Defense Minister Ehud Barak with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
Pictured at bottom is before and after photos of Imad Mughniyeh
Assassination Of Hizbullah Terrorist Imad Mughniyeh
Clerical Rulers Of Tehran
Resolved On Pre-Emptive Action
"Casus Belli" To Attack Israel Without Further Delay
Analysis: A Big Hit For Two Ehuds
The Jerusalem Post
Feb 14, 2008 0:30 | Updated Feb 14, 2008 14:37
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1202742151863&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Shortly after the Prime Minister's Office released a statement denying any connection to the assassination of Hizbullah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh on Wednesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert strolled into the Knesset cafeteria in a very good mood. Olmert, unlike predecessor Ariel Sharon, doesn't usually frequent the cafeteria. He prefers to eat in the shelter of his Knesset office, far from the hungry reporters who scavenge the cafeteria for political carrion. When Olmert enters the cafeteria, it usually means he is trying to send a message that he is happy about something and he wants everyone to know about it. Reporters soon drifted to his table and asked him whether he would be sending flowers to Mughniyeh's funeral. "Don't rush to praise me this time, because we haven't taken responsibility," Olmert joked, in a reference to the bombing of a Syrian nuclear site in September that helped the prime minister restore some of the credibility he lost during the Second Lebanon War. Like the September attack, Mughniyeh's killing may never officially be attributed to Israel.
Barak already seemed to hint that something was in the works when he pleaded with politicians on Monday to stop suggesting possible targets. Unlike a ground invasion targeting hundreds of terrorists in Gaza, the death of one terrorist in Syria cost no Israeli lives. Olmert won some more time ahead of an apparently inevitable Gaza invasion that he seems to dread. Olmert has said in closed conversations that he was glad he had resisted calls for a major ground operation in Lebanon way beyond the scope of the operation in the final 60 hours of the war. He will likely continue to resist calls for such an operation in Gaza for as long as he can, in part because he knows the potential for heavy causalities. For Barak, whose security credentials have been questioned increasingly with every rocket attack, Mughniyeh's assassination reminded people of his past. An Arab commentator whose analysis was broadcast on Israel Radio said Barak was the father of the strategy of targeted killings from his days as an army officer. Such an assassination would only require authorization from the prime minister, who would not necessarily have to inform his defense minister.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
Pictured at bottom is before and after photos of Imad Mughniyeh
Iran And Israel Poised For Possible Military Clash
Over Mughniyeh’s Death
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
Feb 16, 2008
http://debka.com/article.php?aid=1336
Tehran is bent on avenging the death of its top terror tactician Imad Mughniyeh who was struck down by a bomb planted in his car in Damascus Tuesday, Feb. 13. Even before the high-ranking Iranian military investigation team, headed by Gen. Ghassem Soleimani, chief of the IRGC’s al Qods Brigades, began a rush job the next day, Israel was singled out as the target for punishment by Iran, Hizballah and Syria. Syria also launched a probe to identify the long arm which hit the shadowy master terrorist under the noses of its security services. Some of the theories and rumors swirling around these probes were planted to muddy the waters by Iran, Syria, Hizballah, Israel and some Lebanese quarters. Arab newspapers, for instance, claimed Saturday that new leads link Arab intelligence services to the crime; ex-Israeli undercover agents pointed the finger at Lebanese Christian Maronites.
An intriguing conspiracy theory emanating unexpectedly from Western sources was suggested by the veteran CNN correspondent Jim Clancy. In his view, Mughniyeh, the consummate master of deception, may still be alive. Others took the theory further and suggested his death may have been fabricated to provide Iran, Syria and Hizballah with a strong casus belli to attack Israel without further delay, and so repeat the Arabs’ Yom Kippur success 35 years ago in catching Israel unawares. According to this line of thinking, because Iran is forging ahead with the development of a nuclear weapon which Israel has said is unacceptable, rather than wait for Israel to strike, the clerical rulers of Tehran resolved on preemptive action.
Mughniyeh’s death, real or phony, provided the motive. DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources have gleaned some facts from the early stages of the highly secretive inquiries and separated them from the theories.
1. Tehran, Damascus, and Hizballah are determined to inflict military-terror punishment on Israel whom they accuse of liquidating their key agent, Imad Mughniyeh. Most Israeli government spokesmen see this attack coming in the form of a terrorist strike against an Israeli or Jewish target overseas, on the lines of the 1992 bombing attacks on the Israeli embassy and Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires which cost more than 100 lives. Nonetheless, the army, navy, air force, and homeland defense forces are on a high state of preparedness on Israel’s northern borders. Hizballah announced Saturday, Feb. 16, that it had placed 50,000 of its members on the ready for any eventuality (i.e. directives from Tehran). Personnel at the US embassy and other institutions in Beirut were ordered to be on their guard for attacks, keep a low profile, and refrain from using their cell phones.
