Sunday, August 20, 2006

Hezbollah cash

Last night CNN reported (with film) that Hezbollah officials were handing out $12,000 in cash (note: in US dollars) to every single Lebanese whose household was destroyed in the war. That's more money than many of these people earn in 10 years. Since the Lebanese have been claiming that at least 100,000 households were destroyed (we know that's complete bullshit but let's take them at their own word) then that means Hezbullah officials are walking around now with some $1.2 billion in cash. I'm not sure how this ties in with them being the downtrodden, impoverished underdogs as portrayed in the Guardian and Independent (or by supporters like these in London yesterday). It also raises interesting questions about banks channeling funds to terrorist groups. But more likely is that most of the cash is counterfeit (although curiously CNN did not raise this as a possibility).

No comments: