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Throughout history of this blog, many of you have heard me chime my two cents on the term “terrorist.” In short, I have argued--and quite convincingly if I may add--that it has been redefined in the post 9/11 world as an all encompassing tool to round up various dissidence the U.S. doesn’t like. The term has moved beyond its traditional definition and has evolved into a brand to simplify a complex world.
So what about a "terrorist" organization like Hezbollah? Here is what Augustus Richard Norton, author of Hezbollah, has to say:
Can all of Hezbollah's military activity be classified as terrorism? U.S. and Israeli policy makers certainly think so, and they have defined Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Anyone supporting Hezbollah is supporting a terrorist group. By definition, any act of violence that it commits or seeks to commit is an act of terrorism, and so there are no gray areas of justifiable behavior in which terrorist may lurk. Whether for law enforcement officials, spies, or soldiers, the issue is assumed to be settled.
Before we go crazy listing Hezbollah's historical acts that would surely deem it to be a traditional terrorist organization, lets take a breath because I'm bringing this up for one simple, slightly cute and certainly ridicules reason: I am going down to Tyre, Lebanon next week and I want to buy a Hezbollah T-shirt
Laugh away Casbahites, I understand how funny this must seem. But really, by buying a Hezbollah T-shirt from a card-carrying member in Tyre, I will technically turn myself into a supporter of a terrorist organization. As Augustus Norton says, "there are no gray areas."
The truth is that I will reluctantly make my $5 tourist contribution for a Hezbollah T-shirt next week and ship it safely back to California, where I will keep it neatly folded in a shoebox in my closet. But what if American custom agents rip through my DHL box and find it? What if they drag me into interrogation upon my return to the U.S? What will I say?
As someone who cringes at the idea of going to Law school, here is a legal satire my friends and I came up with at a famous bar in Beirut last night (The Duke of Wellington):
Well, Sir ... See, Hezbollah has "wings." I mean, ever since the British (earlier this year) decided to legitimize this concept and establish ties to Hezbollah's "political wing" ... I mean Sir.... As far as I know... (pausing for impact).... I don't think the little old ladies who sell knickknacks for Hezbollah's "tourist wing" shoot rockets at Israel. So... Umm... Can I keep my Hezbollah T?
Think the U.S. guard will buy it?
4 comments:
Well, I hate to rain on the parade, but if I'm not mistaken, Hezbollah has been on the State departments list of terrorist organizations for a little over twenty years now, long before 9-11.
Remember Robert Stethem (TWA Flight 847), And that little incident twenty-five years ago when a Hezbollah suicide bomber steered a truck loaded with the equivalent of six tons of TNT down the airport road in Beirut plowed into the four-story barracks where more than 300 U.S. troops from a U.N. peacekeeping mission slept and detonated what the FBI called the "largest non-nuclear bomb in history."
The explosion killed 241 U.S. service members, most of them Marines. A second blast minutes later at the compound of the French peacekeeping force killed 58 more Western troops. Three months later, President Ronald Reagan pulled the Americans out of Beirut and thus solidified the tension between the U.S. and the growing Hezbollah forces of Lebanon.
To the second question you pose as to the viability of your excuse for keeping the shirt, I am almost positive it will not even come up in conversation. Word on the internet is that most Immigration and Customs Enforcement is ignoring the "Anti-hezbollah enforcement" recently. Just ask Brian Moskowitz, Special Agent in Charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement for all of Michigan and Ohio. Before his arrival at the Detroit ICE office, Customs (as it was previously known) constantly investigated and raided suspected Hezbollah money-launderers, including cigarette smugglers and weapons procurers who were successfully prosecuted. Moskowitz befriended Hezbollah supporter Imad Hamad, Midwest Regional Director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and, his agents say, he has shut down most, if not all, investigations into suspected Hezbollah support and funding.
So go ahead and buy the shirt, but don't come crying to me when you have to explain it to every Marines you cross back here in the states. And I venture to say you will surely increase your chances of getting your ass kicked by wearing that shirt in the U.S. Just a guess though.
haha, whoa! Never said that A) Hezbollah wasn't a "terrorist organization" before 9/11 and B) that I was ever planing on wearing the shirt.
I certainly will be making a "reluctant" perchance. One should keep in mind that Hezbollah killed more Americans via "terrorism" before 9/11 than any other organization. Yet, the satire of the whole piece is that one could also make the argument--though in origins politically motivated and absurd--that I was only doing business with the "tourist wing." (As if a tourist wing had ever been defined.)
Oh, how Middle East gets so twisted.
Hehehehe. Yea, I was merely playing devils advocate to get the conversation started. But either way your t-shirt experience, it's the same concept as that chain email about burning the American flag. Like the email says, go ahead and plan on burning an american flag, that means you would first have to buy one! I think the email makes some claim about the U.S. being the number one exporter of American flags and that almost all of the American flags found overseas were manufactured in the US and thus, if they burn it in the Middle East, they most likely paid a US company for it!
As for the "tourist" wing and buying the shirt as a resistance, check out this link, the company is based in the US:
http://www.evilmerch.com/
O, and if you buy a hezbollah shirt from zazzle.com, they will donate money to your Upromise account!!
But you are right in your main assertion, Hezbollah has many wings, and it's not all gun totting, tnt strapped, militaristic/nationalistic fundamentalists. There is always that element within that consists of little old lady street vendors selling seemingly inflamatory shirts to western tourists to make some money to feed the family. Capitalism, lebanese style.
Salam Akalum, my brother. Perhaps I'll get you one.
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