Hezbollah-owned TV begins broadcasts
The Hezbollah-owned Lebanese television channel Al Manar has begun broadcasts in Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Sunni Muslim population.
The transmissions are broadcast via the Palapa C2 satellite owned by the Indonesia Telkom company, in which the Indonesian government holds a majority shareholding, BBC Monitoring reported. It quoted information published by Lyngsat Satellite website.
Al Manar, Arabic for "The Beacon", has been broadcasting from Beirut since 1991. The self-proclaimed "Station of the Resistance" is a key player in what Hezbollah – a Shia Muslim militia organisation - calls its "psychological warfare against the Zionist enemy’.
It is also considered an integral part of Hezbollah's plan to spread its message to the entire Arab world.
According to Al Manar's news director, Hassan Fadlallah, Al Manar does not aim to be neutral in its broadcasting.
"Neutrality like that of Al Jazeera is out of the question for us," Fadlallah said, quoted in a 2007 article in The New Yorker magazine.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah-owned TV begins broadcasts
Showing posts with label hiz b'allah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hiz b'allah. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Friday, April 04, 2008
DAR AL ISLAM-IRAQ: IRAN CREATES THE "IRAQI HIZ B'ALLAH"
Iran creates Iraqi Hezbollah
By Rowan Scarborough
The U.S command launched a new military offensive in southern Iraq this week to blunt an escalating destabilization campaign by Iran, a top adviser to Gen. David Petraeus told Insight.
Retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, who just completed a 12-day tour of Iraq and conferred with Gen. Petraeus, the top commander, disclosed that Iran has organized two battalions of Iraqis in Basra modeled after the Hezbollah terrorist army in Lebanon.
Gen. Keane said the objectives of the Hezbollah-like battalions are to stir up violence, destabilize local governments in the south and spread the influence of the hard-line Shia Islamic rulers in Tehran. The Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah is a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel and to establishing Islamic rule in Beirut.
Military sources said the U.S. command in Baghdad has been planning a southern offensive for weeks, to be carried out primarily by Iraqi forces with the help of U.S. advisers, air power, intelligence and logistics. But the increasing influence of Iran and ramped up violence by Shia militias forced the offensive to begin now.
"Given the worsening situation in the South, clearly the command is now putting a priority on it and that is why you see the Iraqis moving into Basra to gain control of the security situation," Gen. Keane told Insight. "It is a strategy designed to suppress the Shia militias and the extremists that are in the area that are causing destabilization in the area, and thuggery and criminality. Clearly, the militias' intent is to malign the upcoming Iraqi elections this fall and the Iraqis do not want that to happen."
Iran's establishment of Hezbollah-like units in Basra is an escalation of its determination to bring southern Iraq under its control. Previously, it has trained Iraqis in Iran on terrorist tactics and provided them with powerful road-side bombs to kill American service members.
Recently, Keane said, Tehran has begun bringing Shia Iraq Sheiks and tribal leaders into Iran on propaganda tours to show them the supposed superiority of Iranian society.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Iran creates Iraqi Hezbollah
By Rowan Scarborough
The U.S command launched a new military offensive in southern Iraq this week to blunt an escalating destabilization campaign by Iran, a top adviser to Gen. David Petraeus told Insight.
Retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, who just completed a 12-day tour of Iraq and conferred with Gen. Petraeus, the top commander, disclosed that Iran has organized two battalions of Iraqis in Basra modeled after the Hezbollah terrorist army in Lebanon.
Gen. Keane said the objectives of the Hezbollah-like battalions are to stir up violence, destabilize local governments in the south and spread the influence of the hard-line Shia Islamic rulers in Tehran. The Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah is a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel and to establishing Islamic rule in Beirut.
Military sources said the U.S. command in Baghdad has been planning a southern offensive for weeks, to be carried out primarily by Iraqi forces with the help of U.S. advisers, air power, intelligence and logistics. But the increasing influence of Iran and ramped up violence by Shia militias forced the offensive to begin now.
"Given the worsening situation in the South, clearly the command is now putting a priority on it and that is why you see the Iraqis moving into Basra to gain control of the security situation," Gen. Keane told Insight. "It is a strategy designed to suppress the Shia militias and the extremists that are in the area that are causing destabilization in the area, and thuggery and criminality. Clearly, the militias' intent is to malign the upcoming Iraqi elections this fall and the Iraqis do not want that to happen."
Iran's establishment of Hezbollah-like units in Basra is an escalation of its determination to bring southern Iraq under its control. Previously, it has trained Iraqis in Iran on terrorist tactics and provided them with powerful road-side bombs to kill American service members.
Recently, Keane said, Tehran has begun bringing Shia Iraq Sheiks and tribal leaders into Iran on propaganda tours to show them the supposed superiority of Iranian society.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Iran creates Iraqi Hezbollah
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
DAR AL HARB-ISRAEL: MOSLEMS HATE JEWS & WANT THEM DEAD
The jihad against the Jews
By Bradley Burston
The jihad has a problem with the Jews.
Not just a problem with Israel. Not just the occupation. Not just the policies of the Israeli government, the actions of the Israel Defense Forces, the support by Washington and the West for Israel's embargo against Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Islamists don't care who knows it anymore. They hate the Jews. And, not to put too fine a point on it, they want the Jews dead.
Some of it one has grown to expect. "Today there is no room for he who says that we should only fight the Jews in Palestine," Osama Bin Laden's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said after Israel's incursion into Gaza last month. "Let us strike their interests everywhere, just like they gathered against us from everywhere."
Some of it is becoming better known. In a groundbreaking article in The New York Times this week, Steven Erlanger details, among other elements of Gaza life, the tides of Jew-hate washing over the Strip with the Hamas seal of approval.
There is imam and legislator Sheik Yunus al-Astal, who, citing a Koranic verse indicating that "suffering by fire is the Jews' destiny in this world and the next," concludes that "we are sure that the holocaust is still to come upon the Jews."
There is imam and legislator Marwan M. Abu Ras, chairman of the Palestinian Scholars League and a religious authority who anchors Hamas policies in Koranic sanction, branding Jews "the brothers of apes and pigs."
This dovetails nicely with programming decisions taken by Hezbollah's Al Manar Television, which broadcast a Syrian-produced mini-series that showed a Jew killing a Christian child to obtain blood for baking Passover matza.
And then there is the case of the much anticipated, widely feared new film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, "Fitna." Officials across Europe and throughout the Muslim world have braced for the possibility of violent protests, demonstrations on the model of those sparked by Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which protesters saw as a grave insult to Islam.
But the initial reaction has been muted, despite, or because of, an emphasis on footage such as Islamic clerics voicing virulent attacks against Jews, urging that Jews be killed and even beheaded, clips of a little girl quoting Allah in the Koran terming Jews "apes and swines," and of demonstrators promising "another Holocaust" and praising Adolf Hitler.
It is worth noting that, in an initial response to the release of the film on the Internet at the end of last week, the attorney representing the umbrella group for Dutch Muslims said that at first glance, "Fitna" does not constitute an insult to their religion.
One has to wonder, why not? Are calls to kill Jews as Jews not considered an insult?
...
Pertinent Links:
1) The jihad against the Jews
By Bradley Burston
The jihad has a problem with the Jews.
Not just a problem with Israel. Not just the occupation. Not just the policies of the Israeli government, the actions of the Israel Defense Forces, the support by Washington and the West for Israel's embargo against Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Islamists don't care who knows it anymore. They hate the Jews. And, not to put too fine a point on it, they want the Jews dead.
Some of it one has grown to expect. "Today there is no room for he who says that we should only fight the Jews in Palestine," Osama Bin Laden's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said after Israel's incursion into Gaza last month. "Let us strike their interests everywhere, just like they gathered against us from everywhere."
Some of it is becoming better known. In a groundbreaking article in The New York Times this week, Steven Erlanger details, among other elements of Gaza life, the tides of Jew-hate washing over the Strip with the Hamas seal of approval.
There is imam and legislator Sheik Yunus al-Astal, who, citing a Koranic verse indicating that "suffering by fire is the Jews' destiny in this world and the next," concludes that "we are sure that the holocaust is still to come upon the Jews."
There is imam and legislator Marwan M. Abu Ras, chairman of the Palestinian Scholars League and a religious authority who anchors Hamas policies in Koranic sanction, branding Jews "the brothers of apes and pigs."
This dovetails nicely with programming decisions taken by Hezbollah's Al Manar Television, which broadcast a Syrian-produced mini-series that showed a Jew killing a Christian child to obtain blood for baking Passover matza.
