Shooting on the Syrian/Lebanese Border
Posted by editor-at-large on 30 July 2008 at 4:09 pm UTC
A number of armed clashes have been reported (between Sunni Muslims and Alawites, a Shiia sect allied with Shiia Hezbollah) in-and-around Tripoli since Friday, but “all is [temporarily] quiet on the northern front.” Not so in the east where today the Associated Press is reporting:
“Gunmen attacked a Lebanese military post near the Syrian border at dawn Wednesday, killing a soldier and wounding another, a security official said. …
“The post is one of several set up by the Lebanese army on the border with Syria two years ago after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. They are designed to curb the smuggling of arms and contraband goods.
“The attack came two days after a military court began the trial of the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group and more than 30 other extremists who battled Lebanese troops in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon last year.
“Shaker Youssef al-Absi, the head of the Fatah Islam group, is being tried in absentia.”
Not surprising. But for perspective — having spent much time along the remote, porous, and marginally defined Syrian/Lebanese border in the fall of 2007 – I can say unequivocally that most of the border is not properly defended. Smuggling is rampant and unchecked: Arms, ammunition, and cash (U.S. dollars) are regularly trucked or simply walked across the border from Syria into Lebanon. And the weapons and money are bound for un-policed Hezbollah-controlled zones inside Lebanon. We’ve gleaned much intelligence on this over the past nine-plus months (Hezbollah sympathizers and apologists may deny this. The counterterrorism experts will confirm it.).
The smuggling is impossible to control. Again, the border is isolated and marginally defined, so small Syrian Army outposts are positioned on Lebanese territory.
While in Lebanon, my security detail and I literally drove out to one of these posts near the village of Al Qaa, and I subsequently filed two reports at NRO based on what I witnessed, learned from my diverse and unconnected group of sources, and gathered from open sources.
REPORT 1 (Oct. 12): I previously had doubts, or perhaps I believed it to be a miscalculation. But now I am seeing it with my own eyes: Syrian troops here are manning positions inside Lebanese territory. And they’re flying the Syrian colors on top of those positions.
This is in clear violation of at least two UN Security Council Resolutions that I can pull off the top of my head (1559 and 1701): There may be more.
I spent most of today tooling around the fringes of the border in a battered old Range Rover with my security man, Henry, and a couple of trusted, armed, former combat-soldiers in the Lebanese Army who, not only took me to the Syrian outposts; but drove me to the smuggling lines where large containers of weapons – rifles, rockets, stinger missiles, you name it — are regularly crossing the border. One of the men tells me he knows for a fact a huge shipment of weapons has passed through here over the past few weeks. Frankly looking at this place, I can’t imagine they wouldn’t be. This is simply too easy.
Smuggling of people, arms, etc. here is constant. This was confirmed by one of the many shepherds we’ve seen here today [and reported through all manner of open sources]. Bedouins and their camps are everywhere, and most of them are Syrian. We drove most of the day, but covered some ground on foot. We spoke to a Syrian soldier at one of the outposts so close I could have physically grabbed him. He was a young man, looked to be about 15 or 16, and appeared a bit nervous. He was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt because, as he says, his officer, who only checks on him once a month, doesn’t care. And his sergeant is asleep.
We gave the young soldier some candy before leaving.
REPORT 2 (following day): As I mentioned yesterday, this is one of the many hot weapons-smuggling transit points here in Lebanon. Syrian troops are here manning outposts on Lebanese territory. Men and weapons are crossing in huge numbers, and virtually no one is stopping the crossings or demanding that the Syrians return to their side of the frontier. Worse, there are several Hezbollah and Amal cells just a few short miles behind us (and all around us). I saw hundreds of their yellow and green flags (as well as the black flag of Islam) flying in almost every one of these remote villages traveling east in the Bekaa on the way to the border.One huge Hezbollah banner we drove beneath — it was stretched above the road and tied to two poles on either side — read (translated from Arabic):
‘We have proved that surrender does not exist in our dictionary, knowledge, and philosophy.’
As we drove from Al Qaa to the Syrian border – the closest village to the border and just over four miles between the two points — we did not pass a single Lebanese army or police checkpoint. In fact, the closest Lebanese checkpoint I saw was 14 miles away from the border.
What I did see were a lot of Bedouin camps and shepherds with their sheep and goats. And, at the border — and still inside Lebanon — we came upon the first Syrian outpost, one of many I saw, all with Syrian flags fluttering atop.
The first one was a single-room, stone and cement block house in the middle of an arid field. The flag and several radio antennas were sticking straight up from the roof. The defenders inside were a few men led by a sleeping sergeant. The boy soldier who left the outpost building to see who we were did not even carry his weapon. And instead of his asking us who we were, we asked the questions and he answered (see yesterday’s entry). He told us among other things that his water supply was limited. They don’t have enough to wash their uniforms, barely enough to drink or cook with.
This is a scary place: The gun-running smugglers have the upper hand. The Syrians, who are not supposed to be here, are here. I don’t see any Lebanese troops. And Hezbollah is everywhere.
— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. online at uswriter.com.
Posted by editor-at-large on 27 July 2008 at 10:18 pm UTC
Perhaps one of the coolest recruiting slogans ever -
Iran Likelier to use Nuclear Weapons via Terrorist Groups like Hezbollah and Hamas
Posted by editor-at-large on 20 July 2008 at 5:33 pm UTC
Bioterrorism expert Dr. Jill Dekker alerts me to a piece in today’s Jerusalem Post, a portion of which reads:
“The danger posed by a nuclear-armed Iran is not in that the Islamic Republic may launch an atomic bomb at Israel, but in that it could provide such a weapon to terrorist groups in the region, outgoing Israeli Ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman was quoted as saying Sunday.
“‘The real fear is not that the Iranians will be crazy enough or stupid enough to launch a missile at Israel, but that they will have no compunction about providing rogue regimes and terror organizations like Hamas and Hizbullah with weapons of mass destruction,’ Gillerman told The New York Times. …”
Read the entire piece, Gillerman: Iran likelier to use nukes via proxies.
[Dr. Jill Dekker]
UPDATE: Relationships between Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah are far more intimate than we in the West realize — thus the ease of collaboration between state sponsors of terrorism and terrorist organizations regarding WMD development and access – according to Dr. Dekker in comments yesterday at American Congress for the Truth:
“I absolutely have to agree with Ambassador Gillerman’s statements with specific regard not only to Iran’s nuclear weapons arsenal but with their advance bio-chem programs as well.
“We should not forget that Syria too has made efforts toward acquiring a nuclear capacity and possess an advanced bio-chem weapons program. Unfortunately, very few US diplomats or politicians understand the close relationship between top Hezbollah leaders and Syrian and Iranian Ministries of Defense who run Weapons of Mass Destruction programs.
“They don’t even know the players, which scientists comprise which teams, how they are collaborating on projects in various research centers both in Iran and Syria.
“With the exception of highly limited sections of the US Intelligence Community, most diplomats or foreign service officers would have exceptionally limited access to intelligence on specific scientific teams and their familial relationships with Hezbollah, Hamas, PLO-Fatah members. They don’t understand that many Hezbollah members have family members and tribal associates working within the WMD programs of both states and it’s not some ‘formal’ arrangement. It’s not the type of hierarchal structure we in the West are used to where you must have clearances and sign off on transfers of technology or materials to other sections within the US military complex or to an allied nation. This is not at all how WMD programs and military assets are transferred within the Middle East.
“The relationships are not based on formal military alliances but instead on long-standing tribal relationships that can stretch across geo-political regions so Hezbollah acquiring WMD either nuclear, chemical, biological or radiological materials or technology “know-how” is not pre-determined by signing off on some protocol. This is a scientist meeting with a family member with associations helping a family member with the blessing of the government. It’s far more intimate than the US and allies can imagine. Proxies are not outside the systems they are not existing external to Iran or Syria. They are familial and that makes the designation to provide WMD to Hezbollah far more realistic and immediate than the US or UK could probably imagine with their somewhat limited reference points.
“In the Middle East, transfers from a state weapons lab which would be part of the Ministry of Defense structure to what the West considers a ‘terrorist’ organization like Hezbollah can occur very rapidly. That is because the Syrians and Iranians consider Hezbollah and other ‘terrorist’ groups to be extensions of their formal military. The West tends to create a false barrier -even a semantic one, between Hezbollah and Iran or Syria. This is a fictional barrier as it doesn’t really exist. The US/UK and EU base military weapons deployments on their own standards, which would be highly formal. That simply is not how it works with Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and other proxies. Instead, they may have a cousin who has a cousin who works on Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers or works on Saxotoxins and they will provide it outside a formal structure or what we would think of as a formal military structure. The lines for them are not so cut and dry.”
— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. online at uswriter.com.
