Posted on 09/19/2001 8:06:15 AM PDT by Reagan Man
Israel’s military intelligence service, Aman, suspects that Iraq is the state that sponsored the suicide attacks on the New York Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington. Directing the mission, Aman officers believe, were two of the world’s foremost terrorist masterminds: the Lebanese Imad Mughniyeh, head of the special overseas operations for Hizbullah, and the Egyptian Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri, senior member of Al-Qaeda and possible successor of the ailing Osama Bin Laden.
The two men have not been seen for some time. Mughniyeh is probably the world’s most wanted outlaw. Unconfirmed reports in Beirut say he has undergone plastic surgery and is unrecognisable. Zawahiri is thought to be based in Egypt. He could be Bin Laden’s chief representative outside Afghanistan.
The Iraqis, who for several years paid smaller groups to do their dirty work, were quick to discover the advantages of Al-Qaeda. The Israeli sources claim that for the past two years Iraqi intelligence officers were shuttling between Baghdad and Afghanistan, meeting with Ayman Al Zawahiri. According to the sources, one of the Iraqi intelligence officers, Salah Suleiman, was captured last October by the Pakistanis near the border with Afghanistan. The Iraqis are also reported to have established strong ties with Imad Mughniyeh.
"We’ve only got scraps of information, not the full picture," admits one intelligence source, "but it was good enough for us to send a warning six weeks ago to our allies that an unprecedented massive terror attack was expected. One of our indications suggested that Imad Mughniyeh met with some of his dormant agents on secret trips to Germany. We believe that the operational brains behind the New-York attack were Mughniyeh and Zawahiri, who were probably financed and got some logistical support from the Iraqi Intelligence Service (SSO)."
Mughniyeh was the only one believed to have tried it before. On April 12th 1997, he was reported to be only two hours away from achieving the highest goal of any terrorist organisation (until last week): blowing up an Israeli El-Al airliner above Tel Aviv. A man carrying a forged British passport with the name Andrew Jonathan Neumann was in a Jerusalem hotel preparing a bomb he was supposed to take on board an El-Al flight leaving Israel, when it accidentally went off. Andrew Jonathan Neumann was very badly injured but strong enough to reveal later to the Israelis that he was not British but Lebanese, and that his operation was supposed to be a special "gift" to Israel from Imad Mughniyeh.
‘A psychopath’
"Bin Laden is a schoolboy in comparison with Mughniyeh," says an Israeli who knows Mughniyeh . "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."
Experts on Iraq and Saddam Hussein also believe that Iraq was the state behind the two terror masterminds. "In recent months, there was a change, and Iraq decided to get into the terror business. On July 7th, they tried for the first time to send a suicide bomber, trained in Baghdad, to blow up Tel Aviv airport (Foreign Report No. 2651)."
Our sources believe that it will be very difficult to get to the bottom of this unprecedented terror operation. However, they believe the chief of the Iraqi SSO is Qusai Hussein, the dictator’s son, and his organisation is the most likely to have been involved.
Mughniyeh, 48, is a "sick man", says an intelligence officer who was in charge of his file. He is considered by Western intelligence agencies as the most dangerous active terrorist today. He is wanted by several governments and the Americans have put a $2m reward on his head.
It was the assassination of one man in March 1984 that is said to have made Mughniyeh the CIA’s most wanted terrorist. Mughniyeh allegedly kidnapped the head of the CIA station in Beirut, William Buckley. The kidnapping triggered what later became known as ‘Irangate’, when the Americans tried to exchange Buckley (and others) with arms for Iran. However, the attempt ended in a fiasco. By one unconfirmed account, Mughniyeh tortured and killed Buckley with his own hands.
A year later, 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.
The reprisal for the attack in Argentina came in December 1994, when a car bomb went off in a southern Shi’ite suburb of Beirut. Four people were killed. One of them was called Mughniyeh, but to the deep disappointment of those Israelis who planted the bomb it was the wrong one. Mughniyeh’s life was saved, but his other brother Fuad was killed. Mughniyeh waited for his opportunity for revenge.
Our Israeli sources claim to see Mughniyeh’s signature on the wreckage in New York and Washington. How to counter this kind of terrorism? "To fight these bastards you don’t need a military attack," said an experienced Israeli commando officer. "You only need to adopt Israel’s assassination policy."
