hotair

Bomb kills Hezbollah militant wanted by U.S.
He allegedly masterminded Americans' killings; Israel denies role in killing

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Imad Mughniyeh, the suspected mastermind of dramatic attacks on the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine barracks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s, has died in a car bomb in Syria, Iranian state media and a Syrian human rights group said Wednesday.

The Islamic militant group Hezbollah and its Iranian backers blamed Israel for the killing. Israel denied involvement. Hezbollah did not say how or where Mughniyeh was killed.

Iranian state television called the slaying “state terrorism by the Zionist regime.” Earlier, an Iranian TV station reported he was killed in a car bomb in Damascus.

Mughniyeh's killing is a major blow to Hezbollah, which fought Israel in the summer 2006 war in Lebanon, and its Iranian and Syrian backers.

Indicted in the U.S.
Mughniyeh, who had been in hiding for years, was among the fugitives indicted in the United States for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed. He was also suspected of masterminding attacks on the U.S. Embassy and the Marine base in Lebanon that killed more than 260 Americans in the 1980s when he was then the Iranian-backed Hezbollah’s security chief.

Mughniyeh, 45, was also the reputed leader of a group that held Westerners hostage in Lebanon, among them journalist Terry Anderson, a former Associated Press chief Middle East correspondent who was held captive for six years.

Mughniyeh is also believed by Israel to have been involved in planning the 1992 bombing of Israel’s embassy in Argentina in which 29 people were killed and the blast at a Buenos Aires Jewish center two years later that killed 95.

$25 million bounty bounty
Mughniyeh is on an FBI wanted list with a $25 million bounty on his head. The bounty is equal to that the United States has put for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

“With all pride we declare a great jihadist leader of the Islamic resistance in Lebanon joining the martyrs ... The brother commander hajj Imad Mughinyeh became a martyr at the hands of the Zionist Israelis,” said a statement carried on Hezbollah television.

The announcement came a few hours after a late night explosion in Damascus destroyed a vehicle. Witnesses in the Syrian capital said at the time that a passerby was killed as security forces sealed off the area and removed the body, but authorities there would not give details.

Iran’s English-language satellite station Press TV on Wednesday said the person slain in the Damascus explosion turned out to be Mughniyeh. It said an Iranian school and a Syrian intelligence office were in the same area of Kafar Soussa where the explosion occurred.

Press TV reported that Mughniyeh was leaving his house and about to get into his car when it exploded. However, LBC, a Lebanese television station, said Mughniyeh was attending a ceremony at the Iranian school in Damascus and was killed as he left the function.

Iran celebrated the anniversary of its Islamic revolution this week.

“This action is yet another brazen example of organized state terrorism by the Zionist regime,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said, according to the state news agency IRNA. He called on the world to “prevent the Zionist regime from taking these actions that are a clear violation of international law.”

Charge rejected
Israel denied killing the militant.

“Israel rejects the attempt by terror groups to attribute to it any involvement in this incident. We have nothing further to add,” read the statement from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office.

Yet Mughinyeh's death wasn't regretted. “All of us have been waiting for this day for a long long time. It's a happy day for us,” a senior Israeli intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told NBC News.

"There is more than one country that's interested in seeing him go," the official added.

Syria has not commented, nor did Hezbollah explicitly link his death to the Damascus bombing, which would be an embarrassment for the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad for hosting him.

Mughinyeh’s killing is the first major attack against a leader of Hezbollah since the 1992 helicopter strike that killed the Hezbollah secretary-general Sheik Abbas Mussawi in southern Lebanon.

If Israel proves to be involved in the assassination it would mark a bold move by the Israelis inside Syria and could draw Hezbollah retaliation.

"Hezbollah is really in shock. The question now is retalitation. Everyone is vulnerable because they have such an incredible infrastructure worldwide," the senior Israeli intellience official told NBC News.

