Global Affairs

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U.S. Treasury Dept: Hezbollah Creating “Worldwide Funding and Recruitment Network”

The Treasury Department this week designated four Lebanese nationals for conducting operations on behalf of Hezbollah in western Africa. The Iran-backed terror group is part and parcel of a network in Africa responsible for that the New York Times describes as “spectacular” state and non-state violence.

Treasury’s statement on the blacklisting described the operatives’ activities:

Ali Ibrahim al-Watfa, Abbas Loutfe Fawaz, Ali Ahmad Chehade, and Hicham Nmer Khanafer, who are responsible for Hizballah’s activities in Sierra Leone, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, and the Gambia respectively, have been organized fundraising efforts, recruited members, and in some cases styled themselves as ambassadors of Hizballah’s Foreign Relations Department. Today’s designations… further expose the alarming reach of Hizballah’s activities and its determination to create a worldwide funding and recruitment network to support its violence and criminal enterprises around the world. Even as Hizballah claims to be a resistance organization, its expansive global network is sending money and operatives to carry out terrorist attacks around the world and fighters to the front lines of the Syrian civil war.

The problem is global:

In recent years, Treasury has expanded its operations against Hezbollah activities in Latin America and West Africa. For example, in May 2009, Treasury designated two key Hezbollah operatives, Kassim Tajideen and Abd Al Menhem Qubaysi, in Africa.

On Feb. 10, 2011, Treasury designated the Lebanese Canadian Bank “as a financial institution of primary money laundering concern.” The designation “exposes the terrorist organization Hezbollah’s links to LCB [Lebanese Canadian Bank] and the international narcotics trafficking and money laundering network,” Treasury said.

Two weeks before the designation of the LCB, Treasury had designated Ayman Joumaa as well as nine individuals and 19 entities as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers. Joumaa’s network “used LCB [Lebanese Canadian Bank] to launder narcotics proceeds,” Treasury said. In addition, Treasury charged that “Hezbollah derived financial support from the criminal activities of Joumaa’s network.”

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