A Shocking Report on Hezbollah's U.S. Activities

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," July 18, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: This is a Hezbollah Internet video used for recruitment and fundraising right here in the United States. In one scene, Hezbollah fighters with bombs strapped to their chests line up at attention as the commander says, "We shall make the ground explode under the feet of our enemies, America and Israel."

Joining us is the author of "American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us", terrorism expert Steve Emerson. Steve, welcome to "Hannity & Colmes".

STEVE EMERSON, AUTHOR, "AMERICAN JIHAD": Thanks, Alan.

COLMES: Does Hezbollah have an agenda in the United States or against the United States?

EMERSON: Well, they certainly have an agenda against the United States. They are a radical Islamic group that obviously wants to destroy Israel, but they are also against the growth of the United States in terms of its own power and they've challenged the United States in more than just diplomatic ways. They participated in numerous terrorist attacks, the last major one being the Khobar bombings.

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In the United States, Alan, they do fundraising. They do political recruitment and even procure weapons for Hezbollah as evidenced by the 12 cases bought by the U.S. government in the last five years.

COLMES: Hezbollah was founded in '82 when Israel invaded Lebanon. Wasn't that their primary mission? Do they have any designs to do anything domestically here in the U.S.?

EMERSON: First of all, Hezbollah was created, you're right, in 1982, but it was created as a proxy for Iran. So Iran basically controlled the shots and I think they controlled exactly what happened a week and a half ago when they attacked the Israelis over the international border.

The agenda is really the same thing as Al Qaeda, which is to destroy the United States, destroy political power, weaken the resolve of the west to fight radical Islam. There's really no difference between the Al Qaeda agenda ultimately and that of Hezbollah.

COLMES: Who's more dangerous, Al Qaeda or Hezbollah to the United States?

EMERSON: I would say to you that Hezbollah has got a greater network, much, much more elaborate, much more developed around the world, throughout Europe, throughout Asia, throughout the former Soviet Union, and throughout the United States.

So, I would think potentially Hezbollah can wreak a lot more damage if they chose to attack the United States within the continental borders.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Steve, Sean Hannity. Thanks for coming back on the program. What are we seeing in these videos here?

EMERSON: Well, these are videos that were taken off the Hezbollah Web site. We captured them several years ago. They've obviously cleaned up their site, but they are of either rallies being held in Beirut calling for death to Jews, or they're pictures of actual suicide bomb commando volunteers. And as they actually light some of the fuses — they don't light the fuse, but they pretend to light the fuse.

HANNITY: Yes, I'm looking at that right now. They're strapping themselves with the bombs now. And that was actually on their Web site.

EMERSON: It was on their Web site, and it's used a recruitment tool around the world. In fact, in some of the cases brought by the Department of Justice, it was known they would download these web sites from Hezbollah and actually contribute to suicide bombings that they would be carried out against Israel.

HANNITY: But you know, what's very remarkable to me is, in the world reaction in particular, Steve, is that there's a mysterious reluctance, resistance to acknowledge what Islamic fascism is. But you see it there in this video. You see people strapping bombs on themselves with the belief that they're going to be rewarded in heaven with virgins if they kill innocent men, women, and children.

I guess the big question we have — I actually found back in March the FBI director testified before Congress, I don't know if you had picked up on this — that the FBI had broken up a ring that tried to smuggle Hezbollah operatives into the United States right here. Are you aware of that?

EMERSON: I saw the reference, and I'm aware a little bit more about the Hezbollah smuggling into the United States. I know from intelligence sources to whom I've spoke in the last year Hezbollah has also been brought up into San Diego from Tijuana. And the fact is that Hezbollah is trying to develop this infrastructure so it can threaten the United States as it has carried out attacks over the past decade and a half.

COLMES: Steve, thank you for being with us tonight. I appreciate it.

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