They're 100% American, and pro-Hezbollah
U.S. scrutiny resented in Dearborn
By E.A. Torriero
Tribune staff reporter
July 27, 2006
DEARBORN, Mich. -- A neon American
flag flashes red, white and blue above La Shish East restaurant on
Michigan Avenue. But what happened with some of the hefty profits from
the Lebanese fare is anything but patriotic, federal prosecutors allege.
Using a double set of books, the owner of La Shish chain of 15
restaurants evaded taxes while funneling some $20 million to the
Lebanese militant force Hezbollah in recent years, according to an
indictment returned in May.
The restaurateur, Talal Chahine,
has fled to Lebanon but denies wrongdoing. The case is one of several
across the U.S. that link Americans with smuggling operations of
illicit drugs, cigarettes and even baby formula and Viagra to profit
Hezbollah--designated by the State Department as a terrorist
organization.
With fighting raging in southern Lebanon between
Hezbollah and Israeli ground forces, the FBI last week issued a
nationwide alert for law enforcement to be vigilant in investigating
and profiling Hezbollah sympathizers, according to federal sources.
"The question is: Are they loyal to the U.S. or to this terrorist group
Hezbollah?" asked assistant U.S. Atty. Kenneth Chadwell, one of nine
federal prosecutors investigating Hezbollah ties in metro Detroit.
Roots in southern Lebanon
The scrutiny has deeply angered this Detroit suburb, where nearly
30,000 Lebanese-Americans live in the largest concentration of
Americans with roots in southern Lebanon. Here, many people see no
contradiction between being 100 percent American yet backing the
guerrillas of Hezbollah against Israel.
On the streets of
Dearborn, Hezbollah is not seen as a terrorist group but as a heroic
resistance force. Residents say the group led the "freedom fight" in
Lebanon during 18 years of Israeli occupation.
Without the
diligence and sacrifice of Hezbollah, people here say they would not
have been able to return every summer to show their children their
hillside villages and share their ancestral heritage. Hezbollah also
provides social services and education for their relatives in Lebanon
who are too poor to afford them.
Watching reports from the Middle East, many in Dearborn feel betrayed
and unfairly targeted by the U.S. government.
This week some 200 Hezbollah fighters engaged in fierce battles
defending Bint Jbeil, a village that is a longtime Hezbollah stronghold
near the Israeli border. Some 15,000 Dearborn residents have emigrated
over the years from Bint Jbeil. They created a community center named
after the village.
When about 10,000 Arab-Americans
demonstrated in Dearborn last week in support of the Lebanese cause,
some held up portraits of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.
People here draw a distinction, though, between Hezbollah's strict
religious theocracy and its military movement.
Shiite presence in Dearborn
Most Lebanese-Americans in Dearborn are Shiite Muslims who do not
subscribe to Hezbollah's Islamist political ideology. They do not
associate Hezbollah with its Iranian backers but see the group as
Lebanese combating aggression by Israel.
Community leaders
estimate there are 35,000 Arab-Americans in Dearborn out of 100,000
residents. Of the Arabs, they say, up to 80 percent are
Lebanese-Americans, and 90 percent of them are Shiite Muslims from
southern Lebanon. The remainder are Sunni, Christian or secular, they
say.
"If the FBI wants to come after those who support the
resistance done by Hezbollah, then they better bring a fleet of buses,"
said Osama Siblani, publisher of the local Arab-American News and an
outspoken activist. "I for one would be willing to go to jail."
Lebanese-Americans know the crush of U.S. public opinion is against
them. Right-wing talk shows mock Dearborn as Hezbollah's U.S.
headquarters.
But community leaders say Lebanese-Americans are
not supporting terrorism against the United States. Even though the
U.S. government has linked Hezbollah with the deadly attack on the
Marine barracks and the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in the 1980s, Hezbollah
has never attacked America at home, they argue, and has shown no
interest in doing so.
And while they encourage the FBI to
investigate credible threats against U.S. targets, activists in
Dearborn say there is a wide gulf between their expressions of free
speech and the fanaticism of terrorists planning attacks.
Still, U.S. law enforcement looks askance at those who lean
pro-Hezbollah, they say, even though Dearborn-area residents are
intensely proud Americans.
"By making this so public, the
government is on a campaign smearing the whole community," said Abed
Hammoud, a Wayne County prosecutor who leads the Congress of Arab
American Organizations in Michigan in his off time.
"It's a way
to intimidate people from demonstrating," Hammoud said. "Now people are
scared to even say `I want Hezbollah to defend Lebanon.'"
Federal officials say they are not harassing Lebanese-Americans but are
looking for people aiding Hezbollah. It is illegal to lend support to a
terrorist group, and in Michigan, several dozen people have been linked
to smuggling operations, federal prosecutors say. Some are Hezbollah
fighters who managed to enter the U.S., they say.
Two Michigan
men pleaded guilty this month to racketeering charges for running a
ring of 18 people who allegedly shipped caches of cigarettes to
Michigan from North Carolina and Indian reservations in New York. The
ring, run out of Dearborn, funneled some of the profits to Hezbollah,
federal prosecutors said. Customers were told that part of the cost of
the cigarettes was a "resistance tax" to benefit the militant group. In
May, Dearborn restaurateur Chahine, 51, was charged with tax evasion in
an indictment that connected him with the highest echelon of Hezbollah.
Chahine and his wife skimmed $20 million of their profits to Hezbollah,
prosecutors allege.
Chahine was photographed speaking at a 2002
fundraiser in Lebanon while seated next to Grand Ayatollah Mohammed
Hussein Fadlallah, a Lebanese Shiite cleric identified by the U.S.
government as Hezbollah's spiritual leader.
Chahine is now a
fugitive in Lebanon. He fled after his restaurants and home were
searched. His attorney did not return calls seeking comment. But
Chahine said in a statement in May that he was only doing charity work
and is not connected to Hezbollah, nor did he help fund the group.
Arab-American leaders in Michigan say the case is typical of the
government overreaching for links to Hezbollah.
Moe Saad said the community has more to worry about than its reputation
and the FBI. His brother Hussein was killed last week when an Israeli
missile smashed into the Saad home in Bint Jbeil. Their 71-year-old
father, Akil, who owns the family bakery in Dearborn, was seriously
wounded.
"We are the targets," Moe Saad said, "in and out of Lebanon. This will
continue."