شخصان من حزب الله في قبضة السلطات الأميركية بتهمة التحضير لاعتداءات
“وكالات” – 9 حزيران 2017/أعلنت السلطات الاميركية عن اعتقال اميركيين تشتبه بانتمائهما الى “حزب الله” وبإقدامهما على تحديد اهداف لارتكاب اعتداءات محتملة في الولايات المتحدة وبنما. وجاء في بيان صادر عن مكتب النائب العام في جنوب ولاية نيويورك جون كيم انّ علي كوراني (32 عاماً) اعتقل في حي برونكس في نيويورك، وانّ سامر الدبك (37 عاماً) اعتقل في ليفونيا (ميشيغان، شمال) في ديترويت. وبحسب التحقيق، قد يكون علي كوراني اقدم بشكل خاص على جمع معلومات عن الامن في مطارات عدة في الولايات المتحدة وعن طريقة العمل فيها، وراقب مباني عائدة الى قوات الامن في مانهاتن وبروكلين. وبعد وصوله إلى الولايات المتحدة عام 2003، قد يكون كوراني اللبناني الاصل خضع لتدريبات عدة في معسكرات تدريب لـ”حزب الله” في لبنان، ويُشتبه في أنّه يأخذ أوامره مباشرة من عناصر في الحزب الشيعي المدعوم من ايران. امّا في ما يتعلق بسامر الدبك فقد اجرى ايضاً تدريبات عدة داخل منشات لـ”حزب الله” بهدف التأقلم مع الاستخبارات واستخدام السلاح وتصنيع المتفجرات واستخدامها. وهو متهم بالاقدام على تحديد مواقع في بنما وخصوصاً سفارتي الولايات المتحدة واسرائيل، وبالسعي الى العثور على عيوب امنية في منشآت قناة بنما. ووجهت الى الرجلين الخميس اتهامات عدة، وبشكل اساسي تقديم الدعم لمنظمة ارهابية، فضلاً عن المشاركة في تدريب عسكري على يد منظمة ارهابية. وسيقبع الرجلان عشرات السنوات في السجن في حال ادانتهما
Hezbollah Recruts Arrested For Planning Attacks Against Israel
Jerusalem Post/June 08/17
Kourani and El Debek both have extensive history with the terrorist organization.
The US Department of Justice confirmed Thursday that two men were arrested for planning attacks against Israeli and US targets in Panama and New York. The arrests took place on June 1.
Ali Kourani was arrested in the Bronx, while Samer El Debek was arrested in Michigan. Both men were arrested for “providing, attempting, and conspiring to provide material support to Hezbollah; and receiving and conspiring to receive military-type training from Hezbollah.” Both were also arrested for a related weapons offense, which involved explosives, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine guns.
Kourani and El Debek are both alleged to have been recruited to train and support the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO), a part of Hezbollah.
Kourani was born in Lebanon and legally entered the US in 2003, where he received a degree in biomedical engineering and an MBA. Prior to his arrival in the US, Kourani participated in a Hezbollah-sponsored weapons training program. According to the Justice Department report, Kourani’s duties as a IJO operative included “identifying individuals affiliated with the Israeli Defense Forces.”
El Debek is a naturalized US citizen, who received Hezbollah training from 2008 to 2014. In emails, he wrote of his support for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The FBI allege that El Debek received “extensive” training as a bomb-maker. El Debek searched inflammatory terms on Facebook including “martyrs of Islamic resistance” and “Hizballah martyrs” more than 250 times.
Acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon H. Kim said, “At the direction of his Hezbollah handlers, El Debek allegedly conducted missions in Panama to locate the US and Israeli Embassies and to assess the vulnerabilities of the Panama Canal and ships in the Canal. Kourani allegedly conducted surveillance of potential targets in America, including military and law enforcement facilities in New York City. Thanks to the outstanding work of the FBI and NYPD, the allegedly destructive designs of these two Hezbollah operatives have been thwarted, and they will now face justice in a Manhattan federal court.”
Hezbollah is listed as terrorist organization by the United States and Israel.
Hezbollah Operatives Scouted Targets in NY, Panama: Feds
By Jonathan Dienst and Joe Valiquette/New York News/June08/17
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/Hezbollah-Operatives-Charged-New-York-Terror-Targets-427280503.html
Two men with ties to Hezbollah conducted “pre-operational surveillance” on possible targets for attack in New York, as well as U.S. and Israeli embassies in Panama, federal prosecutors said Thursday. Jonathan Dienst reports.
