-Caveat Lector-
This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which
follows.
To view this item online, visit
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29959
Thursday, December 12, 2002
Hezbollah has friend
close to White House
Terrorist allies of al-Qaida supported by billionaire booster of Bush,
Powell
Posted: December 12, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Joseph Farah
� 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shi'ite jihadist group based in
Lebanon, is on the U.S. State Department list of international
terrorist organizations.
Just yesterday, Canada officially added Hezbollah to its list of 14
terrorist groups banned from operating in the country.
According to intelligence experts, Hezbollah maintains an
operational alliance with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror
network.
Hezbollah remains the prime suspect in the truck bombing of the
Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 � a terrorist attack that killed
243.
Immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States,
Hezbollah's Al Manar Television celebrated the events by replaying
footage of the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in 1982 along with
inflammatory speeches by the group's leader, Hasan Nasrallah,
warning America's day of judgment would come.
Yet, a man with close financial and personal ties to the Bush
administration continues to use his influence to push for the
dropping of Hezbollah from the terrorist list and calls the group "a
resistance party fighting the Israeli occupation."
That man in the middle is Issam Fares, deputy prime minister of
Lebanon, a self-made billionaire and a close associate of Maj.
General Ghazi Kanaan, head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon and
the man known as the "kingmaker" in a small country dominated by
Syria's occupying military forces.
"It is a mistake to make a comparison between the al-Qaida network
... and Hezbollah," Fares told Agence France-Presse last year.
"Hezbollah did not carry out any resistance operation against
American interests in Lebanon or abroad and did not target civilians
in its resistance activities as happened on Sept. 11 at the World
Trade Center."
Fares, through his son, Nijad, a permanent resident alien of the
U.S., and his U.S.-based businesses, has contributed heavily to the
senatorial campaigns of now Department of Energy Secretary
Spencer Abraham. The family also contributed $100,000 to the
Bush inaugural. And Fares sponsored a speech by Secretary of
State Colin Powell at Tufts University for a reported $59,000.
Fares oversees a worldwide, diversified conglomerate of oil, real
estate and media interests. In 2000, he became deputy prime
minister of Lebanon.
The family's main U.S. business holding is the Houston-based
Wedge Group, a big player in the oil services industry headed by
William White, the former No. 2 official at the Energy Department
during the Clinton administration.
That the Fares family is attempting to buy influence in high places in
the United States seems self-evident.
"Arab-Americans must substantially increase contributions to
political candidates," wrote Nijad Fares in an opinion page article for
the Detroit News, Dec, 16, 1996. "Even modest contributions help
ensure that members of Congress and their staffs take phone calls
and are more responsive to requests. Furthermore, the contributor
must make explicit an interest in Middle East-related issues."
The connection between the Fares family and the Bush family
precedes the current administration. After leaving office in 1993,
President George H.W. Bush received a $100,000 speaking fee
from Fares. He also made a trip around the Persian Gulf in Fares'
private jet with the Lebanese businessman by his side. Former
Secretary of State James Baker also received a $100,000 speaking
fee.
When the news of Fares' support of the inauguration broke in the
Jerusalem Post in 2000, Fares said he was happy with the "noble
relationship" between himself and the Bush family.
"If the Zionist lobby and those revolving in its orbit are displeased
with this relationship, it's their own business," he told the paper.
"Anyway, envy is a killer."
Beirut's Daily Star reported last year that Fares has cultivated a
network of connections with senior American officials that "would
make most people blush with envy."
It's not unusual that a man of means like Fares would find friends in
high places in America. But it is Fares' allies in Lebanon � from
Hezbollah to Kanaan � that make those connections shocking to
some.
"Kanaan is the man who protects, assists and harbors most
terrorists and terror-related organizations in Lebanon," explains Nagi
Najjar, the spokesman for the Government of Lebanon in Exile, a
group fighting for independence from Syria. And, Hezbollah, he
says, is "the father of all terrorism."
He charges that Hezbollah has sleeper cells planted around the
world with a mission to target Jewish and U.S. interests.
"Hezbollah is to the Shiaa Muslim world what al-Qaida is to the
Sunni Muslim world," he says. "They're a bunch of murderers
structured in a terrorist, military organization, financed, trained and
manipulated by Syria and Iran. This terrorist organization must be
neutralized, dismantled and all its leadership arrested on charges of
terrorism and subversion. Southern Lebanon has been transformed
into a major terror base whose sole objective is to torpedo, with the
consent of other terror regimes in the area, any U.S. peace initiative
in the Middle East."
Najjar counters Fares' claim that Hezbollah is a local resistance
movement by citing the group's actions in hijacking planes, the
bombing of the Marine barracks, the bombing of the U.S. and
French embassies, the kidnapping of foreign nations, including CIA
operative William Buckley, and a bombing in Buenos Aires,
Argentina.
According to the Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, Kanaan has the
power to order the arrest and indefinite detention of anyone in the
country. He is deeply immersed in narcotics production and
trafficking in the Bekaa Valley and oversees counterfeiting and other
illegal activities that have made him a wealthy man. He reportedly
holds great sway over all terrorist groups operating in Lebanon and
all militia groups.
"He is the most feared man in Lebanon," wrote Daniel Nassif.
Fares called on Washington to remove Hezbollah from its terrorist
list Nov. 10, 2001. A day later, Hezbollah chief Nasrallah called on
the international community to oppose the U.S. operation in
Afghanistan and said its purpose was to establish "American
hegemony" over the world.
Bush and Powell have both praised Fares and denounced questions
raised about his influence in Washington.
Fares' companies around the world employ about 70,000 people
and boast revenues in excess of $4 billion, according to his website.
In 1987, his company increased its holdings in TVX Broadcast
Group of Virginia Beach, the largest owner of independent television
stations in the United States reaching about 15 percent of U.S.
households. Federal law prohibits foreign investors from controlling
more than 20 percent of the voting stock of broadcast licensees.
Related stories:
Iran continues to train, arm Hezbollah
Hezbollah preparing chemical weapons?
Syria helps Iran arm Hezbollah
Joseph Farah is editor and chief executive officer of
WorldNetDaily.com.--
Outgoing mail is certified virus free
Scanned by Norton AntiVirus
Human beings draw conclusions from what they see. All
around the world, Muslims are declaring, in the name of
Islam, that they are at war with the West. More
important, all around the world self-declared Muslims
are actually waging war on the West. They may be a
tiny minority of the global Muslim community. I have no
doubt that's true. But if the decent and peace-loving
Muslims of the world sit on their hands and do nothing,
you can hardly fault many in the West who draw the
conclusion that Islam is anything but peaceful.
~~Jonah Goldberg
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
