Bye Bye Imad

“Mughniyeh’s supporters celebrate him as a martyr and a hero”

Anything that gets the job done.

Larry:

Ronald Reagan and his team who did not allow our Marines to have rules of engagement necessary to protect themselves.

How does this make it a fair fight?

Enjoy that cigar.

Call me a callous troglodyte or an antiquedated cold warrior, but payback is payback. I don’t fault Imad for attacking our Marines at the airport in Beirut. That was a fair fight and it was the fault of Ronald Reagan and his team who did not allow our Marines to have rules of engagement necessary to protect themselves. But murdering Colonel Rich Higgins, a UN advisor, and Navy diver Robert Stethem, and helping kidnap and hold hostage people like Terry Anderson, Terry Waite, and others has no excuse.

i couldnt agree with you more Larry, well stated!

They wore uniforms and carried guns. The fact that they were not allowed to have loaded weapons is the fault of their chain of command.

Although Colonel Tim Geraghty was in command, he was over ruled by Robert McFarland and others on the National Security Council. I don’t fault him per say. With the benefit of hindsight we can argue he should have resigned in protest when denied the ability to protect his marines. At the time, he thought he was doing the right thing.

Mughniyeh probably assumed his suicide bomber would face fire when he hit the perimeter. That’s why I say it was a fair fight. We fucked up.

Since the 1985 TWA hijacking engineering by him involved terrorists with some flight training, some suggest that the 9/11 plot may have had its orgins with him, and with Iran, which sheltered him for so long. But his connections to bin Laden are unknown.

What do you think of the 9/11-Iran connection, Larry?

…an Egyptian-born former US Army green beret sergeant…

Got any more details about this? Did this guy convert to “the cause” before, during or after serving in the Army?

Larry,

Happy V day. Enjoy the champagne.

I don’t this assassination is good news at all.
We’re being dragged into having to defend Israel when the shit hits the fan.

I’m back to wondering if we’ll have an election.

This is huge, a lot of people have been waiting 25 years for this…

Larry: Thanks for clarifying this. From the Marines perspective it was FUBAR. It is disturbing, from a force protection perspective, that political considerations would reach down that way. I hope lessons have been learned by those that command.

Cuban?

Larry,

People can be glad that’s he’s dead but This DOES NOT benefit us.

It seems that Bush and Israel are working toward more war.
————————————————-

Now, Bush yesterday started to strangle Syria more tightly. Arguing that Syria is not doing enough to stop the movement of terrorists between Iraq and Syria, Bush issued an Executive Order increasing the number of Syrian officials whose financial assets can be held.

I’ll give you my answer. Bush’s move is reckless — and threatens to add further stress to a region that is wondering whether Bush’s initiative to achieve some kind of Israel/Palestine deal is real or contrived.

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/

And two days after the Beirut bombing, the glorious military victory over Granada.(Oct.25,1983)
That period from the Mayaguez incident to the Beirut bombing was not a happy time for the US military. 1975 to 1983

CK,

Reagan wagged the dog??? NO.

I’m struck by something…last week I read about the bombing in Argentia and now this assassination.

Timing is everything.

The real enemy has always been the politicians. Their power derives from the manifestation of nightmares!

This update from Crooks and Liars:
The Wall Street Journal ran an article last week (subscription req’d) that Bush was using an investigation into a 1994 terrorist attack on a Jewish Community Center in Argentina as a way to continue to strain and maintain pressure on Iran.

The only problem? There’s no real evidence that Iran was involved in the bombing:

(I)t is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the case against Iran over the AMIA bombing has been driven from the beginning by US enmity toward Iran, not by a desire to find the real perpetrators.

Evidence? We don’t need no stinkin’ evidence. Nobody could anticipate the president initiating a pre-emptive war against a sovereign nation on trumped up evidence, could they? Oh…wait…
http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2008/01/russia-arms-doomday-bomb.html

Larry…

AMEN BROTHER..!!

The Execution of any Terrorist is Worth Celebrating..especially IMAD..I have been disgusted with everything he and His Terrorist group did in Lebanon..and have never forgotten all the Marines
and civilians they murdered..and with how Our Politicians and thier “Advisors”..and bureaucrats
failed to Act Properly for Political reasons..such as Fear of Appearing to PROFILE or OFFEND..

Shame on them all..Those responsible for Senseless
AND Avoidable Deaths..

CEE..Imads Execution with Predjustice does benefit many of Us..send a strong message that Terrorists and Killers can Run but they Can’t Hide.. and that They will pay the Price for thier CRIMES..

