[An Nahar] An appeals court in Paraguay ruled in favor of extraditing a Lebanese man wanted in the United States on charges linked to raising funds for Hizbullah.Moussa Ali Hamdan, 38, was jugged in mid-June 2010 in a hotel in Ciudad del Este, the hub of the busy and often lawless tri-border area between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The free-trade zone city of Ciudad del Este is home a large foreign-born population, including some 30,000 Arabs, mostly of Lebanese origin.
Foreign intelligence officials claim that Ciudad del Este harbors Islamist terrorist sleeper cells, an allegation the three countries deny.
In November 2009, a U.S. district court in the state of Pennsylvania indicted Hamdan on several charges related to money laundering, using counterfeit currency, passport forgery, and exporting stolen laptops, cell phones and cars.
The proceeds were to benefit Hizbullah, which Washington considers a terrorist group, according to the U.S. indictment.
Hamdan, who claims to have moved to Paraguay to work at an electronics store with a friend, told Paraguayan news hounds that Washington wants him "because I'm a Mohammedan."
They're rare enough that we gotta go to Paraguay to get some to oppress.
"If I had been a Christian, I would not have been jugged," he said.
| Had you been a Christian, sir, you would not have been servicing Hizb'allah, and so would not have caught American eyes looking for terrorists. For want of a nail, and all that. |