To Cut Hezbollah Funding, Cut External Financial Support

By Douglas Farah

To diminish Hezbollah's future ability to amass the type of weapons it currently possesses and carry out expensive military operations, it is necessary to go after the organization's far-flung financial structure outside of Lebanon. In addition to the support the group receives from Iran and Syria, it maintains an extensive fund-raising arm among the Shi'ite Muslim disapora.

Key concentrations are West and Central Africa, Panama and the tri-border area in South America, where the organization raises money through contraband; "taxes" on legitimate businesses, where voluntary or not; and taking a cut of illegal businesses and smuggling. Partnership Africa Canada wrote a comprehensive paper on the Lebanese role in the West African "blood diamond" trade and other illiciit activities, which reaps Hezbollah and its sister militia, Amal, millions of dollars a year.

The close-knit family ties and kinship networks that are the basis for the Lebanese business operations make even routine criminal investigations very difficult. Because everyone knows everyone and who is related to whom, infiltrating someone undercover has proved to be largely impossible.

As I testified before Congress in April 2004, "Hezbollah operates in a more institutional manner in West Africa, where it has been operational almost since its birth in the early 1980s. My full blog is here.

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