If yall remember, I warned you all about this 11 MONTHS ago:
Iran and Venezuela's ties to narcoterrorism and money laundering
How Trump Is Going After Hezbollah in America’s Backyard
The pro-Iranian militant group is up to no good in Latin America—and U.S. officials are pushing back.
By MATTHEW LEVITT
November 30, 2017
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo
The Trump administration is pushing back aggressively against what the intelligence community often refers to as the “Iran Threat Network” or ITN, and as part of that campaign it is especially keen to focus on the activities of Hezbollah, the pro-Iranian Lebanese militia, in Latin America. Now, new revelations about a Hezbollah cold case from 1994 underscore the importance of rolling back the group’s footprint in the region.
On July 19, 1994, the day after Hezbollah operatives blew up the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, the group sent a suicide bomber to take down a flight on Alas Chiricanas Airlines, a Panamanian commuter airliner carrying mostly Jewish passengers, including several Americans. The case languished for years, butthe FBI appears to have recently collected new information which, together with evidence gleaned from other current investigations, is likely to serve as the basis for a variety of actions aimed at Hezbollah, the lynchpin of the ITN and Iran’s most powerful proxy group.
But Hezbollah’s more recent moves in Latin America are very much a matter of interest for investigators, too. In October, a joint FBI-NYPD investigation led to the arrest of two individuals who were allegedly acting on behalf of Hezbollah’s terrorist wing, the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO). At the direction of their Hezbollah handlers, one person allegedly “conducted missions in Panama to locate the U.S. and Israeli Embassies and to assess the vulnerabilities of the Panama Canal and ships in the Canal,” according to a Justice Department press release. The other allegedly “conducted surveillance of potential targets in America, including military and law enforcement facilities in New York City.” In the wake of these arrests, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center warned: “It’s our assessment that Hezbollah is determined to give itself a potential homeland option as a critical component of its terrorism playbook, and that is something that those of us in the counterterrorism community take very, very seriously.” These cases, one official added, are “likely the tip of the iceberg.”
The administration’s counter-Hezbollah campaign is an interagency effort that includes leveraging diplomatic, intelligence, financial and law enforcement tools to expose and disrupt the logistics, fundraising and operational activities of Iran, the Qods Force and the long list of Iranian proxies from Lebanese Hezbollah to other Shia militias in Iraq and elsewhere. But in the words of Ambassador Nathan Sale, the State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, “Countering Hezbollah is a top priorityfor the Trump administration.” Since it took office, the Trump administration has taken a series of actions against Hezbollah in particular—including indictments, extraditions, public statements and issues rewards for information on wanted Hezbollah terrorist leaders—and officials are signaling that more actions are expected, especially in Latin America. Congress has passed a series of bills aimed at Hezbollah as well. The goal, according to an administration official quoted by POLITICO, is to “expose them for their behavior.” The thinking goes: Hezbollah cannot claim to be a legitimate actor even as it engages in a laundry list of illicit activities that undermine stability at home in Lebanon, across the Middle East region and around the world.
To support this policy, the administration has issued a broad RFI—a request for information—requiring departments and agencies to scour their files and collect new information that could be used to identify targets and help direct and inform the implementation of forthcoming actions. Though it is unclear if it is a result of that RFI, it appears new information is coming in, as evidenced most recently by a little-noticed FBI “Seeking Information” bulletin issued by the Bureau’s Miami Field Office.
The subject of the bulletin—the bomber Ali Hawa Jamal—died in the Alas Chiricanas attack. In the wake of the crash, families of the passengers and crew claimed all but one of the bodies. That body, which was badly disfigured in ways consistent with a suicide bombing, has now “possibly been identified as Ali Hawa Jamal,” according to the FBI bulletin. But the request for information is very timely indeed, as authorities are actively looking for his still-living accomplices. What’s new, it appears, is knowledge of this Hezbollah bomber’s true name. Until now, authorities only knew the name that appears on the fake ID he used to purchase his ticket for the doomed flight, Jamal Lya. Now, with the knowledge of his true identity, authorities are asking for information that could lead them to the presumably local Latin American support network that helped him carry out his plot. “It is suspected,” the FBI bulletinconcludes, “that additional parties may have assisted Jamal in the bombing.”
Flight 00901, a twin-engine Embraer commuter plane operated by Alas Chiricanas Airlines, exploded shortly after take-off from Colon on its way to Panama City. Of the 21 passengers and crew, most were businessmen working in the Colon Free Trade Zone; all were killed instantly. Amazingly, given the tiny size of the Jewish community in Panama (about 8,000 people), 12 of the 18 passengers were Jewish, including four Israelis and three Americans. Coming on the heels of the AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, the local Jewish community was especially on edge. One community leader noted at the time, “we all knew someone on the flight, or were related to someone on the flight.” Their fears were quickly confirmed when Panama’s president-elect announced that the crash “was not an accident but a planted bombinside the plane.” Investigators would determine that the bomber carried out preoperational surveillance leading up to his actual attack, including flying this commuter plane route several times, presumably to test security and select the optimal seat selection to maximize the impact of his explosive device.
Within days, Hezbollah had claimed responsibility for both the AMIA bombing and the Panama airline bombing in a leaflet distributed in the Lebanese port city of Sidon. The claim of responsibility was issued under the name Ansar Allah, or “Partisans of God.” “Ansar Allah was one of the many fictitious names that Hezbollah used to claim responsibility for its attacks,” Argentinean authorities explained. And yet, despite the claim of responsibility and other circumstantial evidence pointing to Hezbollah, authorities were not yet sure.
