Asia Times Special

Asia Times:
A new face to Hezbollah's resistance

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Aug 3, 2006

SOUTH LEBANON - The US ruling political elite failed to understand (or deliberately ignored) the real pulse of the post-September 11, 2001, situation when they decided to invade Iraq in 2003, despite repeated opposition from top Pentagon and intelligence officials.

The ongoing chaos in Iraq is evidence enough of the dire consequences of this miscalculation.

Now, Asia Times Online has learned from contacts both in Lebanon and in the region that Israel, too, has embarked on a military adventure in defiance of warnings from within its establishment of the need for caution.

As with Iraq, the consequences could be dire.

An alliance of hawkish Israeli politicians and military top brass is determined to eradicate Hezbollah once and for all from Lebanon, despite warnings from Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, Asia Times Online is told.

Those arguing for restraint say that the Iraqi war has changed the dynamics and mood in the Middle East. The region is no longer the same as when Israel could flex its muscles with impunity: there is now a groundswell of anti-Israeli and anti-US sentiment.

And Israeli intelligence admitted to the ruling establishment before the war began that it had failed to penetrate the tightly knit folds of the ideologically and religiously motivated cadre and leadership of Hezbollah. Therefore, they opposed the war until their proxy network could gather more information on Hezbollah's military strength, manpower, logistics and positions.

Israeli intelligence dispatches warned that Hezbollah, with Iranian backing, had grown way beyond a small resistance group like Hamas in Palestine and would fight with much more than small weapons and suicide attacks.

The dispatches cautioned that before going into any large-scale war, it was essential to measure the full extent of Hezbollah's war machine, otherwise it could turn into a military catastrophe.

On Tuesday, Israel sent 10,000 troops in armored personnel carriers and backed by tanks into south Lebanon, Israeli defense officials said. Thousands more were gathering at staging areas on the Israeli side of the border. Israel called up 30,000 reservists over the weekend.

At least 539 Lebanese have been killed in three weeks of air and missile attacks, including 468 civilians and 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 46 Hezbollah guerrillas, although Israel claims that Hezbollah casualties are much higher.

A total of 51 Israelis have been killed since the start of the military campaign, 33 of them soldiers, according to Israeli figures. Hezbollah claims to have killed more soldiers than stated.

Given the Israeli escalation, and Hezbollah's fierce resistance, it is clear that the massive aerial bombing (about 30 raids a day) has not inflicted too serious a loss on Hezbollah. Israel targeted the traditional strongholds of Hezbollah, such as offices and mosques administered by them in south Lebanon.

Mossad, according to Asia Times Online contacts, warned of an extensive network of underground tunnels and bunkers that Hezbollah could use to stockpile arms in preparation for a long guerrilla war. The problem was that it was not able to identify their whereabouts accurately.

A boiling anger
During this correspondent's travels in south Lebanon over the past few days, the indications have been that dozens of Fallujahs could be in the making, as in the Iraqi town that put up strong resistance to US-led forces.

After Israel bombed the border town of Qana on Sunday, causing more than 50 civilian deaths, a mass evacuation to the north has been under way. Many of the empty houses in any number of villages have now been occupied by young men.

They are not Hezbollah, but they definitely are sympathizers. They wear different-colored shirts, but all have similar green trousers. They call themselves "volunteers" and avoid any long conversations.

In Sarafan, a small town between Tyre and Sidon, Asia Times Online spoke to a shopkeeper, Ahmad Basbishi.

"Almost 60% of the population has left the area," he said. "We are here for two reasons. We do not have relatives out of this town and so do not want to be roaming around like beggars with our families in other cities. And second, we do not want to give the Israelis easy access to our land. Whatever strength we have and whatever firepower we have, we will put it in place and resist Israel if they try to occupy south Lebanon again."

A group of Palestinian refugees in Tyre put it in even stronger terms.

