- Hi, everybody, how are you today?
Hope you all had a very nice long weekend.
I've discovered something incredible
about working for the Federal Government.
The last time I had Columbus Day off,
I think I was in junior high school,
so way to go working for the Federal Government.
A couple things I want to start off with today.
First, I'd like to welcome a group of students
we have in the back of the room.
They are visiting from Tampa, Florida.
They're with St. John's Episcopal School.
So welcome to Washington and welcome
to the State Department, and I look forward
to chatting with you a little bit after the briefing today.
So, the reporters know the drill.
That always means behave when we have students in the room.
(reporters laughing)
Okay.
- [Matt] I thought we were supposed to behave all the time.
- We have some other guests here as well,
and I would like to welcome the director
of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Nick Rasmussen is here.
Like me, he's from Wisconsin.
My mother's maiden name, his name as well, so welcome, sir.
It's nice to have you here.
Director Rasmussen leads the U.S. Government's efforts
to analyze, understand, and respond
to foreign terrorist threats here
in the United States and around the world.
Director Rasmussen was sworn in
as the director of the NCTC in 2014
and today will provide some additional background
on Hizballah's worldwide terror activities.
I'm also going to welcome and introduce you
to our new ambassador, Nathan Sales.
He is the State Department's
coordinator for counterterrorism.
He's right over here to my right.
He joined the department in August.
Ambassador Sales develops and implements
counterterrorism strategies and policies,
and leads the department in a whole-of-government effort
to counter terrorism abroad, and today
he will outline U.S. efforts to counter
Hizballah's worldwide terror activities.
We'll start with Director Rasmussen.
The podium is yours, sir.
And then, when we wrap up,
they'll take a few of your questions.
I'll just do a little moderation,
and then I'll take your general questions after that.
- Great, thank you for that introduction, Heather.
And as Heather suggested, my role today is to provide you
with some background on the activity we've seen
from Hizballah, both globally but also here in the homeland.
And I'm doing that in order to provide some context
about the group's operations worldwide.
And this background that I'll be discussing with you
points to three recurring themes:
first, Hizballah's use of terrorism across the globe,
which has persisted for several decades;
second, the group's continued effort
to advance terrorism acts worldwide;
and third, the fact that the organization is, in fact,
focused on U.S. interests, including here in the homeland.
And that is part of the reason why we are here today.
Lebanese Hizballah has repeatedly demonstrated
for the world its true character.
It is an organization that relies on terrorism
as well as other forms of violence
and coercion to achieve its goals.
And this takes place in spite of the group's attempts
to portray itself as a legitimate political party.
Prior to September 11th, I think
everybody knows Hizballah was responsible
for the terrorism-related deaths of more U.S. citizens
than any other foreign terrorist organization.
Now, for many Americans, their introduction
to the threat posed by this group came after Hizballah's
attack on the U.S. embassy in Beirut in April of 1983.
That horrific attack killed 63
and wounded an additional 120 individuals,
and it was followed by an even more deadly attack
on a Marine barracks in October
of 1983 which killed 241 Americans
and wounded an additional 128 Americans.
So Hizballah's penchant for violence
has not changed over the last three decades.
We've seen time and time again
with its international terrorism unit,
the External Security Organization, also known as the IJO,
the Islamic Jihad Organization, and Unit 910, 9-1-0.
But its deployment of operatives
to nearly every corner of the globe continues
to engage in terrorism-related activity.
Now in 2012, the group carried out a bomb attack in Bulgaria
that killed five Israeli tourists
and one Bulgarian national, and a number
of Hizballah operatives have been caught
laying the groundwork for attacks
in places like Azerbaijan, in Egypt,
in Thailand, in Cyprus, and in Peru.
And there are other instances of Hizballah-related arrests
and disruptions around the world that are
at this point unpublicized and remain classified.
But all of this together shows us
that the group seeks to develop and maintain
a global capability to carry out acts of terror.
