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CNN Live At Daybreak

Members of Alleged Hezbollah Terrorist Support Cell Now on Trial in Charlotte, North Carolina

Aired May 24, 2002 - 06:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Members of an alleged Hezbollah terrorist support cell are now on trial in Charlotte, North Carolina. The two brothers face several charges in the case. You have heard us tell you a little about the case already. It's about cigarette smuggling, but now our David Mattingly gives us some context.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lebanese brothers, Mohamad and Chawki Hammoud, arriving in federal court, transported by armored car. The Charlotte courthouse under heavy guard, surrounded by cement barricades.

Inside, federal prosecutors tell jurors the brothers, facing a multitude of charges from immigration fraud and money laundering to racketeering, were part of a militant Hezbollah cell in Charlotte that funneled some of the profits from a $7 million cigarette bootlegging operation to Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon.

KEN BELL, ASST. U.S. ATTORNEY: We were going to start with the immigration fraud charges, move to the cigarette smuggling, money laundering and then get into the Hezbollah aspects of it, and that's the course we are going to take. So we are winding down as you can tell on the immigration side of it, which means cigarettes are next.

MATTINGLY: The trial comes at a time when Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham is calling Hezbollah the "A-Team" of terrorism, and warns it may be a greater threat on U.S. soil than Al Qaeda.

SEN. BOB GRAHAM (D), INTELLIGENCE CHAIRMAN: Know that Hezbollah, while it has not attacked the United States within our homeland, has attacked U.S. interests abroad and has operatives in the United States, who have been trained and recruited for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities.

MATTINGLY: The U.S. has long called Hezbollah a terrorist organization, believing it responsible for the deadly 1980s bombings of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut and the U.S. embassy.

U.S. attorneys claim the cell was directly linked to Sheik Abbas Harake, Hezbollah military commander for the Beirut suburbs. Harake is also charged in the case. Defense attorneys, however, say the brothers are not terrorists, and there was no Hezbollah cell operating in Charlotte. The younger brother, Mohamad Hammoud, is the first ever to be tried on charges of providing material support to a terrorist group overseas.

DEKE FALLS, MOHAMAD HAMMOUD'S ATTORNEY: He has always admitted that he was responsible for the cigarette violations and the immigration violations. What he has contested is that he is a terrorist or was ever a member of Hezbollah.

MATTINGLY: Defense attorneys attacked the credibility of a key prosecution witness, Said Harb, netted with 17 others in a smuggling bust two years ago, recently pleaded guilty. He will testify against the brothers in exchange for U.S. help bringing his family here from Lebanon.

(on camera): Also likely to be attacked, the prosecution's use of secret wiretap evidence gathered here and by Canadian intelligence. Though this case is the result of arrests made well before 9/11, it is now at the forefront of U.S. legal efforts in the war on terrorism.

David Mattingly, CNN, Charlotte.

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