Most of the formal charges against the 18 center on an alleged conspiracy to buy cigarettes cheaply in North Carolina and sell them in Michigan, where tobacco taxes make the price much higher. Nearly all of them are also accused of "fraudulent marriage" to gain immigration papers. None has been charged with any act of terrorism or violence.

But the police are looking to cook up further charges. In morning raids on 18 homes and businesses owned by the North Carolina defendants, the FBI carted off computers, documents, and other property. Several cars and homes were confiscated, and at least three businesses owned by some of the defendants were shuttered.

A lengthy affidavit filed in court by the federal cops July 21 asserts that profits from the alleged cigarette smuggling operation may have been given to Hezbollah, a group in Lebanon that fought against the 22-year Israeli occupation of the southern part of that country. Tel Aviv was finally forced to pull out of southern Lebanon just two months ago. Washington portrays Hezbollah as a "terrorist" group.

The government's affidavit presents as sinister the claim that those arrested met in each other's homes on Thursday evenings. It cites reports by an anonymous informer that those evenings included reading speeches by Hezbollah leaders and others.

The document also asserts that Mohamad Youssef Hammoud--whom the cops and big-business media label the "ringleader"--downloaded songs and speeches from a Hezbollah web site and communicated by e-mail with individuals in Lebanon. The affidavit includes vague references to supposed military training in the Charlotte area.

Sensational press reports aim to paint the 18 defendants as guilty, even of things they have not been charged with. "Terrorist raid in Concord," screamed the July 22 banner headline of the Independent Tribune, the local daily for the towns of Concord and Kannapolis, just north of Charlotte. Hammoud and his wife Angela Tsioumas, who was also arrested, owned a gas station in Concord.

Nearly every report in the capitalist press has repeated the inflammatory quote from the FBI affidavit that the government stool pigeon "believes that if [Hezbollah] issued an authorization to execute a terrorist act in the United States, Mohamad Hammoud would not hesitate in carrying it out."

Several Lebanese residents of Charlotte interviewed by this reporter two days after the raids expressed anger at the government's attempt to smear those arrested and the entire Arab community as terrorists. A couple of people pointed out that web sites such as the one Hammoud is accused of accessing are often the only source of information on events in southern Lebanon.

One man who stopped by a now-closed restaurant and grocery owned by some of the defendants noted that many Lebanese immigrants sympathize with an organization that has fought the occupation of their country. What's wrong with that? he asked. He also said it is common for Muslims from Lebanon to gather on Thursday evenings for prayers, and it's their right to do so.

Six of the 18 people arrested were released on bond the afternoon of July 21. Hearings for the others have been scheduled, but authorities have made clear they will try to hold some of the defendants without bond if they can come up with enough "evidence" to lay "terrorism" charges.