I can assure you that the conversation today
would be much different had some
of these disrupted plots actually succeeded.
Casualty counts would be higher
and many innocent lives would have been forever altered.
The group is also known to focus
on areas populated by tourists,
almost guaranteeing that, with their attacks,
innocent civilians will be victims.
Now, with respect to the homeland
here in the United States, let me say this.
While much of our work in the government since 9/11
has focused on al-Qaida and more recently on ISIS,
in the 20 years since Hizballah's designation
as a foreign terrorist organization,
we have never taken our focus off of Hizballah
and on the threat it represents to the homeland.
And while I'm not here today to speak publicly
about any specific or credible or imminent threat
to the homeland, we in the Intelligence Community do,
in fact, see continued activity on behalf
of Hizballah here inside the homeland.
And as you would expect, as the American people
would expect, we are watching very closely
for additional signs of that activity here in the homeland.
In June, as I'm sure most of you are aware,
according to published criminal complaints,
two individuals conducting activities on behalf of Hizballah
were arrested here inside the United States,
and those arrests serve as a stark reminder
of Hizballah's global attack infrastructure
as well as the group's aspirations potentially
to carry out attacks here in the homeland.
It's our assessment that Hizballah is determined
to give itself a potential homeland option
as a critical component of its terrorism playbook,
and that is something that those of us
in the counterterrorism community take very, very seriously.
With all of the focus on ISIS and al-Qaida,
I can assure you that those of us who have focused
on terrorism for the entire period since 9/11
have never taken our eye off of the Hizballah threat.
We have and will continue to monitor closely
Hizballah activity around the world
and work aggressively to disrupt any instances
of Hizballah operating within our borders.
I'd also like to point out that Hizballah has not
limited its use of terrorism to venues outside of Lebanon.
The group, though it claims to be defenders of Lebanon,
has repeatedly turned its weapons on the people of Lebanon
or otherwise coerced them to advance Hizballah's goals.
There are countless examples of that that I could point to,
to include those being investigated
by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon,
but I'll just take a quick moment
to highlight a few of the most egregious acts.
In 2016, Hizballah detonated a bomb
outside the BLOM Bank in Beirut.
Going back to 2012, the group killed the head
of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch.
In 2008, Hizballah took over parts of Beirut,
killing at least 84 Lebanese citizens
and wounding at least another 199
after the Lebanese Government attempted to exercise greater
oversight into the group's communications infrastructure.
And of course, in 2005, it was Hizballah operatives
who assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri
in a massive car bombing in downtown Beirut.
In addition to all this terrorism-related activity
around the globe, Hizballah continues
to devote significant resources to expanding
its conventional arsenal in Lebanon,
including the procurement of advanced rocket
and missile capabilities and even indigenous
weapons production facilities.
This has resulted in a broadening
of the threat to the Eastern Mediterranean
and the Arabian Peninsula regions,
and it's in violation of the 1989 Taif Agreement
as well as UN Security Council Resolutions
1559 and 1701, both of which call
for the disarmament of all Lebanese militias.
This weapons build-up by Hizballah
has perpetuated conflict and violence
across the Middle East as their operatives deploy
to places like Iraq and to Yemen,
where they provide weapons, tactics,
and direction to Shia militant and terrorist groups.
As you well know, the group has also deployed
thousands of its fighters to Syria,
where it has sustained approximately 2,000 casualties
fighting on behalf of the Syrian regime.
So as part of our continued effort
to counter the threat of Hizballah,
we are going to continue to work aggressively
with our foreign, U.S., state, and local partners
to share information that we have that would allow us
to detect and disrupt the threat that the group poses
to the U.S. and our interests around the world.
Now, this information sharing and intelligence cooperation
will remain a critical component of our response
to what Hizballah is doing around the globe.
And to close, I will just say that
the Intelligence Community remains focused
on doing whatever we can to disrupt the work
of foreign terrorist organizations around the globe
and most certainly here in the homeland,
and the work I've talked about today to counter Hizballah
is a very big part of that effort.
