Tag Archives: Beirut

US Marks 30th Anniversary Of Beirut Embassy Bombing

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images (47)WITN: While the nation is mourning what happened in Boston on Monday and the piecing together details of a deadly fire and explosion in Wake, Texas on Wednesday night, many are taking Thursday to also remember a terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut 30 years ago.

On this day in 1983, what has been classified as an act of terrorism killed 52 American diplomats, military personnel, and Lebanese Embassy colleagues. 100 Americans and Lebanese were also wounded in the attack.

At the time, the attack on Embassy Beirut was considered the single largest attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility.

The casualties of the April attack in 1983 were more than quadrupled nearly six months later.

On October 23rd of the same year, Lebanese terrorists drove a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel.

In a statement issued Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry looked back at both bombings from 1983 and to the more recent embassy bombing in Libya.

“The recent loss of State Department colleagues in Zabul, Ankara, and Benghazi remind us of the sacrifices made by our colleagues around the world who work at U.S. diplomatic missions to promote and protect democracy, enhance freedom and justice, and facilitate development,” wrote Sec. Kerry.

A local, public memorial service is set for 10a.m., Saturday, April 20th in Jacksonville in the Lejeune Gardens off Highway 24.

Camp Lejeune will participate in the remembrance service, which will include songs, the laying of wreaths, and reading names of military members lost in the April 18th bombing.

My cousin, Ken Haas, was among those killed in the embassy. You can read about it here.

Book Review: The Company of Shadows

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by Steven Emerson:

Reviewed by IPT News
March 1, 2013

From The Company of Shadows by author Kevin Shipp offers a fascinating insider’s view of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from the perspective of someone who lived in the agency’s top echelons from the end of the Cold War to the War on Terror.

The book reads like a James Bond novel, only the characters and situations are real. It delves into the CIA’s internal politics and abuses of power that he contends has made America less free and less safe.

Shipp should know, having served in roles ranging from working as a security officer assigned to the protection detail of the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence (DDCI) to being a counter-terrorism instructor for the agency’s Counterterrorism Center. He was a decorated CIA officer whose view of the agency shifted from one of idealism to one of sobriety about its real nature as his career progressed.

Shipp joined the CIA in 1985 and had a front-row seat as the Iran-Contra scandal emerged two years later. The author attributes the momentum behind the scandal to late CIA Director William Casey’s personal devotion to William Buckley, the CIA’s station chief in Beirut, Lebanon who had been kidnapped by the Islamic Jihad terrorist group and was tortured daily before being murdered in 1985.

Casey felt responsible for Buckley’s predicament and wanted to ensure that Buckley and the other hostages being held by terrorists in Lebanon were rescued, but the plan backfired.

Shipp describes the late CIA director as “one of the last real servants of democracy” who was willing to take personal risks. But Casey’s death marked a turning point for the agency, which soon found itself looking for its mission after the Cold War.

The arms-for-hostages episode served as a warning to Shipp that there was no negotiating with religious fundamentalists.

There is no one better than Shipp to bring the agency’s internal secret wars of the past 30 years into public, and the book gives the reader a first-hand view. He provides a glimpse into the cloak-and-dagger life of a CIA operator with an eye on the agency’s internal politics.

His view of the agency started to change after the start of the Clinton administration when the focus shifted from serving national security to serving political correctness. A move in this direction already had begun back in the Carter administration when CIA Director Stansfield Turner slashed the number of spies on the ground in favor of satellite and electronic surveillance.

Turner’s decision to eviscerate the CIA’s human intelligence capabilities touched off series of disastrous decisions that led the agency to heavily rely on unreliable defectors who fed it bad intelligence.

President Bill Clinton gave the agency’s decline an additional push, Shipp writes.

In addition to recruiting substandard new hires, it issued an order prohibiting CIA officers from having contact with foreign nationals engaged in human-rights abuses.

This contributed to intelligence failures leading up to the Iraq war and even the 9/11 attacks, Shipp writes.

By the time the 9/11 attacks took place, the CIA was “deaf, dumb and blind” about Islamist extremist groups and agents scrambled to gather intelligence from open-source materials, Shipp writes. CNN frequently had better sources about what was happening overseas than the CIA.

