezbollah-bid-to-set-up-south-american-network-1.300360. 20 ‘‘Terrorist Group Setting Up Operations Near Border,’’ 10News, May 4, 2011, http:// 

www.10news.com/news/27780427/detail.html. 21 Ibid. 

to raise as much as $10 million annually from there.11 (Notably, much of that sum 

could be attributed to Assad Barakat, a Lebanese immigrant to Paraguay, who 

transferred some $6 million annually to the group from his successful smuggling 

and counterfeiting activities between 1999 and his arrest in 2003.)12 Like in Columbia, the organization has exploited Paraguay’s Muslim community to establish cells 

and operational capabilities within the country.13

Venezuela.—Over the past decade, the regime of Hugo Cha ́vez in Caracas has 

forged an increasingly intimate strategic partnership with the Iranian government. 

As a corollary of those burgeoning ties, and in a reflection of Cha ́vez’ own support 

for radical causes, Venezuela has emerged as a major hub for Hezbollah. In 2008, 

the Bush administration directly accused the Cha ́vez regime of serving as a safe 

haven and financial supporter of the Lebanese militia. That year, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) formally designated two individuals, one of them a Venezuelan diplomat, for assisting the group. In making the designation, Adam Szubin, OFAC’s director of political affairs, specifically referred to 

‘‘the government of Venezuela employing and providing safe harbor for Hezbollah 

facilitators and fundraisers.’’14 Indeed, Hezbollah is known to use Venezuela’s free 

trade zone of Margarita Island as a major financing and fundraising center, as well 

as to possess ‘‘support cells’’ there.15 The organization has also been accused of 

training Venezuelan militants in south Lebanon for possible attacks on American 

soil, and of operating training camps inside Venezuela itself, with the collusion of 

sympathetic government officials.16

Mexico.—Mexico’s shared border with the United States makes it an attractive operating base for Hezbollah activities aimed at penetrating the U.S. homeland. As 

this committee itself noted 5 years ago, ‘‘[m]embers of Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based 

terrorist organization, have already [illegally] entered to the United States across 

our Southwest border.’’17 Indeed, in 2006 the FBI broke up a Mexican smuggling 

ring organized by Hezbollah to transport operatives across the U.S.-Mexican border,18 and last summer the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassah reported that Mexican authorities had successfully identified and disbanded a similar network of LebaneseMexicans that was being set up by the group.19 These arrests point to the extensive 

organizational network erected by the group over the past decade-and-a-half—one 

that operates out of the country’s Shi’a Muslim communities in places such as Tijuana, and which partners with drug cartels active in the country.20 For the moment, however, Federal agents assess that the group’s main focus in Mexico is to 

raise funds for its activities in the Middle East.21

A FOOTHOLD IN NORTH AMERICA

While Hezbollah’s presence south of the border represents the most visible manifestation of its activities in the Western Hemisphere, the group is also active 

throughout North America. 
31 

22Gregory T. Diaz and Barbara Newman, Lightning out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on 

U.S. Soil (New York: Presidio Press, 2005), 229. 23 United States v. Mohammad Youssef Hammoud et al., as cited in Steven Emerson, American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us (New York: The Free Press, 2002), 35–36. 24Stewart Bell, ‘‘Hezbollah Uses Canada as Base,’’ National Post, October 31, 2002, http:// 

www.clhrf.com/documents/hezbollah.canada.htm. 25 ‘‘US Accuses Lebanon-Canada Bank of Hezbollah Links,’’ Agence France Presse, February 

10, 2011, http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/02/10/137148.html?PHPSESSID=- 

v944frchrq16sm3n92iqn53gm6; Justin Blum, ‘‘Lebanese Canadian Bank Linked to Drugs, Terror 

Group,’’ Bloomberg BusinessWeek, February 10, 2011, http://www.businessweek.com/news/ 

2011-02-10/lebanese-canadian-bank-linked-to-drugs-terror-group.html. 26 ‘‘Hezbollah: Profile of the Lebanese Shiite Terrorist Organization of Global Reach Sponsored 

by Iran and Supported by Syria (Part 2),’’ Center for Special Studies, Intelligence and Terrorism 

Information Center Special Information Paper, July 2003, http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/ 

malamlmultimedia/ENGLISH/IRAN/PDF/JULYl03.PDF. 27LTC Joseph Myers and Patrick Poole, ‘‘Hezbollah, Illegal Immigration, and the Next 9/11,’’ 

Front Page Magazine, April 28, 2006, http://archive.frontpagemag.com/ 

readArticle.aspx?ARTID=4639. 

In the United States, law enforcement authorities estimate active Hezbollah cells 

and/or supporters to exist in no fewer than 15 metropolitan centers, stretching from 

New York to Los Angeles.22 These cells, like their counterparts in Latin America, 

are engaged in a range of criminal activities. The scope of these enterprises was laid 

bare in the year 2000, when an FBI sting dismantled a Hezbollah ring in Charlotte, 

North Carolina. Initially charged solely with smuggling cigarettes from North Carolina to Michigan, the so called ‘‘Charlotte Hezbollah Cell’’ was ultimately found to 

have been supplying ‘‘currency, financial services, training, false documentation and 

identification, communications equipment, explosives, and other physical assets’’ to 

the Lebanese militia ‘‘in order to facilitate its violent attacks.’’23

Significantly, the number of Hezbollah operatives in the United States has been 

bolstered by illegal migration and infiltration, perhaps substantially so. Authoritative figures regarding the scope of this infiltration remain difficult to ascertain. 

However, repeated apprehensions by Mexican authorities of human smuggling networks connected to Hezbollah over the past half-decade indicate that this troubling 

pattern of activity continues unabated. 

Hezbollah also has succeeded in establishing a significant base of operations in 

Canada. An investigation by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) 

in the late 1990s and early 2000s found that a Hezbollah network in Vancouver, 

Toronto, and Montreal had laundered tens of thousands of dollars through Canadian 

banks, and shipped equipment to the Middle East for use by Hezbollah militants 

in operations against Israeli targets.24 A far greater level of activity came to light 

earlier this year, when the U.S. Treasury Department targeted the Lebanese Canadian Bank, a former subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Canada with offices in Montreal, as a ‘‘primary money laundering concern’’ for its role in helping an international criminal syndicate wash hundreds of millions of dollars in narcotics revenue. At least a portion of the proceeds from this criminal enterprise, a 5-year task 

force headed by Treasury and the Drug Enforcement Administration found, were 

used as ‘‘financial support’’ for Hezbollah.25 Hezbollah is also believed to have a 

fundraising presence in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, as well as in towns surrounding Toronto, in part because of that area’s sizeable Shi’ite community and its 

proximity to the U.S. border.26

These complimentary, overlapping networks have given Hezbollah a critical foothold both within and around the U.S. homeland. Indeed, counterterrorism experts 

believe it to be ‘‘better established [in North America] than any other terrorist organization in the world.’’27

HEZBOLLAH AND IRANIAN INTERESTS

No analysis of Hezbollah activity in the Western Hemisphere would be complete, 

however, without acknowledging the interests and objectives of its progenitor and 

main sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hezbollah was established by Iran in 

1982, in the midst Lebanon’s civil war, as an umbrella organization unifying the 

country’s various Shi’ite militias and Islamist activists. Thereafter, the Islamic Republic helped the militia entrench itself in Lebanon, making it a major political and 

operational force in what the Iranian regime regarded as the first front in its efforts 

to ‘‘export the revolution.’’ And since the mid-1980s, Iran has aided the group’s 

worldwide expansion, including into the Western Hemisphere. 

Not surprisingly, Hezbollah’s activities in the Americas track closely with Iran’s 

own regional activism and strategic objectives. Today, this effort is driven by three 

interconnected goals. 
32 

28General Douglas M. Fraser, Posture statement before the House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services, March 30, 2011, http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm/files/ 

serve?Filelid=fcc6b631-6b51-4bdb-b0a0-6b97ea36cb58. 29See, for example, Bret Stephens, ‘‘The Tehran-Caracas Nuclear Axis,’’ Wall Street Journal, 

December 15, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704869- 

304574595652815802722.html. 30 ‘‘Venezuela Ready to Export Gasoline to Iran,’’ Fars (Tehran), August 16, 2010, http:// 

english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8905251472. 31 ‘‘Israel: Ties to South America Aiding Iran’s Nuclear Program,’’ Yediot Ahronot (Tel Aviv), 

May 25, 2009, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3721335,00.html. 32 U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Unclassified Report on Military Power of Iran, April 2010, http://www.iranwatch.org/government/us-dodreportmiliarypoweriran-0410.pdf. 33 Ibid. 34 Hudson, Terror and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of South America. 35 Justin Walker and Leila Golestani, ‘‘Threat Analysis: Hamas and Hezbollah Sleeper Cells 

in the United States,’’ Urban Warfare Analysis Center, March 18, 2009, http:// 

understandterror.com/articles/Threat%20Analysis%20-%20Hamas%20and%20Hezbollah%20- 

Sleeper%20Cells%20in%20the%20United%20States.pdf. 

The first is to lessen the Iranian regime’s international isolation. When Iran’s 

theretofore-clandestine nuclear program was revealed in 2003, regime officials were 

quick to recognize that the issue had the potential to make their country an international pariah. As a result, the Islamic Republic significantly intensified its diplomatic outreach, seeking to forge new political and economic bonds with the international community. This activism has extended to the Western Hemisphere, where 

over the past decade Iran has nearly doubled the number of its embassies in Latin 

America (from 6 in 2005 to 10 in 2010)28 and expanded its bilateral relations with 

a number of sympathetic regional regimes, including that of Hugo Cha ́vez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia. 

The second is to access key technologies and strategic resources. As pressure on 

Iran over its nuclear program has increased, the Islamic Republic has increasingly 

looked abroad for critical resources and materiel. Latin America has become a key 

region of interest in this regard. Venezuela, for example, has emerged as an important (albeit unacknowledged) supplier of the raw uranium critical for Iran’s nuclear 

program.29 The Cha ́vez regime has also repeatedly offered 30 to supply Iran with as 

much as 20,000 barrels of gasoline daily as a way of diluting the impact of U.S. 

sanctions aimed at exploiting Iran’s dependency on foreign refined petroleum. 

Finally, Iran has worked diligently to dilute U.S. power and influence in the 

Americas. Since taking office in 2005, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has 

made major efforts to forge partnerships with anti-American elements in Central 

and South America, playing on common themes of U.S. domination and oppression. 

