American Hezbollah
Homeland Security: Duncan Hunter got the number wrong but the problem right in Tuesday's GOP presidential debate. We need to worry about al-Qaida in Iraq but also about al-Qaida and Hezbollah in the Americas.
The long-shot congressman from San Diego tried to make the point that border security isn't just about people coming into this country looking for a better life, but also people possibly coming across looking to end our way of life as we know it.
Hunter has stated that last year some 155,000 illegals were caught coming into this country classified as OTMs (other than Mexicans). In light of the Albanian nationality of the Fort Dix Six, a group that included illegal aliens whose original point of entry is unknown, this should be a matter of some concern.
The actual number, according to the Border Patrol, is 98,153 for the fiscal year ended last September. The number Hunter used is from a year earlier. But his point that border security is also an issue of national security remains valid.
Coast Guard Adm. James Loy, who was acting homeland secretary before the confirmation of Michael Chertoff, told the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2005 that "several al-Qaida leaders believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry for operational security reasons." Loy made the point that "al-Qaida has considered using the Southwest border to infiltrate the U.S."
Texas Rep. John Culbertson has noted that federal prosecutors have told him that Middle Eastern men with al-Qaida links were adopting Hispanic names, acquiring fake Mexican IDs and mixing with illegals coming across our southern border.
But it's not just al-Qaida we have to worry about. According to Erick Stakelbeck of the Investigative Project, a counter-terrorism research group, Hezbollah has established a base in the Americas in what is known as the Tri-Border area, where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. As Stakelbeck reports, "the area is home to roughly 20,000 Middle Eastern immigrants — mostly from Lebanon and Syria — and has long been a hotbed for terrorist fundraising, arms and drug trafficking, counterfeiting and money laundering."
According to various reports, Imad Migniyah, head of Hezbollah's security apparatus and mastermind of such terrorist attacks as the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, has guided Hezbollah's growing presence in the Americas.
Asa Hutchinson, U.S. undersecretary for border and transportation security, calls the area "a haven for Islamic extremists."
Edward Luttwak, a counterterroism expert with the Pentagon's National Security Study Group, describes the Tri-Border area as the most important Hezbollah base outside Lebanon and home "to a community of dangerous fanatics that send their money and financial support to Hezbollah."
FBI director Robert Mueller has said that agents were keeping a close eye on Hezbollah, especially "when the international situation heats up." In March 2006, he told a House appropriations subcommittee that the FBI had broken up a Hezbollah operation to get its agents into the U.S.
"This was an occasion in which Hezbollah operatives were assisting others with some association with Hezbollah in coming to the United States," Mueller said.
Thus far, Hezbollah's activities in the U.S. have been limited to fund-raising involving criminal enterprises. The FBI has already broken up two major cigarette smuggling rings.
Steve Emerson, author of "American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us," said on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes" recently that compared to al-Qaida, "Hezbollah has got a greater network — much, much more developed around the world," including "throughout the United States" — and that "potentially Hezbollah can wreak a lot more damage if they chose to attack the United States within the continental borders."
They are in our hemisphere. They are here in our country. They are not friendly. Comprehensive immigration reform that doesn't effectively deal with border security isn't comprehensive enough.
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