Iran and Venezuela's ties to narcoterrorism and money laundering
How Trump Is Going After Hezbollah in America’s Backyard
The pro-Iranian militant group is up to no good in Latin America—and U.S. officials are pushing back.
By MATTHEW LEVITT
November 30, 2017
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo
The Trump administration is pushing back aggressively against what the intelligence community often refers to as the “Iran Threat Network” or ITN, and as part of that campaign it is especially keen to focus on the activities of Hezbollah, the pro-Iranian Lebanese militia, in Latin America. Now, new revelations about a Hezbollah cold case from 1994 underscore the importance of rolling back the group’s footprint in the region.
On July 19, 1994, the day after Hezbollah operatives blew up the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, the group sent a suicide bomber to take down a flight on Alas Chiricanas Airlines, a Panamanian commuter airliner carrying mostly Jewish passengers, including several Americans. The case languished for years, butthe FBI appears to have recently collected new information which, together with evidence gleaned from other current investigations, is likely to serve as the basis for a variety of actions aimed at Hezbollah, the lynchpin of the ITN and Iran’s most powerful proxy group.
But Hezbollah’s more recent moves in Latin America are very much a matter of interest for investigators, too. In October, a joint FBI-NYPD investigation led to the arrest of two individuals who were allegedly acting on behalf of Hezbollah’s terrorist wing, the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO). At the direction of their Hezbollah handlers, one person allegedly “conducted missions in Panama to locate the U.S. and Israeli Embassies and to assess the vulnerabilities of the Panama Canal and ships in the Canal,” according to a Justice Department press release. The other allegedly “conducted surveillance of potential targets in America, including military and law enforcement facilities in New York City.” In the wake of these arrests, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center warned: “It’s our assessment that Hezbollah is determined to give itself a potential homeland option as a critical component of its terrorism playbook, and that is something that those of us in the counterterrorism community take very, very seriously.” These cases, one official added, are “likely the tip of the iceberg.”
The administration’s counter-Hezbollah campaign is an interagency effort that includes leveraging diplomatic, intelligence, financial and law enforcement tools to expose and disrupt the logistics, fundraising and operational activities of Iran, the Qods Force and the long list of Iranian proxies from Lebanese Hezbollah to other Shia militias in Iraq and elsewhere. But in the words of Ambassador Nathan Sale, the State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, “Countering Hezbollah is a top priorityfor the Trump administration.” Since it took office, the Trump administration has taken a series of actions against Hezbollah in particular—including indictments, extraditions, public statements and issues rewards for information on wanted Hezbollah terrorist leaders—and officials are signaling that more actions are expected, especially in Latin America. Congress has passed a series of bills aimed at Hezbollah as well. The goal, according to an administration official quoted by POLITICO, is to “expose them for their behavior.” The thinking goes: Hezbollah cannot claim to be a legitimate actor even as it engages in a laundry list of illicit activities that undermine stability at home in Lebanon, across the Middle East region and around the world.
To support this policy, the administration has issued a broad RFI—a request for information—requiring departments and agencies to scour their files and collect new information that could be used to identify targets and help direct and inform the implementation of forthcoming actions. Though it is unclear if it is a result of that RFI, it appears new information is coming in, as evidenced most recently by a little-noticed FBI “Seeking Information” bulletin issued by the Bureau’s Miami Field Office.
The subject of the bulletin—the bomber Ali Hawa Jamal—died in the Alas Chiricanas attack. In the wake of the crash, families of the passengers and crew claimed all but one of the bodies. That body, which was badly disfigured in ways consistent with a suicide bombing, has now “possibly been identified as Ali Hawa Jamal,” according to the FBI bulletin. But the request for information is very timely indeed, as authorities are actively looking for his still-living accomplices. What’s new, it appears, is knowledge of this Hezbollah bomber’s true name. Until now, authorities only knew the name that appears on the fake ID he used to purchase his ticket for the doomed flight, Jamal Lya. Now, with the knowledge of his true identity, authorities are asking for information that could lead them to the presumably local Latin American support network that helped him carry out his plot. “It is suspected,” the FBI bulletinconcludes, “that additional parties may have assisted Jamal in the bombing.”
Flight 00901, a twin-engine Embraer commuter plane operated by Alas Chiricanas Airlines, exploded shortly after take-off from Colon on its way to Panama City. Of the 21 passengers and crew, most were businessmen working in the Colon Free Trade Zone; all were killed instantly. Amazingly, given the tiny size of the Jewish community in Panama (about 8,000 people), 12 of the 18 passengers were Jewish, including four Israelis and three Americans. Coming on the heels of the AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, the local Jewish community was especially on edge. One community leader noted at the time, “we all knew someone on the flight, or were related to someone on the flight.” Their fears were quickly confirmed when Panama’s president-elect announced that the crash “was not an accident but a planted bombinside the plane.” Investigators would determine that the bomber carried out preoperational surveillance leading up to his actual attack, including flying this commuter plane route several times, presumably to test security and select the optimal seat selection to maximize the impact of his explosive device.
Within days, Hezbollah had claimed responsibility for both the AMIA bombing and the Panama airline bombing in a leaflet distributed in the Lebanese port city of Sidon. The claim of responsibility was issued under the name Ansar Allah, or “Partisans of God.” “Ansar Allah was one of the many fictitious names that Hezbollah used to claim responsibility for its attacks,” Argentinean authorities explained. And yet, despite the claim of responsibility and other circumstantial evidence pointing to Hezbollah, authorities were not yet sure.
