OK, as Myrtus pointed out something is mighty weird about Hezbollah passing out huge sums of hundred dollar bills to Lebanese people affected by the war with Israel.
At a school in south Beirut's Bourj el-Barajneh neighborhood, Hizbullah on Friday started handing out one hundred dollar bills to residents who lost their homes in the Israel-Hizbullah conflict - US$12,000 to each claimant.
Applicants who had signed up for the aid earlier in the week showed up at the school, showed identification papers and only had to sign a receipt. Hizbullah workers handed residents stacks of bills from a suitcase.
Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, in a television speech on Monday shortly after the cease-fire with Israel took hold, pledged to help rebuild Lebanon and said the organization would provide money for civilians who had lost their homes to pay rent and buy furniture.
Nasrallah did not say where the money would come from, but Iran historically has been the group's primary source of finance and weapons. The Iranians were widely believed to have opened their treasury for the rebuilding program.
So, let me get this straight. Iran is rebuilding Lebanon, and they decided to do it by giving Hezbollah suitcases of cash rather than coordinate with the government and banks of Lebanon? That's just weird, even for the oil-rich, egomaniacal, Shia-centric Iranian government. I mean, what kind of government acts like that toward another government they have good diplomatic relations with? Sending arms is not the same thing as coordinating humanitarian reconstruction.
And besides, even if the Iranian government were so obviously to side-step the Lebanese government like that, and to prove that Hezbollah really is 100% their proxy rather than Lebanon's whatsoever (which we all know anyway), I don't see how they can just open their treasury to rebuild Lebanon, when just two months ago, 50 prominent Iranian economists blasted Ahmadinejad for skyrocketing inflation. Or when Iran needs to arrest and repress trade unionists because they have the nerve to protest over unpaid wages.
I mean, seriously, are we supposed to believe that Iran just opened its coffers to rebuild Lebanon when they have skyrocketing inflation, cannot pay many of their workers, are increasing layoffs, and the nation is under the threat of international sanctions? To be honest, I actually hope and pray that it is absolutely true. Please G-d, let it be true that they are paying billions to rebuild Lebanon because that will be the catalyst for the people of Iran to get rid of their corrupt, elitist mullahs once and for all.
Nevertheless, I'm not convinced.
Funny Money?
A reader noticed something curious in a video from last night's "NBC Nightly News." Richard Engel, the network's Beirut bureau chief, is reporting from southern Lebanon, and at 1:07 in the video, as he's saying, "In Sidon, we found part of the financial district flattened," you briefly see an image of what look like uncut sheets of U.S. hundred-dollar bills.
I have a feeling, more will come to light about Hezbollah's cash flow in the weeks to come. Hey, maybe they sold some of their blood diamonds.
UPDATE: More on the Hezbollah Counterfeit Connection here
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