"Let the Israeli forces come on the ground and you will see how we sacrifice our lives and butcher them. They have snatched everything from us, and now they do not even want us to stay alive," said Shadi Ibrahim, one of the refugees.

"This is not a question of Hamas, Islamic Jihad or Hezbollah. Neither is it a question of [Hamas leader] Khaled Mishal or Sheikh Osama [bin Laden] or [Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah. This is a question of do or die. And whoever leads the battle, we will be with them."

Dr Jawad Mahmood Najam, who runs a hospital near Tyre and Qana, gave another perspective.

"During the mid-1990s civil war and Israeli raids, all of our doctors ran away. Nobody was ready to handle the casualties. But this time things surprisingly turned out differently. Not only have doctors and nurses refused to go to safe places, they are also working around the clock, even without monetary compensation. I think this is because everybody is now measuring the situation from a new angle and understand that this is a serious battle."

In Iraq, after the US-led invasion, people decided at the neighborhood level to form bands of resistance. These turned into Islamic groups, which in turn melted into the broader resistance.

The Lebanese street, certainly in the south, appears much the same. But a trustworthy organization - Hezbollah - is already on the ground and people only need to join forces with this broad resistance.

The next step, therefore, is for this resistance of Lebanon to become a part of the international anti-US Islamic movement. The Israelis were warned.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Pakistan Bureau Chief for Asia Times Online. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH03Ak02.html

---

Nasrallah and the three Lebanons

By Sami Moubayed

DAMASCUS - Many in the Arab world are blaming the Lebanese for being so disunited and for not rallying en masse behind Hezbollah and its secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah. These divisions are strange for those who do not know Lebanon: there are in essence three Lebanons, each with its own history, objectives, alliances and leaders.

One friend from "Sunni Lebanon" cursed Hezbollah tremendously, saying that the Shi'ite militia had ruined her life, while another from "Shi'ite Lebanon" (which makes up about 40% of the population) said Hezbollah was the greatest thing about the Arab world since emancipation from the Ottomans in 1918. A third friend, from "Christian Lebanon", said Hezbollah was not the "Party of God" as its name means in Arabic, but rather "The Party of the Devil".

Still, there are many crossovers in Lebanon, according to a recent poll by the Beirut Center for Research and Information to test the country's pulse on the war in Lebanon. This was done before Israeli warplanes on Sunday bombed the ill-fated village of Qana, killing more than 51 people (including 22 children). This single event strongly increased anti-Israeli sentiment and a genuine desire for either revenge or an immediate ceasefire.

The survey was administered among the country's Shi'ites, Sunnis, Druze and Maronite Christians. It surprisingly showed that 70.9% of all Lebanese supported Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 that sparked the Israeli retaliation.

Because of the loud criticism of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, only 40% of the Druze community voted in favor of such operations. Christian support, because of the backing General Michel Aoun has given Nasrallah, was at 55%.

In all, the survey showed that 87% of the Lebanese people supported Hezbollah's retaliation against Israel, attributed mainly to Hezbollah's celebrated military performance to date. Meanwhile, 89.5% said they did not see the US as an honest broker in the Middle East conflict. Another 64.3% were not satisfied by the performance of Prime Minister Fouad al-Siniora. Within the Sunni community, 64.8% said they did not approve of Siniora as premier.

Certainly, then, the poll shows that many Sunni Muslims (and Maronite Christians as well) support Nasrallah. All talk about him having zero support in non-Shi'ite districts is nonsense.

Nasrallah has outgrown his Shi'ite identity and transformed himself into a pan-Lebanese, pan-Arab and pan-Islamic leader. The fact that he is a cleric, a Muslim and a Shi'ite is actually of little importance at this stage of his war with Israel.

Shi'ite Lebanon
One Lebanon, mostly in the south, is that of Hezbollah, a Lebanon of Shi'ites and the epicenter of anti-Israeli rhetoric and action. This Lebanon is co-shared by the Amal movement of Nabih Berri.

