MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Islamic extremists operating illegally in Triple Frontier area, says Brazilian magazine

Mohsen Rabbani, a former cultural attaché to the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires

Islamic extremist groups such as Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas are illegally operating in the Triple Frontier area shared by Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, where they allegedly gather large amounts of money, recruit new militants and plan additional attacks, Brazilian magazine Veja denounced.

The weekly publication stated that several reports by the Brazilian Federal Police and the US government warn that at least twenty high-ranking members from the three organizations are currently operating in the so-called “Triple Frontier” area, shared by Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.

The Brazilian government has always denied the existence of any activities linked to these Islamic groups, but has admitted that a large portion of the Lebanese community living in the country legally sends large sums of money to the Middle East.

Also under investigation, according to the article published on Sunday, is Mohsen Rabbani, a former cultural attaché to the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires, who is suspected of being involved in the 1992 and 1994 terrorist attacks against the Jewish community in Argentina.

Apparently Rabbani “frequently flies to Brazil under a fake identity in order to visit a brother living in Curitiba.”

According to Interpol authorities and intelligence agents in Brazil, his last visit to Brazil was in last September.

Veja reports that the ABIN (Brazil’s intelligence agency) found out that Rabbani took over 20 young men from the Greater Sao Paulo area, Pernambuco and Parana to a meeting in Tehran in which they would be instructed on religious formation.

The article also assures that 41-year old Lebanese Khaled Hussein Ali, currently living in Sao Paulo since 1998 when he obtained legal residence after fathering a Brazilian girl, has coordinated Al Qaeda operations in over 17 countries from Brazil.

In 2009, Ali was detained and secluded for 21 days in a Brazilian jail after authorities raided his home and found several videos and emails that instigated hate against the Jews and black people.

Police authorities believed that Ali was one of Al Qaeda’s top propaganda men, but the Brazilian Public Ministry decided not to bring him to justice over a lack of evidence.

The magazine also states that the Shiite Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Palestine group Hamas also have a logistics operations centre in the Triple Frontier region