including hezbollah and mexico's drug cartels. witnesses include retired general keane who developed the iraq surge strategy for president george w. bush. this is two hours and 40 minutes. >> the subcommittee will come to order. we have a joint subcommittee. oversight subcommittee and intelligence subcommittee meeting today to hear testimony regarding the iranian terror operation on american soil. the iranian government is a threat to the international community, building weapons of mass destruction. it is a threat to the middle east dominating the region through intimidation and support for terrorist organization that recent reports indicate the iranian government is a threat to the homeland security by attempting to assassinate the saudi ambassador on our soil using drug cartels operating on our doorstep. enough is enough. in the past we in the international community have attempted to use economic sanctions. is obvious these sanctions have not worked. our message to iran should be simple. continue threatening the national secur

we need the expulsion of iranian and hezbollah operatives in this country. we need a significant covert action against iran. finally, we need to support this resistance movement within iran, this youthful secular movement to overthrow the ayatollah khomeini. with that, we are going to submit a letter to the president that, with the findings of this hearing, i would hope that with their ranking members join us in the letter to the president. this has been a very productive hearing. thank you for being here. this hearing is now adjourned. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] >> republican presidential candidate herman cain is making a couple of stops in washington, d.c. to talk about his 999 sacks plant. he will speak at the american enterprise institute and he will be joined by his senior economic adviser live at 9:00 eastern on

most significant donor to hezbollah is iran.ll other forms of countries powell and a very thin. that's not to say we should tackle all sources of fundraising, but it is chief financial of hezbollah and survives on iranian support. that said, as he pointed out and as hezbollah to raise financial support from the western hemisphere's phone from fundraisers and venezuela. and i think we need to take a broad approach to addressing a cute one of the most important things to do on a systemic level is a noted in the testimony's ensure all these countries have terrorist financing, regulatory regimes, law-enforcement something work closely with countries in the region on, pay merely through financial task force and regional affiliates of the task force. if important countries like argentina, for example, an act money-laundering laws. >> t. believe in these three countries, have they done enough to do away with the hezbollah money-laundering activities? >> well, i think there's more to be done on that. and they said, it is important to a

they try to resurrect hezbollah. that is to try to resurrect what had been a nascent operations capability. we do need to be concerned about this and we need to be concerned about the crossings not just to our south but to our north. in the one case we know of, a hezbollah guy who had actual trend was smuggled across the border from mexico then had connection in canada as well who was arrested trying to carry out a bombing in israel can't have canadian citizenship who travel on a false u.s. passport, married an american woman, was recently released -- an indictment was recently released to dearborn which was his last known address. lots of movement. this is something we need to be cognizant of. the good news is, and i say this not just because i came to the stand working for fbi but based on the research i've done for the book, i have been tremendously impressed that i've gone out and met with field offices and local police and others, fbi, dea, the work they are doing focus on hezbollah in particular is impressive.

i think that that could be avoided if this does not serve as an encouragement to hamas and hezbollah to start other kidnappings that would already be a success but the peace process will not be affected in any way. >> thank you for joining us. that has been our "in debt" -- "in depth" on dw-tv. please stay tuned. hi, i'm janice edwards, inviting you to join us for bay area vista. as you probably know, bay area vista is your show. we're talking about your community, talking about what's important to all of us, here in the bay area. i always thank you for the great job that you do in our bay area. so, that's what tuesdays at 6:30(pm), here on kcsm, are all about. please join us then.

sources claim that hezbollah is involved in the operation. in addition, intelligence officials have been transporting -- obviously, iran is a rogue state, which continues to acquire nuclear weapons, build and long-range missiles in support of terrorism. actions taken by the administration are not working. would not enforce sanctions against iran's central bank. if it turns out that this iranian plot on u.s. soil was tension at the highest levels of the iranian government, then i believe force should not be taken off the table. and we have a distinguished panel here with us today. i looked forward to seeing what actions the obama administration will take to demonstrate that the iranian government actions are simply unacceptable. with that, i now recognize the ranking member, the gentle lady from california, ms. jackie spear. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you for holding this hearing. the first, i would like to congratulate the people of libya for ending the reign of muammar gaddafi last week. it is now time for the people to begin a lon

i think that that could be avoided if this does not serve as an encouragement to hamas and hezbollah to start other kidnappings that would already be a success but the peace process will not be affected in any way. >> thank you for joining us. that has been our "in debt" -- "in depth" on dw-tv. please stay tuned.

