Category Archives: Hezbollah

Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Another Iranian Embassy Plot, Ministry of Thwarted Overseas Terror Plots………..

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“Authorities in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic bordering Iran, have arrested two men suspected of plotting to attack prominent foreigners including Israel’s ambassador and a local rabbi, officials and media reported on Wednesday. The National Security Ministry said the men were connected to an Iranian citizen who had links with Iran’s intelligence. Azerbaijan, a secular Muslim country, is home to more than 9,000 Jews and has friendly ties with Israel and the United States. A major energy producer, it exports oil to Israel and imports weapons and military hardware. “Citizens of Azerbaijan – Rasim Aliyev and Ali Huseynov – were preparing an attack on public figures, who are foreign citizens,” the National Security Ministry said in a statement. The U.S. embassy issued a warning to its citizens saying “the possibility remains for actions against U.S. or other high-profile foreign interests in Azerbaijan”. The announcement came after several state websites in Azerbaijan were rendered inaccessible for hours this month by hackers who left threats and anti-Israel messages. That incident coincided with similar cyber-attacks in Israel……..”

WTF? In Azerbaijan? Another Iranian plot against some other embassy? I wonder how the dictatorship in Azerbaijan feels about all this. If this continues the mullahs would have to add the picture of a generic embassy in the middle of the Iranian flag. Truly when it rains it pours. They must have a whole ministry in Tehran in charge of plots against foreign targets that are never realized: it must be called the “Ministry of Thwarted Overseas Terror Plots”. The Iranians, though, probably think this ministry might only exist in the imagination of Western and Saudi media, possibly planted there by bored employees Western (and Saudi) security services.
(I haven’t seen any statement of outrage from  Senator Secretary Clinton yet. Maybe I missed it. Maybe even she is getting suspicious of all these alleged plots.)
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria

Syrians and their Foreign Friends……

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“Syrian media outlets reported Friday that President Bashar Assad’s security forces seized huge quantities of weapons used by rebels across the country, including Israeli-made arms. According to the unconfirmed reports, Assad’s troops seized a machinegun, Israeli-made bombs, automatic rifles, various explosive devices, protective vests, night-vision equipment and military uniforms, among other things. Syrian television showcased the weapons Friday evening and claimed that some of the arms originated in Israel. Some of the weapons featured Hebrew inscriptions, yet it was unclear who was holding the arms and where the images were photographed. The latest Syrian reports are apparently meant to discourage anti-Assad rebels and present them as traitors who enlist the help of the “Zionist enemy”…………” Haaretz

“Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast also immediately condemned the kidnapping of the Iranian pilgrims in Syria, calling the act inhumane and unjustifiable. “These acts, which are against humane principles and moral and international obligations, are by no means justifiable, and it is expected that these people take immediate action to free Iranian pilgrims,” Mehmanparast said Thursday. In December, five Iranian electrical engineers were abducted on the way to a power plant in the troubled Syrian city of Homs by unknown gunmen. Two more Iranian experts, who were trying to clarify the situation of the five abducted engineers, have also been kidnapped………..”

The Syrian regime claims the rebels are using Israeli weapons, hinting they are connected to Israel. Yet the Israelis have no reason to side with the Islamists who are likely to rule Syria if and when the Assad regime falls. Their only beef with the regime has been that it facilitates arms shipments to Hezbollah in Lebanon. They certainly seem to have managed to have an unwritten peace in the Golan for a quarter of a century. Israeli farms and Israeli wines thrive in the Golan: they wouldn’t want to disrupt that.

On the other hand, some Syrian opposition groups, and Saudi media, have claimed in the past that Iranian forces and Hezbollah fighters are helping the Damascus regime. One Saudi source, most likely Alarabiya, even repeated allegations that Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army is helping Assad.
I have my usual doubts about that: the Syrian Ba’ath Party has been training security forces to crush dissent since 1963. They are experts at that sort of thing and don’t need any outside help. It is possible that they get Iranian and Hezbollah help, since both support the Assad regime. Yet it is unlikely they would send men and certainly not to a degree that matters, probably weapons and maybe advice (so are the Russians). If they are intervening, they are clearly not doing so to the vast degree as the Saudi military intervention against the Bahrain uprising. Besides, the West would certainly know if any foreign countries are intervening in Syria: they wouldn’t need the Syrian opposition to tell them.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Politics, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, United Nations International Organizations, US Foreign Policy

Lebanon’s Unwelcome Visitors: Ki-Moon, a Phony UN Bureaucrat, a Familiar Messenger of Evil…………..

