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Despite Alarm by U.S., Europe Lets Hizbullah Operate Openly
(New York Times) Nicholas Kulish - As American officials sound the alarm over what they call a resurgent threat from the Shiite militant group Hizbullah, thousands of its members and supporters operate with few restrictions in Europe, raising money that is funneled to the group's leadership in Lebanon. Washington and Jerusalem insist that Hizbullah is an Iranian-backed terrorist organization with bloody hands, and that it is working closely with Tehran to train, arm and finance the Syrian military's lethal repression of the uprising there. Yet, the EU continues to treat it foremost as a Lebanese political and social movement. The group's secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, has said that a European blacklist would "destroy Hizbullah. The sources of our funding will dry up and the sources of moral political and material support will be destroyed."