Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: All-American Hizbullah!

http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/trib07.html
They're 100% American, and pro-Hezbollah
U.S. scrutiny resented in Dearborn
By E.A. Torriero
Tribune staff reporter
July 27, 2006
DEARBORN, Mich. -- A neon American flag flashes red, white and blue
above La Shish East restaurant on Michigan Avenue. But what happened
with some of the hefty profits from the Lebanese fare is anything but
patriotic, federal prosecutors allege.
Using a double set of books, the owner of La Shish chain of 15
restaurants evaded taxes while funneling some $20 million to the
Lebanese militant force Hezbollah in recent years, according to an
indictment returned in May.
The restaurateur, Talal Chahine, has fled to Lebanon but denies
wrongdoing. The case is one of several across the U.S. that link
Americans with smuggling operations of illicit drugs, cigarettes and
even baby formula and Viagra to profit Hezbollah--designated by the
State Department as a terrorist organization.
With fighting raging in southern Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israeli
ground forces, the FBI last week issued a nationwide alert for law
enforcement to be vigilant in investigating and profiling Hezbollah
sympathizers, according to federal sources.
"The question is: Are they loyal to the U.S. or to this terrorist group
Hezbollah?" asked assistant U.S. Atty. Kenneth Chadwell, one of nine
federal prosecutors investigating Hezbollah ties in metro Detroit.
Roots in southern Lebanon
The scrutiny has deeply angered this Detroit suburb, where nearly
30,000 Lebanese-Americans live in the largest concentration of
Americans with roots in southern Lebanon. Here, many people see no
contradiction between being 100 percent American yet backing the
guerrillas of Hezbollah against Israel.
On the streets of Dearborn, Hezbollah is not seen as a terrorist group
but as a heroic resistance force. Residents say the group led the
"freedom fight" in Lebanon during 18 years of Israeli occupation.
Without the diligence and sacrifice of Hezbollah, people here say they
would not have been able to return every summer to show their children
their hillside villages and share their ancestral heritage. Hezbollah
also provides social services and education for their relatives in
Lebanon who are too poor to afford them.
Watching reports from the Middle East, many in Dearborn feel betrayed
and unfairly targeted by the U.S. government.
This week some 200 Hezbollah fighters engaged in fierce battles
defending Bint Jbeil, a village that is a longtime Hezbollah stronghold
near the Israeli border. Some 15,000 Dearborn residents have emigrated
over the years from Bint Jbeil. They created a community center named
after the village.
When about 10,000 Arab-Americans demonstrated in Dearborn last week in
support of the Lebanese cause, some held up portraits of Hezbollah
leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. People here draw a distinction, though,
between Hezbollah's strict religious theocracy and its military
movement.
Shiite presence in Dearborn
Most Lebanese-Americans in Dearborn are Shiite Muslims who do not
subscribe to Hezbollah's Islamist political ideology. They do not
associate Hezbollah with its Iranian backers but see the group as
Lebanese combating aggression by Israel.
Community leaders estimate there are 35,000 Arab-Americans in Dearborn
out of 100,000 residents. Of the Arabs, they say, up to 80 percent are
Lebanese-Americans, and 90 percent of them are Shiite Muslims from
southern Lebanon. The remainder are Sunni, Christian or secular, they
say.
"If the FBI wants to come after those who support the resistance done
by Hezbollah, then they better bring a fleet of buses," said Osama
Siblani, publisher of the local Arab-American News and an outspoken
activist. "I for one would be willing to go to jail."
Lebanese-Americans know the crush of U.S. public opinion is against
them. Right-wing talk shows mock Dearborn as Hezbollah's U.S.
headquarters.
But community leaders say Lebanese-Americans are not supporting
terrorism against the United States. Even though the U.S. government
has linked Hezbollah with the deadly attack on the Marine barracks and
the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in the 1980s, Hezbollah has never attacked
America at home, they argue, and has shown no interest in doing so.
