Brazil rejects U.S. action against alleged terrorist links in tri-border area

The Associated Press
Friday, December 8, 2006
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil

Brazil has rejected U.S. sanctions against alleged terrorist fundraisers in the tri-border area with Argentina and Paraguay, saying American officials failed to present sufficient evidence.

The Foreign Ministry announcement late Thursday indicated that the three South American governments are unwilling to place complete trust in U.S. assertions about the war on terror.

The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday imposed sanctions on what it termed a major fundraising channel for the Islamic militant group Hezbollah in the tri-border area, focusing on nine people plus a shopping center in Paraguay and an electronics company located there.

The U.S. Treasury Department barred Americans from doing business with them and said any bank accounts or other financial assets belonging to the nine people and the businesses found in the United States must be frozen.

But Brazil said the three countries met in Buenos Aires this week and decided there was not "any new data or evidence that corroborates the accusation by the United States."

It also said the United States had failed to prove oft-repeated suggestions that the region itself is a hotbed of terrorist financing.

"In light of the information available, there is no sign of the occurrence in that region of activities linked to terrorism or their financing," the Foreign Ministry statement said. "That position is shared by Argentina and Paraguay."

The ministry said that "unilateral statements that arbitrarily single out the tri-border region cause undue harm to the region," but it reiterated Brazil's "international commitment ... for the prevention and combat of terrorism."

The tri-border region is considered a haven for arms traffickers, smugglers and counterfeiters and is home is thousands of Lebanese Muslims. The United States considers the Lebanon-based Hezbollah a terrorist organization and the group is suspected of involvement in terrorist attacks worldwide.

At least some local analysts praised Brazil's action.

"It's a question of national sovereignty," said Alexandre Barros, a political analyst with the Early Warning consulting firm in Brasilia. "The United States says it's all rotten here, but Brazil has no international obligations unless they are proven and discussed. They say, 'We're going to clamp down,' but that's unacceptable. Brazil doesn't have to accept"

Barros said Brazil had been cooperative in opposing international terrorism, "but the problem has to be concrete."

The U.S. alleges that it had identified people who had given financial and other assistance to Assad Ahmad Barakat, whose "network in the tri-border area is a major financial artery to Hezbollah in Lebanon," said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The Treasury Department alleged that Muhammad Yusif Abdallah, allegedly an owner of the Galeria Page shopping center in Paraguay, is a senior Hezbollah leader who pays a percentage of his income to the group.

It also said that Hamzi Ahmad Barakat funded Hezbollah through his electronics store, Casa Hamze, located in the shopping center.

The U.S. government said regional law enforcement authorities have been concerned about their activities and the U.S. move should come as no surprise.

"The U.S. government stands firmly behind our designation of these nine individuals as terrorist financiers for Hezbollah," Molly Millerwise, the department's public affairs director, said in an e-mail on Friday to The Associated Press.

"It is important for countries around the world to recognize that their obligation to fight terrorism extends beyond simply preventing attacks within their own borders and includes halting the export of funds that facilitate terrorism elsewhere," she said.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/08/america/LA_GEN_Brazil_U.S._Terror.php