Category Archives: FBI

Denying Russian Encroachment is Dereliction of Security

Posted on by

Hillary Clinton is no novice to security measures when it comes to global adversarial incursions. Her team of political operatives are not neophytes either.

By virtue of Hillary’s emails, inspector general’s reports and non-approved (unknown servers) and violations of data protection, Hillary’s team are guilty of malfeasance of duty and management. For proof, read the FBI search warrant of the Abedin/Weiner computers and hard-drive.

FBI Search warrant Huma

Have you considered why certain buildings in government have harden structures including sound proof windows, SCIFs, entry and exit procedures, security clearances and action protocol when transmitting information in hardcopy and electronically? This is due to thousands of foreign tasking of espionage of history that include Russia, China and North Korea to mention a few. Not all hacking is equal, there are viruses, malware, electronic theft and propaganda.

Schiller

A distinction should also be made between hacking and SIGINT, signals intelligence. SIGINT is the interception of data used by foreign powers which can and does include scooping and snooping. There are electronic signals, radars and weapons systems that are all part of the target base applied by foreign adversaries and allies. No part of the United States government or civilian enterprise is exempt or omitted by outside powers including outright spying and theft of industrial espionage, patent information and intelligence.

Beyond this, there is the whole model of propaganda, real and fake news. Under Barack Obama, the United States has been in a reactionary mode rather than installing and actively pursuing defensive and countermeasures when it comes to biased, misleading, filtered or altered influence causing ill legitimate attitudes, movements, synthesis and policy decisions. The master of this game is Russia.

The U.S. government spent more than a decade preparing responses to malicious hacking by a foreign power but had no clear strategy when Russia launched a disinformation campaign over the internet during the U.S. election campaign, current and former White House cyber security advisers said.

Far more effort has gone into plotting offensive hacking and preparing defenses against the less probable but more dramatic damage from electronic assaults on the power grid, financial system or direct manipulation of voting machines.

Over the last several years, U.S. intelligence agencies tracked Russia’s use of coordinated hacking and disinformation in Ukraine and elsewhere, the advisers and intelligence experts said, but there was little sustained, high-level government conversation about the risk of the propaganda coming to the United States.

A former White House official cautioned that any U.S. government attempt to counter the flow of foreign state-backed disinformation through deterrence would face major political, legal and moral obstacles.  

“You would have to have massive surveillance and curtailed freedom and that is a cost we have not been willing to accept,” said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They (Russia) can control distribution of information in ways we don’t.”

Clinton Watts, a security consultant, former FBI agent and a fellow at the nonprofit Foreign Policy Research Institute, said the U.S. government no longer has an organization, such as the U.S. Information Agency, that provided counter-narratives during the Cold War.

He said that most major Russian disinformation campaigns in the United States and Europe have started at Russian-government funded media outlets, such as RT television or Sputnik News, before being amplified on Twitter by others.

A defense spending pill passed this month calls for the State Department to establish a “Global Engagement Center” to take on some of that work, but similar efforts to counter less sophisticated Islamic State narratives have fallen short.

The U.S. government formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against U.S. political organizations in October, a month before the Nov. 8 election.

U.S. ‘STUCK’

James Lewis, a cyber security expert at the Center for Strategic & International Studies who has worked for the departments of State and Commerce and the U.S. military, said Washington needed to move beyond antiquated notions of projecting influence if it hoped to catch up with Russia.

“They have RT and all we know how to do is send a carrier battle group,” Lewis said. “We’re going to be stuck until we find a way deal with that.” More here including Alex Jones from Reuters.

Then there is Iran who has and continues to use propaganda to build internal reputation and power, the same as Putin of Russia himself.

When Iran detained our Navy personnel, consider the traction that was gained both positive and negative.

