Does Hezbollah Still Pose a Threat to the United States National Security?

   The importance of Hezbollah as a threat to the United States National Security is defined by the latest National Strategy for Counterterrorism (June 2011). This strategy expresses the thoughts of the new administration on the overall threats the country is facing with today. Unfortunately, while President Obama’s new strategy focuses mainly on the war on Al-Qaeda and its affiliates, the old enemy is growing to a formidable force within its borders.

   
   Even though Hezbollah was for many years the United States biggest threat as a terror organization, only two paragraphs out of twenty-three pages of the document mention Hezbollah. The first paragraph acknowledges Hezbollah’s will to “undermine the security and stability of allied and partner governments, foment regional conflicts, traffic in narcotics, or otherwise pursue agendas that are inimical to U.S. interests.”  It is important to note that the United States itself is not mentioned, only its allied and partner governments, and therefore the administration is only “committed to working vigorously and aggressively to counter their efforts and activities even as we avoid conflating them and al-Qaeda into a single enemy.”

   
   The second paragraph emphasizes Hezbollah’s importance as a threat as a terror organization: “Although al-Qaeda is our strategic as well as tactical Counterterrorism priority, other designated terrorist organizations pose a significant threat to U.S. strategic interests. Hizballah… remain opposed to aspects of U.S. foreign policy and pose significant threats to U.S. strategic interests as regional destabilizers and as threats to our citizens, facilities, and allies worldwide. Even when their terrorist efforts are not directed at the United States, a successful terror­ist operation by one of these groups in and around the key regional fault lines in which they operate increases the likelihood of regional conflict.” The meaning is that Hezbollah does pose a threat as a terror organization, but only on a regional level, probably the Middle East, where the allies, i.e. Israel and the Future Movement in Lebanon, should confront Hezbollah’s terrorism acts. The phrasing is general and its purpose is to avoid unnecessary confrontation, which will acquire resources of the battle against Al-Qaeda.

   
   The two paragraphs clearly show that the Obama administration prefer to concentrate on Al-Qaeda as the terror threat the United State is facing with rather than observe Hezbollah from a different perspective. Hezbollah is not only a terror organization, but a criminal organization, and as such, poses a bigger threat to the United States National Security.

   
   This threat should be treated with no less urgency as al-Qaeda on terrorism, since Hezbollah, just like a spider, spins its cobweb around the United States and waits for the right moment to bring it down. 

   
   Hezbollah is a hybrid organization; it has been labeled globally as a terror organization, armed militia, political party, social movement and a global criminal organization, as will be explained shortly.

   
   When Hezbollah was formed in 1982, backed by Iran and Syria, the United States was a part of an international peace-keeping force, established in Lebanon in order to prevent violence during the civil war, and the war between Israel and the PLO in Southern Lebanon. Nonetheless, the United States found itself fighting against Hezbollah, whose initial goals were to banish all foreign forces out of Lebanon and create an Islamic state.

    
   These goals are yet to be changed, as Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, keeps declaring that the United States (“big Satan”) and Israel (“little Satan”) should be demolished, as he presented the old-new manifesto in the 7^th general conference of the organization in November 2009. According to the manifesto, Hezbollah declines the status of the United States as the sole superpower and the retreat of American power throughout the world. There is no doubt, the manifesto states, that the American Terrorism is the origin of all terrorism in this world. The Bush administration has turned the United States into a threat menacing the whole world on all levels and dimensions, and if an international survey was to be made, the U.S. would turn out to be the most hated in the world. Nevertheless, Nasrallah’s statements are not necessarily indicating the scope of the threat Hezbollah poses to the American Homeland Security.

  
   Up until the 9/11 attacks, the United States considered Hezbollah as one of its major threat, and as the terror organization responsible to the killing of many Americans. Since the United States sent its military forces to Lebanon in 1978, it had failed in the battle against Hezbollah. The organization kept conducting terrorism activities against American targets such as the kidnapping of David Stuart Dodge, the President of the American University in Beirut, in 1982; the suicide bombing in the United States Embassy in 1983; and the suicide bombing in the Marines Headquarters the same year.

   
   The American role had changed in the second half of the 80’s, after the Western forces withdrew from Lebanon. The United States was involved mostly in mediating in the Israeli-Lebanese-Hezbollah conflict, with no military intervention. The mediation attempts failed miserably and Hezbollah continued to conduct terror attacks against American targets such as hijacking aircrafts and kidnapping American citizens.

   
   Hezbollah participated in the national elections in Lebanon for the first time in 1992 as a legitimate political party. Since then it gained more and more influence until it reached its current position – controlling the government behind the scenes. In Lebanon, Hezbollah is a political party in spite of its use of political violence (e.g. the alleged assassination of the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and the partial take-over of Beirut in May 2008) in order to eradicate its rivals and obtain a veto power in the government.

   
   In addition to its labels of terror organization and a political party, Hezbollah is also a global criminal organization. The groups’ operatives outside of Lebanon acquire their instructions directly from the Shura Council in Lebanon. Allegedly, one might argue, a religious terror organization should have “red lines” with regard to the drug industry and criminal activities. Nasrallah denies Hezbollah’s involvement in these activities consistently. Yet, the reality could not have been more different.

   
  First and foremost, one should note that every Shiite community in the world is a potential base to Hezbollah’s activities, due to its strong ties to the Shiite Diaspora. The organization operates in more than 50 countries, including South and North America, West Africa, and the Middle East.

   
   In the United States, the criminal cobweb is extremely active and hence poses an immediate threat on the national security. The most known case of Hezbollah’s criminal activity is the Charlotte cell in North Carolina in 2002. The FBI exposed a cell of twenty-five individuals, lead by the Hammoud family. The cell was involved in smuggling operations, immigration fraud, money laundering and petty crime. The profits were sent to Lebanon, to fund terrorism activities. Any criminal activity, one should add, influences the natural balance of a civilized country and interrupts its everyday life.

   
   From the drug trade perspective, Hezbollah cooperates with the Casa Apollo drug cartel in the Tri-Border area, from the cultivation stage to the distribution, whereas Americans are the main consumers. In addition, Hezbollah has provided its knowledge regarding tunnels building to the Mexican drug cartels, in order to build smuggling tunnels on the Mexico – United States border. In this case the threat is internal, since it creates a substantial problem of drug abuse. Drug abuse has long-term impact, more than a terror attack, and therefore creates a bigger threat to the United States National Security.

   
   Another threat Hezbollah poses is fundraising through charitable organization, e.g. the Goodwill Charitable Organization. Every Shiite charitable organization is a potential fundraising source for terrorism activities, since its final destination is Lebanon. It might be ended in a new hospital or orphans’ new home, but it also might end with purchasing rockets for the next war, whether it is against Israel or the United States.


   In conclusion, Hezbollah as a terrorist organization might not be an immediate threat to the United States National Security, but as a criminal organization with terrorism financing purposes, it is a major and immediate threat. In any given moment, it can raise its head and conduct criminal acts or terrorist attacks. Ignoring this threat might be more dangerous to the United States National Security than Al-Qaeda.