On Thu, Sep 20, 2001 at 05:40:31PM -0400, Max Sawicky wrote:
> >From yesterday's Jane's Intelligence "Foreign Report":
>
>
> 19 September 2001
> Who did it? Foreign Report presents an alternative view
>
> 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."
>
>
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu