Mugniyeh

[Casey]

From: The 801

Well, since itshappening has happily returned, here is an updated stock article by Kenneth R. Timmerman, on Mugniyeh. This article was generally the definitive article about Mugniyeh on line until this thread was created. It was the selection you got when you typed in Mugniyeh's name in google and selected "Feeling Lucky".

It has been in print for a few years now, and this appears to be an upgraded reprint of the article. It has alot more information that appears to have been gleaned from information researched here.

I am not so certain about the information concerning Mugniyeh's father stated in this reprint. The person identified I believe is his grandfather, according to the dates I have been able to determine. Mugniyeh's actual father is not publicly listed ( his uncle appears to be an author of a book about the cleric) I believe that all public records on Mugniyeh and his immediate family have been removed from the public record.

Lebanese Madman Leaves Trail of Terror

By Kenneth R. Timmerman

The "axis of evil" that President Bush recently spoke of might actually consist of Iran, al Qaeda and Hezbollah. Of the Hezbollah terrorists wanted by the U.S., the "Lebanese Carlos" makes bin Laden look like a "schoolboy." Responsible for the deaths of at least 260 Americans, he has a $25 million reward on his head.

He has blown up U.S. embassies and car-bombed a U.S. military barracks. He has hijacked U.S. commercial airliners and murdered Americans. He has kidnapped and tortured a top CIA officer and vowed through terror to drive the United States from his country. Do you know who he is?

If you guessed Osama bin Laden, you're wrong. The correct answer is Imad Fayez Mugniyeh (pronounced MOOG-NEE-YEH), a Lebanese Shiite long considered one of the world's most ruthless and elusive killers. The CIA has been tracking him since 1984 when he masterminded the kidnapping in Beirut of CIA station chief William Buckley, apparently on orders from Iran.

Now evidence is beginning to mount that Mugniyeh has deep ties to bin Laden and his al Qaeda network and may have been directly involved in planning the Sept. 11 attacks.

'Demonic Militant'

"We know Mugniyeh has a relationship to bin Laden. We know that," one U.S. official told Insight magazine. "Did he have a role in planning the outrages of Sept. 11? We can't rule it out. Hezbollah is part of bin Laden's International Islamic Front for Jihad on the Jews and Crusaders, and Mugniyeh is the head of Hezbollah's special-operations branch."

Twice the U.S. spotted Mugniyeh on international flights and sought to have him arrested. In 1986, he was leaving Charles de Gaulle Airport after several days of secret negotiations with the French government. Although the CIA provided a copy of the passport he was using, the French declined to stop him.

Nine years later, he was flying back to Beirut from Khartoum after a meeting with bin Laden in the Sudan. The U.S. arranged for his Middle East Airways plane to make an unscheduled stopover in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, but the Saudi authorities refused to force him to leave the plane. Neither the French nor the Saudis wanted him on their hands.

"Imad Mugniyeh is one of the most demonic of the militant Islamic leaders," says Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia. "He appears to serve as a bridge between the 1980s, when the violence was primarily Shiite, and today, when it is primarily Sunni."

Mugniyeh and his Iranian backers are Shiite Muslims; bin Laden and his followers are Sunnis. Most terrorism analysts and Islamic scholars insist that the two Muslim sects are on less-friendly terms than Catholics and Protestants in Belfast. But when it comes to terrorism, they are dead wrong.

Hezbollah Roots

The eldest of four children, Mugniyeh was born in the village of Tir Dibba in the mountains above the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre on July 12, 1962. His father, Sheik Muhammad Jawad Mugniyeh, was praised as "one of Shia Lebanon's best jurists" by American Islamic scholar Fouad Ajami.

As a high-school dropout, Mugniyeh was recruited by Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction and later joined the elite Force 17, Arafat's personal security service. Once the Palestinians were kicked out of Lebanon in 1983, Mugniyeh and his two brothers, Fuad and Jihad, joined a new organization set up by Iran called Hezbollah (Party of God). Its goal was to drive the Western powers out of Lebanon.

Imad Mugniyeh became Hezbollah's star recruit, reporting directly to Ali Akbar Mohtashemi-Pour, Iran's ambassador to Syria. His terrorist pedigree began with a bang when he organized the April 18, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people, including Robert Ames, the CIA's top Middle East operations officer, and many of his best agents.

On Oct. 23, 1983, Mugniyeh was back at work. This time, with Iranian and Syrian help, he plotted the twin suicide truck-bomb attacks in Beirut that took the lives of 242 U.S. Marines and 58 French troops.

For many years Mugniyeh's personal involvement in those early bombings remained obscure. It wasn't until he kidnapped the new CIA station chief to Beirut, William Buckley, in April 1984, that the U.S. intelligence community began to get a fix on him.

David Jacobsen was one of a dozen Americans and Frenchmen kidnapped in Beirut in the 1980s by Mugniyeh and his pro-Iranian militiamen. At one point he shared a cell with Buckley at an undisclosed location and remembers his ordeal well. "I was chained to the floor; I was blindfolded. The person at my feet, I later learned, was Terry Anderson, and the person at the head was Bill Buckley."

Mugniyeh's guards tried to keep them from speaking to one another. "One of the chilling moments for me and for Terry Anderson was to hear Bill Buckley cough," says Jacobsen. "He was very, very sick. He was delirious. I heard him say, 'I don't know what happened to my body; it was so strong 30 days ago.'"

The CIA now believes that Buckley was tortured to death by Mugniyeh personally, who extracted whatever secrets he could and then murdered him. Buckley was honored by CIA director William H. Webster at a posthumous ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on May 13, 1988, and a star in his honor was carved into the wall of CIA headquarters--the 51st.

Mugniyeh burst onto the international scene with the brash June 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 from Greece to Beirut, where he held 39 Americans hostage for 17 days. Wearing a ski mask, Mugniyeh prowled the aisles of the aircraft looking for U.S. military personnel and discovered U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem. He tortured and shot Stethem, then dumped his body out on the runway in full view of international TV cameras. Later, the FBI was able to identify Mugniyeh's fingerprints in the rear lavatory of the aircraft and indicted him for Stethem's murder.

Personal Vengeance

Mugniyeh also murdered for personal reasons, including the release of a family member. The man who initiated him in the art of bomb-making was his brother-in-law, Mustapha Badr-el-Din, whose crippled legs prevented him from joining a Beirut militia. Badr-el-Din plied his trade by designing the bombs used in a series of devastating attacks against Kuwait. He was arrested and sentenced to death for his crimes by the Kuwaiti government.

In April 1988, Mugniyeh orchestrated the hijacking of a Kuwait Airlines flight to Bangkok. On board were three members of the Kuwaiti royal family. In exchange for their freedom, Mugniyeh demanded the release of his brother-in-law and 16 other Shiite prisoners in Kuwait, known collectively as the "Ad-Dawaa 17."

The plane made a three-day stopover in the eastern Iranian city of Mashad, where some sources believe Mugniyeh personally boarded the aircraft and brought on additional hijackers and weapons. Next, they flew to Cyprus, where two Kuwaiti passengers were murdered and dumped onto the runway in a stunning replay of the TWA hijacking three years earlier. They ended up in Algiers, where negotiators from the Iranian and Algerian governments, as well as Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization, arranged safe passage for all the hijackers.

Intelligence officials believe Mugniyeh is seeking personal vengeance on the U.S. and Israel for the deaths of his brothers, which explains in part his willingness to lend his expertise to operations organized by other groups. Mugniyeh's brothers were killed in retaliatory attacks in Lebanon believed to have been carried out by Israeli and U.S. operatives.

Clinical Psychopath

"Bin Laden is a schoolboy in comparison with Mugniyeh," an Israeli-intelligence officer told Jane's Foreign Report recently. "The guy is a genius, someone who refined the art of terrorism to its utmost level. We studied him and reached the conclusion that he is a clinical psychopath motivated by uncontrollable psychological reasons, which we have given up trying to understand. The killing of his two brothers by the Americans only inflamed his strong motivation."

His brother, Jihad Mugniyeh, died in 1985 when a car bomb intended for Hezbollah leader Sheik Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah killed 75 people outside Fadlallah's home in Beirut. Hezbollah blamed the CIA for the attack.

snip....

more:
http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.magDtl&dtl=1&mid=933[/QUOTE]

[Casey]

From: The 801

Mugniyeh's weapon of choice. I am not saying that he did this, just that this fits his MO. Hariri seems to have established a hands off policy concerning Mugniyeh and Hezbollah. As pointed out in this article, Hariri was a 'self made billionaire' and in Lebanon, that usually means Corrupt Politician, Weapons Dealer, Drug money skimming, or lackey of Iran. These are areas where Mugniyeh and Hariri might have competing interests. Again I make no accusations against anyone at this time.

I should point out, that , when pressed by the US or the press, that Hariri usually went to great lengths to state that "[mugniyeh] is not here".

Car bomb kills former Lebanese PM

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has been assassinated in a car bombing in central Beirut, Tourism Minister Farid Khazen has confirmed.
The blast, which reports say killed about nine people, caused widespread damage and left about 20 cars ablaze.

The bombing occurred beside the derelict St Georges Hotel, near the city's harbour.

It caused a huge crater in the street, and left vehicles smouldering and shop-fronts blown out and blackened.

Mr Hariri was on his way back from parliament when his motorcade was attacked near the waterfront in west Beirut.

The attack took place at a busy time of the morning, shortly before noon local time (1000GMT), in an area full of hotels and banks.

Members of Mr Hariri's convoy are believed to have been killed in the blast.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad condemned the bomb attack as a "terrible criminal act".

Leading Lebanese figure

Mr Hariri has been the leading Lebanese politician since the end of the civil war in 1990, and prime minister for most of the last 15 years.




Obituary: Rafik Hariri
He resigned in October amid differences with Lebanon's pro-Syrian President, Emile Lahoud

Mr Hariri was also a self-made billionaire businessman.

Lebanon has been calm for most of this time, with few of the explosions, killings and kidnappings which marked the civil war.

BBC Middle East correspondent Heba Saleh says the exact reason for Mr Hariri's assassination remains unknown, but for many Lebanese Monday's devastating explosion will revive memories of a war they prefer to put behind them.

Pictures from a local TV station showed a burning man fighting to get out of a car through its window, falling to the ground and being helped by a bystander.

Several young women were seen with blood running down their faces.

Lebanese security forces cordoned off the area with yellow tape as rescue workers and investigators combed the scene.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4263893.stm

[Casey]

From: The 801

A few comments here;
Saw the Debka news, sounds reasonable
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=983

First, Syria has occupied Lebanon for decades now. the Bekka valley situation is a story unto itself. They were supported to do so by Iran. Iran supplied the Bathist with money. This allows Iranians agents to travel to and from Damascus without attracting attention from customs people.

Records indicate that Mugniyeh has used Damascus for transfer and office for Hezbollah. Mugniyeh has used Syria for years to get from Lebanon to Iran because he does not like to fly (after he was almost captured a few times).

These guys all scratch each others backs, but Iran pulls the strings of Syria to occupy Lebanon, and has done so for years. And a Lebanon turning away from Syria is a Lebanon turning away from Hezbollah, and that is a problem for Iran.

i am not implying that Mugniyeh did this. But it smells like something he would have his hand in.

The curious 801

[Casey]

Posted on Wed, Feb. 16, 2005

The history of the Dawa party

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT) - The Dawa party was formed in the late 1950s as a reaction to the rise of secular political movements in Iraq, particularly the communist party. Dawa later came into conflict with the secular pan-Arab Baathist movement during the 1960s, and violence erupted. Dawa had undercover members across the country, including a young medical student in Mosul: Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who's now the leading candidate for prime minister.

Dawa leader Muhammad Baqr al-Sadr was inspired by the Iranian revolution and was a proponent of an Islamic state with clerical rulers. In 1980 the Baathist government outlawed membership in Dawa, making it a crime punishable by death. That same year, Dawa attempted to assassinate an aide to Saddam Hussein, Tariq Aziz. Al-Sadr was captured and killed by Saddam's security forces. Assassination attempts against Saddam followed. There were large-scale roundups of Dawa members, who faced torture and death.

