Hamas TV Banned in France for Inciting Hatred

A French satellite television provider has removed Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV from its selections by order of the government. The channel had been broadcast via Paris-based Eutelstat.

Government officials decided last month to cut off Al Aqsa broadcasts in France.

The Arabic-language channel was guilty of "repeated infringement of European law," said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero, for showing programs which "constitute incitement to hatred or violence for reasons of religion or nationality."

Based in Gaza, Al-Aqsa TV is accused of propagating Hamas' anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli agenda. The French broadcast authority, CSA, repeatedly warned the channel's Eutelstat parent network between 2008 and 2009 that Al-Aqsa's hateful content was in violation of French laws.

No changes arose from these warnings.

This is not the first enforcement action by a foreign government targeting Al-Aqsa TV. The U.S. Department of the Treasury froze the channel's American assets in March. Additionally, Israel destroyed Al-Aqsa's studios during its 2008 incursion into Gaza.

Hamas has launched a media campaign protesting the ban, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITC) reports. Several Hamas leaders and Al-Aqsa board members have called on France to reconsider the decision.

The ban is "oppressive and racist," said Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil. Its purpose is to conceal "the crimes of the [Israeli] occupation."

The ITC report cites Palestinian Media Watch in showing examples of violent rhetoric in the channel's programming. One show featured a Hamas-affiliated preacher calling for Jewish children to be "exterminated." Another – this one aimed at young audiences – proclaims that Palestinians should "slaughter" Israelis until they leave the Holy Land.

Al-Aqsa officials vow to pursue a legal battle in hopes that it will once again beam to televisions in Europe.

Bank to Terrorists Sanctioned

A federal court in New York has handed American victims of terrorism a major victory in the case of Linde v. Arab Bank. The order Monday by U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon, issued against a bank that is alleged to have provided financial services to international terrorist organizations, imposed sanctions that will undercut any attempts by bank officials to claim ignorance of its clientele.

In a complaint filed in 2004, thousands of plaintiffs brought claims against Arab Bank for knowingly aiding and abetting terrorists and terrorist organizations which sponsored suicide bombings and other attacks on civilians in Israel. Plaintiffs alleged that:

"Arab Bank knowingly and intentionally, both directly and indirectly, facilitated the attacks by the Islamic Resistance Movement ("Hamas"), the Palestinian Islamic Jihad ("PIJ"), and al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade ("AAMB"), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ("PFLP") by 'soliciting, collecting, transmitting, disbursing and providing the financial resources that allowed those organizations to flourish and to engage in a campaign of terror, genocide, and crimes against humanity in an attempt to eradicate the Israeli presence from the Middle East landscape.'"

In an attempt to prove their claims that Arab Bank was not merely the indifferent provider of "routine banking services" that it claimed to be, plaintiffs sought access to bank records that would have established the identity of Arab Bank's terrorist clientele. Despite repeated court orders to turn over the documents, the bank refused. Among the records sought were:

• Account records for ten of eleven accounts Arab Bank admitted it maintained for terrorist groups or individuals;
• Account information of seven charitable organizations alleged to be terrorist fronts;
• Internal bank communications relating to the Saudi Committee, which allegedly maintained a "martyr's death insurance plan" for Hamas.

As the court explained in discussing the bank's continuing intransigence, "it is now apparent that the delay was for no purpose at all; defendant never intended to produce certain documents, regardless of this court's rulings."

Evaluating the evidence presented thus far, the court found that plaintiffs have shown that from 1994 to 2004, the bank provided financial services to designated foreign terrorist organizations; processed transfers for charitable organizations serving as fronts for Hamas; and that the bank facilitated the Saudi Committee's "death insurance" plan.

And all of this was established despite the bank's unwillingness to comply with court orders. Recognizing that the plaintiffs had been denied evidence that is "not only relevant but also essential to proof of their claims," and because the bank "has articulated no reason for its recalcitrance other than the bank secrecy grounds already rejected," the court approved plaintiff's request to sanction the Bank.