The same holds true about other Islamist terrorist groups.

Many of these groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Muslim Brotherhood have established a strong foothold in the United States working through front groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim American Society (MAS) and Muslim Public Affairs Council, Shipp writes.

These groups have succeeded in getting the Obama administration to declare there is “no War on Terror” and adhere to the view that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism.

Read more at IPT

Obama CIA nominee hedged on Hezbollah terrorists in 2006: ‘You can’t divide the world into good and evil’

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john-brennan-450x300By Charles C. Johnson:

Although the president’s chief counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan, led an unsuccessful effort in October to persuade European leaders to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist group, the man President Barack Obama has chosen to lead the CIA hasn’t always been convinced the label fits. Brennan argued from 2006 to 2010 for a more permissive view of the Iran-backed Lebanese militants best known in America for bombing a U.S. Marine barracks in 1983.

In an August 2006 C-SPAN interview, Brennan said the second-deadliest terror organization in U.S. history should be understood not as a thoroughly evil force, but as a “complex” organization with a “social and political nature.”

“Americans throughout the country really have to have a better sense of what’s going on in the world,” Brennan said in that interview, ”because world events affect our lives whether we live in Washington, or we live in Indiana, or in California. And unfortunately, sometimes there is an unsophisticated understanding of some of these challenges.” (RELATED: In graduate thesis, John Brennan argued for government censorship: “Too much freedom is possible”)

“For example … it would be nice to be able to put Hezbollah in a category of being totally evil, but Hezbollah as an organization is a very complex one that has terrorist arm to it. It has a social and political nature to it as well.”

“You can’t divide the world into good and evil,” Brennan continued. “There is a lot of good out there that tends to be camouflaged along with the evil. What we need to do as a government and a people is to really have a better appreciation of the needs and the challenges that people throughout the world face.”

Hezbollah, a dominant Shiite group in Lebanon, claimed responsibility for the Oct. 23, 1983 truck bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 members of a U.S. peacekeeping military force. The attack marked the deadliest single day for the U.S. military since the beginning of the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam.

Earlier that same year, a Hezbollah suicide bomber killed 63 Americans in a blast that leveled portions of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.

But Brennan’s remarks on C-SPAN, along with others he has made since then, suggest the Obama administration’s top spy will see America’s Middle Eastern foes in a different light.

“Though Brennan has made relatively few public statements, these should be understood as coming from Obama’s ‘counterterror brain,’” Center for Security Policy Strategic Communications Vice President David Reaboi told The Daily Caller. ”The massive strategic blunders, empowering Islamist groups around the globe, are right in line with Brennan’s worldview and almost certainly emanate from his office.”

Read more at Daily Caller

 

Obama Gives Hezbollah 200 Armored Personnel Carriers

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Lebanon_M113_30112006_news_001-450x259By  in Front Page

It’s only fair that with the Muslim Brotherhood getting 200 Abrams tanks, Hezbollah should get 200 armored personnel carriers.  While tragically there was no money available to provide security for the US mission in Benghazi, there’s always room for giving billion dollar weapons packages to the terrorists who attack US embassies.

In 1983, Hezbollah carried out the suicide car bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut killing 63 people, including US soldiers, and wounding 120. The suicide vehicle of choice was a delivery van. But now Hezbollah will be able to attack the next US embassy in style with the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier.

When Hezbollah overturned the Lebanese government and replaced it with a coalition dominated by the Shiite terrorist group, backed by Iran, there were worries that this might prevent Lebanon from receiving US aid.

But those worriers had clearly never met Obama who will never unfairly deprive Islamic terrorists of the weapons that they are entitled to under the code of social justice.

The United States has provided more than $140 million in equipment and assistance to the Lebanese armed forces in the past six months, including six Huey 2 helicopters, a 42-metre coastal security craft, more than 1,000 guns – including grenade launchers – and 38 million rounds of ammunition.

The United States has given 200 armored vehicles to Lebanon, the Lebanese army said… The M113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) arrived by ship to Beirut on Sunday, the army said in a statement. A Lebanese security source said the army now had 1,200 APCs.