Hezbollah did not threaten immediate revenge. But its al-Manar television, which broke into Quranic verses after the announcement, broadcast another statement from the Shiite Muslim militant group, saying a funeral will be held on Thursday.

It urged supporters to turn out in its stronghold in south Beirut to “carry on our shoulders a leader we were proud with his leadership and a martyr we’re honored by his martyrdom.”

“Let us make our voice heard by all the enemies and murderers that we will make victory no matter how the sacrifices are,” Hezbollah said.

Message to Hamas
The assassination also sent a powerful warning to the Damascus-based leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group which is backed by Iran. In 2004, a Hamas activist survived a similar bombing that destroyed his vehicle on a Damascus street shortly after he and his family stepped out.

Hamas condemned the assassination.

“We condemn this crime and we emphasize the Muslim nation must rise up to confront the Zionist devil which is back by the Americans,” said Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Samir Abu Zuhri.

The announcement of his death said Mughniyeh for 20 years has been the target of “Zionists and oppressors” — in Hezbollah and Iranian parlance a reference to Israel and the United States.

Mughniyeh was Hezbollah security chief during a turbulent period in Lebanon’s civil war. Little has been known about him since the end of the 15-year conflict and Hezbollah has regularly refused to talk about him.

Wednesday’s announcement of his death was the first mention of him in years.

But American intelligence officials have described Mughniyeh as Hezbollah’s operations chief, who was believed to have moved between Lebanon, Syria and Iran in disguise.

Mughniyeh’s last public appearance was believed to be at the funeral of his brother Fuad, who was killed on Dec. 12, 1994, when a booby-trapped car blew up in the southern suburb of Beirut.

In 2006, Mughniyeh was reported to have met with hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Syria. Tehran and the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards have never publicly disclosed the extent of their links with their protege Hezbollah.

NBC News producer Adam Ciralsky and The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Things become a little clearer. (They really do kill their own kind!)

Targeted at the Iranian school in Damascus? It could only have been done by Iran. Either directly (very unlikely), or indirectly! “Me thinks that the Lady doth protest too much!” Mughniyeh is a moving target. The only way that the bomber could find him, would be if he were somewhere he could be found. The only people who could put him in a place where he could be found, are his Iranian handlers.

With elections coming up in Iran, Ahmadinejad would like nothing more than another war between Hezbollah, and Israel. Nothing like a good war to bring out the voters!

The timing works, with the recent weapons testing going on in Iran. (Along with their new supply of processed uranium.) Another war would give Iran the chance to battle test their newest rocket for range, and accuracy.

Hezbollah is of course not very thrilled with the idea. Their situation in Lebanon is not very stable at the moment. Hezbollah’s main concern has to be that dragging Lebanon into another war with Israel, at this time, could be the last straw for the Lebanese people. But now, Hezbollah really no longer has a choice in the matter.

It also explains the breakout by Hamas, at the Egyptian boarder. Iran cannot afford to get their fingers caught in the cookie jar, at this time. In the event that anything should have gone wrong, Iran’s hands would be clean, if the bomber turned out to be from Gaza. The business at Dimona was bungled too bad, for the reactor to have been the primary target of the breakout. (Though, I admit . . . I always thought that Abbas was the primary target!)

A second Hezbollah-Israeli war, would be in the interest of Hamas as well. It would force the Israelis to lessen their control on Gaza, in order to provide the necessary man-power for their war on the Lebanese boarder.

It could not come at a worst time for Israel! With the UN’s interference, trying to turn Gaza into a “humanitarian crisis”! The continued, daily shelling of Israel from Gaza. The boarder situation with Egypt unsecured, and who knows how many Hamas terrorist teams running around inside of Israel at this time. Bush trying to force a ‘peace’ agreement between Israel, and Abbas. The UN with a new, and ‘still wet behind the ears’ Secretary General. The US elections coming up, and the increasing pressure to do something about Iraq, and Afghanistan. While lastly, but by no means least of all, with Israel still trying to find some way to pay for their last war with Hezbollah.

