What Hezbollah is fighting for
“We are not fighting you so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.”
- Hussein Massawi, former leader of Hezbollah
In: Geopolitics, In Their Own Words · Tagged with: Hezbollah
Hezbollah’s slogan: ‘Death to America’
“‘Death to America!’ was, is and will stay our slogan.”
- Hezb0llah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasralleh – during 2003 speech in Beirut
In: In Their Own Words · Tagged with: Hezbollah
Terrorism Roundup
Egypt: According to Ynet, Egyptian security forces captured 100 anti-aircraft missiles and other weapons believed destined for Gaza on Wednesday according to the Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Sabe’. Egyptian forces also discovered three tunnels linking Rafah to the Gaza Strip, and confiscated dozens of vehicles used for smuggling.
Gaza: The Kuwait News Agency reports that Palestinians fired two more rockets into Israel on Wednesday. Local radio stations said the Ali Mustafa Brigade – the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – claimed responsibility.
And just hours after Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov urged Hamas to stop militants from firing rockets into Israel, a Qassam rocket was fired into Ashkelon.
Israeli warplanes responded by launching at least five attacks on various targets.
Lebanon: Tribunal investigators have summoned 12 Hizballah members and close supporters for questioning for the 2005 assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Hizballah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah referred to the 12 as “witnesses and not as suspects,” and told al Manar – the jihadist group’s television station – that “We have nothing to fear and we will co-operate.”
Nasrallah stated that six additional members would appear for questioning.
Hizballah, Israel, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, Syrian intelligence, and even al Qaeda have been speculated to be involved in the Hariri killing. But in May of last year, Der Spiegel reported the tribunal had evidence showing that Hizballah was behind the massacre.
Russia: Chechen terrorist leader Doku Umarov has claimed responsibility for the “Black Widow” suicide attacks on the Moscow Metro, which killed 39 Russians on Monday. Another double attack in Dagestan killed 12, including nine policemen on Wednesday. A second Dagestan bombing killed two more on Thursday. President Dimitri Medvedev said in a Security Council meeting that the attacks are “links in the same chain,” and called for a “brutal” response.
Monday’s blasts were the first terrorist attacks against Russia in six years.
In: National Security · Tagged with: Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon, Rafik Hariri tribunal, Russia
Who are we fighting anyways?
Gadi Adelman illustrates how absurd and dangerous the Obama administration’s approach to fighting our jihadist enemies is in an excellent piece at Family Security Matters. Adelman would know, having survived a terrorist attack in Jerusalem which killed seven children.
A very serious administration would know – and admit to – the fact that we are not just at war with al Qaeda, but with Jihad itself. Saying that we are at war only with al Qaeda would have been tantamount to saying, during World War II, that we were at war with only the 25th Panzer Division of the German Army, and not with the entire German Army itself.
Yes, we are at war with al Qaeda… and also with Hamas and Hezbollah and Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al-Gama’at al-Islamiyya and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Ansar al Islam and Harakat ul-Mujahadin …well, you get the idea. What animates, connects and indeed unites these various groups – and many more? Jihad. Holy War against the infidels.
Unfortunately, our president actually believes that Hamas and Hezbollah have “legitimate claims!” Read the New York Times’ interview for yourself, then read the terrorist groups’ charters to see what their claims are.
But while we are drawing comparisons to WWII, what would this country have done had FDR announced that Hitler had legitimate claims? I doubt that would have gone over well.
In all fairness, all administrations have done a piss-poor job of handling the threat of Islamic jihad, some worse than others, but the past is the past. It is time for the government to move forward and announce that these jihadist groups threaten our liberty and security and are therefore our enemy. That avoids the whole politically incorrect distraction that the Islamist apologists will throw up, because while not all Muslims are jihadist, all jihadists are Muslim.
[Originally posted at Blackfive]
In: Religion, terrorism · Tagged with: al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Family Security Matters, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islam, jihad, New York Times
Hezbollah Prepared to Hold the US Hostage
A Middle East terrorism expert has warned that Iran may use a terrorist group to strike the United States if it becomes threatened. “If Iran’s regime is in trouble, either from the outside or even from a democratic uprising, it may order Hezbollah to attack the U.S.” said Dr. Walid Phares during an appearance on FOX News last week.
This reiterates what Hezbollah themselves have said. “We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year,” Hezbollah spokesman Mojtaba Bigdeli told Reuters in a 2006 interview. “They have been trained and they can become fully armed. We are ready to dispatch them to every corner of the world to jeopardize Israel and America’s interests. We are only waiting for the supreme leader’s green light to take action. If America wants to ignite World War III … we welcome it.”
In: Geopolitics · Tagged with: Canada, Hezbollah, Immigration, Iran, Mexico, terrorism, Venezuela
Iranian situation in a nutshell
Dore Gold, John Bolton, and Walid Phares discuss the situation in Iran from nuclear proliferation, sanctions, missile defense, and international pressure on the FOX Business Channel.
In: Geopolitics · Tagged with: Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, nuclear weapons
Hezbollah may attack US
Dr. Walid Phares on FOX News: “If Iran’s regime is in trouble,either from the outside or even from a democratic uprising, it may order Hezbollah to attack the US mainland.”
Video here.
In: National Security · Tagged with: Hezbollah, terrorism
Iranian Plane Crash was IRGC Operation Gone Wrong
Iranians gather at the edge of a crater at the crash site of the Caspian Airlines plane, which fell into farmland near the city of Qazvin.
