Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Fifth Column

Virginia man who set police car ablaze during George Floyd riot sentenced to 364 days, avoids deportation

2022-07-21

[FoxNews] The first of six people charged with setting fire to police vehicles in Philadelphia during the 2020 protests after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police has been sentenced.

Ayoub Tabri, 25, was sentenced Monday to 364 days behind bars -- less time than he's already served in custody, and short enough to avoid triggering deportation proceedings for the Moroccan immigrant.

Lawyers for Tabri, of Arlington, Va., said the green card holder has been in the U.S. since he was 6 years old. A longer sentence, which he and the others faced under the original arson charges that carried a minimum sentence of seven years in prison, could have sent him to a country where he knew no one and didn't speak the language, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain had vowed to pursue the harsher arson charges against the six people arrested. After he left office last year, federal prosecutors worked out plea deals with a handful of those defendants, including Tabri and Lore-Elizabeth Blumenthal. Still, prosecutors argued for a longer sentence in court Monday.

Tabri pleaded guilty in March to one count of obstructing law enforcement during civil disorder, according to court records.

"The judge took into consideration the appropriate factors and imposed a just sentence," Nancy MacEoin, a federal public defender representing Tabri, said Tuesday.

Once released, Tabri will serve three years probation and have to pay about $87,000 in restitution for the Pennsylvania State Police car destroyed after he and others threw lit road flares into the vehicle.

Blumenthal, who pleaded guilty to two counts of obstructing law enforcement during civil disorder related to throwing a piece of burning police barrier at a police car, is scheduled to be sentenced later this month. Police used photos from the protest and social media profiles to find Blumenthal, 35, from Jenkintown, who was wearing a distinctive shirt investigators tracked down on Etsy and had a recognizable tattoo.

Attorney Paul Hetznecker declined to comment on the specifics of Blumenthal's case, but said the shift in prosecution against defendants facing charges from the protests is important.

"This reflects an evolution in the thinking of prosecutors in the justice department

...what a gentle way to describe being unprincipled political hacks...

about these cases and putting them in the appropriate context," Hetznecker said. "These cases occurred at an important flashpoint in our history, and they should be viewed that way."

The case against Blumenthal was widely criticized by civil rights advocates, who worried it was a signal of policies promoting heavier social media and internet surveillance of dissidents.

Did any of those wide civil rights advocates protest the exact same use of social media to hint down the January 6 protesters?

McSwain's initial charges also became a symbol of federal officials' zeal to pursue stiff penalties for those arrested during the nationwide protests.

Another defendant is scheduled for a plea hearing to lesser charges later this month. The three others charged in the police vehicle fires are slated to go to trial later this year.

Update at 5:00 p.m. EDT from information found on links on Mr. Tabri’s Antifa Watch page. From Fox29 on October 29, 2020:

US Attorney William McSwain announced charges against four men stemming from their alleged involvement in police vehicle arsons during civil unrest in Philadelphia over the summer.

Anthony David Smith, Khalif Miller, and Carlos Matchett have each been charged with two counts of arson and one count of obstructing law enforcement, U.S. Attorney William McSwain said on Thursday.

According to McSwain, the three men are accused of using a road flare to torch a Philadelphia police patrol car parked near City Hall on May 30, as ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful demonstrations unfolded in the city following the death of St. George Floyd

...the patron saint of Minneapolis, a sterling example for our children and indeed for us all. St. George was martyed by the Devil's agents in blue while standing on a street corner preaching tolerance and racial justice or something like that...
Smith has been identified by the Workers World Party,

...a revolutionary Marxist–Leninist-Trotskyist political party in the United States founded in 1959 by Sam Marcy of the Socialist Workers Party....

as a high school teacher, community leader and organizer with Philly REAL (Racial, Economic and Legal) Justice. They say Smith has been a 'prominent organizer' of the Black Lives Matter Movement since 2015 and has led countless marches in that time.

So prominent he is now appearing in the Rantburg archives for the first time...