What possible use could the Lebanese military make of that firepower? It isn’t to fight Hezbollah as Hezbollah is in the government. It isn’t to fight Syria, because even in its present state, the Syrian military would kick Lebanon’s ass, and Lebanon’s military would end up fighting Hezbollah at home if they tried that.

That just leaves one possibility.

“This government is committed to maintaining strong, brotherly ties which bind Lebanon to all Arab countries, without exception,” Prime Minister Mikati said at the Baabda Presidential Palace. “Let us go to work immediately according to the principles… [of] defending Lebanon’s sovereignty and its independence and liberating land that remains under the occupation of the Israeli enemy.”

Israel had already withdrawn entirely from Lebanon, so that just leaves Shebaa Farms and the rest of Israel to “liberate”.

On Monday, House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., criticized the administration for keeping “the aid pipeline flowing” when Hariri’s government fell.

“Now, Hezbollah and its cohorts will control the Lebanese government and likely benefit from the years of U.S. assistance, including to the Lebanese military. We cannot undo past mistakes, but we can learn from them and safeguard taxpayer dollars going forward,” Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement. “The U.S. should immediately cut off assistance to the Lebanese government as long as any violent extremist group designated by the U.S. as foreign terrorist organizations participates in it.”

That was last year. Instead Obama has given them even more assistance. If they just found a way to bring Al Qaeda into the government, they would probably get their own stealth bombers.

Iran’s global cyber war-room is secretly hosted by Hizballah in Beirut

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DEBKAfile:

Iran’s secret cyber war-room is located at Hizballah’s secret internal security apparatus headquarters in the Shiite Dahya district of South Beirut, debkafile’s exclusive intelligence and counterterrorism sources reveal. The hackers and cyber experts who recently attacked American banks and Saudi oil sites and which guided an Iranian stealth drone into Israeli airspace on Oct. 6, operate from Hizballah’s premises in Beirut and its secret bunkers.

Wafiq Safa is head of the security apparatus and also deputy of the Iranian general, Hossein Mahadavi, who serves as the liaison and coordination officer with Hizballah in Lebanon.Safa’s son is married to the Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s sister. Cyber intelligence experts explain Tehran uses its Lebanese surrogate to host its global digital war-room -  firstly, to disguise the source of its cyber offensives and keep Iran clear of blame; secondly, because the Hizballah facility is protected from electronic penetration by exceptionally efficient firewalls. They were strong enough to keep Israeli cyber experts from discovering the electronic center which dispatched the UAV over their country and reaching its controllers.  Whenever Israel experts tried manipulating the drone’s movements, they found an external force overrode them and recovered control. Eventually, the Israeli commanders gave up and ordered the drone brought down with as little damage as possible. The drone’s components have given up to its captors many secrets about Iran’s stealth UAV technology and capabilities, but very little about the Iranian cyber team operating out of the Hizballah facility in Beirut and their equipment. By cutting away from the captured UAV, the Iranian controllers also locked their operation away from outside access and any possible evaluation of their capabilities.

The Americans encountered the same difficulty in early October when they tried to locate and identify the hackers who disabled 10 major US bank websites, attacked Saudi Arabia’s Aramco’s websites with a virus called Shamoon that replaced data with burning American flags, and invaded the computers of Qatar’s gas industry.

Six days after the drone’s penetration of Israel, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta talked to reporters in New York about “a pre-9/11 moment” for the United States. He did not come right out and name Iran or mention its cyber war headquarters in Beirut. He did, however, warn “the attackers are plotting,” and that recent electronic attacks in US and abroad demonstrate the need for “a more aggressive military role in defense and to retaliate against organized groups or hostile governments.”

Hezbollah assassinates Colonel Wissam El Hassan

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Col. Wissam al-Hasan, head of the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch is seen during a meeting in Beirut, Lebanon.
Credits: Mohammad Azakir/The Daily Star

By Kerry Patton for the Examiner:

Lebanon’s Internal Security Force (ISF) took a devastating blow earlier today as one of its key leaders was assassinated. Wissam El Hassan, a top official in charge of the ISF intelligence collection unit was killed along with at least 7 others.

