Home-grown terrorism support
This week the FBI announced the indictment of 10 individuals charged with conspiring to export weapons from Philadelphia to the Port of Latakia, Syria. The suspects allegedly wanted to help Hizballah by providing them with 1,200 Colt M4 Carbines. Other suspects were also charged with conspiring to provide material support to Hizballah in the form of proceeds from the sale of fraudulent passports, counterfeit money and stolen (genuine) money.
“The allegations contained in this complaint demonstrate how terrorist organizations rely on a variety of underlying criminal activities to fund and arm themselves. I applaud the many agents, analysts, and prosecutors who worked tirelessly to bring about these charges and arrests,” said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.”
“..According to a related criminal complaint that was also unsealed today, suspect Moussa Ali Hamdan began purchasing purportedly stolen cellular telephones from a cooperating witness acting as an agent of the government (hereinafter “the CW”) in or about late 2007. Over the next several months, Hamdan and other defendants—including Hamze El-Najjar, a/k/a “Hamze Al-Najjar,” Moustafa Habib Kassem, Latif Kamel Hazime, a/k/a “Adanan,” Alaa Allia Ahmed Mohamed, a.k.a. “Alaa Ahmed Mohamed Abouelnagaa,” Maoda Kane, and Michael Katz—participated in the purchase and transportation of purportedly stolen goods on numerous occasions. These stolen goods included cellular telephones, laptop computers, Sony Play Station 2 systems and automobiles, which the conspirators caused to be transported to destinations outside Pennsylvania, including overseas.
At the same time, according to the complaint, the CW sold counterfeit goods—namely, counterfeit Nike® shoes and Mitchell & Ness® sports jerseys—to Hamdan and his associates, including defendants Hamze El-Najjar, Moustafa Habib Kassem, Alaa Allia Ahmed Mohamed, a.k.a “Alaa Ahmed Mohamed Abouelnagaa,” Maodo Kane and Michael Katz.
The complaint details efforts by defendants Moussa Ali Hamdan, Dib Hani Harb, and Hasan Antar Karaki to sell the CW counterfeit United States currency for the purpose of raising funds for Hizballah. In total, the conspirators provided the CW with approximately $9,800 in counterfeit U.S. currency.
In this same vein, the complaint alleges that defendants Moussa Ali Hamdan, Dib Hani Harb and Hasan Antar Karaki generated additional funds for Hizballah by selling fraudulent passports. The CW and the defendants participated in the purchase of two fake passports—one from the United Kingdom and one from Canada—for the benefit of Hizballah.
Finally, the complaint alleges that defendant Dib Hani Harb worked with Hodroj in furtherance of a conspiracy to provide material support to Hizballah in the form of approximately 1,200 Colt M4 Carbines (machine guns)…”
From a money laundering and terrorism finance point of view if may not be a significant blow to Hizballah, but it again shows the many forms of support (even from within the US) that these type of organizations receive. And we know that ignoring one of these tentacles will mean that it will grow. “Home grown terrorism funding” for sure is one tentacle we don’t want to grow in size; let’s keep it like that.
http://philadelphia.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/ph112409.htm