A Dawa splinter group staged two suicide bombings at the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait in December 1983. Seventeen of them were caught, convicted and imprisoned by the Kuwaitis, including the brother-in-law of Imad Mugniyah, a Lebanese Hezbollah member who began taking Americans hostage in Beirut in an attempt to spring his wife's brother.

Many of Dawa's members, including al-Jaafari, returned from exile after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Its membership follows the direction of the majar'iya, the ruling council of clerics in Najaf headed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

---

(Compiled by Tom Lasseter in Baghdad, Iraq)

---

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/world/10916569.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

[The 801]

Lebanonwire reprints an artical from early last year. Artical mistates Mugniyeh's age ( he is 44 )

Telegraph, April 25, 2004
Lebanonwire

Beirut veteran blamed over Basra attacks
By Con Coughlin

A leading Lebanese terrorist accused of blowing up the American embassy in Beirut in the 1980s is being held responsible for the increase in suicide bomb attacks against coalition targets in southern Iraq.

In the latest blasts, in the British-controlled sector in Basra at the end of last week, 73 people - including 18 children - were killed when five suicide car bombs exploded outside police stations.

Western intelligence officials have uncovered evidence that the attacks are being co-ordinated by Imad Mugniyeh, a leading figure in Lebanon's extremist Hizbollah Shia Muslim terror organisation.

Washington has accused Mugniyeh of blowing up the American embassy and the United States marine compound in Beirut in the 1980s, killing more than 300 US officials and troops.

Mugniyeh, who is now in his fifties and has a close relationship with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, has been based in Teheran since the end of the Lebanese civil war, and is also known to have close links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terrorist network.

Intelligence officials in Iraq have uncovered evidence that Mugniyeh has been helping to train the self-styled al-Mahdi army set up by Moqtada al-Sadr, the dissident Iraqi Shia leader.

Mugniyeh, the head of Hizbollah's external security apparatus, has deployed scores of Lebanese Hizbollah fighters in Iraq, and set up secret training camps along the southern part of the border with Iran.

The Hizbollah fighters are working closely with members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, with whom they developed a close relationship during the 1980s when their terror tactics forced the Reagan administration to withdraw US forces from Beirut.

"This is all part of a strategy devised by hardliners in Iran to repeat their success in Lebanon and drive coalition troops out of Iraq," said a senior intelligence official.

"Their main aim is to create an Iranian-style Islamic republic in Iraq."

In recent weeks Sadr has made a number of public references in support of Hizbollah, while Hizbollah supporters demonstrated in Beirut earlier this month in support of "the Iraqi intifada".

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a prominent Iranian exile group, also claims that a significant number of Revolutionary Guards fighters have been sent to Iraq to support Sadr and the al-Mahdi army.

Attempts by Iranian hardliners to encourage attacks on coalition targets are being undertaken against the wishes of the Iranian government, which earlier this month sent a team of diplomats to Iraq to persuade Sadr to end his stand-off with American troops.

But at the same time as Iranian officials were negotiating with Sadr, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's hardline spiritual leader, was circulating a cassette tape in Arabic to a number of Iraqi mosques in which he called on the Iraqis to "unite and expel the occupiers to ensure the establishment of a new power based on Islam".

http://www.lebanonwire.com/0404/04042501TGR.asp

Just reminding all of you to keep an eye out for him, 801

[The 801]

Aww, this one is sweet, it uses a nickname for mugniyeh, Hajj Imad. I can't help thinking people are getting their info here. But Mugniyeh's involvement with Syria goes way back....

Syria must do more
March 2, 2005

Damascus should show its bona fides by handing over a key terrorist, writes Tony Parkinson.

Fingerprints suggestive of Syrian mischief-making are everywhere to be found in the Middle East. And the more Syria pleads innocence, the louder the accusations grow.

Consider the indictments piling up against Bashar al-Assad. His regime is suspected of feeding and fuelling the violent insurgency in neighbouring Iraq. It has been accused of orchestrating the murder of a leading Arab statesman, Rafiq Hariri, in a crude attempt to silence the clamour for self-rule in Lebanon. On top of that, Israel claims Damascus was behind orders for Friday night's attack on a Tel Aviv nightclub, aimed at scuttling the Sharon Government's tentative dialogue with new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

The heat is on Syria like never before.

The citizens of Lebanon are in uproar, with unprecedented protests forcing the resignation en masse of Omar Karami's Syria-aligned government in Beirut. The US and France have read the riot act, demanding Syria's full withdrawal from Lebanon. The United Nations is also on the case, mounting its own investigation of Hariri's death. And the Sharon Government blames the Tel Aviv bombing on Islamic Jihad, acting with Syria's approval.

Advertisement
AdvertisementIn an effort to calm this gathering storm, the Assad regime has offered up a goodwill gesture. Two years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, Syrian intelligence - surprise, surprise - has managed to locate and capture the half-brother of Saddam Hussein.

It appears Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikriti, who headed one of Saddam's intelligence directorates, was in Syria all along. So were another 30 fugitives from the former Baathist regime in Baghdad. The handover of these men to Iraq represents an important setback for the insurgency, and could staunch the influx of fighters, money and weaponry into Iraq.

Mughniyeh runs what is tantamount to Jihad Central, co-ordinating the activities of Hezbollah, IJ and Hamas.It shows how Syria can make things happen if and when the circumstances require.

But if the Assad regime really wanted to convince the world it was no longer in the business of sponsoring mayhem across the region, it could go one better, and stop playing the role of she-wolf to a brat pack of extremists in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

Nothing would better signify Syria's bona fides on this score than the arrest and prosecution of the grandmaster of terror spectaculars in the Middle East, Hajj Imad (Imad Mughniyeh).

Nobody has stalked the region in these past 30 years quite like Hajj Imad. Back in the days when Osama bin Laden was a dorky teenager in flares, Mughniyeh had already made aircraft hijackings, and mass murder, a career speciality. Another of his specialities is providing terrorist fronts for the intelligence agencies of Syria and Iran.

Hajj Imad first came on the scene as a member of Yasser Arafat's personal bodyguard in the 1970s when the Palestine Liberation Organisation ran its operations out of Beirut. He was subsequently recruited by Syria.

In 1980, another major player arrived on the scene. As Khomeini's Iran sought to export its Islamic revolution, it established a base for its revolutionary guard in the Bekaa Valley. From this emerged two well-funded and well-armed movements promoting militant Islam: one, an offshoot of Egypt's Islamic Jihad; the other, Hezbollah (Party of God).

None of this activity in southern Lebanon could have happened without Syria's tacit consent, and Mughniyeh was up to his elbows in all of it. He became chief of Hezbollah's military wing, and achieved legendary status among Islamists for his ruthless and audacious terrorist strikes: an attack on the US embassy in Lebanon, the hijacking of a TWA airliner, and the truck-bombing of the marines' barracks in Beirut, killing 242 Americans.

It was this last atrocity that led President Ronald Reagan to order US troops to withdraw from Lebanon in 1984. It was a forced retreat that would inspire the next generation of jihadis, including bin Laden, to rejoice in the taunt that American society was soft and pampered - "hit them and they will run".

Mughniyeh has been on the FBI's wanted list for a quarter of a century. There is only one known photograph of him on the international counter-terrorism database, and he is rumoured to have twice undergone plastic surgery. The US has sought his extradition from Syria, Iran and Lebanon, to no avail.

These days, Mughniyeh runs what is tantamount to Jihad Central, co-ordinating the military activities of Hezbollah, IJ and Hamas. It is not surprising he should be suspected for overseeing the violence in Beirut and Tel Aviv. If we take Syria at its word that these crimes were not directly of its doing, who else would be equipped, for example, to plant a 350-kilogram bomb in Beirut under the nose of Syrian authorities? There are very few networks, outside state-run military and intelligence services, with the capability and expertise. It just so happens that Hajj Imad has a say in most.

The security agencies of Syria and Iran might be the only authorities in the world with reliable intelligence on Mughniyeh's whereabouts. Could they - would they - bring him in?

I suspect that might be a bridge too far. But as the Assad regime suffers the boomerang effect of a Lebanese society in revolt, along with the looming threat of international isolation, its predicament brings to mind the old adage: if you sup with the devil, be sure to take a long spoon.

Tony Parkinson is international editor of The Age.

Syria must do more
March 2, 2005

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Damascus should show its bona fides by handing over a key terrorist, writes Tony Parkinson.

Fingerprints suggestive of Syrian mischief-making are everywhere to be found in the Middle East. And the more Syria pleads innocence, the louder the accusations grow.

Consider the indictments piling up against Bashar al-Assad. His regime is suspected of feeding and fuelling the violent insurgency in neighbouring Iraq. It has been accused of orchestrating the murder of a leading Arab statesman, Rafiq Hariri, in a crude attempt to silence the clamour for self-rule in Lebanon. On top of that, Israel claims Damascus was behind orders for Friday night's attack on a Tel Aviv nightclub, aimed at scuttling the Sharon Government's tentative dialogue with new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

The heat is on Syria like never before.

The citizens of Lebanon are in uproar, with unprecedented protests forcing the resignation en masse of Omar Karami's Syria-aligned government in Beirut. The US and France have read the riot act, demanding Syria's full withdrawal from Lebanon. The United Nations is also on the case, mounting its own investigation of Hariri's death. And the Sharon Government blames the Tel Aviv bombing on Islamic Jihad, acting with Syria's approval.

Advertisement
AdvertisementIn an effort to calm this gathering storm, the Assad regime has offered up a goodwill gesture. Two years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, Syrian intelligence - surprise, surprise - has managed to locate and capture the half-brother of Saddam Hussein.

It appears Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikriti, who headed one of Saddam's intelligence directorates, was in Syria all along. So were another 30 fugitives from the former Baathist regime in Baghdad. The handover of these men to Iraq represents an important setback for the insurgency, and could staunch the influx of fighters, money and weaponry into Iraq.

Mughniyeh runs what is tantamount to Jihad Central, co-ordinating the activities of Hezbollah, IJ and Hamas.It shows how Syria can make things happen if and when the circumstances require.

But if the Assad regime really wanted to convince the world it was no longer in the business of sponsoring mayhem across the region, it could go one better, and stop playing the role of she-wolf to a brat pack of extremists in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

Nothing would better signify Syria's bona fides on this score than the arrest and prosecution of the grandmaster of terror spectaculars in the Middle East, Hajj Imad (Imad Mughniyeh).

Nobody has stalked the region in these past 30 years quite like Hajj Imad. Back in the days when Osama bin Laden was a dorky teenager in flares, Mughniyeh had already made aircraft hijackings, and mass murder, a career speciality. Another of his specialities is providing terrorist fronts for the intelligence agencies of Syria and Iran.

Hajj Imad first came on the scene as a member of Yasser Arafat's personal bodyguard in the 1970s when the Palestine Liberation Organisation ran its operations out of Beirut. He was subsequently recruited by Syria.

In 1980, another major player arrived on the scene. As Khomeini's Iran sought to export its Islamic revolution, it established a base for its revolutionary guard in the Bekaa Valley. From this emerged two well-funded and well-armed movements promoting militant Islam: one, an offshoot of Egypt's Islamic Jihad; the other, Hezbollah (Party of God).

None of this activity in southern Lebanon could have happened without Syria's tacit consent, and Mughniyeh was up to his elbows in all of it. He became chief of Hezbollah's military wing, and achieved legendary status among Islamists for his ruthless and audacious terrorist strikes: an attack on the US embassy in Lebanon, the hijacking of a TWA airliner, and the truck-bombing of the marines' barracks in Beirut, killing 242 Americans.

It was this last atrocity that led President Ronald Reagan to order US troops to withdraw from Lebanon in 1984. It was a forced retreat that would inspire the next generation of jihadis, including bin Laden, to rejoice in the taunt that American society was soft and pampered - "hit them and they will run".

