Author: Associated Press
Publication: Fox News
Date: December 6, 2006
URL: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,234827,00.html
The Bush administration took action Wednesday
aimed at choking off a major fundraising channel for Hezbollah operating in
the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
The Treasury Department's action covers nine
people and two entities - a shopping center in Paraguay and an electronics
company, Casa Hamze, located in the shopping center.
As a result, Americans are forbidden from
doing business with them, and any bank accounts or other financial assets
belonging to the designated people and entities found in the United States
must be frozen.
Click here to read the Treasury Department's
press release on the action.
The department alleges that those designated
have provided financial and logistical support to the Islamic militant group
Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terrorist organization. The
Lebanon-based Hezbollah is suspected of involvement in terrorist attacks worldwide.
The U.S. also blames Hezbollah for triggering
bloodshed in the Middle East involving Lebanon, Israel and the terrorist group
during the summer and more recently stirring political unrest in Lebanon.
Specifically, the department alleges that
the designated people gave financial and other assistance to Assad Ahmad Barakat,
whom the government several years ago added to its asset-blocking list for
his support of Hezbollah.
"Assad Ahmad Barakat's network in the
tri-border area is a major financial artery to Hezbollah in Lebanon,"
said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign
Assets Control.
The Treasury Department alleged that Muhammad
Yusif Abdallah is a senior Hezbollah leader in the tri-border area and an
important financial backer of the terror group.
It says Abdallah is an owner and manager of
the Galeria Page shopping center located in Paraguay, which the department
also designated on Wednesday.
The department alleged that Abdallah pays
a percentage of his income to Hezbollah based on the profits he receives from
the shopping center. It alleges that Abdallah has been involved in importing
contraband electronics, falsifying passports, credit card fraud and trafficking
counterfeit U.S. dollars.
Hamzi Ahmad Barakat also was designated, with
the government alleging that he is a Hezbollah member in the tri-border area
and has served as a source of funding for the terror group through his electronics
store, Casa Hamze. He also is suspected of trafficking in narcotics, counterfeit
U.S. dollars, arms and explosives, the government said.
Hatim Ahmad Barakat, who has traveled to Chile
to collect money for Hezbollah and is the brother of Assad Ahmad Barakat,
also was named.
Others named Wednesday are: Muhammad Fayez
Barakat, whom the government alleges is responsible for the Barakat network's
finances; Muhammad Tarabain Chamas and Saleh Mahmoud Fayad, whom the government
alleges have been involved in counterintelligence; Sobhi Mahmoud Fayad, who
the government says served as a liaison between the Iranian embassy and the
Hezbollah community in the tri-border area; Ali Muhammad Kazan, who helped
raise more than $500,000 for Hezbollah from Lebanese businessmen in the tri-border
region, the government alleges; and Farouk Omairi, whom the government says
is a member of the Hezbollah community in the tri-border area.
The tri-border region is considered a haven
for arms traffickers, smugglers and counterfeiters and is home is thousands
of Lebanese Muslims. It was once described by the U.S. State Department as
a "focal point for Islamic extremism in Latin America."