"Mr. Smith was not in any way targeted by my office, I knew nothing about Mr. Smith or his affiliations until the investigation was nearly complete," McSwain said. "We do not investigate people at the US Attorney's office, we investigate alleged criminal behavior."

According to McSwain, the three men are accused of using a road flare to torch a Philadelphia police patrol car near City Hall on May 30, as ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful demonstrations unfolded in the city following the death of George Floyd.

Also indicted on Thursday was Ayoub Tabri,

...known to his friends as Spliff, for some reason...

a 24-year-old man from Arlington, Virginia. Tabri is alleged to have thrown a road flare into a Pennsylvania State Police SUV positioned near the on-ramp for I-676, which caused the car to become engulfed in flames. He has been charged with two counts of arson, and one count of obstructing law enforcement.

As a result of Tabri's alleged actions, McSwain said an officer who was standing near the torched vehicle was hit by a thrown road flare and his uniform caught fire. The trooper was also burned on the hand when he reached into the engulfed cruiser to retrieve a rifle to prevent it from being stolen.

If convicted, all four defendants face a mandatory minimum of seven years in prison, and a maximum possible sentence of 65 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $750,000.

"I want to be clear that we at the U.S. Attorney’s Office support peaceful protest — indeed, it is part of our job to protect First Amendment freedoms," McSwain said. "But violence is not speech. There is no right to riot, loot, rob, destroy or commit arson."

Related: Antifa Philly for REAL Justice

Link

Terror Networks

‘The snake’s head’ and the Khobar bombing

2018-08-14

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The revolutionary Khomeinist movement succeeded in reviving many fundamentalist movements. After Khomeini's arrival in Tehran, Bin Laden described Khomeini as "great", wishing to achieve a similar dream in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
Starting in the 1980s, Bin Laden gained knowledge from the experiences of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah and Imad Mughniyah who later become an ally for assisting in bombings, including the Khobar operation in 1996.

The cooperation between Iran, its branches, affiliates and al-Qaeda is familiar to Americans. When Saudi Arabia insisted on conducting an investigation into the circumstances of the bombing, a long story unfolded, as recounted by Prince Bandar bin Sultan. He bitterly narrated the suspicious deal between the Clinton team and Iran to tamper with the investigation and kill it after leads showed Iran's explicit involvement in supporting the perpetrators of the bombings in question.

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Terror Networks

Running people over: From Hezbollah to ISIS

2016-07-18

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Regarding the treacherous terrorist attack in the city of Nice, La Belle France’s president talked of "radical Islam." But what does he really mean? Sunni and Shiite terrorism are similar.

With the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claiming responsibility for carrying out the attack, which involved running over people by using a truck, we must be aware that Hezbollah has used similar tactics in the past. A Hezbollah leader once spoke about how gunnies can use vehicles to run over people and noted how the murderer would be smiling because he was going to paradise.

Terrorism goes beyond religion and sect - a murderer is a murderer, whether he is sent by Baghdadi, to Bin Laden, Nasrallah or Mughniyah.

Terrorism is one entity where only proofs and arguments differ. The late al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden
... who doesn't live anywhere anymore...
adopted Hezbollah’s method of blowing up buildings and burning embassies in the 1980s, as well as liquidations with the help of the late Imad Mughniyah, who was a senior Hezbollah figure.

Solution
The main idea is to establish a moderate Islamic culture that rejects all these groups. But this cannot be achieved only through international cooperation and strong leadership in the war against terrorism.

In Europe, where freedom to express sometimes even allows dangerous holy warrior discourse, it can become a breeding ground. So what can governments do to monitor them?

It’s a tragedy and a great catastrophe that this ugly attack was carried out with the help of a vehicle but the tactic was first used by Hezbollah and copied perfectly by ISIS.

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Home Front: WoT

US arrests global Hezbollah money-laundering network

2016-02-04

[Ynet] DEA nabs terror network laundering millions on behalf of narco mobs in order to finance terrorism and operations in Leb and Syria.

The United States' Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) on Monday declared that an international enforcement operation had caught a Hezbollah network responsible for laundering millions of dollars on behalf of Latin American narco mobs and funding its operations in Syria and Leb with the profits.