Not all inhabitants of this Lebanon are members of Hezbollah, but all of them respect and love Nasrallah. In the 1960s, this Lebanon used to receive no more than 0.7% of the state budget for public works and hospitalization, while the other two Lebanons were being described as the "Switzerland of the East".

This is the no-alcohol Lebanon of veiled women, bearded men, poverty-stricken districts and ubiquitous posters of ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.

This is the Lebanon we see on Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV. This Lebanon is anti-American and anti-Israeli to the bone. Many here, Nasrallah included, speak fluent English, but prefer to converse, think and write in Arabic. French culture in this Lebanon is minimal.

A friend of this correspondent lived in the Jnah district of Beirut. When he wanted to move out and sell his furniture, a member of Hezbollah visited him, saying he would buy all of the furniture and appliances and donate them, in the name of Hezbollah, to needy families in the Shi'ite community. And he did.

Another story of Nasrallah's Lebanon is that of a poor woman from the Shi'ite community. She was finding a hard time making ends meet until a member of Hezbollah visited her home in al-Dahiyyieh, a Shi'ite suburb of Beirut. He presented her with a brand-new sewing machine, telling her to work on it and produce sweaters and scarves, promising that all of her output would be bought by Hezbollah.

Many hundreds of families in Shi'ite Lebanon live off monthly stipends delivered to their homes at the start of every month, in a sealed envelope, from the secretary general of Hezbollah. The families of the wounded, the arrested in Israeli jails and those who died in combat receive free education and hospitalization, at the expense of Hezbollah.

This is the Lebanon that is being targeted by Israel. For the reasons mentioned above, among others, it will be difficult - if not impossible - to turn the tables against Hezbollah and Nasrallah in their Lebanon.

Simply put, Nasrallah is king in his Lebanon. Disarming him by force would be impossible. The Shi'ites, who had suffered from the status of an underclass in the 1950s and 1960s, reversed their fortunes through Iran, wealth from the Shi'ite community in the diaspora, and Nasrallah.

They will not disarm at will because, in addition to being a shield against Israel, they view the arms of Hezbollah as a symbol of their strength and very existence. They are strong because Hezbollah is armed. True, other parts of Lebanon have been destroyed in the latest war, but the areas to suffer the most are the Shi'ite districts, in al-Dahiyyieh and south Lebanon. They are paying the high price for supporting Hezbollah, and nobody among the Shi'ites seems to be complaining.

Sunni Lebanon
Another Lebanon is that of the Sunni Muslims, headed for 13 years by the towering influence of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in February 2005. It is now under the command of his son, Saad, and Prime Minister Siniora, two US-educated politicians who value liberal economies, open society, and fine, secular education.

This is the Lebanon where both pan-Arab and Anglo-Saxon influence are very strong. Its residents speak and understand perfect English, and use it comfortably with Arabic. It is the Lebanon of fine food, good wine, beautiful women, shopping, beaches and pleasure.

This is a Lebanon historically allied to Syria. Its leaders in the 1930s and 1940s saw themselves as closer to Damascus and their co-religionists in Syria than they were to the Christians of Mount Lebanon. They originally wanted to reunite with Syria, the motherland, but by the late 1930s had abandoned this idea in favor of being part of Greater Lebanon, on the condition that they be treated as equal to the Christians.

This Lebanon broke with Syria after Hariri's assassination. Its leaders, onetime allies of Damascus, turned against Syria when it became unpopular to be pro-Syrian, accusing the Syrians of murdering Hariri.

Unlike Nasrallah's united Lebanon, however, this Lebanon is sharply divided. One side is headed by Saad Hariri. It is anti-Syrian, pro-Saudi Arabian and pro-West. The other is headed by former traditional Sunni notables (especially Beiruti) who were sidelined by the rise of Rafik Hariri in 1992 and continue to lurk in the shadows under Saad. They are pro-Syrian.

