pipes hizbollah in america

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The Hezbollah

in America

An alarming network

D A N I E L P I P E S

M OHAM AD YOUSSEF HAMMOUD, an 18-year-old ShiiteM uslim from Lebano n, arrived at New York's Kennedy

Airport on June 6, 1992. He had come, accompanied by twoclose male relatives, from Caracas, Venezuela, where each ofthem had plunked down $200 for a counterfeit U.S. visa.American border guards caught the fraud, and the trio did notexactly begin their American careers with distinction; but they

did begin them in characterwith a crime. The U.S. govern-ment also responded in character, just as it would many timesover the next eight years: It allowed them into the country.

Then followed a fairly typical sequence of events for illegalimiiiigrants. In November 1992, Hammoud claimed politicalasylum on the (dubious) grounds that Israel's Lebanese allieswere out to get him, making this fear his justification for buy-ing a fake U .S. visa. A year later, in Decem ber 1993, an immi-gration judge turned down this transparent ploy and orderedHammoud deported. To no avail: Hammoud promptly filed anappeal, which perm itted him to stay longer. In D ecember 1994,while still awaiting a verdict, he married an American named

Sabina Edwards, and this gave him legal standing to apply forpermanent residency. The Immigration and NaturalizationService did some sleuthing and found both the marriage cer-tificate and the woman's birth certificate fraudulent, so inAugust 1996 Hammoud was again ordered deported, this timewithin the month.

Th e resourceful Hamm oud the n went underground. In M ay1997, he married a second American, Jessica Wedel. InSeptember 1997, while still married to Wedel, he took a thirdwife, Angela Tsioumas. (That she was already married toanother man perhaps evened the score.) The INS, not tooadept at record-keeping, mislaid its file on Hammoud's earliermarriage fraud and never noticed that both of the nuptial pairwere married to others; so, on the basis of Hamm oud's marriageto Tsioumas, the agency granted him conditional residency inJuly 1998. Only in October 1998 did Hammoud get around todivorcing W edel.

To make matters even more interesting, the Hammoud-Tsioumas bond turns out to have been a complete fiction, justa way for him to acquire citizenship and for her to earn a fewthousand dollars. Hammoud appears to have (truly) married awoman in Lebanon in 1999; Tsioumas has bragged tha t, as soonas Hamm oud no longer needs her, she will marry other w ould-be Americans "for the right price."

One might imagine that Hammoud's desperate efforts to

Mr. Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum.

remain in the U.S. signaled his deep affection for th e land of thefree; or, at any rate, his longing to walk our streets paved withgold. But one would be wrong. Like so many other Shiites fromthe shantytowns south of Beirut, this young man has adoptedthe AyatoUah Khomeini's brand of extremist Islam and viru-lent anti-Americanism. As a member of Hezbollah, the mainIslamist terrorist and political organization of Lebanon

Hammoud came here not as an immigrant, to becomeAmericanbut as a missionary, to bring Hezbollah's messageinto enemy territory.

Information about Hammoud is available in a powerful anddetailed 85-page federal affidavit filed in late July in the U.S.District Court in Charlotte, North Carolina, based on thereports of six cooperating witnesses and five secret informantsphysical surveillance, financial records, and much elseHammoud, it seems, received military training in Hezbollahcamps in Lebanon and boasts of being "well-connected" toHezbollah leaders. One informant calls Hammoud "100 per-cent Hezbollah." Another thinks him dangerous because he"would likely assist in carrying out any action against United

States interests" if Hezbollah asked him to. A third saysHammoud "would not hesitate" to commit a terrorist act in theUnited States for Hezbollah.

He's hardly the first of this type, nor the most famous (thadistinction probably belongs to New York's blind sheikh). In abitter and ironic development little noted by Americans, manyrecent immigrants arrive, as M artin Peretz puts it, "not with theimmigrant's psychological one-way ticket, not with the immi-grant's love for America, bu t with a peculiar imm igrant's hatredof Am erica." Islamists like Hamm oud are perhaps the most significant of this breed, intensely hating the U.S. and all it repre-sents, but also savoring the co untry's freedom of expression and

of movem ent, its rule of law, its open institutions, its fine com-munications and transportation, and its superpower statusThey also appreciate its affluence. As Iran, Saudi ArabiaLibya, and the othe r once-rich M iddle East states curtaispending, Islamist groups like Hezbollah increasingly seekfunding from coreligionists in the West.

