Hezbollah builds a Western base
From inside South Americas Tri-border area, Iran-linked militia
targets U.S.
By Pablo Gato and Robert Windrem
NBC News
Updated: 6:29 a.m. PT May 9, 2007
CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay - The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia
has taken root in South America, fostering a well-financed force of
Islamist radicals boiling with hatred for the United States and
ready to die to prove it, according to militia members, U.S.
officials and police agencies across the continent.
From its Western base in a remote region divided by the borders of
Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina known as the Tri-border, or the
Triple Frontier, Hezbollah has mined the frustrations of many
Muslims among about 25,000 Arab residents whose families immigrated
mainly from Lebanon in two waves, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
and after the 1985 Lebanese civil war.
An investigation by Telemundo and NBC News has uncovered details of
an extensive smuggling network run by Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim
group founded in Lebanon in 1982 that the United States has labeled
an international terrorist organization. The operation funnels
large sums of money to militia leaders in the Middle East and
finances training camps, propaganda operations and bomb attacks in
South America, according to U.S. and South American
officials.