irene is the chief financial contributor to hezbollah.hat we're working on in all the countries primarily through the financial action task force and through regional affiliate to the task force. it's important like countries like argentina, for example, enact money laundering laws -- >> so do you believe in these three countries, have they done enough to do away with the hezbollah money laundering activities? >> well, i think there's more -- i think that there's more to be done on that. i think as i said, i think it's important to enact laws but then in addition to enacting the laws, which, for example, in argentina remain to be enacted. it's important -- it's important to take targeted action with respect to hezbollah fundraising. we at the treasury department have designated 19 hezbollah individuals in the western hemisphere over the years. i think an interesting act that we took earlier this year separate from these 19 designations is when we designated under section 311 under the patriot act which is a bank in beirut which had ties i

duncan said about hezbollah. i think that would be good for us to perhaps get a briefing down the line about it. there is a plan that has been going from here on to syria to venezuela and back every week we don't know who's on it and we don't know what's on it, but you can believe that there is a hezbollah connection to it so i think it is a good thing that we raised it and i think that we should pursue that more. we talk about merida initially and when we announced the initiative in october of 2007, we were told would be a three-year program, and last year we had the announcement of beyond meida and continued funding to the fy 20112012 budget, so it appears that it's here to stay for the ner future. how long has the of patrician planned for the funding initiative to continue should it continue for the foreseeable future or should we phase it out and do something new? investor? >> that is a perfectly legitimate question ad you have every right to grow less on this question every time we come before you. my answer

>> with regard to hezbollah, would you believe -- to what extent do you believe hezbollah could be constrainedf and when assad's regime did fall and the opposition groups were to gather -- were to have a productive fashion? >> i don't really mean to pose. but if you look at the problems that we have, that the americans have, the united states has and with many of the neighbors that he has with him the problems with the source of problems that he causes abroad, right, whether it's through hamas, whether it's through hezbollah and if you look right now, there are a number of different reasons why hezbollah is constrained. i mean, partly it's because of the supply lines. partly because it feels -- everyone is eager to talk about israel's isolation of this point but if you look -- if you look at hezbollah, they are -- that's isolating the region with the iranians, with problems in the iranian regime with the syrian regime having basically been frozen and then if you look at the other sectarian communities inside of lebanon and if you look at the shia community itself does not want another war with

we know that is the main purpose to hezbollah to deter the military action. if he goes on strike against iran for thousands of israelis. estimate on the military option you were to the defense department has in the previous administration that aside for a number of reasons not to take the military option and perhaps talk a little bit about why not and whether you think it is a good idea. >> so the military option question is about the united states and about israel. perhaps you can talk more about israel and make one statement that it seems to me quite obvious that if it were to become a military conflict the united states is better positioned to carry out that conflict than israel simply because the conflict between israel and iran could become a regional conflict and a variety of different ways you could imagine for instance i'm just making up a scenario the iranians could respond to an israeli attack by saying that saudi arabia, it doesn't matter whether it is iran could define it that way and retaliate against saudi arabia with all kinds of ditcher mental

there are a number of different reasons hezbollah is constrained. partly it is because of the supply line. it feels everyone and his -- you talk about the isolation at this point but if you look at hezbollah leader isolated with the iranians and the regime and the syrian regime having basically been frozen and then if you look at the other pro communities inside of lebanon and the community that doesn't want another war with israel. so what would happen? my belief is come and again there are friends here to speak to afterwards and the answer this much more clearly but my sense is that hezbollah is not going anywhere. it's not going to disappear but the nature of the party will change sooner rather than later especially the supply lines cut off and they don't have the access to the weaponry that they had before with the same sort of liberty to operate on the border before through their various relationships with other people in the region so i think that will change a lot. >> president barack obama missed an opportunity and lost with iran. when he fi