And then there is the case of the much anticipated, widely feared new film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, "Fitna." Officials across Europe and throughout the Muslim world have braced for the possibility of violent protests, demonstrations on the model of those sparked by Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which protesters saw as a grave insult to Islam.
But the initial reaction has been muted, despite, or because of, an emphasis on footage such as Islamic clerics voicing virulent attacks against Jews, urging that Jews be killed and even beheaded, clips of a little girl quoting Allah in the Koran terming Jews "apes and swines," and of demonstrators promising "another Holocaust" and praising Adolf Hitler.
It is worth noting that, in an initial response to the release of the film on the Internet at the end of last week, the attorney representing the umbrella group for Dutch Muslims said that at first glance, "Fitna" does not constitute an insult to their religion.
One has to wonder, why not? Are calls to kill Jews as Jews not considered an insult?
...
Pertinent Links:
1) The jihad against the Jews
Friday, February 29, 2008
DAR AL HARB-U.K.: "THEY [HIZ B'ALLAH] APPRECIATE EVERYTHING YOU DID & SAY - YOU ARE PARTNERS IN VICTORY ! ! ! "
Hizballah Boosted by Anti-War Westerners, Meeting Told
By Kevin McCandless
London (CNSNews.com) - Hundreds of anti-war activists attending a meeting here on Thursday night were told that their activism was appreciated by the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hizballah.
With the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq fast approaching, the British Stop the War Coalition is preparing for a massive demonstration in London on March 15.
As part of the run-up, the coalition sponsored an evening with various speakers, including Ibrahim Moussawi, the editor of Al Intiqad, a Lebanese newspaper linked to Hizballah.
In a short speech occasionally interrupted by applause and cheers, Moussawi told his audience that it was the support of the anti-war movement that kept Hizballah going during its brief war against Israel in 2006.
"They [HIZ B'ALLAH...ed. A.I.] appreciate everything you did and say you are partners in victory," he said.
Politicians from the opposition Conservative Party complained this week about Moussawi being allowed into Britain. Moussawi said it is simply part of a propaganda campaign against Hizballah.
...
"It's not that I want to see people killed, no matter what nationality they have," Moussawi said. "It's that I want justice to take place."
Moussawi, who will speak elsewhere in Britain over the next few days, was recently banned from speaking in Ireland.
Earlier in the evening, Ben Griffin, a former soldier with British special forces, accused his country's military of routinely handing over detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan to the American army.
Based on what his officers in Iraq and his fellow soldiers had told him, he said, hundreds of these detainees were later sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or to other holding centers under the process known as extraordinary rendition.
Griffin said the British government was violating the Geneva convention and other instruments of international law.
Griffin, who first made his allegations publicly earlier this week, told Thursday night's audience that the British government was seeking a gag order against him.
Another speaker, Hassan Juma'a, head of the Iraqi Oil Workers Federation, said the war had brought nothing but death and destruction to his country.
Speaking through a translator, the union leader charged that U.S. forces were as brutally repressive as the regime of the ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
A controversial bill now stalled in the Iraqi parliament aims to open up the country's oil industry to outside investment. Juma'a said this would only lead to exploitation by the West.
Lindsey German, one of the chief organizers of the coalition, defended her group's decision to bring Moussawi to Britain, saying it supported anyone who stood against American "imperialism."
...
"They're trying to silence them because we have been incredibly effective," she said. "We have made this a major political issue and we will not go away."
Pertinent Links:
1) Hizballah Boosted by Anti-War Westerners, Meeting Told
By Kevin McCandless
London (CNSNews.com) - Hundreds of anti-war activists attending a meeting here on Thursday night were told that their activism was appreciated by the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hizballah.
With the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq fast approaching, the British Stop the War Coalition is preparing for a massive demonstration in London on March 15.
As part of the run-up, the coalition sponsored an evening with various speakers, including Ibrahim Moussawi, the editor of Al Intiqad, a Lebanese newspaper linked to Hizballah.
In a short speech occasionally interrupted by applause and cheers, Moussawi told his audience that it was the support of the anti-war movement that kept Hizballah going during its brief war against Israel in 2006.
"They [HIZ B'ALLAH...ed. A.I.] appreciate everything you did and say you are partners in victory," he said.
Politicians from the opposition Conservative Party complained this week about Moussawi being allowed into Britain. Moussawi said it is simply part of a propaganda campaign against Hizballah.
...
"It's not that I want to see people killed, no matter what nationality they have," Moussawi said. "It's that I want justice to take place."
Moussawi, who will speak elsewhere in Britain over the next few days, was recently banned from speaking in Ireland.
Earlier in the evening, Ben Griffin, a former soldier with British special forces, accused his country's military of routinely handing over detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan to the American army.
Based on what his officers in Iraq and his fellow soldiers had told him, he said, hundreds of these detainees were later sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or to other holding centers under the process known as extraordinary rendition.
Griffin said the British government was violating the Geneva convention and other instruments of international law.
Griffin, who first made his allegations publicly earlier this week, told Thursday night's audience that the British government was seeking a gag order against him.
Another speaker, Hassan Juma'a, head of the Iraqi Oil Workers Federation, said the war had brought nothing but death and destruction to his country.
Speaking through a translator, the union leader charged that U.S. forces were as brutally repressive as the regime of the ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
A controversial bill now stalled in the Iraqi parliament aims to open up the country's oil industry to outside investment. Juma'a said this would only lead to exploitation by the West.
Lindsey German, one of the chief organizers of the coalition, defended her group's decision to bring Moussawi to Britain, saying it supported anyone who stood against American "imperialism."
...
"They're trying to silence them because we have been incredibly effective," she said. "We have made this a major political issue and we will not go away."
Pertinent Links:
1) Hizballah Boosted by Anti-War Westerners, Meeting Told
Thursday, February 28, 2008
DAR AL HARB-U.K.: HIZ B'ALLAH'S PROPAGANDA TO BE AVAILABLE IN BRITAIN VIA SPEAKING TOUR
Outcry as Muslim extremist is allowed to tour Britain to 'promote violence'
By MATTHEW HICKLEY
The Home Secretary came under fire last night for allowing a radical Lebanese propagandist with links to the extremist group Hezbollah to enter Britain for a national speaking tour.
The Conservatives urged Jacqui Smith to ban Ibrahim Moussawi from the UK, warning that he was "likely to foment extremism or promote violence".
Mr Moussawi edits Hezbollah's newspaper and is former political editor of the Iranian-backed group's television station, which is banned in many countries including France, Spain and the U.S. where its output is seen as anti-Semitic.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Outcry as Muslim extremist is allowed to tour Britain to 'promote violence'
By MATTHEW HICKLEY
The Home Secretary came under fire last night for allowing a radical Lebanese propagandist with links to the extremist group Hezbollah to enter Britain for a national speaking tour.
The Conservatives urged Jacqui Smith to ban Ibrahim Moussawi from the UK, warning that he was "likely to foment extremism or promote violence".
Mr Moussawi edits Hezbollah's newspaper and is former political editor of the Iranian-backed group's television station, which is banned in many countries including France, Spain and the U.S. where its output is seen as anti-Semitic.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Outcry as Muslim extremist is allowed to tour Britain to 'promote violence'
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
DAR AL ISLAM: THE 'ASSASSINATION' OF MUGHNIYEH POINTS TO HUGE LAPSES IN HIZ B'ALLAH & ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONARY GUARD SECURITY APARATUS
Iran, Hizbullah shaken by penetration leading to assassination
ABU DHABI — Arab analysts said the assassination of Hizbullah operational chief Imad Mughniyeh represented a huge security lapse by both Hizbullah and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard and could be followed by the killing of other Hizbullah leaders.
They said Mughniyeh, the subject of a $25 million bounty, had been tracked for months by Western and Israeli intelligence services before he was killed in a car bombing on Feb. 12 in Damascus.
"Certainly, there is a very big security infiltration in many directions, and it is the duty of the Syrian security apparatuses to clarify what really happened," Ahmed Mosulli, professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, said.
[On Feb. 17, U.S. National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell raised the possibility that Mughniyeh was killed by Syria or his Hizbullah colleagues. McConnell said Mughniyeh had been responsible for more deaths of Americans and Israelis than any other insurgency operative with the exception of Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden.
"It is a serious threat," McConnell said. "There's some evidence that it may have been internal Hizbullah. It may have been Syria. We don't know yet, and we're trying to sort that out." ]
Appearing on a Feb. 13 panel discussion on the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya satellite channel, Mosulli said the 45-year-old Mughniyeh, who had just left a reception in Damascus, was not protected by bodyguards. Instead, the Hizbullah operative was said to have moved without escorts to avoid being tracked through his security detail.