Since the beginning of the lawsuit, Arab Bank has claimed that it was merely providing "routine banking services" to its clientele, and had no idea who its clients were or what the money was being used for. This week's order takes that defense off the table. The Bank will not be permitted to argue that it did not knowingly transact business with Hamas. Such a sanction is necessary, as the court explained, "to prevent defendant from affirmatively profiting from gaps in the evidentiary chain that it is solely responsible for creating."

Additionally, at trial, a date for which has not yet been set, the jury will be instructed that it may infer:

• That Arab Bank provided financial services to organizations designated by the United States as Foreign Terrorist Organizations;
• That it processed and distributed payments on behalf of the Saudi Committee to terrorists.

This decision will have little effect on future claims of ignorance by other financial institutions associated with terrorism, but it certainly establishes a precedent for failure to cooperate with court orders.

Chicago Men Sentenced in Plot to Kill U.S. Soldiers

Two Chicago cousins received lengthy prison sentences from an Ohio federal judge Monday, after pleading guilty to providing material support to terrorists. Zubair and Khaleel Ahmed wanted to wage violent jihad against U.S. military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and traveled to Egypt in 2004 to try to make that happen.

Court documents reference Zubair and Khaleel Ahmed as "recruits" of Marwan El-Hindi. El-Hindi was sentenced in October 2009 in a separate, but related, case to 13 years in prison in a conspiracy to kill or maim persons outside the United States, including U.S. military personnel serving in Iraq.

The Ahmeds' May 2004 trip to Cairo was done without the knowledge of their friends and family. They wanted to make contact with "mujahideen" for training before going to fight American troops. When Zubair Ahmed's father learned about it, he paid El Hindi and El Hindi's brother to go to Cairo to intercept the men.

The Ahmed cousins then went to a convention in Cleveland that July. There, El-Hindi introduced them to a government informant, identified in court documents as Darren Griffin or "the Trainer," Griffin posed as a former Special Forces soldier and "openly extremist convert to Islam." He taught Zubair and Khaleel how to use firearms and advised them on the type of weapon to use for their initial training exercises. Zubair Ahmed expressed his desire to learn to use a .50-calber machine gun.

Court documents further show that Zubair and Khaleel collected and distributed jihadist videos of attacks on U.S. military forces overseas, as well as military manuals on tactics and weapons training.

In trying to get to the war zone, the men communicated with Syed Haris Ahmed in Atlanta about meeting in Pakistan in order to try to carry out violent jihad against American troops in Afghanistan. The three used code words to discuss their jihadist plans. The term "third" was code for violent jihad and was repeatedly used in communications throughout the conspiracy. Syed Ahmed was sentenced to 13 years for providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based terrorist group, and attending Lashkar training camps.

In this case, Zubair Ahmed was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Khaleel received an eight-year prison term.

The sentences were applauded by Steven M. Dettlebach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, who said: "These sentences send a strong message that we will aggressively go after those who would do harm to our servicemen and servicewomen."

Hizballahland: A Convenient Distraction

It's being called the "Shiite militia's Disneyland," a $4 million Hizballah homage to itself that took two years to build.

Mleeta, known as 'A Landmark of the Resistance,' is a far stretch from a childhood play land. It has attracted "over 130,000 visitors in the first ten days following its opening on May 25– the 10^th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon," says Andrew Tabler in Foreign Policy magazine. While this is no Disneyland, it is no ordinary museum either, but rather an insider account of Hizballah's cult of martyrdom and its glorification of terrorism.

Mleeta is the work of 50 engineers and 40 specialists who invested over 150,000 hours into this 'unprecedented' project. They took inspiration from Imad Mughniyah, the mastermind behind the 1983 U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks bombing which claimed the lives of 241 Americans. Mleeta's emblem was designed by an Iranian university lecturer and calligraphist, evidence of the strong connection between Hizballah and Iran (one section of the museum even contains photographs of Hizballah leaders posing alongside Iran's former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei).Within the logo is a red bird, a 'predatory hawk,' chosen to represent "obstinacy, confidence and restlessness" as an affirmation of Hizballah's unwillingness to retreat and acknowledge defeat.

