Category Archives: Hezbollah

Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon, Mossad

Israeli Mossad and Collaborators Assassinate Top Hezbollah Military Techie………

      

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                                 Video:
A Kenny G Holiday

“Israeli intelligence has assassinated Hassan al-Laqqis. A deadly breach has taken out one of the leading minds of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon. The executioners snuck under cover of darkness and struck a blow to Hezbollah deep inside its stronghold. The five bullets did not penetrate the head of Hassan al-Laqqis alone but also the heart of the Resistance itself. The assailants followed Laqqis, snuck in, and struck down the head of Hezbollah’s air defense division, and one of the Resistance’s most important “electronic minds.” The perpetrators fired five shots – one of which missed – killing Laqqis after several botched assassination attempts in the past. There is no doubt that this is a Mossad operation, no matter who carried it out directly – whether takfiri groups or collaborators…………..”

Once upon a time, Arab regimes and Arab media blamed Israel for almost every political assassination and sabotage. Even for many of the killings that were perpetrated by other Arabs. Take the Sabra-Shatilla refugee camp massacre of 1982 (somewhere between 750 to 2,000 unprotected unarmed Palestinian civilians were murdered). It is true that Israeli occupation forces stood by and let “the Lebanese” killers into the camps, but those who shot, stabbed, and raped the unarmed refugees were Lebanese. The killers are now mainly part of the March 14 pro-Saudi political bloc led by Saad Hariri and the Gemayyel clan and others. Yet for decades Arab media mostly blamed the Israelis without pointing the finger at the actual killers.
That day is past, gone. Most official Arabs now blame other Arabs (of other sects or other parties) and occasionally they blame Iran. Even if Israel is the guilty party. In this case Israel is almost certainly the guilty party, perhaps along with some Lebanese collaborators, who can be from the March 14 and their Salafi allies or just paid agents.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Espionage, Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon

Faces of Hezbollah: Syria and the Nuclear Briefcase……

      

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“Hezbollah forces will remain in Syria fighting alongside the troops of Syrian President Bashar Assad for the foreseeable future, the leader of the Lebanese group said Thursday. “As long as the reasons are present, we are staying” in Syria, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s general secretary, said in a speech to supporters here marking the Shiite Muslim holiday of Ashura…………”

See the photo up there? I bet every Western and Arab, and maybe some Asian and other intelligence services are poring over these guys standing around Hassan Nasrallah. I bet even NGOs, AIPAC, the NRA, and the Tea Party are poring over the photo, trying to identify the persons. Especially the man with the gun, but maybe more so the man with the ominous-looking brief case.
Actually there is no need: the fact that they showed the photo means that Hezbollah knows that these guys are already known to diligent foreign intelligence services. Or maybe they are just in a playful mood, teasing the foreign spooks. About the brief case: could it be Nasrallah’s laptop and iPad? His own Lebanese version of the “nuclear” briefcase (oh, oh: now Ben Netanyahu will start screaming wolf and that Lebanon has also gone nuclear).

That photo was taken during Nasrallah’s recent speech this week. It was inevitable that he would decide to stay in Syria, given all the new proxy ‘rebel’ armies being formed and financed to the north (Turkey), south (Jordan) and east (Iraq). All financed by the rebellious and revolutionary democratic regimes of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, humorless Jordan, and assorted Western mercenary groups. Hezbollah has already taken a big hit in its popularity among Arabs for being involved in Syria. Only another victory against another foolish Israeli attack, like the invasion of 2006, could change that.

Cheers
mhg

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Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon, Terrorism

Hezbollah Closer to Taking over Middle East, Threaten the Western World………

      

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“U.S.-designated terror group Hezbollah is expanding networks and deployment of fighters from Lebanon to the entire Middle East as part of its deepening alliance with Iran, say analysts. The latest sign comes in Syria, where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has justified intervention as a battle he says is part of a region-wide war of Sunni Muslims against Shiite Muslims……………”

Holy Guacamole! Hezbollah deploying fighters, the Wehrmacht of God, all over the Middle East? All exposed in USA Today! Interesting part citing unnamed “analysts” who gave their insight about Hezbollah. Here is my take, the final word on the Party of Allah:

