http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=3443
PolicyWatch #1892
“Hizballah Poised to Strike in Southeast Asia”
By Matthew Levitt
January 18, 2012
SNIPPET: “New discoveries regarding Hizballah bombmaking in Thailand are no surprise given the group’s long history of terrorist operations in Southeast Asia.”
SNIPPET: “Hizballah activity in the region continued into the new millennium, though mirroring the group’s post-September 11 trend of focusing more on logistics than operations in order to stay out of the crosshairs of the global war on terrorism. Even during this period, Hizballah engaged in some operational activity, especially infiltrations into Israel by operatives from Europe and, in one case, Southeast Asia. And the operational hiatus ended in full with the February 2008 assassination of Mughniyah, who had continued to serve as the group’s external operations commander.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise today that Hizballah has the capacity to carry out attacks and engage in logistical support activities in Thailand and elsewhere in the region. Should the need arise, the group is ready to either set contingency operations in motion or procure and move explosives or other materials. With the anniversary of Mughniyah’s assassination just weeks away, U.S. and Israeli authorities are on high alert for the kinds of plots reportedly foiled in places as far afield as Thailand, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Hizballah first demonstrated its ability to operate in Thailand more than two decades ago and has maintained it ever since. What remains to be seen is whether last week’s arrest, like Pandu’s in 1999, will help authorities uncover the local Hizballah cell that Atris Hussein and his escaped accomplice were almost certainly overseeing.
Matthew Levitt is director of The Washington Institute’s Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. This article draws on research conducted for his forthcoming book Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s “Party of God” (Georgetown University Press).”