NR: The sight of members of the American military, disarmed and under Iranian control, is of enormous propaganda value in Iran’s ongoing war against the United States. To its allies in the Middle East, the photo demonstrates Iran’s strength – how many jihadist countries have had this many American servicemembers under their power? – and it demonstrates American weakness. Then there’s this: “This time, the Americans were cooperative in proving their innocence, and they quickly accepted their faults without resistance,” the analyst, Hamidreza Taraghi, said in a phone interview. “The Marines apologized for having strayed into Iranian waters.” Never fear, John Kerry made friends with the Iranians, and that made all the difference: Also playing a role was the strong relationship that has developed between Mr. Kerry and the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, during negotiations on the nuclear deal, Mr. Taraghi said. “John Kerry and Zarif were on the phone during the past hours, and this helped the problem to be resolved quickly due to their direct contact,” he said. Nations that take illegal propaganda photos, crow about their seizure of American boats, confiscate part of their equipment, and then point to our allegedly admitted faults aren’t “easing tensions,” they’re flexing their muscles. I’m glad our sailors and boats are back in American hands — minus, apparently, their GPS equipment — but once again Iran has thumbed its nose at the U.S., demonstrating that it does what it wants — whether it’s testing missiles, launching rockets near U.S. warships, or taking, questioning, and photographing American sailors who (allegedly) stray into Iranian waters.

Not only does government need to harden security, but civilians must as well. That includes people, information, news, systems, software and brick and mortar structures. Separating fact from fiction, providing exact and true definitions and not conflating conditions is the charter and mission in the future.

 

Van Jones is Behind this Electoral College Vote Challenge

Posted on by

July, 2016:

PHILADELPHIA— Self-described “communist” and “rowdy black nationalist” Van Jones is starting a new “social justice” public relations outfit to be called Megaphone Strategies.

The firm touts itself as a “social justice media strategy firm run for purpose, not profit.” (Good luck with your efforts to circumvent human nature, Comrade Jones.) Molly Haigh, communications director for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is his partner in this new adventure in antisocial activism.

Jones, who was President Obama’s green jobs czar until it was revealed that he was a 9/11 truther, will chair the organization’s board while Haigh will be president and oversee five staffers in the beginning.

AdWeek’s Fishbowl DC blog reports, quoting Jones:

Everywhere we look, we discover courageous people finding ways to break down barriers and solve tough problems. We need to hear their voices, and we need to elevate their work,” said Van Jones of the reason behind the firm’s creation, which will offer strategy, publicity, media training and event/social justice campaign planning services.

Megaphone’s clients include Vote.org, the ACORN-affiliated Working Families Party, and Demand Progress.

Jones, by the way, said Donald Trump’s speech on the closing day of the Republican National Convention makes him an American Hitler.

Well, actually, the America-hating communist didn’t literally say that but he came fairly close.

Although Trump’s speech was widely applauded in Republican circles, Jones called it a “schizophrenic psychopathic attempt to pull apart the Obama coalition,” like a moment “where there’s some big authoritarian movement, and some leader that’s rising up,” and “a disgrace.”

What do you expect from someone who hates everything America stands for?

What Jones said about Trump’s address probably isn’t anywhere near the worst garbage to have spewed from his mouth on CNN where he is a paid contributor. His commentary throughout the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week was fairly uniformly malicious, ugly, and unfair.

***

Megaphone Strategies lists a majority of its clients as environmental and “social justice” organizations such as 350.org, Green For All, Democracy Fund, and Demand Progress. More here.

Going back to 2009, Van Jones called the Republicans ‘assholes’ before his audience at a time when he worked for the Obama White House.

Russian State, Non-State Cyber Intrusions Sway Voting/Political Decisions

Posted on by

In October, before the U.S. presidential election, a Russian man suspected of carrying out cyberattacks against U.S. targets was arrested in Prague and was also wanted by Interpol. What information could have been gained in this case that has provided additional evidence to government officials for further investigations? Anyone remember in 2012 when the Russian hacked LinkedIn?

Everyone appears to be in denial about the ability and reasons that Russia and or their non-state actors swayed the U.S. campaign and voting process. No one official has ever claimed actual votes were altered, but rather the argument is actual affectation of information, attitudes and decisions by candidates and voters. There is a distinct difference and words matter.

Russia is artful when it comes to practicing hybrid warfare, cyber is but one tactic, the other successful tactic is propaganda. It works.

APT 28, Russia (Advanced Persistent Threat) has been seen to have moved on from the United States political season and turned towards Germany’s political season in recent days. This is not likely to affect vote tally results but rather polling attitudes going into consideration of votes for candidates.

This site has been writing about hacking and cyber intrusions for more than two years. While government agency officials have pointed with evidence that Russia played a significant role, it is also important to remember there are thousands of outside government cyber experts that are hired by government to protect against cyber intrusions and to investigate and report that of which is otherwise unknown by government due to being in the private sector. These are generally known as ‘White Hats’. White Hats in their forensic work look for types of penetration, commonality in code or language, trace IP addresses, concepts, malware, login files, brute force, where stolen data later appeared, partitions and code based platforms.