Indeed, a 2009 dossier prepared by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that 

‘‘since Ahmadinejad’s rise to power, Tehran has been promoting an aggressive policy 

aimed at bolstering its ties with Latin American countries with the declared goal 

of ‘bringing America to its knees.’ ’’31 The U.S. Department of Defense has concluded 

much the same thing; ‘‘Iran seeks to increase its stature by countering U.S. influence and expanding ties with regional actors,’’ the Pentagon’s 2010 report on Iranian military power outlined. ‘‘It also seeks to demonstrate to the world its ‘resistance’ to the West.’’32

In furtherance of these goals, Iran has erected a sizeable covert presence in the 

region. The Pentagon has noted that the Qods Force, the elite paramilitary unit of 

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, is now deeply involved in the region, stationing 

‘‘operatives in foreign embassies, charities and religious/cultural institutions to foster relationships with people, often building on existing socio-economic ties with the 

well-establish Shia Diaspora,’’ and even carrying out ‘‘paramilitary operations to 

support extremists and destabilize unfriendly regimes.’’33 And Hezbollah, with its 

extensive regional network, is known to serve as an important force multiplier for 

these efforts.34

HEZBOLLAH AND U.S. SECURITY

How real and immediate is the threat posed by Hezbollah to the United States? 

Opinions among experts and U.S. Government officials tend to differ. In the main, 

Hezbollah’s presence in the Western Hemisphere is manifested in ‘‘support’’ activities: Those that provide financial, operational, or political benefit to the organization 

at large, and to its principal sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran. As a result, absent a significant precipitating development in the Middle East, the likelihood of a 

terrorist attack on the United States by Hezbollah in the near future remains low.35
33 

36 Cyrus Miryekta, ‘‘Hezbollah in the Tri-Border Area of South America,’’ Small Wars Journal, 

September 10, 2010, http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/journal/docs-temp/533-miryekta.pdf. 37 Hudson, Terror and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of South America. 38 As cited in Matthew Levitt, Testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on 

International Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia and Subcommittee 

on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation, February 16, 2005, http:// 

www.iranwatch.org/government/US/Congress/Hearings/hirc-sub-021605/us-hirc-middleeastsub-levitt-prepared-021605.pdf. 39Myers and Poole, ‘‘Hezbollah, Illegal Immigration, and the Next 9/11.’’ 

Nevertheless, the organization represents a significant potential threat to the 

United States. Over the past decade, Hezbollah’s regional activities have shown a 

clear pattern of targeting U.S. interests and assets throughout Latin America. 

Among other indicators, Hezbollah operatives are known to have cased the U.S. embassy in Paraguay’s capital of Ascuncio ́n, and local organizational cells have 

colluded with al-Qaeda to plot attacks on U.S. and Jewish targets in the region.36

Given this pattern of behavior, a recent Library of Congress analysis concluded, 

there is a significant chance Hezbollah operatives could seek to carry out attacks 

on U.S. embassies or consulates in Latin America, or to target particular points of 

interest—such as ‘‘hotels, tourism centers, airports, or multinational companies, especially those of Israeli, German, French, or U.S. origin’’—that are located there.37

Hezbollah also has the ability to strike at the U.S. homeland itself. According to 

the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hezbollah members located in North America 

can carry out terrorist attacks against targets within the territorial United States, 

if the organization makes a strategic decision to do so.38 Given the lucrative nature 

of the organization’s illicit activities throughout the Hemisphere, the likelihood of 

such a development remains low. Still, Hezbollah’s strategic calculus could conceivably change if it or its chief sponsor, Iran, were imperiled in a substantial way (for 

example, through military action that targets Iran’s nuclear facilities). In this sense, 

Hezbollah can be described as a potential insurance policy of sorts for the Iranian 

regime.39

Nearly a decade after 9/11, this reality remains poorly understood. While U.S. officials now routinely recognize that Hezbollah’s regional activities make it a potential 

threat to the United States, our counterterrorism policy has failed to focus on the 

organization at large in a comprehensive, sustained, and meaningful way. Such attention is long overdue, and the most immediate way the United States can begin 

to address the danger posed by Hezbollah is by acknowledging that the organization 

uses our Hemisphere as a significant staging ground, fundraising hub, and operational base—and by beginning to craft a strategy to make it more difficult for it 

to do so. 

Mr. MEEHAN. Thank you, Mr. Berman. 

Our final witness today is Dr. Melani Cammett. Dr. Cammett is 

the director of the Middle East Studies Program at Brown University, where she is also an associate professor for political science. 

Before her current post, she was an assistant professor for political 

economy, also at Brown, and as an Academy Scholar at the 

Weatherhead Center’s Harvard Academy for International and 

Area Studies. 

In 2002, Dr. Cammett received her Ph.D. from the University of 

California at Berkley, following two master’s degrees, the first from 

Fletcher School at Tufts, and the second from UC Berkley. 

In 2007, Dr. Cammett authored her first book, Globalization and 

Business Politics in Arab North Africa: A Comparative Perspective. 

She has written a great deal on a number of issues involving the 

Middle East, with her words appearing in a number of journals and 

other works. 

Dr. Cammett, you are now recognized for your testimony. 
34 

STATEMENT OF MELANI CAMMETT, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR 

OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST 

STUDIES PROGRAM, BROWN UNIVERSITY 

Ms. CAMMETT. Thank you for asking me to testify. The United 

States has rightfully been concerned about Hezbollah since the 

1980s. Its activities in Latin America are now a particular focus, 

especially in the Tri-Border areas, as the other witnesses have attested. 

To assess the likelihood that Hezbollah will target the United 

States from its Latin America footholds, it is critical to understand 

the evolution of the organization and the way it operates, in Lebanon in particular. Hezbollah arose in the early 1980s out of specific domestic and regional factors. First, it is a by-product of a variety of Lebanese Shia political movements that began in the 1960s 

and 1970s. I won’t go into detail about these organizations. But by 

1981, a militant faction broke off from one of these groups to establish what was then called the Islamic Amal, and that was folded 

into Hezbollah, which was officially announced in 1985. 

Many other Shia political and religious organizations emerged at 

this time and developed big followings in the Lebanese Shia community, both in Lebanon and abroad. Some of these groups are explicitly opposed to Hezbollah and condemn it for its close ties with 

Iran, and especially for its, Hezbollah’s, adherence to the concept 

of the Velayat-e-faqih. So it is important to recognize that not all 

Shia in Lebanon and abroad actually support Hezbollah. 

The Iranian Revolution was a second impetus for the rise of 

Hezbollah. Of course, Iran helped to set up a militia in the early 

1980s in Lebanon, and also charitable activities. 

Finally, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 motivated the 

formation of Hezbollah. This is not a controversial statement. This 

is a point that both Israeli and Hezbollah officials agree on. So 

from the beginning, Hezbollah has presented itself as the leader of 

the ‘‘resistance’’ against Israel, and continues to do so to this day. 

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hezbollah began to transition 

from a predominantly militant organization to include greater participation in the formal institutions of the state, and this entailed 

three different components of the organization, which were established or consolidated at this time: Its military, political, and social 

welfare wings. Of course, in the West, Hezbollah is best known for 

its militant operations, which are largely focused on Israel. 

Hezbollah, it is important to note, emphatically differentiates 

itself from al-Qaeda and from other Sunni extremist groups. There 

are major doctrinal and strategic differences between Hezbollah 

and these types of organizations such as al-Qaeda. For one thing, 

Sunni extremist groups view Hezbollah as traitors to Islam, as a 

traitor to Islam as a Shia organization. Also, Hezbollah, unlike 

these groups, engages in mainstream politics. 

In the early 1990s, in 1992 in particular, Hezbollah made the 

strategic decision to field candidates in elections in Lebanon. It has 

done so every year since then, every election since then, and, in 

fact, in 2005, finally accepted cabinet-level positions in the Lebanese government. This participation in the formal institutions of 

the state, as well as the particular rules of the Lebanese electoral 

system, provide incentive for Hezbollah to woo supporters from be-
35 

yond its own religious community and from beyond its hard-core 

support base. 

It has had a very strong showing in all elections, and there are 

a number of reasons why this might be the case. It manages its social welfare programs quite well. Its role as the head of the socalled resistance against Israel has garnered a lot of domestic support for it. It also has a reputation as a clean and uncorrupt organization. 

So all of these militant and non-militant operations are quite expensive, of course, but it is really difficult, if not impossible, to attain accurate information on its budget and funding sources. I have 

tried to do this in field research in Lebanon, but when you speak 

with Hezbollah officials, they point to, of course, charitable donations, various Islamic religious taxes that go to them, donations 

from wealthy business people, and investments in their own private businesses. 

Of course, Iran is an important contributor to these activities as 

well. It is hard to know how much money Iran contributes or how 

much is generated from its activities in Latin America because of 

the sort of obscure nature of the sources that we have on these 

issues. 

Hezbollah’s acts of violence are almost exclusively directed at 

Israel at the present time, and there is no firm evidence that 

Hezbollah aims to target the United States militarily. Although 

Hezbollah condemns the United States for its alliance with Israel, 

it has not targeted U.S. interests with violence since the 1980s and 

has not called for targeting the United States. 

So there are a number of reasons why Hezbollah is not terribly 

interested in targeting the United States at the moment. Part of 

it has to do with its political evolution, engagement in mainstream 

politics. Part of it has to do with tactical calculations. Again, Latin 

America is home to many Shia migrants, some of which are sympathetic to Hezbollah and may give their taxes to clerics affiliated 

with Hezbollah. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are supportive of Hezbollah’s violent activities, and those same members 

of the diaspora may be supportive of other Shia organizations in 

Lebanon. 

So to conclude, the proposition that Hezbollah intends to launch 

terrorist acts against the United States from Latin America at this 

time, in my view, is not based on firm evidence. 

Thank you very much. 

[The statement of Ms. Cammett follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MELANI CAMMETT

JULY 7, 2011 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the subcommittee, I want to thank you for asking 

me to testify today. 

Since the early 1980s and with renewed vigor since 9/11, the United States has 

been concerned about the goals and actions of Hezbollah, the Shia Muslim party in 

Lebanon. In the context of the Global War on Terror, the organization’s activities 

in Latin America have received increased scrutiny. 

