Al-Qaida reportedly teaming with Hezbollah

Washington Post via Seattle Times ^ | June 30, 2002 | Dana Priest and Douglas Farah

[sarcasm]

The Lebanon-based Hezbollah organization, one of the world's most formidable terrorist groups, is increasingly teaming up with al-Qaida on logistics and training for terrorist operations, according to U.S. and European intelligence officials and terrorism experts.

The new cooperation, which involves mid- and low-level operatives, mutes years of rivalry between Hezbollah, which draws its support primarily from Shiite Muslims, and al-Qaida, which is predominantly Sunni.

It includes coordination on explosives and tactics training, money laundering, weapons smuggling and acquiring forged documents, sources said.

[sarcasm]

Click HERE for complete article.

[Bandolier]

Cool. Put Lebanon high on "the list;" We need to get some payback for Beirut anyway.

[Catspaw]

No real surprise. Geraldo reported months ago that al Qaeda fighters were BACK in Lebanon after fighting in Afghanistan.

[aristeides]

Increases the chances that bin Laden and other leaders of al Qaeda are holed up in Iran or Lebanon.

[gaspar]

This is really a stupid article. HAMAS, Hizbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad joined together with Al Qaida following the first meeting of the Peoples Arab and Islamic Conference held in Khartoum in 1991. That cooperation continued even after Bin Ladin left Sudan in 1996, and it was cemented by a meeting held in Tehran, Iran. It contined to 9/11 and they continue to work together surreptitiously (viz., reports of Al Qaida members slipping through Iran and arriving in Lebanon).

[aristeides]

Maybe there's nothing in the article that one wouldn't know from reading Yossef Bodansky, but the fact that government sources are leaking this to the Washington Post may indicate something about the intentions of the U.S. government.