they train to hezbollah. they use those to attack the peacekeepers. we can see that iran's entry was a gamechanger. they raised the statute in popularity and influence throughout the arab world. they have the capability today to cause havoc on several fronts that provides distractions why the nuclear centrifuges spin. they support al qaeda, hamas, and islamic jihad. they used the force in iraq. some key leaders sewer implementing the policies harkened back to closer scrutiny. the veteran commander of the irgc was named minister of defense in 2005. in 1983, he was directly responsible for the beirut truck bombing. he is the minister of interior in iran. they have redeployed around the capitals there. while you are not hearing any protests. his disputed re-election reveals another connection. his selection puts down those protests at that time. they imported some hizbollah thugs. [inaudible] he participated in peacekeeping bombings. he founded the force, serving as first commander. he is on the most wanted list for the bombings of the israeli embassy. h

also al quds works where it works best, the middle east, uses proxies like hamas and hezbollah so itt are traceable to them. this was a very amateur operation if you want to look at it that way. >> so you're skeptical. >> i am slightly skeptical. >> we have to see, the state department and doj have been very vocal and i'm sure some evidence will come out. >> what action should the u.s. take in light of the arrest? mike viqueira was saying what do we do now? >> again, i look to the south of the border, martin and realize having done so much analysis over what's taken place over the last decade involving al quds and hezbollah, they have to operate out of certain safe havens irrespective of had a turns out to be the merits of this particular case, but venezuela has been providing the very type of safe haven that has been most dangerous for the united states in its southern border area, and whether it's been the arizona police department or the mexican national police or the cia or even the israeli mossad, there's no doubt that while our relations with iran are at a point where there's v

majority of hezbollah's funds come from iran and iran is the primary donor so hezbollah but their fund-raising activities in the western hemisphere are of concern and that is something we are monitoring and something we target at every opportunity. again, recently the treasury department in targeting a particular bank in beirut had the opportunity to point out that hezbollah does derive financial support from criminal activities of criminal networks that span into the western hemisphere. >> i would like to broaden the aperture a little bit and talk about emerging threat, opportunity for collaboration, and that is cybersecurity. both state and nonstate actors recently posed a challenge to not only the united states but partner nations throughout the western hemisphere and we've seen recent denial of service attacks against our partner nations in the western hemisphere. this is prime example of both increasing and transforming throughout but also new partnership opportunities so we can share our expertise with our partner nations so they can help us providing security for the western hem necessa

that was tied back to operatives and hezbollah. there is not an exact threat, but circumstances that happen before. can you say much more than that and the intelligence have been tied to the lot that sound a lot like this. that's a big difference. this is home brown. this is something that can be linked back to the government of iran that, say major major foreign policy issue and a question. is iran a national security threat to the united states. >> let me bring back michael. do we have an idea of the timeline? we mentioned one suspect approaches an informant in may. do we know any more about what happened after that initial contact? >> we don't other than this is described as a sting operation. that means that at some point they turn it over to the fbi and fbi under cover agents are in contact with the suspects here. at that point it would be very personal to know how far gone was the plot at that point or did the fbi under cover agents sort of let this go on a little? did they suggest any actions that were then taken that always

first and foremost, hezbollah. that's why repeatedly the u.s. called them the state sponsor of terrorism. but what's important to remember is this type of accusation is unprecedented. washington accusing iran of plotting an assassination of a diplomat on u.s. soil. and i think if you take a step back and watch what's happening in washington right now, there's a lot of lawmakers who are hawkish about iran who are already talking about retaliation and further sanctions, and this perhaps more than anything could be an indication of washington going on a more aggressive path when it comes to iran as opposed to the diplomatic path that was so heavily advertised by the obama administration when he first took office, wolf. >> reza sayah, we'll stay in close touch with you. our own brian todd is working this story and is getting more on the suspect and more on the breaking news right after this. woman: saving for our child's college fund was getting expensive. man: yes it was. so to save some money, we taught our 5 year old how to dunk. woman: scholarsh

