“Nasrallah … Fuck Off” Published
One of the posts i wrote during the war is published in Michael J. Totten’s Blog Digest # 1 : The Hezbollah war.
This blog digest is one of a three series anthology entitled “Lebanon who won, who lost, who suffered”.
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Posted by N10452 |
Last Tuesday morning, a siren sounded in Buenos Aires to mark the 12th
anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA building, the chief offices of
Argentina’s Jewish community. The bombing killed 85 people and injured
over 250. It was the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. It
was the work of Hezbollah, working closely under Iranian sponsorship,
and it perfectly illustrates Hezbollah’s intentions, capabilities, and
modus operandi. As the West hurtles into a confrontation with Iran,
sparked by the current Israeli-Hezbollah conflagration, it is worth
examining this deadly effective attack in Argentina over a decade ago.
The AMIA bombing was not Hezbollah’s first strike in Argentina. Two
years earlier, a Hezbollah suicide bomber hit the Israeli embassy in
Buenos Aires, killing 29 and wounding over 200. This attack was in
retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah’s Secretary-General
Abbas Musawi. His replacement was Hezbollah’s current leader Hassan
Nasrallah.
Two years later, Hezbollah, under orders from the Iranian leadership,
struck again in Buenos Aires. Israel had just captured a senior
Hezbollah leader, Mustafa Dirani, who had helped capture Israeli airman
Ron Arad. At the same time, Israel had recently bombed a Hezbollah
training base, killing over 20 Hezbollah fighters. Finally, Argentina’s
President Carlos Menem, had, under U.S. pressure, reneged on deals to
provide ballistic-missile and nuclear technology to Syria and Iran.
Argentine intelligence believes that the orders for these attacks came
from the very top of the Iranian regime. Both of the Buenos Aires
terror attacks illustrate how Iran and Hezbollah play hardball with
their opponents.
Terrorism requires organization and logistics. Hezbollah’s ability to
carry out an attack in Buenos Aires, halfway across the world from
their primary base in Lebanon, is impressive. One factor in the AMIA
bombing’s success was, according to Argentine intelligence, the support
from the Iranian embassy. Mohsen Rabbani, the “cultural attaché,”
coordinated the operation. Reportedly he purchased the Renault van used
in the bombing. This pattern of Iranian-Hezbollah cooperation is not
unique to the Buenos Aires operations. Hezbollah carried out a series
of bombings in Paris from December 1985 to September 1986. These
bombings were linked to a translator at Iran’s embassy in Paris and led
to a diplomatic standoff between France and Iran.
Another factor explaining Hezbollah’s long reach is the organizational
genius of Hezbollah’s security chief, Imad Mughniyah. A former gunman
with Yasser Arafat’s elite Force 17, Mughniyah is on the FBI’s
most-wanted list for his role in the 1985 hijacking of TWA 847 in which
a U.S. Navy diver was tortured and killed. Linked to numerous terrorist
attacks, including suicide bombings and hostage taking in Lebanon, and
the Buenos Aires attacks, Mughniyah is currently believed to be
coordinating Iranian and Hezbollah support for Palestinian terrorists.
He also met with Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s to forge an
alliance between al Qaeda and Hezbollah. Wanted by several governments,
Mughniyah keeps a low profile. However, he is believed to have appeared
publicly, for the first time in over a decade, with Iran’s President
Ahmadinejad at a meeting in Damascus in January.
Finally, the AMIA attack had consequences beyond the mayhem of the
bombing itself. The AMIA bombing created an open wound in Argentine
politics that has festered for a decade as the investigation has been
mired in corruption, cover-ups, and incompetence. This aftermath is
typical of Hezbollah terrorism. Time and again, Hezbollah terror
attacks have had a profound strategic impact. Hezbollah’s first attack
in April 1983 against the U.S. embassy in Beirut wiped out the Beirut
CIA station - a blow from which the agency has yet to recover. The
double bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks and the French barracks led
to the withdrawal of the U.S. led multinational peacekeeping force from
Lebanon, leaving Lebanon to the tender mercies of the Syrians and
Iranians. Hezbollah’s hostage taking in the 1980s led to secret
negotiations by the American and French governments with Iran. These
negotiations triggered the Iran-Contra scandal in the U.S. and a
similar scandal in France.
The AMIA bombing was the epitome of an Iranian-Hezbollah terror attack.
It was a sophisticated act of mass murder that sent a brutal message to
Iran’s enemies, while leaving deep political scars.
As the fighting increases, Hezbollah may again turn to international
terror. Besides Latin America, Hezbollah has carried out attacks across
the Middle East and Europe. Hezbollah cells have been found in the Far
East, North America, and Central Asia. It is very likely that Hezbollah
retains a formidable international network, and if pressured will use
it. In a recent interview with al-Jazeera, Hezbollah Secretary-General
Nasrallah stated that Hezbollah was going to take “the initiative” and
“offer some surprises.” The AMIA bombing was one Hezbollah surprise and
remembering it is a reminder of the danger Hezbollah poses, not only to
Israel, but also to the world.
November 1st, 2006 | #
Thanks for taking the trouble to post such a detailed and informative report.
November 1st, 2006 | #