And in that regard, our work related to Hizballah
is every bit as much of a priority
as our work against al-Qaida and ISIS.
That aggressive intelligence and law enforcement work
goes on around the globe and around the country every day.
I will stop there and turn things over to Ambassador Sales.
- Good afternoon, everyone.
This past weekend marked the 20th anniversary
of the United States designating Hizballah
as a foreign terrorist organization.
With backing from its patron, the Iranian regime,
Hizballah remains one of the world's
most dangerous terrorist organizations.
It continues to commit terrorist attacks and to engage
in other destabilizing activities across the globe.
The threat Hizballah poses to this country
was underscored in June when the FBI arrested
two alleged operatives, one in New York and one in Michigan.
These men allegedly were operating
on behalf of Hizballah's international terrorist unit.
Hizballah has a truly global reach.
In the past several years, we've seen the group
conduct a successful attack in Bulgaria.
We've seen it undertake two separate plots in Cyprus.
We've seen it develop large caches
of weapons in Kuwait and Nigeria, and we've seen it send
terrorist operatives to Peru and Thailand.
These examples can leave no doubt
about Hizballah's true nature and intentions.
It continues to build its worldwide terrorist infrastructure
to lay the groundwork for future attacks.
Countering Hizballah is a top priority
for the Trump administration.
Today, I am announcing rewards
for two senior Hizballah leaders
under the State Department's Rewards for Justice Program.
First, the Department is offering a reward
of up to $7 million for information
that leads to the location, arrest, or conviction
in any country of Talal Hamiyah.
Hamiyah has been linked to several terrorist attacks,
hijackings, and kidnappings targeting U.S. citizens.
Hamiyah leads Hizballah's international terrorist unit,
the so-called External Security Organization,
which is responsible for planning and conducting
terrorist attacks outside of Lebanon.
These attacks have targeted
primarily Americans and Israelis.
We're also offering a reward of up to $5 million
for information that leads to the location, arrest,
or conviction in any country of Fuad Shukr.
Shukr is a senior military commander
of Hizballah's forces in Lebanon.
He's also a member of the Jihad Council,
Hizballah's highest military body.
Shukr plays a key role in Hizballah's military operations
in Syria, and he helped plan and launch the 1983 attack
on the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut
that killed 241 of our Marines.
Let me be clear.
These are the first Hizballah-related rewards
under the Rewards for Justice Program in a decade.
Today's announcement is just one part of our effort
to counter Hizballah's terrorist activities.
Until Hizballah stops using terrorism
and violence to achieve its goals,
the United States and our allies will aggressively target
its terrorism infrastructure and financial support networks.
Let me describe some of our other
efforts to combat Hizballah.
The FTO designation has been a key tool
in disrupting the group's associated networks.
Since its designation in 1997,
we've prosecuted approximately 21 cases
against Hizballah members in the United States.
The U.S. Government has also designated
more than 100 people and entities associated with Hizballah
around the world under a range of authorities.
These include financial facilitators,
the perpetrators of a 2012 attack in Bulgaria,
and senior leaders of the organization.
They also include Shukr and Hamiyah,
who were designated in 2015 and 2012, respectively.
Today's rewards are another step to increase the pressure
on them and their organization.
The United States is not the only country
to understand Hizballah's true nature.
In recent years, the Gulf Cooperation Council
and the Arab League have designated Hizballah
as a terrorist organization, joining the United States,
the EU, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
While much progress has been made,
more work remains to be done.
Hizballah is not subject to UN sanctions,
nor is it sanctioned regionally or at the national level
in South America, Africa, or Southeast Asia,
all areas where the group is active.
Additionally, some countries have chosen
to designate only Hizballah's military wing,
leaving its so-called political wing untouched.
But that is a false distinction.
Make no mistake, Hizballah has no political wing.
It is a single organization, a terrorist
organization, and it is rotten to its core.
These gaps are not merely symbolic.