duncan said about hezbollah. i think that would be good for us to perhaps get a briefing down the line about it. there is a plan that has been going from here on to syria to venezuela and back every week we don't know who's on it and we don't know what's on it, but you can believe that there is a hezbollah connection to it so i think it is a good thing that we raised it and i think that we should pursue that more. we talk about merida initially and when we announced the initiative in october of 2007, we were told would be a three-year program, and last year we had the announcement of beyond merida and continued funding to the fy 20112012 budget, so it appears that it's here to stay for the near future. how long has the of patrician planned for the funding initiative to continue should it continue for the foreseeable future or should we phase it out and do something new? investor? >> that is a perfectly legitimate question and you have every right to grow less on this question every time we come before you. my ans

duncan said about hezbollah. i think that would be good for us to perhaps get a briefing down the line about it. there is a plan that has been going from here on to syria to venezuela and back every week we don't know who's on it and we don't know what's on it, but you can believe that there is a hezbollah connection to it so i think it is a good thing that we raised it and i think that we should pursue that more. we talk about merida initially and when we announced the initiative in october of 2007, we were told would be a three-year program, and last year we had the announcement of beyond merida and continued funding to the fy 20112012 budget, so it appears that it's here to stay for the near future. how long has the of patrician planned for the funding initiative to continue should it continue for the foreseeable future or should we phase it out and do something new? investor? >> that is a perfectly legitimate question and you have every right to grow less on this question every time we come before you. my ans

. >> hezbollah has been in latin america for decades.on: terrorist group. >> it is proxy for iran. hezbollah in 1992 they carry ad attack on the israeli embassy in buenos aires. they killed 80 people on the attack on jewish cultural center in the same city. those attacks eminated from the triborder area between paraguay and argentina and brazil. more recently the sane of the action has been in venezuela where iran, there is strong evidence that iran has been using venezuelan facilities, port facilities, their banking system in order to circumvent sanctions. and there is a strong and growing presence of hezbollah operatives throughout all of south america. now there are suggestions and this recent plot suggested even more strongly, that they are on our southern border in mexico. jon: so when hillary clinton expressed some, i don't know, bemusement i guess, that iran would go to mexican narc cotraffickers to try to come up with some kind of a plot to kill the saudi arabian ambassador, not all that surprising to you? >> you know, what's sur

that city has these kinds of missiles, hezbollah has these kinds of missiles. hamas, 45 miles from tel aviv has some of these already. iran has long range ballistic missiles. one of the things they have to take into account in considering a possible attack on iran is the homefront in israel being subject to income and long range ballistic missiles from iran, missiles that can hit tel aviv from southern lebanon, from syria, from the gaza strip. and for that matter, rockets that can be catapulted, literally, from the west bank into the airport. so there's a danger, things spinning out of control and israel find itself in a kind of war it has never been in before. real danger. >> to follow-up to the most recent question about war, there hasn't been a major war involving israel since 1973. but there has been a major war in the region, the one between iraq and a band that went for eight years and killed several million people and maimed several million more. and it, i guess the question i would have been, if it's the case that there is a kind of receiving american i

the hezbollah presence has expanded into criminality.he muslim brotherhood is by far the biggest proponent of this how terrorist groups are gaining ground while we're treading water... on the "700 club," monday at 10:0 [ male announcer ] does your cable company keep charging you more... and more... and more? stop paying so much for second best. upgrade to verizon fios and get tv, internet and phone for our best price -- just $89.99 a month guaranteed for two years with no annual contract required. go to verizon.com/greatprice and save $600 in your first two years with our best price online. fios is a 100% fiber-optic network that delivers superior picture quality, more hd, plus america's fastest, most consistent and most reliable internet. why keep paying so much for cable? get fios tv, internet and phone for our best price online -- $89.99 a month with a two-year price guarantee and the option of no annual contract. ordering online is easy. you can even chat live with a fios agent. visit verizon.com/greatprice. call the verizon center f

their activities about hezbollah, very brazen. the more brazen they got, i think they really thought we can pull this off and if we kill a lot of people in the process, we don't care. that's really the mind-set of where iran is today and why this is so dangerous and so serious and why we need to come together internationally to put an end to this. >> finally, i would imagine the saudis are furious about this. what would you imagine their reaction may be? >> well, the good news is when the early stages of this, they were briefed as to the security that they might need to undergo to make sure that if something went wrong in the operation and they were able to get there, that they would be safe and able to keep the ambassador safe as well as other security precautions. but you can imagine that the tension between iran and saudi arabia, which is already there, is only going to get worse. and they've got a lot of work to do here. and saudi arabia has been pretty clear that a nuclear iran is the worst possible outcome for the middle eas