Mughniyeh has been on the FBI's wanted list for a quarter of a century. There is only one known photograph of him on the international counter-terrorism database, and he is rumoured to have twice undergone plastic surgery. The US has sought his extradition from Syria, Iran and Lebanon, to no avail.

These days, Mughniyeh runs what is tantamount to Jihad Central, co-ordinating the military activities of Hezbollah, IJ and Hamas. It is not surprising he should be suspected for overseeing the violence in Beirut and Tel Aviv. If we take Syria at its word that these crimes were not directly of its doing, who else would be equipped, for example, to plant a 350-kilogram bomb in Beirut under the nose of Syrian authorities? There are very few networks, outside state-run military and intelligence services, with the capability and expertise. It just so happens that Hajj Imad has a say in most.

The security agencies of Syria and Iran might be the only authorities in the world with reliable intelligence on Mughniyeh's whereabouts. Could they - would they - bring him in?

I suspect that might be a bridge too far. But as the Assad regime suffers the boomerang effect of a Lebanese society in revolt, along with the looming threat of international isolation, its predicament brings to mind the old adage: if you sup with the devil, be sure to take a long spoon.

Tony Parkinson is international editor of The Age.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Tony-Parkinson/Syria-must-do-more/2005/03/01/1109546864723.html?oneclick=true

[Casey]

Mugniyeh Archive
http://www.afghanistanwar.com/showthread.php?t=94

[The 801]

The unknown king of terror
Hezbollah military chief has longer resume than bin Laden

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: March 12, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern



© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

Though his name is unknown to most, a Middle East terrorists boasting a long resume of attacks and who takes order from Tehran will prevent any sort of peaceful freedom from breaking out in Lebanon, reports geopolitical expert Jack Wheeler.

In a column on his intelligence website, To the Point, Wheeler notes that the Hezbollah's chief of military operations, who has over 20 years in the terror business, is set to start a civil war in Lebanon.

Wheeler ties the situation directly to Iran, Hezbollah's chief sponsor.

"I have a very bad feeling about Lebanon," he writes, "this could turn out really ugly. Dispatch after dispatch, story after story, and all you read about is Syria's getting its troops and spies out of its colony. Congressmen like Darryl Issa, R-Calif., write newspaper op-eds entitled 'Lebanon: Democracy's Next Stop.' All without a word about Hezbollah. All without a word about Iran."

Wheeler goes on to describe the challenge of de-fanging Hezbollah.

"Hezbollah – the Party of God – is a group of 25,000 Shiite terrorists armed to the teeth, and nobody is asking the most important question of all regarding Lebanon's fate: Who gets to take away Hezbollah's guns? You simply cannot have a private terrorist army running around Lebanon and expect to create a peaceful democracy, even if every Syrian soldier and secret policeman leaves for Damascus."

Syria, Wheeler states, is not the chief problem for Lebanon – it's Iran.

Writes the analyst: "Bashar al-Assad is a puppet of the Mullacracy in Tehran. The people who give the orders to the Syrian troops in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley are Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Pasdaran. Hezbollah was founded in 1982 among Lebanon's Shia Muslims with money and weapons from Iran. It is run by the world's worst terrorist, who is most decidedly not Osama bin Laden.

"Osama is a Hollywood terrorist," Wheeler continues. "He's got the memorably euphonious name, the looks of the classic bearded/turbaned Muslim crazy, and staged the most horrifically Hollywood disaster movie attack imaginable. He makes the perfect Hollywood arch-villain. But he too has become a sideshow, a distraction. The most important and dangerous terrorist in the world is a man most everybody has never heard of. His name is Imad Mugniyeh. He is the true King of Terror."

Wheeler then lists Mugniyeh's terror rap sheet, everything from organizing the 1983 killing of 242 U.S. Marines in Lebanon to involvement in the 2000 USS Cole attack. Besides countless acts of terror, Mugniyeh, Wheeler says, was involved in shuttling Saddam's WMDs into Hezbollah's care before the Iraq war.

Predicts Wheeler: "Imad Mugniyeh and the Hezbollah, at the direction of Iran, will ignite another civil war in Lebanon, destroying that country's chances for democracy and freedom from Syrian colonial control – and halting thereby George Bush's Middle East Freedom March right in its tracks."

Wheeler's solution for Bush? "Regime change in Iran."

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43271

Ugh, more World Net Daily stuff...

This article refers to Jack Wheelers website, The Oasis for Rational Conservatives. Us screaming Liberals are pissed off that the conservatives have the mugniyeh issue to themselves. Maybe they seek boogie men more assiduously then us Liberals. But the fact remains, Anarchist or Neocon, Mugniyeh is due for a return, and the issues that he has fought for are coming to the forefront. Watch this thread for news.

[The 801]

Discussions concerning Mugniyeh are frequently brought up by the US in discussions with Hezbollah and Iran. Here is a mention of a recent exchange. Very hard to find, this stuff....


Hezbollah Signals It's Open to Talks With United States
BY ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 11, 2005


WASHINGTON - A Hezbollah political leader told a delegation of former European and American officials last month that the Bush administration approached the organization for talks following September 11, 2001, and that the group would be open to new discussions.

According to a former CIA station chief in Islamabad who attended the meetings in Beirut, Milton Bearden, the representatives of Hezbollah, which has long been implicated in terrorist attacks, said the Bush administration approached them shortly after the Twin Towers were destroyed.

The White House denies having made an approach.

Mr. Bearden recalled that the leader of the Hezbollah delegation said: "The Americans came to us after 9/11 wanting to open a dialogue, at a political level. ... 'It came through the Israeli gate,' meaning the Israelis brokered it." Mr. Bearden added that the representative said his organization would "be open to a direct approach from the Americans."

Another former CIA operations officer who was there, Graham Fuller, told The New York Sun the message was delivered by Hezbollah's chief of international relations and top political adviser, Nawaf Mousawi.

"I would view Mousawi's presence as important," Mr. Fuller said. "I would assume this would go directly to Sheik Nasrallah. "The sheik is the spiritual leader of Hezbollah, and Mr. Fuller said Mr. Mousawi is "his chief political adviser."

A spokesman for the National Security Council, Frederick Jones, said: "There was no envoy or outreach to Hezbollah following September 11."

The catastrophe in New York and northern Virginia did spur the White House to open new channels with Hezbollah's two chief state sponsors, Iran and Syria, and other states and entities it had previously shunned for ties to terrorism. For example, the CIA began a liaison relationship with Syria's intelligence service focused narrowly on apprehending Al Qaeda operatives.

The Israelis, too, have worked with foreign governments in the past to help negotiate with Hezbollah. For several years, Israel has worked with German intelligence to arrange exchanges of hostages and dead bodies with Hezbollah. Messrs. Bearden and Fuller are said to have been the only two former CIA officers, acting as private citizens, in a 12-person delegation that met with Hezbollah and other groups March 21-22. The delegation included the head of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, Robert Muller, as well as academics and former European spies and government officials. They met with leaders from Hamas, Hezbollah, Pakistan's Jemaat Islamiya, and the Muslim Brotherhood. The first three groups are designated as terrorist organizations by the State Department, while the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was once led by Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The meetings were arranged by a former British MI-6 officer, Alastair Crooke, who served as the European Union's liaison with Hamas between 2001 and 2003, before he was recalled to London.

Mr. Fuller, who did not serve under President Bush, said he believed it was plausible that Mr. Mousawi was telling the truth about the American approach, though he had no direct knowledge.

"After 9/11 there was a great deal of panic and a willingness to reach out to anyone and everyone who might be allies," he said. "My personal hunch is that, as the fear in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 subsided, the war on terror grew in its breadth and the Bush administration began to include more and more organizations under the umbrella of terrorism."

And while it may appear to Mr. Fuller that the Bush administration has widened the circle of American enemies, in recent weeks the president has sent a message of possible reconciliation with Hezbollah, the group responsible in 1983 for the truck bombings of the American Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut.

On March 16, five days before the parley between the ex-spies and current terrorist leaders, Mr. Bush told reporters he viewed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, but he left open the possibility it could shed the designation. "I would hope that Hezbollah would prove that they're not, by laying down arms and not threatening peace," he said.

Following those remarks, the European Union and the United Nations began publicly encouraging political talks among Lebanon's various parties, including Hezbollah. Last week, the U.N. envoy to the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, said disarming Hezbollah was "not on the action agenda," indicating that the world body would be willing to let the group keeps its arms until after the Lebanon elections scheduled for next month.

"With Hezbollah and Hamas, whatever one may think of the organizations and their tactics, the fact is it is analytically absurd to lump them into the same category as Osama bin Laden, taking on the United States," Mr. Fuller said. "These organizations are fighting highly discreet local wars and are not targeting the world or the West."

Mr. Crooke, who arranged the meetings, generally agrees with that analysis. An opinion piece he wrote last December 10 in the Guardian newspaper of England put quotation marks around the word terrorist and recommended negotiations with the groups.

The former British M16 man is no stranger to meeting with what he called "violent political actors." Before Mr. Bush's June 24, 2002, speech that washed America's hands of Yasser Arafat, Mr. Crooke had met with Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, spiritual leader and founder of Hamas, who was killed in an Israeli air strike March 22, 2004.

At the time, Israel argued that the organizations of Arafat and Yasin were coordinating their activities, and documents captured by the Israel Defense Force appear to prove that. Last week, a think tank associated with Israeli intelligence, the Center for Special Studies, published an English translation of a June 24, 2002, communique from the head of external relations for the Gaza Preventive Security service, Suheil Jabr, to the deputy of the group, Rashid abu Shbak. The document, which the center says IDF troops captured from the Palestinian Preventive Security compound in Gaza, includes an account of the conversation Mr. Crooke had with Yasin and other Hamas leaders.

Mr. Crooke said the document's account of his conversation with Yasin, which portrayed the British spy as sympathetic to Hamas's gripes with the Israeli presence, was inaccurate. Mr. Crooke said that his job as liaison to Hamas was largely to negotiate a ceasefire.

In an interview, he said he stressed to Yasin, "There were some actions that were unacceptable to anyone in Europe and America. Nobody believed that blowing up children eating pizzas, that these children were responsible for the plight of Palestinians." But he added that he drew a distinction between "terrorism" and "resistance," offering that his family had been involved in fighting the Nazi occupation in France in World War II.

A former adviser on Palestinian affairs for the ministry of defense who was familiar with Mr. Crooke's diplomacy, Reservist Brigadier General Shalom Harari, said the former MI-6 officer had "become addicted to Hamas."

"I'm not saying he is not very knowledgeable, because he is," Gen. Harari said. "What happened to Crooke is what happened to many researchers who make research on biology. He fell in love with the microbes he was researching."

The meeting last month that Mr. Crooke arranged through the Conflict Forum was publicized in the British and Arabic press. Al Jazeera and the BBC covered the talks, along with the Beirut Daily Star. The London Sunday Times bluntly said Mr. Crooke was opening the door for American negotiations with Hamas and Hezbollah. Mr. Crooke disagreed with the account in the Sunday Times.

In an interview Friday, he said the purpose of the talks was to hear out the two organizations, which long had been categorized as foreign terrorist organizations by America and more recently the European Union.

"We did not touch on the policy issues, we were not there to resolve particular issues," he said. "Hezbollah gave us a clear vision of a party that was acting in a Lebanese context as a Lebanese party. They were dealing with an extremely complex and complicated situation and dealing with it in a way that will bring about a resolution."

Hezbollah has a dozen members of parliament, and it wields a great deal of influence in government. In January 2002, Lebanese police confiscated 600 DVDs from the Virgin Megastore in Beirut after a Hezbollah senior cleric, Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, gave an interview criticizing some Western films. Nonetheless, Hezbollah's terrorist wing has been responsible for a number of attacks on Americans, Israelis, and Jews. After the 1983 truck bombings, Hezbollah kidnapped a string of American diplomats, spies, journalists, and military officers, only to release them after America and Israel sold arms to Iran.

