Terrorism's Triple-Border Sanctuary: Islamist World Terror from Argentina, Brazil & Paraguay

By Thomas Muirhead

Since the demise of two of the world's more supportive regimes, that of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, which finally drew to its inevitable close with his recent capture, Islamic terrorism's traditional sources of income and harbour are dissipating. Terrorism is being forced to adapt and adopt new channels of revenue and new havens within which to scheme. A recent example of this, which is rapidly attracting attention away from the long-established hotspots of Central Asia, the Sudan etc., is the infiltration of known terrorist cells into the region known as the triple border in South America. This area provides such groups with both the desired seclusion, due to the wild inhospitality of the Patagonian desert, and the means to fund their organisations, due to the rampant smuggling and increasing narcotic trafficking which pass over the three borders.

Since the terror of September 11, governments of many countries, not merely the occidental West, have altered their views towards terrorism and its supporters. Attempts to reduce the part played in these organisations by national governments across the world have been undertaken by many international leaders, most adamantly George W. Bush. The most obvious of these attempts is that of the dismantling of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. An international coalition recognised the open support of terrorist groups by that regime and condemned such support. The regime had to change or be destroyed. Although not so openly encouraging as the Taliban, Saddam's Iraq was doing little to eradicate the training camps and other terrorist cell establishments within their borders and were in no way hostile to any members of such organisations. Whether this was the primary cause of the 'liberation' of Iraq is irrelevant, it has resulted in the destruction of an enthusiastic backer. Apart from these illuminated examples of the international War on Terror, countless pressure has been placed on most governments assumed to either consciously support terrorism or prone to turning a blind eye. Countries from the extremes of Pakistan to Great Britain have introduced new legislation amending everything from immigration policy to the right to habeas corpus in an attempt to hinder the progress of terrorist groups. The flow of funds from national governments and international organisations has slowed significantly due to the threat of military intervention if evidence of collaboration is unearthed.

This rescinding of terrorism's established backers has forced these groups to find new grounds in which to flourish. African countries such as Sudan are well known for being chaotic, unstable lands where a man can easily go about his business unperturbed, but a disquieting addition to the list of 'safe' regions where organisations can reside undetected is the triple border area of South America. It surrounds the meeting point of the borders of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil, encompassing the cities of Ciudad del Este (Paraguay), Puerto Iguazu (Argentina), and Foz de Iguazu (Brazil). In this area terrorists have found paradisiacal circumstances. Throughout his reign from 1954-89 the Paraguayan dictator, General Alfredo Stroessner actively encouraged the growth of a contraband based economy centred in the border town Ciudad del Este, which, as a result, has grown from a small village named after him called Puerto Stroessner to a city of 200-250 000 people. This has been based mostly on illegal trafficking of everything from pirated cd's, to arms, drugs and laundered money. It is hardly surprising that little has been done to curb illicit trade when the sentiments shown by Paraguayan officials as recently as 1998 show a lax attitude to the illegitimate shenanigans; "It's not really contraband--it is commerce of all types, if the buyers sneak their purchases into another nation without paying taxes, that's the problem of the buyer, not the seller here." as Interior Minister Jorge Garcete put Paraguay's official position.

Terrorists, unfortunately, are rarely stupid. They have recognised the vast advantage of one of the world's largest and unrestricted black markets being populated by a community of between 15,000 and 20,000 persons from, or descendants of persons from, Middle Eastern countries like Lebanon and Syria, as well as West Bank and Gaza. An indicator of the established nature of the community is the two Arabic-language television channels. Quite clearly a flourishing trading community and large Arab population makes transient Arab men a commonplace occurrence. For government organisations intent on tracking and curtailing terrorists made up mostly of men from Middle Eastern, Arabic countries, such a region must hold innumerable difficulties. As well as providing human camouflage, the area is notoriously under-policed and law enforcement agencies from the surrounding countries are infamously tolerant of fattened envelopes. The geographical set up allows easy access to two large, powerful, market countries and a third, poor, malleable country. These countries also provide large, uninhabited (almost uninhabitable) areas in which operations could take place unbeknownst to anyone. Examples include the close at hand Paraguayan Chaco, recognised as one of the least populated, most inhospitable environments on earth, or the Brazilian rainforest, with an abundance of hidden refuges.

In reaction to the growth of terrorist connections in the area all three of the countries involved have begun to take the situation seriously. All three have made border controls tighter and the issuing of visas has become a more thorough affair. In recent years, the antiterrorist departments of the three countries' police forces (the so-called "Tripartite Command") have worked jointly to exert stricter controls on the activities of foreign nationals in the area. However the biggest real threat to the operating cells in the area is the new found interest the United States is taking in the area. Paraguay's foreign minister, Jose Antonio Moreno, recently stated that 40 FBI agents had arrived in Paraguay and were headed to Ciudad del Este. It has also been suggested that US troops are working with the respective national military in both training and active faculties. We can only wait and see if these acts will prove sufficient to curb terrorist activity in the region.

