November 9, 2003
HOW WE FUND THEM:
Revealed: the South American connection: A lawless frontier is helping to finance Arab extremists. (Philip Sherwell, 09/11/2003, Daily Telegraph)
Much of the business - legal and illegal - is controlled by a population of 30,000, mainly Shia Muslim Arabs who fled the Lebanese civil war. They run their enterprises from the shabby shopping malls and chaotic streets of Ciudad del Este but usually live in the more affluent Foz. Among them is a small but dedicated hardcore of militant Muslims. For years, often under the guise of charitable donations, millions of dollars have flowed from the Triple Frontier to Hizbollah, the Iranian-backed militant Lebanese Shi'ite faction. Money was also raised for Hamas, the Palestinian extremist group.Despite a limited crackdown and handful of arrests by the Paraguayan authorities, David Aufhauser, the outgoing United States Treasury Department official on terrorist funding, last month described the Triple Frontier zone as home to a "rich marriage of drugs and terror". A senior US State Department official said: "In terms of terrorist financing, the area is a black hole."
The money trail is complex and difficult to trace but The Telegraph has learnt that American intelligence officials have electronically monitored cash transfers via banks in Sao Paulo and North America to a web of accounts in the Middle East linked to Hizbollah and Hamas. They also disclosed that the US has been using satellites to monitor telephone conversations in the area after learning that Middle East terror suspects were dialling so-called switching stations in Foz or Ciudad del Este and giving a password to have their calls re-routed to their destination.
The procedure made calls impossible to trace and avoided triggering interception mechanisms. More than a dozen switching stations have been found and closed down in recent months. To the frustration of the US, cracking down on the terror financing operations has been much more difficult, especially as Paraguay and Brazil want to resuscitate tourism at the falls and to avoid losing the Arabs' business acumen.
There was a lot of shrieking from libertarians and the Left, who oppose drug laws, when the Administration ran ads linking drug purchases to funding terrorists. In fact, the ads, ultimately pulled, were right on target. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 9, 2003 6:19 AM
Well, the ads were certainly right about NARCO-terror, in the US, Central and South America, but the connection to Islamic terror is much more tenuous.
The support and switching stations could just as easily have been in Europe.
One could say, and be as correct, that non-essential SUV and light truck owners, combined with those who oppose drilling in ANWR and off the coast of Florida, are supporting Islamic terror.
In either case, it's a secondary support.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at November 9, 2003 7:16 AMCuidad del Este was founded in the 1960s and called "Puerto Presidente Stroessner" and got its name changed when ol' Alfie finally got the boot. It had no real reason to exist even then, other than as a focal point for various development attempts including huge hydroelectric projects jointly developed with Brazil. (Nearby, on the Brazil-Argentina border is the Foz du Iguacu, which really is one of the natural wonders of the world.) Even back then a major part of the Paraguayan economy was smuggling between Argentina and Brazil, and avoiding both countries high import duties on US and European goods.
I heartily second your recommendation of Foz du Iguacu.
Far superior to Niagara, and worth a trip for the falls alone, although why not see more ?
But without the drug laws, Phillip Morris and the other eeeevil death peddling corporations would be wiping the floor with these thugs.
Posted by: Ken at November 10, 2003 11:39 PM