Homegrown terrorists
How a Hezbollah cell made millions in sleepy Charlotte, N.C.
Bell's team also scored big in developing informants. For years, top counter-terrorism officials have complained about how hard it is to penetrate terrorist groups. But the Charlotte case seems to offer a how-to clinic. Agents relied on more than 10 informants and cooperating witnesses. Investigators flipped not only the group's drivers and smugglers but their bogus wives as well. Most important, they flipped Said Harb.
Early on, federal agents zeroed in on Harb, a fast-talking, high-living operator who didn't quite fit in with the others. Although a Hezbollah backer from the same Beirut neighborhood as Hammoud, Harb wasn't a devout Muslim; his interests ran more to fast cars and porn sites. An expert at credit card scams and identity theft, he was described by an agent as "a one-man crime wave." He would adopt the identities of Middle Eastern students after graduation, expand their credit limits, and then "bust out" the account with huge charges. Harb went through a new identity this way every year, officials say. His phone had four different rings--each one for a different identity.
At his arrest in 2000, Harb seemed puzzled at the presence of so many agents, according to the FBI. "Why a SWAT team?" he asked. "It's not like I'm a terrorist or anything."
"Well, we're going to talk about that," replied the FBI's Schwein.
Faced with long years in prison, Harb gradually warmed to a deal with the government. In the end, his price for cooperating was refuge for his family still in Lebanon. It was a reasonable request. Hezbollah is known for taking vengeance on the relatives of those deemed treasonous. While much of America celebrated Easter last March, Bell and other officials quietly helped spirit 14 of Harb's relatives to the United States.
Death threat. Harb provided the smoking gun. He had personally gone to Vancouver, British Columbia, met with a top Hezbollah operative, and helped fund shipments to Hezbollah of a wide range of "dual use" military gear: night-vision goggles, GPS devices, mine detectors, radar, laser range finders, blasting equipment, and sophisticated software. During this time, Hezbollah's military capability in those areas improved markedly, according to U.S. officials. Ultimately, 25 people were indicted in the Charlotte case, for crimes ranging from credit card fraud to money laundering. Five suspects are still fugitives; most of the others have pleaded guilty or were recently convicted.
Despite the success, investigators are not resting easy. "Here's a terrorist support cell that sets itself up in America's heartland," explains one agent. "They have the ability to move people across borders and give them whole new identities. They have access to a constant flow of untraced cash, military training, and a network of criminal contacts to get weapons. That's not good news."
Ken Bell, too, remains cautious, sobered perhaps by a reported death threat. Once imprisoned, Hammoud allegedly plotted to blow up the courthouse and "put bullets into the skull of the arrogant, bastard prosecutor." The allegations remain unproved, but they prompted police to protect Bell's home. Still, Bell says, the government won an important round in the war on terrorism. "What we've done is create a playbook of how to identify and disrupt these groups," he says. "We brought everything we had to bear, and it worked. So it can work again."
With Monica M. Ekman
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