Let’s examine some facts and history.

It was also proven last year that as part of the Russian aggression with the Ukraine, that power grid was hacked by Russian operations. Due to major sanctions applied to Russia for at least the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Ukraine and the continued threat to East Europe and NATO, the Russian Defense Ministry launched a more aggressive cyber command. Beyond hacking the non-classified but still a protected system at the White House in 2015, there are others of note.

In the past year, researchers have also linked Russian hackers believed to be working for the government to other spying campaigns, including against NATO, the Ukrainian government, energy companies in Poland, and an academic at an American university who was targeted because he studies Ukraine.

On Tuesday, CNN reported that according to U.S. officials, Russian hackers had penetrated portions of the White House computer network by gaining access from another “perch,” at the State Department, where intruders had gotten inside the unclassified email system.

The intrusion reported by CNN is not “a new incident,” a spokesman for the National Security Council said. Rather, it was acknowledged by the White House last year after intruders accessed an unclassified network used by the Executive Office of the President. More here.

From 2014, long before the presidential election cycle was set into motion:

As reported by Heritage, according to FBI Director James Comey, “There are two kinds of big companies in the United States. There are those who’ve been hacked…and those who don’t know they’ve been hacked.”[1]

A recent survey by the Ponemon Institute showed the average cost of cyber crime for U.S. retail stores more than doubled from 2013 to an annual average of $8.6 million per company in 2014.[2] The annual average cost per company of successful cyber attacks increased to $20.8 million in financial services, $14.5 million in the technology sector, and $12.7 million in communications industries.

This paper lists known cyber attacks on private U.S. companies since the beginning of 2014. (A companion paper discussed cyber breaches in the federal government.)[3] By its very nature, a list of this sort is incomplete. The scope of many attacks is not fully known. For example, in July, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued an advisory that more than 1,000 U.S. businesses have been affected by the Backoff malware, which targets point-of-sale (POS) systems used by most retail industries.[4] These attacks targeted administrative and customer data and, in some cases, financial data.

This list includes only cyber attacks that have been made known to the public. Most companies encounter multiple cyber attacks every day, many unknown to the public and many unknown to the companies themselves.

The data breaches below are listed chronologically by month of public notice.

January

  • Target (retail). In January, Target announced an additional 70 million individuals’ contact information was taken during the December 2013 breach, in which 40 million customer’s credit and debit card information was stolen.[5]
  • Neiman Marcus (retail). Between July and October 2013, the credit card information of 350,000 individuals was stolen, and more than 9,000 of the credit cards have been used fraudulently since the attack.[6] Sophisticated code written by the hackers allowed them to move through company computers, undetected by company employees for months.
  • Michaels (retail). Between May 2013 and January 2014, the payment cards of 2.6 million Michaels customers were affected.[7] Attackers targeted the Michaels POS system to gain access to their systems.
  • Yahoo! Mail (communications). The e-mail service for 273 million users was reportedly hacked in January, although the specific number of accounts affected was not released.[8]

April

  • Aaron Brothers (retail). The credit and debit card information for roughly 400,000 customers of Aaron Brothers, a subsidiary of Michaels, was compromised by the same POS system malware.[9]
  • AT&T (communications). For two weeks AT&T was hacked from the inside by personnel who accessed user information, including social security information.[10]

May

  • eBay (retail). Cyber attacks in late February and early March led to the compromise of eBay employee log-ins, allowing access to the contact and log-in information for 233 million eBay customers.[11] eBay issued a statement asking all users to change their passwords.
  • Five Chinese hackers indicted. Five Chinese nationals were indicted for computer hacking and economic espionage of U.S. companies between 2006 and 2014. The targeted companies included Westinghouse Electric (energy and utilities), U.S. subsidiaries of SolarWorld AG (industrial), United States Steel (industrial), Allegheny Technologies (technology), United Steel Workers Union (services), and Alcoa (industrial).[12]
  • Unnamed public works (energy and utilities). According to the Department of Homeland Security, an unnamed public utility’s control systems were accessed by hackers through a brute-force attack[13] on employee’s log-in passwords.[14]