They limit other governments' ability
to freeze Hizballah assets, to shut down
its front companies, to eliminate its fundraising
and recruiting capabilities, and to prosecute
Hizballah-associated networks.
The United States will need allies in this fight.
For countries that have already sanctioned Hizballah,
we applaud them for taking this important step,
and we urge them to further disrupt the group's activities.
As for countries that have yet to do so, we invite them
to step up and help us confront this common threat.
In particular, we urge our partners to join
the U.S.-Europol Law Enforcement Coordination Group.
The LECG provides a platform for strong
collaboration among more than 25 countries
that are confronted by this threat.
Before I conclude, it's important to recall
that Hizballah hasn't developed its military
and terrorist capabilities on its own.
It has become the global threat it is today for one reason:
Tehran's deep and abiding assistance.
The Iranian regime has built and bankrolled
Hizballah to foment instability
throughout the region and across the world.
This has all come at the expense of the Iranian people,
whose resources are being diverted to support
Hizballah's bloody cause, and at the expense of Lebanon,
which has suffered grievously from Iran
and Hizballah's deadly partnership.
The people of Iran and the people
of Lebanon deserve better than this.
Today's Rewards for Justice announcement is
another important step in our ongoing campaign
to counter Hizballah's wide-ranging terrorist activities.
Working with our partners, we will
confront Hizballah across the globe.
We will deny it the resources it needs to carry out
its deadly attacks, and we will bring
its leaders and operatives to justice.
Thank you.
- [Heather] Thank you.
A couple minutes to take some questions.
Elise, let's start with you, from CNN.
- Thank you.
This is for either one of you.
I guess, Ambassador, it might be for you.
What about the Government of Lebanon?
You say that there is no political
wing or political organization,
this is all a terrorism organization.
Well, as you know, there are members of Hizballah
that are cabinet ministers in the Lebanese Government.
And so what does that mean for
your relationship with Lebanon?
I mean, that would, in effect,
make them a state sponsor of terrorism?
I mean, what are your discussions
with the Lebanese Government about that?
And then to what extent is this new focus on Hizballah
an extension of the President's Iran review
and an effort to kind of crack down on Iranian proxies?
Because, I mean, if I'm looking at your list right here,
in the last year, there are really only,
in the United States, two cases of
U.S.-based terrorism, possible terrorism,
activity that was thwarted, which is far less
than any other groups in the last year.
- Well, thank you for the questions.
Maybe I could take a stab at that
before turning the mic over to Director Rasmussen.
Thanks for the question.
As I said, the position of the United States is clear.
Hizballah is a terrorist organization,
from A to Z, and we don't recognize
a false distinction between its terroristic
ambitions and a political role for it.
We've been very clear in our public messaging
that the Government of Lebanon, likewise,
needs to recognize Hizballah as a terrorist organization.
And we look to them to be a reliable partner on that front.
- I mean, respectfully though, but is that really realistic?
I mean, given the political,
and Director Rasmussen has worked
in the region for a long time, too.
You know very well that this is part of the fabric
of Lebanese society and these are
long-held political struggles within the country.
So, what do you do if Lebanon doesn't, I mean,
that's just not gonna, personally,
I don't envision that ever happening.
So I'm just kind of, where do you go from there?
Because that's a non-starter, for sure.
- Well, I guess I'd respectfully
reject the premise of your question.
I don't think that terrorism is
part of the fabric of any society.
- No, I'm saying members of Hizballah,
which is also, as you know, a social organization.
I mean, I understand what you're saying
about the terrorism components,
but not all the people of Lebanon but many of the people,
a large section of the population, feel differently.
- Well, as I said, our position has
been consistent throughout the years,
that money given to a terrorist organization,
even for purportedly non-terroristic purposes,
ends up assisting the group's terroristic activities.
If you give money to the so-called peaceful side
of an organization, money is fungible, right?
And so that frees up resources that can then be used
for malign activities that have nothing to do
with charitable work or other purposes
that we might regard as legitimate.