In particular, the Tri-Border Area (TBA), or the relatively ungoverned region 

where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet, is alleged to be a key node in 

Hezbollah’s global fundraising network and may even provide a launching pad for 

terrorist operations. Hezbollah reportedly engages in money-laundering, counter-
36 

1See, inter alia: Lt. Col. Philip K. Abbott. ‘‘Terrorist Threat in the Tri-Border Area: Myth or 

Reality?’’ In Military Review (Sept.–Oct. 2004): 51; John L. Lombardi and David J. Sanchez, 

‘‘Terrorist Financing and the Tri-Border Area of South America.’’ In Jeanne K. Giraldo and Harold A. Trinkunas, eds. Terrorist Financing and State Responses: A Comparative Perspective 

(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007), pp. 231–246; Gregory F. Treverton, et al. Film Piracy, Organized Crime, and Terrorism. (Santa Monica, CA: Rand, 2009), pp. 75–81. 2 Berri remains the head of the Shia Amal Movement, which became a political party in postwar Lebanon, and has held the post of Speaker of the Parliament continuously since 1992. 

feiting, piracy, and narcotics trafficking in this region, and uses the area as a base 

for recruitment.1

To contextualize Hezbollah’s purported activities in Latin America and to assess 

the likelihood that the organization will use the region as a base for targeting U.S. 

interests, it is critical to understand the origins and evolution of the party. My testimony therefore provides background on the origins of Hezbollah during the Lebanese civil war (1975–1990) and its evolution in postwar Lebanon. 

THE WARTIME ORIGINS OF HEZBOLLAH

Hezbollah arose out of specific domestic and regional factors, including the historical disenfranchisement of the Shia population in Lebanon, the Iranian Revolution, 

and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. 

Shia Mobilization and the Historical Roots of Hezbollah 

Hezbollah is a by-product of Lebanese Shia political movements that originated 

in the 1960s in response to the longstanding marginalization of the Shia community 

in domestic politics and society. Historically, the Shia had the highest poverty rates 

and lived in the most underdeveloped rural regions in Lebanon, notably in South 

Lebanon and the Bekaa. Shia marginalization was also institutionalized in Lebanon’s confessional political system, which favored Maronite Christian as well as 

Sunni Muslim elites. Based on an unwritten agreement of 1943 and modified at the 

end of the civil war in 1990, the system distributes political posts by sect. The arrangement reserves the more powerful positions of President and Prime Minister for 

a Maronite and Sunni, respectively, while allocating the relatively weak post of 

Speaker of the Parliament to a Shia. Since 1990, all government posts are split 

evenly between Christians and Muslims, despite the fact that Christians constitute 

at most about 40 percent of the population and have lower birth rates and higher 

emigration rates than Sunnis and, especially, the Shia. Although a census has not 

been held since 1932, it is well know that the Shia became the single largest confessional group in Lebanon in the 1980s and remain so today. As a result of these political and economic realities, the Shia have not had influence in domestic politics 

commensurate to their size. 

Until the 1970s, a wealthy elite dominated political representation of the Shia and 

generally neglected the interests of the majority of the community. The Imam Musa 

Al-Sadr, a charismatic Shia leader dedicated to the advancement of the community, 

established numerous institutions to promote the socioeconomic development of the 

Shia as part of his ‘‘Movement of the Deprived,’’ which was initiated in 1974. The 

following year, al-Sadr’s organization established a military wing, Amal, headed by 

Nabih Berri.2 By the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Amal Movement began to 

factionalize. The more militant members broke off in 1981 under the leadership of 

the Sayyid Husayn Al-Musawi, who founded the Islamic Amal, which was later folded into Hezbollah. 

The Iranian Revolution and the Creation of Hezbollah 

The Iranian Revolution was a second impetus for the rise of Hezbollah. Many future leaders of Hezbollah and other Shia movements in Lebanon carried out their 

religious training in the same Circles of Learning (Hawzat al-‘Ilmiyyah) in Najaf, 

Iraq and later in Qom, Iran. Shia clerics from Lebanon, Iran and Iraq studied, met 

and formed networks there. Their experiences in Iran likely influenced them to mobilize the Lebanese Shia community and to pursue an Islamic state. In the early 

1980s, during the civil war, various Shia clerics were jockeying for power in Lebanon and Khomeini encouraged them to start a movement. Iran therefore sent members of its Revolutionary Guards to help with military training and began to send 

aid to the Lebanese Shia community, assisting in the formation of Hezbollah. 

The Israeli Invasion as a Catalyst for the Emergence of Hezbollah 

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon, first in 1978 and extended in 1982, was another 

key factor in motivating the formation of Hezbollah—and this is a point on which 

both Israeli and Hezbollah officials agree. From the beginning, Hezbollah presented 

itself as the leader of the Resistance against Israel. The Lebanese civil war, which 
37 

disproportionately affected the population of South Lebanon, exacerbated the poor 

living conditions of the Shia. The Israeli invasion, which was concentrated in the 

South, provided an environment that increased the appeal of Hezbollah and especially its military operations. Hezbollah claimed credit for the Israeli withdrawal in 

2000, deriving popular support from its role as the vanguard of the Resistance. 

The precise origins of Hezbollah are difficult to pinpoint. Various individuals and 

groups, including those linked to the bombings of the U.S. Embassy and marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 and the kidnappings of Westerners during the 1980s, are 

said to be precursors to Hezbollah, which did not formally exist at the time. In 1985, 

Hezbollah officially announced its establishment with the publication of its Open 

Letter. The document outlined its philosophy of ‘‘oppression,’’ called for the established of an Islamic state in Lebanon modeled after Iran’s Islamic Republic, declared 

its opposition to the state of Israel, and detailed other aspects of its ideological orientation. 

Throughout the civil war, Hezbollah focused its activities outside of formal state 

structures. Its main priority was the military struggle against Israel. In the domestic arena, Hezbollah largely stayed out of sectarian battles, engaging only in armed 

clashes with competitors in the South and southern suburbs of Beirut, notably the 

Shia Amal Movement and various Leftist groups. During the war, Hezbollah also 

ran some social programs, especially health programs, which catered largely although not exclusively to the families of fighters ‘‘martyred’’ or wounded in fighting 

against Israel. 

THE EVOLUTION OF HEZBOLLAH IN THE POST-WAR PERIOD (1990–PRESENT)

From 1989 to 1992, Hezbollah initiated its transition from a predominantly militant movement to greater participation in the formal institutions of the state. Three 

different wings of the organization were established or further consolidated in the 

post-war period, including the institutions of it military wing as well as those of its 

political party and social welfare programs. 

Hezbollah as a Militant Group 

Hezbollah is best known in the West as a militant organization. In the post-war 

period, it has retained and honed its military capabilities at the same time that it 

increased its participation in mainstream, non-violent politics in Lebanon. 

In its capacity as an armed movement, Hezbollah concentrates its violent acts and 

rhetoric on Israel. It continues to present itself as the vanguard of the Resistance 

in Lebanon as well as a defender of the Palestinians against Israeli occupation. 

Hezbollah maintains a perpetual state of war against Israel and engages in periodic 

cross-border skirmishes with Israeli forces, most famously in recent years with the 

capture of two Israeli soldiers and killing of several others on July 12, 2006, which 

sparked the 2006 Israeli-Lebanese conflict. 

Hezbollah has largely avoided the use of violence within Lebanon. An important 

exception occurred in May 2008, when street clashes erupted between Hezbollah 

and its allies, on the one hand, and groups associated with the predominantly Sunni 

and pro-West Future Movement and its allies, on the other hand. The decision of 

Hezbollah to turn its weapons ‘‘inward’’ hurt the credibility of the organization 

among many Lebanese. 

Hezbollah is especially keen to differentiate itself from Sunni terrorist groups 

such as al-Qaeda. Major differences, both doctrinal and strategic, separate the two 

groups. Al-Qaeda and other Sunni extremist organizations view Shia Muslims as 

traitors to Islam. Furthermore, while Hezbollah has become a mainstream political 

party in the domestic arena, al-Qaeda is a global organization primarily aimed at 

perpetrating terrorist acts rather than developing ties with local populations. Notwithstanding Hezbollah’s militant wing, it would therefore be a mistake to put it 

in the same category as al-Qaeda and related groups. 

Hezbollah as a Political Party 

With the end of the civil war, the Hezbollah leadership made the strategic decision to participate in the formal political system. In the early 1990s, the organization denounced its stated goal of pursuing the establishment of an Islamic state in 

Lebanon and opted to field candidates in all post-war elections, including the parliamentary elections of 1992, 1996, 2000, 2005, and 2009 as well as municipal elections held in 1998, 2004, and 2010. Since 1992, Hezbollah has held seats in parliament and in 2000 its national representation exceeded that of the Amal Movement for the first time. In 2005, Hezbollah finally agreed to accept cabinet-level positions, despite the fact that its prior electoral successes had qualified it to hold ministerial posts in the past. By participating in the executive branch of government, 
38 

the party could no longer depict itself as an opposition faction within the parliament. 

Participation in formal political institutions provides incentives for parties to woo 

supporters from beyond their own religious communities and hard-core supporters. 

The Lebanese electoral system reserves seats for representatives from different sectarian communities at the district level, but voters from all religious backgrounds 

vote for all candidates, irrespective of religious affiliation. This arrangement also encourages parties to forge cross-sectarian alliances in order to sweep the ballot. Thus, 

Hezbollah—and other parties—have formed alliances, often but not always of convenience. A 2006 accord with Michel Aoun, head of the Christian Free Patriotic 

Movement (FPM), established an alliance between Hezbollah and the FPM that endures to this day. Since 2000, Hezbollah has also run joint lists with the Amal 

Movement, thereby undercutting real competition between the two parties in national elections. 

Hezbollah has had a strong showing in elections both at the local and national 

levels, although its coalition—the March 8th Alliance—did not win the majority of 

seats in the 2009 parliamentary elections. A variety of factors likely contribute to 

its success. First, Hezbollah derived substantial credibility from its role in compelling the Israeli withdrawal in 2000, although as time passes this source of support 

is declining. Second, the party has proved exceptionally adept at grassroots outreach, enabling it to forge strong linkages between its cadres and citizens. Its extensive and well-managed networks of social programs partially explain its popular appeal Hezbollah’s social welfare activities both enable the party to establish direct 

ties with the population in the areas where they operate and to bolster its reputation for good governance and relative lack of corruption. Even Hezbollah’s harshest 

critics concede that the organization runs well-managed and high-quality programs 

in the spheres of health, education, and other social sectors. 

