Back ground on Hezbollah and its leader Imad Fayez Mugniyah

[whistle]

...Funny, I've not heard George Bush or Dick Cheney mention this guy even once. Could be because his name is hard to pronounce for George Dubya Bush. Try it...Imad Fayez Mugniyah.

<snip>
Hezbollah Operation Leader with Ahmadinejad in Damascus?
Facilitating Iran's new terrorist 'Coalition of the Willing' alliance among Hezbollah, Hamas, PFLP and others
By Steve Schippert

<snip>

Who is Imad Fayez Mugniyah, the international operational leader of Hezbollah?

Before the attacks on 9/11 brought bin Laden to the forefront of American interest, Mugniyah was considered “the prime focus of American anti-terror efforts.” As the international operations leader of what the US intelligence community often refers to as “The A-Team of Terror”, many consider him to be even more dangerous than bin Laden.

Born in Lebanon and now 44 years old, the Shi’ite Imad Fayez Mugniyah first trained in his home country with Yassir Arafat’s al-Fatah in the PLO-run Sunni Lebanese camps. When the PLO was kicked out of Lebanon in 1982, Mugniyah joined the ranks of Hezbollah and rose quickly. Russia contends that at some point in the 1980’s, he served as one of Yassir Arafat’s body guards. What is noteworthy is that Mugniyah first joined the Sunni PLO faction and only later joined the Islamist Shi’ite Hezbollah. Religious belief may have little to do with his core convictions and motivations, but instead simply a shared ingrained hatred of Jews, Israel, America and the West. As the Iranians met in Damascus with mixed religious company in the form of the Sunni Hamas and PFLP-GC and the Shi’ite Hezbollah to form a united front for a new jihad against Israel & the US, Mugniyah’s experience in terrorism on both sectarian sides may have proven a useful mediation resource if/when needed. Still, this potential usefulness pales in comparison to the might he wields as the international operations commander of Hezbollah.

<snip>

Considering the nature of Ahmadinejad’s visit to Bashar Assad in Damascus with the goal of creating a new united and Iranian-backed terrorist ‘Coalition of the Willing’, Imad Mugniyah’s presence there is almost certain, though unconfirmed. This new apparent ‘Coalition of the Willing’ is troubling news and a gathering storm for Israel, likely to be overhead in the very near future in all its fury. But it is also a strategic repositioning of power from a position of weakness, designed to shift focus from the Assad regime and thereby relieve the crush of international pressure, which in turn (they hope) will weaken internal opposition and keep Assad propped up. Iran needs Assad in power in Syria to keep the western window of infiltration into Iraq open. If Assad falls, as Michael Ledeen says, “the reverberations will reach Baghdad and Tehran” like a thunderclap and the already nervous mullah regime in Tehran will experience a new level of fear through an emboldened Iranian population. The fall of Assad would be the beginning of their own end.

By Steve Schippert on January 26, 2006 02:10 AM
<more>
http://inbrief.threatswatch.org/2006/01/hezbollah-operation-leader-wit/

<other links>

http://www.cfr.org/publication/9155/

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1978

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49866

http://www.tkb.org/KeyLeader.jsp?memID=5871

[Lerkfish]

1. wow. quoting ledeen is....interesting.

I don't believe he has a great deal of street cred here at DU.

[bemildred]

2. Gotta have and al Zarqawi replacement, I guess.

And it sure does sound like they want to pick a fight with Syria.