Hizbollah gets help in Brazil border area -U.S.

I guess housing escaped Nazis no longer provides economic benefits so have turned elsewhere for money.

BRASILIA, Brazil, Nov. 21 — Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah has supporters active in the unruly border area between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, the top U.S. official for Latin America said on Thursday.
''We have information that there are people helping the Hizbollah ... organization in the tri-border area,'' Otto Reich, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, told reporters during a visit to Brazil.
He said such information came as no surprise. Brazil said earlier this month it would investigate whether a ''terrorist cell'' was operating in the area after media reports of militants meeting to plan attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets in the Western Hemisphere.
''We have information there are people helping, financially, terrorist groups in the Middle East,'' Reich said after meeting with President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The border area, which has a large Arab community, is seen as rife with money laundering, smuggling and arms and drugs trafficking and has long been suspected of harboring militants, especially Hizbollah, or at least offering refuge and financing for radical groups.
Regional authorities have stepped up surveillance of the region since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Lula, the union boss-turned-incoming president, meets U.S. President George W. Bush on Dec. 10 in Washington. He takes charge of Latin America's biggest economy on Jan.