June

  • Feedly (communications). Feedly’s 15 million users were temporarily affected by three distributed denial-of-service attacks.[15]
  • Evernote (technology). In the same week as the Feedly cyber attack, Evernote and its 100 million users faced a similar denial-of-service attack.[16]
  • P.F. Chang’s China Bistro (restaurant). Between September 2013 and June 2014, credit and debit card information from 33 P.F. Chang’s restaurants was compromised and reportedly sold online.[17]

August

  • U.S. Investigations Services (services). U.S. Investigations Services, a subcontractor for federal employee background checks, suffered a data breach in August, which led to the theft of employee personnel information.[18] Although no specific origin of attack was reported, the company believes the attack was state-sponsored.
  • Community Health Services (health care). At Community Health Service (CHS), the personal data for 4.5 million patients were compromised between April and June.[19] CHS warns that any patient who visited any of its 206 hospital locations over the past five years may have had his or her data compromised. The sophisticated malware used in the attack reportedly originated in China. The FBI warns that other health care firms may also have been attacked.
  • UPS (services). Between January and August, customer information from more than 60 UPS stores was compromised, including financial data,[20] reportedly as a result of the Backoff malware attacks.
  • Defense Industries (defense). Su Bin, a 49-year-old Chinese national, was indicted for hacking defense companies such as Boeing.[21] Between 2009 and 2013, Bin reportedly worked with two other hackers in an attempt to steal manufacturing plans for defense programs, such as the F-35 and F-22 fighter jets.

September

  • Home Depot (retail). Cyber criminals reportedly used malware to compromise the credit card information for roughly 56 million shoppers in Home Depot’s 2,000 U.S. and Canadian outlets.[22]
  • Google (communications). Reportedly, 5 million Gmail usernames and passwords were compromised.[23] About 100,000 were released on a Russian forum site.
  • Apple iCloud (technology). Hackers reportedly used passwords hacked with brute-force tactics and third-party applications to access Apple user’s online data storage, leading to the subsequent posting of celebrities’ private photos online.[24] It is uncertain whether users or Apple were at fault for the attack.
  • Goodwill Industries International (retail). Between February 2013 and August 2014, information for roughly 868,000 credit and debit cards was reportedly stolen from 330 Goodwill stores.[25] Malware infected the chain store through infected third-party vendors.
  • SuperValu (retail). SuperValu was attacked between June and July, and suffered another malware attack between late August and September.[26] The first theft included customer and payment card information from some of its Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Shop ‘n Save, and Shoppers stores. The second attack reportedly involved only payment card data.
  • Bartell Hotels (hotel). The information for up to 55,000 customers was reportedly stolen between February and May.[27]
  • U.S. Transportation Command contractors (transportation). A Senate report revealed that networks of the U.S. Transportation Command’s contractors were successfully breached 50 times between June 2012 and May 2013.[28] At least 20 of the breaches were attributed to attacks originating from China.

October

  • J.P. Morgan Chase (financial). An attack in June was not noticed until August.[29] The contact information for 76 million households and 7 million small businesses was compromised. The hackers may have originated in Russia and may have ties to the Russian government.
  • Dairy Queen International (restaurant). Credit and debit card information from 395 Dairy Queen and Orange Julius stores was compromised by the Backoff malware.[30]
  • Snapsave (communications). Reportedly, the photos of 200,000 users were hacked from Snapsave, a third-party app for saving photos from Snapchat, an instant photo-sharing app.[31]

Securing Information

As cyber attacks on retail, technology, and industrial companies increase so does the importance of cybersecurity. From brute-force attacks on networks to malware compromising credit card information to disgruntled employees sabotaging their companies’ networks from the inside, companies and their customers need to secure their data. To improve the private sector’s ability to defend itself, Congress should:

  • Create a safe legal environment for sharing information. As the leaders of technological growth, private companies are in most ways at the forefront of cyber security. Much like government agencies, companies must share information that concerns cyber threats and attack among themselves and with appropriate private-public organizations.[32] Congress needs to create a safe environment in which companies can voluntarily share information without fear of legal or regulatory backlash.
  • Work with international partners. As with the Backoff malware attacks, attacks can affect hundreds if not thousands of individual networks. These infected networks can then infect companies outside the U.S. and vice versa. U.S. and foreign companies and governments need to work together to increase overall cybersecurity and to enable action against individual cyber criminals and known state-sponsored cyber aggressors.[33]
  • Encourage cyber insurance. Successful cyber attacks are inevitable because no security is perfect. With the number of breaches growing daily, a cybersecurity insurance market is developing to mitigate the cost of breaches. Congress and the Administration should encourage the proper allocation of liability and the establishment of a cyber insurance system to mitigate faulty cyber practices and human error.[34]

***

Denial or refusing the argument and examination of evidence is malfeasance and exacerbating a cyber criminal act.