  • It is true that Hezbollah is an exclusively Shi’a party (with many Christian, Sunni and other political allies) and that its men are fighting on Bashar al-Assad’s side in Syria. It is a sectarian party, but so are almost all other Arab political parties these days, even those that claim to be secular.
  • It is also true that Hezbollah closely follows the Iranian line in regional politics. I am beginning to suspect that Hassan Nasrallah is an admirer of both Ali Khamenei and the theocracy.
  • Hezbollah is not involved in murdering professors and scientists inside Iran, those are almost certainly Israeli acts. They are considered acts of terrorism by everyone and everywhere except by American media and in Washington. This sets a bad example for us wild Muslims to see our more civilized neighbors get away with terrorism and murder.
  • Hezbollah operations are usually restricted to the area around Lebanon. Syria is part of the area around Lebanon: weapons and fighters and shells cross the Lebanese border at will. Nevertheless, there are still the accusations about the terrorist act at the Jewish Center in Buenos Aires some years ago.
  • It is probably an exaggeration what some Gulf potentates and the Salafis claim that Hezbollah is planning to take over Fujairah and Qatif and the rest of the Middle East. Just as it was not true a few years ago that Hezbollah was fighting in Iraq. There are no local Hezbollah militias outside Lebanon, not even in Riyadh. As far as I know.
  • Hezbollah did, however fight the Israeli occupation forces in South Lebanon and defeated them, forcing them out, twice. The only Arab force to ever do that. Unforgivable.
  • It is also not true that Hezbollah has plans to colonize Latin America as a prelude to invading NAFTA countries through Mexico. A nightmare of otherwise nearly almost somewhat sane Texas Congressmen.
  • There have been allegations, mainly by Israeli officials and anonymous Western “officials” that Hezbollah was involved in terrorist attacks in Europe, especially the attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. Bulgarians are not so sure.
  • It is also true, however, that a Lebanese man was arrested at a Shawarma (or was it Falafel) joint in New York a couple of years ago while trying to ship used pistols to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
  • Speaking of used pistols: Lebanon is known to bristle with automatic weapons, missiles, and drones, many of them in the arsenals of Hezbollah. A pistol in Lebanon is considered a wuss’s weapon. Pistols are girlie weapons in Lebanon. They prefer car bombs over there, if the recent murderous history, before and after the Hariri assassination, is any guide.

Cheers
mhg

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Hezbollah, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Friedman on the Tea Party’s Hezbollah Roots and Koch Brother Wahhabis………

      

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“During the Dust Bowl years of the ’30s, Jackson reminded, the monoculture crops died but the polyculture prairie, with its diverse ecosystem, survived. What is going on in the Arab world today, I argued, is a relentless push, also funded by fossil fuels, for more monocultures. It’s Al Qaeda trying to “purify” the Arabian Peninsula. It’s Shiites and Sunnis, each funded by oil money, trying to purge the other in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon…………. The same is true of the Republican Party in America today. Tea Party conservatives funded by the Koch brothers and other fossil-fuel donors are trying to wipe out whatever is left of the Republican Party’s polyculture and turn it into a monoculture. When Senate Republicans last week first offered their compromise proposal to end the shutdown………….. It’s striking how much the Tea Party wing of the G.O.P. has adopted the tactics of the P.O.G. — “Party of God” — better known as Hezbollah. For years, Lebanese Shiites were represented by the mainstream Amal party. But in the 1980s, a more radical Shiite militia emerged from the war with Israel: Hezbollah. Under the leadership of Hassan Nasrallah………………”

Clearly Thomas Friedman is still pissed that his 2009 post-election prognostication for Lebanon proved quite wrong (as I predicted at the time). His obsession with Hezbollah continues. His love affair with the Saudi faction in Lebanon, as represented by the Hariri March 14 and NowLebanon, continues. He does overlook the growing Salafi al-Qaeda threat in Lebanon, helped along and financed and armed by March 14 and its Saudi paymasters.
But this is breathtaking, this mix of Dust Bowl history with Hezbollah and the Tea Party and the Koch Brothers. Now if Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas and other Godly places) were a bit fatter, just a bit fatter, with a shaggy beard and a turban, and had a Lebanese accent………….
BTW: whatever happened to the wise Arab taxi driver that advises Friedman on Middle East affairs? Where is Abed (or Abdu) in all this?
Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Hezbollah, Saudi Arabia, Syria

Alarabiya Network on the Battle of Qusayr, Again………

      