In close proximity of Lebanon’s Phalange Party headquarters, a large vehicle born improvised explosive device (VBIED) detonated in the predominantly Christian district of Beirut known as Achrafieh.

Colonel Wissam El Hassan was transported to the Hotel Dieu de France Hospital recently. Upon his arrival, medical staff was quick to declare El Hassan as deceased. His passing was declared on Lebanese national television.

El Hassan, a pro-Harriri/Saudi backed official, arrested many pro-Syrian activists which included the arrest of Lebanon Government Minister Michel Samaha– a personal friend of Syrian President Bachar el Assad.

It is strongly believed after close analysis based on the type of tactic, location, and target, this incident was not orchestrated by Al Qaeda rather its Shiite rival Hezbollah–with possible cooperation that includes Syrian assets.

The victim, Wissam El Hassan, was a long-time target. He uncovered Syrian car bombs approximately one month ago put into Christian areas to foment an already tense crisis throughout the Levant.

The assassination could be construed as a message to the US and our allies in Lebanon.

The FBI created a crime lab within Lebanon’s police force as a means to promote and assist relations between the US and Lebanon. In many ways, the initiative could be observed as an “international intelligence friendship building” experiment. The Lebanese police unit created by Colonel Wisam El Hassan was considered very close to the US Intelligence Community.

Most efforts today by Lebanese Army Intelligence focuses on eying one Shiite Lebanese General in helping Hezbollah for this blast–General Jamil Al Sayed–previous director of Lebanon’s Surete Generale Agency.

General Jamil Al Sayed (Shiite) was Colonel Wismam el Hasan’s (Sunni) personal rival. The Surete Generale is controlled by the Shiites today in Lebanon while the Police are controlled by the Sunnis.

According to one source close to Lebanese Army Intelligence, Al Sayed has a hand in the assassination of Colonel Hassan.

The question is, would anyone dare arrest  Al Sayed or at least question him under these circumstances? Answering such a question can only be answered with an obvious no. As long as Hezbollah dominates and rules the ground in Lebanon, General Jamil Al Sayed is untouchable.

Hezbollah will likely never come forward claiming responsibility for Colonel Hassan’s death as they rarely come forward claiming the responsibility of anyone’s death. With a little deductive reasoning based on key facts, its pretty obvious who killed the Colonel–Hezbollah.

Kerry Patton, a combat disabled veteran, is the author of Contracted: America’s Secret Warriors (scheduled release Dec, 2012.). You can follow him on Facebook or at kerry-patton.com.

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Major terror attack unfolds in Lebanon

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Blast site in Achrafieh, Beirut, Lebanon Credits:
Yorgo El Bittar

By Kerry Patton for the Examiner:

Editors Note: This is breaking news and updates will be revealed as more details come forward.

A major terrorist attack unfolded in the heavily populated Christian district in Beirut, Lebanon known as Achrafieh. According to numerous social media feeds predominantly coming out of Twitter and Facebook, no terrorist organization has claimed responsibility at this time.

So far, the numbers of persons killed remains unknown. Many persons have been severely injured. For individuals near Hotel Dieu, a field trauma site has been established and medical teams are searching for persons to donate blood.

Chatter is filling the internet with mixed reports. Hezbollah, a terrorist proxy for Iran, is accusing Al Qaeda for the incident. This is one of the first times the world has heard of Hezbollah pointing a finger at its Sunni counterpart Al Qaeda. Yes, Hezbollah has accused its Sunni rivals in the past of certain incidents but never this fast after an incident and never in a communique that has spread like a wildfire across the globe.

Al Qaeda on the other hand is accusing members founded in the March 14 alliance who hold close ties with Bashir Assad in Syria. Hezbollah is one of those members aligned with the March 14 alliance.Al Qaeda has found its way into Lebanon making serious headway in shifting geo-politics with more Sunni influence.

This explosion and the constant finer pointing could lead to a devastating crisis inside the Middle East. If Al Qaeda and Hezbollah continue to point fingers, the largest terror versus terror war could ensue.