The September 11 commission concluded last year that some Al Qaeda operatives had trained in a Hezbollah compound in the Bekaa Valley. A staff report released by the commission in June speculates that Hezbollah and Al Qaeda, along with Iran, may have collaborated on the 1996 bombing of an American Air Force barracks in Saudi Arabia known as Khobar Towers. A former FBI director, Louis Freeh, in sworn court testimony last year, implicated former senior Iranian government officials in the attack. Hezbollah's attacks against America through the years led a former deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, to say the organization owed America a "blood debt," promising that its "time will come" in a press conference on September 5, 2002, in Brussels.

That blood debt in particular is owed by Imad Mugniyah, who is regarded as the chief architect of the 1983 truck bombings and is one of the FBI's most wanted men. Mr. Bearden said he pressed the leader of the Hezbollah delegation about Mr. Mugniyah.

"I hit him pretty hard on the Mugniyah business. His first reaction was the 1982-to-1985 period was difficult and undisciplined. He was trying to walk away from it that way," Mr. Bearden said. "He paused and said that blood is not on Hezbollah's hands. The thought to me is he has some formulation in his mind that allows him to say that with a straight face. My sense was that he was saying Mugniyah was never our guy, but Mugniyah was Iran's guy."

Mr. Fuller said any potential for improved ties between America and Hezbollah would depend on addressing the issue of Mr. Mugniyah.

Some former CIA officers with experience in the Middle East said the initiative will not work.

The founder of the CIA's counterterrorism center, Duane Clarridge, said: "To have a modicum of success, the agendas of both parties have to be beginning to intersect. I'm not so sure that Hezbollah and Hamas are ready for that."

Similarly, a protege of Mr. Clarridge who worked for years at the CIA to find Mr. Mugniyah, Robert Baer, said: "America and Hezbollah are too far apart on the issue of Jerusalem right now."

Mr. Baer also said, however, that it was significant that Hezbollah would be meeting with former CIA officers and would say it was open to talks with America.

"Hezbollah is convinced the CIA set off a car bomb that almost killed Fadlallah. I don't think they did. I know the Lebanese who did this, but this is the kind of suspicion Hezbollah has to overcome."
The vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein, said last week that he was concerned the outreach could be a "stalking horse for the European Union."

"Does this give them a legitimate way to deal with Hezbollah before they have taken any steps to reduce terrorist activities?" he said. "It gives the appearance that this is more than an unofficial study group - the nature of the participants gives it the appearance that it is much more official."

Mr. Crooke insisted that the initiative was strictly a private matter and that there had been no formal government coordination for last month's talks.

General Harari, however, said the meetings indicate a new desperation for the terrorist groups involved.

"The American army is still in Iraq. Syria is under big pressure as a sponsor in Lebanon. They see European state after state putting Hamas and Hezbollah on the blacklist," he said. "They see how the Russians understand the terror better after the terrible events in Beslan. They see what happens in Saudi Arabia - the main source of money will dry up. They see in Jordan the regime is strengthening its hold on the Islamic movement. The overall view is that they are going to have a very tough process between two and three years from now. This is a way for these groups to whiten their image and say they are not terrorists."

Mr. Fuller said that Hezbollah leaders were open to future meetings with the delegation of Americans and Europeans, and that future meetings were being considered.

http://www.nysun.com/article/11974

[The 801]

Book Review seems to downplay Mugniyeh and Bin Laden connection. Very odd stuff. For your edification. Statement in bold is for emphasis of this comment.


Hezbollah's secret shop in Charlotte

How a terrorist group raised money smuggling cigarettes

RON CHEPESIUK

Special to the Observer


LIGHTNING OUT OF LEBANON: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Tom Diaz and Barbara Newman. Ballantine Books.

272 pages. $24.95.

In 1992, in a quiet neighborhood of Charlotte, Mohammed Yousef Hammoud began operating a cell for the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, a group the U.S. government has designated a terrorist organization. Between 1995 and 1999, the cell smuggled cigarettes from North Carolina to Michigan, where the tax on a pack of cigarettes was $1.20 higher. The group bought nearly half a million cartons of cigarettes for about $7.5 million at tobacco outlets in this state.

When Hammoud and his enterprising band of bootleggers were finally busted, authorities learned that the profits had been used to buy night vision goggles, global positioning systems, advanced analysis and design software and other equipment for Hezbollah.

In "Lightning Out of Lebanon," Barbara Newman and Tom Diaz use this local story as a backdrop to investigate Hezbollah and the nature of the threat it poses to our national security. Diaz is a journalist and a consultant to the U.S. government on counter-terrorism. Newman is a former host of NPR's "All Things Considered" and currently a senior fellow at the Defense of Democracies Foundation.

The authors contend that the U.S. remains a major target of Hezbollah and that the group continues to infiltrate the U.S., making it potentially a more dangerous threat to our country than al-Qaida. It's a timely subject, indeed, and a book claiming to have the goods on the enemy within should merit our attention. Yet "Lightning Out of Lebanon" presents no hard evidence to support the authors' claim.

It's true that Hezbollah, the so-called Party of God which the Iranian Revolutionary Guards founded in 1982, has done harm to our national interests abroad. The authors spend considerable space recapitulating the legacy of blood and terror. As they point out, Hezbollah killed more Americans than any other terrorist group before the 9-11 trauma.

But these events transpired 10 to 20 years ago. What happened in the pre 9-11 world won't necessarily help us understand the realities of the Middle East today. As many Middle East experts are pointing out, Hezbollah appears to be positioning itself to become a major player in Lebanese politics. Hezbollah and its chief sponsor, Iran, don't look eager for direct confrontation with the Bush administration or for providing the world's sole superpower with reckless action.

Still, the book is well written. Charlotteans should find the information about their fair city and the Hezbollah connection interesting. The authors profile Hammoud's early life in Beirut's slums and his involvement with Hezbollah. Like many other local Shiite youth, he grew up to possess a deep hatred of Israel. Diaz and Newman chronicle the major events of Lebanese-Israeli relations but omit some relevant details important for an understanding of Lebanon's recent history.

The mysterious Imad Fayez Mugniyah, the coordinator of Hezbollah's cell network in the Western Hemisphere who has a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, sent Hammoud to Charlotte to establish the fundraising network. If bin Laden ever is taken down, look for Mugniyah to be the next poster terrorist for the war on terrorism.

The authors quote one anonymous Israeli intelligence official on Hammoud: "Bin Laden is a school boy in comparison with Mugniyah." They attempt to establish a connection between the two terrorists and Iran, but once again the reader will ask: Where's the beef?

One might also ask: Why Charlotte? "Hezbollah was looking for American cities where the focus of law enforcement was far removed from terrorism, new operatives could infiltrate a legitimate expatriate Lebanese community and opportunities existed to engage in middling but profitable criminal schemes."

Hammoud and fellow employees at a local Domino's Pizza (some of whom were not Lebanese) pursued their smuggling activities until law enforcement brought the network down. The investigation began in 1997 when a member of the local Lebanese community told the FBI about his suspicious neighbors.

The authors contend that it was one of at least 14 U.S. cities that "fit the bill." So how serious is the Hezbollah threat to our domestic security? Diaz and Newman draw this conclusion: "One part of this story cannot be told, because it remains unknown -- and that is whether even more hidden layers of Hezbollah's dark enterprise lie undetected, coiled to strike in America."


Ron Chepesiuk is a Rock Hill based journalist.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/opinion/11363747.htm

[The 801]

Nice Overview....

Tehran's Terror Master
By Patrick Devenny
FrontPageMagazine.com | May 26, 2005

Early on the morning of March 16th, 1984, William Buckley left for work at the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Officially, Mr. Buckley, a decorated veteran of the Special Forces, served as the political officer at the embassy. In reality, however, Mr. Buckley was the embassy’s CIA station chief. On his way to the compound, Buckley’s car was stopped by a group of masked men, who forced him from his car at gunpoint. His assailants would later be identified as terrorists from the group Islamic Jihad, which served as an alias for the real perpetrators, Hezbollah. The circumstances surrounding the next 15 months of William Buckley’s life remain mysterious to this day. Hints of his plight were provided in disturbing video tapes, in which he appeared worn down and brutalized. It was later revealed that additional tapes were shot showing the CIA station chief being viciously tortured and beaten by Islamic Jihad members. Finally, sometime in October of 1985, Buckley died of pneumonia, no doubt stemming from the lengthy torture sessions. His main interrogator and tormentor was a 21 year old Lebanese terrorist named Imad Mugniyah.

Twenty years later, the butcher of William Buckley still plagues the free world. Imad Mugniyah is the current military commander of the terrorist group Hezbollah, overseeing an international organization which some American officials have dubbed “the A-team of terrorism.” Far less well known than his compatriot and sometimes partner Osama Bin Laden, Mugniyah is arguably more dangerous. Indeed, before the 9-11 attacks, Mugniyah was the prime focus of American anti-terror efforts, not Bin Laden. Comfortable in his anonymity, Mugniyah has successfully carried out some of the most professional terrorist attacks of the last two decades against a wide array of international targets. With Hezbollah currently flexing its muscle as a political force inside Lebanon, it would behoove Americans to remember that the leadership of this so-called “political” organization remains in the hands of dangerous extremists who think nothing of slaughtering hundreds of people at the behest of their masters in Tehran. Mugniyah’s very existence casts doubt on the idea that Hezbollah could ever be an honest participant in a future Lebanese democracy.

Origins



While the face of Bin Laden has been prominently featured in every world publication of note and is almost instantly recognizable, the real face of Imad Mugniyah is elusive. Only two or three photographs of the Hezbollah operative are known to exist. Further accentuating the mystery around Mugniyah is the fact that the picture that currently serves as the U.S. Government’s official wanted poster is almost 20 years old. This lack of information stems from the designs of Mugniyah himself, who has methodically erased all records of his existence, including his high school transcripts. What we do know is that Mugniyah was born to a prominent Shiite religious family in southern Lebanon in 1962. Some years later, his family moved to the suburbs of southern Beirut, a region long associated with Shiite radicalism. With the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, Mugniyah joined Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization, which operated numerous terror training camps throughout Lebanon. Mugniyah, still a teenager, rose through the ranks of the PLO quickly, soon becoming a member of its elite commando wing, Force 17, which carried out assassinations at the personal behest of Arafat. This kind of specialized training represented expertise unavailable to most young Islamic militants at the time.



In 1982, an Israeli military offensive expelled most of the PLO infrastructure from Lebanon. Mugniyah chose to stay, serving as a bodyguard to Sayyid Muhammad Fadlallah, the spiritual head of Hezbollah and a key ally of Iran. Then, together with fellow terrorist Hassan Nasrallah, Mugniyah formed the group Islamic Jihad, which served as a convenient cover for the greater Hezbollah organization. That close personal relationship would continue to the present day, as Nasrallah is the current secretary general of Hezbollah. One of the few existing photographs of Mugniyah shows him walking alongside Nasrallah ten years ago in Lebanon. The two fellow terrorists and their group would quickly gain the attention of the West.




Lebanon



The first shot fired in Mugniyah’s war against the West was fired on April 18th, 1983, in Beirut. On that day, a van packed with 2,000 pounds of explosives slammed into the front of the U.S. embassy and exploded with such tremendous force that the front of the building collapsed. The attack killed 63 people, including most of the CIA’s Middle East leadership. Within hours of the attack, Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. A clue concerning the real perpetrators of the suicide bombing was picked up by U.S. intelligence a month later, when it was revealed that a pre-attack cable from the Iranian foreign ministry had been sent to the Iranian embassy in Syria approving funding for a terrorist attack in Beirut.



The suicide attack against the Beirut embassy was followed up later that year by an even more devastating assault. On the morning of October 23rd, most of the 300 Marines stationed in a compound near Beirut’s airport were sleeping in their barracks, having been deployed to the country to serve as a stabilization force. Then, at 6:33 am, the driver of a Mercedes truck drove straight through the front gate of the compound, past Marine sentries with unloaded weapons, and smashed into the four story concrete barracks. The driver, who reportedly was smiling, then detonated the explosive, estimated to equal the force of 12,000 pounds of TNT. The effects of the massive truck bombing were horrific, killing 220 Marines and 21 other U.S. service members. Again, Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.