In the post-war period, and especially since the assassination of former Prime 

Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, Hezbollah has expanded its repertoire of political mobilization strategies to include classic non-violent forms of participation such as demonstrations and sit-ins. In December 2006, Hezbollah and its allies in the March 8th 

coalition withdrew their representatives from the national government and initiated 

a sit-in by their supporters, who camped out for 17 months in downtown Beirut. Officially, the March 8th leadership launched these protested to call for more posts 

in the government—specifically, one-third of cabinet positions, which would give the 

coalition veto power. Hezbollah’s opposition to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon 

(STL), which was established to investigate the assassination of Hariri, was a key 

factor behind the opposition’s withdrawal from the government. The Doha Agreement, brokered by the Qatari government, ended the standoff after violent clashes 

erupted in May 2008 between the March 14th and March 8th coalitions. 

The STL continues to destabilize Lebanese politics, with Hezbollah declaring its 

firm opposition to the proceedings and attempting to undermine the investigation’s 

credibility, particularly after prosecutors announced the indictments of four 

Hezbollah members. The issue of the STL was an important motivation for the decision by Hezbollah and its allies to force the breakdown of the government of Saad 

al-Hariri, the son of Rafic Hariri, in January 2011. The decision of the Druze political leader, Walid Jumblatt, to defect from the March 14th coalition enabled 

Hezbollah and its allies to orchestrate the breakdown of the Hariri government, 

thereby enabling the March 8th coalition to become the majority in parliament. In 

January 2011, Najib al-Miqati was nominated as the new Prime Minister and, after 

a delay of almost 6 months, he constituted a government. 

Political developments since 2005 demonstrate that Hezbollah remains heavily invested in formal state institutions and resorts to a wide range of political to pursue 

its interests in domestic politics. The adoption of extra-electoral forms of political 

participation such as mass demonstrations and sit-ins is by no means unique to 

Hezbollah. Observers of Lebanese politics, however, are increasingly concerned 

about Hezbollah’s stance on the STL and its implications for stability in the country. 

To block cooperation with the STL, Hezbollah has tried to question its legality, overturned sitting governments, and issue veiled threats to block the proceedings of the 

court at all costs. 

Hezbollah as Social Welfare Provider 

The Social Unit of Hezbollah is charged with providing social services and technical help to members, supporters, families of ‘‘martyrs’’ and others. The social wing 

of the organization incorporates multiple welfare programs. These include its construction wing (Jihad al-Bina’) which helps people construct and rehabilitate homes, 

supplies water and electricity to parts of Lebanon, and runs schools, shops, hospitals, clinics, mosques, cultural and social centers, and agricultural cooperatives. 
39 

3Mona Harb. Le Hezbollah a` Beirut (1985–2005): De la Banlieue a` la Ville (Paris: IFPO– 

Karthala, 2010), p. 94. 4 Anthony Cordesman, ‘‘Iran’s Support of the Hezbollah in Lebanon.’’ (Washington, DC: Center 

for Strategic and International Studies, July 15, 2006), p. 3. 5Matthew Levitt. ‘‘Hezbollah Finances: Funding the Party of God.’’ In Jeanne K. Giraldo and 

Harold A. Trinkunas, eds. Terrorist Financing and State Responses: A Comparative Perspective 

(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007), pp. 131–151. 6See Abbott, op. cit. and Ahmed Nizar Hamzeh. In the Path of Hizbullah (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2004), p. 63. 7 Julio A. Cirnio, Silvana L. Elizondo, & Geoffrey Wawro. ‘‘Latin American Security Challenges: A Collaborative Inquiry from North and South.’’ In Paul D. Taylor, ed., Latin America’s 

Lawless Areas and Failed States: An Analysis of the New Threats (Newport, RI: Naval War College Press, 2004), p. 24. 8 Anti-Defamation League. ‘‘Hezbollah’s International Reach’’ (December 7, 2004). Available at 

http://www.adl.org/terror/hezbollahlprint.asp. 

The Islamic Health Organizations runs a network of hospitals, clinics, and 

dispensaries throughout the South, Bekaa and southern suburbs of Beirut. 

Hezbollah also runs several networks of schools, a microcredit agency, and a program to assist the poor and orphans, the Imam Khomeini Support Committee 

(Lajnat Imdad al-Khomeini), which is modeled after an institution in Iran. 

Hezbollah’s social programs largely benefit Shia Muslims, mainly because it locates its social welfare activities in predominantly Shia neighborhoods and villages. 

Furthermore, its most generous programs are reserved for its core members and 

particularly the families of militia fighters and those who have been wounded in 

clashes with Israel. Nonetheless, basic Hezbollah services are accessible to all who 

seek them, Shia and non-Shia alike. 

The provision of social welfare is not unique to Hezbollah. All major sectarian political parties in Lebanon provide welfare, either directly through their own facilities 

or by brokering access to services supplied by the government or private providers. 

What appears to distinguish Hezbollah from many other parties who offer social 

services is the professionalism and quality of its welfare programs. 

Hezbollah’s Funding Sources 

Hezbollah’s militant and non-militant operations undoubtedly require a large 

budget. Obtaining reliable information on the organization’s finances and funding 

sources is notoriously difficult, if not impossible. 

Hezbollah officials emphasize the importance of charitable donations and taxes, 

including the obligatory Shia religious taxes of zakat and khums, which allegedly 

account for one-half of the operating budget of the organization’s welfare programs.3

They also point to donations from wealthy businesspeople and investments in private ventures. Hezbollah representatives are more reticent about the role of Iranian 

funds. Estimates of Iran’s contributions range from $25–50 million 4 to $100–200 

million,5 although some claim that Iranian financial support has steadily declined.6

Reduced support from Iran suggests a possible motive for seeking alternative, sometimes illicit sources of financing such as the activities that Hezbollah allegedly carries out in the TBA. A 2004 estimate alleged that Hezbollah’s operations in the TBA 

generate about $10 million annually for the organization.7 The Anti-Defamation 

League claims that Hezbollah’s total operating budget ranges from $200–500 million.8 Given the speculative nature of these estimates and their obscure sources, 

these figures are impossible to verify. 

Is Hezbollah Likely to Target the United States? 

Hezbollah is a militant organization because it employs violence, but its acts of 

violence are almost exclusively directed at Israel in what the organization and many 

Lebanese view as a protracted war. At present, however, there is no indication that 

Hezbollah aims to target the U.S. militarily. Although Hezbollah condemns the 

United States for its alliance with Israel and Middle East policy, it has not targeted 

the United States or U.S. interests with violence since the 1980s. 

The reaction of Hezbollah to strong U.S. support for Israel during the 2006 

Israeli-Lebanese conflict provides insight into Hezbollah’s stance vis-a`-vis the 

United States in the current period. During the war, the United States unequivocally backed Israel’s right to defend itself from Hezbollah attacks and even provided 

military support to Israel while the conflict played out. The United States also rejected calls for a ceasefire in the first part of the war, claiming that a ceasefire 

agreement should not be brokered until certain conditions were met. In addition, the 

United States unilaterally opposed a U.N. Security Council proposal for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon while the U.S. Congress passed resolu-
40 

9 U.S. Senate Resolution 534 (July 18, 2006) and U.S. House of Representatives Resolution 

921 (July 20, 2006). 

tions that condemned Hezbollah and its state sponsors for provoking the war and 

underscored Israel’s right to self-defense.9

During the 2006 war, many Lebanese citizens—including those who do not support Hezbollah—interpreted these official U.S. statements as favoritism of Israel at 

the expense of Lebanese lives and infrastructure. Hezbollah condemned the U.S. position during the war and Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, stepped up 

the anti-American rhetoric in his speeches. In addition, during and after the war, 

Hezbollah and its supporters spray painted ‘‘Made in the U.S.A.’’ on the debris of 

Israeli bombs as a symbolic means of highlighting what they viewed as U.S. complicity in Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Despite this strong anti-American stance and 

propaganda, however, Hezbollah did not promote the targeting of U.S. interests 

whether within the region or elsewhere. Since 2006, the organization has remained 

strongly critical of American policy towards the Middle East but has not indicated 

its desire to target U.S. interests with military operations. 

Hezbollah’s disinterest in targeting the U.S. militarily stems from its political evolution in the post-war period as well as tactical calculations. As detailed above, 

Hezbollah is increasingly vested in Lebanese politics and has become a major party 

in the domestic political scene. This strategic orientation requires compromise and 

pragmatism, limiting the organization’s propensity to deploy violence to pursue its 

goals. Furthermore, Hezbollah is now a far more complex organization than it was 

in the 1980s. It encompasses multiple interests, both within its separate organizational bodies and within its domestic constituencies. It would be a mistake to view 

its military, political, and social wings as one seamless operation geared exclusively 

towards violent struggle. Indeed, credible sources claim that Hezbollah has experienced internal debates about the relative weights of its political and social programs 

versus its militant activities, particularly since the 2006 war with Israel. Hezbollah 

is a highly disciplined organization that does not expose internal dissension, but 

such factional differences are entirely plausible and, indeed, are common in any political organization, whether violent or non-violent. 

Tactically, a full-scale military conflict with the United States would inevitably 

lead to big losses and would shift Hezbollah’s priorities beyond its main military 

focus, notably its struggle against Israel. Furthermore, there is no evidence that 

Hezbollah aims to launch global terrorist operations, as carried out by Sunni extremist groups such as al-Qaeda. To the contrary, the organization has explicitly 

and repeatedly condemned the indiscriminate, large-scale acts of violence perpetrated by Sunni extremists. 

With respect the TBA, the proposition that Hezbollah intends to launch terrorist 

acts against the United States from the region are not based on conclusive evidence. 

Latin America is home to many Lebanese Shia migrants, but they have diverse religious and political orientations. Sympathy for Hezbollah as the leader of Resistance 

as well as the paying of religious taxes to Shia clerics, even those linked to 

Hezbollah, are not commensurate to support for or participation in terrorist acts. 

As detailed above, Hezbollah is a multi-faceted organization that garners popular 

support for diverse reasons. Many Lebanese—including opponents of Hezbollah and 

non-Shia Lebanese—view the organization’s on-going conflict with Israel as justified 

in the context of a protracted war. 

CONCLUSION

Analysts have made two main overarching claims about the security implications 

of Hezbollah’s activities in Latin America and, specifically, in the TBA: First, the 

region provides a space where Hezbollah (and other groups) conduct illicit activities 

that are central to their fundraising operations. Second, the region offers a geographic platform in the Americas from which Hezbollah and other groups can 

launch terrorist operations against the United States, among other Western targets. 

Regarding the first claim, I do not have sufficient independent information to confirm or deny the nature or extent of Hezbollah’s activities in the TBA. The information cited in published sources on Hezbollah’s budget structure, including the funds 

it allegedly derives from illicit activities in the TBA, is largely speculative. 