Al-Taqiyya is Alive and Well in Geneva
Posted by editor-at-large on 20 July 2008 at 2:06 pm UTC
Our piece, Al-Taqiyya is Alive and Well in Geneva, is the Sunday cover story in this morning’s
CANADA FREE PRESS:
“The so-called “fizzling” of the talks in Geneva between the United States and Iran, Saturday, was not unexpected by any expert estimation. Which makes one wonder why the U.S., the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council (Britain, China, France, and Russia), and Germany were willing to sit down with the Persian state in the first place. … “
Read it here.
“We may not shoot you today as long as you keep giving us what we want”
Posted by editor-at-large on 18 July 2008 at 7:12 pm UTC
Israel’s Arutz Sheva reported Monday:
“… Hizbullah is preparing to arm its rockets with chemical warheads and to build extensive fortifications. Defense Minister Ehud Barak blames the Syrians, while Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asks the United Nations to do something.
“’[UN Security Council] Resolution 1701 is being violated. Hizbullah continues to get stronger with the ongoing and intimate assistance of the Syrians,’ according to Defense Minister Barak. Speaking at a meeting of the Labor party’s Knesset representatives on Monday, Barak said, ‘The delicate balance that exists on the northern border should not be violated on the two-year anniversary of the Second Lebanon War. We should make an explicit statement: Resolution 1701 did not work, it is not working, and all indications are that it will not work in the future. It is a failure.’
“Adding further weight to Defense Minister Barak’s declaration is an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyasa, which reported Monday that Hizbullah has acquired chemicals needed to make weapons such as nerve gas or mustard gas from North Korean suppliers. The Lebanese terrorist organization is allegedly preparing to arm its Katyusha rockets with such chemical warheads. Echoing Barak’s claims, the Kuwaiti paper also stated that the assistance of Syria and Iran has been crucial in Hizbullah’s efforts to acquire chemical weapons capabilities. The Al-Siyasa report was based on intelligence provided to the Kuwaiti paper by Syrian opposition figures in the United States. …”
The report continues with a discussion of Hezbollah’s rebuilding and new construction of underground bunkers, the shipping of heavy construction material – and the smuggling of weapons — to Hezbollah-controlled areas in south Lebanon, as well as the failure of UN forces to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for “a buffer zone free of ‘any armed personnel’ — both Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops — between the United Nations-drawn Blue Line in southern Lebanon and the Litani River.”
No mention, however, of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which “calls for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias,” but has never been enforced as evidenced by the armed terrorist-militias — like Hezbollah, Amal, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and other allied militias – who launched or quickly joined the terror-offensive against the Lebanese government and citizenry in May.
As I said in an email to colleagues today, we’ve got to shut Hezbollah down on every front because this group – which is perhaps the world’s largest terrorist army (certainly a proxy arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) — is increasingly trying to work its way into some sort of mainstream acceptance in Lebanon … and in the eyes of the world.
The Lebanese government is granting Hezbollah all sorts of concessions (and getting nothing in return from Hezbollah except a promise that “We may not shoot you today as long as you keep giving us what we want.”). America and the greater West have our heads in the sand. Most Americans are clueless as to what is actually happening or what any of it means. The UN is impotent. And the Lebanese Army and the Interior Security Forces (national police) are simply not strong enough to thwart anything Hezbollah is doing.
Meanwhile, Iran is pouring money and weapons into the program, and the program is extending its reach on nearly every continent in the world.
Read related updates here and here.
— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. online at uswriter.com.
Posted by editor-at-large on 18 July 2008 at 11:38 am UTC
If someone had simply told me this, I might’ve had a difficult time believing it until actually seeing the photograph.
The saluting soldiers – one wearing wearing a light-blue (United Nations color) helmet, the other a beret – are actually members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
They are saluting, of course, the Lebanese flag. But they are also saluting the remains of terrorists returning to Lebanon from Israel following the recent “swap” between Israel and the terrorist group, Hezbollah.
Notice what else they are saluting: The giant photograph on the truck bearing the terrorists’ remains is that of recently assassinated Imad Mughniyeh, the infamous Hezbollah-butcher who was responsible for blowing up the American Embassy and the U.S. Marine barracks (also a French paratrooper barracks) in Beirut in 1983 , and then torturing and murdering an unarmed American sailor in 1985. Beyond those attacks and over the years, Mughniyeh directed a series of lesser-reported kidnappings and murders against Americans and others.
Mughniyeh was for years wanted by the FBI, which had a multi-million dollar bounty on his head, but he was killed in February of this year, and has since morphed into some bizarre form of cult hero to the Jihadists.