Two men with ties to Hezbollah “pre-operational surveillance” on possible targets for attack in New York, as well as Panama, feds say
One of the men is Ali Kourani of the Bronx, who was arrested last week; the other man, Samer El Debek, was arrested in Michigan
Kourani specifically conducted surveillance of potential military and law enforcement facilities in NYC, feds say
Two men with ties to Hezbollah conducted “pre-operational surveillance” on possible targets for attack in New York, as well as U.S. and Israeli embassies in Panama, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
No specific plot was underway but the men were allegedly scouting the targets to assess their vulnerabilities, including LaGuardia Airport and FBI headquarters in New York.
The two men allegedly received weapons and bomb-making training in Lebanon. Ali Kourani, of the Bronx, was arrested last week on the terror-related charges. Samer El Debek was arrested in Livonia, Michigan, and sent to New York last week for trial.
Kourani attended Hezbollah-sponsored weapons training program starting at age 16, and lied on his immigration application, stating he had no ties to any foreign terrorist organization, the FBI said. He became a naturalized citizen in 2009.
Prosecutors said Kourani was an active member of the Islamic Jihad Organization – a branch associated with Hezbollah and had traveled to China Guangzhou where Hizballah in the past had been known to obtain bomb making materials for the group. They said he also sought to buy weapons in the U.S. to send to the group.
El Debek allegedly joined Hezbollah in 2008 and traveled to Lebanon for training on numerous occasions, officials said. Investigators said he undertook bomb-making training while there.
Officials said in 2009 he traveled to Thailand on his U.S. passport to help clean up explosive residue left behind in a safehouse used by members of a Hezbollah backed terror cell.
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In 2011, he allegedly went to Panama to photograph the American and Israeli embassies security measures. In 2012, he went back to scout vulnerabilities of the Panama Canal, officials said.
A search of Debek’s computer turned up over 250 searches for sites like “Hezbollah martyrs” and “martyrs of Islamic resistence.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim called the terrorism charges “serious,” adding Debek and Kourani “received military-style training, including in the use of weapons like rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine guns for use in the support of the group’s terrorist mission.”
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Kim said Kourani specifically “conducted surveillance of potential targets in America, including military and law enforcement facilities in New York City.”
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said the men were involved in “pre-operational surveillance” in New York.
Hezbollah is a Shia organization in Lebanon founded in the 1980s after Israel’s invasion there. With support from Iran, the group has been involved in numerous terrorist attacks – some which killed Americans.
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At the request of law enforcement, NBC New York did not report news of the investigation last week because officials cited ongoing security concerns connected to the case. Documents associated with the case were made public Wednesday.
Debek’s family did not answer requests for comment at the Michigan home. Attempts to reach Kourani’s attorney Peggy Cross-Goldenberg and Debek’s attorney Robert Soloway were not immediately successful. Prosecutors said both men have already appeared in court and are being held without bail.
2 Americans led double lives as Hezbollah agents, officials say
By Ellie Kaufman, CNN/Fri June 9, 2017
Justice Department says two naturalized Americans had been working with Hezbollah for years
One is accused of gathering information about security operations at New York airports
(CNN)Two men traveled repeatedly to Lebanon for years, leading double lives as regular Americans and terrorist operatives for Hezbollah, according to US law enforcement officials.
Ali Kourani, 32, of the Bronx, New York, and Samer el Debek, 37, of Dearborn, Michigan, were arrested and charged last week by the Department of Justice with providing material support to Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization, the IJO.
Details of the accusations against them were revealed in criminal complaints made public in Manhattan federal court on Thursday.
Hezbollah, which has roots in Lebanon, is considered a terrorist organization by the United States. The IJO wing of the group is “responsible for the planning, preparation and execution of intelligence, counterintelligence and terrorist activities,” officials said.
Kourani, who came to the United States in 2003 with a Lebanese passport and became a citizen in 2009, is accused of being in contact with Hezbollah between 2002 and 2015, and of attending a 45-day Hezbollah “boot camp” in Lebanon at age 16.
According to the criminal complaint against him, Kourani described his role with IJO as a “sleeper.” These undercover operatives were supposed to “maintain ostensibly normal lives but could be activated and tasked with conducting IJO operations,” the complaint said.