The museum itself is broken down into 17 different attractions including a cafeteria, a parking lot, and even a 'praying place,' all sitting on a vast expanse of gardens and forests. Visitors are shepherded through underground tunnels, outdoor parks and trenches by museum guides bearing the name of Hizballah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

In one section called, 'the Park,' visitors are encouraged to take pride in Hizballah's arsenal. On display in the 'rocket garden' are the usual 107mm and 120mm Katyusha rockets used against Israel's civilian centers in Northern Israel, but, as Tabler explains, there are also 'U.S.-made TOW missiles, RPG 29s, and a Kornet-E anti-tank guided missile,' which Hizballah used effectively against Israel's legendary Mirkava tanks. On the Mleeta's English website, a whole section is dedicated to the history of the Mirkava tank (from the Mirkava-1 to the current Mirkava-4), concluding that in the most recent war, "the resistance's anti-armor munitions pieced the armor of the Mirkava-4 despite all armament and reinforcement."

Tabler concludes that Mleeta, along with "the enthusiastic reaction to it, is only the latest sign that Israel's power of deterrence in Lebanon is rapidly deteriorating." And Tabler is not the only one to recognize Hizballah's increasing militarism. In a recent editorial, "Hizbullah's troublesome Turkish embrace," Michael Young described the group's reaction to the Flotilla Affair:

Hizbullah's message is clear: the enemy is everywhere. For a party that needs enemies to survive, this is understandable. However, there is something deeper at play, a malaise with the fact that the situation in Lebanon and the Middle East is not to the party's liking.

This is what explains Hizbullah's sudden burst of paranoid energy. By artificially playing up dangers left and right, the party is trying to reposition itself, both within the Shiite community and in Lebanese society, as the vanguard force defending against Israel and the United States. Hizbullah thrives on conflict, but Erdogan threatens to take the conflict card out of the party's hands and play it at a table where Hizbullah cannot compete, and where Iran might lose out.

Whether or not Israel's deterrence is endangered, one thing is clear: this is only Hizballah's most recent project. According to Tabler, the terrorist group plans to "construct hotels and conference centers to attract visitors from across the Arab world." While Hizballahland may amuse Western journalists, it should not distract from the deadly serious threat that is Hizballah.

Canadian Jihadist Charged With Promoting Genocide

Ontario Provincial Police announced Thursday that they have charged a local resident with promoting genocide - the first time such charges have been filed in Canada. Salman Hossain, 25, a native of Bangladesh who had been living in Canada until recently, was the subject of an investigation into Internet postings in which he allegedly called on fellow Muslims to "exterminate" Canadian Jews.

Hossain was charged with five counts of violating the Canadian Criminal Code – three counts of "willfully promot[ing] hatred against an identifiable group" and two counts of "Advocat[ing] or promot[ing] genocide against an identifiable group."

In writings that appeared on online chat forums, Hossain claimed the Holocaust was fictional and asked: "When do I get to shoot a few Jews down…"

Hossain once wrote: "Here's what I suggest we do…just throw out the Jews (by religion or blood) out of the instruments of mainstream media, finance/banking, government/politics, and the intelligence/secret services."

"That's how the Muslims have done it in the past, especially when they were in power and glorious. Leave behind the token Jew here and there just to appear non-discriminatory," Hossain wrote. "Then send the Jews packing on a different ship to their own territory or maybe the South Pole to live with the penguins. Do this before they claim we gonna do another 'holocaust.' There's no Jew better than an exile Jew."

The announcement came nine months after the Ontario attorney-general said the Crown would not file charges because Hossain had entered a rehabilitation program to change his behavior. But if anything, Hossain's broadsides became more extreme since then, including calls for the "mass extermination" of Canadian Jews.

"Yes, I am a fanatic," Hossain wrote recently. "I am ready to kill millions." Last week, he wrote: "We must never cease in our efforts to eliminate the Jewish people from the face of the earth. Their liquidation and destruction is the only solution."

Authorities say Hossain also cheered the killings of Canadian troops in Afghanistan and called for terrorist attacks in Canada. The National Post newspaper reported that after several suspects were arrested for allegedly plotting to attack a German military base, Hossain suggested that Canadian facilities should be targeted.

