By Kerry Patton; SUA ‘Kitchen Cabinet’ Member
This week, main stream media decided to finally report about Hezbollah (Hizballah) inside the United States. The New York City Counterterrorism Division along with the former head of the DEA testified about the Hezbollah crisis before Congress. Why hasn’t the main stream media picked up on this issue earlier—like years earlier?
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) warned Wednesday that there are hundreds — maybe even thousands — of Hezbollah agents inside the United States capable of launching a terror attack if U.S.-Iran tensions continue to escalate.
“The American intelligence community … believes we are very much at risk for an attack by Iranian operatives, which would be Hezbollah, that is a terrorist-trained force in this country. It really is the ‘A’ team of international terrorism — far more sophisticated than Al Qaeda,” the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee said on CNN’s “Starting Point.”
Read this report on “Iran, Hezbollah and the Threat to the Homeland” from the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security.
When Main Stream Media (MSM) has an agenda, one that will do everything and anything to silence the conservative voice and one that will do everything in its power to re-elect one of America’s most dangerous administrations, it is obvious they felt no need to caution the American public about growing domestic Islamic threats.
The threat of Hezbollah inside the United States is nothing new and it should have been reported long ago. Simply put, the MSM failed in their obligations to keep the American public informed. Its simply amazing that it took so long; after all, Hezbollah has been on the State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations since the 1980’s.
Clare Lopez, a retired CIA Officer, had publicly presented evidence of Hezbollah infiltration operations inside the United States for several years, and here at SUA, we have been reporting it repeatedly for years. In fact, while speaking at the 2010 Border Security Expo in Phoenix, AZ, Lopez sat on a panel discussing the Iranian supported “Party of God” terror group operating on our border. She also explained to the audience how those operations have actually crossed into the United States and for years have threatened our homeland.
In 2006, the Justice Department launched urgent new probes in New York and other cities targeting members of the Lebanese Shi’ite terror group. The New York Post published a piece in May of 2006 which claimed that “Law-enforcement and intelligence officials stated that about a dozen hard-core supporters of Hezbollah have been identified in recent weeks as operating in the New York City area (alone).”
Hezbollah, on the Foreign Terror Organization list at State since the 1980's, reported infiltration in the USA for years, just now the MSM reports on the threat!
Between 1996 and 2002, Imad Hammoud, along with his partner, Hassan Makki, ran a multi-million dollar a year contraband cigarette trafficking organization headquartered in the Dearborn, Michigan area. Their operation was intercepted and a total of nineteen Islamic terrorists were indicted for funding terrorism. Makki pleaded guilty in 2003 inside the Detroit Federal District Court to racketeering and providing material support to Hezbollah.
There is absolutely nothing new about Hezbollah operations inside the United States. But again, Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper refused to acknowledge the threat in his most recent National Threat Assessment. Why should he? The MSM refused to acknowledge Hezbollah inside the United States for well over ten years. I guess if we all just close our eyes, the bad guys will go away.
Thankfully, NYPD and some federal agencies have not been corrupted by today’s unprecedented amount of political correctness. Now that the cat is out of the bag will the MSM begin to cover such threats more regularly or will this be another quick snippet on national news? Considering its election season, it is highly probable that the MSM will quickly go back to their old ways and resume their attacks against the conservative voice. And of course, they will close their eyes in hopes that the bad guys will just go away.
Edited by Scott W. Winchell
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Kerry Patton, a combat service disabled veteran, is a senior analyst for WIKISTRAT. He has worked in South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, focusing on intelligence and security and interviewing current and former terrorists, including members of the Taliban. You can follow him on Facebook or at www.kerry-patton.com