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“The video shows armed men in fatigues, at least one wearing the yellow arm band sported by the Lebanese Shiite movement, dragging several bloodied men out of a van and shooting them dead. The men speak in the Lebanese dialect of Arabic, and at the end of the video one man calls them over, saying: “One moment, one moment. We are doing our duty, not avenging ourselves.” The others call out: “For the sake of God, for the sake of God.” The one minute, 40 second video’s authenticity could not be confirmed, and it was unclear when or where it might have been shot. Hezbollah declined to comment on it. Al-Arabiya television said it may have been filmed during the battle for Qusayr, a strategic Syrian town near the Lebanese border that Syrian troops recaptured from rebels with the help of Hezbollah earlier this year……………. Lebanese media largely steered clear of the video, either because they were unable to confirm it or for fear of worsening tensions. But the video triggered outrage on Twitter…………”

Its authenticity could not be verified, but that is not new. There is almost no need: the real horror of Syria is that these videos can be genuine real true-blue videos. Both sides have proven they can do it, they have done that and worse. Anything is possible in Syria now, on both sides. Civil wars can get much uglier than most conventional wars, just read up on the Spanish and American civil wars and how prisoners were treated.

It is easy to trigger outrage on twitter, especially sectarian outrage. Maybe this is the second revenge of the semi-official Saudi network Alarabiya for the defeat at Qusayr. The first revenge was the gruesome video of chemical weapons victims, also initially released by Alarabiya to the world media. That one almost started a whole new regional war in the Middle East.

Cheers
mhg

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Al-Qaeda, Arab Revolutions, Hezbollah, Syria

Hearts and Minds in Aleppo, Ku Klux Klan in Aleppo, Warm and Fuzzy Hezbollah…………

      

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“Rebels say their immediate aim is to cut off supplies from government troops, but it appears the blockade is also part of a broader strategy aimed at weakening support for the government and pressuring civilians in government-held areas to leave. If the western part of Aleppo, now home to two million Syrians, becomes empty of civilians, a ground assault by rebels would be easier to carry out and more morally defensible, rebels argue. Abu al-Haytham, a fighter whose unit is among those enforcing the siege, stressed that the Free Syrian Army’s aim was not to punish residents but to block government supplies and prompt civilians to seek refuge elsewhere, opening the way for a ground attack. “Our siege is not just about tomatoes and cucumbers. We want to storm security buildings, and the presence of civilians is obstructing our movement,” he said in a Skype interview. But for citizens trying to get by, it is more basic: it is about eating. Recently, a woman was trying to cross back into the government-controlled part of the city when she was stopped at a rebel checkpoint. Fighters refused to let her cross with the prize she had come for: bags of fruits, vegetables and medicine…………….”

Liwaa al-Tawheed is an Islamist fundamentalist group, most likely another Salafi gang. That is what its name tells me: al-Tawheed, al-Farooq, al-Umma, al-Sunna, al-Nusra, al-Qaeda, Abu Qatada, Abu Yazeed, Abu Lahab and a few other “al‘s” and “Abu‘s” that plague Syria these days. The meaning of the name is as clear to me as the Ku Klux Klan in the American Deep South (and elsewhere nowadays).
These guys, these Salafi cutthroats, make Hezbollah, so demonized in American media courtesy of the Israeli lobby, seem like absolutely sweet and warm and fuzzy. Compared to them, Hezbollah is an effete combination of cotton candy and pussy cat (and quiche-lover).
Then of course everybody on all Syrian sides is nervous: the battle for Aleppo is looming. It will probably come after the contest for Homs is settled, which seems to be soon.
Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Syria, US Foreign Policy

Syrian FSA On a Hot Streak: Accuses Hezbollah of Using Chemical & Nuclear Weapons…………

      

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“The major organization of Syrian rebels, the Free Syrian Army, announced Wednesday that forces affiliated with Bashar Assad’s regime and Hezbollah fighters employed chemical weapons in battles at the outskirts of Damascus, according to Alarabiya network. Assad’s forces are continuing to shell a number of towns and areas within Syria using a range of munitions, especially chemical warfare which, this time around, hit the town of Zamalka, outside of Damascus………………”

The Free Syrian Salafi Army (FSA) must have gotten its hands on a cache of chemical weapons, and they have been putting it to good use. John McCain may believe them again, may have suggested to the FSA to try this method again to get the Obama administration to invade Lebanon as well as Syria. After all, the same WMD “evidence” cooked up between the FSA, France, and Britain got a nervous Obama to put one foot through the Syrian door. It might work in Lebanon as well, since the Saudi-funded Salafi proxies don’t seem to be getting much traction in Beirut so far.
 