On the second claim, the notion that Hezbollah intends to launch terrorist operations against U.S. interests, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, seems implausible at this juncture. Since the 1980s, Hezbollah has evolved into a mainstream actor in Lebanese politics and has opted to participate in the formal institutions of the state. As a result, the party has become more pragmatic and far more 

willing to make compromises than in the past. Hezbollah remains committed to its 
41 

struggle against Israel, but confrontation with the United States is a much riskier 

venture and is well beyond the scope of its domestic and regional priorities. 

Mr. MEEHAN. Thank you, Dr. Cammett. 

Thank you, each of the panelists, for your very, I would say, not 

only engaging, but eye-opening testimony. 

I will recognize myself for 5 minutes of questioning. 

At the outset, I think what was important was that, almost 

across the board, each person identified this as not only an important issue for us to be looking at, but an issue that isn’t appreciated enough, that we aren’t doing enough observation on. So I am 

hopeful that this can be a platform for us, if appropriate, to continue to do that kind of analysis. 

But I am also struck by this line in which we look at what is 

already, by each person’s testimony, a very sophisticated criminal 

enterprise. In my experience as a prosecutor, the concern about the 

sort of narco trail that would be guns and drugs and trafficking 

and other things that would reach right into American cities. But 

I am concerned about where and how you draw the line between 

what is a criminal enterprise and what becomes a terroristic 

threat, because I am struck by the testimony which is talking 

about training at our borders, the Mexican border, of individuals 

on explosives in some of your testimony; training on tunneling like 

we are seeing in Lebanon. 

So where is the line? I think it was engaged in the ‘‘tragedy of 

asymmetric warfare on our doorstep’’ was the words I think either 

Mr. Farah or Ambassador—Mr. Farah, you used. So are we dealing 

with a narco organization, or do we have a legitimate terroristic 

threat at our doorstep? I would like to ask each of you to just give 

me your observation on that. 

Mr. NORIEGA. Mr. Chairman, let me just give you my thoughts 

on this. It is important to note that their cooperation with other 

criminal organizations, drug-trafficking organizations, and providing operational capacity training, explosives training, and that 

sort of thing does represent a threat not only to our neighbors in 

the region that are fighting the drug-trafficking organizations, but 

the American people who bear the brunt of this narcotrafficking. 

Let me just add in response to something Dr. Cammett said, that 

a month ago the Iranian Defense Minister was in Bolivia and said 

that he was there to inaugurate an academy on asymmetrical warfare, basically militia training in Bolivia. He declared that their 

purposes was to be prepared to respond to any threat from the 

United States. 

So what the evidence that we have is that this initiative to push 

into Latin America began in 2005. So it is a rather new initiative; 

and also that they have made common cause with Sunnis in the 

region and with drug-trafficking organizations in this region. So it 

is a new approach that Hezbollah is using, and it does pose a 

threat to us. 

Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Farah, you talked about that asymmetric, 

what seems to be an expansion. Can you articulate what you think 

that needs and how that moves beyond the very important narco 

issue? But it seems to be an expansion of a threat. 

Mr. FARAH. Well, there is a firm belief, if you read the literature, 

including this book and what Carlos the Jackal has written, that 
42 

the United States can be defeated, and that weapons of mass destruction are now valid tools for achieving that end, and that they 

can’t confront the United States militarily. This—what I think is 

truly different about the situation now is that you have criminalizing states such as Venezuela where you have senior leadership 

deeply involved in drug trafficking, and Bolivia where you have 

senior leadership deeply involved in drug trafficking, and franchising out other elements to terrorist organizations like the FARC 

and Hezbollah as instruments of statecraft. I think that’s what you 

see, and it is significantly different in the region now than it was 

5 years ago. 

They understand, I think, that they cannot attack the United 

States frontally militarily since they don’t have the capacity to do 

that. But they are firm believers in leveraging the powers that they 

do have and what they do have access to. 

Again, they explicitly discuss at great length WMD. It is not a 

passing reference. In fact, this book describes in great detail how 

to build WMD and how to go on the internet and get it if you want 

it, which is not unique. But it is interesting because it has been 

adopted as official Venezuelan military doctrine, and President 

Cha ́vez had this book printed up in a pocket-sized edition and distributed to an officer corps to read and study as part of their curriculum. It takes it to a different level, the belief that this is not 

only necessary, not only possible, but necessary. I think that is 

what is different now. 

Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Berman and Dr. Cammett, do you have a 

quick observation on this point? 

Mr. BERMAN. Well, a couple of seconds, if I may. I think—when 

you asked the question about whether or not Hezbollah is a criminal enterprise or a terrorist organization, I think if you look at the 

history, the answer is both. Hezbollah during the 1980s got its seed 

money from narcotrafficking activity in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. So 

the earliest appearance of Hezbollah in the Tri-Border region, for 

example, was marked by narcotrafficking activities. This is what 

the organization knows. It is also where a lot of its revenue comes 

from. 

So it is very hard to make that seamless transition to compartmentalize them as one or the other. The organization is pragmatic. 

It is pragmatic in its interaction and interoperability with Sunni 

groups such as al-Qaeda, as prosecutorial testimony has shown in 

the past. Similarly here, it is pragmatic in its interaction with 

criminal enterprises that further its—— 

Mr. MEEHAN. I accept and don’t for a moment question Hezbollah 

as an actor of terrorism, but in their activities here on America’s 

doorstep, at what point in time are they moving from a group who 

is benefiting from the ability to generate revenue from narcoterrorism, you know, narcotics trafficking and other things, and becoming a location for sort of a base of destabilization and potential 

terrorism against the United States? 

Mr. BERMAN. Well, sir, I think that is an excellent question. The 

committee and the subcommittee are in a much better position to 

answer it than I. But I can tell you that from the organizations, 

the law enforcement agencies that have been looking at this issue, 

they tend to address Hezbollah in ancillary fashion, as part of the 
43 

war on drugs, as part of the criminal activities, racketeering, smuggling, otherwise, rather than address it head-on the fact that these 

revenue-generating enterprises actually provide material gain to an 

international terrorist organization as designated by the State Department. 

Mr. MEEHAN. Thank you. My time has expired. 

I recognize Ranking Minority Member Speier for questions. 

Thank you. 

Ms. SPEIER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Thank you all for your testimony. 

Let me just ask at the outset, how many of you, in your scholarship, have interviewed officials of Hezbollah? Can we just go down 

the line starting with you, Ambassador? 

Mr. NORIEGA. As far as I know, I haven’t interviewed anybody 

directly involved, although I have—some of the people that I 

worked with directly have had contact with people who are aware 

of Hezbollah’s operations. For example, one operative in Argentina 

told us as recently as yesterday that he and other terrorist leaders 

met in Caracas with that triumvirate of terrorist leaders in August 

of 2010. So he had operational real-time information about their 

operations. 

So although I don’t meet with their scholars or anything, we 

have met with people that have dealt directly with Hezbollah. 

Ms. SPEIER. Thank you. 

Mr. Farah. 

Mr. FARAH. As a journalist I don’t know how senior they were. 

I have dealt with Hezbollah on the ground in West Africa and also 

in Latin America. I don’t know with any sense of reality where 

they fit in the hierarchy. 

Ms. SPEIER. Thank you. 

Mr. Berman. 

Mr. BERMAN. Ms. Speier, I have not. However, in my written remarks you will see there it references extensively FBI and DEA 

testimony from agents that have. So I will use those as secondary 

sources. 

Ms. SPEIER. All right. 

Dr. Cammett. 

Ms. CAMMETT. Yes, I have, in the course of researching a book 

that I am currently completing on Hezbollah’s social welfare activities. I have interviewed a number of people from some of their social programs, and I have interacted with the media and public relations office where you have to go to obtain clearance in order to 

meet with officials from the organization. 

Ms. SPEIER. So Dr. Cammett has made a fairly bold statement 

that suggests that Hezbollah is not a threat to the United States 

at this time. Is that a fair—— 

Ms. CAMMETT. From the evidence that I have seen, I do not conclude that, at this particular moment, Hezbollah is interested in 

targeting the U.S. militarily. 

Ms. SPEIER. All right. Can I have comments from each of you as 

to whether or not you agree with that? 

Mr. NORIEGA. Well, I think this is something that is very, very 

important, because you have had within recent weeks State Department officials telling this Congress that the only activities that 
44 

Hezbollah has in this hemisphere is fund-raising, as if that were 

to come as some sort of comfort to us that all they are doing is raising money to attack our interests. 

But I believe that, based on the information that we have, that 

these operatives are training, that they are training others who 

represent a physical threat to the United States and our interests. 

So, frankly, I believe that the fund-raising is only part of it; but 

that they are seeking an operational capacity to be prepared to attack our interests when it becomes—when they make the calculation that it is in their interest to do so. 

Ms. SPEIER. Thank you. I am going to have to ask you to complete your comments because I have got one more question I am 

going to try to sneak in. 

Mr. Farah and Mr. Berman, if you could. 

Mr. FARAH. I would agree that what I think they are doing is positioning themselves across the region to be able to inflict great 

harm if Iran is attacked or if Israel attacks Iran or we attack Iran 

on their nuclear program, or, as Ambassador Noriega said to you, 

be positioned for when they feel the time is right, if they feel the 

time is right. I don’t believe they are in an offensive mode right 

now to attack us just because we are here, but I think they are positioning themselves to be able to do that if they view it as necessary. 

Ms. SPEIER. Thank you. 

Mr. Berman. 

Mr. BERMAN. I will try to be quick. I agree with Mr. Farah. I 

think what you see now is a rather elaborate fund-raising logistical 

web. But the web right now is being harnessed to generate revenue 

for the organization. But the web could easily be used to project an 

operational capability, as Ambassador Noriega talked about. 

Ms. SPEIER. All right. One last question, if I can get this in in 

a minute. We have spent a fair amount of time looking at the terrorist organizations in Pakistan, LET, Pakistani Taliban and the 

like, which, to my point of view, is where the greatest risk to the 

United States potentially is right now. If you were to evaluate 

Hezbollah and the Pakistani terrorist organizations, how would you 

rank them? 

Mr. BERMAN. I will address it very quickly. I think any such calculus has to be measured against the ability of the organization to 

actually sustainably project power into the U.S. homeland. I think 

because of the network that Hezbollah has built in the Western 

Hemisphere, Hezbollah has the potential to do so. Whether they 

have the political decisionmaking and have made the decision to do 

so is another story entirely, but I think it is better positioned 

logistically to be able to do so if the decision is made. 