Hammoud settled in Charlotte, and was busy on behalf ofHezbollah from the mom ent he arrived there . He organized hitwo brothers a nd three cou sins, plus other Shiites from his oldneighborhood in Lebanon, into what one informant terms "anactive group" of Hezbollah mem bers. They arranged noctu rnameetings in one another's houses several times a week andengaged in morale-boosting activities. They sang rousing

Hezbollah songs (downloaded by Hammoud from the Internet) , heard inspiring speeches of Khomeini and Hezbollah'sleader, watched videotapes of Hezbollah victories over Israeland discussed Hezbollah "activities and operations." One person who attended these meetingsthe most recent of whichtook place on July 13, 2000calls their atmosphere "extremely anti-United States."

Having heated their emotions, Hammoud solicited donations for Hezbollah from his group and worked with them on asimple but audacious fundraising scheme for Hezbollah. It happened th at these M uslims lived in No rth Carolina, home to theAmerican tobacco industry and a state whose government add

a tax of just five c ents per cigarette pa ck. M any of theiLebanese Shiite buddies live in the Detroit area, where the



State of Michigan charges 75 cents per pack. All they had to dowas drive avan the 680 miles from Charlotte to Detroit, a 13-hour trip, carrying 800 to 1,500 cartons of cigarettes, and theywould net upwards of $3,000. The scam required no specialskills, anditmade good use of existing pro-Hezbollah net-works.

By early 1995, thesmuggling operation was inplace. The

HezboUahis bought tens of thousands of cigarette cartons atNorth Carolina's many tobacco outlets, loaded these intorental vans, made a quick round trip toDetroit, and returnedthe van. In the period 1996-99, Hammoud alone bought near-ly $300,000 worth of cigarettes on ten credit cards. The smug-glers spent some of the earnings on themselves; Hammoudlived in a middle-class neighborhood, another suspect boughthimself two luxury cars, and still others started what the affi-davit terms "semi-legitimate" businesses: a tobacco shop toacquire cigarettes in bulk and a Lebanese restauran t to launde rthe resulting funds.

Starting in 1996, they also sent large sums to Hezbollah. Noestimate is available for the total amount transferred, but the

affidavit charges Hammoud and four others with smugglingcurrency and indicates that just one suspect, Ali HusseinDarwiche, sent over $ 1 million. In addition, several of thosearrested stand accused of sending technical materials such as

digital photo equipment, computers, global positioning sys-tems, and night-vision goggles to Lebanon. Not surprisingly,one informant states that Hezbollah "sanctioned" the Char-lotte group's criminal ac tivities.

Bu t thecigarette scam was too obvious, especially as the

smugglers kept ge tting arrested for driving offenses, anci havin glarge numbers of cigarettes (121,500, 436,500, 1,412,400) an ddollars ($17,000, $45,922) confiscated. By 1996, the authori-

ties figured out what was going on. A slew of local, state, andfederal agents investigated, and m ade further discoveries.

First, cigarette-running turned out to be just apart of a larg-er pattern of criminal activity. Nearly all of the Lebanese sus-

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pects reached the U.S. through decep tion, eithe r visa forgerybribing aState Department official. This bunch lied aboeverythingclaiming to speak English when they could ncreating ch ildren ou t of thin air, denying the existence of clorelatives living in the U .S. They nearly all contrac ted fake mriages, with one man arranging for himself, his brother, his ster, and her husb and each to marry Am ericans. (Curiously, t

Lebanese men paid around $3,500 each tothe Ameriwomen, but a Lebanese woman paid just $1,500 to an Amecan man.)

It is dismaying to iook at this bunch of crimina

aiiens and poiiticai extremists, many of whom

have heen expeiied more than once from the

U.S., and find them stiii here.

Once settled, theLebanese suspects began aminor crimwave. They relied on fraudulent Social Security numbepassed bad ch ecks, used stolen credit c ards, passed stolen goovia mail drops, andengaged in forgery. One gang membknown for his ability to take onmultiple identities, usedmany false names that he had topull a book out of a friendsafe and study it before going to the bank. He also becamspecialist in"busting out" of credit cardsmaking half a mlion dollars since 1995 by getting a high credit limit, chargion it to the maximum, then disappearing without paying it o

Tax returns from gang members were virtuoso exercises in crative accounting: Hammoud and his fake wife Tsioumas ma

bank deposits in 1997 totaling $737,318, but reported towages of just $24,693. The next year, another conspiradeposited $90,903, but listed no income at all. Hammoudcousin owned a house-painting company; naturally, hemployed illegal aliens to staff it, paid them under the taband skipped on taxes. These are not just crooks, but a whosubculture steeped in criminality.

