comment by Jerry Gordon

We disagree with Mr. Morris and the New York Times, Senator Lieberman should urge our Treasury Department to shut down Hezbollah websites hosted here in the US doing fund raising for a US designated terrorist organization.

Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, May 26, 2008

Funding terrorism: Hezbollah uses its websites to collect donations for itself and for its affiliated institutions in Lebanon and elsewhere in the world. The donations are deposited in bank accounts in Lebanon and Europe.

Overview

1. Hezbollah collects donations using its websites and by various other means. The donations are collected in Lebanon , Iran , and other countries in the world. A significant portion of the donations are collected in Shi’ite Lebanese communities, being the organization’s primary support infrastructure. The donations are collected to supplement the Iranian financial assistance, which makes up most of Hezbollah’s budget. The donations are used not only for social and cultural activities but also to support the restoration of Hezbollah’s military infrastructure following the second Lebanon war (including the acquisition of weapons).

2. One of Hezbollah’s main institutions involved in collecting donations is the Support Association of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon (hereinafter: the Support Association ) . Founded by Hezbollah in 1989, it is associated with Beit al-Mal (an Islamic financial institution which fulfills some of the functions of a bank, an important component in Hezbollah’s financial structure in Lebanon ). The Support Association collects funds in Lebanon (in commerce sites, mosques, educational institutions, gas stations, roadblocks, etc.) and also among Shi’ite Muslim communities in Arab countries and elsewhere in the world (mostly in the Gulf States and in Western countries).1 Pamphlets distributed by the Support Association make it perfectly clear that the donations are also used to support Hezbollah’s military infrastructure.

A receipt issued by the Support Association (from the American Treasury Department website).2 On the other side of the receipt (bottom) are details on the projects for which the donations are intended. Some of those projects include: “Helping a jihad warrior”, “Participating in [the cost] of a rocket”, “Participating in the cost of a bullet”. The text on the bottom of the receipt says that, by virtue of Islamic religious law, the Support Association is religiously authorized to collect one fifth of the donor’s income for charity.

3. Hezbollah’s extensive network of websites, published in several languages, is an important leverage for collecting donations for the organization and its various institutions. Using online ads, web surfers worldwide can call Hezbollah’s numbers in Lebanon in order to transfer the donations to their destination in Lebanon . In some cases, donations can be transferred to bank accounts located in Lebanese and European banks mentioned in the websites.

4. Following are the methods used to collect donations using the various websites. It should be noted that some websites involved in raising funds are serviced by US -based Internet Service Providers (even though Hezbollah is considered a global terrorist organization by the American State Department).

a. Collecting donations through the English-language Wa’ad website

5. Wa’ad (Arabic for “promise”) is one of Hezbollah’s important news websites, available in Arabic and in English. Both versions are serviced by a US -based Internet service provider. The website was active until early April 2008, when the English version went offline. Past experience shows that it may be a temporary shutdown.

6. Using the Wa’ad website, Hezbollah collects donations for some of its institutions:

a. The Support Association of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon .

b. Jihad al-Bina’ (the Reconstruction Campaign).

c. Muassasat al-Shahid (Al-Shahid Foundation).

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