According to CNN, four people were tossed in the calaboose
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
thanks to the operation, which involved seven countries, including La Belle France, Germany, Italia and Belgium.

CNN quoted a statement by DEA Acting Deputy Administrator Jack Riley saying that the targeted division provided "a revenue and weapons stream ... responsible for devastating terror attacks around the world." The network also reported that the investigation in the case began last February and that more arrests are expected.

The Hezbollah network apparently cooperated with South American narco mobs, which sent the terror group profits from cocaine deals in Europe and the US. Hezbollah retained some of the money, then laundered the rest and returned it to South and Latin America.

DEA front man Rusty Payne told CNN that purchasing and selling high-end used cars was the method for laundering the money, with the launderers occasionally hiding the cash inside the vehicles.

The alliance between Hezbollah and the cartels is partly the result of plummeting oil prices and decreased support for the group by Iran. Operatives' salaries have also dropped, causing a crisis in morale.

Hezbollah began laundering money for narco mobs in the 1980s via Lebanese immigrants in South America. Terrorism expert Matt Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy told CNN that the group will soon be able to raise more funds through drug deals than by any other means.

The U.S. Treasury Department last week imposed sanctions against Noureddine and Hamdi Zaher El Dine, another alleged Hezbollah money launderer. Noureddine's Trade Point International also was placed under sanctions.

The Times of Israel adds:

Among those tossed in the slammer
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
in the raid were leaders of the Leb-based terror group's European arm, accused by Washington of laundering Hezbollah funds through a Lebanese front company.

The effort formed part of DEA's Project Cassandra, which targeted a global Hezbollah network responsible for the movement of large quantities of cocaine in the United States and Europe.

The drug network was established by Imad Mughniyah, the global operations chief of the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group, who died in a kaboom in Damascus on February 12, 2008, reportedly in a joint Mossad-CIA operation that required special approval from US president George W. Bush.

It is currently controlled by Abdallah Safieddine and another high-profile terror suspect, Adham Tabaja, according to the DEA.

Hebzollah is designated a terror group by the US, Israel and a number of Sunni Arab states. The EU recently declared the group's military wing a terror organization, but left its political arm off the blacklist, despite Israeli lobbying.

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Iraq

Richard Fernandez: Fighting Entropy 1

2015-05-18

Most of us have watched movies where a mysterious threat attacks an unsuspecting community. They may be vampires ravaging an Alaskan town or a blob-like being swallowing a town. Typically the defenders, at first confident, are rapidly dismayed when they find that police firearms have little effect against the creatures. With that realization the characters go from complacent to desperate in a few minutes of movie time until the hunted survivors are forced by desperation to try an outlandish theory from a crackpot who has a peculiar insight into the nature of the monsters.

Sometimes real life resembles a horror movie, as in the present instance when Westphalian states find to their surprise that the state-killing bullets in their arsenal can't kill Islamic extremism. Perhaps the epitome of such weapons is the precision guided missile-firing drone or its equivalent, the special forces raiding team directed by the signals intelligence wizardry of the NSA. This targeted force is like Zeus' thunderbolt; it is inconceivably potent, almost unimaginably effective. Surely such a thing can destroy what the president of the United States aims it at.

The United States has killed Saddam Hussein, Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi, and Osama bin Laden. It was instrumental in the death of Imad Mughniyah. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the current head of ISIS, is probably lying crippled in some safe house never to walk again from the effects of a March 18, 2015 airstrike. And now a US special operations team has killed one of the next in line, the chief of ISIS' oil smuggling business, its "chief financial officer", a Tunisian with the nom de guerre Abu Sayyaf.

...Now that America has put a bullet through the body, head and wallet surely all that is left is to watch ISIS die. SECDEF Ashton Carter believes they've dealt it a serious blow. But others are not so sure. "Michael Weiss, author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror," said Abu Sayyaf was largely unknown to close observers of the organization." Killing him won't hurt it any more than its been hurt before.