There have been some successes though. Evidence of many different groups has been uncovered by the varied international intelligence agencies concerned with the development of the area. A list that contains amongst its members organisations such as Hizballah, Al- Qaeda, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al Gamaat, Al Islamiyya, to name a few. Without doubt the two most prominent of these are the Lebanese Shi'ite Islamist movement Hizballah, and the Sunni Islamist group that requires no introduction, Al-Qaeda.

A number of prominent Hizballah activists have been captured, although most manage to escape justice and hide in Brazil. In February 2000 Paraguayan authorities arrested Ali Khalil Mehri, a 32 year-old Lebanese businessman. He is an example of the new members of these groups who work under nominally legal identities in varying places and send the money back to the organisations. He was accused of running a pirated software operation worth millions of dollars a year. Evidence was discovered in his shop in Cuidad del Este, of money transfers to Lebanon, as well as terrorist propaganda for the extremist group Al-Muquwama, a wing of Hizballah. He escaped to Brazil whilst on bail.

Assad Ahmad Barakat, the alleged ringleader of Hizballah's financial network in the Triple Border is residing untouchable in Brazil. However two of his employees, Mazen Ali Saleh and Saleh Mahmoud Fayed have been arrested. The raid uncovered documents showing regular contributions of $25,000-50,000 to Hizballah as well as videos and literature meant to encourage the creation of suicide bombers. Hizballah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has been quoted as saying that he "is one of the most thankful for the contributions Assad Ahmad Barakat has sent from the Triple Border". Carlos C�lcena, Asuncion's public prosecutor for drug trafficking and terrorism, has claimed that Barakat's contributions to Hizballah has totalled up to $50 million dollars since 1995. The ambassador of Lebanon for Argentina and Paraguay, Hicham Salim Hamdam, recently acknowledged that Barakat had sent funds to Hizballah, but stressed that it was intended for "humanitarian aid for orphans of Muslims killed in action."

Al-Qaeda has also been found to be operating in The Triple Border. According to Brazilian police and military intelligence sources Osama bin Laden and Mohammed Khalid Sheikh passed through the region in or around 1995. Although many residents of the area claim that there are no terrorists in the area, and certainly no connection to Al-Qaeda this remarkable story seems to refute this. A week before the attacks on September 11th a young Moroccan, Abdel Fatta, residing in the area of the triple border handed a letter to his lawyer with instructions for it to be delivered to the United States embassy. The letter contained a warning of attacks that were going to take place on the 11th of September. The young man was a recent Al-Qaeda operative who had a change of heart around the time of the attacks and gave himself up. He remains in jail in Brazil on other charges. He must have been a very well informed young Arab resident if Al-Qaeda doesn't happen to be active in the region.

A worrying development in the workings of both these organisations was recognised by the Argentine Secretariat of State Intelligence when they, "detected the presence of agents from the organization of Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden in the border area, and had discovered that, for the first time in history, extremist Sunni and Shi'ite groups were working together in Ciudad del Este and Foz do Iguacu." Such collaboration signifies a leap from the stern ideologies that kept the distinct sects of Islamic terrorism from any form of interaction. We can only hypothesise as to the reasons behind this compromising of beliefs, but it is possible that the end of damaging the shared enemy target overrides the ideological differences present in the means.

As we have briefly seen above the new location is not only providing the terrorist organisations with a place of refuge but an increasingly lucrative source of income. Ambassador Francis X. Taylor, Coordinator for Counterterrorism, U.S. Department of State stated, "We know, from close cooperation with your law enforcement officials, that Hizballah members in the tri-border engage in document forgery, money laundering, contraband smuggling. We understand that there may be reason for concern about involvement in weapons and drug trafficking." This apprehension as to drug trafficking is further confirmed by Asa Hutchinson, administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,

"The two major terrorist organizations in the tri-border area are Hizballah and the Islamic Resistance movement known as Hamas. It is suspected that their illegal activities range from producing counterfeit U.S. currency to smuggling illegal substances through the tri-border area." It seems that even the resident criminals are becoming aware of the market share being taken by such groups. In an interview with a Brazilian newspaper, former Brazilian drug tsar Walter Fanganiello Maierovitch claimed that Osama Bin Laden was setting up an al-Qaida cell in the triple border region.

These illicit trades are very lucrative and allow vast funds to be channelled back to the centres of the organisations. This seems to be another recent change in the workings of these religion based fundamentalist groups. They are willing to compromise their ideological objections to such an extent as to encompass otherwise forbidden behaviour as the drug trade. The flow of money and the access it can buy must justify the means.