In one day, the entire situation in Lebanon had been drastically altered. The foreign forces would soon leave, wary of further terrorist attacks. With the abandonment of Lebanon by the international community, Islamic Jihad had carried out a virtual terrorist coup d’etat. Over the next ten years, Mugniyah and Hezbollah went on a rampage, taking dozens of Westerners hostage and murdering several others. Major operations included the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985, where Mugniyah’s men shot a US Navy diver in the head and threw his body on the tarmac of Beirut International Airport. In a case that recalled the horrors of William Buckley, US Marine Lt. Colonel William Higgins was abducted in 1988 by a Hezbollah linked group known to be under the direct command of Mugniyah. Two years later, a ghastly video was released showing a man, thought to be Colonel Higgins, hanging from a ceiling after being tortured. Shortly thereafter, the dead body of Colonel Higgins was dumped on the side of the road in front of the US embassy in Beirut.



Numerous hostages, such as American Kurt Carlson, recall seeing Mugniyah supervise their imprisonment and brutal interrogations. He spoke fluent English, and commanded slavish devotion from his agents. At the same time, the CIA believes Mugniyah was in frequent contact with Iranian intelligence officials, who were directly involved in the murders and the hostage takings. It is a relationship that blossomed in Lebanon and continues to this day.



Hezbollah International



While Imad Mugniyah’s attacks had concentrated on foreigners, his campaign of terror had stayed geographically constrained to Lebanon and the rest of the Middle East. The American authorities could still regard him and his group as “over there”, limited to the perennially tumultuous region. Unfortunately, they were missing a critical development. Imad Mugniyah was about to defy the oceans that security officials naively assumed held him back. The impetus for this new strategy of offensive terrorism was the 1992 Israeli assassination of Sheik Abbas Musawi, a Hezbollah leader and close associate of Mugniyah.



The Israeli embassy in Argentina was located in a bustling downtown neighborhood of Buenos Aires. On March 17th, 1992, a pickup truck loaded with plastic explosive drove up to the front of the embassy and exploded. The embassy building was destroyed, along with the nearby retirement home and Catholic Church. 28 people were killed, and over 220 wounded. The next target was a seven story building in Buenos Aires that housed two Jewish business organizations. On the morning of July 18th, 1994, a white Renault van pulled up in front of the building and detonated. The building collapsed, killing 85 people. While confusion marred the initial investigations, it became clear to all parties involved that Hezbollah was the culprit, through its subsidiary Islamic Jihad, headed of course by Mugniyah. The smoking gun may have been delivered by an Iranian defector named Abdolghassem Mesbahi, a former senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Council. In testimony to Argentinean authorities, the defector claimed that Mugniyah had been one of the senior planners behind the attack in Buenos Aires, along with Iranian intelligence.



The twin bombings in Argentina highlighted Mugniyah’s campaign to develop an infrastructure within South America. In 1994, the Hezbollah leader personally visited the “Triple Frontiers”, an area forming the border nexus of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil that has historically sheltered smugglers and criminals. As many as 30,000 Arab Muslims, who celebrate the anniversary of September 11th, inhabit the small region. Nearby, Hezbollah holds weekend training camps, indoctrinating Arab youth in the extremist literature of the Ayatollah Khomeini. The main mosque in the area was blessed by none other than Imad Mugniyah’s old boss, Sayyid Muhammad Fadlallah. Hezbollah agents regularly extort money and “donations” from various businesses and Muslim organizations, sending the substantial funds back to Lebanon. Mugniyah personally operates a powerful network of operatives inside the region, who help facilitate Hezbollah’s drug smuggling operations throughout South America. In addition, the bombing of Jewish targets inside Argentina were almost certainly connected to the Hezbollah presence in the Triple Frontiers. Telephone records show increased call traffic from Iranian officials to the frontiers region around the time of the bombing.



Mugniyah has also sought to extend Hezbollah’s reach to North America. In 2000, federal authorities arrested 18 men in North Carolina for smuggling cigarettes and other financial crimes. The FBI later revealed that the smuggling ring, led by Lebanese immigrant Mohamad Hammoud, had made 7.9 million dollars, profit which was then sent to Hezbollah. Through a series of associates, Hammoud worked for a man named Mohamad Dbouk, a senior Hezbollah asset who helped run Hezbollah’s extensive criminal operations in Canada. Testifying before the U.S. Senate, U.S. Attorney Robert J. Conrad confirmed that Mugniyah directly oversees the Canadian operations and, by extension, the American division. This reasoning stems from the fact that Dbouk was in direct contact with Hassan Hilu Laqis, a Hezbollah agent operating out of Lebanon who managed many of the procurement projects in North America. In a fax intercepted by Canadian intelligence, Dbouk assures Laqis that he is doing all he possibly can to help Hezbollah. In addition, Dbouk says he will do “anything”, and “he means anything”, to help the “father”. The Canadian prosecutor involved in the case, Kenneth Bell, stated that the father is in fact a codename for Imad Mugniyah. In addition, a recent report in the Washington Times suggested Hezbollah currently runs active cells in at least 10 U.S. cities. Mugniyah has never attacked a target in North America, but with tensions rising between the United States and Iran over the issue of nuclear proliferation, his terrorist network could rapidly become Iran’s weapon of choice against American targets. It would be a familiar role for the veteran terrorist, who, lest we forget, has the blood of over 250 Americans on his hands.



Mugniyah and Al-Qaeda



In 1998, American authorities captured former Green Beret advisor Ali A. Mohamed for his role in the twin terror attacks against U.S. embassies in Africa. Having been a relatively close associate of Bin Laden himself, Mohamed proved to be a treasure trove of information for American investigators. One of his statements, however, proved particularly troubling. In testimony delivered during his court case, Mohamed admitted that in 1994, he had arranged security for a momentous meeting in Sudan. There, Osama Bin Laden met Imad Mugniyah. He also stated that Hezbollah provided training for Al-Qaeda operatives in exchange for weapons and explosives. Indeed, this testimony corresponded with statements made by other Al-Qaeda officials, who told American investigators that the two had met several times in the mid 1990s, where they had discussed a greater degree of cooperation.



The two terrorist leaders may have also coordinated the attack on the Khobar Towers barracks complex in 1996. American investigators have long suspected Iran’s involvement in the bombing that killed 19 American servicemen in Saudi Arabia. The group that supposedly carried out the attacks, Saudi Hezbollah, was led in the 1990s by a close lieutenant of Mugniyah and was trained in Mugniyah run camps in Lebanon. Additionally, the explosives used in the barracks bombing originated in Lebanon. The 9-11 Commission, however, recently suggested that Al-Qaeda may have also played a role in the bombing, suggesting some degree of operational cooperation between the two groups.



The influence of Imad Mugniyah with regards to the Al-Qaeda network has continued, and has strengthened as of late. It appears that at least part of the formal leadership of Al-Qaeda has shifted to Iran, where they stay in close contact with the group’s disparate assets. Men such as Saad Bin Laden and Saif al-Adel continue to plan attacks from Iranian territory, such as the massive Casablanca bombings in 2003. Other Al-Qaeda leaders and fighters have escaped through Iran following the war in Afghanistan. Hamid Zakiri, a former member of the Iranian terrorist coordination command, stated that Mugniyah was the liaison officer to Dr. Ayman Zawahiri and various other international terrorist groups. In addition to this relationship, Mugniyah personally oversaw the escape of dozens of Al-Qaeda figures to Iran, including one of Bin Laden’s wives and her infant child. Apparently, Al-Qaeda leaders have enough trust in Mugniyah’s abilities and intentions as to place their family members into his care.



“The Master Terrorist”



“He is the most dangerous terrorist we've ever faced. He's a--he's a pathological murderer. Mugniyah is probably the most intelligent, most capable operative we've ever run across, including the KGB or anybody else. He enters by one door, exits by another, changes his cars daily, never makes appointments on a telephone, never is predictable, will show up--he only uses people that are related to him that he can trust. He doesn't just recruit people. He is the master terrorist, the grail, we are after since 1983.”



No small praise coming from Robert Baer, a 20 year veteran of the CIA’s clandestine services who once constructed a plan to kill Mugniyah in Lebanon. Imad Mugniyah, unrecognizable and relatively unknown, poses a serious asymmetrical threat to the United States and its allies. He has successfully avoided numerous American and Israeli attempts to capture or kill him. He has access to the massive amount of funding, estimated at 100 million dollars, that Iran annually provides Hezbollah annually. The secrecy surrounding Mugniyah allows him to travel relatively freely, especially in friendly nations such as Iran and Syria. His role in Hezbollah should chasten the Bush administration’s hopes that Hezbollah could eventually transform itself into a purely political organization. With terrorists such as Imad Mugniyah in charge, the idea that Hezbollah could accept a democratic Middle East is dubious to say the least. It should also be made clear to Lebanon’s Shiite population that national democratic reform cannot be sustained over the long term if an armed group like Hezbollah is involved. Instead of awaiting reform that will never come, the American government, with the help of our allies in the region, should seek to isolate this dangerous and inherently anti-democratic terrorist organization.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patrick Devenny is the Henry M. Jackson National Security Fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington D.C.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=18188

[The 801]

Once again, here is I believe, an example of Mugniyeh's reflected light. Mugniyeh is suspected of arranging for the transportation of various people into Iran, particularly Saad bin laden. Almost all of the evidence cited here as appeared in the old Mugniyeh thread.


AP: Intelligence Sees Terrorists in Iran

By KATHERINE SHRADER and JOHN SOLOMON
The Associated Press
Saturday, June 4, 2005; 2:00 AM

WASHINGTON -- Mounting evidence gathered over several years has U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies increasingly convinced that leading terror suspects have been living in Iran.

Their existence in the Islamic republic poses an ongoing problem to top Bush administration officials, who have warned Middle Eastern countries against providing shelter or other aid to terrorists.


The evidence includes communications by a fugitive mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing and the capture of a Saudi militant who appeared in a video in which Osama bin Laden confirmed he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks, according to U.S. and foreign officials.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because much of the evidence remains classified.

Saudi intelligence officers tracked and apprehended Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harbi last year in eastern Iran, officials said. The arrest came nearly three years after the cleric had appeared with bin Laden and discussed details of the Sept. 11 planning during a dinner that was videotaped and aired across the world.

The capture was a coup for Saudi Arabia, which spent months tracking him and setting up the intelligence operation that led to his being taken into custody in exchange for eventual amnesty.

The officials said interrogations of al-Harbi, who is now in Saudi Arabia, have yielded confirmation of many al-Qaida tactics, including how members crossed into Iran after the U.S. began military operations to rout al-Qaida and the Taliban from Afghanistan.

Al-Harbi is believed to have been paralyzed from the waist down while fighting in the 1990s alongside Muslim extremists in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and he surprised intelligence officials when he appeared in the December 2001 video with bin Laden.

"Everybody praises what you did," al-Harbi said on the tape.

U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies also have evidence stretching back to the late 1990s that indicates Ahmad Ibrahim al-Mughassil remains in hiding in Iran. He is wanted as one of the masterminds of the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans.

Al-Mughassil, who also goes by the alias Abu Omran, has been charged as a fugitive by the United States _ accused of conspiracy to commit murder in the attacks _ and has a $5 million bounty on his head.

U.S. authorities have long alleged that the 1996 bombing was carried out by a Saudi wing of the militant group Hezbollah, which receives support from Iran and Syria.

Intelligence agencies gathered evidence, including a specific phone number, as early as 1997 indicating that al-Mughassil was living in Iran, and they have other information indicating his whereabouts.

U.S. officials have not publicly discussed the Saudi capture of al-Harbi or their evidence on al-Mughassil's whereabouts, but they have increasingly raised questions about Iran's efforts to turn over other suspected terrorists believed to be under some form of loose house arrest.