2. Iran’s supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order for Tehran to take charge of the inquiry to identify the hand which killed Mughniyeh, according to our Iranian sources. No time was lost in obeying him. Wednesday, Feb. 14, hours after the assassination, a military mission was in Damascus, led by Gen. Soleimani, whose al Qods Brigades are responsible on behalf of the IRGC for Iran-sponsored terrorist operations in Iraq, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip. Its other members are Adm. Mohammad Fadavi, Dep. Commander of the IRGC Navy, who set up the near-clash between Iranian speedboats and US warships in the Strait of Hormuz in January; and Gen. Morteza Rezai, former chief of the IRGC intelligence branch.
3. DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources add that the appointment of Soleimani, a close crony of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to lead this sensitive mission, confirms the president’s dominance in national operational decisions, in concert with the Revolutionary Guards. Their decisions are submitted to Khamenei for final endorsement. Two people, therefore, Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, will determine the nature and scale of Iran’s retaliation for the loss of its high-value master terrorist and strategist.
4. Soleimani’s preliminary report reveals that the damage was worse than first thought. Not only was Mughniyeh killed by the bomb planted in his car but also some of his bodyguards and senior Hizballah operatives. Syria’s secret services have fallen down completely in guarding Iranian officials and officer’s resident or visiting their capital.
5. The national team directing Israel’s emergency actions was set up without publicity. Our sources disclose it is headed by the Mossad chief Meir Dagan and composed of prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak, chief of staff Gaby Ashkenazi, and Shin Beit director Yuval Diskin. The only hint of Dagan’s key role came with the announcement Friday, Feb. 16, that his term of office as head of the Mossad had been extended for another year until the end of 2009. Many will take this announcement as an indirect admission of the Mossad’s responsibility for killing the Hizballah commander and a reward for its director. The Iranian and Israeli teams, keeping their cards close to their chests, are tensely watching events, poised to seize control of any unforeseen situation before it gets out of hand.
U.S. Spy Chief:
Hezbollah May Be Behind Mughniyah Killing
Feb 15, 2008
By Yoav Stern, Amos Harel, Yuval Azoulay, and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents
Hezbollah May Be Behind Mughniyah Killing
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/954800.html
The U.S. intelligence chief said Sunday that internal Hezbollah factions or Syria may be to blame for the killing of top Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyah last week. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said the United States is still reviewing the case following the death last Tuesday of Mughniyah in a car bombing in the Syrian capital of Damascus. Hezbollah blamed Israel and has pledged to attack Jewish targets worldwide in retaliation. That led the FBI last week to be vigilant for possible threats in the U.S. against synagogues and other potential Jewish targets. McConnell said he considers the threat to be primarily against Israel. But he said U.S. intelligence officials are keeping a close watch and taking any necessary action to protect the United States because Mughniyeh has been responsible for more deaths of Americans and Israelis than any other terrorist with the exception of Osama bin Laden. "It is a serious threat," McConnell said. "There's some evidence that it may have been internal Hezbollah. It may have been Syria. We don't know yet, and we're trying to sort that out."
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the cabinet Sunday that Syria and Iran my assist Hezbollah in striking Israeli targets following the assassination of its deputy leader Tuesday in Damascus. "It's safe to assume Hezbollah will try to retaliate for the assassination of Imad Mughniyah, possibly with Iranian and Syrian assistance," Barak said. The defense minister said Mughniyah's death dealt a serious blow to Hezbollah and global terror in general, stressing it would take Hezbollah a long time to find a suitable replacement. Barak said he believes Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran do not know who carried out the assassination, but that nonetheless Hezbollah has decided to point an accusing finger at Israel. "The IDF and defense establishment are prepared on all fronts," he said. "We have no interest in escalation, but we will conduct ongoing situation assessments, including threats abroad, in order to be prepared." The defense establishment is concerned Hezbollah may use an explosives-laden unmanned aerial vehicle to attack a civilian or military target in northern or central Israel in retaliation for the Mughniyah assassination. The Israel Air Force has been placed on alert for such a possibility.
To date, Hezbollah has dispatched five Iranian-made drones against Israel, three of them during the Second Lebanon War in August 2006. Two were shot down by the air force, and one crashed. The drones were loaded with dozens of kilograms of high-grade explosives and apparently had been intended to crash in the heavily populated Dan region. The IDF also has bolstered its forces along the northern border, anticipating Hezbollah may launch a massive rocket attack on the area. However, the army has no specific information about the group's intentions in this regard. Syrian and Iranian officials believe there will be a serious military confrontation with Israel in the near future, according to Al-Akhbar, a Lebanese daily affiliated with Hezbollah. Hezbollah's response to the assassination of Imad Mughniyah, the organization's operations chief, will force Israel to make a "difficult decision," the newspaper stated in an editorial. Hezbollah blames Israel for Mughniyah's assassination in Damascus last week. Ibrahim al-Amin, Al-Akhbar's editor, said in a televised interview that Hezbollah does not intend to accept Mughniyah's assassination quietly. Hezbollah's response "will force Israel to make a big decision," he said. However, he insisted that Hezbollah was not interested in a war with Israel.