__________________
So long, and thanks for all of the fish!!!

BillCosby

I just posted a thread on this a few mins ago............

This seems to have little or nothing to do w/ this topic thread........

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

hotair

First off, I am not easily impressed. You obviously put some serious thought into your post, and the fact that it almost impressed me is a very high compliment. From me!!!

Second: The most glaring flaws, were errors in logic. Your numerous attempts to try to support a absolute conclusion, with relative statements, is using very seriously flawed logic.

For example:
You stated that the levels of radiation emitted from refined uranium, is low. This is a relative statement. It is true that the levels are relatively low, as compared to many other materials. Yet as anyone who is familiar with Chernobyl, or even Three Mile Island, will tell you that they are still lethal. Even the radiation from unrefined raw uranium ore is lethal.

While a ‘dirty bomb’ fabricated from refined uranium, may not be as serious (as far as radiation levels are concerned) as a ‘dirty bomb’ fabricated from say plutonium, it is none the less going to be lethal. The Arabs do not need to kill everyone in Israel, with Thermonuclear weapons. They only need to sterilize the population, in order to assure that there will not be any future generations of Israelis. The level of radiation required to sterilize people, is far below the lethal dosage. The radiation levels from uranium based weapons, is more than sufficient to sterilize the population. In fact it is almost overkill.

It is not necessary to kill everyone. People grow old and die of old age all on their own. You only need to prevent future generations from being born, to wipe out a entire people.

The Arabs have been conducting their campaign of “Targeted Genocide” against the Israelis for more than sixty years now. With considerable success I might add. Even with current birth/death rates, the Arab population within Israel will surpass the non-Arab population within the next twenty–five years. Sterilizing the population will reduce the birth rate to near zero, and thus will speed things up considerably. They do not even have to irradiate the entire country either. The Nazis called it “The Ten Percent Solution”! Though the actual minimum number is closer to one-third. Though obviously the higher the percentage, the better.

Of course . . . There is the small matter of bad guess work.
Putin was the KGB handler in charge of the operation to overthrow the Shah, in Iran. He put the people who are in charge in Iran, into power. You see . . . They really are very close friends.



Putin accuses U.S. of setting off 'new arms race'
Says Russia will field new weapons in response to missile defense system

Vladimir Rodionov / EPA
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during the State Council session in Moscow's Kremlin, Feb. 8.

updated 11:10 p.m. CT, Fri., Feb. 8, 2008
MOSCOW, Feb. 8 - President Vladimir Putin said Friday that "a new arms race has been unleashed in the world" as the United States moves forward with a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. Russia will field new weapons in response, he said, dismissing American assurances that the missile system is not directed against Russia as nothing more than "diplomatic cover."

"It's not our fault. We didn't start it ... funneling multibillions of dollars into developing weapons systems," Putin declared in what may be his final major address before he leaves the Kremlin after presidential elections March 2, to become prime minister.

"Russia has and always will have a response to these new challenges," Putin declared. "Over the next few years, Russia will start production of new types of arms, with the same or even superior specifications compared to those available to other nations."

He said, however, that military spending should not come at the cost of the country's economic and social development.

Putin was addressing Russia's State Council, a gathering of ministers, regional governors and members of parliaments. Among those watching in the chandeliered St. George's Hall was Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's chosen successor, who is projected to coast to easy victory in next month's vote. His most vocal opponent, former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, has been barred from running.

Medvedev has struck a milder tone than his boss in recent speeches and has avoided any rhetorical assaults on the West. He cut some anti-Western flourishes from a recent speech prepared by his staff, according to a report in Newsweek's Russian edition.

But Putin's swan song was in keeping with the president's increasingly harsh tone over the last couple of years as Russia and the West have clashed over a host of issues, including the future status of Kosovo and Russia's democratic development.

