|
|
|
Last Updated: Aug 27, 2008 - 11:13:23 AM |
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Western anti-terrorism officials are increasingly
concerned that Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shiite Muslim militia that
Washington has labeled a terrorist group, is using Venezuela as a base
for operations.
Linked to deadly attacks on Jewish targets in Argentina in the early
1990s, Hezbollah may be taking advantage of Venezuela's ties with Iran,
the militia's longtime sponsor, to move "people and things" into the
Americas, as one Western government terrorism expert put it.
As part of his anti-American foreign policy, Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez has established warm diplomatic relations with Iran and has
traveled there several times. The Bush administration, Israel and other
governments worry that Venezuela is emerging as a base for anti-U.S.
militant groups and spy services, including Hezbollah and its Iranian
allies.
"It's becoming a strategic partnership between Iran and Venezuela,"
said a Western anti-terrorism official who spoke on condition of
anonymity due to the issue's sensitivity.
Several joint Venezuelan-Iranian business operations have been set up
in Venezuela, including tractor, cement and auto factories. In
addition, the two countries have formed a $2-billion program to fund
social projects in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America.
Those deepening ties worry U.S. officials because Iranian spies around
the world have been known to work with Hezbollah operatives, sometimes
using Iranian embassies as cover, Western intelligence experts say.
In June, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas A. Shannon said Iran "has
a history of terror in this hemisphere, and its linkages to the
bombings in Buenos Aires are pretty well established."
"One of our broader concerns is what Iran is doing elsewhere in this
hemisphere and what it could do if we were to find ourselves in some
kind of confrontation with Iran," Shannon said.
Fears about the threat from Hezbollah's global networks intensified
after the slaying in February of Imad Mughniyah, a notorious leader of
the militia, in Damascus, the Syrian capital. Hezbollah and Iran
accused Israel and promised revenge, putting Western authorities on
guard against attacks on Israeli or Jewish targets around the world.
Although the Bush administration is embroiled in political conflict
with the Chavez government, allegations that Hezbollah and Iranian
spies operate in Venezuela date to the 1990s, before Chavez took office.
The most concrete allegations of a Hezbollah presence in Venezuela
involve money-raising. In June, the U.S. Treasury Department designated
two Venezuelan citizens as Hezbollah supporters and froze their U.S.
assets.
Treasury officials formally accused Ghazi Nasr al Din, a Venezuelan
diplomat of Lebanese descent, of using posts at embassies in the Middle
East to support financing for Hezbollah and "discuss operational issues
with senior officials" of the militia.
Nasr al Din "facilitated the travel" of Hezbollah members to and from
Venezuela and to a "training course in Iran," according to Treasury
officials. The president of a Shiite Muslim center in Caracas, he
served as a diplomat in Damascus and later in Beirut, authorities say.
The second Venezuelan targeted by Treasury is Fawzi Kanan, a
Caracas-based travel agent. He is also alleged to have facilitated
travel for Hezbollah members and to have discussed "possible
kidnappings and terrorist attacks" with senior Hezbollah officials in
Lebanon. The Treasury allegations did not specify whether the alleged
discussion involved plots for kidnappings in Venezuela or elsewhere.
In comments to a Venezuelan reporter, Kanan dismissed the charges as
lies. The Venezuelan government has strenuously denied that it is
harboring militants.
In March 2007, the intensified ties between Venezuela and Iran led to
the start of weekly IranAir flights from Tehran to Caracas, the
Venezuelan capital, that stop in Damascus.
The flights were highlighted in the State Department's annual
assessment of global terrorism, which noted in April of this year that
Venezuelan border officials at the Caracas airport often neglected to
enter the arriving passengers into their immigration database and did
not stamp passports. The Venezuelans have since tightened up on their
procedures, informed sources say.
Despite those improvements, the IranAir flights also feature in recent
intelligence gathered by Western anti-terrorism officials. Agents of
Iran's Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah have allegedly set up a
special force to attempt to kidnap Jewish businesspeople in Latin
America and spirit them away to Lebanon, according to the Western
anti-terrorism official. Iranian and Hezbollah operatives traveling in
and out of Venezuela have recruited Venezuelan informants working at
the Caracas airport to gather intelligence on Jewish travelers as
potential targets for abduction, the Western anti-terrorism official
said.
The allegations were reinforced by a statement last week by the Israeli
government, issuing an alert to citizens warning that Hezbollah plans
to kidnap Israelis around the world to retaliate for the Mughniyah
assassination.
Hezbollah has long operated in the Lebanese communities of Latin
America. In addition to receiving a multimillion-dollar infusion from
Iran, the militia finances itself by soliciting or extorting money from
the Lebanese diaspora and through rackets such as smuggling, fraud and
the drug and diamond trade in South America and elsewhere, Matthew
Levitt, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told
Congress in 2005.
Three years ago, police in Colombia and Ecuador broke up an
international cocaine-smuggling ring that functioned in Latin American
countries, including Venezuela, and allegedly sent profits to Hezbollah
in Lebanon. The lawless "tri-border" region connecting Brazil, Paraguay
and Argentina has been a center of organized crime activities and
finance linked to Hezbollah, Western anti-terrorism officials say.
Hezbollah operatives based there participated, along with Iranian
spies, in the car bombings in Buenos Aires of the Israeli Embassy in
1992 and a Jewish community center two years later that killed a total
of 114 people, an Argentine indictment charges.
In the aftermath of that indictment, filed in 2006, Hezbollah and its
Iranian sponsors, chiefly the Revolutionary Guard, decided to shift
from the increasingly scrutinized tri-border area to other countries,
including Venezuela, Western anti-terrorism officials say.
"It preserves the capability of Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guard
to mount attacks inside Latin America. . . . It is very, very important
to Iran and Hezbollah right now.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
Top of Page
|
|
|
|