(The Blaze/AP)– A Lebanese national who U.S. authorities say is the ringleader of a vast international drug smuggling ring with links to the militant group Hezbollah has been indicted on drug and money laundering charges after allegedly reaping more than $850 million in illicit profits. The indictment was announced Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria against Ayman Joumaa, who is currently at large. It alleges he led a conspiracy that, among other activities, sold nearly 100 tons of Colombian cocaine to the Zetas drug cartel in Mexico between 2005 and 2007 that was ultimately smuggled into the United States. The conspiracy has run since at least 2004 and at times brought in as much as $200 million in a single month, according to court documents. Earlier this year, the Treasury Department designated Joumaa as a drug trafficker and said Hezbollah profited from his network. Specifically, Treasury accused a major Lebanese bank, the Lebanese Canadian Bank, of being complicit in Joumaa’s money laundering and turning a blind eye to massive cash transactions. One of the members of Joumaa’s network is a suspected Hezbollah supporter, and bank managers had links to Hezbollah officials, according to the Treasury Department’s findings. The criminal indictment itself makes no mention of links between Joumaa, 47, and Hezbollah, which the U.S. ¬government has designated as a terrorist group since 1997. The court documents show that Joumaa’s network has played a major role in the global drug trade for years, helping Colombian producers get their product into the hands of cartels in Central America and Mexico, and from there into the U.S. “Money fuels the drug trade, and Mr. Joumaa is alleged to be at the center of it all … working with those producing the vast majority of the world’s cocaine to get their drugs safely into the hands of Mexican cartels,” said Neil MacBride, U.S.Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, whose office is prosecuting the case. “Organized crime networks know no borders, and neither can U.S. law enforcement.” The Drug Enforcement Administration led the investigation. The Lebanese Canadian Bank was sold to an affiliate of France’s Societe Generale in March to restore confidence after those accusations triggered concerns in Lebanon that the U.S.-would begin targeting Lebanon’s banking sector as a way to exert pressure against Hezbollah. Attempts to contact the bank for comment were unsuccessful after working hours Tuesday. Lebanon is a major financial hub for the Middle East and its banks, like those in Switzerland, have a reputation for secrecy. The indictment seeks the forfeiture of at least $850 million, the amount that Joumaa allegedly obtained over the course of the conspiracy, according to the grand jury.
(file photo)
Visit link:
Report: Hezbollah Operatives Running Vast Drug Ring With Mexican Cartels
AP – The Obama administration is putting a bomb maker for a Lebanese militant group on its terrorism blacklist, subjecting him to U.S. sanctions.
Read the original post:
US blacklists Lebanese militant bomb maker
(AP)
This video’s a week old, but quite timely considering President Obama’s speech at the United Nations today and postponement of the vote on Palestinian statehood. And just listen to Chomsky around 4:00 minutes: The U.S. has blocked ceasefire efforts at the time of Israeli attacks. In fact, Obama himself—you can take a look at his—I don’t know if he still has it, but in his website prior to the election, there was a section on the Middle East. And it’s worth looking at. It gives you an indication of what’s been happening since. It’s full of, you know, adoration of Israel. You expect that. Practically not a word about the Palestinians, a few phrases saying maybe they should have some rights. But that was right in the middle of the latest Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006, a brutal, murderous invasion, without any credible pretext — you can go into that—actually, the fifth such invasion. And Obama took pride, in his webpage, in having co-sponsored a Senate resolution, right in the middle of the invasion, insisting that nothing be done to impede Israel’s attack in Lebanon and that the U.S. should censure and maybe sanction anyone who tried to interfere with it—Iran and Syria. That’s just one long astonishing stream of lies. It’s not just this part about Israel’s alleged “brutal, murderous invasion” of Lebanon in 2006, but notice how Chomsky piles on 4 more lies, with this part about “the