"Mughniyeh was not part of Hizbullah, but part of its founders, and consequently his activities were outside this organization," Mosulli said.
The analysts said Mughniyeh was sought by at least four countries — France, Germany, Israel and the United States. They said the search was assisted by Arab victims of attacks attributed to Mughniyeh, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
"Either he was killed by the Israelis and Americans in retaliation for the many operations he carried out against U.S. interests, the U.S. Marines, and the U.S. embassy car in Beirut that was carrying a U.S. official," Mohammed Al Qahtani, a Kuwaiti journalist and analyst, said. "The second scenario is that a vehicle that Imad Mughniyeh was booby-trapping for a next attack, probably in Beirut, blew up."
...
"Imad Mughniyeh, like Carlos and Sabri Al Banna, alias Abu Nidal, was throughout his life a mercenary, and was killed by the party that hired him," Al Qahtani said.
Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and currently a researcher at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said the United States had searched for Mughniyeh for more than 25 years. But Riedel believes Israel assassinated the Hizbullah operational chief.
"He was most probably killed by the Mossad, because this operation that took place in Damascus has many characteristics of Mossad operations," Riedel said.
"Regardless of who killed Mughniyeh, it is a fact that this party was able to infiltrate into the inner circle of the Hizbullah security system. Whoever was able to reach Mughniyeh will be able to reach other senior Hizbollah figures, including [Hizbullah secretary-general] Hassan Nasrallah."
Pertinent Links:
1) Iran, Hizbullah shaken by penetration leading to assassination
ABU DHABI — Arab analysts said the assassination of Hizbullah operational chief Imad Mughniyeh represented a huge security lapse by both Hizbullah and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard and could be followed by the killing of other Hizbullah leaders.
They said Mughniyeh, the subject of a $25 million bounty, had been tracked for months by Western and Israeli intelligence services before he was killed in a car bombing on Feb. 12 in Damascus.
"Certainly, there is a very big security infiltration in many directions, and it is the duty of the Syrian security apparatuses to clarify what really happened," Ahmed Mosulli, professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, said.
[On Feb. 17, U.S. National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell raised the possibility that Mughniyeh was killed by Syria or his Hizbullah colleagues. McConnell said Mughniyeh had been responsible for more deaths of Americans and Israelis than any other insurgency operative with the exception of Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden.
"It is a serious threat," McConnell said. "There's some evidence that it may have been internal Hizbullah. It may have been Syria. We don't know yet, and we're trying to sort that out." ]
Appearing on a Feb. 13 panel discussion on the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya satellite channel, Mosulli said the 45-year-old Mughniyeh, who had just left a reception in Damascus, was not protected by bodyguards. Instead, the Hizbullah operative was said to have moved without escorts to avoid being tracked through his security detail.
"Mughniyeh was not part of Hizbullah, but part of its founders, and consequently his activities were outside this organization," Mosulli said.
The analysts said Mughniyeh was sought by at least four countries — France, Germany, Israel and the United States. They said the search was assisted by Arab victims of attacks attributed to Mughniyeh, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
"Either he was killed by the Israelis and Americans in retaliation for the many operations he carried out against U.S. interests, the U.S. Marines, and the U.S. embassy car in Beirut that was carrying a U.S. official," Mohammed Al Qahtani, a Kuwaiti journalist and analyst, said. "The second scenario is that a vehicle that Imad Mughniyeh was booby-trapping for a next attack, probably in Beirut, blew up."
...
"Imad Mughniyeh, like Carlos and Sabri Al Banna, alias Abu Nidal, was throughout his life a mercenary, and was killed by the party that hired him," Al Qahtani said.
Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and currently a researcher at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said the United States had searched for Mughniyeh for more than 25 years. But Riedel believes Israel assassinated the Hizbullah operational chief.
"He was most probably killed by the Mossad, because this operation that took place in Damascus has many characteristics of Mossad operations," Riedel said.
"Regardless of who killed Mughniyeh, it is a fact that this party was able to infiltrate into the inner circle of the Hizbullah security system. Whoever was able to reach Mughniyeh will be able to reach other senior Hizbollah figures, including [Hizbullah secretary-general] Hassan Nasrallah."
Pertinent Links:
1) Iran, Hizbullah shaken by penetration leading to assassination
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
DAR AL HARB-ISRAEL: ARE THEY DEAD?!?
Kidnapped Israeli Soldiers Believed to Be Dead
IsIsrael now believes two Israeli soldiers kidnapped before the Lebanon war are dead. Jerusalem may come forward with the information to keep Hezbollah from demanding a high price for their bodies -- although it would be a setback for Ehud Olmert, who made the soldiers' return an objective of the 2006 war.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Kidnapped Israeli Soldiers Believed to Be Dead
IsIsrael now believes two Israeli soldiers kidnapped before the Lebanon war are dead. Jerusalem may come forward with the information to keep Hezbollah from demanding a high price for their bodies -- although it would be a setback for Ehud Olmert, who made the soldiers' return an objective of the 2006 war.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Kidnapped Israeli Soldiers Believed to Be Dead
Thursday, February 14, 2008
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM-ISRAEL/LEBANON: "OPEN WAR" ON ISRAEL, BLOVIATES NASRALLAH
Hezbollah leader declares 'open war' on Israel
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared "open war" on Israel in a fiery speech at the funeral Thursday in the Lebanese capital of a top commander killed in a car bombing he blamed on Israel.
"If the Zionists want war, then they shall have it," Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast at the funeral of Imad Mughnieh. "If you want an open war, then let it be an open war."
He added that the 2006 war between his militant group and Israel was not over and that his followers stood ready for combat.
"The July war is not over, it is ongoing and no ceasefire was ever declared," Nasrallah said "The blood of Imad Mughnieh will contribute to the disappearance of the Jewish state."
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah leader declares 'open war' on Israel
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared "open war" on Israel in a fiery speech at the funeral Thursday in the Lebanese capital of a top commander killed in a car bombing he blamed on Israel.
"If the Zionists want war, then they shall have it," Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast at the funeral of Imad Mughnieh. "If you want an open war, then let it be an open war."
He added that the 2006 war between his militant group and Israel was not over and that his followers stood ready for combat.
"The July war is not over, it is ongoing and no ceasefire was ever declared," Nasrallah said "The blood of Imad Mughnieh will contribute to the disappearance of the Jewish state."
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah leader declares 'open war' on Israel
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
DAR AL ISLAM-SYRIA: IMAD MUGNIYEH, MOSLEM TERRORIST, DEAD
Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah terror leader, killed in car bomb
Nicholas Blanford, of The Times, in Beirut
Imad Mughniyeh, the Hezbollah mastermind behind the kidnapping of Westerners in Beirut and many big terror attacks around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, was killed late last night in a car bomb explosion in Damascus.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred in the Syrian capital’s smart Kfar Soussa district, although Hezbollah blamed Israeli agents.
His death is a huge blow to the Iranian-backed militant group, given Mughniyeh’s years of experience and organisational skills.
He was commander of Hezbollah’s military wing, which he helped to build up into the formidable machine that fought the Israeli Army to a standstill in the war of summer 2006.
“With all due pride, we declare a great jihadist leader of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon joining the martyrs . . . The brother commander hajj Imad Mughniyeh became a martyr at the hands of the Zionist Israelis,” said a statement carried by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television channel. The station broke off normal programming to broadcast verses from the Koran.
Heavy gunfire broke out from the Ain Dilba quarter of the Shia-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut as the news spread. Ain Dilba, a run-down neighbourhood next to Beirut airport, was Mughniyeh’s Beirut home.
Israel today denied any involvement in Mughniyeh’s death. "Israel rejects any attempt by terrorist organisations to attribute to it any implication in this affair,” said a statement from the office of Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah terror leader, killed in car bomb
Nicholas Blanford, of The Times, in Beirut
Imad Mughniyeh, the Hezbollah mastermind behind the kidnapping of Westerners in Beirut and many big terror attacks around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, was killed late last night in a car bomb explosion in Damascus.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred in the Syrian capital’s smart Kfar Soussa district, although Hezbollah blamed Israeli agents.
His death is a huge blow to the Iranian-backed militant group, given Mughniyeh’s years of experience and organisational skills.
He was commander of Hezbollah’s military wing, which he helped to build up into the formidable machine that fought the Israeli Army to a standstill in the war of summer 2006.
“With all due pride, we declare a great jihadist leader of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon joining the martyrs . . . The brother commander hajj Imad Mughniyeh became a martyr at the hands of the Zionist Israelis,” said a statement carried by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television channel. The station broke off normal programming to broadcast verses from the Koran.
