[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 429 Introduced in House (IH)]
112th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 429
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Western
Hemisphere should be included in the Administration's 2012 National
Strategy for Counterterrorism's ``Area of Focus'', with specific
attention on the counterterrorism threat to the homeland emanating from
Iran's growing presence and activity in the Western Hemisphere, and for
other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 11, 2011
Mr. Duncan of South Carolina submitted the following resolution; which
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Western
Hemisphere should be included in the Administration's 2012 National
Strategy for Counterterrorism's ``Area of Focus'', with specific
attention on the counterterrorism threat to the homeland emanating from
Iran's growing presence and activity in the Western Hemisphere, and for
other purposes.
Whereas Iran is using the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the
IRGC's Qods Force, and Hezbollah as tools of statecraft to further its
geostrategic and geopolitical objectives in the Western Hemisphere,
specifically in Venezuela; the Tri-border area of Paraguay, Argentina,
and Brazil; Bolivia; Ecuador; Nicaragua; Chile; Cuba; and Mexico.
Hezbollah has also established a presence in the United States and
Canada;
Whereas officials from the IRGC's Qods Force have been working in concert with
Iran's chief global terrorist proxy, Lebanese Hezbollah, since the
1990s;
Whereas a 2009 Department of State Country Report on Terrorism found that
Hezbollah is the most technically capable terrorist group in the world
with thousands of supporters, several thousand members, and a few
hundred terrorist operatives;
Whereas Iran has opened 6 embassies in South America over the last 5 years;
Whereas the IRGC's Qods Force stations operatives in foreign embassies,
charities, and religious and cultural institutions to build
relationships with local populations, often building on existing
socioeconomic ties with the Lebanese Diaspora;
Whereas these networks operated by Hezbollah and the IRGC's Qods Force encompass
more than 80 operatives in at least 12 countries throughout the region;
Whereas Hezbollah's chief sponsors, Iran and Syria, have been forging
relationships with the governments in Latin America to achieve state
cover and effective immunity for their activities, and Hezbollah has
established a working relationship with the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC);
Whereas in August 2010, Jamal Yousef, a member of the Syrian military, was
charged in New York for his alleged involvement in a narco-terrorism
conspiracy to sell weapons to FARC in exchange for between 7,000-8,000
kilograms of cocaine;
Whereas the indictment stated that the ``weapons were stolen from Iraq and being
stored in Mexico at the home of Yousef's relative, who according to
Yousef, is a member of Hezbollah.'';
Whereas Iran has used Hezbollah in Latin America to engage in fundraising, money
laundering, recruitment, training, drug and arms trafficking,
counterfeiting, forging travel documents, pirating software and music,
assessing global banking facilities, ports and airports, mining rare
earth minerals and other materials in support of its nuclear objectives;
Whereas Iran seeks to use its base in Latin America to undermine United States
interests;
Whereas the Bolivarian states (Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua) have
expressed their intention to assist Iran in breaking international
sanctions by announcing at a 2010 joint press conference in Tehran their
determination to ``continue and expand their economic ties to Iran''
with confidence that ``Iran can give a crushing response to the threats
and sanctions imposed by the West and imperialism.'';
Whereas the Bolivarian states' relationship to Hezbollah in Latin America is
bound by a common aim to asymmetrically defeat the United States;
Whereas the doctrine of Asymmetrical Warfare adopted by these groups explicitly
embraces the use of weapons of mass destruction, massive civilian
casualties as acceptable collateral damage, and the underlying belief
that the acquisition of nuclear weapons to destroy the United States is
a moral or religious imperative;
Whereas Iran's presence in Latin America through its proxy Hezbollah presents
incalculable risk to the security of the United States because Hezbollah
is the most effective, well-structured, and militarily proficient
terrorist group in existence with a host of skills and abilities to
support their objectives;