 

 

 

 

Charity Orgs and Welfare Help Fund Terror

Posted on by

UK Welfare Payments ‘Help Fund Islamist Terror Plots’

HeatStreet: One of the Brussels bombing suspects was given £3,000 of British welfare payments by a group of Islamist fanatics, it has emerged.

The so-called “Man in the Hat” (pictured) – whose real name is Mohamed Abrini – has been linked to the terror cell behind this year’s Brussels suicide bomb and last year’s Paris gun attacks that claimed a total of 162 lives.

Abrini, who is 31, was allegedly captured on CCTV after the Brussels Zaventem airport suicide bombing on March 22 and is awaiting trial in Belgium.

Now it’s come to light that months before the Brussels attack he received £3,000 of British welfare cash from Zakaria Boufassil, 26, a Belgian citizen living in Birmingham, England.

Boufassil was convicted in a London court yesterday of supplying the money to Abrini in July 2015.

Abrini was apparently sent from Syria to Britain by a member of his terror cell to collect the funds.

Abrini and Boufassil met in a Birmingham park where the handover is believed to have taken place.

The cash was obtained from housing and child welfare payments paid in error to another Belgian man – Anouar Haddouchi.

Haddouchi had already been fighting for Isis in Syria for a year and had successfully claimed welfare in Britain since 2009 – despite mainly living in Saudi Arabia.

In total, nearly £11,000 was paid into Haddouchi’s account after he and his wife left for the war zone.

Birmingham city council has apologised for the error, which meant that nearly £6,000 was paid even after it was informed the pair had vacated their housing.

Another man, Mohammed Ali Ahmed, aged 27, was known to British security services and was on police bail when he helped Boufassil hand over the cash to Abrini. He impersonated Haddouchi to gain access to his bank account.

Boufassil was found guilty yesterday at Kingston crown court, west London, of engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism.

Ahmed pleaded guilty last month to the same offence. They will be sentenced next week.

Terror expert Lord Carlile yesterday claimed that hundreds of thousands of pounds of British welfare payments have helped to bankroll Islamist terrorists, triggering calls for a government inquiry.

****

Abrini’s full confession and terror network secret operations is explained here in his testimony.

****

Ah but the same goes for the United States. Beyond the Boston bombers, the Tsarnaev brothers, Minneapolis is but one example.

CNS: “… the effort is having the unintended consequence of creating an enclave of immigrants with high unemployment that is both stressing the state’s safety net and creating a rich pool of potential recruiting targets for Islamist terror groups. This population is … being targeted by Islamist terror organizations like the Islamic State and al-Shabab, a Somalia-based group with links to al Qaeda, according to U.S. officials. Among Minnesota-based Somali-Americans, American converts to Islam or Somali refugees, there have been numerous convictions for various levels of collaboration with Islamist terror groups, plus reports of fighting with al-Shabab or other Islamist groups.”

Yup, tax dollars for terrorists.

It seems that these bums want a little excitement in their lives.

So they’re joining al-Shabab.

“Since 2008, as many as 40 men from Minneapolis have joined Islamist groups after being pulled in by jihadists through social media, federal officials say. Last year, an American youth named Douglas McAuthur McCain died in Syria fighting for the Islamic State. Mr. McCain was recruited in Minnesota, where he lived. In 2009, another Minnesota youth, Troy Kastigar posted a recruiting video for al-Shabab before he was killed fighting for the terrorist group in Somalia. Kastigar and McCain are thought to have been friends. That same year a Somali man who left Minneapolis joined al-Shabab and blew himself up in a suicide bombing at an Ethiopian consulate in Somalia, killing 24 people.”

General Kelly Pegged to Head DHS

Posted on by

This is going to take another waiver…. I hope that early on in the Trump administration there will be a final act to list and designate drug cartels as terror organizations. Fair warning however, the economies of Latin American countries could financially collapse.

 FreeBeacon

It is also notable that General Kelly lost a son to the enemy known as the Taliban in 2010 in Afghanistan.