The crisis in Syria makes sense as a center of gravity having influence over this incident. Hezbollah fighters once assisted Assad’s forces. Many of them returned back to Lebanon when Syrian rebels seized certain strongholds. Their withdrawal from Syria could be viewed as a sign of weakness.

Sunni backed militants in Syria oppose the Alawite regime. Assad’s Alawite regime is predominantly backed by Shiites in Iran. The Sunni’s fighting Assad comprises of large pools of Al Qaeda fighters, many of which are foreign fighters from across the Middle East.

Syria is the ultimate Sunni versus Shiite civil war. That war may have just moved into Lebanon.

Updates will continue as more details unfold.

Kerry Patton, a combat disabled veteran, is the author of Contracted: America’s Secret Warriors (scheduled release Dec, 2012.). You can follow him on Facebook or at kerry-patton.com.

After 31 years of counter-terror activism Gadi Adelman is tired

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I’m Tired by GADI  ADELMAN:

Thirty-one years is long time. Actually, it’s far too long. This week will be  my birthday and I won’t be celebrating.

At the age of 51, I can only look back and wonder why, why things have gotten  worse rather than better. I have been speaking, writing and teaching about  terror, Islam, Sharia and counter-terror for 31 years.

With all the news surrounding the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens in  Libya, I have to start with the last death of an American Ambassador.

Although the last U.S. ambassador to die in the line of duty was Arnold  Raphel, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, it is unsure whether it was a terrorist  act. He perished in a plane crash in 1988, along with the then president of  Pakistan, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.

Prior to that, the last ambassador to be killed in the line of duty was  Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, in 1979. On February 14, 1979,  he was kidnapped by four terrorists and was killed when he was shot during an  exchange of gunfire started between the terrorists and Afghan security  forces.

An American Ambassador killed by terrorists. Did America notice? No.

Months after the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran and Iran voted to  become an Islamic Republic we had the embassy takeover. On November 4, 1979  Iranians seized the U.S. embassy, taking 66 hostages. 14 were later released  with the remaining 52 freed after 444 days on the day of President Reagan’s  inauguration.

This was not enough for people to take notice.

When I arrived back in the U.S. in 1981, I tried and tried to introduce this  country to what I knew would be needed, anti-terrorism. I applied and  interviewed with every alphabet soup government agency and was shot down by each  and every one with the exception of the CIA. I was told, “This is America, we  don’t have terrorism.”

The CIA offered me a position that I couldn’t speak about for years under the  penalty of ‘treason’, but needless to say it wasn’t in the area of  counter-terror. I refused the offer since it would have been going against my  own morals, ethics and beliefs, not to mention, Israel.

In 1981 there weren’t even a handful of counter-terror people, as a matter of  fact I knew of only two, myself and my dear friend and colleague Dr. Walid  Phares.

Interestingly, both I and Dr. Phares have been saying and warning of the same  things for all these years.  Even though what we say and warn about seem to  come to fruition each and every time, very few listen.

Between 1982 and 1991 we had the kidnappings and deaths of Americans in  Lebanon. Thirty U.S. and other Western hostages were kidnapped in Lebanon by  Hezbollah. Some were killed, some died in captivity and some were eventually  released. Terry Anderson was held for 2,454 days.

This too was not enough for people to take notice.

Shortly after I arrived back in the U.S. from Israel we had the Lebanon  bombings.

On April 18, 1983, the U.S. embassy in Beirut was bombed killing 63 people,  most were embassy and CIA staff members, several were soldiers and one was a  Marine. 17 of the dead were Americans.

That same year on October 23, the U.S. Marines barracks were destroyed by  suicide bombers during their stay as part of multinational ‘peace keeping  force’. What many do not know is that this was only the second “suicide bombing”  in history, it was carried out by the terrorist organization Hezbollah and  killed 241 American servicemen: 220 marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers,  along with sixty other Americans injured.

The Marine barrack attack was the deadliest single-day death toll for the  United States Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima of World War II, the  deadliest single-day death toll for the United   States military since the first  day of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, and the deadliest single attack  on Americans overseas since World War II.