Also, law enforcement observed a preparation for violencAssociates of the suspects built up an arsenal, including a fulautomatic AK-47-style assault rifle, with which they, alonwith Hammoud, regularly practicedin what a witnedescribed as "paramilitary-style training" in a remote shooti

range east of Charlotte.Finally, on July 21 of this year, about 250 law-enforcemeofficers swooped down on the group, arresting 17 in t

Charlotte area and one in Michigan. Eleven are LebaneMuslims, seven are the American citizens who took money fphony marriages. Charges include conspiracy to launder moneconspiracy to traffic in contraband cigarettes, immigration-laviolations, and attempted bribery. Pending the results of

search now under way of businesses, cars, computers, and th

like, other expected charges include RIC O fraud and providinmaterial support to Hezbollah, adesignated foreign-terroriorganization. These are serious charges: Cigarette smugglincarries a maximum sentence of five years inprison per charg

and a $250,000 fine. Money-laundering carries a maxim um setence of 20 years in prison per charge and a $500,000 fine.



The a r r e s t s wer e top news in L e b a n o n , w h e r e H e z b o l l a h p r e -

d ic tab ly d i sm is sed the cha r ges : "Hezbol lah does not h a v e any

or gan ized gr oup" in the U . S . , d e c l a r e d N a ' i m Q a s i m , its d e p u t y

leader . He a t t r i b u t e d the ar res ts to Am er ic an of fic ia l s' "nee d to

c r e a t e an im agina r y v ic to r y" to m a k e up for the i r de f ea t s .

Th is case opens an i m p o r t a n t w i n d o w on the sm al l but wor -

r i som e subcu l tu r e of I s lam is t im m igr an t s who desp i s e Am er ica

even whi le l iv ing in it, who f lout its laws and act ively aid itse n e m i e s . The i n f o r m a t i o n f r o m C h a r l o t t e p r o m p t s s e v e r a l

ref lect ions :

First, it conf i r m s the i n a c c u r a c y of I s lam is t whin ing about

A m e r i c a n b i a s a g a i n s t M u s l i m s . (One fr iend of the suspec t s

to ld r epor te r s , "The F BI took the Kor an f r om myh o m e . It jus t

s h o w s the r ea l r eason they a r e do ing th i s " ; the A m e r i c a n - A r a b

A n t i - D i s c r i m i n a t i o n C o m m i t t e e w a r n e d t h a t t h e i r t r e a t m e n t

"cou ld l ead to d i s c r i m i n a t i o n and ha te c r im es . ") I m m igr a t ion

and law- enf or cem ent au thor i t i e s wer e exces s ive ly l en ien t ; no te

h o w H a m m o u d k e p t b e a t i n g the sys tem .

S e c o n d , the C h a r l o t t e c a s e a g a i n c o n f i r m s t h a t I s l a m i s t

m o n e y is f lowing f r om Nor th Am er ica to the Middle Eas t , not

t h e o t h e r way a r ound . Bes ides Hezbol lah , o the r o r gan iza t ions

f u n d e d f ro m h e r e i n c l u d e H a m a s , Is l a m i c J i h a d , and the

A l g e r i a n r a d i c a l s . M i d d l e E a s t e r n g o v e r n m e n t s n o t e t h i s pat-

t e r n wi th a la r m ( Tunis ia ' s p r es iden t p r o te s t s tha t the U . S . has

b e c o m e " t h e r e a r g u a r d h e a d q u a r t e r s for f undam enta l i s t t e r r o r -

is ts") , but it h a s yet to be t ake n s e r ious ly by A m e r i c a n l e a d e r s .

H o w m a n y m o r e C h a r l o t t e - l i k e w e b s are out the r e?

T h i r d , the Lebanese suspec t s showed a c o n t e m p t t o w a r d the

U.S. t h a t b o r d e r e d on the b i z a r r e . T h o u g h a c t i n g on beha l f o f

a d e v o u t l y M u s l i m o r g a n i z a t i o n , t h e y f e l t e n t i t l e d to b r e a k

A m e r i c a n l a w s at w h i m , w i t h o u t t a k i n g e v e n e l e m e n t a r y pre-

c a u t i o n s . One d e f e n d a n t c h a r g e d $ 4 5 , 6 7 7 to one c r ed i t ca r d

f or c iga r e t t e pur chases in a s ing le ca lendar yea r ; on t r ips to

D e t r o i t , the al leged smugglers paid for gaso l ine a long the way

with cha r ge ca r ds , not even t r y ing to h i d e t h e i r m o v e m e n t s .