In the aftermath of Mughniyeh’s assassination, Hezbollah began holding him up as some great Islamist leader. Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, a Hezbollah founder who – amazingly – has had op-eds published in the Washington Post and Newsweek (that’s another shameful story we’ll save for another day), declared: “The resistance [Hezbollah] has lost one of its pillars.” Even Lebanese Pres. Michel Sleiman, then commander-in-chief of the Lebanese armed forces, paid public condolences to the Mughniyeh family, many of whom have been deeply involved in the business of international terror.
But it wasn’t simply Hezbollah and their pals on Lebanese soil. As I wrote in Townhall.com: Jihadism’s Dangerous Liasons:
“Mughniyeh was respected by both the Iranian mullahs and Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants. Both Iraq’s Shiia militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr and Sunni Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (Al Sadr’s ’supposed arch-foe,’ as Glick says) called for revenge killings. Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moualem publicly referred to Mughniyeh as ‘a backbone of the Islamic resistance.’”
Now we see United Nations soldiers saluting Mughniyeh and the bodies of his comrades in terror.
Makes one also wonder why UN troops failed in their mandate to keep the air and seaports open — among other failings — when Hezbollah attacked Lebanon in May. And what kind of message does this send to the majority of the people in Lebanon (who are pro-democracy and afraid of an increasingly dominant Hezbollah) when they see international peacekeepers recognize terrorists as soldiers worthy of military courtesy?
— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. online at uswriter.com.
BABY-KILLER RECEIVES “HERO’S WELCOME” BY HEZBOLLAH
Posted by editor-at-large on 17 July 2008 at 6:09 pm UTC
Our friends with Lebanon’s pro-democracy Cedars Revolution today issued a statement — the spirit of which is felt by all freedom, democracy, and justice loving people worldwide — regarding the shameful release of and “hero’s welcome” for terrorist Samir Kantar.
According to the World Council for the Cedars Revolution:
“Pretty sad day for Lebanon and the Lebanese world wide. A national holiday for terrorists? What a shameful day, what a shameful government that took part in a national holiday celebrating a baby killer. Lebanon is lacking Justice, that is the bottom line.”
Lacking justice indeed. But this injustice extends beyond Lebanon (and Israel from where he was released). The entire world suffers with the unjust freeing of Kantar and his cronies.
Kantar murdered three Israeli civilians in 1979, including a four-year-old girl whose head he bashed with a rifle butt.
Following his release from an Israeli prison on Wednesday — along with four other Hezbollah terrorists (in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured-and-killed by Hezbollah two years ago) – Kantar, dressed in a Hezbollah military uniform and expressing his feeling of “enormous joy” because he has returned to the ranks of Hezbollah, told AFP:
“I haven’t for even one day regretted what I did.”
Again, let’s not forget, Kantar bashed-in a baby’s brains.
As part of his welcome home ceremony, Kantar paid his respects at the tomb of Hezbollah’s mad-bomber Imad Mughniyeh (more about Mughniyeh here). At Mughniyeh’s tomb, Kantar proclaimed:
“We swear by God … to continue on your [Mughniyeh’s] same path and not to retreat until we achieve the same stature that God bestowed on you.”
Kantar fancies himself a soldier. Trust me, a soldier – in the sense of the word as I understand it to be (and I was a Marine infantryman) – is a virtuous man. He defends his country or his causes by putting those things above his own life. A soldier also shows mercy to his enemies, and he NEVER fails to defend the weak and the innocent. Men like Kantar are not soldiers by anyone’s definition if the definition and the interpretation of that definition are honest. Any man or woman who would deliberately and summarily execute a child (no matter the reason) is a murderer and an animal. Nothing more.
Referring to Kantar as an animal may not seem objective. But like his personal hero, Mughniyeh, Kantar is what he is.
Amazingly, the mainstream media — which I myself have been a part of for years — is referring to Kantar in headlines as simply a “freed Lebanese prisoner.”
Make no mistake, this man does not represent Lebanon any more than Charlie Manson or Tim McVeigh represent America. And we cannot win this “war of ideas” – as terrorism expert Dr. Walid Phares aptly and often describes as the heart of the war on terror — until we end the soft-soaping of animals like Kantar, and come to grips with who and what these people are.
— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. online at uswriter.com.
British Parliament outlaws Hezbollah’s military wing
Posted by editor-at-large on 15 July 2008 at 11:28 pm UTC
“… Prime Minister Gordon Brown had told lawmakers earlier this month that he wanted to add the military wing of the organization to a list of banned terrorist organizations.
“Britain lists 45 groups as banned international terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Hizbullah’s external security organization has been listed since 2001.
“McNulty insisted that Hizbullah’s social and political work in Britain would be unaffected, but the ban would place tight limits on fundraising.”