Heavy gunfire broke out from the Ain Dilba quarter of the Shia-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut as the news spread. Ain Dilba, a run-down neighbourhood next to Beirut airport, was Mughniyeh’s Beirut home.
Israel today denied any involvement in Mughniyeh’s death. "Israel rejects any attempt by terrorist organisations to attribute to it any implication in this affair,” said a statement from the office of Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah terror leader, killed in car bomb
Thursday, January 31, 2008
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - ISRAEL/LEBANON: THE WINOGRAD REPORT
Lebanon War report met with joy, relief
Members of the Winograd Committee leave after reporting the final results of the 2006 Lebanon War probe in Jerusalem, January 30. The committee concluded that the second Lebanon War ended without victory and suffered serious failures by the Israeli political and military leadership.
The release Wednesday of the much awaited Winograd Commission report on Israel's failures in the 2006 Lebanon war, which was sparked by a cross-border raid by Lebanese based Hezbollah guerrillas, was claimed as a victory by Lebanon's army chief and Hezbollah and emboldening by Palestinian Hamas.
And contrary to widespread expectations, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was let off lightly for his failures during the 34-day war.
Olmert can now breath easy as he is expected to weather the latest challenge of his tumultuous term after the key government report spared him from a major drubbing by refraining from the harsh language it used in its interim findings nine months ago, which blasted him for "serious failure."
The Shiite Hezbollah movement, whose guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in the raid that brought an Israeli invasion in response, welcomed the report's findings.
"Israel failed completely in achieving its goals and the Israeli army suffered a military defeat at the hands of Hezbollah," spokesman Hussein Rahal told AFP.
Hezbollah crowed that the report confirmed that its guerrillas had defeated the military might of Israel in a conflict that killed 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
The Palestinian Hamas movement echoed the sentiment, saying the report "reveals the weakness and the fragility of the Zionist entity."
"This report should embolden us to pursue our right of resistance in all its forms," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in a statement.
Lebanon's army chief, General Michel Sleiman, said from Beirut that the report was a victory for both the Lebanese army and for Hezbollah.
"We did not expect an official Israeli body to condemn publicly its government and army," Sleiman, who is tipped to become president, told As-Safir newspaper. "The Winograd report confirms that Israel ... is the one that took the decision to launch war on Lebanon without any justification.
"Israel's public admission that its army failed in Lebanon strengthens our confidence in ourselves as Lebanese ... and confirms the joint victory of the army and the resistance," he added, using a common term for Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the Western-backed government issued a statement in which it warned that Israel "failed to learn its lessons and is preparing for a new war on Lebanon."
The Winograd Commission, appointed by the Israeli government to probe the war, said the war was a missed opportunity and a grave failure for the Jewish state.
But although it criticized the war as a "serious missed opportunity" for Israel, and listed a number of failures, it said the premier had acted in what he sincerely believed to have been in the country's best interest.
"Acquitted," said a headline in the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper. "Olmert can breathe easy," said an editorial on the Ynet news Web site.
With most of its harsh criticism reserved for the military, the report by the government-appointed commission turned it "from a serious indictment to a public lifesaver for Ehud Olmert," Ynet said.
...
I am currently looking for a PDF file of the WINOGRAD REPORT...It will be posted as soon as I find it...
Pertinent Links:
1) Lebanon War report met with joy, relief
Members of the Winograd Committee leave after reporting the final results of the 2006 Lebanon War probe in Jerusalem, January 30. The committee concluded that the second Lebanon War ended without victory and suffered serious failures by the Israeli political and military leadership.
The release Wednesday of the much awaited Winograd Commission report on Israel's failures in the 2006 Lebanon war, which was sparked by a cross-border raid by Lebanese based Hezbollah guerrillas, was claimed as a victory by Lebanon's army chief and Hezbollah and emboldening by Palestinian Hamas.
And contrary to widespread expectations, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was let off lightly for his failures during the 34-day war.
Olmert can now breath easy as he is expected to weather the latest challenge of his tumultuous term after the key government report spared him from a major drubbing by refraining from the harsh language it used in its interim findings nine months ago, which blasted him for "serious failure."
The Shiite Hezbollah movement, whose guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in the raid that brought an Israeli invasion in response, welcomed the report's findings.
"Israel failed completely in achieving its goals and the Israeli army suffered a military defeat at the hands of Hezbollah," spokesman Hussein Rahal told AFP.
Hezbollah crowed that the report confirmed that its guerrillas had defeated the military might of Israel in a conflict that killed 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
The Palestinian Hamas movement echoed the sentiment, saying the report "reveals the weakness and the fragility of the Zionist entity."
"This report should embolden us to pursue our right of resistance in all its forms," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in a statement.
Lebanon's army chief, General Michel Sleiman, said from Beirut that the report was a victory for both the Lebanese army and for Hezbollah.
"We did not expect an official Israeli body to condemn publicly its government and army," Sleiman, who is tipped to become president, told As-Safir newspaper. "The Winograd report confirms that Israel ... is the one that took the decision to launch war on Lebanon without any justification.
"Israel's public admission that its army failed in Lebanon strengthens our confidence in ourselves as Lebanese ... and confirms the joint victory of the army and the resistance," he added, using a common term for Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the Western-backed government issued a statement in which it warned that Israel "failed to learn its lessons and is preparing for a new war on Lebanon."
The Winograd Commission, appointed by the Israeli government to probe the war, said the war was a missed opportunity and a grave failure for the Jewish state.
But although it criticized the war as a "serious missed opportunity" for Israel, and listed a number of failures, it said the premier had acted in what he sincerely believed to have been in the country's best interest.
"Acquitted," said a headline in the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper. "Olmert can breathe easy," said an editorial on the Ynet news Web site.
With most of its harsh criticism reserved for the military, the report by the government-appointed commission turned it "from a serious indictment to a public lifesaver for Ehud Olmert," Ynet said.
...
I am currently looking for a PDF file of the WINOGRAD REPORT...It will be posted as soon as I find it...
Pertinent Links:
1) Lebanon War report met with joy, relief
Sunday, July 29, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: HIZ B'ALLAH REJECTING AMERICA'S VISION FOR THE MIDDLE EAST
Hezbollah rejects U.S. vision of Mideast
By HUSSEIN DAKROUB
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) Hezbollah's leader said Saturday that the militant Islamic group's war last summer with Israel has left the U.S. vision of a "new Middle East" in shambles and claimed the guerrilla group was ready to strike Israel again at any time.
During the 34-day war in southern Lebanon, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for a new era of democracy and peace in the region, "a new Middle East."
But Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, said the U.S. vision aimed at reinforcing Israel.
"There is no new Middle East," Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told a mass rally in the southern town of Bint Jbeil, one of the towns hardest hit by the war. "It's gone with the wind."
Nasrallah did not personally attend the rally to mark the first anniversary of the war which Hezbollah calls "a divine victory. His speech was relayed to the crowd on a giant screen set up in the main square of Bint Jbeil.
Nasrallah said the guerrilla group would never be at peace with Israel.
"We will not wait for anyone to defend us. We will defend ourselves and our country," he said. "We possess and we will continue to possess rockets that can hit any area in occupied Palestine if Israel attacks Lebanon," he added.
"It is impossible to live with a back-stabbing enemy on our border, who has been assaulting us ever since it was born."
Hezbollah triggered the war by crossing the Israeli border and capturing two soldiers who have not been seen or heard from since.
Nasrallah taunted Israel, saying Hezbollah had thwarted the Jewish state from achieving any of its declared objectives in the war, including freeing the captive soldiers.
"The enemy has even failed to return the two prisoners," he said.
Nasrallah did not explicitly confirm that the two were still alive. But he said the only way to secure their freedom was through "indirect negotiations and a (prisoner) exchange" for Lebanese citizens held by Israel.
Nasrallah charged that the war was the result of "a U.S. decision" and the United States provided Israel with "political and material support."
"There was American pressure on Israel to continue its war until the desired objectives were achieved," he said in his address, broadcast live by Hezbollah's Al-Manar television.
The offensive killed more than 1,000 Lebanese, most of them civilians, according to tallies by the Lebanese government, human rights groups, and The Associated Press. Hezbollah launched nearly 4,000 rockets at Israel during the war, which killed 119 Israeli soldiers and 39 civilians
Hezbollah's critics also blame the group for prompting the current political crisis by stepping out of a coalition government.
The Hezbollah-led opposition has held street protests since Dec. 1 outside Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's office in Beriut. It wants to force him to resign or share power in a national unity Cabinet that would give the opposition veto power.