E v e n a f t e r a r r e s t , t h e y r e m a i n e d a r r o g a n t l y u n c o n c e r n e d ;

a c c o r d i n g to the Charlotte Observer, at the i r cour t hea r ing , the

d e f e n d a n t s " s m i l e d , l a u g h e d and m a d e jo k e s . T h e y a s k e d

w h i c h of the i r hom es , ca r s and b a n k a c c o u n t s had been seized

by the g o v e r n m e n t . " T h i s n i h i l i s m , q u i t e c o m m o n a m o n g u n e -

duca ted I s lam is t im m igr an t s , por tends t r oub le .

F o u r t h , in this case , as in so m a n y o t h e r i n s t a n c e s of w o u l d -

be t e r r o r i s t v io lence , the a u t h o r i t i e s b u n g l e d m a t t e r s ; ifn o t for

aler t local of f icers piecing suspicious act ivi t ies into a p a t t e r n ,

the scam would s t i l l be going on . The INS showed i tse lf to behaples s , not s e e i n g t h r o u g h one fake marr iage af ter another ,

los ing r ecor ds , and a l lowing depor tees to d i s a p p e a r w i t h o u t a

t r a c e . The S t a t e D e p a r t m e n t p r o v e d s u s c e p t i b l e to br ibery.

T h e F B I k n e w n o t h i n g u n t i l l a t e in the g a m e . T h i s is f r equen t -

ly the p a t t e r n : In at leas t f ive cases over the p a s t 15 years , the

local cop with eyes open was the key to s t o p p i n g a m ajor ter-

r o r i st ac t ion . An d w hi le lucky br eaks a r e ver y we lcom e , it is dis-

m aying to s e e n a t i o n a l i n s t i t u t io n s c a u g h t off g u a r d .

It is even m or e d i sm aying to look at t h i s b u n c h of c r im ina l

a l i e n s and p o l i t i c a l e x t r e m i s t s , m a n y of w h o m h a v e b e e n

expe l led m or e than once f r om the U . S . , and f ind them s t i l l

he r e . Given th i s h i s to r y , it's a pret ty safe bet t h a t m o s t of t h e m

will still be her e ano the r e igh t yea r s f r om now, p r obab ly jo ined

by an e v e n l a r g e r n u m b e r of their l ike . NR

T h e Future

of English

A mighty language and its prospects

J O H N D E R B Y S H I R E

W E live in an age of Anglophone triumphalism. The

melange of low-German dialects carried to Britain on

the tongues of mercenary war bands a millennium and a half

ago has now become the first language of some 350 million

people and the second language of at least a billion more.

When an Indonesian businessman meets a customer from

Finland, they converse in English. Airline pilots flying inter-

national routes communicate with their controllers in

English. Seventy-six percent of the content of the Internet is

in English. (The runners-up are, in order: Japanese, French

German, and Chinese.) English is the world language, and

this will become more true as time goes onthese are

assumptions most of us carry around in our heads without

much examination. Are they true?

There are a number of reasons for thinking that English

may be at, or perhaps even past, the high tide of its influence

To begin with, the proportion of humanity speaking English

as its first language is declining. Samuel Huntington, in The

Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, gives

the following numbers: 9.8 percent in 1958, 7.6 percent in

1992. If the rate of decline is linear we must now be hovering

just over 7 percent. To be sure, this decline is relative, no

absolute. The populations of the great English-speaking

nations are not falling. Nor are the people of those nations

switching to any other first language, even where there are

strongly felt linguistic issues in controversy. Irishmen show

even less inclination to speak Irish than their grandfathers

did; the enthusiasm of Francophone Canadians for their lan-

guage has not infected their English-speaking compatriots

and Americans, despite all the blandishments of the "multi-

cultural" hustlers, are pleased to resist Spanish. The decline

in the proportion of the world's people who have English astheir first language is simply a consequence of those people

being First Worlders with low birthrates. The rest of the world

is outbreeding them. Since no English-speaking nation is in

the imperialism business any longer, our language is left with

its home islands, the child colonies of the early-modern peri-

od, and a scattering of nations once ruled from London (or

like the Philippines, from Washington) but with indigenous

cultures of their own into which English has been able to put

down some shallow roots.

Granted that English as a first language is in relative

decline, may we not still console ourselves with the though

that it has no challenger as the preferred second language

Mr. Derbyshire is a contributing editor of NATIONAL REVIEW.

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