Now the FSA, while on a hot streak, can be bold enough to go for the gold: they can claim that they have evidence of Iranian use of nuclear weapons in Syria. If the Western due diligence of the Sarin claim is any indication, it just might work. McCain and much of the mainstream media will back them up, especially if M. Hollande and Mr. Cameron vouch for the veracity of it, as they would. Tony Blair might also poke his head out out to help. The public in the West will hear a lot of talk, media noise, about “nuclear” and “Hezbollah” and will put the two together so that 1+1=5, with a little help from the media. Then we’d all have a beautiful expanded war.
Yeeehaawwww……. (that was Mr. McCain yelling, not me)
Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, GCC, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Syria

GCC Cuts Livelihood of Lebanese Shi’as and Waits for Godot, Desecrating ‘Allah’……….

      

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“Members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah who are residing in Gulf Cooperation Council states will pay the price for the Shiite movement’s military role in Syria against freedom fighters.
A GCC statement, citing a ministerial council decision, said the measures will affect Hezbollah members’ “residency permits, and financial and commercial transactions.” The statement urged the Lebanese government to “assume its responsibilities toward the behavior of Hezbollah and its illegal and inhumane practices in Syria and the region.” The six-member bloc strongly condemned the flagrant intervention of Hezbollah in Syria and its participation in shedding the blood of Syrian people. The statement came after the Saudi Cabinet condemned Hezbollah’s “blatant intervention” ……………” Arab News (Saudi)

“The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) took another step. It decided to hit where it hurts, threatening Lebanese Shia by cutting off their livelihoods and forbidding them from working in the GCC under the pretext that they support Hezbollah. The GCC hopes this will lead to a popular campaign by the Lebanese Shia to pressure Hezbollah and force it to withdraw from the Syrian war and stop supporting the regime. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) took another step. It decided to hit where it hurts, threatening Lebanese Shia by cutting off their livelihoodsThe GCC also hopes that the step will increase the pressure on the Lebanese state in general (which, coincidentally, parallels Israeli thinking in all of its wars against Hezbollah in Lebanon). The GCC and their sponsors also hope for an anti-Hezbollah revolution to erupt in Lebanon…………….”

This probably means that Lebanese Shi’as will be targeted for collective punishment; they almost certainly use “Hezbollah” to mean Lebanese Shi’as. A way to use economics to apply sectarian political pressure on Lebanon. Persian Gulf states often tend to inflict collective punishment (I call them dumb punishment) during crises. Hezbollah defeats their favorite Salafi militias of the FSA and expatriate Lebanese Shi’as pay the price.
The ruling shaikhs of the UAE have been doing it for a couple of years, summarily expelling Lebanese Shi’a families long in the country (90% of UAE residents are temporary foreigners, including laborers and imported mercenaries anyway). Bahrain’s regime of course probably does not allow any Shi’as in to start with, and would love to get rid of its own majority Shi’as (it also imports thousands of foreign mercenaries to keep them repressed). A few tribal Salafis in Kuwait staged a “camera” burning of a Hezbollah banner, perhaps not realizing they also burnt the name “Allah”, something they always advise others never to do.
The GCC are also telling their citizens to stay out of Lebanon for security reasons (as if Bahrain and Qatif are very secure). Lebanon is the closest affordable summer retreat for tens of thousands of Gulf citizens. That would hurt both GCC citizens and Lebanon.
The joke is what is said here that: “Lebanon is urged to curb Hezbollah for its inhumane practices in the region”. Imagine the tribal potentates accusing anybody else of ‘inhumane’ practices. Choppers of heads, crucifixions, home raids, tortures, etc. That is like Saudi Arabia and Qatar complaining that Syria is undemocratic (probably true, but…….).

Cheers
mhg

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Europe, Hezbollah, Israel, Terrorism

Free Bulgarian Army: Remember the Bulgarian-Israeli-US Evidence of Hezbollah Terror Attack?………………

         

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“Bulgarian investigators said Monday they will conduct test explosions to help move forward a probe into last year’s airport bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian, as media reported dead ends in the case. Two buses were to be blown up using bombs that were similar in composition and strength to the one used in the July 18 attack at Burgas airport on the Black Sea, investigation chief Georgy Iliev told state BNR radio. The aim of the experiment is to find out where the still unidentified bomber stood at the time of the detonation and whether he was carrying the bag with the explosives on his shoulders, or whether it was placed in the bus’s luggage compartment. Iliev’s comments came as Bulgarian media reported that the probe had come to a standstill after investigators failed to obtain key information they had requested from Australia, Canada, Lebanon, the United States and Morocco………… Chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov told the newspaper that the evidence collected so far was not conclusive enough to stand up in court. On Saturday, Bulgaria’s caretaker prime minister Marin Raykov said it did not plan to initiate a procedure for blacklisting Hezbollah….. ………”

Remember all the immediate convictions that were issued in Western and Israeli media? And the secret intelligence officials who assured the New York Times of clear evidence that Hezbollah and/or Iran were behind the terrorist attack? Remember ‘intelligent’ Congressmen who assured us that the evidence was conclusive?