Ms. CAMMETT. I would agree to some degree with that statement, 

because Hezbollah certainly seems to be more spread globally. But 

that is a very different thing from saying it has the desire, motivation, tactical decision to actually launch an attack. I mean, there 

is no question that Hezbollah has supporters and probably 

operatives in the United States already. I mean, I know in my 

interviews with the pedagogical training center, Hezbollah, they 

got a lot of their textbooks from California, textbooks on physics 

and mathematics, textbooks used in California schools. They said 
45 

to me quite clearly, we have lots of supporters in the United States 

that send us their pedagogical material. So they are clearly wellimplanted here. They probably are much better organized than 

some of these Pakistani organizations in terms of targeting the 

United States, but they are quite a different organization in terms 

of their interests and goals than those Pakistani types of organizations. 

Ms. SPEIER. Thank you. My time has expired. 

Mr. MEEHAN. Thank you, Ms. Speier. 

I now recognize the gentleman from Minnesota, Mr. Cravaack. 

Mr. CRAVAACK. Thank you for being here today on this important 

subject, and I would like to dovetail just what you said, Doctor, on 

just—question I had is, do any of you see a link between Iran and 

Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood organizations here in the 

United States, such as CAIR or ISNA? 

Ms. CAMMETT. Not to my knowledge. 

Mr. CRAVAACK. I will take it from the left to the right. Ambassador? 

Mr. NORIEGA. It is out of my area to comment specifically on 

that, sir. 

Mr. CRAVAACK. Mr. Farah. 

Mr. FARAH. I spent considerable time looking at Islam and the 

other Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups here, and I did not come 

across an Iranian tie-in to those organizations. 

Mr. BERMAN. Similar, my expertise does not extend to the synergy between those two. 

Ms. CAMMETT. I have never heard of a linkage, but I can’t speak 

authoritatively. 

Mr. CRAVAACK. Can you possibly expand upon it then both with 

the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran being a Shia and the Muslim Brotherhood being Sunni, and each of them independently seeing that— 

wanted to see the destruction of the United States; can you see 

them kind of an independently going on at this point, or do you see 

them joining up forces later on? Mr. Farah. 

Mr. FARAH. I think one of the unique things about the Brotherhood is its ability to bridge this Sunni/Shia divide. It is the only 

transnational organization that does that, and if you listen to the 

testimony of Youssef Nada, the self-described foreign minister of 

the Muslim Brotherhood, immediately after 9/11 he went on Al 

Jazeera 2 hours a night for 5 nights in a row, and he described how 

the Brotherhood accompanied Ayatollah Khomeini back. There 

were three planes that went back. One was the ayatollah, one was 

the security, and one was the Muslim Brotherhood. 

So they have been very involved in bridging that, the Sunni/Shia 

divide. So I think that—I don’t think they are adverse to that. I 

think one of the—it has been commented on the ability to reach out 

across the Sunnis in Latin America is not unusual for the Brotherhood. It is unusual for almost any other group of the Pan-Muslim 

world to be able to do that. 

So if you look at the underlying ideology in the Muslim Brotherhood testimony presented in the Holy Land case, the desire to hoist 

the United States on its own petard, et cetera, et cetera, it is consistent with different strains of radical Islamic thought about the 
46 

United States, whether they would be operationalizing in the 

United States. 

I would add one small thing, and that is that if you look at where 

the Muslim Brotherhood established its financial capacity and 

housed its money, it was in this hemisphere. It wasn’t elsewhere. 

We had the Bahamas. We had the different banks in the Bahamas, 

Bank Al Taqwa particularly, and you have multiple offshore companies I investigated 2004–2005 where all of the major Brotherhood leaders had significant offshore and shell companies established in Panama. So they clearly are familiar with this hemisphere and like to use it at least for financial reasons. 

Mr. CRAVAACK. Okay. Thank you. 

Ambassador Noriega, given Cha ́vez’s regime’s involvement and 

support for the FARC and the FARC-Hezbollah connection, how do 

you recommend the United States move forward in our foreign policy towards Venezuela? 

Mr. NORIEGA. I think we took some positive steps by sanctioning 

PDVSA, the state-run oil company of Venezuela, for its support for 

Iran for providing gasoline in violation of U.S. law to Iran. I know 

that there is a debate between designating Venezuela as a terrorist 

state. I prefer, since that is a decision that the Secretary of State 

or the President would have to make, I think it is better enable 

and encourage law enforcement to go after in a tactical way those 

institutions, individuals that support, to provide logistical financial 

support for terrorism. 

For example, Conviasa, the Venezuela airline, has regular service from Caracas to Tehran and Damascus, and it is not the only 

persons that they carry, but they do ferry operatives, recruits, and 

cargo to and from. 

Mr. CRAVAACK. Doesn’t Venezuela shield that from Interpol; is 

that correct? 

Mr. NORIEGA. Pardon me? 

Mr. CRAVAACK. Doesn’t Venezuela shield the passengers on that 

aircraft? 

Mr. NORIEGA. It is my understanding the passenger manifests 

are generally reserved, and there are people that do not pass normal immigration when they come and go, and cargo doesn’t go 

through Customs. 

Again, this is one final point. Just 2 weeks ago, a State Department official said that that flight wasn’t going anymore. Well, that 

is because Venezuelans did a press release and said it isn’t going 

anymore. We have to do better than reading press releases from 

Caracas. In point of fact, my sources say that that flight goes every 

Saturday from Caracas to Tehran. 

Mr. CRAVAACK. Just one more question real quick. Mr. Farah. 

You piqued my interest when you said—I just want to make sure 

I understood it correctly. Given means and opportunity to use 

weapons of mass destruction, do you believe Hezbollah would use 

them here in the United States? 

Mr. FARAH. I think if they viewed that in their interest, particularly in Iran’s interest, that they are positioning themselves—I believe it is primarily a defensive positioning. I don’t believe it is an 

offensive intention without what they would view as provocation, 

but I think that if you read their literature and listen to what they 
47 

say—and they say it extensively, particularly in Venezuela with 

Iran—that they view that as their right and moral imperative to 

destroy the United States, and the weapons of mass destruction are 

a way for them to do that, yes. 

Mr. CRAVAACK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding. I yield 

back. 

Mr. MEEHAN. Thank you, Mr. Cravaack. 

The Chairman now recognizes Mr. Higgins from New York. 

Mr. HIGGINS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Hezbollah in Arabic is the Party of God. It is a Shia group that 

is committed to violent jihad. It acts as a proxy for Syria, for Iran, 

for Venezuela. It is involved in radicalization efforts in Mexico and 

along the United States southern border. It has infiltrated the 

Western Hemisphere, but more directly it has infiltrated the 

United States with a presence in 15 cities, as has been said here, 

and also 4 major cities in Canada, including Toronto because of its 

close proximity to the United States. 

If Hezbollah is not targeting the United States, what are they 

doing here? Those efforts aren’t moving away from our region. It 

is estimated, I think, Dr. Noriega, in your testimony that there are 

some 80 Hezbollah operatives in the 12-region area of Latin America. 

My thought is we should also have a representative from the Department of Homeland Security here because my sense is that a 

presence that is pervasive and growing is a very serious threat that 

needs to be addressed. I would ask all of you to comment on that. 

Then a final question. There is a book by Gretchen Peters called 

Seeds of Terror, and it is an analysis of violent jihad and the connection between narcotrafficking, and she estimates that in Afghanistan, which heroin is about 60 percent of the entire economy, 

the Taliban receives about a half a billion dollars a year in the heroin trade. It is not that they own the fields, but they preside over 

it. They charge protection, and I would be curious to know—most 

of the heroin that comes in the United States now comes from 

Latin America. So I would like to know the extent to which 

Hezbollah is funded by heroin trafficking and how extensive that 

threat is. So any of you that want to take that, I appreciate your 

comments. 

Mr. NORIEGA. Very quickly, sir. When we talk about asymmetrical warfare, I would submit that supporting drug trafficking is a 

form of asymmetrical warfare against the United States. I am 

aware of Hezbollah being involved, according to drug kingpins 

themselves, in cocaine-smuggling operations in Venezuela with the 

support of the Venezuelan Government there, by the way. 

One final note in terms of going after this threat. Again, I am 

aware of law enforcement inquiries into individuals and particular 

forms of financing that Hezbollah uses in Venezuela, and with the 

support and encouragement of this committee, I can see these law 

enforcement agencies going forward and knocking the blocks out 

from under Hezbollah’s ability to generate that kind of revenue 

here in our hemisphere. 

Mr. FARAH. I think that if you look at the FARC and Hezbollah 

and the Taliban, you see the criminalization of terrorist groups, 

without a doubt. What are they doing here? I think that that is 
48 

what we need to spend a lot more time thinking about, because I 

think that if you look at Hezbollah and you look at Iran and you 

look at Venezuela, none of them have excessive cash right now. 

They are all being squeezed, and yet they are choosing to spend 

significant resources on placing themselves in this hemisphere. It 

seems to me to indicate it is very important to them. 

What is it? As I said before, I think it is largely a defensive positioning at this point to be able to strike hard if they feel that they 

are either under attack or about to be attacked. 

I think Gretchen’s book is very good. I think it is sort of a very 

significant object lesson of how these groups evolved, and I think 

what you see in Latin America now with the Hezbollah and FARC 

becoming closer and closer is you see the ability to exchange information technologies, trafficking routes, and access to specific resources, Hezbollah with weapons and the FARC with drugs, that 

bodes very ill for the region. 

Mr. HIGGINS. Let me just—to me, that is very disturbing. You 

say that they have a presence in the United States and North 

America generally so as to have leverage, to be positioned that if 

they are attacked, they can attack. You know, it is almost like we 

are waiting—to suggest that they don’t—that Hezbollah does not 

pose a threat, a direct threat, to the United States, I think, is inconsistent in a very compelling way with the facts as they are presented here. You don’t infiltrate an area, you know, unless you 

have an intent, and the intent, you know, clearly is it is not benevolent. We know that. We know that. 

Ms. CAMMETT. I think there is a number of reasons why they 

might have a presence here. I mean, for one thing, I am sure there 

is similarly ordinary citizens of Lebanese descent who are sympathetic to the organization. I don’t know if that amounts to a presence, but I mean, fund-raising is an important reason in and of 

itself, forget military operations. Now, fund-raising I am not trying 

to say is a good thing, you know, the kinds of activities are not, 

you know—not to be condoned necessarily, but that is distinct in 

a number of ways from launching violent activities in part because 

fund-raising is going to multiple dimensions. 

