Lebanese-born merchant designated as financier of terrorism
Submitted by Templar Titan on Thu, 06/17/2004 - 18:45.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday designated
Assad Ahmad Barakat, a Lebanese-born merchant with business operations in at least three South American countries, as a global financier of terrorism. Barakat, arrested in Brazil in June 2002 and now jailed next door in Paraguay for tax evasion, has long been on the radar screen of U.S. intelligence. He operated mostly in the triple border shared by Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, home to one of Latin America's largest Arab populations. |
|
Treasury officials, designating Barakat and freezing some assets, allege he funded terror through his import-export businesses, through control of a ring that distributed counterfeit U.S. dollars and coerced other Arab merchants into making ''contributions'' to Shiite-Muslim group Hezbollah. The U.S. government classifies the Lebanese-based Hezbollah, supported by Iran and Syria, as a terror group. ''Today, we are designating a key terrorist financier in South America who has used every financial crime in the book, including his businesses, to generate funding for Hezbollah,'' said Juan Zarate, a Treasury deputy assistant secretary for terror financing and other financial crimes. ''From counterfeiting to extortion, this Hezbollah sympathizer committed financial crimes and utilized front companies to underwrite terror.'' U.S. intelligence officials had tracked Barakat since the mid-1990s because of Hezbollah ties and fund-raising activities along the tri-border area. ''It's about time Treasury put this guy on the list. This is not new stuff - he was long suspected,'' said a U.S. diplomat who served in Paraguay and knows well the region. ''Now they have proof.'' The porous and lawless triple border is viewed as the U.S. State Department as a weak flank whose lax immigration controls can be exploited by terror groups. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the right-hand man to Osama bin Laden, journeyed to Brazil and visited the area in 1995. Barakat kept residences in Paraguay, Brazil and Chile, along with import-export operations. He narrowly escaped detention in Chile in October 2001, where he was said to be conducting business in a duty-free zone in Iquique. ''Barakat allegedly moved millions of dollars to the Lebanese Hezbollah organization ... Prior to September 11, Hezbollah was responsible for the deaths of more Americans than any other terrorist organization,'' said a U.S. diplomat in Paraguay, speaking on condition of anonymity. ''He was designated as a financier of terrorism in the tri-border area.'' Treasury officials allege Barakat has served as a Hezbollah treasurer, carrying contributions personally to Lebanon. As late as 2001, he is believed to have met with Hezbollah Secretary General Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and influential radical Shiite cleric Sheikh Sayyid Muhammed Hussein Fadlallah. On Thursday, Treasury announced it had designated Casa Apollo and Barakat Import Export Ltda. as financial agents for terror, used as front companies for fund raising. Treasury also said that Barakat's alleged personal secretary Sobhi Mahmoud Fayad operated as Hezbollah's military leader in the triple border. Fayad has been jailed in Paraguay since November 2002, serving time for tax evasion. He was arrested in 1999 for conducting surveillance on the U.S. Embassy in Asuncion. Knight Ridder Newspapers |