Now if we can just get our British cousins and everybody else to realize that you cannot separate Hezbollah’s “social and political work” from what Hezbollah is: A global terrorist organization. After all, the Taliban has social and political elements. Those are two of the means — in addition to terror and militant force — by which groups like Hezbollah and the Taliban control people.
“24 new Advanced Block 52 F-16s for Morocco”
Posted by editor-at-large on 15 July 2008 at 9:26 pm UTC
Let’s face it: Most press releases are nothing more than dull, corporate promo-sheets with sometimes just enough information to help a reporter develop a dust-dry news lede or a simple nut graf for a basic news story.
Then there is this downright interesting, informationally rich one-pager I received today from Lockheed about the F-16, which Lockheed is promoting – along with some of its other platforms and systems – at the Farnborough (England) International Airshow. Yes, you’ll notice a bit of company spin in the release, but frankly it’s worth the read.
Here are some of the highlights:
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There are current backorders for about 98 F-16 aircraft, plus a strong possibility Lockheed Martin will gain 200-400 further orders during the next few years.
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Recent F-16 program milestones have included the 4,400th F-16 delivered for Poland and a recent contract for 24 new Advanced Block 52 F-16s for Morocco, the newest member of the F-16 family.
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In addition to the F-16 production programs, Lockheed Martin continues to develop and integrate advanced technologies to upgrade programs for existing F-16 aircraft to ensure interoperability with the world’s only 5th Generation Fighters, the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II.
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Aircraft now being produced for Poland, Israel, Greece and Pakistan are in the Advanced Block 50/52 F-16C/D configuration. The United Arab Emirates was the launch customer for the Block 60 F-16 version, which has the type designation – F-16E/F – and is the most sophisticated configuration of the F-16 produced to date.
Iran’s Missile-Rattling Ups the Ante
Posted by editor-at-large on 15 July 2008 at 7:33 pm UTC
Our recent piece, Will Israel Strike Iran? (Human Events), is followed by our piece this week, Iran’s Missile-Rattling Ups the Ante (published in both Middle East Times and Canada Free Press):
“In the wake of Iran’s lighting off several medium-range ballistic missiles, or MRBMs – including one that never got off the ground, but was doctored in a widely publicized photograph to make it look as if it did – there has been much speculation about Iran’s missile capability: The greatest fear being that Iranian MRBMs could strike targets almost anywhere in the Middle East, including Israel and many U.S. bases, perhaps even reaching targets in southern and eastern Europe (perhaps most of Europe if Iran decided to move some of its missiles to Hezbollah-controlled zones in Lebanon).
“Even worse is the prospect that a soon-to-be-nuclear Iran could tip its missiles with nuclear warheads.
“According to Iran, the missiles tested included a new and improved version of the Shahab-3 (in some circles known as the Shahab-4), an MRBM capable of hitting targets 1,250 miles away from their launching sites.
“U.S. Defense Department officials, however, say Iran did not test anything new, and it is doubtful that any Shahab missile launched last week would be able to reach out beyond 800 miles. Iran was ‘firing off old equipment in an attempt to intimidate their neighbors and escalate tension in the region,’ said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.
“Escalate tension indeed.
“The Shahab (translated from Farsi means ‘meteor’ or ’shooting star’) is a liquid-fueled, tractor-transportable MRBM based heavily on the model of North Korea’s Nodong missile. The Shahab is also what the Iranian mullahs hope is the next step toward achieving intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) status.
“‘The Shahab-3 is the missile the Iranians are looking at as a building block toward an ICBM,’ Peter Brookes, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and a senior fellow with the Heritage Foundation, tells me. ‘What the North Koreans did to attempt an ICBM was to basically strap a couple of Nodongs together to make a Taepodong, which is the one that failed in 1998 and 2006.’
“Nevertheless, if 10 missiles are launched and nine fail, that still leaves one; and the Sahab-3 is reportedly capable of delivering a 1,800 to 2,600-pound conventional or nuclear warhead. Moreover, Iran’s so-called test-firings last week indicate the Persian state has no intention of ending either its missile development or its nuclear program despite the fact that Israel, the United States, and the greater West are increasingly being backed into corners over whether or not the military option must be unleashed to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and the means to deliver it. … “
NOTE: The opinions expressed in these articles are solely those of the author, and do not represent the opinions of World Defense Review and its affiliates. WDR accepts no responsibility whatsoever for the accuracy or inaccuracy of the content of this or any other story published on this website. Copyright and all rights for this story (and all other stories by the author) are held by the author.
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