Was the bombing of the U.S. embassy and the Marine barracks in Lebanon not  enough for people to realize that perhaps we as Americans were not dealing with  a conventional enemy? Did the American people take notice? No. Did the world  take notice? No.

Before the end of that horrendous year on December 12, 1983, the U.S. embassy  in Kuwait City, Kuwait was attacked by Shiite truck bombers, killing five and  injuring 80.

Did America start to take notice? No.

Then a second time within 17 months on September 20, 1984 a suicide bomber  driving a truck packed with 400 pounds of explosives targeted the American  embassy in Aukar, nine miles north of Beirut. 23 people are killed and 21  injured.

More flag draped coffins. Did America start to notice a trend here? No.

**********

Since 9/11, things have gotten worse throughout the world, not better.  Somehow through backwards political correctness and ignorance, the perpetrator  has made himself the victim. Sadly, that’s what Americans notice. What’s more,  most Americans believe it.

It has been stated by leaders the world over as they have seen their own  countries succumb to and be held hostage by Islam.

Former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, on February 11, 2011, while being interviewed  on French National Television about Islam in his country,

“My answer is clearly yes, it [multiculturalism] is a failure.”

On February 5, 2011, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, stated in a speech  while speaking on taking a tougher stance on groups promoting Islamist terror in  his country,

“Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and  much more active, muscular liberalism. Let’s properly judge these organizations:  Do they believe in universal human rights – including for women and people of  other faiths? Do they believe in equality of all before the law? Do they believe  in democracy and the right of people to elect their own government? Do they  encourage integration or separatism?”

“Again it just seems the Muslim community is very much in the spotlight,  being treated as part of the problem as opposed to part of the solution.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany stated  on October 17, 2010 while speaking on Muslims in Germany,

“We kidded ourselves for a while that they wouldn’t stay, but that’s not the  reality.”

“Of course the tendency had been to say, ‘let’s adopt the multicultural  concept and live happily side by side, and be happy to be living with each  other’. But this concept has failed, and failed utterly.”

As leader after leader has seen their country under the threat of terror and  retaliation become more Islamic, more Sharia compliant and they lose their right  to free speech, they have all come to the same conclusion. Americans though  don’t take notice.

The Arab Spring has brought us more Islamic ruled governments, not more  “freedom;” the reason is simple, what we in the West refer to as “freedom” is  not what Muslims see as freedom. Their freedom is that of the Quran. Their  freedom is the word of Allah. Their freedom is living like they did 1400 years  ago. Period.

If you think I am wrong, look at the Middle East. Take notice.

I’m tired of being called “an alarmist,” I’m tired of being called “an  Islamophobe,” I’m tired of being called “a nut,” but most of all I’m tired of  America not waking up to the truth.

Since the terror attack that should have been the one to end all others,  9/11, there have been 19,680 deadly attacks, with over 260,000 deaths, all in  the name of Islam. This is not a few people “that have hijacked a religion.”  This is the religion. This is Islam. It’s time to take notice.

Read it all at Family Security Matters

 

FamilySecurityMatters.orgContributing  Editor Gadi  Adelman  is a freelance writer and lecturer on the history of  terrorism and  counterterrorism. He grew up in Israel, studying terrorism and  Islam for 35  years after surviving a terrorist bomb in Jerusalem in which 7  children were  killed. Since returning to the U. S., Gadi teaches and lectures  to law  enforcement agencies as well as high schools and colleges. He can be  heard  every Thursday night at 8PM est. on his own radio show “America Akbar”  on Blog  Talk Radio.  He can be reached through his website gadiadelman.com.

Hamas signs binding military commitment to Iran-led war on Israel

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Debka file:

Hamas leader Mahmoud A-Zahar and deputy commander of its military arm, Marwan Issa, spent the second week of September in Beirut and Tehran finalizing and signing protocols covering a binding commitment by the radical Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip to join Iran, Syria and Hizballah in a war on Israel, debkafile’s exclusive military sources disclose. The protocols set out in detail the circumstances, procedures and terms governing Hamas’s participation in a conflict, whether it arises from an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program or the involvement of Iran’s allies, Syria and Hizballah, in comprehensive or partial hostilities against Israel. Hamas agreed to obey any orders to attack the Jewish state coming from Tehran, Damascus or Beirut.

