TerrorismNo Hezbollah training camps in metropolitan Detroit: FBI

FBI assistant special agent Todd Mayberry, the head of the FBI’s counterterrorism activities in Michigan, told attendees at a security conference that the Iran-supported Hezbollah has no training camps in the Detroit area.

U.S. authorities are concerned about how Hezbollah sympathizers would react if Israel or the United States were to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“If Israel or anyone else chooses to act against Iran, what exactly is Hezbollah or Iran going to do? That’s the…$64,000 question,” Mayberry told the conference attendees at the West Bloomfield Jewish Community Center. “If something were to happen with Iran, would they take the gloves off? Where would the targets be?”

Mayberry said that the “two main threats that I think would impact the Jewish community” are Iran and its proxy Hezbollah, and individuals who become radicalized through jihadi Web sites on the Internet.

Hezbollah has grown in influence and capability since its establishment in 1982. Its growth as the dominant Shi’a group in Lebanon was aided by three developments: the 1982 invasion of south Lebanon by Israel, and the destruction, during that invasion, of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Front) military power in Lebanon and subsequent expulsion of the PLO leadership from Lebanon to Tunisia. With growing resentment by Shi’a population of the heavy-handed Israeli occupation, and with the Sunni PLO forces no longer in south Lebanon to keep the Shi’a Hezbollah in check, the organization – benefitting from the third development: the coming of the Ayatollahs to power in Iran – saw its ranks swell and its power increase.

The organization has received hundreds of millions of dollars from Iran, in addition to large quantities of advanced weaponry, training of militia members by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and a massive build-up by Iranian engineers of a vast system of tunnels and bunkers throughout south Lebanon.

Analysts for the House Homeland Security Committee estimate that there are “hundreds of Hezbollah operatives” in the United States, along with an estimated “several thousand sympathetic donors.” The committee experts distinguish between a “supporter” and someone who would be willing to engage in violent activity.

The second threat to the Jewish community is the new self-radicalization that occurs as individuals become terrorists by frequenting jihadi Web sites and chat rooms. Mayberry said that one major problem is keeping track of so many potentially radical Web sites, and differentiating between what might be a potential threat from what may be just idle talk.

Mayberry also spoke about the FBI’s efforts to work with local imams in an attempt to prevent young Muslims from becoming radicalized via the Internet. He said sometimes potential terrorists may contact a legitimate mosque in what he called a “last-ditch” effort to justify their leanings, asking “Is this really what the Quran says”?

“One of the things we’re really working with the imams on is” trying to convince them to take seriously radicals who contact them.” Mayberry went on to say that “the imams have been very responsive.”