It seems that the face of terrorism has been forced to change. I do not wish to suggest that the fall of the Taliban and the capture of Saadam have immediately required all Islamic terrorists to find new homes. The process has been underway for years now and the lack of traditional sources of harbour for these groups has brought it to our attention that they have expanded their networks and horizons. Does this new awareness of the terrorists locations mean that the legs of the organisations are being methodically cut away or does it signify something much more ominous? Does it bring to our attention the emergence of well-organised, flexible, international coalitions of terrorists, more akin to organised crime than liberation armies? Are, the repositioning in countries not known for their sympathy towards the Islamic fundamentalist cause, a unifying in the face of mutually intolerant ideologies, a willingness to undertake trade in goods deemed unholy by their religion, signs of desperation in the face of international persecution, or do all these things confirm the fact that terrorism, or at least Islamic terrorism, has developed into a global venture, quite willing to operate out-with supporting national states? Should we be relieved or threatened by Islamic fundamentalism's new home?

Jihad against Argentina

But how and Why do Western born and bred Muslims end up becoming Unrepentant Murderers who glorify death?

To answer this question we need to know what happens in every Muslim home in Latin America (and in fact all across the globe):

Before the Eid-ul-Zuha festival, every Muslim father brings home a baby goat (kid) and tells his child to play with that kid. As days pass, the child grows fond of the goat-kid for some days and when the day of Eid-ul-Zuha comes when the child is shocked to see that his pet goat is slaughtered in front of his entire gleeful and cheering family. The child feels guilty, he cries and asks for his friend (the goat-kid) to be spared. But when the goat is slaughtered in spite of this, and the child is told that this is part of Muslim tradition - the child is bewildered.

After one year round the same time, the same ritual is repeated. Now the child is one year older, but he still has the innocence to play with a pet and grow fond of the pet. When the day arrives, the goat is again slaughtered, and the child is reminded of this being a hoary tradition. The child still feels guilty, but his guilt is now numbed by the words that repeatedly fall on his ears, that this is a qurbani (a sacrifice) and that it is our holy duty to kill.

A year after that the child is again asked to play with a goat and on the day of the feast of Eid-ul-Zuha, he is asked to hold the dagger and help out in slaughtering the goat. The child gradually grows hard-hearted and now starts enjoying this ritual of killing the goat - A Muslim is made!

The child�s guilt is gradually vanishing and is being replaced with a sadistic urge to kill, not just kill the goat but to kill anyone at the drop of a hat. A murderer is made. An innocent child who would weep at the sight of a pet goat being killed and would balk at doing the deed himself, is now shamed into doing that deed.

It is drilled into his mind that he should do it as it is the community custom. That instead of feeling guilty, he should feel proud. This way a murderer is never born, he is made. And he is made generation after generation to spawn a breed of people who glorify death. Who boast that �We love death more than you love life, and so we will get you someday, someway, somewhere, and kill you while killing ourselves to seek martyrdom(sic).�

Another way of conditioning is to repeatedly tell a child that he should never flinch from the sight of blood, whether his own or anybody else's. Years of such conditioning in the impressionistic years of a child's growth leads him to not just not flinch from the sight of blood, but to derive perverted pleasure from the sight of blood-letting.

From early childhood, when children are repeatedly told not to get beaten by anyone and to if anyone hits you, you need to hit him back twice at least. This leads to the building a violent and vengeful mentality from early childhood that provides for a perfect mindset for the making of a criminal in adulthood where revenge is glorified.

The fact that seals this vengeful, cruel and violent mentality is the leavening of legitimacy that is given through the Islamic religion, with quotations like: "Oh ye who believe! Murder those of the disbelievers and let them find harshness in you." (Repentance: 123). All this makes it a religious, moral and a holy duty to seek revenge, and to coomit murder during seeking revenge, and to top it all, to exult when you murder an enemy, to dance over his dead body, to pull out his victuals from his corpse and proudly display it in public and to boast that now due to this 'holy' (sic) act, the victor would find place in heaven!

Imagine that for a Muslim the way to heaven is through, murder, rape , arson, trickery, deception! No wonder we have such delinquent murderers operating in London, Jerusalem, Madrid, Bali, Baghdad, Sharm-el-Shek, not to speak of New York and the Pentagon on 9/11.

And to keep this murderous message being constantly drilled into your mind, you have to pray five times a day, facing one particular direction. Private prayer is not encouraged, mass prayer is. Whenever the Muzzein brays from the minaret, you have to assemble in one place to pray, so that you keep meeting people like you who have also been brainwashed into becoming mindless murderers, so that this conditioning of the mind is reinforced five times in a day with the Mullah sounding the same rants of kill the enemies, death to infidel kafirs ad nausem. And if you dare to disagree you are immediately branded an infidel yourself and could be done to death by other followers.

And if you commit the cardinal sin of leaving this murderous band, you become a legitimate target for being murdered as a Murtad - an apostate. There is no way out for a Muslim but to hate the non-Muslims and to seek every opportunity to terrorize them. A terrorist mass-murderer is made, in other words a Muslim is made!

Story Credits: World Threats

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* For those uninitiated, PBUH expands to Perpetual Battle Upon Hagarism (Islam) � founded by the mass-murderer and pedophile pretender prophet Mohammed-ibn-Abdallah (Yimach Shmo � May his name and memory be obliterated).

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