Nicholas Burns, State Department undersecretary for political affairs, told Congress last month that Iran has refused to identify al-Qaida members it has in custody.

"Iran continues to hold senior al-Qaida leaders who are wanted for murdering Americans and others in the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings and for plotting to kill countless others," Burns said.

Top administration officials have repeatedly warned Iran against harboring or assisting suspected terrorists.

U.S. intelligence this week has been checking some reports, still uncorroborated as of Friday, that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's leader of the Iraqi insurgency, may have dipped into Iran, officials said.

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned countries in the Middle East not to help al-Zarqawi.

"Were a neighboring country to take him in and provide medical assistance or haven for him, they, obviously, would be associating themselves with a major linkage in the al-Qaida network and a person who has a great deal of blood on his hands," Rumsfeld said.

The U.S. and foreign officials said evidence gathered by intelligence agencies indicates the following figures are somewhere in Iran, perhaps under some form of house arrest or surveillance:

_Saad bin Laden, the son of the al-Qaida leader whom U.S. authorities have aggressively hunted since the Sept. 11 attacks.

_Saif al-Adel, an al-Qaida security chief wanted in connection with the deadly 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.

_Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the chief of information for al-Qaida and a frequently quoted spokesman for bin Laden.

Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East analyst at the Congressional Research Service, said it's possible that some of the suspected terrorists are being held in guarded villas, and he doubted any detention is uncomfortable.

"I think that Iran sees these guys as something of an insurance policy," Katzman said. "It's leverage."

Rasool Nafisi, a Middle East analyst who studies conservative groups in Iran, said Iran has returned some lower-level operatives to their home countries but probably is keeping higher-ranking operatives as a bartering chip.

"Remember, Islamic tradition is very much based on haggling," Nafisi said. "If I were the Iranian government, I'd be very happy to have them and to use them in future negotiations with the United States."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/03/AR2005060301191.html

[Vancouver]

The FBI hotsheets have started referring to the Khobar Towers fugitives as members of "Saudi Hizbollah". The ones I know of are

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Ahmed Ibrahim al-Mughasil

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Ibrahim Salih Mohammed al-Yacoub

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Abdelkarim Hussein Mohammed al-Nasser

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Ali Saed bin Ali el-Hoorie

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Saqr al-Jeddawi (or "The Jeddah Falcon")

Six guys from al-Muqrin's group "al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula" accepted Sheikh Abdullah's amnesty offer some months back; two of those were in Syria and one in Iran.

The Israeli paper Haaretz said that 100-150 Qaedas fled Afghanistan when NATO showed up, and relocated to Ein Hilwe near Sidon with Syrian help. (Syria was in partial control of that area at that time.) Of the several gangs in that so-called Palestinian refugee camp, Asbat al-Ansar is the Wahhabi one.

[The 801]

Umm, real nice work vancouver..Maybe time for a new thread?

It is the position of this writer that Mugniyeh was instrumental in getting most of the AQ who fled Afghanistan, out. And the higher up or personally connected to Bin Laden, the more likely. Mugniyeh has extensive access to smuggling routes and methods that he has used previously.

If anyone is curious, I believe that Mugniyeh is presently at home in Qods, Iran. Or as at home as he can be in his family compound.

By the way, if there are no complaints, I would like to rerun some of the data on the old thread that pertains to current events...

The 801

[The 801]

The supreme putdown
By Kenneth R. Timmerman
June 28, 2005

<Here is an editorial by Timmerman. He recounts the data already documented here on itshappening about mugniyeh's ties to al-qaeda. No big surprises here. ......801>


One week before the September 11 commission was scheduled to send its final report to the printers in July 2004, Philip D. Zelikow, the commission's staff director, gathered members together for an unusual briefing.

Commission staff members had discovered a document from a U.S. intelligenceagencythat described in detail Iran's ties to al Qaeda, he said. It had been buried at the bottom of a huge stack of highly classified documents on other subjects that had been delivered to a special high-security reading room in an undisclosed location in Washington. The document summarized the findings of seventy-five distinct intelligence reports.

The commissioners realized that if their report was published and word of the missing documents leaked out later, it would discredit their entire investigation, so they ordered staff to make a last-minute panic run. Mr. Zelikow arranged to have his team review the 75 documents in person the following morning — Sunday — at seven-thirty.

Everything the CIA had been telling the commission up until that point was absolutely cut and dried: There was no connection between al Qaeda and Iran. None, no way. Nada. This was "the Concept," and the intelligence community was wedded to it. "We found perplexing the settled CIA position . . . that there was no meaningful connection at all between al Qaeda and Iran," one commissioner told me when I asked him about this incident.

The documents the team began reading that Sunday morning told a whole different story. The brief, two-page summary that appeared in the September 11 commission's final report gives no idea of the scope of the material the CIA had been sitting on, or the sheer number of intelligence reports. That story has never been told until now.

What the team found that Sunday morning was nothing less than a complete documented record of operational ties between Iran and al Qaeda for the critical months just prior to September 11. "The documents showed Iran was facilitating the travel of al Qaeda operatives, ordering Iranian border inspectors not to put telltale stamps on their passports, thus keeping their travel documents clean," the team leader, a former CIA analyst, told me. "The Iranians were fully aware that they were helping operatives who were part of an organization preparing attacks against the United States."

The U.S. intelligence community was also aware of the help Iran was providing Osama bin Laden's men. But because the analysts were driven by the Concept, they consistently downplayed that relationship. "Old School Ties" was the dismissive title of one post-September 11 analytical report issued by the CIA's counterterrorism center that summarized the early days of bin Laden's cooperation with Iran. These reports showed that, as the team leader told me, "by late 1993, early 1994 there had been a handshake between bin Laden and Iran." A handshake and operational cooperation.

Most troubling were masses of reports on Iranian intelligence operative Imad Mugniyeh, whom the September 11 commission report obliquely refers to as "a senior Hezbollah operative." The raw reporting showed that well before September 11, the United States had hard intelligence that the Tehran regime had appointed Mugniyeh as the point man for operational contacts with bin Laden's men. That coincided with information an Iranian defector brought to the CIA four months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Before September 11, Mugniyeh had killed more Americans than any other terrorist. Putting him together with bin Laden was like throwing a match onto a pile of oil-soaked rags. And yet no alarm bells seem to have gone off. Mugniyeh is not even named in the final commission report.

The source reports showed that Mugniyeh coordinated the travel of eight to ten of the "muscle hijackers" between Saudi Arabia, Beirut and Iran in October and November 2000, and personally traveled with one hijacker from Saudi Arabia to Beirut before his trip on to Iran.

Frustrated by their late discovery of the documents, which prevented them from investigating further, the authors of the September 11 commission report's chapter 7 resorted to irony. It was always possible that so much coordination was simply a "remarkable coincidence" and that "Hezbollah was actually focusing on some other group of individuals traveling from Saudi Arabia during this same time frame, rather than the future hijackers."

Even in its post-September 11 reporting, which then CIA director George Tenet tried unsuccessfully to prevent the commission from reviewing, the CIA simply assumed that the hijackers were traveling through Iran, not to Iran, my sources on the commission said. It was the Concept again. The fact that Mugniyeh had become al Qaeda's travel agent never hit home. "Every time they came up with a smoking gun, the analysts came back and said, yes, that's interesting, but it's not actionable," one commissioner told me. It was the supreme putdown.


http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20050627-090223-2079r.htm

[The 801]

I'm checking on this story..... 801

U.S. Reiterates $5M Reward for HijackersBy ZEINA KARAM
The Associated Press
Wednesday, June 29, 2005; 3:33 PM

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- With Lebanon free of Syria's grasp, the United States issued an unusual reminder Wednesday about the millions of dollars still offered for information on three Shiite Muslims who hijacked an American passenger jet 20 years ago, killing a Navy SEAL.

The three are still believed to be in Lebanon or Syria, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut said in a statement on its Web site, adding that it is offering a $5 million reward for information on their whereabouts.

"The United States will pay cash rewards in any currency for information that assists in bringing to justice those who murder and terrorize its citizens," it said.

Both Lebanon and Syria have denied the three men are on their soil.

TWA Flight 847 was hijacked in 1985 on a flight from Athens to Rome, and during a 17-day standoff at Beirut's airport, gunmen killed U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem and threw his body onto the tarmac.

The rewards are offered for Imad Mughniyeh, the former Hezbollah security chief who is also accused in the kidnappings of Americans in Beirut and other terror attacks, as well as two other men linked to Hezbollah, Hassan Izz-Al-Din and Ali Atwa.

The embassy said the reminder was timed for the 20th anniversary of the June 14, 1985, hijacking. But it also came at a time of dramatic change in Lebanon.

Syria's military withdrew in April after a 29-year presence, and Damascus' longtime control of Lebanon has crumbled. Syria's opponents have a majority in parliament and are putting together a government.

Syria has long been accused of protecting militant groups in Lebanon, but its ability to do so now is hampered. Individuals may be more willing to come forward with information now without the shadow of reprisals from Syrian intelligence agents _ who once kept a grip on even day-to-day aspects of Lebanese life.

Hezbollah, the Syrian-backed guerrilla group that is now taking a stronger role in Lebanese politics, has denied any link to the hijacking.

The reminder of the reward also came as a U.N. team is in Beirut to investigate the Feb. 14 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri. The inquiry has set a precedent in a country where scores of assassinations have gone unpunished, and has raised hopes that other crimes might be investigated.

The hijacking of Flight 847 produced some of the more notorious images of the attacks on Westerners that occurred during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. One photo showed a hijacker holding a gun to pilot John Testrake's head as they leaned out of the cockpit window during the standoff.

The passenger jet was hijacked by Shiite Muslim extremists with 153 people, mostly Americans, aboard. The hijackers forced the plane to fly back and forth several times between Algiers and Beirut airport. On the second day of the seizure, June 15, Stethem, 23, was killed.

After mediation by Shiite moderates, the hostages were released June 30, but the hijackers went free. Nothing has been heard about them since the civil war ended in 1990.

All three men were indicted in the U.S. in absentia for their role in the hijacking. The rewards were first posted when the U.S. put out a list of the 22 most wanted following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

The TWA hijacking came during Lebanon's chaotic sectarian-driven civil war. Mughniyeh's forces were linked to the kidnapping of scores of Americans, Frenchmen, Britons, Germans and other foreigners in Lebanon at about the same period.

Mughniyeh is also suspected of being behind suicide attacks against the U.S. Embassy and the Marine base in Lebanon in the 1980s, bombings that killed more than 260 Americans. His present connections to Hezbollah are unclear.

___

On the Net:

U.S. list of wanted terrorists and rewards: http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/29/AR2005062901489.html

[The 801]

Key Al Qaeda role for bin Laden son
Saad bin Laden part of network’s upper echelon
By Douglas Farah and Dana Priest
THE WASHINGTON POST
Oct. 14 — Saad bin Laden, one of Osama bin Laden’s oldest sons, has emerged in recent months as part of the upper echelon of the al Qaeda network, a small group of leaders that is managing the terrorist organization from Iran, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.

SAAD BIN LADEN and other senior al Qaeda operatives were in contact with an al Qaeda cell in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the days immediately prior to the May 12 suicide bombing there that left 35 people dead, including eight Americans, European and U.S. intelligence sources say. The sources would not divulge the nature or contents of the communications, but the contacts have led them to conclude that the Riyadh attacks were planned in Iran and ordered from there.