Leaders of this Lebanon are former prime ministers Salim al-Hoss and Omar Karameh, along with politicians such as Tammam Salam. They believe that Syrian influence has been traded for that of the United States.

The Americans promised the post-Syria leaders of Lebanon democracy, prosperity and stability. Instead, they have given them war and bombs, tolerating and then fanning the current war in order to break Hezbollah. Naturally, this group is still allied to Syria and praises Nasrallah as a pan-Islamic and pan-Arab leader.

Hariri's Lebanon - the one we see on Future TV (Hariri's station) - dreads the spread of Iranian influence in the Arab world. An anti-Hariri team does exist, but it has terrible public relations managers and is almost unheard or unseen in the international and local media.

Christian Lebanon
This the third Lebanon. It is the Lebanon that was once dominant, from the post-Ottoman era until the end of the civil war in 1990. This is the Lebanon that has preserved the sophistication and democracy of Lebanon. It opposed Muslim hegemony in the 1950s and 1960s, refusing to make Lebanon a revolutionary nation inspired by the rebelliousness, socialism and anti-Westernism of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.

This Lebanon is influenced tremendously by France. Some of its residents are more comfortable with French than Arabic. Some refuse to learn English to preserve their Franco-Lebanese culture. It is a norm in this Lebanon to wake up every morning and drink coffee while reading French-language newspapers.

This Lebanon is currently headed by the ex-warlord Samir Gagegea, who was recently released from jail, and the former army commander, Michel Aoun. When Aoun allied himself to Nasrallah - sending shock waves throughout Christian Lebanon - many said this was political suicide and would ruin him within the Maronite community. He was labeled a turncoat. It would end his dreams at becoming president of Lebanon, they said.

Aoun, however, understood that Lebanon had changed, knowing perfectly well that Christian support alone was no longer enough to secure a seat for him at the Baabda presidential palace.

To understand the wonders Aoun has done for Hezbollah, one must understand how faithful his supporters have been in backing him. When he wanted them to fight the Syrians, they were anti-Syrian to the bone. When he allied to Hezbollah, they became convincing and eloquent defenders of Hezbollah. Aoun's people support everything he tells them. It's that simple. And now he is telling them to stand firm behind Hezbollah and Nasrallah.

Israel is trying to turn the tables in Lebanon against the Shi'ites. It wants the Christians to suffer from the Israeli war, and blame Nasrallah for having dragged Lebanon into this confrontation. That is why it has landed bombs in Christian Lebanon. But the Christians are not turning yet against Nasrallah. On the contrary, they are helping with the relief processes, through charity groups, non-governmental organizations, churches and monasteries. This is due to Michel Aoun.

The anti-Hezbollah factions from Christian and Sunni Lebanon say Nasrallah does not have the right to dictate the fate of Lebanon as a country destined to be at war with Israel. This is said by Hariri's and Gagegea's Lebanon. They argue that Nasrallah did not have the right to capture the two Israeli soldiers, in total disregard for the Lebanese government and the people who have subsequently suffered.

They say Nasrallah is a creation of Iran and Syria, fighting their proxy war with Israel through Lebanon at the expense of the Lebanese. This war, they argue, has cost Lebanon a staggering sum of US$9 billion to date.

Nasrallah says that (unlike other prominent Lebanese politicians currently in the anti-Syrian camp) he did not use his connections in Damascus to live an extravagant lifestyle, travel to Europe or stash money in foreign banks. He used his connections with the Syrians to buy arms and wage war against Israel - and he is very proud of it. Nasrallah, after all, does not enjoy the luxuries of life.

How he sees Lebanon is very different from how the Sunnis or Christians see it. He certainly has never been to tourist attractions in the Lebanese mountains or beach, nor has he imagined the Beirut nightlife. He lives a monastic life surrounded by his family, and drives around in a Mercedes-Benz 500 (1990 model).