"We should do that here in Canada as well," he wrote. "Kill as many Western soldiers as well so that they think twice before entering foreign countries on behalf of their Jew masters….if there were any planned attacks against Canadian/American soldiers by 'Muslim militants' on Canadian soil, I'd support it."

Hossain allegedly continued that Western countries deserved terrorist attacks like 9/11 and the July 7, 2005 subway bombings in London, "cause then they have fear and respect of Muslims."

Hossain appeared to enjoy taunting police in his online writings. "You can't charge me for possessing a thought," he wrote, stating that he "honestly got a kick out of pissing off the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police]…HAHAHA."

Despite the ugly, inflammatory nature of his writings, police announced June 29 that they would not prosecute Hossain for his call to kill soldiers.

Hossain, who is thought to be traveling in South Asia, has not indicated whether he will return to Canada to face charges. On May 21, his "official spokesman" told a reporter to stop "harassment" of Hossain, "because he's not the only one calling for your execution you rat faced [sic] scumbag….Every last Jew on planet earth needs [sic] executed IMMEDIATELY…"

Read more about the case here.

U.S. Investigating IHH

The State Department is considering designating the Turkish NGO IHH as a terrorist organization, according to acting department spokesman Mark C. Toner.

"I believe we're looking at the IHH, but it's a long process to designate something – an organization a Foreign Terrorist Organization and there's nothing to announce on that," Toner said at a daily press briefing on Wednesday. Toner was asked whether such an investigation would occur after a bipartisan group of 87 senators wrote President Obama last month requesting that IHH be added to the list of foreign terrorist organizations.

The June 21 letter, initiated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, supported Israel's right to self-defense following the violent confrontation that occurred between Israeli commandos and IHH operatives on the Mavi Marmara ship on May 31st. The letter further states:

"We are deeply concerned about the IHH's role in this incident and have additional questions about Turkey and any connections to Hamas. The IHH is a member of a group of Muslim charities, the Union of Good, which was designated by the US Treasury Department as a terrorist organization. The Union of Good was created by, and strongly supports Hamas, which has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department. We recommend that your administration consider whether the IHH should be put on the list of foreign terrorist organizations, after an examination by the intelligence community, the State Department, and the Treasury Department."

Last month, Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley confirmed that IHH has ties to Hamas, saying "That is obviously of great concern to us."

According to intelligence sources, IHH previously had ties to other terrorist groups. French intelligence expert Jean Louis-Bruguiere stated in an interview with the Associated Press last month that IHH "were basically helping al-Qaida when (Osama) bin Laden started to want to target U.S. soil."

Bruguiere had previously testified that IHH played an "important role" in al-Qaida's millennium bomb plot. A 2006 study conducted by a Danish research institute cites a French intelligence report stating that IHH and its president, Bulent Yildirim, logistically and financially supported jihad activities in Muslim countries during the mid 1990's and members of IHH were preparing to fight in Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan before they were detained by Turkish authorities.

U.A.E. Ambassador: U.S., Israeli Military Strikes Preferable to Iranian Nukes

U.S. or Israeli military action against Iranian nuclear facilities would be preferable to allowing Tehran to get atomic weapons. That hawkish account comes from an unexpected source - Yousef al-Otaiba - the United Arab Emirates' Ambassador to the United States.

At the Aspen Ideas Festival Tuesday in Colorado, Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent of The Atlantic, asked Otaiba if he wanted the United States to stop the Iranian program by force.

"Absolutely, absolutely," Otaiba replied. "I think we are at risk of an Iranian nuclear program far more than you are at risk. At 7,000 miles away, and with two oceans bordering you, an Iranian nuclear threat does not threaten the continental United States. It may threaten your assets in the region. It will threaten the peace process. It will threaten balance of power. It will threaten everything else, but it will not threaten you."

Otaiba added that "out of every country in the region, the U.A.E. is most vulnerable to Iran. Our military, [which] has existed for the past 40 years, wake up dream, breathe, eat, sleep, the Iranian threat. It's the only conventional military threat our military plans for, trains for, equips for, that's it. There's no other threat. There's no country in the region that is a threat to the U.A.E. It's only Iran. So, yes, it's very much in our interest that Iran does not gain nuclear technology."