And while they encourage the FBI to investigate credible threats
against U.S. targets, activists in Dearborn say there is a wide gulf
between their expressions of free speech and the fanaticism of
terrorists planning attacks.
Still, U.S. law enforcement looks askance at those who lean
pro-Hezbollah, they say, even though Dearborn-area residents are
intensely proud Americans.
"By making this so public, the government is on a campaign smearing the
whole community," said Abed Hammoud, a Wayne County prosecutor who
leads the Congress of Arab American Organizations in Michigan in his
off time.
"It's a way to intimidate people from demonstrating," Hammoud said.
"Now people are scared to even say `I want Hezbollah to defend
Lebanon.'"
Federal officials say they are not harassing Lebanese-Americans but are
looking for people aiding Hezbollah. It is illegal to lend support to a
terrorist group, and in Michigan, several dozen people have been linked
to smuggling operations, federal prosecutors say. Some are Hezbollah
fighters who managed to enter the U.S., they say.
Two Michigan men pleaded guilty this month to racketeering charges for
running a ring of 18 people who allegedly shipped caches of cigarettes
to Michigan from North Carolina and Indian reservations in New York.
The ring, run out of Dearborn, funneled some of the profits to
Hezbollah, federal prosecutors said. Customers were told that part of
the cost of the cigarettes was a "resistance tax" to benefit the
militant group. In May, Dearborn restaurateur Chahine, 51, was charged
with tax evasion in an indictment that connected him with the highest
echelon of Hezbollah. Chahine and his wife skimmed $20 million of their
profits to Hezbollah, prosecutors allege.
Chahine was photographed speaking at a 2002 fundraiser in Lebanon while
seated next to Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a Lebanese
Shiite cleric identified by the U.S. government as Hezbollah's
spiritual leader.
Chahine is now a fugitive in Lebanon. He fled after his restaurants and
home were searched. His attorney did not return calls seeking comment.
But Chahine said in a statement in May that he was only doing charity
work and is not connected to Hezbollah, nor did he help fund the group.
Arab-American leaders in Michigan say the case is typical of the
government overreaching for links to Hezbollah.
Moe Saad said the community has more to worry about than its reputation
and the FBI. His brother Hussein was killed last week when an Israeli
missile smashed into the Saad home in Bint Jbeil. Their 71-year-old
father, Akil, who owns the family bakery in Dearborn, was seriously
wounded.
"We are the targets," Moe Saad said, "in and out of Lebanon. This will
continue."

vale anche per te!
I vigliacchi
A proposito di luridi vigliacchi -e la stampa ed i politicanti e TV italiane
ci si crogiolano- ho sentito dire e con enfasi la radio italica lo ha
riportato e senz'altro credo che lo faranno tutti i sedicenti giornalisti
televisivi e della carta stampata.... che l' Iran -sua bontà e giustizia
perfetta,non dimentichiamo la bontà dell' Iran, MAI....- invierà volontari
in Libano, al fianco dei gloriosi Hezbollah per sconfiggere definitavamente
Israele-Demonio del mondo "civile" e "pio"...Vaticano, Monsignor  Ilarion
Kapucci e loro per primi...
Chiaro che la notizia- se vera- è il tipico uso del terrore per far
indietreggiare- come usa nella Italia mafiosa e anche ad alti livelli- i
pavidi ,i vigliacchi, quelli che amano stare con i piedi su due staffe....
Ed inoltre, di grazia...come farebbero questi "pii salvatori del mondo
civile e democratico" volontari iraniani...che? sono come quelli della CRI e
della Misericordia?? ah, si va bene, non c'è che dire...insomma come
arriverebbero in Libano???
Tramite gli osservatori ONU o le azioni umanitarie delle varie
protezioni...mmmm..civili italiane ed internazionali??
Forse sì..in questa ultima via...
Luciana Cencioni