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PODCAST

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule

Matthew Levitt, WINEP

A podcast series devoted to shining a bright light on the global terrorist and criminal activities that the Lebanese organization would rather remain in the shadows.

news news commentary

All Episodes

33:08

Hezbollah Assassinations Unit 121

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2023/11/15

Hezbollah buys grassroots support in Lebanon where and when it can, but the group turns to intimidation and even murder when a vocal opponent can’t be bought. Hezbollah’s elite, highly-secretive Unit 121 is the group’s death squad, which carries out assassinations of Lebanese politicians, military and law enforcement officers, and intellectuals who oppose the group’s illicit activities. This is no rogue unit–officials say Unit 121 operates under the direct orders of senior Hezbollah

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32:47

Operations and Illicit Finance in the Gulf

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2023/11/08

Two Hezbollah financiers based in Qatar secretly raised tens of millions of dollars for Hezbollah through banks and cash couriers. The operatives leveraged family connections and utilized a complex web of bank accounts and real estate projects across several Gulf countries to funnel large sums of money back to Lebanon. Hezbollah has a long history of carrying out attacks in the Gulf, but it also sees the region as a lucrative place for raising illicit funds to finance the group. Gulf states

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31:04

Sleeper Cells and Surveillance in the U.S.

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2023/11/01

In 2017, two Hezbollah operatives were arrested on the same day for conducting independent surveillance operations on U.S. targets across the country. A third was arrested in July 2019 for taking pictures of a number of high-profile U.S. landmarks and communicating this information back to Beirut through his Hezbollah handlers. These three cases received a lot of media attention. A fourth didn’t, despite one operative’s efforts to stockpile bomb-making materials…in Houston,

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29:46

Hezbollah's Digital Footprint

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2023/10/25

40 years ago this week, Hezbollah blew up the barracks of U.S. Marine and French military peacekeepers in Beirut, killing about 300 people. The group continues to carry out attacks, but has developed the means to complement and support these real-life operations through online activities. Hezbollah was one of the first non-state actors to build up a digital presence to conduct cyber operations against its enemies. The group also uses some unconventional means to recruit and radicalize

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39:22

Blood Diamonds, Picassos, and Illicit Financing in...

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2023/10/18

Diamonds are an excellent way to smuggle and launder money - they’re very liquid, can’t be sniffed out by dogs, don’t set off metal detectors, and are easy to conceal. Similarly, illicit funds can be laundered and stored by investing in artwork. These luxury items link Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut to the blood diamond trade in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, art galleries in Côte d’Ivoire, and illicit business activities in South Africa.Guest:Joseph Palazzo is the Deputy Chief of

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28:20

"A Jumble of Overlapping Plots" in Baku

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2023/10/11

In 2008, Azerbaijani authorities thwarted a Hezbollah plot to target an Israeli Independence Day celebration and kidnap the Israeli ambassador in Baku. Two Hezbollah operatives were arrested, tried, and convicted, but the group was not deterred by this setback. By 2011, Hezbollah and Iran had formulated “a jumble of overlapping plots” that officials discovered to be part of a coordinated campaign to assassinate foreign diplomats in at least seven countries, including in

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35:37

Terror in Bangkok, Then and Now

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2023/10/04

An innocent looking hit-and-run accident in downtown Bangkok in 1994 uncovered a sophisticated Hezbollah network in Thailand, an attempt to target the Israeli embassy there, and a decomposing body hidden in a vat full of chemical explosives. Two decades later, a new string of Hezbollah and Iranian-directed plots in Thailand cropped up, this time involving operatives hiding explosives in bags marked as “cat litter,” signing up for flower arrangement classes as cover for travel to Bangkok,

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27:56

Risky Business in South America

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2023/09/27

Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Hezbollah operative Amer Mohamed Akil Rada for coordinating the activities of various commercial enterprises for Hezbollah, including charcoal exports from Colombia to Lebanon. Rada previously helped case targets for Hezbollah around South America and was a member of the Hezbollah operational squad that carried out the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Here’s the backstory on Rada, recorded prior to

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1:24

Breaking Hezbollah's Golden Rule - Season 2 Trailer 2

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2023/09/25

Preview Season 2 of Breaking Hezbollah's Golden Rule, a podcast series devoted to shining a bright light on the global terrorist and criminal activities that Lebanese Hezbollah would much prefer to keep quiet. Coming soon to your favorite podcatcher.

