South America and radical Islamic terrorists

CBS News:

Each year thousands of tourists are drawn to the beauty of Iguacu Falls in an undeveloped area of South America where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet: the Tri-border region.

But CBS News correspondent Trish Regan reports that a large, influential Arab population flourishes in the area. Many of them are reaping huge profits in a variety of illegal activities. Members of the American military have charged that the region harbors radical Islamic terrorists, and that the area is a growing threat to U.S. security interests.

Millions of dollars flow through these streets every year — and basically nothing is done to stop illegal trade. Paraguay's money-laundering laws are seldom enforced, and there's little interest in knowing where the money ends up.

"There is so much illegal activity from the counterfeiting of all kinds of goods to drugs to weapons to terrorist fund-raising to money laundering," says Walt Purdy of Washington's Terrorism Research Center, who has been tracking activity in the area for years.

So who's down there?

"Everybody from Hezbollah to people who are connected to al Qaeda," he says. "They've used it to raise money; they've used it for a safe haven."

According to U.S. and Israeli intelligence, Ciudad del Este served as the launch pad for the Hezbollah car-bombing attacks on the Israeli embassy in Argentina in 1992 and the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994. They say that over the last decade, the area increasingly has grown into a terrorist hiding place.

"The idea here is accessibility with no records. Anonymity at all costs," says Tom Cash, who oversaw Latin America for the Drug Enforcement Administration in the 1990s. Cash, now with Kroll Inc., adds that the area is a terrorist's paradise.

"It's not 'Catch Me If You Can'-type territory," he says, "because no one's even looking."

One more reason to protect our border with Mexico and stop people from using it to enter the United States illegally.

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