Congressman, Hezbollah is something that we

take very seriously, and we are in intense discussions with the two

governments that you mentioned,...

In the discussions, no, sir, not in this forum.

I will take the question, if you would like, or, yes,

if you want to do a different——

Sure.

Sir, as I stated earlier, what we have done with

the Joint Terrorism Task Forces and with the intelligence commu-

nity is basically worked...

I would say, sir, at this time, I would say the

United States is used more as the financial funding operation. We

are a great financial...

Sir, I could just say, based on what we know to

date, we do not see any ongoing or attempted operations in the

United States, but, again,...

What I am trying to tell you, sir, is——

As of right now, sir, I have no information I can

share with you right now about any ongoing plans or attacks in the

United States by Hezbollah.

I would say, sir, right now, there is——

No, sir. I do not believe there are any plans right

now that we are aware of at this point.

When you say the ‘‘United States,’’ as CONUS,

United States, as of right now, like I said, sir, I would probably feel

more comfortable...

Congressman, in a general fashion, what I could

say is that, first of all, Hezbollah portrays itself primarily as a na-

tionalist movement...

If I could say, first of all, that Hezbollah, so far,

has portrayed itself as a nationalist movement within Lebanon. I

think we could think...

I think that is exactly right. All of the docu-

mentation that you talked about is for sale, and it is easily—well

not easily—it certainly...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for hold-

ing this hearing.

This notion of Hezbollah’s global reach being for purposes of sup-

ply...

Well, let me ask you about one particular activity

that has gotten publicity in the last 12 months, and that is

Hezbollah being a provider...

2000?

Oh.

Can you illustrate how that works, how those links

are made? What kinds of activities are supported or directed? Can

you link specific terrorist...

Could you if this were a closed session?

In other words, you do not have such information,

or you do not have such information you want to share.

Okay. All right.

‘‘Links’’ is a funny term.

Support. So, in this case, there are people working

with Hezbollah and not for operations inside Lebanon or at the bor-

der with Israel...

All right. Can you give an estimate of the number

of rockets you think Hezbollah now still has, based on what re-

mains and what has been...

You will take the question and try to answer it?

Okay. To what extent do we see activity by

Hezbollah to rebuild infrastructure, to reestablish bunkers, to, in

a sense, repair the damage...

My final question. I think you may have covered

this, but I was not quite sure what the answer is. Since the conflict

with Israel, since...

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Well, I remember an old saying that there is

nothing as permanent as a temporary quonset hut. They had a

stated goal, but they——

Which they have achieved. They will

tell you, of course, that Shebba Farms justifies their continued

military——

Well, should be, but, you know, you have to have

a fig leaf, and so they have got their fig leaf.

The fact is they have established themselves....

It has been very difficult for them. They went

through a 15-year civil war, and now, of course, the situation, we

hope, is changing, and...

A number of points. I will try to address as many

as I can, and please remind me of the ones that I miss.

I think the first thing we have...

And the Lebanese Government as well, abso-

lutely. We have to work with the Lebanese Government to get

them the strength to be able to expand...

I cannot say to the extent of 100 percent, but

there is no question that Iran is supplying very significant amounts

of money to Hezbollah,...

The dollar contribution of Iran to Hezbollah, I

could not tell you. I do not know. I can try to find out, and if we

can give you an answer,...

Sir, to answer your first question regarding how

easy is it to go from support to actual operations, that is a question

that, as you know,...

On the cartels. I am not sure which way it works,

actually. He is not a guy who is tough on crime, and we are very

worried about it. I think...

Yes and no. I mean, everything that we can pos-

sibly share with the Europeans, we take to the Europeans, and

then it is up to the Europeans...

I mentioned earlier, we just completed our Joint

Working Group on Counterterrorism with the Russians about 2

weeks ago, and one of the biggest...

And the foreign minister.

I think we do not want to compromise principles,

but it is clear that when we work with the Russians, as we work

with almost any other country,...

Sure. Absolutely. We are in the same room all of

the time.

Sir, with all due respect, I am probably going to

leave that one to the director, but I think, sir, that we have a lot

of the tools necessary...

No, sir. What I am saying, sir, the Detroit case

is a perfect example where we are seeing there is a lot of fraud,

there is a lot of stuff...

Well, thank you very much. I think that is an ex-

cellent question. My answer, if I may, is a little bit opaque, but I

would focus on a...

No, no, no. Certainly, not, but possessing a nuclear

capability allows the Iranian regime to repress its people more

widely without fear...

However we resolve that issue, we need that in-

formation. There is absolutely no doubt about that.

The other issue regarding the military...

We have a long history of that, beginning with

the trial of the World Trade Center bombers, giving up our tech-

nology and our capabilities....