He could not care less for a thriving Lebanese economy, like Siniora or Hariri, and tourism to him - which has been ruined by this war - means nothing. The point is: Nasrallah probably does not suffer when he sees Beirut in blackout and in a grinding economic standstill.

To most Lebanese, the image of downtown Beirut transformed from a city abuzz with life and spirit into a ghost city spells misery and disaster. To Nasrallah, it just means the normal and expected task of combating the Israelis is under way.

As much as Israel, these three Lebanons will decide the fate of the country.

Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst.

Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH03Ak01.html

---

Part 1: Hezbollah south of the border

By Pepe Escobar

CIUDAD DEL ESTE, at the triple border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay - This is the way savage globalization ends - at least 20,000 shops, stalls, tin shacks and mini-malls crammed into 15 blocks selling everything under the (tropical) sun. There's Little Asia - thousands of Taiwanese, mainland Chinese and Koreans. But above all there are some 20,000 Arabs of Syrian and mostly Lebanese descent (another 12,000 live in the Brazilian resort of Foz do Iguacu, across the Friendship Bridge).

Welcome to Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, population 200,000, free-trade cesspit and World Trade Organization wet dream, realm of sacoleiros (bag carriers) crossing the bridge every day and
dreaming of the ultimate knockoff, but mostly realm of money changers, prehistoric armored cars, gun-and-coke dealers, dodgy pharmacists and stolen Mercedes with tinted windows.

The border is virtually non-existent, as Paraguay is a Mercosur member (along with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela). Airspace is free - virtually no radar. Cocaine comes by plane or truck from the Bolivian Andes. Brazilian weapons are everywhere - not to mention real and fake Kalashnikovs. Tons of laundered money whirl in free flow. The whole thing is a dizzying black void of billions of dollars in contraband, narco-trafficking, weapons smuggling, money laundering, car theft, piracy and corruption of public officials.

And it gets worse: it's crammed with terrorists.

Stand and deliver
The head of the US Southcom (Southern Command), the vociferous General Brantz Craddock, is absolutely convinced the Triple Border is the abode of "the "transnational terrorist, the narco-terrorist, the Islamic radical fundraiser and recruiter, the illicit trafficker, the money launderer, the kidnapper and the gang member". The emphasis is on "terrorist" and "Islamic". Southcom - US$800 million annual budget, more than the State, Treasury, Commerce and Agriculture departments combined - is the eyes and ears of the Pentagon over Latin America.

In essence, this is how it works. Armchair gurus in Washington and New York theorize on the so-called five wars of globalization - terrorism, trafficking, money laundering, piracy and migration - and the Pentagon sends the Special Forces posing as cleaners to make it all proper for the "free" world. The underlying assumption is that Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaeda - "in sum, terror" - are profiting like mad from the so-called five wars.

The "new threats of the 21st century recognize no borders", according to the Pentagon. Ergo, everyone may be a terrorist, at least a potential one. Not accidentally, General Craddock hates "anti-globalization and anti-free-trade demagogues". Sunni or Shi'ite, Marxist or anarchist, ruralist or existentialist, the Russian mafia, the Hong Kong triads, the Nigerian mafia, the Ukrainian mafia - they are all in cahoots. And for the Pentagon, Hezbollah is selling pirate video discs of Christina Aguilera to finance more Katyusha rockets.

At the real Triple Border, though, everyone may be a spy, or a would-be spy, because everyone is there: the Russian mafia, the Mossad, the Nigerian mafia, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Hong Kong triads. A rule of gold in the underworld is that Brazil is neutral territory and not subject to turf wars; everyone is entitled to join the fun (technically Ciudad del Este is in Paraguay, but it does business as a Brazilian annex via the Friendship Bridge). There's no chance of catching one of Ayman al-Zawahiri's lieutenants slipping $100 bills into the G-string of dancer Harlem Roux at the Casino Parana. He - and his al-Qaeda affiliation - would be spotted in minutes.