Saniora, backed by the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and the United States, rejects the opposition's demand.
Rival governments could emerge if Parliament fails to elect a new president before Nov. 25, when opposition-backed President Emile Lahoud must step down. Iran and Syria back the opposition, while Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the West support the Saniora government.
Visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that Lebanon could face a new civil war if its feuding leaders fail to resolve the political crisis threatening to tear the country apart.
Kouchner delivered the warning on the second day of his visit for talks with Lebanon's rival factions. France, the former colonial power, has encouraged dialogue between the Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah rejects U.S. vision of Mideast
By HUSSEIN DAKROUB
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) Hezbollah's leader said Saturday that the militant Islamic group's war last summer with Israel has left the U.S. vision of a "new Middle East" in shambles and claimed the guerrilla group was ready to strike Israel again at any time.
During the 34-day war in southern Lebanon, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for a new era of democracy and peace in the region, "a new Middle East."
But Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, said the U.S. vision aimed at reinforcing Israel.
"There is no new Middle East," Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told a mass rally in the southern town of Bint Jbeil, one of the towns hardest hit by the war. "It's gone with the wind."
Nasrallah did not personally attend the rally to mark the first anniversary of the war which Hezbollah calls "a divine victory. His speech was relayed to the crowd on a giant screen set up in the main square of Bint Jbeil.
Nasrallah said the guerrilla group would never be at peace with Israel.
"We will not wait for anyone to defend us. We will defend ourselves and our country," he said. "We possess and we will continue to possess rockets that can hit any area in occupied Palestine if Israel attacks Lebanon," he added.
"It is impossible to live with a back-stabbing enemy on our border, who has been assaulting us ever since it was born."
Hezbollah triggered the war by crossing the Israeli border and capturing two soldiers who have not been seen or heard from since.
Nasrallah taunted Israel, saying Hezbollah had thwarted the Jewish state from achieving any of its declared objectives in the war, including freeing the captive soldiers.
"The enemy has even failed to return the two prisoners," he said.
Nasrallah did not explicitly confirm that the two were still alive. But he said the only way to secure their freedom was through "indirect negotiations and a (prisoner) exchange" for Lebanese citizens held by Israel.
Nasrallah charged that the war was the result of "a U.S. decision" and the United States provided Israel with "political and material support."
"There was American pressure on Israel to continue its war until the desired objectives were achieved," he said in his address, broadcast live by Hezbollah's Al-Manar television.
The offensive killed more than 1,000 Lebanese, most of them civilians, according to tallies by the Lebanese government, human rights groups, and The Associated Press. Hezbollah launched nearly 4,000 rockets at Israel during the war, which killed 119 Israeli soldiers and 39 civilians
Hezbollah's critics also blame the group for prompting the current political crisis by stepping out of a coalition government.
The Hezbollah-led opposition has held street protests since Dec. 1 outside Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's office in Beriut. It wants to force him to resign or share power in a national unity Cabinet that would give the opposition veto power.
Saniora, backed by the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and the United States, rejects the opposition's demand.
Rival governments could emerge if Parliament fails to elect a new president before Nov. 25, when opposition-backed President Emile Lahoud must step down. Iran and Syria back the opposition, while Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the West support the Saniora government.
Visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that Lebanon could face a new civil war if its feuding leaders fail to resolve the political crisis threatening to tear the country apart.
Kouchner delivered the warning on the second day of his visit for talks with Lebanon's rival factions. France, the former colonial power, has encouraged dialogue between the Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah rejects U.S. vision of Mideast
Thursday, July 26, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - ISRAEL/HOLY LAND/LEBANON: THE AMBUSH OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS BY HIZ B'ALLAH, IN 2006, WAS 3 MONTHS IN THE MAKING
***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***
Op-ed is taken from Dar Al Hayat...
Hizbullah's Ambush
by Hassan Haydar
Standing on the very same spot from which he covered last summer's war in Tyre, South Lebanon, a reporter for an Arab satellite channel pans his camera out to the sandy shore of the beach to reveal swimmers of all ages cooling off in the water under the summer heat. This reporter proceeded to assure his audience that these people - among others in South Lebanon and the Lebanese in general - were "prepared to sacrifice once more if such a sacrifice would lead them to another victory." He made this bold assertion without bothering to ask any of the swimmers in the water - whose numbers included many women and children - the position he had just taken in their name.
Anyone listening to the recent speeches of Hizbullah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah knows now that the ambush of Israeli soldiers that forced the Lebanese to make the sacrifices the reporter referred to was in fact three months in the making. Thus, the same Hizbullah that had been attending the famous national dialogue and reassuring the Lebanese that the summer and tourist season of 2006 would be a peaceful one was planning an operation that would inflict pain on Lebanon as a whole and not just on two kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Throughout this planning, Hizbullah did not bother to grant others a say in the matter which would affect them - or to ask whether or not others were willing to pay the necessary price for Hizbullah's actions.
Hizbullah's reasoning bears a remarkable resemblance to the reporter's belief that he may speak freely on behalf of others without consulting them on his own plans for their future, and content himself with rallying them behind slogans of 'the road to paradise' - slogans fundamentally incompatible with the consensual democratic arrangement cemented in Lebanon's Taif Accords.
Sayyid Nasrallah went on to launch a scathing attack on Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and on his insistence throughout last summer's ceasefire negotiations on a full resolution of the issue of Hizbullah's weapons and on the state's monopolization over armed force in Lebanon. Thus, Nasrallah is condemning Siniora for implementing the duties delegated to him by the Lebanese people: the establishment and preservation of the power of the state rather than that of factions and parties. Nasrallah seems to have forgetten that it was Siniora who was relaying the conditions expressed by Israel through the United States government. This was due to Hizbullah's decision to use the Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament as a conduit in negotiations owing to the party's own political taboos and security constraints. By that reasoning, why does Hizbullah not also accuse Speaker Nabih Berri of pushing for the creation of an enclave dominated by multinational forces in Southern Lebanon?
As for Nasrallah's defense of Syria - who stood idly by while Lebanon was pummeled with several thousand tons of explosives - on the grounds that Damascus threatened Israel with military action should it take the war to Syrian territory, his statement is more an indictment than a defense. For it indicates that Syria is concerned only with her own security and not with that of its neighbor whom it dominated for years and with whom it has signed many a defensive pact. In addition, if Damascus' threats really prevented Israel from taking the fight to Syria, why did Damascus not issue warnings against attacks elsewhere?
So it seems that twisting the truth and switching positions are part of the 'politics of ambush' embraced by Hizbullah both publicly and in secret. And anyone who buys into the idea that the national unity government demanded by Hizbullah and its allies will remove Lebanon from destructive regional axes and restore peace and stability in the country has fallen victim to the politics of perpetual ambush.
Pertinent Links:
1) Hizbullah's Ambush
Op-ed is taken from Dar Al Hayat...
Hizbullah's Ambush
by Hassan Haydar
Standing on the very same spot from which he covered last summer's war in Tyre, South Lebanon, a reporter for an Arab satellite channel pans his camera out to the sandy shore of the beach to reveal swimmers of all ages cooling off in the water under the summer heat. This reporter proceeded to assure his audience that these people - among others in South Lebanon and the Lebanese in general - were "prepared to sacrifice once more if such a sacrifice would lead them to another victory." He made this bold assertion without bothering to ask any of the swimmers in the water - whose numbers included many women and children - the position he had just taken in their name.
Anyone listening to the recent speeches of Hizbullah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah knows now that the ambush of Israeli soldiers that forced the Lebanese to make the sacrifices the reporter referred to was in fact three months in the making. Thus, the same Hizbullah that had been attending the famous national dialogue and reassuring the Lebanese that the summer and tourist season of 2006 would be a peaceful one was planning an operation that would inflict pain on Lebanon as a whole and not just on two kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Throughout this planning, Hizbullah did not bother to grant others a say in the matter which would affect them - or to ask whether or not others were willing to pay the necessary price for Hizbullah's actions.
Hizbullah's reasoning bears a remarkable resemblance to the reporter's belief that he may speak freely on behalf of others without consulting them on his own plans for their future, and content himself with rallying them behind slogans of 'the road to paradise' - slogans fundamentally incompatible with the consensual democratic arrangement cemented in Lebanon's Taif Accords.