Mr. HIGGINS. I understand that, but it is an organization that is 

committed to violent activities. So is the fund-raising—the presence 

is intended in some way, directly or indirectly, to engage in violent 

activities. 

Ms. CAMMETT. Against the United States or against other governments? 

Mr. HIGGINS. They are here. They are here, in Canada in a major 

city in close proximity to the United States and western New York. 

Ms. CAMMETT. Right, but it is not clear to me that there is evidence that they are targeting the United States with that. That 

doesn’t mean—— 

Mr. HIGGINS. Pretty clear to me of what their intent is, whether 

it is immediate or longer-term, and that is a profound concern. It 

should be to everybody here, including, you know, the United 

States Government, Department of Homeland Security. 

Mr. MEEHAN. Thank you, Mr. Higgins. 

The Chairman now recognizes the gentleman from South Carolina Mr. Duncan. 
49 

Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for having this meeting. 

On this committee we have talked about the issue of the Mexican 

border and southern border, the Tri-Border region in South America many times, and according to DHS, between 2007 and 2010, 

180,000 people, 180,000 people, have been captured that are other 

than Mexicans at the southern border. 

In July of last year, we had the first IED explode in this hemisphere just south of the Mexican border. In 2005, Mahmoud 

Youssef Kourani crossed the border from Mexico into California 

traveling to Dearborn, Michigan, where he was later sentenced to 

41⁄2 years in prison for conspiring to raise money for Hezbollah. So 

out of the 180,000 people that came into this country, how many 

were the Mahmoud Youssef Kourani-type folks? That is a question 

that I have. 

We see more and more evidence of Hezbollah being involved, I 

think, with the Mexican drug cartel with extensive tunneling. They 

have an expertise in that area, as you have heard from other questions. 

So, Mr. Farah, in your written testimony you said that there is 

growing concern that Hezbollah is providing technology for the increasingly sophisticated narcotunnels now being found along the 

U.S.-Mexican border, which strongly represent and resemble the 

types that are being used by Hezbollah in Lebanon. Can you elaborate on that conclusion, and can you speak to whether or not it is 

possible for Hezbollah to exploit these drug tunnels and the human 

smuggling routes that the Mexican drug cartels and networks use 

to attack the United States of America? 

Mr. FARAH. I think there are several issues in that question. One 

is I think if you look at the pipeline, the transcriminal pipelines 

that cross from North and South America through Central America 

to Mexico and the United States, their delivery rate is better than 

UPS. They can deliver—if you put either 30 illegal Chinese or 30 

AK–47s or 30 kilos of cocaine, they are going to cross through the 

same basic checkpoints, cross the same terrain until they cross the 

border, which they do thousands of times a day. So is that possible? 

Absolutely. 

But I think the other issue that you have to consider is that with 

the state alliances that they have, there is a less need—I think 

there might be operational need to push people across the border 

and through coyotes and that type of thing. I think that it is more 

likely now, because they can obtain diplomatic passports from Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador without any difficulty whatsoever. You would rather fly across and land in a country and walk 

through the Customs and Immigration with a diplomatic passport 

than crawl across the border. 

I think with the tunnels, the evidence is interesting, but not conclusive. I would suggest there is probably a technology exchange, 

one way of one group learning from the other and exchanging either cocaine or other products in exchange—or knowledge maybe of 

smuggling use in exchange for the technology for tunneling or 

whatever else they need, because if you look at the history of the 

FARC and the drug traffickers particularly, I think this holds true 

for Hezbollah as well, they are willing to work across ideological 
50 

boundaries. They are willing to ally themselves in the short term. 

Instead of—you know, they don’t get married to anyone, but they 

have a lot of one-night stands with different criminal organizations, 

and then everybody walks away happy; or maybe not so happy, but 

they generally walk away unless they are decapitated or something. 

But generally you have this ability to cross these lines, make 

short-term alliances and walk away, and it seems to me from what 

I have seen on the tunneling front that this technology transfer 

should concern us because it shows it exists and that communication can exist. I doubt it signifies an alliance between Hezbollah 

and anybody else on the ground there in an organic sense. 

Mr. DUNCAN. I realize that the tunnels are mainly used for 

smuggling drugs. That is the most profitable thing. But there is a 

lot of concern within Congress of what could be brought into this 

country through those tunnels and other means. 

Can you speak to the validity of people of Middle Eastern descent 

who may want to do harm to this country coming to South America, learning Spanish language, assimilating, and then working 

their way up through Latin America and entering this country as 

tourists or on other diplomatic passports? Can you expound on that 

just a little bit? 

Mr. FARAH. I think it happens. I think one of the concerns, particularly with Ecuador, is that they lifted all visa requirements for 

everyone, except maybe I think North Korea stayed on the list. So 

essentially what you have, it is like water running downhill. You 

go to the easiest place, which is why the Mexican cartels are now 

flying to Ecuador to buy FARC cocaine directly, because they can. 

There are no visa checks. The FARC is on their side of the border, 

and off they go. 

So I think that the ability to move through Latin America, and 

particularly Central America, easily is there. Whether they need to 

sit around and learn Spanish enough, my sense is that that is usually not the case. You can usually just buy your way across without 

having to spend 6 months learning Spanish. Why bother? If you 

really want to go deep undercover, maybe you do that. 

But the other thing I would just suggest on the movement of 

product is that the tunnels are of great concern. I think one of the 

other things that plays into that enormously is the first immersible 

craft that the FARC is now able to create with Russian technology 

that you are seeing now that can go from Ecuador and Colombia 

all the way to Mexico and to our shores carrying 10 tons of whatever they want, and I think that that is something that should 

make us very nervous as well. 

Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you. 

I am out of time. I yield back. 

Mr. MEEHAN. Thank you, Mr. Duncan. 

The Chairman now welcomes and recognizes Ms. Hochul. Ms. 

Hochul. 

Ms. HOCHUL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The last comments about this making you very nervous, this 

whole hearing is making me very nervous, as my first committee 

meeting. I commend you for bringing this to the attention of the 

public, Mr. Chairman, and I also concur with my colleague from 
51 

upstate New York’s views, where is the Homeland Security Department? 

I think a lot of the questions you raise as really an early warning 

system for us. Now my first thought is what is the answer, and 

what is being done about it? I think that is perhaps a law enforcement answer. So I hope that there will be, and perhaps there already is planned, a follow-up to ask our law enforcement community, Nationally and internationally our colleagues, what is being 

done about this, because I am getting the sense that we are sitting 

ducks here, and why are we waiting to be attacked first, after the 

lessons of 9/11, sounds like there are a lot of dots to be connected 

in our own hemisphere, and that is extremely troubling to me. 

As a prosecutor, you certainly know, Mr. Chairman, prosecutors 

want to know—in law enforcement you follow the money trail. I am 

sure there is—as we are hearing, there is a tremendous amount of 

money being made in this narcotrafficking. Is that money being 

spent and are the leaders living in lavish homes and palaces, or is 

that being funneled back to the Middle East to buy arms to threaten Israel and also perhaps threaten us? 

So I wanted to know if there has been any questions raised that 

you are aware of, any evidence where this money, as the ill-gotten 

proceeds from the narcotrafficking—where is the money ending up? 

Is it in banks? Is it in the Middle East? Is it being spent here? 

What is the answer to that question? 

Ms. CAMMETT. I mean, I think it is clearly part of it, a large part 

of it, is probably going to weapons which are mainly directed at 

Israel at this point in time. It is also directed—used in the social 

welfare programs, which are incredibly extensive. I mean, there is 

something like 50 health-related institutions, 25 or 30 schools, and 

this is one of absolutely the largest social programs, social networks in Lebanon, serving the largest block of Lebanese citizens, 

or among the largest. So these are all incredibly expensive endeavors. 

They also, you know, have a political party wing, but I am sure 

the bulk of the money, if I could just guess, goes to weapons and 

military-related activities, but also to these social programs in Lebanon. 

Mr. BERMAN. Ma’am, in my written remarks, the cases that were 

cited, including the cigarette-smuggling case that the Chairman alluded to, I think there is a pretty clear chain of evidence that suggests that the bulk of the proceeds from smuggling, from fund-raising, whether it is cigarette smuggling or racketeering or what have 

you, end up actually being funneled back to the organization in the 

Middle East rather than being spent on the organization’s 

operatives here. I think what you see is you see a pretty clear financial conduit that enriches the larger organization rather than 

individual members. 

Ms. HOCHUL. That is even more troubling. I would feel better if 

they were living in mansions as opposed to going back and flying— 

arming themselves to attack Israel perhaps or to pose more threats 

to our allies in the Middle East. So that is not the answer I wanted 

to hear, but I think that is probably accurate, and, again, this just 

raises—my question is, what is the law enforcement response to 

this? Perhaps it is satisfactory. I just need to hear it. 
52 

Mr. FARAH. In my dealings with the policymakers, there is a 

tendency still to look at—you know, you saw four Hezbollah guys 

in Paraguay, so that is not very interesting; you see three guys in 

Bolivia, that is not very interesting. There is still not a great deal 

of emphasis on stepping back and saying, what does all of this tell 

us? If you have these multiple activities, instead of viewing it as 

2 guys doing something here, and you are not seeing the other 18 

guys doing similar things across the region, or 200 people, I think 

that is one of our—our country reporting is very narrow. In focusing on the country, there is very little integration across country 

lines looking at Hezbollah as a theme as opposed to what is happening in that country specifically. 

Ms. HOCHUL. Can I ask you a question? Who would be the responsible party for connecting those international dots, in your 

opinion? 

Mr. FARAH. That is above my pay grade, I am afraid. I think 

there are—I think DOD is working on it. I think Treasury is working on a robust finance effort that is directed at Hezbollah, but not 

particularly in Latin America. I think it is a fragmented effort, and 

there were some good people working on it, but very little cohesion 

on the Latin America element. 

Mr. NORIEGA. Ma’am, I think you hit the nail right on the head 

in terms of one of the things we can be doing, and that is going 

after the financing, and there are some credible efforts going on 

within law enforcement out of the Southern District of New York, 

for example, going after narcotraffickers that are allied with terrorists; the DEA using special authorities through an interagency 

process to designate institutions as supporters of Hezbollah. For example, they did it in the case of—I think it is called the Lebanese 

Canadian Bank, and had the effect of collapsing that bank and cutting off that conduit of funds. 

The same interagency process is looking—this, again, is law enforcement—is looking at other instruments that Hezbollah uses in 

this hemisphere for moving people and moving money, and so they 

are making some progress. It is a serious thing. That is at the law 

enforcement level. 