The media also "told us" OJ did it. I am not convinced -- I believe his oldest son did it. We are lead to believe Condidit -- perhaps, but I've seen better theories. We are told, sources say, conventional wisdom indicates, unconfirmed reports, ...these phrases have meaning, impact. They can not be taken lightly. We have to learn to think for ourselves. A plan this ghoulish that took so long to accomplish cannot be solved in a sixty minute segment by talking heads.
One question I have for those who are so ready to jump on the Afgani-express is: if the media has distorted the facts for lo these many years, what evidence is there that they are giving you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth now?
"Experts" promote activities which create a market for their expertise.
I.e., no surprise.
Didn't hear Pat, but as you know ObL was from Saudi Arabia; when our troops were there he saw it as a trangression of mamoth proportions: the infidels on their holy ground. THAT is the source of his hatred, no matter how looney it sounds to us.
Yes. That's part of it. Osama bin Laden was exiled from Saudi Arabia because he objected to the US presence involved in fighting the Gulf War.
bin Laden and his predecessors -- radical fundamentalist Islamics like the Mufti of Jerusalem (WW II) and the Omdurman dervishes of Kitchener's Khartoum -- object to the presence of Western civilization in any part of the Muslim world.
In the 19th century, they fought the Brits -- because they were there and because they represented the "intrusive" West and its secular, liberal (classical sense) culture. Now, in the 21st century, it's our turn, for we have committed the same sins in their eyes -- we are there and we represent the West and its culture.
Islam breeds movements like this every 50 to 100 years. Nothing is new, under the sun.
I think you meant to write ex-Iraqi military man instead of ex-Iranian. He served in Sadam Husseins's Republican Guard in the Gulf War and was seen with McVeigh before and at the scene of the OKC bombing on April 19, 1995.
I don't really care why he is after us, that he is after us is enough for me.
That excuse is as lame as the one that said the North was fighting to preserve the Union.
What are you trying to do here, disqualify yourself as a historian?
But Pat Buchanan today said something to the effect that it has to do with our being in Saudi Arabia.
Ah, you're buying into the "blame the victim" line be put out by Pat, the libertarians, and the losers on the left. I'm surprised such a bright guy like you would fall for that one.
Furthermore, OBL is so far removed from the front lines that none of us has ever seen him except on that video tape that we see played over and over again. So we really don't know about him. Even our governmt tells us they can't find him. Yet, for someone they have never seen or talked to, they claim to know that he is against our Bill of Rights, hates freedom, and even enough detail to know that he was the man behind last weeks attacks. Ya know it just doesn't wash.
I'm glad we have you, as you watch Dan Rather so diligently, to keep us informed of what is really going on in the world. I mean, the gov't with operatives all over the world, previous involvement with operatives in Afghanistan during the USSRs war there, and their intelligence gathering during various other attacks on America, i.e. WTC #1, embassy attacks, and the USS Cole, couldn't possibly understand much about this issue.
And if it is possible for a man to be so powerful and so hidden then i have to wonder if other countries don't have powerful men such as these hiding in the background while the leaders we see on TV everyday are the ones we think are leading.
Yeow, what are you trying to do here, convince me you're a paranoid CTist?
You should stow your gov't paranoia for the duration. There will be plenty for you to bellyache about once the gov't has saved your a$$ from another WTC like attack, or much worse.
Regarding an assassination policy, the liberals have shackled our intelligence apparatus with several gems of legislation, among them the Boland Amendment, specifically forbidding the use of any American intelligence or military assets in committing or even assisting an assassination.
All those in favor of repealing the Boland Amendment, please raise your hands.
You're correct that I am acting prematurely. There's just something about my worst nightmare coming true.
Thanks for your constructive (even if a little mean) criticism. We are Americans now. We need to stick together.
It's one thing for israel, an armored small country in the middle of a sea of hostility-to follow this sort of regime, but for the US to persue that as foreign policy will quickly change once various elected puffers get whacked. Which most likely would happen should it become official policy. Osama is an unelected or ruler of nothing really, saddam is a different deal there. My guess would be they might seek to use the carrot and the stick to foment a revolt in his own entourage, the more classical method, should they start to hit iraq again, which I believe they will. I also believe the reports that state he uses up to half a dozen body doubles and travels and hides constantly, they might get a 'body" that looks like saddam maybe, but if saddam expires it will be more likely a random collateral damage hit, or a member of his own entourage who does him.
Both hands raised.
Well if that were true we wouldn't be dealing with them now. They thrive because sponsoring nations don't or won't do the job of eradicating them.
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