Sayyid Nasrallah went on to launch a scathing attack on Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and on his insistence throughout last summer's ceasefire negotiations on a full resolution of the issue of Hizbullah's weapons and on the state's monopolization over armed force in Lebanon. Thus, Nasrallah is condemning Siniora for implementing the duties delegated to him by the Lebanese people: the establishment and preservation of the power of the state rather than that of factions and parties. Nasrallah seems to have forgetten that it was Siniora who was relaying the conditions expressed by Israel through the United States government. This was due to Hizbullah's decision to use the Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament as a conduit in negotiations owing to the party's own political taboos and security constraints. By that reasoning, why does Hizbullah not also accuse Speaker Nabih Berri of pushing for the creation of an enclave dominated by multinational forces in Southern Lebanon?
As for Nasrallah's defense of Syria - who stood idly by while Lebanon was pummeled with several thousand tons of explosives - on the grounds that Damascus threatened Israel with military action should it take the war to Syrian territory, his statement is more an indictment than a defense. For it indicates that Syria is concerned only with her own security and not with that of its neighbor whom it dominated for years and with whom it has signed many a defensive pact. In addition, if Damascus' threats really prevented Israel from taking the fight to Syria, why did Damascus not issue warnings against attacks elsewhere?
So it seems that twisting the truth and switching positions are part of the 'politics of ambush' embraced by Hizbullah both publicly and in secret. And anyone who buys into the idea that the national unity government demanded by Hizbullah and its allies will remove Lebanon from destructive regional axes and restore peace and stability in the country has fallen victim to the politics of perpetual ambush.
Pertinent Links:
1) Hizbullah's Ambush
DAR AL HARB - U.S.A. - WASHINGTON D.C.: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT TO BUILD EMBASSY IN HIZ B'ALLAH-LAND
Atlas Shrugs is reporting:
They have done lost their minds folks. I think the U.S. should designate the State Department a terrorist entity.
...
UPDATE: The Blotter has learned that plans for a controversial new U.S. Embassy in Beirut have been put on hold indefinitely, and effectively killed according to a U.S. State Department spokesperson. More here
Pertinent Links:
1) State Dept to Build US Embassy in Hezbollahland
They have done lost their minds folks. I think the U.S. should designate the State Department a terrorist entity.
U.S. Plans to Build Embassy in Hezbollah Area of Beirut
ABC News
Despite protests from the U.S. ambassador in Lebanon, the State Department is pushing ahead with plans to build a new embassy in a part of Beirut city controlled by the anti-U.S. Hezbollah group.
A U.S. official tells the Blotter on ABCNEWS.com that Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, in a May 31, 2007 classified cable to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, registered his strong objections, saying his staff "unanimously opposes construction" of the embassy on the proposed site. Hezbollah is believed to be behind two attacks on the U.S. Embassy and an embassy annex in 1983 and 1984 that led to the deaths of 87 people, including eight CIA employees.
...
UPDATE: The Blotter has learned that plans for a controversial new U.S. Embassy in Beirut have been put on hold indefinitely, and effectively killed according to a U.S. State Department spokesperson. More here
Pertinent Links:
1) State Dept to Build US Embassy in Hezbollahland
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - ISRAEL/HOLY LAND: HIZ B'ALLAHS INFLUENCE DECLINING IN WEST BANK
Palestinians: Hezbollah influence in West Bank on the wane
Hezbollah's influence on Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades has been checked in recent months, Palestinian security sources said yesterday. On the other hand, the extremist Lebanese Shi'ite organization has restored its military capabilities, particularly its long-range missile arsenal, nearly a year following the Second Lebanon War, senior Israeli security sources confirmed yesterday.
According to Palestinian security sources, Hezbollah has not ceased its efforts to penetrate Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades cells, but its ability to do so has been seriously curtailed.
The sources pointed to a number of reasons Hezbollah is finding it difficult to penetrate the organization and gain control of its members in order to carry out terrorist activities on its behalf against Israel.
Israel's security forces have primarily succeeded in killing or arresting many of the cells that had been under Hezbollah control, mostly in the area of Nablus and northern West Bank.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Palestinians: Hezbollah influence in West Bank on the wane
Hezbollah's influence on Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades has been checked in recent months, Palestinian security sources said yesterday. On the other hand, the extremist Lebanese Shi'ite organization has restored its military capabilities, particularly its long-range missile arsenal, nearly a year following the Second Lebanon War, senior Israeli security sources confirmed yesterday.
According to Palestinian security sources, Hezbollah has not ceased its efforts to penetrate Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades cells, but its ability to do so has been seriously curtailed.
The sources pointed to a number of reasons Hezbollah is finding it difficult to penetrate the organization and gain control of its members in order to carry out terrorist activities on its behalf against Israel.
Israel's security forces have primarily succeeded in killing or arresting many of the cells that had been under Hezbollah control, mostly in the area of Nablus and northern West Bank.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Palestinians: Hezbollah influence in West Bank on the wane
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM: THE U.N. MAY TAKE UP 'SYRIAN ARMS SMUGGLING'
UN Council asked to address Syrian arms smuggling
By Claudia Parsons
UNITED NATIONS, July 24 (Reuters) - The United States, Britain and France want U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to pursue ways to stop weapons flowing into Lebanon over the Syrian border, according to a draft U.N. statement on Tuesday.
The policy statement, which its backers hope will be approved by the 15-member U.N. Security Council as soon as this week, also calls on Syria to do more to control its border with Lebanon and for Iran to abide by an arms embargo.
Unlike a resolution, all 15 members of the council have to agree to a statement, which means the text could be revised.
The U.N. coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Michael Williams, warned last week that Syrian arms smuggling to militant groups in Lebanon threatens implementation of a peace deal that ended last summer's war with Israel.
"The Council also calls for enhanced cross-border cooperation to secure the Syrian-Lebanese border," the draft statement said.
It welcomes a report by a committee of experts appointed by Ban that recommended a radical overhaul of border procedures which it said were largely incapable of preventing smuggling in their current state. The statement asks Ban to report back on implementing the recommendations.
"The Security Council ... expresses grave concern at persistent reports of breaches of the arms embargo along the Lebanon-Syria border," said the draft.
Syria has consistently denied smuggling weapons.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) UN Council asked to address Syrian arms smuggling
By Claudia Parsons
UNITED NATIONS, July 24 (Reuters) - The United States, Britain and France want U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to pursue ways to stop weapons flowing into Lebanon over the Syrian border, according to a draft U.N. statement on Tuesday.
The policy statement, which its backers hope will be approved by the 15-member U.N. Security Council as soon as this week, also calls on Syria to do more to control its border with Lebanon and for Iran to abide by an arms embargo.
Unlike a resolution, all 15 members of the council have to agree to a statement, which means the text could be revised.
The U.N. coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Michael Williams, warned last week that Syrian arms smuggling to militant groups in Lebanon threatens implementation of a peace deal that ended last summer's war with Israel.
"The Council also calls for enhanced cross-border cooperation to secure the Syrian-Lebanese border," the draft statement said.
It welcomes a report by a committee of experts appointed by Ban that recommended a radical overhaul of border procedures which it said were largely incapable of preventing smuggling in their current state. The statement asks Ban to report back on implementing the recommendations.
"The Security Council ... expresses grave concern at persistent reports of breaches of the arms embargo along the Lebanon-Syria border," said the draft.
Syria has consistently denied smuggling weapons.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) UN Council asked to address Syrian arms smuggling
DAR AL ISLAM - IRAQ: HIZ B'ALLAH'S INCREASING PRESENCE IN THE MILITIA SCENE IN IRAQ
Hizballah's Long Reach Into Iraq
By MARK KUKIS/BAGHDAD
The prisoner initially pretended to be deaf and mute when U.S. interrogators questioned him. For weeks after his capture in March in the southern city of Basra, he persisted with the ruse, even though the Americans suspected him of being a key player in the Jan. 20 attack on U.S . forces in Karbala that left five soldiers dead. But eventually he cracked and began talking, revealing glimpses into the shifting world of Shi'ite militias in Iraq.
The captive's name is Ali Musa Daqduq. American military officials say he is a senior operative from Hizballah, the Shi'ite militia of Lebanon. According to the Americans, Daqduq joined Hizballah in 1983 and rose through the ranks to impressive heights. Then, in 2005, his superiors sent him on a journey to Iran to work with the Quds Force, an elite Iranian paramilitary organization known around the Middle East for its terrorist activities. The Iranian regime has long been a patron of Hizballah and its activities in Lebanon. In Tehran, Daqduq allegedly received orders from Quds Force leaders to settle in Iraq and ramp up training of Shi'ite militia fighters in order to create special "cells" of skilled guerrillas. "What is I think clear is Iran's interest in things like the Lebanon model as a method of preserving strategic influence in areas that are of importance to them," says Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, the acting commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad. "That's the bane of the Middle East, and it's also the fingerprint of Iranian statecraft. And so we see that emerging here, just as we saw it emerge in Lebanon."
