DETROIT -If morally supporting Hizballah is a crime, "there is not going to be enough buses to haul the people out and take them

THEN GET MORE BUSES

Probes of links to Hizballah grow

Inside the Dearborn banquet hall, Lebanese Americans gazed at flat-screen televisions that flashed video footage of armed Hizballah fighters battling Israelis in Lebanon.

The mostly Muslim crowd was there to celebrate Lebanon Liberation Day, the sixth anniversary of the Israeli army's departure from southern Lebanon on May 25, 2000. To those inside the hall, Hizballah is a heroic group responsible for ending Israel's occupation of the towns where they grew up.

But to the U.S. government, Hizballah is an Iranian-backed terrorist organization that has killed more Americans than any militant group besides Al Qaeda.

The clashing views of Muslims and U.S. authorities over Hizballah are playing out in southeastern Michigan as federal investigators increasingly target local residents purported to have ties to the group.

Prosecutors have tried to link at least 29 metro Detroit men with Hizballah over the past three years, according to a review of court records and interviews with attorneys. About half the men were accused of the links in criminal cases over the past three months, including the owner of the La Shish restaurants, Talal Chahine.

The FBI in Detroit says Hizballah has a presence in Michigan, and the bureau has set up a division to investigate the Shi'ite Muslim group. In recent cases, federal agents are looking at ties to Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, a Shi'ite Muslim cleric in Lebanon who the U.S. government says is a Hizballah leader. The FBI in Detroit also has divisions that investigate Hamas and Al Qaeda, but those terrorist groups are not cited as often as Hizballah in local cases.

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