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“The head of Hezbollah’s Shura Council Sheikh Mohammad Yazbek said over the weekend that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who is scheduled to arrive in Lebanon Friday, is not welcome.“The visit of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to Beirut is not welcome, neither is the phony [U.N. Special Envoy Terje Roed] Larsen or the messenger of evil [Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs] Jeffrey Feltman,” Yazbek was quoted by local media as saying. Yazbeck accused Larsen, who is tasked with overseeing the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, of being biased toward Israel. UNSCR 1559 was adopted in 2004 and calls for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah. The latter has defended its arms as the only means to fend off Israeli aggression…………”

Hezbollah
and Jeffrey Feltman are old pals, they go way back to the good old days when Mr. Feltman was US ambassador to Beirut. The Lebanese opposition at the time claimed he was the true leader of the March 14 right-wing movement. They nearly claim that he led the March 14 and the old Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir and the Saudi ambassador in daily prayers for an Israeli victory in the summer war of 2006. They also strongly suspect that many Arab oligarchs joined that prayer, via teleconferencing or Skype. I fully agree with this last assessment: the princes were doing their rain dance, in vain, for a right outcome that war.

Lebanese-American relations have been in a sort of twilight zone for some years. For years U.S. secretary of state Clinton reportedly has not met with her Lebanese counterparts, the successive foreign ministers, even when she visited Lebanon. The foreign minister has been from the Hezbollah bloc. This has led to an interesting diplomatic dance by Hillary Clinton to meet some Lebanese leaders but not their foreign minister, nor their most important leader (you know who that is, don’t you?).

I suppose
 this Lebanese opposition to the visits by these foreign dignitaries and international bureaucrats is somewhat fair. After all Hassan Nasrallah is probably not welcome in Washington (DC), and I don’t just mean at the AIPAC or its offshoot Washington Institute for Near East Policy. I doubt that Mr. Nasrallah is welcome at the UN either. Besides, all these gentlemen no doubt wish that the current Lebanese government would just vanish and be replaced with the pliable Saudi regime of Saad Hariri and his sidekick Fouad Saniora. They no doubt also wish that Hassan Nasrallah would also vanish, but then where would he go? Dearborn?
Cheers
mhg


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Hezbollah, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia

Hariri’s Future Feels the Pinch: the Saudi Patrons Getting Stingy? What about Hezbollah?…………

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“The long anticipated cutbacks in the Future Movement and its institutions have reportedly begun with a third of the party’s employees in the process of being laid off. Next in line are the movement’s media outlets. This current round of layoffs, which includes allegedly high severance pay, is believed to have affected 35 percent of Future Movement office employees, most of whom earned low salaries, such as service workers, janitors, mail carriers, and drivers. While a good portion of office employees were being let go, the big earners remained behind their desks and TV screens without paying much attention to what was happening near them. As a matter of fact, one of those big earners views these layoffs in a positive light, saying, “Most of those people have no place in the Future Movement. They were hired to end their complaints and that of their families who happen to support the Future Movement.” In the corridors of the Future building on Spears Street in Beirut, a number of employees say that media coordinator Ayman Jezzini took it upon himself to inform tens of employees of the decision to let them go…………”

The Hariri right-wing political bloc, also called the Mach 14, depends not only on the Hariri family fortune. It has also has depended on very generous funds from the Saudi ruling clan. Lebanese analysts have noted that in 2009 the Saudis went all out to defeat the opposition to March 14 in the elections. They managed to buy enough votes to get them a majority of parliamentary seats even though the opposition Hezbollah block got a majority (54%) of the popular vote. Thomas Friedman almost called it a “divine victory” although I wrote here at the time the equivalent of “not so fast, look at the popular vote, stupid”.
By the same measure, Hezbollah’s financial fortunes also depend on Iranian aid. Hezbollah does have a huge source of Lebanese emigrants who also send money to their villages and families and possibly to Hezbollah ‘charities’ (the U.S. government and the United Arab Emirates have been tightening the screws on many of these). There have been reports over the past few months of the Saudis putting the squeeze on Hariri, even as regards his personal fortune a lot of which is tied in Saudi Arabia (Mr. Hariri is a Saudi citizen). There have also been Saudi media reports that the Iranians are also cutting back their aid to their Lebanese friends.
It is hard times for everyone, even in Middle East oil producers, even with crude prices so high.
Cheers
mhg