...But like the monster in the movie, it's taken "three billion electro-volts of energy and it's still coming on"! Why have none of the previous heavy blows slowed ISIS or any of the affiliated rebel groups down? Why is the jihadi organism inexplicably resistant to leadership disruptions, whether caused by drone strikes or the murderous work of rivals from other factions? How can it stand against the Olympian thunderbolt? This is an important question to answer.

It's resistant because it is not a state.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Clear crisis in US-Israel bond: Analyst

2015-02-01

[Iran Press TV] The bond between the United States and Israel is "falling apart", says a London-based political activist.

He's in London looking at what is being said in Washington, DC. This will greatly impact what he sees and through what filters he understands it.

Gilad Atzmon made the remarks to Press TV on Saturday while commenting on a Washington Post report about the US Central Intelligence Agency's role in liquidation of Imad Mughniyah, a high-ranking Hezbollah figure, by Israel's intelligence service, Mossad, on February 12, 2008.

"For a long while, Israel and the United States had been collaborating in what they regarded security issues," but now "this bond is now falling apart", Atzmon said.

There never was a bond between this White House and Israel. But the bond between Israel and the Republican Party, some Democratic politicians, and the majority of the American citizenry is as strong as ever. Ditto the Armed Forces. Not that the Washington Post is capable of recognizing any of those groups as being meaningful...

In its report, the Post quoted a former US intelligence official as saying that the CIA had been tracking Mughniyah's movements prior to the operation and also helped build a bomb, remotely detonated by Mossad after being planted in the spare tire of a parked SUV in the Syrian capital Damascus

"Nobody is surprised by the fact that the CIA was involved in the liquidation of Imad Mughniyah. What is slightly unusual is to see the method they were using," Atzmon said, referring to the boom-mobile as "not something that's usually associated with organizations like CIA".

But is well known to the Israelis with whom they partnered. Perhaps that had something to do with the successful weapon choice.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF holds military exercise in northern sector

2015-01-24

[Ynet] Large number of military vehicles, IAF planes participate in drill held after alertness level raised; Gantz: 'We are prepared and ready for any action needed'.

military exercise in the Northern Command on Friday after it raised its level of alert in the northern border following the strike attributed to Israel earlier this week that killed senior Hezbollah officers and Iranian soldiers.

IDF officials said that the decision to hold the exercise was made after a situation assessment conducted in recent days, and that a large number of military vehicles and IAF planes participated in it. The exercise was executed before the onset of Shabbat.

On Sunday, Jihad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's commander of the Syrian Golan sector and the son of Lebanese terrorist Imad Mughniyah, were killed when an Israeli helicopter allegedly fired two missiles in the Syrian province of Quneitra near the Israeli Golan Heights.

Israel has deployed its Iron Dome missile defence system in the north, where local media say it is amassing tanks and infantry reinforcements.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

'Mossad spy' headed Hezbollah's foreign operations

2014-12-19

[Ynet] Alleged Israeli agent named; purported to have passed information on all planned foreign attacks over several years, helping to foil plots and assassinate leaders.

The purported Mossad agent recently caught by Hezbollah was named Thursday as Mohammed Shurba from the Natbiyeh area in south Leb by an al-Jazeera news hound.

Sources told the network he was locked away
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
last month and had acted as the chief of the unit in charge of foreign operations. He was promoted to the position in 2008, after the liquidation of Imad Mughniyah, then head of Hezbollah's operations unit, in Damascus, which Hezbollah blamed on Israel.

According to the report, which has not been substantiated by additional sources, the investigation of Shurba revealed that he initiated contact with Mossad and offered his cooperation. Shurba allegedly provided valuable information on all of Hezbollah's foreign activities to Israeli intelligence over a period of years.

The report repeated assertions that his information helped capture a large number of the group's operatives in several countries, most recently in Peru.

Hezbollah announced the discovery of the alleged spy on Tuesday, although the arrest apparently came weeks ago.

Shurba was purpotedly entrusted with a wide range of responsibilities, Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai said Wednesday ? at one point even overseeing Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah's security detail.

