Winning hearts and minds. Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: the Hizballah jihadists seem to have support in south Lebanon that is so considerable that it has been able to amass a sizable amount in international donor funds.
"Hezbollah rebuilds south Beirut," by Bassem Mroue for Associated Press:
BEIRUT, Lebanon - The Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah has launched a massive project to rebuild south Beirut, devastated in last year's war with Israel — and it's paying for much of the construction with international donor funds that were meant to strengthen its top rival, the Lebanese government.Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government has been distributing the funds as compensation to families whose homes were destroyed by Israeli bombardment so they can build anew.
But in south Beirut, long a Hezbollah stronghold, most of the families have promised to give their compensation — about $53,000 each — to the militant group to redevelop the devastated area in an ambitious plan likely to bolster Hezbollah's standing.
The money going into the government's family compensation program comes mainly from Islamic and Arab nations, chief among them Saudi Arabia — a strong supporter of Saniora and opponent of Hezbollah — which has given $570 million, said Sanaa al-Jack, government spokeswoman for relief and reconstruction projects.
It does not appear money from the United States and the European Union was ending up in the hands of Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and Syria which is considered a terrorist organization by Washington. Al-Jack said the American and EU donations — about $140 million and $110 million promised, respectively — were not earmarked for family compensation but for infrastructure and technical help.
Asked if U.S. money could be going to Hezbollah's rebuilding project, a U.S. Embassy official in Beirut said, "I would doubt it." The official, who insisted on anonymity under embassy rules, said U.S. funds were given for specific projects and would be carefully monitored.
When will Israel learn - stop pussy footing around giving away land to terrorists.
Nice of Hizbollah to do all this. After all, had they not been in southern Lebanon and firing rockets at Israel the area would have been in good shape. I hope the Lebanese keep that in mind before heaping praise on these invading dirtbags.
I wonder if the bin Laden construction companies are helping out.
...among the laundered loot sources...
drugs, bootleg cigarettes & islamist tithings, as well as iranian "petrodollars".
Money is fungible. We may not be donating directly to this project but anything we're giving to other arms of the Lebanese government allow for the diversion of funds to Hezbollah.
Unless we have frozen out Beirut entirely, we shouldn't assume that no US money is going into this project. Even then, it's not a sure thing. How many of those "donor funds" came from countries that receive US aid? It's more likely than not that the American taxpayer is funding Hezbollah, in one way or another.
Plausible, but unlikely from direct proceeds like foreign aid...they do it much easier (and much more untraceable thanks to the enemy within elected tothe politburo), since it's easy to get around being totally cut off...here's how:
Bank account in, say, Switzerland, using a representative agent, buys US Treasuries (Iran has considerable US Treasury holdings, gee,what a shock, eh), live off the interest, and voila...income for whatever iran wants.
So cutting off foreign aid won't work, since the politburo won't allow us to track laundered loot like that...it would hurt their own conflicts-of-interest, especially that of their puppetmaster, george "the capo" soros.
Ya don't seriously think they object on HONEST grounds, do ya?
lol
"(Iran has considerable US Treasury holdings, gee,what a shock, eh), live off the interest, and voila...income for whatever iran wants."
jcom,
And who pays the interest on those securities? the American taxpayer. They get us coming or going.
It doesn't have to be directly from foreign aid accounts. We aren't their only source of funds. Foreign aid for a building or farm project means that the recipient can spend less of his own money on that same item. We're giving how much money in military aid to Egypt every year - 1 or 2 billion? That's a couple billion of their own money that can be diverted to "pet projects".
Why wouldn't the same hold true for Lebanon, but on a lesser scale?
I gave iran as one of several examples-your perception is correct, they don't have an exclusive.
The foreign aid to egypt, for example, is nothing less than jizzya by dhimmi jimmy, a reward for the so-called "peace" deal that isn't (as we can see in posts above like
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/018842.php#comments )
"We aren't their only source of funds."
True...the EU & china are just as notorious for funding terrorist states-they just don't admit to it like the US does. The worst, among them, was France, especially under that two-faced double-agent "blaque jaques chirac", which is also the last colonial power on Earth (ironic of the MSM to accuse us of that, yet say zero about France's "colonialism" but that's another issue).
It wouldn't surprise me at all for Lebanon to do the same thing...but hezbollah's #1 source is iran.
All in all you're on the right track, just adding some details that may help is all.
The re-building of South Beirut is a political gesture. I have seen pictures of Bint Jubeil and other centers in the south, and very little rebuilding has been done. Hizbollah wants a strong presence in Beirut, so that they can engage in an eventual takeover attempt.
Funny, I see this as "If they rebuild it, the Human shields will return", and just in time for the next round.
At least Lebanese Christians aren't stupid enough to buy that recent "Come back home! All is well!" BS as if straight out of an Animal House movie.
They're sayin' "To hell with THAT BS!".
(there seems to be a mass exodus of Christians from Lebanon, and I certainly can't blame them- they refuse to be cannon-falafel anymore).
hahah What a joke!
Those Muslims who are handling Hez-BULL-lard money seem to forget that it was because of Hez-bull-lard that they lost their houses.
They forget that the Hezzies were the ones shooting at the Israeli Soldiers from the rooftops of civilian homes.
Muslims seem to have selectively weak memory problems.
This is like Nazis receiving funds to rebuild the Jewish guetto of Warsaw.
...not to mention using the civilians as human shields when Israelis RETURN fire as they always do.