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Al-Qaeda, Arab Counterrevoltion, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Salafi, Saudi Arabia, Syria

A People’s Democratic Salafi Kingdom in Northern Lebanon?…………..

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“BEIRUT: Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi raised concerns at a recent security meeting that some refugees fleeing into the country in Arsal may actually be Al-Qaeda members, sources close to Prime Minister Najib Mikati told The Daily Star. The sources said Kahwagi’s comments at the Mikati-chaired Grand Serail meeting mimicked Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn’s recent comments to the media about “operations carried out at some illegal border crossings, especially in Arsal.” “Weapons are being smuggled [there] and members of terrorist groups are entering to establish a base [in Lebanon] under the cover that they belong to the Syrian opposition,” Ghosn said………… At the meeting, the sources said that Kahwagi confirmed that according to army information, some people who claim be members of the Syrian opposition and are smuggling weapons are in fact from Al-Qaeda. Kahwagi also said that when the army attempts to confront these people, groups in Lebanon object in defense of freedom………..”

Al-Qaeda types are nothing new in northern Lebanon, around Tripoli. The terrorist Salafi group is certainly itching to take on Hezbollah, not directly, but at least to weaken it. There have been past reports that the March 14 (Hariri-Saudi bloc) had in the past encouraged and financed Salafi groups in northern Lebanon (around Tripoli). Presumably the idea is to nurture a fundamentalist group that probably hates Hezbollah more than it hates Israel or the West. That would be the Salafis.
Then there is the Saudi angle: the March 14 bloc is largely financed by the Saudis. That is why Western media call March 14 “pro-democracy” and pro-Western, because they are financed by the People’s Democratic Kingdom of (Saudi) Arabia. The Salafis usually are the Saudi surrogates wherever they happen to be, and Mr. Hariri being a Saudi citizen……….
Cheers
mhg


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9/11, Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Middle East, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Funny US Anti-Terror Policy: Today the Taliban, Tomorrow Hezbollah and Hamas?…………..

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“After 10 months of secret dialogue with Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents, senior U.S. officials say the talks have reached a critical juncture and they will soon know whether a breakthrough is possible, leading to peace talks whose ultimate goal is to end the Afghan war. As part of the accelerating, high-stakes diplomacy, Reuters has learned, the United States is considering the transfer of an unspecified number of Taliban prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay military prison into Afghan government custody. It has asked representatives of the Taliban to match that confidence-building measure with some of their own. Those could include a denunciation of international terrorism and a public willingness to enter formal political talks with the government headed by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. The officials acknowledged that the Afghanistan diplomacy, which has reached a delicate stage in recent weeks, remains a long shot. Among the complications: U.S. troops are drawing down and will be mostly gone by the end of 2014, potentially reducing the incentive for the Taliban to negotiate. ………”

Interesting: the Taliban hosted al-Qaeda and were part of the September 11 attacks that killed thousands of Americans and disrupted the economy and politics of the country. They have been at war with the United States for years and they support terrorism in both Afghanistan and Pakistan and in other places. They have been responsible for many more American dearth.
Hezbollah and Hamas have never tried any terror attacks inside the United States. Their attacks were almost always confined to the Lebanese Israeli Palestinian theater, with possibly one or two reported minor exceptions that were not against the United States. They both represent either a majority or a plurality of the people in their respective countries. Hamas won a clear majority of Palestinian votes the last time they had elections, despite the nonsense Secretary Clinton talks about the PLO being a “legitimate government”.
Yet the United States is ‘negotiating’ with the even more fundamentalist Salafi Taliban, the partner in September 11 attacks. Not a single Republican or Democrat politician objects to that. Not even the right-wing. Yet any hint of an approach to Hezbollah or Hamas would cause a twin earthquake and volcano in the country. You wanna know why? It is one word, a six-letter word “Israel”. Or maybe it is a four-letter word: “Iran”.
Cheers
mhg