The Iranian plane that crashed two weeks ago, claiming 168 lives, was reportedly caused by explosives headed for Hezbollah according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
While en route to Armenia, a Caspian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 crashed 16 minutes after takeoff, but eyewitnesses to the accident say that they could hear explosions in the aircraft before the it crashed. Lebanese sources said that cases of sophisticated detonators and electrical instrumentation had been loaded on the plane, destined for the Hezbollah. The detonators were to have found their way to the terrorist army via Armenia, Turkey, and Syria before arriving in Lebanonin order to avoid drawing attention.
Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps were accompanying the flight. Reportedly, a large number of security forces were at the scene of the crash shortly after the crash.
Originally, the detonators were destined for Southern Lebanon, but due to the July14 warehouse explosion, they were to be diverted to a facility north of the Litani river.
In: Geopolitics · Tagged with: Hezbollah, Iran, IRGC
Sanctions won’t stop Iran from nuking up
Matthew Levitt exposes the fact that sanctions won’t stop Iran’s nuclear proliferation. From his testimony to the Senate Comittee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs:
…targeted financial sanctions were never intended to solve the problem of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Sanctions are no silver bullet. On their own, these financial tools can only do so much. But coupled with other tools — especially robust diplomacy, but also a credible military presence in the region — financial measures can effectively create leverage for diplomacy. That diplomacy should focus not only on Iran, but on Russia, China, our European and Asian allies, the Gulf States, and others.
Once the full economic and diplomatic weight of the United States is brought to bear on our enemies, we win every time. History shows that sanctions alone do not work. But this new “soft power” of Obama’s is destined to fail. Why on earth would Iran abandon their nuclear program if they know there is nothing to lose and everything to gain? Ayatollah Khamenei will not abandon his nuclear ambitions because some diplomat asked nicely.
According to the [2007 National Intelligence Estimate], Iran’s decision to halt its nuclear weapons program in 2003 was “in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure resulting from exposure of Iran’s previously undeclared nuclear work.” The key judgments conclude that the intelligence community’s “assessment that the [nuclear weapons] program probably was halted primarily in response to international pressure suggests Iran may be more vulnerable to influence on the issue that we judged previously.”
What else happened in 2003? It wasn’t some historic moment in diplomatic history, it was the invasion of Iraq. Iran found themselves surrounded by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now Obama is implementing “exit strategies” in both countries, which tells Iran not only that our resolve has run out, but also that we mean Iran no harm. The carrot-and-stick approach has become the carrot-and-carrot. Plus, the UN and Europe can’t be counted on for sanctions as they are only out for themselves, and there is good money in doing business with Iran.
Based on this, I believe that Iran will not only have a nuclear arsenal by the end of this year, but also that our government will do absolutely nothing to stop them. This is about legitimacy: Iran saw China emerge as a superpower – not because of their robust economy, but because of their nuclear arsenal. Iran seeks legitimacy, something that a few nuclear warheads can easily provide.
I also say that Iran will NOT attack Israel as soon as a weapon is ready, because they don’t have to. Iran can move the weapon to Hezbollah, their Lebanese proxy army, who could deploy a nuke into Israel via a tunnel. Iran destroys Israel – and has plausible deniability.
Sanctions alone will not work, as Levitt points out – but apparently they were never intended to.
In: Geopolitics · Tagged with: Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, nuclear weapons
Surprise! Hezbollah is violating UN embargo
(AP) United Nations troops salute the coffins of Hezbollah militants during a prisoner exchange in Tyre, Lebanon. Israeli officials called for their removal following the gesture.
A recent explosion in Southern Lebanon provides another glaring example that Hezbollah operates with impunity despite U.N. Security Council Resolutions expressly calling for their disarmament, and that the 15,000-strong UNIFIL force won’t do anything to stop them.
The exploding warehouse actually turned out to be a Hezbollah weapons cache that according to military analyst W. Thomas Smith Jr. “is said to have stored all manner of ‘rockets, mortars, artillery shells, grenades,’ and other munitions smuggled by Iran and Syria to the terrorist group in Lebanon since the Hizballah-Israel war.”
Smith adds:
… upon setting up a security perimeter around the blast site, the Lebanese army blocked soldiers with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) from entering the security zone to investigate. Hizballah on the other hand, was given a green light.
In the same article, Smith reports that Hezbollah has trained between 100 and 150 Lebanese army soldiers on the use of the terrorist group’s offensive missiles obtained from Iran.
How can this be?
Smith’s sources tell him that “Hizballah has penetrated many elements of the Lebanese army from intelligence to combat arms units; and this is due primarily to the active, though illegal, joint Hizballah-Lebanese Army ‘Operations Room’ established by the Lebanese government and Syria in the 1990s.”
Elements within the Lebanese army (an army which receives direct military support from the U.S.) are complicit. And UNIFIL – 14 of whose soldiers were injured by stone-throwing civilians when they attempted to move against another suspected cache – appears unable to do anything about it.
Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Gabriela Shalev said in a letter to the Security Council that Hezbollah’s actions represented “a clear violation of [UNSCR] 1701,” and added that “Such violations jeopardize the fragile stability along Israel’s northern border and stand in contravention of UN Security Council resolution 1701, in particular paragraph 8 that calls for ‘full respect for the Blue Line by both parties’.”
Who has any respect the ‘Blue Line’ at this point? UNIFIL considers this incident a “serious violation,” but really – what are they going to do about it?
In: Geopolitics · Tagged with: Hezbollah, Lebanon, UNIFIL