fifth such invasion” by Israel, etc. So, counting back, we have Gaza in 2009, Lebanon in 2006, Lebanon in 1982, Yom Kippur in 1973, and the Six Day War of 1967. There are a few other conflicts, but these are probably the ones Chomsky’s referencing. And in each case, Israel acted in self-defense, or as preemption in the case of 1967. That is, the “credible pretext” has been either border incursions into Israel, rocket attacks, terrorism against Israel civilians, or full-scale massed army warfare waged by “murderous” Arab regimes against the Jewish state. Here’s Wikipedia , for example, on the origins of the 2006 Lebanon war: The conflict began when militants from the group Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli border towns as a diversion for an anti-tank missile attack on two armored Humvees patrolling the Israeli side of the border fence. The ambush left three soldiers dead. Two additional soldiers, believed to have been killed outright or mortally wounded, were taken by Hezbollah to Lebanon. Five more were killed in a failed rescue attempt. Israel responded with airstrikes and artillery fire on targets in Lebanon that damaged Lebanese civilian infrastructure, including Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport ,[35] an air and naval blockade, and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah then launched more rockets into northern Israel and engaged the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in guerrilla warfare from hardened positions…. At around 9 AM local time on 12 July 2006, Hezbollah launched diversionary rocket attacks toward Israeli military positions near the coast and near the border village of Zar’it[60] as well as on the Israeli town of Shlomi and other villages. Five civilians were injured. Six Israeli military positions were fired on, and the surveillance cameras knocked out. At the same time, a Hezbollah ground contingent infiltrated the border into Israel through a “dead zone” in the border fence, hiding in an overgrown wadi. They attacked a patrol of two Israeli armoured Humvees patrolling the border near Zar’it, using pre-positioned explosives and anti-tank missiles, killing three soldiers, injuring two, and capturing two soldiers (Master Sergeant Ehud Goldwasser and First Sergeant Eldad Regev). In response to the Hezbollah feint attacks, the IDF conducted a routine check of its positions and patrols, and found that contact with two jeeps was lost. A rescue force was immediately dispatched to the area, and confirmed that two soldiers were missing after 20 minutes. A Merkava Mk III tank, an Armored personnel carrier, and a helicopter were immediately dispatched into Lebanon. The tank hit a large land mine, killing its crew of four. Another soldier was killed and two lightly injured by mortar fire as they attempted to recover the bodies. Hezbollah named the attack “Operation Truthful Promise” after leader Hassan Nasrallah’s public pledges over the prior year and a half to seize Israeli soldiers and swap them for four Lebanese held by Israel… What’s interesting about the Wikipedia entry is not only how devastating it is to Noam Chomsky’s argument, but also that Wikipedia’s widely perceived as hopelessly left-wing on top of that. See, ” How the Left Conquered Wikipedia, Part 1 .” I’ve seen Chomsky in person. It was a creepy experience, basically attending a function surrounded by hippies, progressives, and terrorists. And Chomsky just spewed lies the whole time. And here he is on Democracy Now!, and of course, cited as the high holy authority on the Middle East by activists on the communist left. And it’s all a bunch of lies. Anyway, William Jacobson has more on that, ” The Palestinian bubble bursts again .”
Originally posted here:
Noam Chomsky Spews Lies About Palestinian Statehood on Democracy Now!
AFP – US President Barack Obama on Sunday marked the upcoming sixth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri by reaffirming his support for a UN-backed probe into the slaying.
Continued here:
US honors memory of Hariri by backing tribunal
(AFP)
Says the Lebanese delegation at the United Nations, to some applause. Via Weasel Zippers :
Link:
‘Resistance of People’s Against Foreign Occupation Is a Legitimate Right’
AFP – US President Barack Obama, in a markedly personal statement, said Monday he was committed to keeping Lebanon free of “terrorism” as tensions and fears of violence rose sharply in Beirut.
See the original post:
Obama committed to a Lebanon free of ‘terrorism’
(AFP)