. >> so hezbollah, in most cases? >> through hezbollah, through proxies proxies. way. if it's true, something has dramatically changed in iran. >> the assassins, if they had gotten talked. >> well, most of the time iran has used cutouts and it's been quite effective. the idea of using a car salesman from corpus christi, texas, working through the mexican drug cartel, is not clearly in keeping with its past operations. >> it looks like they need to be caught. let me go to evan coleman, would they risk being caught, where they go to a mexican cartel, plan their dirty work, plan to kill the ambassador. our fbi would be able to track this to them. >> if you try to imagine this as the product of collective thinking on the iranian government, seems like this is russian roulette. if you killed the saudi ambassador to the u.s., you'd be guaranteeing a serious u.s. reaction and i believe a military one. it's difficult to understand this as a product of collective thinking. it's much easier to understand this as maybe the product of a rogue individual within the revolution

there's hezbollah. hezbollah has sided with the bahrainian protesters, but for instance sided with the syrian regime. it's difficult not to see this through a sectarian prism. >> iran says it's a fabrication, the united states making this up. iran does not have a great credibility, level of credibility, shall we say, but the question is, you have the law enforcement case, you have the one suspect who has been arrested. the second suspect, as you read through the complaint, and it's like a movie script everybody the second suspect said to be in iran somewhere. account obama administration do? what can the world do? what can you do? >> this is very brazen, i mean for them to plan an attack on our soil. think about it, that hasn't happened before. we need to work together with the other world leaders. china and russia need to get involved in this. they have stayed out relative to the sanctions. it needs to be a discussion. >> any confidence china and russia will now get involved in some effort against iran

the iranians have been killing americans by proxy, in afghanistan, iraq, using hezbollah attacks on themarines in the early 1980's. but to attack us on our soil is something new, and it shows t brazenness and lack of any concern about american response which is quite a alarming. >> colby? >> having made the announcement and the timing the response has been kind of tacky. it seems that once ericic holder made the announcement, the administrationhould and able to say specifically, these are the steps we are going to take beyond the two things we always say, we will increase sanctions and try to further isolate them. that is the part that leaveves such an uncomfortable feeling. >> nina? >> i amtill left with a slightly uncomfoable feeling about the plot. there is a limit to at we know about the iranians. clearly, if accept the information, and we have no reason not to, therere was some iranian government role in ts. the question is, how high did it go, what was the knowledge, and even -- did everything to some injured over here it was goingg to try something and wgo well, we will let him o

the iranians have been killing americans by proxy in afghanistan and iraq, and, as we know, using hezbollahin the attack on the marines in the early 1980's. but to attack us on our soil is really something new, different, and it shows abrasiveness -- a brazenness and a lack of concern about of any american response which is quite alarming. >> colby? >> having made the announcement, and the timing was in the hands of the u.s., the response has been kind of tacky. it seems to me once eric holder made the announcement, the administration should have been able to say specifically these are the steps we are going to take beyond the two things and they always say, we are going to increase sanctions and further isolate them. that is the part that leads to such an uncomfortable feeling. >> nina? >> i am still left with a slightly uncomfortable feeling about the plot. there is a limit to what we know about the iranians. clearly, if we accept the information, and we have no reason not to, there was some iranian government role in this. the question is how high did it go, what was the knowledge? did e

the iranians have been killing americans by proxy, afghanistan, iraq, using hezbollah in attacks on themarines in the early 1980's. but to attack us on our soil is somethining n, and it shows the brazenness and lack of any concern about american response which is quite alarming. >> colby? >> having made the annnnouncement and the t timing the response has been kind of tackyky. it seems tt once ericic holder made the announcement, the administration should and able to say specicifically, these are the steps we are going to take beyond the two things we always say, we will increase sanctions and try to further isolate them. that is the part that leaves such auncomfortable feeling. >> nina? >> i am still left with a slightly uncomfortable feeling about the plot. there is a limit to whwhat we know about the iranians. clearly, if accept the information, and we have no reason not to, there was some iranian government role in this. thquestion is, how high did it gowhat was theknowledge, and even -- did everything to some injured over here it was goingg to try something and we go well, we will