Hezbollah ousted senior members following the discovery, said the newspaper, and boasted that they were "rid of the bacteria" after the arrest.

The Lebanese news site Elnashra said Shurba worked as a businessman and "frequently travelled abroad for work."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

West Bank: Unknown Group Is Third To Claim Abductions

2014-06-27

[Ynet] Palestinian media sources reported Thursday that an unfamiliar organization known as "Regiments of Hezbollah" had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of Isreal's three missing teens though it was unclear how realistic the claim may be.

According to reports, the group cited the killing of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyah as motivation for the attack. "Regiments of Hezbollah" is now the third group to have claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and the previous two are considered to be illegitimate.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Report: Hezbollah's veterans are being lost in Syria

2014-06-08

[Ynet] Asharq Al-Awsat claims that string of Hezbollah deaths in Syria leave the organization without experienced leadership.

Let us hope they are right.

"The Syrian swamp is swallowing the old and new guard of Hezbollah," said a Thursday report in the London based publication Asharq Al-Awsat. The report tried to explain how leaders of the Shiite terrorist organization, who once spent all their time fighting Israel, became bogged down in Syria's civil war against rebel forces.

The most recent incident that illustrates this is the laconic announcement that Fauzi Ayub, a senior Hezbollah commander, had been shot and killed in fighting with rebels.

Anti-climactically, Hezbollah satisfied themselves with the routine sentence repeated for every person who dies while serving the organization in Syria. "He was killed while fulfilling his duty to Jihad." It's a generic statement that ignores additional facts about Ayub's position and past in Hezbollah. According to sources within the opposition, he was killed in battles in Aleppo.

While Ayub was a senior figure with Hezbollah, he was also well-known in Israel and the US. A Lebanese-Canadian duel citizen, Ayub was tossed in the clink
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
in 2002 by Israeli forces in the West Bank for training Paleostinian gunnies to carry out terrorist attacks and prepare homemade explosives.

According to reports, he was under orders to help create a Hezbollah cell in the West Bank and was also part of a unit created by Hezbollah's Operations Officer at the time, Imad Mughniyah.

In addition, Ayub was wanted by the FBI for using a fake American passport to enter Israel to carry out a terrorist attack. Two years after his imprisonment in Israel he was released to Leb as part of a prisoner trade to bring home captured Israeli Elhanan Tannenbaum.

The report by the London paper in Arabic noted that in looking over the pictures of Hezbollah commanders who have been killed in Syria, it's easy to notice that the majority are older veterans who, more likely than not, took part in combat against Israel.

Commentators who were cited in the Asharq Al-Awsat report have come to the conclusion that this is, "a waste of human resources in Syrian territory," but on the other hand stressed that, "faced with the public loss of senior military figures, the organization's new recruits are gaining proficient fighting skills during battles in Syria."

Besides Ayub, the publication listed the names of three senior members of Hezbollah who were killed over the last year in Syria and also served in central positions when the organization was engaged in combat with Israel.

Mohammed Muntish, who was killed last April in an ambush set up by rebels on an Al-Manar news crew in the town of Maaloula near Damascus, was labeled by Asharq Al-Awsat as being in charge of Hezbollah's military PR. Hezbollah said that he was merely a cameraman at Al-Manar.

According to the paper, Muntish served in the same position since the days of Israel's occupation of southern Leb. On private websites closed to all but the terrorist organization, Muntish was said to have passed several courses in Jihad and administration in Hezbollah and took part in military actions against Israel before the withdrawal from Leb, earning praise from Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Sources from within Hezbollah said that he had a key military role in the Second Leb War as well and documented the war for Hezbollah's military media wing.

Hassan Meri, another senior Hezbollah figure mentioned in the report, was killed six months before Muntish and his death preoccupied the organization. His specific actions remain unclear, but there have been claims that he held senior positions within Hezbollah.