Daqduq is not alone, say U.S. military officials and others who keep tabs on Iran's activities in Iraq. According to the People's Mujaheddin Organization of Iran (PMOI), a longtime opposition group to the regime in Tehran, as many as 500 Hizballah operatives are at work in Iraq training militiamen at the behest of Iran. The PMOI, which claims to have an extensive intelligence network in Iran and Iraq, says most of the Hizballah operatives in Iraq are serving as trainers or assistant trainers to the Mahdi Army, the Shi'ite militia of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Brooks says the PMOI assessment seems plausible based on U.S. intelligence. "It wouldn't surprise me," Brooks said. "Evidence of their presence has been here for some time." Brooks said sophisticated kidnapping operations in Iraq and high-tech bombs of the kind Hizballah has been known to use in Lebanon are signs that the group is increasingly a part of the militia scene here. Brooks said that over the past two years Iraqi militia fighters have noticeably increased their destructive capacities against American forces, and he attributed the transformation to the presence of Hizballah and other guerrilla trainers in Iraq under the direction of the Quds Force. "I think it elevated the lethality of the militias for sure," Brooks said of the Hizballah presence. "They are absolutely some of the world's best in terms of terrorist tactics."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Hizballah's Long Reach Into Iraq
By MARK KUKIS/BAGHDAD
The prisoner initially pretended to be deaf and mute when U.S. interrogators questioned him. For weeks after his capture in March in the southern city of Basra, he persisted with the ruse, even though the Americans suspected him of being a key player in the Jan. 20 attack on U.S . forces in Karbala that left five soldiers dead. But eventually he cracked and began talking, revealing glimpses into the shifting world of Shi'ite militias in Iraq.
The captive's name is Ali Musa Daqduq. American military officials say he is a senior operative from Hizballah, the Shi'ite militia of Lebanon. According to the Americans, Daqduq joined Hizballah in 1983 and rose through the ranks to impressive heights. Then, in 2005, his superiors sent him on a journey to Iran to work with the Quds Force, an elite Iranian paramilitary organization known around the Middle East for its terrorist activities. The Iranian regime has long been a patron of Hizballah and its activities in Lebanon. In Tehran, Daqduq allegedly received orders from Quds Force leaders to settle in Iraq and ramp up training of Shi'ite militia fighters in order to create special "cells" of skilled guerrillas. "What is I think clear is Iran's interest in things like the Lebanon model as a method of preserving strategic influence in areas that are of importance to them," says Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, the acting commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad. "That's the bane of the Middle East, and it's also the fingerprint of Iranian statecraft. And so we see that emerging here, just as we saw it emerge in Lebanon."
Daqduq is not alone, say U.S. military officials and others who keep tabs on Iran's activities in Iraq. According to the People's Mujaheddin Organization of Iran (PMOI), a longtime opposition group to the regime in Tehran, as many as 500 Hizballah operatives are at work in Iraq training militiamen at the behest of Iran. The PMOI, which claims to have an extensive intelligence network in Iran and Iraq, says most of the Hizballah operatives in Iraq are serving as trainers or assistant trainers to the Mahdi Army, the Shi'ite militia of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Brooks says the PMOI assessment seems plausible based on U.S. intelligence. "It wouldn't surprise me," Brooks said. "Evidence of their presence has been here for some time." Brooks said sophisticated kidnapping operations in Iraq and high-tech bombs of the kind Hizballah has been known to use in Lebanon are signs that the group is increasingly a part of the militia scene here. Brooks said that over the past two years Iraqi militia fighters have noticeably increased their destructive capacities against American forces, and he attributed the transformation to the presence of Hizballah and other guerrilla trainers in Iraq under the direction of the Quds Force. "I think it elevated the lethality of the militias for sure," Brooks said of the Hizballah presence. "They are absolutely some of the world's best in terms of terrorist tactics."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Hizballah's Long Reach Into Iraq
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
DAR AL HARB - ISRAEL: HIZ B'ALLAH AGENT ARRESTED BY SHIN BET
Israeli-Arab Hizbullah agent arrested
By YAAKOV KATZ
An Israeli Arab resident of the North was arrested by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) last month after she was allegedly recruited by Hizbullah, it was released for publication on Tuesday.
The suspect was indicted on Tuesday for maintaining contact with a foreign enemy agent.
She was arrested at the Allenby Bridge on June 30 as she returned to Israel from Jordan. She told investigators she had been asked to join Hizbullah while studying dentistry at the University of Amman in 2003, by a fellow student who introduced herself as a Hizbullah operative responsible for recruiting Israeli Arabs.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Israeli-Arab Hizbullah agent arrested
By YAAKOV KATZ
An Israeli Arab resident of the North was arrested by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) last month after she was allegedly recruited by Hizbullah, it was released for publication on Tuesday.
The suspect was indicted on Tuesday for maintaining contact with a foreign enemy agent.
She was arrested at the Allenby Bridge on June 30 as she returned to Israel from Jordan. She told investigators she had been asked to join Hizbullah while studying dentistry at the University of Amman in 2003, by a fellow student who introduced herself as a Hizbullah operative responsible for recruiting Israeli Arabs.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Israeli-Arab Hizbullah agent arrested
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: THE LEBANESE ARMY HAS BEEN WELL & TRULY INFILTRATED - - - IRAN FLOODING SOUTHERN LEBANON WITH WEAPONS
Shi'ites infiltrate Lebanese Army, expedite arms shipments from Syria
TEL AVIV — The Lebanese Army has been quietly helping Hizbullah smuggle weapons from neighboring Syria.
Israeli intelligence said Hizbullah has infiltrated Shi'ite-dominated units of the Lebanese Army. The intelligence sources said Shi'ite soldiers were recruited by Hizbullah to facilitate weapons shipments from Iran through Syria.
"There was always cooperation between the Lebanese Army and Hizbullah," Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said. "Now, this cooperation has intensified."
The intelligence sources said Hizbullah has been receiving a huge amount of weapons from Iran. They said the weapons were flown to Syria and then delivered to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley by ground transport.
The Lebanese Army has failed to stop the weapons shipments to Hizbullah facilities in eastern and central Lebanon. The sources said Shi'ite units have quietly allowed the smuggling of weapons to militia outposts along the Litani River and facilitated the flow of insurgents into southern Lebanon.
"Most, if not all, of the Lebanese Army units in the south contains a majority of Shi'ites," an intelligence source said. "They coordinate with Hizbullah and supply them with intelligence on Israeli and UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] movements."
The sources said Hizbullah has replenished its arsenal over the last year and maintains most of its rockets and missiles in the Bekaa as well as in bunkers just north of the Litani River. They said Hizbullah maintains a growing presence of operatives along the Israeli-Lebanese border that deal with intelligence, recruitment and logistics.
...
Excerpted from an article that is available in its entirety only to subscribers...
Pertinent Links:
1) Shi'ites infiltrate Lebanese Army, expedite arms shipments from Syria
TEL AVIV — The Lebanese Army has been quietly helping Hizbullah smuggle weapons from neighboring Syria.
Israeli intelligence said Hizbullah has infiltrated Shi'ite-dominated units of the Lebanese Army. The intelligence sources said Shi'ite soldiers were recruited by Hizbullah to facilitate weapons shipments from Iran through Syria.
"There was always cooperation between the Lebanese Army and Hizbullah," Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said. "Now, this cooperation has intensified."
The intelligence sources said Hizbullah has been receiving a huge amount of weapons from Iran. They said the weapons were flown to Syria and then delivered to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley by ground transport.
The Lebanese Army has failed to stop the weapons shipments to Hizbullah facilities in eastern and central Lebanon. The sources said Shi'ite units have quietly allowed the smuggling of weapons to militia outposts along the Litani River and facilitated the flow of insurgents into southern Lebanon.
"Most, if not all, of the Lebanese Army units in the south contains a majority of Shi'ites," an intelligence source said. "They coordinate with Hizbullah and supply them with intelligence on Israeli and UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] movements."
The sources said Hizbullah has replenished its arsenal over the last year and maintains most of its rockets and missiles in the Bekaa as well as in bunkers just north of the Litani River. They said Hizbullah maintains a growing presence of operatives along the Israeli-Lebanese border that deal with intelligence, recruitment and logistics.
...
Excerpted from an article that is available in its entirety only to subscribers...
Pertinent Links:
1) Shi'ites infiltrate Lebanese Army, expedite arms shipments from Syria
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: HIZ B'ALLAH'S ROCKETS ARE NOW AMONGST LEBANESE CIVILIANS IN SOUTHERN LEBANON
Hezbollah moves rockets among civilians in Lebanon
Beirut- Hezbollah guerrillas have moved most of their rockets in south Lebanon among civilians in villages, an apparent attempt to avoid detection by Israel and U.N. troops, Israeli military officials said Sunday.
The new moves are part of Hezbollah's reorganization after last summer's war, the officials said. During that 34-day conflict, Hezbollah fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israeli population centers, and Israeli land and air assaults caused heavy damage to Lebanese towns and neighborhoods.
Lebanon criticized Israel for targeting civilian areas, while Israel said Hezbollah was to blame for operating among civilians and putting them at risk.
Last summer, many of Hezbollah's rocket batteries were located in unpopulated rural areas, where the guerrillas dug networks of tunnels and fortifications, the officials said.
But the army's new intelligence indicates that those positions have now largely been abandoned in favor of populated villages, which provide better cover for the group's activities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject.
The U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended the war expanded UNIFIL, the international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, to 13,000 troops, entrusting it with ensuring that Hezbollah is not rearming near the Lebanon-Israel border.
Yasmina Bouziane, a UNIFIL spokesman in Lebanon, refused to comment on the Israeli charges.
A Hezbollah official in Beirut also refused to comment on the allegations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, said only that in the past Hezbollah guerrillas fired rockets at Israel from valleys and mountainous areas and not from inside villages.
The Israeli officials said Hezbollah's postwar efforts also include the construction of new fortifications north of the Litani River, farther from the Israeli border and out of UNIFIL's jurisdiction.
Last summer's conflict began when Hezbollah men attacked an Israeli border patrol, killing three soldiers and capturing two. The fighting left 159 Israelis dead, including 119 soldiers, while in Lebanon more than 1,200 people died, most of them civilians, according to counts by human rights groups, the Lebanese government and The Associated Press.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah moves rockets among civilians in Lebanon
Beirut- Hezbollah guerrillas have moved most of their rockets in south Lebanon among civilians in villages, an apparent attempt to avoid detection by Israel and U.N. troops, Israeli military officials said Sunday.
The new moves are part of Hezbollah's reorganization after last summer's war, the officials said. During that 34-day conflict, Hezbollah fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israeli population centers, and Israeli land and air assaults caused heavy damage to Lebanese towns and neighborhoods.
Lebanon criticized Israel for targeting civilian areas, while Israel said Hezbollah was to blame for operating among civilians and putting them at risk.
Last summer, many of Hezbollah's rocket batteries were located in unpopulated rural areas, where the guerrillas dug networks of tunnels and fortifications, the officials said.
But the army's new intelligence indicates that those positions have now largely been abandoned in favor of populated villages, which provide better cover for the group's activities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject.
The U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended the war expanded UNIFIL, the international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, to 13,000 troops, entrusting it with ensuring that Hezbollah is not rearming near the Lebanon-Israel border.
Yasmina Bouziane, a UNIFIL spokesman in Lebanon, refused to comment on the Israeli charges.
A Hezbollah official in Beirut also refused to comment on the allegations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, said only that in the past Hezbollah guerrillas fired rockets at Israel from valleys and mountainous areas and not from inside villages.
The Israeli officials said Hezbollah's postwar efforts also include the construction of new fortifications north of the Litani River, farther from the Israeli border and out of UNIFIL's jurisdiction.
Last summer's conflict began when Hezbollah men attacked an Israeli border patrol, killing three soldiers and capturing two. The fighting left 159 Israelis dead, including 119 soldiers, while in Lebanon more than 1,200 people died, most of them civilians, according to counts by human rights groups, the Lebanese government and The Associated Press.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah moves rockets among civilians in Lebanon
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: LEADING E.U. TROOP CONTRIBUTING STATES SEEK OUT HIZ B'ALLAH'S COOPERATION
UN and Hezbollah make unlikely bedfellows in Lebanon
Beirut - MCpl. Fabio Carlone says his small, lightly armored, Puma vehicle is just the right size for patrolling the narrow, potholed lanes of southern Lebanon.
The flaw, however, is that the vehicle provides little protection against the kind of car bomb that killed six of his United Nations colleagues last month. And Master Corporal Carlone says that weighs on his mind every time he and his Italian co ades go out on patrol along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was increased from 2,000 to 13,300 peacekeepers after the month-long war last summer between Israel and Hezbollah. The UN peacekeepers are led by elite European troops and are charged with helping the Lebanese Army ensure that the tense border remained calm.
But a year on, UNIFIL still finds itself under threat, not from the Shiite Hezbollah, but from suspected radical Sunni militants possibly inspired by Al Qaeda. And in a bizarre twist, some UNIFIL contingents are now seeking the cooperation of the powerful Hezbollah, which also views militant Sunnis as a threat, to help provide tacit security for the peacekeepers, Hezbollah and UNIFIL sources say.
Last month, six Spanish and Colombian soldiers serving with UNIFIL's Spanish battalion were killed when a car bomb exploded beside their armored vehicle, the deadliest attack in UNIFIL's 29-year history.
Last week, a UNIFIL jeep was damaged when a small bomb exploded nearby, confirming fears that last month's bombing was not a random act. In both attacks, radical Sunnis are the prime suspects.
"We are facing threats, but not threats about our ability to carry out our mission," says Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, UNIFIL's commander, at his headquarters in the southern coastal village of Naqoura. "We are cautious, we are soldiers. We know the risk can be minimized but not completely eradicated."
As Lebanon's political crisis intensified in the wake of the war last summer, UNIFIL began receiving increased intelligence warnings of potential attacks by Al Qaeda-inspired militants. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's deputy leader, twice referred to UNIFIL in video-taped messages, describing the peacekeepers as "international crusader forces."
The growing threat of attack by Sunni radicals apparently spurred the leading European troop-contributing states to seek the Shiite Hezbollah's cooperation. According to UNIFIL sources, intelligence agents from Italy, France, and Spain met with Hezbollah representatives in the southern city of Sidon in April. As a result, some Spanish peacekeepers subsequently were "escorted" on some of their patrols by Hezbollah members in civilian vehicles, the UNIFIL sources say.
...
What a bunch of pansies...
Pertinent Links:
1) UN and Hezbollah make unlikely bedfellows in Lebanon
Beirut - MCpl. Fabio Carlone says his small, lightly armored, Puma vehicle is just the right size for patrolling the narrow, potholed lanes of southern Lebanon.
The flaw, however, is that the vehicle provides little protection against the kind of car bomb that killed six of his United Nations colleagues last month. And Master Corporal Carlone says that weighs on his mind every time he and his Italian co ades go out on patrol along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was increased from 2,000 to 13,300 peacekeepers after the month-long war last summer between Israel and Hezbollah. The UN peacekeepers are led by elite European troops and are charged with helping the Lebanese Army ensure that the tense border remained calm.
But a year on, UNIFIL still finds itself under threat, not from the Shiite Hezbollah, but from suspected radical Sunni militants possibly inspired by Al Qaeda. And in a bizarre twist, some UNIFIL contingents are now seeking the cooperation of the powerful Hezbollah, which also views militant Sunnis as a threat, to help provide tacit security for the peacekeepers, Hezbollah and UNIFIL sources say.
Last month, six Spanish and Colombian soldiers serving with UNIFIL's Spanish battalion were killed when a car bomb exploded beside their armored vehicle, the deadliest attack in UNIFIL's 29-year history.
Last week, a UNIFIL jeep was damaged when a small bomb exploded nearby, confirming fears that last month's bombing was not a random act. In both attacks, radical Sunnis are the prime suspects.
"We are facing threats, but not threats about our ability to carry out our mission," says Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, UNIFIL's commander, at his headquarters in the southern coastal village of Naqoura. "We are cautious, we are soldiers. We know the risk can be minimized but not completely eradicated."
As Lebanon's political crisis intensified in the wake of the war last summer, UNIFIL began receiving increased intelligence warnings of potential attacks by Al Qaeda-inspired militants. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's deputy leader, twice referred to UNIFIL in video-taped messages, describing the peacekeepers as "international crusader forces."
The growing threat of attack by Sunni radicals apparently spurred the leading European troop-contributing states to seek the Shiite Hezbollah's cooperation. According to UNIFIL sources, intelligence agents from Italy, France, and Spain met with Hezbollah representatives in the southern city of Sidon in April. As a result, some Spanish peacekeepers subsequently were "escorted" on some of their patrols by Hezbollah members in civilian vehicles, the UNIFIL sources say.
...
What a bunch of pansies...
Pertinent Links:
1) UN and Hezbollah make unlikely bedfellows in Lebanon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