WaPo: Donald Trump has chosen retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly to run the Department of Homeland Security, turning to a blunt-spoken border security hawk who clashed with the Obama administration over women in combat and plans to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, according to people familiar with the decision.

Kelly, who retired in February as chief of U.S. Southern Command, would inherit a massive and often troubled department responsible for overseeing perhaps the most controversial part of Trump’s agenda: his proposed crackdown on illegal immigration. DHS is the third-largest Cabinet department, with more than 240,000 employees who do everything from fight terrorism to protect the president and enforce immigration laws.

Kelly, 66, is a widely respected military officer who served for more than 40 years, and he is not expected to face difficulty winning Senate confirmation. Trump’s team was drawn to him because of his southwest border expertise, people familiar with the transition said. Like the president-elect Kelly has sounded the alarm about drugs, terrorism and other cross-border threats he seems as emanating from Mexico and Central and South America.

Yet Kelly’s nomination could raise questions about what critics see as Trump’s tendency to surround himself with too many military figures. Trump has also selected retired Marine Gen. James N. Mattis for defense secretary and retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn as national security adviser, while retired Army Gen. David Petraeus is under consideration for secretary of state.

Kelly, a Boston native, was chosen over an array of other candidates who also met with Trump after his surprise election victory last month. Those in contention included Frances Townsend, a top homeland security and counterterrorism official in the George W. Bush administration; Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Clarke and Kobach are vocal Trump backers, with Kobach being nationally known for his strong views on restricting illegal immigration. More here.

 MilitaryTimes

**** Why is General Kelly a stellar choice for the Department of Homeland Security? In 2015, in part his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee gives us a huge clue:

Last year, almost half a million migrants1 from Central America and Mexico—including over 50,000 unaccompanied children (UAC) and families—were apprehended on our border, many fleeing violence, poverty, and the spreading influence of criminal networks and gangs. Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson testified that the “UAC migration serves as a warning sign that the serious and longstanding challenges in Central America are worsening.”2 In my opinion, the relative ease with which human smugglers moved tens of thousands of people to our nation’s doorstep also serves as another warning sign: these smuggling routes are a potential vulnerability to our homeland. As I stated last year, terrorist organizations could seek to leverage those same smuggling routes to move operatives with intent to cause grave harm to our citizens or even bring weapons of mass destruction into the United States. Mr. Chairman, Members, addressing the root causes of insecurity and instability is not just in the region’s interests, but ours as well, which is why I support President Obama’s commitment to increase assistance to Central America.

These and other challenges underscore the enduring importance of U.S. Southern Command’s mission to protect our southern approaches. We do not and cannot do this mission alone. Our strong partnerships with the U.S. interagency—especially with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Coast Guard, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Departments of Treasury and State—are integral to our efforts to ensure the forward defense of the U.S. homeland. We are also fortunate to have strong, capable partners like Colombia, Chile, Brazil, El Salvador, and Panama, regional

leaders and outstanding contributors to hemispheric and international security. Given our limited intelligence assets, interagency relationships and bilateral cooperation are critical to identifying and monitoring threats to U.S. national security and regional stability.

I am also troubled by the financial and operational overlap between criminal and terrorist networks in the region. Although the extent of criminal-terrorist cooperation is unclear, what is clear is that terrorists and militant organizations easily tap into the international illicit marketplace to underwrite their activities and obtain arms and funding to conduct operations.4 It’s easy to see why: illicit trafficking is estimated to be a $650 billion industry—larger than the GDP of all but 20 countries in the world—and less than 1 percent of global illicit financial flows is currently being seized or frozen.5 The terrorist group Lebanese Hezbollah—which has long viewed the region as a potential attack venue against Israeli or other Western targets—has supporters and sympathizers in Lebanese diaspora communities in Latin America, some of whom are involved in lucrative illicit activities like money laundering and trafficking in counterfeit goods and drugs. These clan-based criminal networks exploit corruption and lax law enforcement in places like the Tri-Border Area of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina and the Colon Free Trade Zone in Panama and generate revenue, an unknown amount of which is transferred to Lebanese Hezbollah. Unfortunately, our limited intelligence capabilities make it difficult to fully assess the amount of terrorist financing generated in Latin America, or understand the scope of possible criminal-terrorist collaboration. You can read his presentation and testimony here.