Goldberg asked if that would be the case even if the attack came from Israel.

"A military attack on Iran by whomever would be a disaster," Otaiba answered. "But Iran with a nuclear weapon would be a bigger disaster."

Goldberg observed that the ambassador's position, though stated more publicly than usual, is the standard view of many Arab states.

"It is not only Israel that fears the rise of a nuclear Iran; the Arabs, if anything, fear such a development to a greater degree," he wrote. "The Jews and Arabs have been fighting for one hundred years. The Arabs and the Persians have been going at [it] for a thousand. The idea of a group of Persian Shi'ites having possession of a nuclear bomb scares Arab leaders like nothing else - it certainly scares them more than the reality of the Jewish bomb."

Iranian television reports that the UAE government is walking back Otaiba's statement as "taken out of context." Read the full story here and here.

American's Disclosures Tie Lashkar to Pakistani Intelligence

Eight days of interrogation by Indian law enforcement officials of American David Coleman Headley reportedly yielded key disclosures linking terrorists behind the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai to Pakistani intelligence.

In March, Headley pleaded guilty to 12 federal terrorism charges, including conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder Americans and others in India, and to provide material support to the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). More than 160 people were killed in the attacks, including six Americans

As part of their joint partnership to combat international terrorism, the U.S. government provided a team from India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) with direct access Headley last month. He reportedly told the investigators that the terrorist outfit LeT worked hand-in-glove with rogue elements tied to Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI.

Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, leader of Jamaat ud-Dawa (JuD), the Pakistan-based Islamic charity that serves as a front for the LeT, has also been identified by Headley as the "mastermind" of the Mumbai attacks. Headley also disclosed the names of the terrorist handlers who orchestrated the attacks from several thousands of miles away in Pakistan.

The close ties between the Pakistani terrorist group and the ISI have been detailed in the 11th dossier of evidence documenting Headley's confessions related to the attacks. India has submitted ten other dossiers to Pakistan in the past citing evidence tying members of the LeT and the Pakistani military and intelligence services to the Mumbai attacks. The dossier details LeT operative Headley's meetings with his handlers in Pakistan, including JuD's Saeed, retired Pakistani major Sajid Mir and ISI officials in the Pakistani cities of Muzzaffarabad and Lahore in the months leading up to the Mumbai attacks.

Islamabad has denied Saeed and the JuD were involved, but recently recognized JuD as a terrorist group. The admission comes close on the heels of Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram's visit to Islamabad to meet with his counterpart Rehman Malik and hand him the dossier of evidence with Headley's confessions. The recognition of JuD as a terrorist group is also part of larger government crackdown on 17 terrorist groups, including the LeT and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), following the recent attack on a mosque in Lahore that killed at least 45 people.

"The Pilot" Indicted in NY Subway Plot

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a superseding indictment targeting a key Al Qaeda leader with ties to South Florida Wednesday in the ongoing prosecution of the New York City subway bombing plot. Lead conspirator Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty to his role in February. The DOJ announcement on the new charges states:

"The superseding indictment, which was returned and unsealed today in the Eastern District of New York, charges the following defendants each with several terrorism violations: Adnan El Shukrijumah, also known as 'Hamad;' Adis Medunjanin, also known as 'Mohammad;' Abid Naseer; Tariq Ur Rehman; and a fifth defendant known as 'Ahmad,' 'Sohaib' or 'Zahid.' Each of the defendants faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

According to the indictment, court filings and plea proceedings in the case, the plot involving Zazi was organized by Saleh al-Somali, Rashid Rauf, and El Shukrijumah, who were then- leaders of al-Qaeda's 'external operations' program dedicated to terrorist attacks in the United States and other Western countries."

The new charges allege El-Shukrijumah is an al-Qaeda leader who recruited Zazi and others to conduct terrorist attacks against the New York subway system and other targets, including some in the United Kingdom. El-Shukrijumah is well known to American law enforcement. He has been on the FBI's "Seeking Information" list and the State Department's "Rewards for Justice Program" list for several years. The State Department list says El-Shukrijumah has been under a federal material witness warrant from the Eastern District of Virginia since March 2003.