And so it's important for us to maintain
that distinction as false, right?
The distinction between political and terroristic is false.
- Can I just jump in on one,
the latter half of your question, Elise?
'Cause the phrase only two--
- [Elise] No, I--
- Let me just-- - You know what I'm saying.
- No, I know what you're saying, but from our perspective,
the idea that we would have information uncovered
in the course of legitimate law enforcement investigations
that indicate that there are Hizballah-linked individuals
here in the United States operating
for terrorism-related purposes, that's unacceptable,
and we are gonna pursue whatever means we have
at our disposal to make sure that
that activity is identified, disrupted, and stopped.
That would be true if the group
were the Shining Path in Peru.
That would be true if the group were ISIS or al-Qaida,
and we are working aggressively against--
- I guess the question was just, and I'll pass it over,
but I guess the question was just that what is the kind
of recent decision to focus on Hizballah as--
- Well, from a law enforcement
and intelligence perspective, it's not a timing question.
When those issues present themselves, we go
after them aggressively with all the tools at our disposal.
The specifics of when to make a more public effort
to highlight Hizballah's global activities around the world,
I think Ambassador Sales has explained
why we're doing that at this particular time.
- [Heather] We're gonna move on, Matt Lee from AP.
- Thanks, I'll be extremely brief.
One, you mentioned it very briefly in your opening comments,
but why aren't the missile-to-rocket attacks
into Israel at all part of this?
Would it be too long a list to put in this?
Or I just don't know.
Are you making a distinction between this kind
of operational activity and then firing rockets into Israel?
- No, I wouldn't argue that we're making a distinction
between the character of the military activity that's being
brought against Israeli interests in the north of Israel.
I can't speak to why we didn't include it on that.
I think the purpose of this graphic was to show you,
in a sense, the reach of the organization around the globe.
- Okay, and then secondly, related to Elise's question,
but more directly, the military,
the Lebanese Armed Forces, the Israeli defense minister
said this morning that Hizballah controls the LAF, runs it.
The United States provides a significant amount of cash
and equipment to the Lebanese army.
One, do you agree with the Israeli defense minister
that Hizballah controls the Lebanese Armed Forces?
And second, if you do, or even if you don't,
if the Israelis feel that, why do you
continue to support them with millions
and millions of dollars of stuff?
Thanks.
- Well, we have partnered closely
with the Lebanese Armed Forces because they have been
an effective partner in defending the borders
of Lebanon against terrorist threats externally,
including ISIS and al-Qaida and other terrorist elements.
We're aware of the report that you referenced today,
the report from Israel.
We have been very clear with the Lebanese Government
that it's important for all of our partners
to condemn terrorism in all its forms,
and we will continue to work with the Lebanese Government
to ensure that that vision of a world that is
free from terrorism for all potential victims is realized.
- It sounds like you're making a distinction
between the Lebanese army and the Lebanese Government.
- No, I don't mean to draw that distinction.
- Oh, so you're gonna continue to give
the Lebanese Armed Forces money and equipment?
Is that correct? - We are aware of the report.
We're looking into it.
- [Heather] Rich Edson, Fox.
- Thanks.
Hi, guys, have you noticed a difference
in Hizballah's behavior since the 2015 signing of the JCPOA,
and if so, how has their behavior changed?
- I guess I could handle that from just
kind of a narrowly intelligence perspective.
The answer is basically no.
The trajectory that we have seen Hizballah on
has continued pretty much unabated
throughout the duration of the conflict in Syria.
And I mention that because that's where,
Hizballah's involvement on the ground in Syria
has been a significant factor in supporting the regime.
At the same time, absent the Syria conflict,
we were already dealing with a Hizballah
that had the kind of global ambition
to create a terrorist capability
that I would argue predated the Syria conflict.
And so we've seen kind of both strands
moving together forward without much change
in the period since the JCPOA.
- [Heather] Thank you, everybody.
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