They rushed it to get the European Union to rush into listing Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. European right-wing politicians salivated. Many other Europeans ‘noticed’ that the conclusions were shoddy, that incomplete ‘evidence’ was being used to push them into making ‘certain’ political decisions quickly. Many in the Bulgarian opposition (Bulgarian dissidents? Bulgarian activists? Let’s call them the Free Bulgarian Army) accused the right-wing regime of politicizing the investigation (i.e. doing the bidding of fellow right-winger Netanyahu). Now that there has been some sort of regime change in Sofia, things have changed.
Odd, there were several anonymous officials who swore, swore cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die style, that the evidence against Hezbollah was clear. Just as they had agreed with Netanyahu a few months earlier that the evidence against the Iranians clear. That can’t be untrue: it was after all in the New York Times and all over CNN. Even some of the Arab media eagerly got into the act.
The jury is still out on this; it can go either way. Here are links to previous posts on this Burgas terror topic:

New Doubts Cast on Bulgarian Accusations in Terror Bombing

Bulgarian Terror Mystery: Hezbollah Today, Iran Yesterday, Syria Tomorrow, Girl Scouts of Arabia Next Year?

 Bulgaria: Did Hezbollah Go Stupid at a ‘Convenient’ Time?

Case for an Israeli Attack? a Boy’s Wolf, Michael Oren, Deep Throat II, Salacious Pun

About Netanyahu, the Mullahs, and all them Plots

Terrorism: Hallmarks of the Bulgaria Suicide Bomber with a “Shaved Head

N Y Times and Anonymous Deep Throat Certain Iran was Behind Bulgaria Terror Attack

Terrorism: Bibi Natanyahu with Bulgarian Egg on His Face, For Now

Terrorism in Iran and Bulgaria, Netanyahu and Hitler and Danzig and Sudetenland

Cheers
mhg

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Hezbollah, Lebanon, Syria, United Nations International Organizations

Shocking News: STL Hariri Tribunal is Still Alive, Barely!…………

         

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“The first shock came when a leading Lebanese newspaper published a confidential list of 17 witnesses who may testify in the murder trial of a former prime minister — showing their names, passport pictures, dates of birth and where they work. A spokesman for the United Nations-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon quickly condemned the publication, in January, as a serious breach of court rules that put the lives of those named at risk. But the response of the newspaper, Al Akhbar, which is close to the militant movement Hezbollah, was defiant. A few days later it published a second confidential list, splashing the names, pictures and personal details of another 15 possible witnesses across two pages. ………….”

The STL Hariri tribunal has undermined itself, nay discredited itself, several times over the past few years. Mainly through shoddy procedures and changing the parties that are suspect and leaking information. Not to mention its blatant politicization. Blaming the Syrian regime in leaks when relations with the West and its allies were bad, then shifting the blame away from Syria when relations with the West improved, then shifting it again, through leaks. Right now they have settled on some Hezbollah operatives, but they may change that again if a bigger “villain” materializes (but not on the Korean Peninsula). All subject to the political winds of the time. At one time there were even leaks that they were considering some top Iranian mullahs (some Gulf media once mentioned Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a possible suspect). Too bad the Gangnam-Style guy, Psy, is Korean and the guys who started La Macarena are Spaniards. I believe they both ought to be charged and punished.


It is a wonder this incompetent seemingly political tribunal is still standing, barely. Most Lebanese, except for March 14 supporters, gave up on it a long time ago. Most Arabs outside Riyadh don’t give a damn anymore.


No need to repeat the litany here. I’ll just add links to previous posts on the topic:

Lebanon: Wissam Al Hassan and the Absent Paoli of The Godfather

Hariri STL to Investigate Sabra and Shatila Massacre

UN Lebanon Hariri Tribunal to Extend its Probe to Sabra & Shatila Massacres?

Chasing Hezbollah: Desperation Time in Washington and Riyadh?

Hariri now Claims Syria Killed his Father, Will STL Drop Hezbollah Charges?

Oh Oh Lockerbie, and STL of Lebanon, and Tony Blair, and the Fab Four

Hariri now Claims Syria Killed his Father, Will STL Drop Hezbollah Charges?

Cheers
mhg

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