Congressional Inquiry
March 21, 2012
MAJORITY PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIVE FINDINGS
http://homeland.house.gov/sites/homeland.house.gov/files/Investigative_Findings_Iran_Hezbollah_Threat.pdf
Iran, Hezbollah and the Threat to the Homeland
- A common view within the Intelligence Community is that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force works very closely around the world with Lebanese Hezbollah.
- After 9/11, many in law enforcement and intelligence assumed Hezbollah would only strike inside our borders if Israel or the U.S. attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran’s unprovoked plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Washington has changed that thinking.
- Counterterrorism officials consider Hezbollah fundraising cells to be prevalent across the United States. Sophisticated operations have been uncovered within large Lebanese communities in Michigan and New York, but also in places such as Charlotte, N.C.
- There is general consensus among dozens of experts as well as current and former law enforcement and intelligence officials interviewed by the Majority Investigative Staff that Hezbollah – more than any other terror group – is the most capable of flipping a U.S.-based fundraising cell into a lethal terror force, should Iran decide that is in its interests.
- Pinning down a reliable estimate of the number of Hezbollah operatives who now reside inside the U.S. is difficult because of their operational security expertise. But some officials estimate that, based on cases uncovered since 9/11, there are likely several thousand sympathetic donors, while operatives probably number in the hundreds.
- Most Hezbollah-linked Federal defendants have been Lebanese nationals or naturalized U.S. citizens from Lebanon; many of those charged by the Department of Justice over the past decade remain at large in Lebanon.
- The U.S. government has exposed many defendants’ direct contacts or family ties to senior Hezbollah leadership, such as convicted militant Mahmoud Kourani in Detroit, who was trained in Lebanon and Iran. Three of his brothers were also members, including one who was Hezbollah’s military security chief in southern Lebanon, prosecutors said.
- Many defendants were known or suspected of having military training or direct combat experience against Israeli forces. Some were quietly convicted of fraud and deported as criminal aliens without their Hezbollah background being publicly disclosed by prosecutors, the Majority’s Investigative Staff has learned.
U.S. CASES INVOLVING IRAN:
- U.S. v. ARBABSIAR and SHAKURI
U.S. CASES INVOLVING HEZBOLLAH:
- U.S. v. LEBANESE CANADIAN BANK SAL (Civil Complaint Filed: Dec.15, 2011)
- U.S. v. JOUMAA (Nov. 23, 2011)
- U.S. v. SAADE (Feb. 8, 2011)
- U.S. v. HENARAH et al. (Feb. 01, 2011)
- U.S. vs. AKL, AMERA A. and U.S. v. AKL, HOR. I. (June 3 and 7, 2010)
- U.S. v. HODROJ, et al. (Nov. 24, 2009)
- U.S. v. TARRAF, et al. (Nov. 20, 2009)
- U.S. v. KOUMAIHA, et al (Nov. 17, 2009)
- U.S. v. NAYYAR, et al. (Oct. 26, 2009)
- U.S. v. AYOUB, (Aug. 05, 2009)
- U.S. v. ALOMARI, et al. (Feb. 24, 2007)
- U.S. v. IQBAL, (Nov. 15, 2006)
- U.S. v. CHAHINE, et al. (May 18, 2006)
- U.S. v. RAHAL (May 18, 2005)
- U.S. v. MAATOUK (Nov. 10, 2004)
- U.S. v. KHALIL (June 16, 2004)
- U.S. v. KOURANI (Nov. 19, 2003)
- U.S. v. HAYDOUS (Apr. 23, 2003)
- U.S. v. AKHDAR, et al. (Feb. 03, 2003)
- U.S. v. BOUGHADER-MUCHARRAFILLE (Nov. 15, 2002)
- U.S. v. HAMMOUD (March 2002)
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