I believe the policymakers are well behind the curve on this, and 

testimony before this Congress in recent weeks suggests that they 

are absolutely oblivious to this growing problem. I don’t know 

whether it is because they don’t want to confront Cha ́vez or because they don’t think Latin America is a priority, but this is our 

hemisphere, and I know they don’t want to provoke Cha ́vez, but 

the fact is this is provocative what he is doing, and it requires a 

credible response, and it starts with an interagency process that 

will review the whole problem, connect all these thoughts, and then 

come up with effective whole-of-Government response. 

Ms. HOCHUL. Thank you. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. MEEHAN. The Chairman now recognizes Mr. Cuellar from 

Texas. 

Mr. CUELLAR. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

I want to thank all the witnesses for being here, and it is my 

good friend—Ambassador Noriega, it is always a pleasure seeing 

you again. 
53 

Let me ask you—well, let me start off with this, the basic 

premise. If I was a bad guy, and I wanted to attack the United 

States, I would go to the backyard, which is Mexico, Central America, South America. I will start out with that premise itself. But 

let me ask you some facts. 

I think about 2 years ago I had some Members, some of my colleagues, that went down to my hometown in Laredo, and right in 

the middle of the press conference, one of them said, you know, 

there are training camps right across the river in Mexico, and they 

got these training camps, terrorist training camps. The media then 

turns to me and asks me, is that correct? I said, as far as I know, 

no. Then they turned to the Homeland Security folks that were 

there. They asked them the same question. They said no. Homeland said they had no information of terrorist camps in Mexico. 

Do any of you all have any contrary information that I might not 

be aware of? 

Mr. NORIEGA. If I can jump in, since you mentioned my name, 

sir. Good to see you again. 

The one—several anecdotal bits of information involving Mexicans has involved their going to Lebanon and Venezuela for training. 

Mr. CUELLAR. You say anecdotal. Evidence. 

Mr. NORIEGA. No. These were I should say specific reports citing 

U.S. law enforcement and intelligence sources. 

Mr. CUELLAR. Okay. 

Mr. NORIEGA. It involved Mexicans and a handful—I don’t think 

it is—training camps, I don’t have any reasons to suggest that, but 

it involved these people actually leaving Mexico for training, for 

sort of specialized training. I am not aware of any sort of—I have 

never even seen it suggested about training camps in Mexico. 

Mr. CUELLAR. Any of you all—and thank you, Ambassador. Anybody has any information contrary? 

Well, the other thing that is implied also is because—and I will 

be the first one; I mean, we need to defeat the drug cartels. It is 

a serious problem, and I think we know what is happening down 

there. But it has always been implied that because of what is happening down there, that you had this terrorist coming up there. It 

is always a possibility, and I will be the person to say we have got 

to watch out for that. But of the main terrorists that we have had 

that have come into the United States that have caused damage to 

us, how many have come in through Mexico? Any of you all? Anybody? Okay. All right. 

Now, let me change to the third—and oh, let us talk about the 

Tri-Border area, because I have been down to that area, and we 

talked to law enforcement. What is your understanding of the presence of United States law enforcement, whether it is DHS or Department of State, that are down there to monitor and combat that 

type of activity? Because the way I understand it, you have got 

drugs, you have got everything, and, of course, I am worried about 

the terrorist aspect of it. Are we doing enough down there in the 

Tri area? 

Mr. FARAH. I would say, sir, that in my research in the region, 

I think that the Tri-Border area is no longer the center of—as big 

a center or big a concern as it was simply because it is so much 
54 

safer for these groups to operate out of Venezuela now under state 

protection. They can decamp to a state where they are wholly protected, and the Brazilians sometimes get frisky, and the Paraguayans sometimes reacted unpredictably. So if you want stability, 

you go to where you see your state protector and where you can 

control the environment. 

I think that the Tri-Border is a huge contraband center, without 

question, and most of the people, in my experience there, who are 

funneling back to Hezbollah were not organic members of 

Hezbollah. They were the Lebanese diaspora community, sympathizing, the family asked them to, they were pressured, whatever, 

and there is a lot of money that flows back. But I don’t think—you 

saw some but not a very significant organic Hezbollah presence 

there. I think the significant money activity with the Iranian banks 

that are now operating out of Venezuela and Bolivia and Ecuador 

is much safer and much easier to go elsewhere than to hang 

around there. 

Mr. CUELLAR. Okay. I go back to—because my time is almost 

over—but I will go back to the basic statement I said that involves 

the bad guy wanting to attack the United States. I would really 

look at the southern part of it. Is there anything that our U.S. law 

enforcement folks should be doing, whether it is intelligence or 

whatever the department might be, that we ought to be doing to 

protect ourselves from activities in our own backyards which are 

south of the United States? 

Mr. NORIEGA. I would say two things, sir. 

Mr. CUELLAR. Yes, sir. 

Mr. NORIEGA. Building on what Doug said, one of my colleague 

says that Margarita Island in Venezuela makes the Tri-Border 

area look like a kindergarten. We need to get all over that phenomenon. 

Final thing is the reports that I saw referencing Mexicans actually cited Mexican authorities having arrested them. So it is not 

like Mexico is not an ally of ours in this. Mexico apparently is 

aware and is trying to help on this. 

Mr. CUELLAR. I want to thank all of you, and we really appreciate what you all do. Thank you. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. MEEHAN. The Chairman now recognizes Mr. Green from 

Texas. Mr. Green. 

Mr. GREEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also thank you for the 

unanimous consent to be a part of this hearing. I thank the Ranking Member as well for your help. 

I have had the opportunity to read the charter or perhaps the 

constitution of Hamas. My assumption is that some of you have 

read it is a fair statement. Very little that you have said is more 

frightening than reading the constitution or charter. 

Mr. Farah, you mentioned in their own words, in their own 

writings, you can find things that can be quite convincing. Do we 

have a similar document for this organization, for Hezbollah? Do 

we have a similar document, similar to the charter that Hamas has 

published, which is very clear in terms of what their intentions 

are? Is there a similar document? 

Mr. Farah, since you mentioned their writings. 
55 

Mr. FARAH. I am not a Hezbollah expert. I would defer to those 

who may have read that. I don’t know if—I have not read the 

Hezbollah constitution, if there is one. 

Ms. CAMMETT. Hezbollah published its open letter in 1985, which 

was its official proclamation of its establishment, and then it published another open letter updating that in I believe it was 2009 

or 2010, quite recently, and so there are two documents on record 

that state its positions. The initial one focused on its opposition to 

Israel and on its ideology. It focuses a lot on this notion of what 

it calls oppression and how to overcome oppression, particularly focused on the Shia, among other things. But there are at least two 

documents that are publicly available translated into English. 

Mr. GREEN. To what extent can we find linkage between 

Hezbollah and Hamas? Do you have some specific things that you 

can call to my attention rather quickly? 

Mr. BERMAN. Well, I think, sir, specifically if you are looking for 

linkages, operational linkages, between the organizations, you 

would have to look at Hezbollah infiltration into the Palestinian 

Territories, specifically into the Gaza Strip, where Hezbollah is involved in running universities, running charitable organizations as 

a proxy of Iran, which has a rather large presence in the Palestinian Territories. But also since the Gaza Strip is under Hamas 

stewardship, if you could call it that, then the organization operates with Hamas’ acknowledgment, with Hamas’ aid and support. 

Mr. GREEN. Can we find similar linkage between Hezbollah and 

al-Qaeda? 

Mr. BERMAN. Sir, I think you can, and I think you would be 

hard-pressed to find something over the last couple of years, but 

not because of—there is an absence of evidence, but, frankly, because I think we haven’t really paid as much attention. But if you 

look back, for example, into the late 1990s into the trial of Ali 

Mohamed, who was an Egyptian military officer, he talked—he was 

an al-Qaeda operative. He talked about receiving training in improvised explosive devices in suicide bombings from Hezbollah 

operatives as well. 

You also see interoperability between the way Hezbollah 

operatives and al-Qaeda operatives move around in Latin America, 

which has been cited by the Congressional Research Service and 

the Library of Congress. 

Ms. CAMMETT. I would say that the relationship between 

Hezbollah and al-Qaeda is very, very different from the relationship between Hezbollah and Hamas. It has a much closer relationship with Hamas and, you know, positions itself as a defender of 

the Palestinians and has cooperated with Hamas and so forth. I 

think that is well-documented, and Hezbollah officials would be 

quite open about that. 

Al-Qaeda, I have heard these reports that there have been some 

contacts between some Hezbollah officials and some al-Qaeda 

operatives. I have no direct knowledge of this. I have heard these 

reports, but there certainly isn’t any kind of institutionalized relationship. There have very important differences, not just doctrinal, 

but tactical. You could see in Lebanon with these Sunni extremist 

groups running around that tend to be based in some Palestinian 

camps there that Hezbollah is very much opposed to them and was 
56 

working against them, and I think not just rhetorically, but in reality Hezbollah is not in cahoots with al-Qaeda, I mean, apart from 

these perhaps reports that may be true—I can’t confirm them or 

deny them—about certain tactical arrangements. There is no systematic relationship between al-Qaeda and Hezbollah as far as I 

can tell. 

Mr. GREEN. Have we had any indications that Nasrallah, who 

heads Hezbollah, has had contact at some point with bin Laden? 

Ms. CAMMETT. I don’t know. Not to my knowledge. I don’t think 

so. 

Mr. GREEN. Finally, I don’t hear a lot about the No. 2 person in 

Hezbollah. I know who Nasrallah is. But do you have any intelligence on who the apparent successor might be to Nasrallah? 

Ms. CAMMETT. There are a number of people in the Central 

Council there. I wouldn’t be able to say which one in particular is 

the successor. Nasrallah has been continually reappointed as the 

head secretary general of Hezbollah. 

Mr. GREEN. Thank you. Perhaps next time I can ask you a question about Lebanon and how they have infiltrated that government. 

Thank you. 

I yield back. 

Mr. MEEHAN. Thank you, Mr. Green, and to all of our colleagues 

on the panel, for your interest and attendance today, and I want 

to thank this panel not only for your perseverance today with us, 

but your preparation and the great opportunity we have had to engage with you. I thank the witnesses. 

The Members of the committee may have some additional questions. If, in fact, they do, we will ask that you would respond in 

writing, if that is done, within—and the hearing record will be 

open for 10 days for that purpose. 

So, without objection, the committee stands adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 4:25 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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