MI5 fears Hezbollah terror attacks in Britain

[bemildred]

A British Muslim activist has called on his supporters to help the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah overthrow the Israeli Government.

The remarks came as senior security sources told The Mail on Sunday Hezbollah could be preparing reprisal attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets in British cities.

Leading London-based Islamic rights activist Massoud Shadjareh said British Muslims could provide Hezbollah with 'financial, logistical and informational support' to attack Israeli installations.

His Islamic Human Rights Commission called for the occupation of Israel and 'regime change' by Hezbollah on self-defence grounds.

Daily Mail

[iconoclastic cat]

1. Of course they do.

Sowing the seeds of love, right?

[EFerrari]

2. I suppose they think we will cough up the funds they need

to send someone else's son to be slaughtered for their friends' profit.

Bastards.

[sweetheart]

3. Yes, they're called 'UKIP'

They speak english-only and are offended if you call them terrorists, but they long
for the nationalism and white-purity of the hasbullah. Good thing they dont' have rockets...

[ShortnFiery]

5. Bizarre! Truly Bizarre! Nationalism and White Purity ...

sure deviates from their overseas branch in Lebanon. <scratching head>

Maybe they just like the "party of god" label?

[daleo]

4. Hezbollah seems pretty focused on their own back yard

They remind me more of the IRA than Al Queda. For the most part, they seem to concentrate on the Israelis in Lebanon, or in disputed border territories, much like the IRA mostly focused on Northern Ireland, with some forays into England.

So I can't see Hezbollah causing trouble in Britain. There just doesn't seem to be any point in them doing so.

[ShortnFiery]

6. Yes, and you can disarm them but you won't eradicate them ...

best to get them calmed down, treated fairly as a political voice. Hope is to tamp down their militancy like the Brits did with the IRA.

[bemildred]

7. Some interesting commentary on that:

---

We should not confuse Hezbollah with Al Qaeda. Unlike Al Qaeda, Hezbollah has a real and substantial international network. Unlike Al Qaeda, Hezbollah has a real and substantial international political and financial network. They have personnel and supporters scattered in countries around the world who have the training and resources to mount attacks. Hezbollah has no qualms about using terrorist attacks as part of a broader strategy to achieve its objectives. The last major Hezbollah attack against the United States was the June 1996 attack on the U.S. military apartment complex in Dharan, Saudi Arabia. Hezbollah also organized the attacks on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina in 1992 and Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994. But they also have exercised restraint when they felt they could achieve their objectives through political means. The ten year hiatus in major mass casualty attacks could come to a shattering end in the coming months, and American citizens are likely to pay some of that price with their own blood.

What to Do?

Although Hezbollah uses terrorism as a tactic, it is not primarily a terrorist organization. It has evolved over the years into a genuine political movement and conventional military force. This is a reality we can ignore at our peril. If we choose to view Hezbollah strictly as a terrorist threat then we convince ourselves that we have only one option--fight. But understand this--if we fight Hezbollah we will unleash a new war front that we are not prepared to pursue. At a minimum we can expect to face the fury of Shia militias attacking our troops and personnel in Iraq.

There are some other options. We could recognize Hezbollah does have people in their ranks amenable to negotiation. If we pursue a political path, while not eliminating the option to take out terrorist elements, we have some new possibilities to consider. The United States needs take the lead in organizing a ceasefire, sooner rather than later. The ceasefire must be accompanied by the insertion of an international peacekeeping force with the muscle to shutdown rocket launches from Lebanon and an exchange of prisoners between Israel and Hezbollah.

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/07/the_rut_becomes.html#more

And this one that the previous links to:

CNN Situation Room 20 July, 2006

Can this Israeli military strategy of trying to deliver a knockout punch to Hezbollah work?

COL. PAT LANG, U.S. ARMY (RET.): It doesn't make any sense to me. As you know, I've worked in all of these countries and with the IDF a lot, and studied it forever. And this just doesn't make any sense to me what they're doing, because as this Israeli air force major said, it's impossible to go around in a kind of hunt for all of these rocket launchers everywhere.

Hezbollah is a numerous, well organized, disciplined guerrilla army. They have reserves in depth of people among the Shia people of Lebanon.

They've been organizing this ground for five or six years. There are all kinds of tank traps and ambush positions. All kinds of things like this.

It's a murderous place to go fight. And the idea that you can root people like that out who are Islamic zealots and cause them to quit and run away with air power and artillery and some small- scale operations, it's just -- it's just not on.

and a good bit more.

