Bush Administration freezes assets of Hezbollah `charity' inthe US

Yesterday, the Treasury Department moved against the Islamic Resistance Support Organization, a key Hezbollah fund raising organization in the USA, ordering a freeze on its assets in the United States and making it illegal for Americans to contribute to the `charity'.

The Treasury Department released copies of a receipt issued by the group to a donor, which on the back listed projects such as "collection box project for the children and homes," "contribution to the cost of a rocket" and "contribution to the cost of bullets." The donor, whose name was redacted, used ink to signal his interest in helping fund a rocket.

(By the way...this is like the illegal al Manar television subscription list I reported on here . We have the names and presumably the addresses of these people. What action is being taken against these `loyal Americans' who contributed to a jihadist organization like Hezbollah with American blood on its hands?)

During the war with Israel, Hezbollah launched about 4,000 rockets deliberately targeted at civilian areas, killing more than three dozen civilians and wounding hundreds.

"Hezbollah projects an image as a humanitarian organization," said Stuart Levey, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. "This puts the lie to that image. This shows there is no separation, and they raise money for social services and also raise money for terrorism."

One brochure put out by the group showed coins going into a mosque, made to look like the al Aksa mosque in Jerusalem, and emerging as rockets aimed at a battered Star of David. The group primarily raises money from Shiite communities in the Persian Gulf but has also raised money in the Detroit area.Dearbornistan strikes again, for sure...

It's been tough for the US to cut off funds for Hezbollah the way they've done for Hamas. For one thing, Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese government, and any aid we give that particular `Arab democracy' gets partly siphoned off by Hezbollah..which is one great argument for not giving Lebanon a penny, at least until Hezbollah is disarmed.

Another problem, of course is Europe, which loves Hezbollah, does not classify them as terrorists and considers them just another political party - especially when they're murdering Israelis.

Frankly, I find it difficult to understand the logic behind the US government freezing the assets and prohibiting money from going to Hezbollah from the Islamic Resistance Support Organization on the one hand and then giving $230 million dollars to Lebanon with the other, money that Hezbollah will assuredly get a piece of.

What was that again that a certain president said about not giving aid to countries that harbor terrorists?

Hmmmmm...