Tehran also required A-Zahar and Issa to attach their signatures to copies of the military understandings Iranian National Security Director Saeed Jalili concluded with Bashar Assad during his visit to Damascus on Aug. 7. Those understandings, debkafile reports, touched off the massive Iranian airlift currently carrying hundreds of military personnel and weapons day by day to the embattled Syrian regime. Hamas’s signature provided a booster shot of 22,000 trained fighters including reservists for the battle array of elite Iranian al Qods Brigades units building up in Syria and Lebanon and taking up positions along Israel’s borders.

This buildup prompted the large-scale snap military exercise Israel staged on the Golan Wednesday, Sept. 19. Most of the forces stayed on after the exercise was over and spread out along the Syrian and Lebanese borders.

The directives Hamas leaders received in Tehran after their meetings with top officials were detailed and precise. They were handed down in person by Defense Minister Ahmed Wahidi, Revolutionary Guards Chief Gen. Ali Jafari, the Al Qods Brigades commander, Qassem Soleimani, and a select group of Iranian intelligence experts on the Israel.

Those orders were presented in the language of commands and brooked no argument. Tehran had two goals:

1. To leave no leeway for the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, of which the Palestinian Hamas is an offshoot, to veto the pledges Hamas signed in Tehran. The Palestinian Hamas was put on notice that the group was now under contract to defer to Tehran in military matters ahead of Cairo.

2.  Iran, Hizballah and Syria instructed Hamas to stop obstructing Jihad Islami’s activities in the Gaza Strip and be ready to operate in harmony with Iran’s Palestinian proxy against Israel. In a potential outbreak of war, both must take their orders from Iran’s Middle East command.

For placing itself under Tehran’s jackboot, Hamas was assured of the resumption of Iranian economic aid and fresh supplies of missiles, advanced hi-tech war equipment to improve the accuracy of its rocket attacks on Israel – which rarely hit much – and anti-air weapons systems.

Iran had been keeping Hamas short pending the guarantees and pledges of allegiance A Zahar carried to Tehran and Beirut in the round trips he made between Sept 8 and 13.  Even then, to make sure there were no loopholes in their accords, the Iranians forced the Hamas delegation to break its journey home to the Gaza Strip in Beirut, repeat their commitments to Tehran to Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah and re-sign the documents in his presence. Failing to honor the deal, they warned, would elicit the immediate cutoff of Iranian aid and supplies.

debkafile’s military analysts report Hamas’ decision to unreservedly hitch its star to the Iranian wagon produced immediate fallout – especially on Egyptian-Israeli relations and counter-terror operations in Egyptian Sinai.

Friday, Islamist terrorists breached the Egyptian-Israeli border from Sinai, shot dead IDF Corp. Netanel Yahalomi and injured a second soldier, before the IDF killed three of the gunmen in a shootout. In the last year, Sinai has become the stamping ground for al Qaeda cells and allied Islamic terrorists. Egypt’s new rulers have proved unequal to the job of controlling the territory. At the same time, Cairo is demanding the revision of the 1979 peace treaty’s military clauses. President Mohamed Morsi said Sunday, Sept 23, that his government would uphold the peace pact with Israel only if US commits to helping the Palestinians attain self-rule.

Israeli leaders are now asking what guarantees is President Morsi offering for offsetting any Iranian-orchestrated Hamas war operations from Gaza in line with the accord they have just signed in Tehran and Beirut.

Furthermore, they ask, what happens to the al Qaeda cells and other military groups rampant in Sinai? Up until now Iran and Hamas ran their ties with those terrorists on separate tracks. Will they now effect a merger?

A note of foreboding on this score was struck by Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz Sunday, Sept. 23, when he toured the scene of the last shootout with Sinai terrorists. “The Sinai border will continue to present us with a challenge,” he said. “We have made a colossal effort in the last two years to seal off the Egyptian border and it will be done. But even then, the threat will not disappear.”

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