General Craddock grudgingly had to admit that the Pentagon has "not detected Islamic terrorist cells" at the Triple Border, nor anywhere else in South America, for that matter. But he'll keep trying. If he dropped by Ciudad del Este's mean streets, Craddock would hear a lot of Mandarin - but not Arabic. He would see every cheap plasma set in every audio-video shop tuned to Lebanese TV - or Al-Jazeera, hardly a terror ID. In his search for preemptive strikes, he could try the Condominio Mesquita - which, as the name attests, is a condo in the shape of a gold-painted mosque (they would love it in Peshawar). But he would see no Hezbollahs in fake Nikes chowing an empanada and sipping mate with Jet Li lookalikes.

Hezbollah's electronic casino
Anyway, the latest annual State Department terrorism report explicitly regards the Triple Border as a main source of financing for both Hamas and Hezbollah, even though it admits "there's no confirmed information" either Hamas or Hezbollah has "an operational presence" on the ground.

The US government keeps accusing the Brazilian government of regarding Hezbollah as a legitimate political party. The Treasury Department also said it has detected money transfers from Foz do Iguacu - home of the famous Iguacu (Iguazu in Spanish) Falls, on the Brazilian side - to "terrorist groups" including Hezbollah. In a report on drugs released in March, the US once again was explicit: Brazil must fight "terrorism financing" in the Triple Border area.

It doesn't matter that the State Department has found no evidence of "terrorist financing" from Paraguay and was forced to admit that between 1961 and 2003, only 1.2% of worldwide terror took place in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile combined. An International Monetary Fund report on money laundering also revealed the obvious: the Triple Border is awash in cash smuggling, but no sight of "terrorist financing".

In 2001 CNN dubbed the Triple Border "a terrorist paradise" - based on dodgy documents obtained by US embassies in both Paraguay and Argentina. An article in The New Yorker in late 2002 defined the Triple Border as "the center of Middle Eastern terrorism in South America" and "a community under the influence of extreme Islamic beliefs" - with Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda all training on the spot.

Between late 2001 and early 2002, this whole thing was fine-combed by US and Brazilian investigators. There was no chance Sheikh Nasrallah would be uncovered operating an electronic casino in Ciudad del Este under an alias. Commercial and banking ties between the Arabs in the Triple Border and their relatives in the Middle East were perfectly legal - just like the ones between resident Arabs in the US and their relatives.

But the heat was on - relentless, humiliating, brutal.

Thus US Immigration and Customs agents, financed to the tune of $2.25 million, will soon be parachuting into the Triple Border to help the locals fight money laundering, contraband and terrorism financing. The Americans will establish "units of commercial transparency". Up to now the only country in the world boasting a "unit of commercial transparency" was Colombia. The Brazilian Federal Police and the Ministry of Foreign Relations prefer not to comment. American diplomats insist a permanent group representing the US, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay has agreed on the matter.

Common wisdom rules that at least $20 million annually is sent from the Triple Border to finance Hezbollah, linking South American banks to banks in Texas and New York in the US, plus banks in Panama, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Egypt and Lebanon. That would be 20% of total worldwide financing for Hezbollah's military wing. There's no independent confirmation. "This figure was arrived at by the Mossad. They always have plenty of people snooping around here," said a Lebanese-Brazilian businessman who owns a bustling audio-video shop. Hezbollah receives donations from sympathizers worldwide. There's no evidence it is being financed by pirate video discs or cocaine dollars from the Triple Border.

But the pressure is non-stop. Thus the US Congress has approved a motion enabling President George W Bush to ask for a task force to act against "terrorism in the Western Hemisphere", especially on the Triple Border. Bush is also supposed to demand from Brazil and other Latin American countries the branding of both Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations.

