Lebanon detains 36 suspected of spying for Israel

[bemildred]

Lebanese security forces have rounded up at least 36 people suspected of spying for Israeli intelligence amidst a two-week old conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, security sources said on Wednesday.

With the help of Hezbollah, security forces detained the informants, many of them former members of a now defunct pro-Israeli militia, in the eastern Bekaa Valley and the south, which have seen heavy Israeli bombardment, they said.

Some of the former members of Israel's South Lebanon Army proxy, which collapsed when Israel Defense Forces troops withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, had served jail sentences for working with an enemy state but had resumed their contacts with Israel after their release, the sources said.

More than 20 suspected informants were arrested in Beirut and its southern suburbs earlier in the conflict, some accused of helping Israel Air Force planes pinpoint Hezbollah targets.

Haaretz

[Kagemusha]

1. This article needs a little editing in the 2nd para...

"Hezbollah detained the informants in the eastern Bekaa Valley and the south, later handing them to security forces, who accepted the Hezbollah claims without question as if from costumed superheroes."

Isn't that closer to the truth?

[MrPrax]

2. Just curious...

How many Canadians has Hezbulleh killed?

On this issue, Hezbollah really is a superhero.

But I am just curious as to why IF Hez is some big bad-assed Jew hater outfit, why they would even bother to hand over informants working for Israel? Wouldn't they just kill them? Apparantly we are told by supporters that Hez fighters lie awake a night dreaming about burning Jewish children...odd behaviour then turning over spies? How many civilian shields did they have to use in the 'handover'?

:eyes:

[Kagemusha]

3. My point is it's the security forces helping Hezbollah, not vice versa

As for how many Canadians it's killed in its illustrious career as a terror/ resistance/ military organization, couldn't tell you. I'm not that kind of expert. It's ridiculously easy to see why they'd hand the "spies" over to the govt though: it presents the illusion that they're all on the same side against Israel while law enforcement jumps to help give Lebanese sovereignty some slight meaning even though the regular forces can do very little to defend it. In other words, it's good PR, it's good propaganda, it's good Lebanese politics.

[LivingInTheBubble]

4. They are

"it presents the illusion that they're all on the same side against Israel"

They are, hezbollah were lebanons resistance to israeli occupation. Israel stopped occupying them (you could say hezbollah "won") and hezbollah stuck around as a defence force.

Without them Israel could have occupied lebanon easily (as opposed to bombing the crap out of it from thousands of feet).

[MrPrax]

5. What?

Do you really believe that Hez and the Gov't of Lebanon are concerned with scoring a PR victory while an invasion is going on? With whom are they trying to gain 'optics'?

You make no sense...and Hez hasn't killed any Canadians, whereas Israel has killed 9. The taliban in Afghanistan have killed 19...so Israel has a way to go to match that "illustrious career as a terror/ resistance/ military organization"

Must be rather strange living with a morality entirely made up of Government of Israel press releases.

[Kagemusha]

6. That's a new one. I usually have Israel boosters after my throat.

With whom are they trying to gain 'optics'? The civilian Lebanese population, otherwise known as (to them) the Home Front. And frankly the government needs to be linked with Hezbollah a lot more than Hezbollah needs to be linked to the governmen, PR-wise, as I write this.

And sorry for not knowing they hadn't managed to kill any Canadians. I thought it reasonable to assume they'd bagged one or two by accident over the years.

[Redstone]

7. Oh, yes, they're real sweethearts...just ask the families of those 241

dead US Marines.

Redstone

[w4rma]

8. Militarily they pulled off a brilliant coup.

And Reagan should have never had them there in the first place.

Now to take the topic off of non-biased military strategy and back to a pure emotional level. I think the Hezes that pulled that off should go suck dirt for eternity.