Border agency flags aid outflow to Hezbollah

$135,000 found leaving Halifax, larger sums possible from elsewhere

A secret government report on Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah has raised questions about federal efforts to prevent the flow of money and other support from Canada to foreign terrorist organizations.

The Canada Border Services Agency report from May says agents uncovered more than $135,000 in undeclared cash being carried out of the country by travellers “primarily destined for Lebanon” during a weeklong blitz at the Halifax airport in July 2012.

Officers were able to seize about $56,500 in cases where a traveller was carrying more than $10,000, but were forced to let the rest through “as several individuals fell just below the seizure $10,000 threshold.”

Obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin through the access to information law, the CBSA report is heavily censored and what can be read does not draw a direct link between the money and Hezbollah.

But the report is intended to help border agents “identify potential (Hezbollah) operatives and/or financial supporters.” It notes that “as Halifax is not a main airport for travel between Lebanon and Canada, it is possible that much larger sums of cash are leaving from other major Canadian airports, such as Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa.”

And it warns Hezbollah is turning to the Lebanese diaspora in Canada and other countries for support — either voluntarily or through extortion — as its traditional benefactors, Iran and Syria, struggle with their own problems.

Hezbollah was formed in Lebanon in 1982 and has stated that its goals are the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Iranian-like Islamic state in Lebanon.

More recently, Hezbollah has fought alongside government forces in Syria in support of President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Canada listed it as a terrorist organization in 2002. It is illegal to knowingly participate in or contribute to any Hezbollah activity, and the government has actively pushed other countries to follow suit. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird applauded the European Union’s “courageous” decision in July to list the organization as a terrorist entity.

But Royal Military College terrorism expert Christian Leuprecht said the implication in the CBSA report — that large amounts of money are being smuggled out of Canada for Hezbollah and possibly other terrorist groups as well — raises concerns.

“Everyone thinks that counter-terrorism is about protecting us here, and people are blind to the extent to which we export money and knowhow,” he said. “If we are genuinely concerned about international stability, peace and security, then we need to be conscious of the fact that by not being more aggressive on these fronts, we are inadvertently fuelling conflicts around the world.”

CBSA spokesperson Amitha Carnadin would not comment on the report or border agency operations, saying only that anyone bringing in or leaving the country with more than $10,000 must declare the money or it can be seized.

“When the officers suspect that the seized funds are proceeds of crime or funds for use in terrorist financing activities, seized non-reported currency and monetary instruments are forfeited with no terms of release,” Carnadin added.

But Leuprecht said he was unaware of anyone having been charged for trying to smuggle money out of the country to a terrorist group, while the fact CBSA identified such large sums during one blitz at an airport indicates Canadian intelligence is failing to stop such activity early on.

“Doing these little sting operations is not the way to go,” he said. “If we’re catching it at the border, then really it’s too late. We basically need to invest more assets more effectively in the intelligence side to get more prosecutions.”