The United States Department of Justice has charged Alexei Saab, 42, of Morristown, New Jersey, with nine-counts related to his support for Hezbollah. These charges relate to surveilling locations for potential terrorist attacks including the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, the Empire State Building, Times Square, and UN Headquarters.

A Press Release from the Department of Justice states: “Alexei Saab Allegedly Was Trained by Hizballah’s External Terrorist Operations Component in Bomb-Making and Conducted Intelligence-Gathering in New York City and Elsewhere in Support of Hizballah’s Attack-Planning Efforts.”

The release continues by recounting Saab’s history with the terrorist group. He is alleged to have joined in 1996 and attended his first terrorist training around 1999. In the early 2000s, “Saab transitioned to membership in Hezbollah’s unit responsible for external operations, the IJO, and he then received extensive training in IJO tradecraft, weapons, and military tactics, including how to construct bombs and other explosive devices.”

In yet another reminder of the importance of immigration regulations, the release goes on to tell that “Saab lawfully entered the United States using a Lebanese passport.  In 2005, Saab applied for naturalized citizenship and falsely affirmed, under penalty of perjury, that he had never been ‘a member of or in any way associated with . . . a terrorist organization.’  In August 2008, Saab became a naturalized U.S. citizen.”

Hezbollah is a terrorist group based in Lebanon, founded in the 1980s. They were designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the Department of State in 1997. The group is known for carrying out terrorist attacks in Israel and throughout the world and they are currently heavily involved in the Syrian Civil War and other terrorist activities.