Kourani was a student in the United States and received a bachelor’s in biomedical engineering in 2009, the year after he was officially recruited by Hezbollah, officials said. For the IJO, Kourani looked for weapons suppliers in the United States to support IJO operations, gathered information about security operations at New York airports and surveilled numerous US military and law enforcement buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the complaint said. Kourani traveled between the United States and Lebanon almost once a year, and in 2011, he attended military training in Lebanon, the complaint said. El Debek, also a naturalized US citizen, was recruited by Hezbollah in late 2007 or early 2008, according to the Justice Department, which said he conducted multiple covert operations in Panama and Thailand, but his home base continued to be the United States.
El Debek traveled to Panama twice for Hezbollah, once in 2011 and again in 2012, officials said. On his first trip, he located the US and Israeli embassies, gathered information about the security procedures at the Panama Canal and the Israeli Embassy and located hardware stores where explosive materials could be bought, according to the Justice Department.
On the second trip, he focused on the Panama Canal, finding areas of weakness in its construction and trying to figure out how close someone could get to the ships passing through it, the Justice Department said.
In 2009, el Debek traveled to Thailand to clean up leftover explosive material in a Hezbollah house the organization believed was under surveillance, according to the Justice Department.
Between 2008 and 2014, el Debek traveled from the United States to Lebanon to receive military training from Hezbollah multiple times, and he was extensively trained in “the creation and handling of explosives and explosive devices,” the Justice Department said.
El Debek was trained to make landmines and other explosives, officials said. Part of that training taught him how to “gather many of the chemicals necessary to create an explosive device,” a number of which were readily available in hardware stores, the complaint said.
Kourani has been charged with eight counts and el Debek has been charged with seven. The charges against both men include providing, attempting and conspiring to provide material support to Hezbollah. Multiple counts have a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
CNN reached out to both el Debek’s and Kourani’s attorneys, but did not receive a response.
US Arrests, Charges Naturalized Hizbullah ‘Operatives’
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 09/17/Two naturalized Americans from New York and Michigan have been charged with terrorism, accused of operating on behalf of Hizbullah in the United States, Panama and Thailand, US officials announced Thursday. Ali Kourani, 32, and Samer el Debek, 37, were arrested on June 1 in the Bronx and just outside Detroit, respectively, US officials said. They appeared before US magistrates separately. Both were hit with a raft of charges that include providing material support to Hizbullah — which Israel and the West consider a terror group — weapons offenses and receiving military-type training from group. If convicted they could spend decades in a US prison. Debek, on Hizbullah’s payroll for years, conducted surveillance in Panama, where he scoped out the US and Israeli embassies and assessed vulnerabilities of the Panama Canal and ships passing through it, US officials said. Kourani allegedly monitored potential targets in the United States, including military bases in New York, acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon Kim said. Hizbullah is the most powerful armed group in Lebanon. Although blacklisted as a terror group in the West, it enjoys widespread support in Lebanon because of its “resistance” to Israel and social welfare programs. US officials said Kourani received weapons training from Hizbullah as a teenager in Lebanon before moving to the United States legally in 2003, to obtain degrees in biomedical engineering and business administration. They alleged that he was recruited into Hizbullah’s operations unit Islamic Jihad in 2008, and the following year became a naturalized US citizen. He communicated with his handler through coded emails, and received bouts of weapons training and drills on tactics in Lebanon, US prosecutors said.
In the United States, he allegedly scoured for firearms suppliers, Israeli military personnel, airport security information and surveilled US military and law enforcement facilities in New York, sending information back to Hizbullah. US officials say Debek visited Thailand in May 2009 on his US passport, tasked with cleaning up explosive precursors in a Bangkok house that had been abandoned by others because they were under surveillance. In 2012, he went on a Hizbullah surveillance mission to Panama, tasked with identifying areas of weakness at the Panama Canal and providing information about how close someone could get to a ship passing through the Canal, officials said. Panama’s government expressed “satisfaction” over the arrests, saying “it maintains active cooperation with international intelligence bodies to prevent this type of threat.” The statement said US authorities had alerted Panama in 2014 that Debek might try to enter that country, and “actions were immediately taken in line with the law to impede his entry.” Debek allegedly told the FBI that he was detained by Hizbullah from December 2015 to April 2016, and falsely accused of spying for the United States. The Federal Bureau of Investigation believes that his military training included extensive instruction on bomb-making.