. >> so hezbollah? >> through hezbollah, through proxies.oesn't make sense in a lot of ways. if it's true, something dramatic has changed in iran. >> how they got away with it, the assassins, if they would have gotten caught, they would have talked? >> most of the time iran has yew cutouts, and it's been quite effective. the idea of using a car salesman from corpus christi, texas working through the mexican cartel is not clearly in keeping with past operations. >> let me go to an expert. evan coleman, would they risk getting caught? it seems like our fbi would be able to trace that to them. >> the calculus here is very strange. if you try to imagine this as the product of collective thinking on the part of the iranian government, it seems like this is russian roulette. if you killed the saudi ambassador to the u.s., you would be guaranteeing a very serious u.s. reaction, and i would believe a military one, so it's difficult to understand this as a product of collective thinking. it's much easier to try to understand this as maybe the product

but hezbollah, which has been on extension of the quds force has generally been fund-raising in the u.s. they have not committed an attack here. they have done other attacks such as the argentina attacks in the early 1990s and earlier attacks where they attacked americans. i think what's different in this one, especially, is that they're doing a simultaneous attack against saudi arabia and the united states. and they're trying to reduce the influence of both in the middle east region. >> now, this is a regime that we invite to the united states, to the u.n. we allow ahmadinejad, iran's president, to speak and roam freely in our country. does that need to change? does that access that the u.s. give him actually empower actions against us? >> i don't think that's ever going to change. i mean, any head of state from any country, whether we like them or not has the ability to seek a diplomatic visa and make a visit to the united nations and the united nations is basically considered an open area in order to do that. i think another reason for not suppressing that is that basically he makes

iranian issues and hezbollah issues in in the middle east over the years has said they're much more professional that so so that's kind of a of the first a question mark about this story and then there's a history here that i think we need to keep in mind and that is that the united states and saudi arabia and israel among the three of them have been responsible for two accusations against iran for carrying out alleged terrorist attacks in the past one rather two in buenos i raise in one thousand nine hundred two against the israeli embassy in one thousand nine hundred four against a jewish community center and then in one thousand nine hundred sixty four bombing the khobar towers. billet for servicemen killing a number of americans and not attacked. i have investigated both of the. those cases very carefully and have discovered that the official. the official version in both cases is highly misleading and the case that was made against iran in both of those instances or all three perhaps i should say really doesn't hold up under scrutiny so i think that this is in line with or cons as a nother

remember, hezbollah has a presence in the united states, hezbollah has developed, also, a presence throughoutere. but we will have to wait for the government to get more information. but the other thing is that we don't know if iranians would have claimed it or if they would have framed some other group, some jihadi group and did the strike against the saudis and israelis and force sort of dramatic developments in the middle east when the arab spring is taking place. or this would have been a strike claimed by the iranians, or was something else. remember, the iranians are becoming very bold. this is a very bold conspiracy. they have placed some of their task forces in the mediterranean, they have some of their units coming to venezuela, they are training in venezuela to speak spanish as well. so we have to put the big puzzle together. what was the meaning of that projected strike? megyn: last question. the fbi director said that we are sending a clear message that any attempts on american soil will not be tolerated. how? how can we do that? >> first of all, we want to make sure that the iran

genocide is the agenda of the muslim students association, students for justice in palestine, hamas, hezbollah, iran and now we have in egypt of course. it is not just a jewish. they are slaughtering christians in egypt because the muslim brotherhood is on the rise. this phony arab spring, yeah there were some good people that went out in the square in cairo, but the revolution in the middle east is a fascist revolution, and it spells enormous trouble and probably wore sooner rather than later. thank you all. [applause] >> for more information about the author, visit for horror which freedom center.org. will kaufman takes a look at woody guthrie throughout the depression, world war ii, the cold war, the korean korean war, the mccarthy area and the civil rights era. the sing writer -- singer songwriters best known for his song, this land is your land. this is about 45 minutes. >> good evening everyone. thank you for joining us tonight. tonight is a very special event for us. our guest will not only be talking about his new book, "woody guthrie" american radical. he will be given you an audio pr