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Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Arab Counterrevoltion, Espionage, Finance, Hezbollah, Iraq, Latin America, Lebanon, nuclear Iran, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, WTF

Mel Brooks and Oliver Stone of Persia: a Taliban-Hezbollah-Colombian-Iranian-alQaeda-Mexican-Texan-African Network………

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“The court action, filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks nearly half a billion dollars in penalties from three Lebanese financial organizations — the now-defunct Lebanese Canadian Bank and two Beirut-based money exchange houses — and 30 auto dealers in the United States. The $480 million in penalties is the sum of the drug proceeds that are alleged to have been laundered; the government is also seeking to freeze and seize assets traceable to those companies………… Thursday’s complaint offers fresh details about the workings of what it says was a scheme to launder South American cocaine cash and Hezbollah’s own money, naming the American-based auto dealers and people it says were Hezbollah operatives. For example, the action charges that Oussama Salhab was a Hezbollah operative in Togo who ran a network that transported cash from cars sold in Benin on flights to Beirut. Prosecutors say he worked with Maroun Saade — suspected of being a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, a Lebanese Christian political party allied with Hezbollah — who has been charged in a separate case with aiding the Taliban………”

I wonder what Mel Brooks is up to these days? Is he teaming up with Oliver Stone? Could those two be working on something like this, this topic of my piece here?
Is it just the holiday season or is the world going crazy around me? At least from my current perspective in the Pacific Northwest it seems like many heretofore otherwise sensible people are going mad. Look at all this:

  • Hezbollah alliance with the Taliban (across fourteen centuries of separation, across five nations of separation)?
  • Iranian alliance with al-Qaeda which is the mortal Wahhabi enemy of the Shi’as (including Iranians and Iraqis and Lebanese and Bahrainis and Pakistanis and all others)?
  • Iranian and al-Qaeda alliance allegedly but ridiculously improbably going way back to the 1990s, mostly via the good offices and miraculous guesswork of Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia?
  • Iranian-Mexican Drug Cartel-Texan Nutcase alliance to blow up a restaurant in Georgetown and its famous clients just because it serves mediocre food to smug bureaucrats and charges too much? This last one allegedly courtesy of the DEA and the U.S. Department of Justice, and possibly Mujahideen-e-Khalq, among others.
  • Iraqi-Iranian-Syrian (wtf?)-Lebanese alliance to conquer Bahrain as a prelude to conquering the rest of the world and forcing Rick Santorum and Rick Perry to become Muslims and make the Hajj to Mecca?
  • Lebanese-Columbian-Taliban-Hezbollah-Maronite Christian plot to make money from a new triangular trade but without the rum and the African slaves.
  • Hezbollah-IRGC-Wehrmacht-Goldman Sachs…….. oh zut, sorry. Got carried away.


WTF is going on here? Is everyone going paranoid or are all of these plots real? Should we start looking under our beds each night for Iranian mullahs and Lebanese Shi’as? Are the Wahhabi princes now financing the hated Shi’a militants as well? Or is it just that the ‘plots’ are thickening?
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Media, Bahrain, GCC, Hezbollah, Iran, Kuwait, Media, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism

GCC Breaking News: Plots in Bahrain, Plots in Kuwait, Hezbollah under Every Bed, Shi’as Occupying Mecca……….

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Breaking News: the government of Bahrain has not announced the discovery of any new Iranian or Hezbollah terrorist plots today. They have not identified any installations or individuals who may have been targets of today’s uncovered plot. This is an unusual development for Bahrain.The regime and its imported mercenarise are slowing down
On the other hand, the Kuwaiti-Saudi daily rag alseyassah is taking up the slack. (I find alseyassah entertaining, although not as humorous as, say, The Onion). It reports that Hezbollah has put its sources on alert around the region, and that there was in fact a terror plot in Bahrain and added an extra-credit bonus: that the latest Bahrain plotters got financing from some Kuwaitis, meaning Shi’as in Kuwait (apparently the Iranians and Hezbollah ran out of money!).
Alseyassah, like a couple of other rags in my hometown, fits well into its Saudi patrons’ propaganda drive to divide the Gulf region along sectarian lines.
It also dropped a bombshell that only our overfed “faithful” would believe: it reported that Iranian and Syrian agents were plotting to assassinate three Gulf GCC foreign ministers, no less! Alseyassah has not yet report that Hezbollah and Iran are planning an invasion of Mecca to take over the Kaaba, after blowing up the Vatican. Not yet, but stay tuned.
Saudi media are not as dumb as their Gulf surrogates. They have become smarter, more subtle, with the exception of Alarabiya which is openly sectarian on its Arabic website.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain, Hezbollah, Iran, Qatar, Salafi, WTF