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/

[54anickel]

8. Sounds reasonable enough. Your second link doesn't point to a very

happy outcome though.

snip>

BLITZER: To do a prisoner swap?

LANG: That kind of thing.

BLITZER: But doesn't that encourage further terrorism down the road?

LANG: Well in this, as in many situations in war and politics, in fact you often have to choose between two bad alternatives. Now having done what they have done now, they are now in a position in which in four, five, six days, a week, two weeks, whatever it is, they're going to decide that they have no choice but to put a large force into southern Lebanon. And that's going to hurt them badly for a long time. In a lot of these things, once you start down the road, having made a bad decision, you're just stuck.

[bemildred]

11. No, but he is right.

Nothing guarantees that your best choice is a good choice. And the more bad choices you make, the worse your best choices get, as time goes by. On the other hand, it you keep making the best of your bad situation, there is some chance of your best choices getting better, as time goes on. The problem is that the US ruling class has been making truly shitty choices for decades now.

[54anickel]

14. Yeah, that's what I meant by not a happy ending. They've been piling

up some pretty shitty choices for a long time now. I'm on the same page as you - just didn't articulate it very well. Thanks for pointing the pile of shitty choices out. I probably should have elaborated more. :-)

[bemildred]

16. Copacetic.

:thumbsup:

Edit: he does lay it out, I just elaborated on it a little.

[megatherium]

10. Their 1994 attack against the Jewish center in Argentina was particularly

reprehensible (it killed I think 85 people). I have wondered what the precise motive for that was (why Argentina, why at that time?). At any rate, Hezbollah's tactics speak of a rage and hate that are absolutely repellent. (Not that this necessarily justifies what the Israelis are doing in Lebanon.)

[bemildred]

12. Well, surely it was.

But it was peanuts compared to what was done to Lebanon, and you may be sure that is how they justified it in their own minds. As for motives, it was hatred of Jews, that seems clear, revenge; and in Argentina because they had the means there, a target of opportunity. There are many similar examples in recent history. I would speculate that, like the WTC attack on 9/11, it was also a demonstration of capability, a message. The problem is that one simply cannot protect all targets of opportunity, so it is wiser not to enrage people, where one can avoid it.

[megatherium]

18. If you're referring to the massacres at the Sabra and Shatila camps in

Lebanon, that would make sense. That, allegedly, was engineered by the Israelis (Ariel Sharon), and was atrocious, and revenge for that is understandable (but not morally justified). Yet that massacre happened in 1982, and the Jewish Cultural Center bombing occurred in 1994. Were there particular events closer to 1994 that would have provoked the Buenos Aires attack?

But I must respectfully say, I cannot abide apologies for terror that suggest it is justifiable because 'it's the only weapon available to the aggrieved party' or that 'it's the only way they can get their message across.' That never justifies mass murder, and resistance movements that resort to such tactics completely dissipate any moral superiority (as victims) they might have commanded. Of course, the Israelis have long since lost their moral superiority as well, and it is the urgent duty of their primary patron the US to compel the Israelis to immediately cease their outrageous behavior in Lebanon.

[bemildred]

19. I was not referring to Sabra and Shatila, or anything else in particular.

It seems clear the bombing in Argentina was aimed at Jews because they were Jews, I don' t really need to find a specific provocation to justify that statement.

I am not justifying anything done by anybody anywhere. One can attempt to comprehend without indulging in any moralizing.

[54anickel]

13. Not excusing them, but sometimes it a matter of desperate people

tend to do desperate things. They must have been making some headway politically - wasn't Hamas trying to follow their lead when they toned down the terrorism and ran for office instead, because they saw it working for Hezbollah? Thought I read that at one time.

World opinion is not exactly rallying behind the US and Israel right now, perhaps Hezbollah will continue to hold off playing that terrorism card referred to in the first linked article. Then again, they can't know what the world opinion is now that Israel took out the TV station. Are they trying to force the hand of Hezbollah? Then there's that mysterious shipment of dirty bomb makings caught on it's way to Iran today. Will that be spun in the role of yellow cake in the Iraq fiasco? There's probably a whole lot more to the story of what's going on than we'll ever know. Someone sure seems hell bent on war though.

[leesa]

9. Sure. Nudge. Nudge. Wink. Wink.

[IndianaGreen]

15. Emmanuel Goldstein is coming!

You want to avoid an attack on England? Ship Blair's head to Beirut with an apology!

[bemildred]

17. Send him intact. He can ,make his own explanations. nt