PASSING THE MANTLE
Although Saad bin Laden is not the top leader of the terrorist group, his presence in the decision-making process demonstrates his father’s trust in him and an apparent desire to pass the mantle of leadership to a family member, according to numerous terrorism analysts inside and outside of government.
Like other al Qaeda leaders in Iran, the younger bin Laden, who is believed to be 24 years old, is protected by an elite, radical Iranian security force loyal to the nation’s clerics and beyond the control of the central government, according to U.S. and European intelligence officials. The secretive unit, known as the Jerusalem Force, has restricted the al Qaeda group’s movements to its bases, mostly along the border with Afghanistan.
Also under the Jerusalem Force’s protection is Saif al-Adel, al Qaeda’s chief of military operations; Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, the organization’s chief financial officer, and perhaps two dozen other top al Qaeda leaders, the officials said. Al-Adel and Abdullah are considered the top operational deputies to Osama bin Laden and his second-in-command, Ayman Zawahiri, who communicate with underlings almost exclusively through couriers.
The presence of Saad bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders in Iran has become part of a debate within the governments of the United States and Saudi Arabia over the best way to reduce Iranian support for terrorism. U.S. officials have sent stern warnings to the government of President Mohammad Khatami that Iran’s harboring of senior al Qaeda operatives would have repercussions for a nation the Bush administration has labeled part of the “axis of evil.”
Intelligence officials believe that although the State Department is eager to renew talks with Iran on a variety of issues, primarily its nuclear program, it is not clear whether that nation’s civilian government could deliver its end of any bargain, especially if it entailed turning over al Qaeda leaders.
“Iran will continue to pursue an asymmetric strategy in which they court Western acceptance, while maintaining their surrogate leadership roles within the Islamic extremist community,” a U.S. intelligence analysis says.
Similarly, Saudi Arabia, which in recent years has tried to thaw relations with its larger and more powerful neighbor across the Persian Gulf, is trying, unsuccessfully, to persuade Iran to extradite Saad bin Laden and others suspected in the Riyadh bombing. Saudi officials estimate there are up to 400 al Qaeda members there.

‘SOMEBODY MUST BE HELPING THEM’
“Those people are in Iran and somebody must be helping them. The question is who?” Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador, told the San Francisco Chronicle last month. “This is the problem with Iran. The people who we can deal with can’t deliver, they can’t lead eight ducks across the street. And the guys who can deliver, they’re not interested.”
As a child, Saad bin Laden was at his father’s side in Afghanistan in the mid-1980s when Osama bin Laden formed the Al Qaeda network. The younger bin Laden was groomed to take a leadership role in the terrorism organization. He is fluent in English and is computer-literate, two qualities rare among al Qaeda leaders and assets that have enhanced his importance beyond his family name.
Yet Saad has only recently emerged as an important target for the CIA, FBI and other organizations trying to disrupt the terrorist network. It has only been since his arrival in Iran in the last year that he has assumed a more active role in directing al Qaeda, and that he has been identified as a senior leader. Before that, analysts said, he often sat with his father in leadership meetings but seldom spoke and was not given a voice in deliberations.
Many experts believe, for example, that he also had direct involvement in coordinating a series of bombings on May 16 that killed 45 people in Casablanca, Morocco.
‘Because his father is incommunicado, a lot of people are looking to Saad to give them direct instructions.’
— KENNETH KATZMAN
Congressional Research Service Kenneth Katzman, a terrorism analyst for the Congressional Research Service, said Saad “is touted as his father’s stand-in. Because his father is incommunicado, a lot of people are looking to Saad to give them direct instructions.”
While there is broad agreement that Saad bin Laden’s role within al Qaeda has grown increasingly important in the past six months, not everyone agrees he is now a senior operational commander. One U.S. intelligence official said Saad is “more of a player than most of the offspring, but not that significant.” Osama Bin Laden has more than two dozen children with five wives.
But European intelligence officials and independent analysts said Saad bin Laden, while not the most important al Qaeda leader, is helping to make key operational decisions and is an important part of al Qaeda’s logistical network. Some analysts believe he was very close to Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, who was captured in March.
“Saad is capable of mounting operations against the West because he knows the West very well,” said Rohan Gunaratna, director of terrorism research at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore. “Saad has been very close to his father, almost functioning as his bodyguard.”
Saad bin Laden is one of the eldest sons of bin Laden and his first wife, Najwa Ghanem, a Syrian who is also the terrorist leader’s first cousin. The couple had 11 children, but Osama bin Laden has taken at least four other wives and divorced one, according to biographies in the Arab press and U.S. officials. Islam allows men to take as many as four wives at one time.

BATTLING SOVIETS
Born in Saudi Arabia, Saad bin Laden spent time with his father in Afghanistan during the war against the Soviet occupation. His father returned to Saudi Arabia in 1989, but left in 1991 to settle in Sudan. Again, Saad accompanied him. When bin Laden returned to Afghanistan in 1996, so did Saad.
According to one terrorism expert, Osama bin Laden was filmed in Afghanistan admonishing al Qaeda members not to expect their children to take leadership positions in the movement unless the children were willing to work hard for the cause. Bin Laden then singled Saad out for praise as a hard worker and said he was proud of his son.
Gunaratna said that an analysis of bin Laden’s satellite telephone calls from 1996 to 1998 showed that more than 10 percent were placed to Iran, demonstrating the ongoing contacts with Iran during that time.
Officials said there is also evidence that another key liaison between the hard-line Iranian factions and al Qaeda is Imad Mugniyah, one of the world’s most wanted terrorists.
Mugniyah, a Lebanese national and senior Hezbollah leader, is responsible for the kidnapping and murder of several Americans, as well as the hijacking of aircraft and the bombing of U.S. military barracks in Beirut in the 1980s, according to the FBI and CIA. Before Sept. 11, 2001, he was responsible for the deaths of more Americans than any other terrorist.
According to court testimony of former al Qaeda operatives, Mugniyah met bin Laden several times in Sudan in the mid-1990s and agreed to train al Qaeda combatants in the use of explosives and other techniques in exchange for weapons.
A description of Mugniyah’s ongoing role was provided to authorities by a member of the Jerusalem Force who defected to Britain earlier this year. In a February interview with the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sarq al-Awsat, the defector said Mugniyah remained in Iran and had personally “planned the escape of dozens of al Qaeda men to Iran.”
The defector, Hamid Zakiri, said Mugniyah served as “a liaison officer with Dr. Zawahiri and with commanders of other fundamentalist organizations.”
Zakiri said that among those Mugniyah aided were bin Laden’s youngest wife, Amal al-Saddah, and her infant child, whom he provided with safe passage from Afghanistan through Iran to her homeland of Yemen as the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan began.
European intelligence sources said that much of Zakiri’s information had been verified.

Research editor Margot Williams contributed to this report.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/979918.asp?cp1=1

[The 801]

Some Bombs Used in Iraq Are Made in Iran, U.S. Says
By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: August 6, 2005

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 - Many of the new, more sophisticated roadside bombs used to attack American and government forces in Iraq have been designed in Iran and shipped in from there, United States military and intelligence officials said Friday, raising the prospect of increased foreign help for Iraqi insurgents.


Forum: The Transition in Iraq
American commanders say the deadlier bombs could become more common as insurgent bomb makers learn the techniques to make the weapons themselves in Iraq.

But just as troubling is that the spread of the new weapons seems to suggest a new and unusual area of cooperation between Iranian Shiites and Iraqi Sunnis to drive American forces out - a possibility that the commanders said they could make little sense of given the increasing violence between the sects in Iraq.

Unlike the improvised explosive devices devised from Iraq's vast stockpiles of missiles, artillery shells and other arms, the new weapons are specially designed to destroy armored vehicles, military bomb experts say. The bombs feature shaped charges, which penetrate armor by focusing explosive power in a single direction and by firing a metal projectile embedded in the device into the target at high speed. The design is crude but effective if the vehicle's armor plating is struck at the correct angle, the experts said.

Since they first began appearing about two months ago, some of these devices have been seized, including one large shipment that was captured last week in northeast Iraq coming from Iran. But one senior military officer said "tens" of the devices had been smuggled in and used against allied forces, killing or wounding several Americans throughout Iraq in the past several weeks.

"These are among the most sophisticated and most lethal devices we've seen," said the senior officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicate intelligence reports describing the bombs. "It's very serious."

Pentagon and intelligence officials say that some shipments of the new explosives have contained both components and fully manufactured devices, and may have been spirited into Iraq along the porous Iranian border by the Iranian-backed, anti-Israeli terrorist group Hezbollah, or by Iran's Revolutionary Guard. American commanders say these bombs closely matched those that Hezbollah has used against Israel.

"The devices we're seeing now have been machined," said a military official who has access to classified reporting on the insurgents' bomb-making abilities. "There is evidence of some sophistication."

American officials say they have no evidence that the Iranian government is involved. But Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the new United States ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, complained publicly this week about the Tehran government's harmful meddling in Iraqi affairs.

"There is movement across its borders of people and matériel used in violent acts against Iraq," Mr. Khalilzad said Monday.

But some Middle East specialists discount any involvement by the Iranian government or Hezbollah, saying it would be counter to their interests to support Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgents, who have stepped up their attacks against Iraqi Shiites. These specialists suggest that the arms shipments are more likely the work of criminals, arms traffickers or splinter insurgent groups.

"Iran's protégés are in control in Iraq right now, yet these weapons are going to people fighting Iran's protégés," said Kenneth Katzman, a Persian Gulf expert at the Congressional Research Service and a former Middle East analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. "That makes little sense to me."

One of Iran's top priorities is to get the United States out of Iraq, which means keeping up the violence there. At the same time, that clearly works against their other goal, which is to get religious Shiites in power and keep them in power. Right now, popular support for the government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, which is friendly toward Iran, is waning because it cannot deal effectively with the Sunni-based insurgency.

And while American military intelligence officers believe Iranian intelligence has a large presence in Iraq, they say it hasn't been working to destabilize the country.

American commanders say they first saw the use of the new explosives in the predominantly Shiite area of southern Iraq, including Basra, but their use by insurgents steadily migrated into Sunni-majority areas north and west of Baghdad. It was unclear how the transfers were taking place.

The seizure of the recent arms shipment from Iran was first reported on Thursday night by NBC News and CBS News.

The influx of the new explosives comes as allied commanders are stepping up efforts to stop the infiltration of fighters, weapons and equipment along Iraq's porous borders with Iran and Syria. Ten days ago, for instance, Iraqi border enforcement agents seized a major shipment of weapons, apparently small arms, that officials suspect may have come from Iran, Maj. Gen. J. B. Dutton of the British Marines, commander of allied forces in southern Iraq, told reporters on Friday in a conference call from Basra.

More troubling are the broad array of roadside bombs that range from the improvised explosives made from modified 155-millimeter artillery shells and other materials to antitank mines like those that military officials say caused the blast on Wednesday that killed 14 marines and an Iraqi civilian in western Iraq.

American troops and the insurgents have been engaged for months in an expanding test of tactics and technology, with the guerrillas building bigger and more clever devices and the Americans trying to counter them at each turn.

"The terrorists are trying to adapt to that level of protection that our forces have; they have been motivated to try to find a way to get advantage," Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, a military spokesman in Baghdad, said at a news conference on Thursday. "And occasionally, we're seeing I.E.D.'s that are sufficiently lethal as to challenge some of the level of protection."

Military officials say they are thwarting about 40 percent of the roadside bombs before they detonate, employing a range of countermeasures from jamming devices that disrupt the frequency of the explosives' triggers, to heightened patrols. Last week, the military successfully cleared 115 roadside bombs, General Alston said. But such bombs remain the No. 1 killer of American troops in Iraq.

"It's not just about the armor that you carry," he said. "It's about your tactics, and it's about how you evolve and develop those and try to defend yourself before those things detonate as well."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/06/politics/06bomb.html?pagewanted=1

[sidthereal]

wow...
this mugniyeh thread is really getting me intrigued,

is there, a detailed site, about this guys info?

[The 801]

Thanks for you interest siddharthramana. This is the only site on the Internet that actually tracks information concerning Mugniyeh. The best place for information is the original itshappening site listed at the beginning of this section.

http://www.afghanistanwar.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5

search on Mugniyeh

Presently, I have a few theories on Mugniyeh that I am doing some research on.