El-Shukrijumah's nom-de-guerre is "Jaffar Al-Tayyar," or Jaffar the Pilot. When intelligence officials started questioning detainees at Guantanamo Bay about still unknown al Qaeda operatives who might carry out attacks, several gave the same answer – Jaffar al-Tayyar. It wasn't until after Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's capture in 2003, and his subsequent identification of a photo of El-Shukrijumah, that investigators concluded El-Shukrijumah was a major al-Qaeda operative.

But he had been on the federal law enforcement radar screen before that. In early 2001, the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in Miami was investigating terror suspect Imran Mandhai. Mandhai lived near Ft. Lauderdale and attended the same mosque as El-Shukrijumah and where El-Shukrijumah's father was the imam.

Mandhai allegedly was unsuccessful in recruiting El-Shukrijumah into his terror plot. Investigators believed he was "spooked" and sensed Mandhai was being targeted by law enforcement. Mandhai and an accomplice, Shueyb Mossa Jokhan, were subsequently convicted of terror conspiracy and sentenced to lengthy prison terms after planning to bomb power stations, synagogues and military installations in South Florida.

During the Mandhai investigation, INS agents learned that El-Shukrijumah had a "green card" and had applied for naturalization as a U.S. citizen. In his application, he failed to disclose his arrest record, including a 1997 charge in Broward County for child abuse and battery under the name "Jumah Adnan Elshukri." The charge was not prosecuted, but the circumstances leading to his arrest – and the fact that he failed to disclose it - raised the suspicions of the investigating federal agents in early 2001.

The INS agents presented the matter for possible criminal prosecution on fraud charges and sought a search warrant of El-Shukrijumah's residence to look for additional evidence, including a search of his computer. But FBI officials advised prosecutors that he was not a person of importance or interest and the case never materialized. El-Shukrijumah left the United States a short time later.

The 9/11 Commission Terrorist Travel report released in August 2004 found that on May 2, 2001, Mohamed Atta visited the INS office in Miami with two other persons in an attempt to obtain a visitor visa status extension approval. The INS inspector who interviewed Atta and the others reported to the 9/11 Commission that she was "75 percent sure" one of the men who accompanied Atta was El-Shukrijumah (see footnote 114 of the report).

El-Shukrijumah remains at large.

Mexican Arrest Indicates Hizballah Seeking Foothold

Hizballah is setting up shop along the American border with Mexico, the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah reports. In an exclusive story, the Kuwaiti daily revealed that Mexican officials have arrested a Mexican national with ties to the Shiite terrorist group.

The militant, Jameel Nasr, was reportedly under police surveillance for a while, with authorities explaining he had traveled from Lebanon to countries throughout South and Central America, eventually gaining citizenship and a job as a graphic engineer in Mexico. While in Mexico, Nasr reportedly traveled frequently to Lebanon to receive information and instructions from Hizballah commanders.

The issue of border security for the United States, both to the North and the South, is not new. We recently reported on an investigation by the House Committee on Homeland Security that confirmed the threat is only increasing.

In June, Congresswoman Sue Myrick wrote to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano about this issue, asking that a task force be dedicated to the issue because, in the words of former Chief of Operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, Michael Braun:

"Hezballah relies on the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartel…They work together; they rely on the same shadow facilitators. One way or another they are all connected."

Hizballah's ultimate goal in establishing a foothold in Mexico is unclear. On the one hand, inroads into Mexico may simply be an expansion of the already vast network that the terrorist organization has set up in the tri-border region where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay meet. From Mexico, Hizballah could reach out to drug cartels and raise money through criminal activity and narcotics trafficking.

Alternatively, as the al-Seyassah piece suggests, Hizballah's intentions may be more sinister than simply using Mexico as a source for fundraising. The report cited Mexican authorities as saying that Nasr had been "entrusted with forming a base in South American and the United States to carry out operations against Israeli and Western targets."

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