Bahrain (& maybe Qatar) Uncover another Stupid Terror Plot, about that Embassy Bombing……….

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“JEDDAH: A terror cell planning attacks against the Saudi Embassy, the King Fahd Causeway and other vital installations in Bahrain has been broken up, a Bahraini Interior Ministry spokesman said Saturday. Four members of the cell were detained in Qatar and turned over to Manama, while a fifth Bahraini was arrested inside the country, said Gen. Tareq Al-Hasan. The alleged targets also included the Bahraini Interior Ministry and other individuals. Al-Hasan said the four arrested in Qatar had been traveling by car from Saudi Arabia. Security officers at a checkpoint seized “documents and a computer containing information of a security nature (and) details on certain vital sites.” They were also carrying US dollars and Iranian rials………..”

If I were an Iranian official plotting terrorism in Bahrain or in Saudi Arabia, I would never hand the terrorists Iranian money, for two reasons: (1) American dollars, or Euro, or Gulf currencies are easier to use, and (2) Iranian money would look suspicious if these men get caught. A smart Iranian “control” would have them carry wads of Israeli NIS.
If I wanted to make sure everyone “knew” the Iranians were behind a plot, I’d give the terrorists some Iranian currency, a lot of it. So, somebody is very stupid: it can be the Iranians, or the Bahrainis, or the Saudis. Who do you think is that stupid? Could it be all of the above? I suspect any of the above have operatives who are stupid enough. The good news (or is it the bad news) is that we have not read anything (yet) linking this “plot” to an Iranian used car dealer in Texas named Arbabsiar. But it is early.

The Bahrain and Saudi media are running away with it. Saudi semi-official network Alarabiya headlines that members of the appointed Bahrain sectarian “parliament” have claimed Iran and Hezbollah were involved (they forgot to add North Korea). Qatari media have not reported on this, yet. Which is also odd, but maybe they are as suspicious of the timing of this as I am.
I think somebody somewhere ought to quit while they are ahead: the question is where is that somebody? Tehran or Manama or Riyadh?
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, US Foreign Policy

Hillary Clinton on Syria, Nasrallah on Syria, Iran on Syria……

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“eAsiaMediaHub US EAP Media Hub: #SecClinton: Assad has lost his legitimacy to rule & he should step down #Syria”

“Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on Friday warned Israel and the US that a war against Iran and Syria would lead to an all-out regional conflict. “They should understand that a war on Iran and Syria will not remain in Iran and Syrian territory, but it will engulf the whole region and there is no escaping this reality,” Nasrallah said during a televised speech honoring “Martyrs’ Day.”……. “Iran is strong, united and has a one-of-a-kind leader and it will retaliate harshly,” he said in his speech, which was delivered in Beirut’s southern neighborhood ………..”

“Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called on the US administration and the Zionist entity to understand very well that a war against Iran and Syria will not stay inside Iran and Syria, but will roll instead and spread out to the entire region.…….. “

Hassan Nasrallah is sticking by the Syrian regime, even as the Iranian patrons are (very) slowly moving away. Perhaps the Iranians can see some writing on the wall, or hedging their bets as all politicians (by definition) do. Clearly one does not expect Nasrallah to see eye to eye with Secretary Clinton on Syria, certainly on Lebanon, but diverging from a possible Iranian view is unusual. Of course he diverges only from the views expressed by President Ahmadinejad, which are not necessarily the views of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not these days.
Meanwhile a consensus is emerging that the Assad dynasty rule is about to expire. Things are getting interesting in Syria, but they will get even more interesting after the fall of the Ba’ath party.
Cheers
mhg


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