1) He assisted Saad Bin laden to escape to Iran, where he presently is.
2) Mugniyeh has a home in Qods, the same town where Bin laden had a home. They know each other.
3) I believe that Mugniyeh is in Iran, and probably has started his own Madrass. I would allow him to train the next generation of terrorist.
4) While there is information that Mugniyeh served on the shira council in Lebanon, I have set below an article that would indicate that he is going to now be active or at least have a strong voice in the new Iranian government.

This article indicates that one of his main co - conspirator in the Lebanon bombing is now in power in the new Iranian government.

Send me a message if you want to see any of the other information that i have collect on the most dangerous man in the world.

Iran’s defense chief tied to Beirut bombing of U.S. Marines
Sun. 14 Aug 2005

Iran Focus

London, Aug. 14 - The nomination of a veteran commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as the new defense minister has been greeted with calls for an investigation into his possible ties to the suicide bombing of the U.S. Marines compound in Beirut airport in October 1983, which killed 241 Americans.

Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, a senior commander in the Revolutionary Guards, was in command of the IRGC expeditionary force in Lebanon when on October 23, 1983, at 6:22 a.m., a suicide bomber drove a large water delivery truck to the Beirut International Airport where the Marine Barracks was located. The bomber and his accomplices had hijacked the original truck on its way to the airport and sent another one, loaded with explosives, in its place.

After turning onto an access road leading to the compound, the driver rushed through a barbed-wire fence, passed between two sentry posts, crashed through the gate, and slammed into the lobby of the barracks. The huge explosion crumbled the four-story building, crushing the soldiers to death while they were sleeping.

All the windows at the airport control tower, half a mile away, shattered. A crater eight feet deep was carved into the earth, and 15 feet of rubble was all that remained of the four-story Marine barracks.

The attack killed 241 U.S. service members. The Americans quickly withdrew their forces from Lebanon and the suicide operation became a turning point in the increasing use of terrorism by radical Islamic fundamentalists across the world.

Two years ago, a U.S. federal court order identified the suicide bomber as Ismail Ascari, an Iranian national.

In July 1987, Iran’s then-Minister of Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rafiqdoost, said, “Both the TNT and the ideology which in one blast sent to hell 400 officers, NCOs, and soldiers at the Marines headquarters were provided by Iran”.

Rafiqdoost’s comments were published in the Tehran daily Ressalat on July 20, 1987.

Iran’s hard-line newspapers continue to feature stories that commemorate the Beirut bombing and the country’s Headquarters for Commemoration of Martyrs of Global Islamic Movement held a memorial ceremony in Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery last December to “honour the man who carried out the largest martyrdom-seeking operation against Global Arrogance [the United States and its allies]…and was able to kill more than 300 occupiers of Lebanon with his courageous operation in 1983”.

A U.S. Defense Department report on the Beirut attack said the force of the explosion “ripped the building from its foundation. The building then imploded upon itself”.

The U.S. court order described the blast as "the largest non-nuclear explosion that had ever been detonated on the face of the Earth”. It was equal in force to between 15,000 and 21,000 pounds of TNT.

Now some terrorism experts want a thorough investigation by the U.S. or an international body to determine the role of Iran’s new defence minister in the attack.

“Those who are knowledgeable about the October 1983 terrorist attack in Beirut know that the Iranian regime was behind it”, said David Neil, a Middle East affairs analyst based in London. “Iran’s new defence minister was in command of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards force in Lebanon at the time. This is acknowledged in his official biography that was carried by Iran’s government-owned news agencies today”.

Others agree.

“We must conduct a thorough investigation and bring the perpetrators and masterminds of that terrorist act to justice”, said Simon Bailey of the Gulf Intelligence Monitor. “For two decades, the Beirut bombing has been a landmark for terrorist impunity. Now is the time to change it”.

Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar joined the IRGC soon after it was formed in 1979, only days after the victory of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic revolution that overthrew the Shah of Iran. Almost immediately, Mohammad-Najjar took part in the bloody campaign to suppress the Kurdish uprising in western Iran in 1979.

After his return to Tehran, Mohammad-Najjar worked as a staff officer in the Central Command Headquarters of the IRGC. His performance in the opening stages of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980 won him quick promotion in IRGC, then a newly-formed army that relied more on ideological loyalty than military skills.

By 1982, the IRGC had turned the tide in the war against Iraq. After a succession of impressive battlefield victories, the Revolutionary Guards were now on the offensive. The new situation led the IRGC High Command to expand its operations in pursuit of export of Islamic revolution beyond Iraq. With Ayatollah Khomeini’s blessing, the Revolutionary Guards set up a Middle East Directorate and Mohammad-Najjar, who was a fluent Arabic speaker, became its commander.

The Middle East Directorate’s area of operation included Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and the Persian Gulf states. The IRGC sent a 1,500-man expeditionary force to Syria and the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon in 1982 and played a key role in the formation of the Lebanese Hezbollah.

Mohammad-Najjar remained in command of IRGC’s Middle East operations until 1985. During those years, the IRGC expanded its presence and influence in Lebanon, both directly and through its proxies, and established active ties with radical Palestinian and Arab groups in the region.

Mohammad-Najjar’s forces were also actively expanding their clandestine presence in Iran’s southern neighbours, including Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Mohammad-Najjar became head of the IRGC’s Military Industries Organisation in 1985 and later developed the 230-mm “super mortars” that were intended for use by the Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force for terrorist operations in Europe and the Middle East.

The choice of Mohammad-Najjar as Defence Minister by fellow Revolutionary Guards commander Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not surprising. President Ahmadinejad is closely allied with the top brass of the IRGC, who played a crucial role in ensuring his victory in the recent presidential elections.


http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3322

[sidthereal]

801, please post more info

[The 801]

Be assured that Mugniyeh has something to do with this. If you really need more proof, let me know and I will provide analysis. - 801

TERROR TRAIL OF CASH LEADS TO IRAN, SAUDIS
Oct 1, 2005
In the war with Palestinian terrorists, Israel is learning to follow the money.

What investigators have uncovered is the secret funneling of millions of dollars from Iran and Saudi Arabia to groups like Hamas in the West Bank.

The money played a major role in the five-year offensive, begun in September 2000, that accounted for more than 24,000 attacks by Palestinians on Israelis, including 142 homicide bombings.

Those bombings accounted for 510 Israeli deaths, or just over half the fatalities.

A report by the Israeli secret service showed how the money trail worked:

Iran "invested more than $10 million to encourage terrorist activity against Israel."

The money was funneled through Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, as well as Western Union, money launderers and Mideast banks.

After Muntafar Abu Ralyub, a Tanzim militia commander in Jenin, was captured in 2004, he revealed that the basic payment from Hezbollah for a terrorist attack ranged from $600 to $1,100.

If the attack resulted in the death or wounding of an Israeli, there was a $900 bonus, he said.

Another arrested terrorist, Yusef Atik of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade in the West Bank, described getting a phone call from a Hezbollah operative in Lebanon who told him "You're going to make some money."

Atik found that $1,000 was deposited in his Bank Cairo Amman account in Tulkarem ? and another $5,000 was soon added.

In return he was trained ? through e-mail and CDs he was given in Jenin ? in how to teach other militants such skills as how to design explosive belts for homicide bombers.


Iran isn't the only source, the Israelis found.

Yaakub Abu-Asav, a 33-year-old Palestinian with Israeli ID because he lived in east Jerusalem, was arrested after it was discovered he was "the liaison man between the Hamas headquarters in Saudi Arabia and Hamas in the West Bank."

http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_9959.shtml

[The 801]

Kind of sloppy, but an interesting fact stated. Is it a fact? Who knows? But mugniyeh lends himself to this sort of reporting:

".......in a combined CIA/Mossad operation, a powerful car bomb went off at the entrance to the house of Hizbullah’s spiritual leader, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah. Seventy-five people were killed. One of them was his brother. Hunted by the CIA and the Mossad, Mughniyeh hid in Iran.

In February 1992, Israeli helicopter gunships attacked the convoy of the then head of Hizbullah, Sheikh Abas Musawi, in South Lebanon. Musawi, his wife and children were killed and the revenge attack followed a month later. According to press reports, Mughniyeh was called back into action and, in a well-planned and devastating attack, his people blew up the Israeli embassy in Argentina. The building was demolished and 92 were killed. Only last year, after a long investigation, did Argentina issue a warrant for Mughniyeh’s arrest.

http://www.dafka.org/NewsGen.asp?S=4&PageID=634


Now, this is not Debka, it is Dafka... here is what their website states;

"DAFKA" is an acronym for Defending America For Knowledgeable Action. Our mission is to proactively fight the propaganda and indoctrination campaign currently being waged on US campuses by proactively providing the truth and information about the Arab and militant Muslim war being waged against a fellow American ally, Israel.

Israel is America's number one ally. And we at DAFKA consider our work also as helping the US in an increasingly totalitarian world.

“DAFKA” (sometimes spelled "DAVKA" in English) also has many meanings in Hebrew. It refers to the period when the tribes of Moses were at their lowest and received manna from heaven. Classically it means “between thine eyes”. Contemporaneously, it means “in spite of…”. And in modern Hebrew slang it means “in your face!”.


Whew, that makes sense....-801

[The 801]

If this was not Mugniyeh, it was somebody damn close to him who set this up. It has all of his trademarks. Education, Indoctrination, lethal. This could be the fall out of his visits to Iraq reported last year. - 801

Iran 'is training Basra killers'

Iran's military are accused of links to Shia militias in Iraq
Specialist bomb-makers targeting British troops in southern Iraq are being trained by an elite arm of Iran's armed forces, UK defence sources say.
Insurgents making tank-busting explosives, which have killed eight UK soldiers in recent months, are being trained in Iran and Lebanon, they say.

BBC defence correspondent Paul Wood in Basra says the claims implicate the Iranian government. Tehran denies them.

The MoD said the new claims supported Tony Blair's concerns of an Iran link.

Shaped charger

The prime minister said evidence linked the attacks either to Iran or its militant, Lebanese allies Hezbollah, but added that officials could not be sure.

Defence sources now say Iran's Revolutionary Guard, which is an elite fighting force appointed by the country's supreme leader, is giving the original bomb-making training to Iraq insurgents, our correspondent said.

The bomb specialists are then said to return to Basra where they spread the knowledge among fellow insurgents targeting British military convoys.

The bombs being used have a specially shaped charge capable of puncturing a hole in the cladding of UK armoured vehicles, Paul Wood said.

The particular nature of those devices lead us either to Iranian elements or to Hezbollah... however, we can't be sure of this

Tony Blair on claims of an Iran link

The success of these attacks has led British forces to use helicopters to transport troops so as to avoid being targeted, he added.

These fresh claims, which first appeared in the Sun newspaper, follow earlier allegations by a British official over Iranian links to the Shia insurgents in southern Iraq.

The unnamed official also linked the type of bombs used in the attacks on UK forces in Basra to Iran's Revolutionary Guard.


Blair expressed concern during a joint conference with the Iraqi leader

They had provided technology to a Shia Muslim group in southern Iraq, he claimed, prompting a diplomatic storm.

The accusation was the first time a British official had made specific allegations over Iran's role in Iraq.

'Baseless'

Speaking at a joint news conference in London with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani last week, Mr Blair said it was clear "that there have been new explosive devices used - not just against British troops but elsewhere in Iraq.

"The particular nature of those devices lead us either to Iranian elements or to Hezbollah... however, we can't be sure of this," he added.

Despite the qualification, Mr Blair said there could be "no justification" for interfering in Iraq.

The Ministry of Defence said these new claims supported the prime minister's comments.

'No proof'

A spokesman said the evidence pointed towards Iranian involvement, but it did not have decisive proof.

Reiterating the prime minister's statement he said: "What is clear is that there are new types of explosives being used by insurgents in Basra and elsewhere in Iraq.

"The particular nature of them leads us to think of Iranian elements or Hezbollah".

But he said there was no clear proof Iran's Revolutionary Guard was involved.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the UK hoped to discuss the evidence with Iran.

But the Iranian government has dismissed the claims as "baseless" and demanded the UK governme