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2:35

Breaking Hezbollah's Golden Rule - Season 2 Trailer 1

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2023/09/20

Preview Season 2 of Breaking Hezbollah's Golden Rule, a podcast series devoted to shining a bright light on the global terrorist and criminal activities that Lebanese Hezbollah would much prefer to keep quiet. Coming soon to your favorite podcatcher.

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42:01

Undermining Stability in Lebanon

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2022/03/30

Hezbollah’s deep penetration of the Lebanese financial system threatens the legitimacy and stability of the state it claims to protect. After all, when the group engages in money laundering and narcotics trafficking around the world, where does the dirty money go? Back home to Lebanon. And critics beware—vocal opposition to Hezbollah’s activities can be fatal. Even for a former prime minister.Guests: Daniel Glaser, former assistant secretary, Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence,

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32:46

Hezbollah “Black Ops” in the Western Hemisphere

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2022/03/23

On June 1, 2017, U.S. authorities arrested two Hezbollah sleeper agents. The operatives had created targeting packages with ready-to go-plans for possible attacks, in the event Iranian or Hezbollah leaders deemed them necessary. They traveled on their American passports when Hezbollah sent them on missions in Asia and South America. Where were their targets? Who was their handler? And what were they sent to do abroad?Guests: Mitchell Silber, former director of intelligence analysis,

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35:32

Operation Cedar: Hezbollah Narco-Money Laundering

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2022/03/16

European authorities weren’t looking for Hezbollah when they investigated a massive money laundering network operating across at least seven EU countries. But when they reached out to their close partners at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA came back with startling information: the gang included high-ranking Hezbollah operatives and sent its profits back to Lebanon to fund Hezbollah terrorist activities. Why would Hezbollah risk drawing additional attention from law

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38:20

Hezbollah Attack Plots in Cyprus and Bulgaria

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2022/03/09

In July 2012, police arrested a well-trained Hezbollah operative named Hossam Yaacoub in Cyprus. Less than two weeks later, a Hezbollah suicide bomb killed 5 Israelis on a tourist bus in Burgas, Bulgaria. But the group wasn’t done in Cyprus. Another operative was stockpiling explosives—and waiting to act.Guests: Magnus Norell, senior policy advisor at The European Foundation for Democracy Carter Burwell, former counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Finance

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36:05

Hezbollah Support Networks in America

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2022/03/02

In Charlotte, North Carolina, a gang of Hezbollah criminals smuggled cigarettes across state lines to raise funds. But on Thursday nights, they gathered and watched Hezbollah martyrdom videos. When the FBI began to surveil the group, agents saw the men conducting firearms training and feared they could “go operational” at any time. The ensuing investigation, dubbed Operation Smokescreen, exposed the inner workings of a Hezbollah network in the American heartland. Guests: Robert Clifford,

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35:50

Crime and Terror in South America

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2022/02/23

South America’s Tri-Border Area has been described as “the United Nations of crime.” Along the porous borders of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil, counterfeiters scheme, narco-traffickers move product and launder funds, and criminals sell fake or stolen goods on the open market. Since the 1980s, the area has also been a hotbed of Hezbollah criminal and terrorist activities. Nobody seemed to notice—until Hezbollah operatives carried out two bombings in under two years in Buenos

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30:30

Hezbollah Goes Global

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2022/02/16

In December 1983, six blasts shook Kuwait’s capital city. Two prominent Hezbollah operatives oversaw the attack. Soon, bombs were going off in Paris, Copenhagen, and Saudi Arabia, while other members of the group hijacked TWA Flight 847 and murdered U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem. What did Hezbollah want? And why was a Lebanese-based militant group conducting attacks in Europe and the Gulf? Guests:Nader Uskowi, former journalist and author of Temperature Rising: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

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30:05

Origin Story—"Wild, Wild West Beirut"

Breaking Hezbollah"s Golden Rule ·

2022/02/09

On his first day with the State Department, Special Agent Fred Burton found a suicide bomber’s ear in a file on his desk. The bomber had targeted the U.S. embassy in Beirut on behalf of a shadowy new group called Hezbollah. Soon, the group was carrying out even bigger attacks and kidnapping journalists and innocent civilians for ransom. Reporting on these events, a CIA report from the time referred to the area as "Wild, Wild West Beirut." Where did this group come from? Where did it get

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18 results

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