"End To Myth Of Invincibility,"
Supreme Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Said
Feb. 17, 2008
by IRNA
Iran-Leader-Revolution
http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0802170869185854.htm
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said people's determination to safeguard the values of the Islamic Revolution have brought them success in various fields. Addressing a group of people from East Azarbaijan province, the Supreme Leader underlined that the devoted Iranian people by relying on their rich cultural and historical backgrounds along with their talented youths is to turn into a model for other nations. The meeting took placed on the threshold of the anniversary of people's uprising in Tabriz on February 18, 1978 against the former regime of Iran which is regarded as a turning point in the history of the Islamic Revolution. Ayatollah Khamenei said the Islamic Revolution has brought self-confidence for Iranian youths, adding that the main cause of all political and economic pressures and even military threats of enemies emanate from their fear of the Iranian nation's determination and courage as this has posed a threat to global arrogance.
The Supreme Leader also referred to the recent allegations of the US president and pressure being exerted on the Iranian people in order to force them to halt their nuclear program. On the death of senior Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, Ayatollah Khamenei said Mughniyeh who was assassinated by the Zionists regarded himself as son of late Imam Khomeini and believed that the late Imam was a source of inspiration to the Lebanese and Palestinian youths. These youths inflicted a humiliating defeat in the 33 day war in Lebanon on the Zionist regime and put an end to its myth of invincibility, the Supreme Leader said.
Tracking A Killer:
Mossad Locates, Eliminates Hezbollah Terrorist
Feb. 15, 2008
by JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
Tracking a killer
Mossad locates, eliminates Hezbollah terrorist
WorldNetDaily
http://www.wnd.com
LONDON – Members of Britain's intelligence service have confirmed that Imad Mughniyah, the assassinated Hezbollah terrorist leader, had undergone plastic surgery in a private clinic in East Berlin on his 40th birthday to help him outwit his hunters – the kidon of Mossad. Five birthdays later, however, he found himself in the crosshairs anyway, as members of Mossad caught up with him on a street in Damascus. The Hezbollah terrorist chief's face had been altered by surgeons who had once worked for the Stasi, East Germany’s infamous secret service. His cheeks and jaw had been rebuilt to make him look leaner and his eyes reshaped since those days he had boasted on Arab television about his notorious terrorist attacks: destroying the U.S. embassy in Beirut that wiped out the CIA station in the city; kidnapping Terry Waite and other Western hostages. His greatest crime had been the bombing of a U.S. marine barracks near Beirut airport that killed 241 people.
The CIA, MI6, and every Western intelligence service put Mughniyah at the top of their Most Wanted List. A reward of about $5 million was offered for his capture. The Mossad team members, who had used their expertise to track the terrorists who had carried out the 1972 Munich massacre, once more were called upon to find Mughniyah. He was tracked to Paris but managed to escape as the kidon -- Mossad's assassins -- closed in. He vanished first to Saudi Arabia. Then to Tehran. The operation began last Sunday when three Mossad agents, using Iranian passports, arrived in Damascus on different flights from Rome and Athens. One rented a car. Posing as tourists, they drove around the city. That evening they rented a lock-up garage. Inside the garage, they wired two powerful bombs into the chassis of the hired car.
Dead in Damascus
Feb. 14, 2008
Wall Street Journal
Tracking a killer
Dead in Damascus
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120294922638366823.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Given the clandestine nature of the war on terror, it's often hard to know how much progress we're making. But Tuesday's death in Damascus of Imad Mughniyeh looks like an unambiguous victory. Before Osama bin Laden took the spotlight, Mughniyeh was probably the world's most wanted and elusive terrorist, a man with an FBI price tag of $5 million on his head. He masterminded some of Hezbollah's deadliest attacks in the 1980s and 1990s, including:
- The 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French soldiers who died in the 1983 truck bombings in Beirut along with 63 civilians, including 17 Americans, who died in the simultaneous bombing of the U.S. embassy there.
- Robert Stethem, the Navy diver whose beaten body was left on the tarmac during the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847.
- William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut who was kidnapped, tortured, and killed in the mid-1980s.
- Twenty-nine people who died in the 1992 bombing of Israel's embassy in Buenos Aires and 85 more killed in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish Center in BA.
Mughniyeh died in a car bombing, probably orchestrated by Mossad, though Israel denies it. The location -- Damascus -- of his killing is of special note, and the private intelligence agency Stratfor reports that he died as he was leaving a meeting at a Syrian intelligence office. Syrian officials surely knew of his whereabouts and could have arrested him if they really wanted some accommodation with the U.S. Mughniyeh will kill no more.
...for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you (Joshua 7:13).