The Brazilian Embassy in Washington was furious - reminding the Americans that even the White House admits there's no terror operating on the Triple Border. Carlos Alvarez, head of the Commission of Permanent Representatives of Mercosur, worries that the Americans "want to convert the Triple Border into part of the war on terror". Diplomats from Mercosur countries say they have enough of an institutional base to fight crime - as that is the real issue. Brazil has set up a new police unit and has reinforced air and fluvial patrols at the Triple Border - fighting above all the trafficking of drugs and weapons. Starting in two weeks - to the dismay of the business community in Ciudad del Este - they will even start inspecting all the sacoleiros crossing the Friendship Bridge.

Arab businessmen in both Foz do Iguacu and Ciudad del Este dismiss US paranoia as, well, paranoia. They have more tangible things to worry about - like two Lebanese businessmen robbed of $250,000 cash in downtown Ciudad del Este just as they had left a bank. The robbers - carrying machine-guns - were disguised as Paraguayan investigative police. The Sunday headline in the Paraguayan daily Ultima Hora also told another popular story: "It's easier to leave Lebanon than to arrive in Paraguay". It referred to a Lebanese-Paraguayan family who managed to leave Lebanon in a Brazilian rescue plane, arrived in Sao Paulo but then could find no flights home. No one wants to fly to Paraguay: airspace is totally unprotected, with no security systems and no radar.

The locals claim they don't need Americans to arrest one of the top Brazilian narco-traffickers, Marcelinho Niteroi, as they did last week. Niteroi carried fake Paraguayan identification, which he obtained posing as a "farmer". On the other hand, businessmen on both sides of the border focus on made-in-USA missiles used by Israel that killed Lebanese-Brazilian kids, who were born in Brazil. "Maybe these kids were dangerous terrorists," said a real-estate developer.

Where is Osama's hotel?
Irrespective of the facts on the ground, as far as the Pentagon is concerned the Triple Border remains a nest of subversive activity to be preempted as fast as Syria and Iran.

Take what happened last year when the Foz do Iguacu municipality ran a full-page ad in leading newspapers with a photo of Osama bin Laden. The caption read: "When he's not busy blowing up the world, bin Laden spends his time relaxing at Iguacu." Craddock might have taken it literally - and blown the place apart.

Craddock would have had a heart attack with the recent subversion calendar. Last month the Mercosur chiefs of state got together in Cordoba, Argentina - officially welcoming Venezuela as a new member. Fidel Castro stole the show. Venezuela's news network Telesur - very popular via satellite in Ciudad del Este - provided extensive coverage of "anti-imperialist" speeches by both Castro and Hugo Chavez.

Meanwhile civil society - in the form of social, political, cultural, environmental, student, religious and human-rights organizations - was engaged in the second Triple Border Social Forum in Ciudad del Este, discussing the region's security, a controversial military agreement between the US and Paraguay, and the preservation of the Guarani Aquifer. The slogan went straight to the point: "Out Yankee troops and the World Bank".

The "Yankee troops" are holding "training exercises" in Paraguay (more on that in Part 2 of this report). And the World Bank is developing a program toward mapping the Guarani Aquifer - which is the first step toward commercial exploration of its precious waters. The Guarani Aquifer is arguably the biggest reservoir of fresh, potable water in the world - right under Triple Border soil. The majority (71%) of its 1.2 million square kilometers lies in Brazil. According to the United Nations, by 2025 worldwide demand for potable water will be 56% higher than what will be on offer.

When you combine a huge Arab community and lots of non-commercialized water in a Pentagon-defined "lawless area", no wonder bells start ringing. Watching the non-stop coverage on the Arabic channels of Lebanese civilians dying under Israeli bombs, a Lebanese-Brazilian businessman offered the preferred local version of the "war on terror": "In Iraq they said there were WMD [weapons of mass destruction]. They wanted the oil. Here they say that we are terrorists. But what they want is our water."

Next: Lost paraguayos: The Yankees are coming

Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HH03Aa01.html