Whereas Hezbollah's 1980 fatwa explained its rationale for engaging in drug
production and trafficking: It explicitly stated that it was ``making
these drugs for Satan--America and the Jews. If we cannot kill them with
guns we will kill them with drugs.'';
Whereas in 2009, Dutch authorities on the Caribbean island of Curacao arrested
17 suspects on drug-trafficking charges;
Whereas the authorities accused the suspects of funneling part of their profits
directly to Hezbollah through informal banking mechanisms like the
Hawala system;
Whereas there is an established connection between Iran and Mexican drug
cartels: In 2008, El Universal reported that the Mexican Sinaloa drug
cartel was sending elite assassins to train on weapons and explosives
with Islamic radicals in Iran;
Whereas Hezbollah has demonstrated its ability to cooperate with Mexican drug
cartels to utilize smuggling techniques and routes in order to bring
drugs and people into the United States;
Whereas sophisticated narco-tunneling resembling the types used by Hezbollah in
Lebanon have been found along the United States-Mexican border, and
arrested Mexican gang members entering the United States with Farsi
tattoos also support a Hezbollah influence;
Whereas in 2008, Salim Boughader Mucharrafille was sentenced to 60 years in
prison after being arrested in 2002 by Mexican authorities on charges of
organized crime and immigrant smuggling;
Whereas Salim Boughader Mucharrafille was a Mexican of Lebanese descent who
reportedly smuggled 200 people, including Hezbollah supporters into the
United States;
Whereas in 2005, a Lebanese man named Mahmoud Youssef Kourani pled guilty to
providing material support to Hezbollah after crossing the Mexican
border illegally into the United States and driving his car all the way
to Dearborn, Michigan;
Whereas since the fall of 2008, at least 111 suspects of a Hezbollah-linked
international network of drug traffickers and money launderers have been
arrested in Drug Enforcement Administration operations;
Whereas the Administration's 2011 Strategy for Counterterrorism did not include
the Western Hemisphere in its ``Area of Focus''; and
Whereas in October 2011, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug
Enforcement Administration disrupted a plot involving Iranian-American,
Manssor Arbabsiar, the IRGC, and a member of the Zetas Mexican drug
cartel to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States
with a bomb and subsequent bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli
embassies in Washington, DC and in Buenos Aires: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That--
(1) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that
there exists significant cause for concern and further
investigation of potential counterterrorism threats from Iran's
growing presence and influence in the Western Hemisphere;
(2) in order to effectively assess the risk to the United
States homeland, the Administration should--
(A) include the Western Hemisphere in the
Administration's 2012 National Strategy for
Counterterrorism's ``Area of Focus'' with specific
attention on the counterterrorism threat to the
homeland emanating from Iran's growing presence and
activity in the Western Hemisphere; and
(B) utilize an existing counterterrorism taskforce
to be led by the Department of Homeland Security and
ensure that representatives of the Department of
Homeland Security, the Department of State, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement
Administration, the Central Intelligence Agency, the
National Counterterrorism Center, and the appropriate
intelligence agencies are members of the taskforce; and
(3) the taskforce referred to in paragraph (2)(B)--
(A) should examine--
(i) the presence and activities of Iran,
the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
(IRGC), the IRGC's Qods Force, and Hezbollah in
the Western Hemisphere, including within the
United States;
(ii) the relationship of Iran, the IRGC,
the IRGC's Qods Force, and Hezbollah with the
governments in the Western Hemisphere;
(iii) the relationship of Iran, the IRGC,
the IRGC's Qods Force, and Hezbollah with drug
trafficking organizations; and
(iv) the fundraising efforts of Iran, the
IRGC, the IRGC's Qods Force, and Hezbollah in
the Lebanese Diaspora in Latin America; and
(B) should submit to Congress not later than 120
days after the date of the adoption of this resolution
a report that contains a comprehensive counterterrorism
and counter-radicalization strategy to defend United
States geostrategic interests and defeat Iranian
interests in the Western Hemisphere.
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