Today, estimates claim that several thousand members of Hezbollah are active in Syria and more than 350 have been lost.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Death of a master terrorist: How the 'Iranian Jackal' was killed

2013-02-13

[National Post] On the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Imad Mughniyah, a.k.a. "The Iranian Jackal," much new information about the hunt for the terrorist most wanted by Mossad and the FBI has emerged. It's a story of high-tech surveillance and old-fashioned espionage, and it's just starting to be truly told now.

Spoiler alert: Mossad got the bad guy. Go to the link for all the juicy details.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

U.S. Treasury Imposes Sanctions against Nasrallah

2012-09-14

[An Nahar] The U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed on Thursday sanctions against Hizbullah's leadership in Leb, further exposing Hizbullah's active support to the regime of Syrian

Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
, as well as its role in terrorist activities.

"Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah's secretary general, is being designated today pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13582, for providing support to the Syrian government," said the Treasury in a statement.

"Mustapha Badreddine and Talal Hamiyeh, two senior terrorist leaders of Hizbullah, are being designated today pursuant to E.O. 13224, for providing support to Hizbullah's terrorist activities in the Middle East and around the world," it added.

"By aiding Assad's violent campaign against the Syrian people and working to support a regime that will inevitably fall, Hizbullah's ongoing activity undermines regional stability and poses a direct threat to Leb's security," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen.

"Hizbullah's actions, overseen by Nasrallah and executed by Badreddine and Hamiyeh, clearly reveal its true nature as a terrorist and criminal organization," he continued.

"Hizbullah and its leader Nasrallah have sought to depict their organization as a social and political party, as well as a resistance movement," said the statement.

These efforts are belied by the facts: Hizbullah consistently uses terrorism against civilian targets to achieve its goals, and this trend has only increased recently. The last year has witnessed Hizbullah's most aggressive terrorist plotting outside the Middle East since the 1990s, it revealed.

Moreover, in recent months Hizbullah has also played an increasingly active role in providing support to the Government of Syria, further enabling the regime to carry out its bloody campaign against the Syrian people.

Under the Assad regime, Syria has been a longstanding supporter of Hizbullah -- providing safe haven to Hizbullah and routing weapons, in many cases from Iran, to Hizbullah in Leb. Hizbullah, under the direction of Nasrallah, is now returning the favor by providing training, advice, and extensive logistical support to the Government of Syria as the Assad regime continues to wreak havoc on the Syrian people through the use of terror and violence -- Hizbullah's area of expertise.

"Today's designations build upon a number of actions that the U.S. government has taken against Hizbullah over the years for its support for terrorism and its role in supporting the violence being perpetrated by the Assad regime against the Syrian people," said the U.S. Treasury statement.

Hizbullah was designated for its support to the Government of Syria pursuant to E.O. 13582 in August 2012. It was also named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to E.O. 13224 in October 2001, and listed in the Annex to E.O. 12947 as a Specially Designated Terrorist (SDT) in January 1995. Nasrallah was designated pursuant to E.O. 12947 in January 1995.

"Since the beginning of the Syrian people's courageous campaign in early 2011 to secure their universal rights, Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has overseen Hizbullah's efforts to help the Syrian regime's violent crackdown on the Syrian civilian population by providing training, advice, and extensive logistical support to the Government of Syria. Hizbullah has directly trained Syrian government personnel inside Syria and has facilitated the training of Syrian forces by Iran's terrorist arm, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF). Also under Nasrallah, Hizbullah has played a substantial role in efforts to expel Syrian opposition forces from areas within Syria and coordinated its support to the Government of Syria with IRGC-QF and senior Syrian government officials. Indeed, under the direction of Nasrallah, Hizbullah since mid-2012 has escalated its support to the Government of Syria.

Mustafa Badreddine is a senior Hizbullah official who is believed to have replaced his cousin, Imad Mughniyah, as Hizbullah's top beturbanned goon commander after Mughniyah's 2008 death. In June 2011, the prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Leb charged Badreddine with the attack on February 14, 2005 that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others.

Talal Hamiyeh is the head of Hizbullah's External Security Organization (ESO), which maintains organized cells worldwide. The ESO is the Hizbullah element responsible for the planning, coordination, and execution of terrorist attacks outside of Leb.

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