Friday's uncompromising words struck the now familiar theme that the West, resentful of Russia's resurgence under Putin's stewardship, is encircling the country by bringing neighbors into the NATO alliance and attempting to subvert it internally by funding opponents of the Kremlin. And although the West speaks of freedom and democracy, Putin said, its real agenda is to gain access to the natural resources that "God has graced us with."

"Thus, many conflicts, foreign policy actions and diplomatic protests reek of oil and gas," he said.

Among Russia's neighbors, Ukraine and Georgia are seeking membership in NATO. The three Baltic republics that were part of the Soviet Union are already in the alliance, as are many formerly communist countries in Eastern Europe.

"We drew down our bases in Cuba and in Vietnam. What did we get?" Putin asked. "New American bases in Romania, Bulgaria. A new third missile defense region in Poland.

"We are categorically being told these actions aren't directed at Russia and therefore our concerns are completely unfounded," he continued. "That's not a constructive response."

Putin said that "irresponsible demagogy, attempts to split society and to use foreign assistance and interference in the course of political struggle in Russia are not only immoral, but also illegal."

The speech, which was punctuated by frequent applause, also enumerated what Putin saw as his achievements.

"We have returned to the world arena as a state which is taken account of, and which can stand up for itself," he said.

Turning to the country's domestic development, he contrasted Russia's current stability and economic growth with what the Kremlin frequently describes as the chaos of the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin.

"We have managed to rid the country of the vicious practice of government decisions made under pressure from raw materials and financial monopolies, media moguls, foreign political circles and brazen populists that cynically ignored not only national interests but the basic needs of millions of people," Putin said. "First of all, we started restoring the constitutional order, reviving basic social guarantees to individuals and strengthening government institutions."

Putin noted proudly that Russia has joined "the ranks of the seven biggest economies in the world." But he said the country needs to diversify and no longer depend on sales of oil and other natural resources to fuel its growth.


© 2008 The Washington Post Company


Putin is right. A new arms race has started. Putin’s rather transparent attempts to put the blame onto the west (US) are, in Putins own words, "diplomatic cover."

“Putin noted proudly that Russia has joined "the ranks of the seven biggest economies in the world." But he said the country needs to diversify and no longer depend on sales of oil and other natural resources to fuel its growth.” It is in this diversification, that Putin speaks of, that the new arms race was started. Russia’s selling of military, and nuclear, technologies to fifth tier countries is what is responsible for the current arms race.

Despite its new found wealth (And although the West speaks of freedom and democracy, Putin said, its real agenda is to gain access to the natural resources that "God has graced us with.") Russia remains a third tier developing nation. The natural resources found within Russia, has done nothing to advance the social, or political environments within Russian.

In exporting these military, and nuclear technologies to some of the worlds most unstable regimes. Russia has created the need for other developing nations (mostly neighbors of Russia) to seek the military technologies needed to secure their own safety, from the threats emulating from Russia’s newest clients. Unlike Russia, the former Soviet states surrounding Russia today, do not enjoy access to the nuclear arsenal that Russia enjoys.

In starting this new arms race, Putin wishes for people to think that he failed to calculate the cost of this new arms race, to his own people. Now he is seeking to put the blame of his mistakes, onto the West. (A rather disturbing trend, that is becoming increasingly popular . . . Rather than admitting to ones own errors, shift the blame to others.) . . . At least (It is my opinion that) Putin is hoping that people will see it this way. That he miscalculated, and now there is nothing else that can be done.

In this case, it appears to me, that Putin has done this deliberately in order to push Russia onto a path that he hopes will lead to re-establishing Russia as a first tier world power again. Putin knows that Russian cannot afford to re-establish its former military position. He is hoping that it can be done by convincing the Russian people the need for them to make some major sacrifices. Putin knows that the vast majority of his people, are not interested in becoming a world military power again. So he has deliberately forced his country down this road. He knew exactly what he was doing, when he started this arms race!

I just hope that he is right, in that Russia can afford it.

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So long, and thanks for all of the fish!!!