It also helps give Closure and a sense of justice for ALL The Relatives..Familys..Friends of all the Victims murdered by IMAD and his Group.. and for The United States Marines..

Semper Fi..

Oh come off it larry. Sure he was a murdering bastard and probably deserved what he got. But I dont see how you can have that frame of mind and then complain about who he killed. They were all in the game. He was just playing for his team.

Patrick,

This closure is temporary. IF Americans who were accused of committing crimes against humanity were car bombed on the streets of the US, would you still have the same attitute and find it acceptable?

Mughniyeh, bin Laden, Zawahiri, 9/11 etc. have acquired a longevity that, IMO, cannot be celebrated. I wonder about the growing population of militants – a growing population that questions the scope and strategy of America’s counterterrorism policy. The scope of American counterterrorism policy is devoted and limited to the military option right up to the historically fatal “boots on the ground”. There are never any overt plans or funding for post-war other than the static peacekeeping – never any plans for what could be called countermotivation i.e. that effort to decrease the growing populations of e.g. Al Qaeda sympathsizers or Al Qaeda wannabes. In the Philippines, a relativity new tactic is under way – kill or capture terrorist leadership and then go from “arms to farms” (could be referred as a peacebuilding initiative) such that youth are given a future other than Jihad. Peacebuilding initiative is MIA for America’s foreign policy. I hope future intervention in foreign countries will include both military and peacebuilding initiative in the same foreign policy package with clearly defined roles. If appearances are everything than the form and substance of such a policy would based on the public service of ‘helping people to help themselves’ .

What all has Imad done in the 25 years since his last alleged production? 25 years.
Seems that his activities were in service to Lebanon, not a great strutter and flourisher on the world stage. Poke a stick in a wasp’s nest, get all offended when the wasps retaliate and then get all happy happy when you kill a wasp 25 years later. It all makes some kind of sense. That superhighway to hell is paved with the dead bodies sacrificed to someone’s “good intentions.” Nibshit where you have no business don’t be surprised if your nose gets socked.

Interpol also wanted him for both terrorist attacks in Argentina to the Israel embassy and the mutual building. This is what I call “Celebration without borders”

May the bastard continue to burn in hell.

Good riddance to Imad Fa’iz Mughniyah. Someone had impressive intelligence to pinpoint his movements. Nice way to send a signal to Hizballah and Iran.

Intelligence or when they cut the undersea cable lines to tap everyone they found him?

Nibshit where you have no business don’t be surprised if your nose gets socked.

CK,

I can’t remembere the exact quote but this is basically what the Mossad said when they didn’t warn us that our Marine barracks was going to be bombed.

To reach him in the middle of the Syrian capital and place a small explosive device in his car is impressive. Someone apparently have an extensive network there. And the irony of killing him enroute to a reception at the Iranian embassy for the Islamic Revolution Day is appreciated.

It could be that Mossad calculated that Ronnie would be so pissed by the barracks bombing that he would involve the american military even deeper in Lebanon, so why tell him ahead of time?

I suspect that you are aware of the USS Liberty incident during Johnson’s term, so far that is the only unrevenged attack on an american military ship. It will remain unrevenged until after the rapture.
Reagan’s removal of american forces in lebanon was the only time in our whole middle eastern clusterscrew history, that an american president actually calculated if doing something was good for america. I give him credit for getting the US ass our of there as quickly as he did.

Please.

A ‘Wall of Assumptions’

US policy toward the bombing was skewed from the beginning by a Clinton Administration strategy of isolating Iran, adopted in 1993 as part of an understanding with Israel on peace negotiations with the Palestinians. On the very day of the crime, before anything could have been known about who was responsible, Secretary of State Warren Christopher blamed “those who want to stop the peace process in the Middle East”–an obvious reference to Iran.

William Brencick, then chief of the political section at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires and the primary Embassy contact for the investigation, recalled in an interview with me last June that a “wall of assumptions” guided the US approach to the case. The primary assumptions, Brencick said, were that the explosion was a suicide bombing and that use of a suicide bomb was prima facie evidence of involvement by Hezbollah–and therefore Iran.

But the suicide-bomber thesis quickly encountered serious problems. In the wake of the explosion, the Menem government asked the United States to send a team to assist in the investigation, and two days after the bombing, experts from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms arrived in Buenos Aires along with three FBI agents. According to an interview the head of the team, ATF explosives expert Charles Hunter, gave to a team of independent investigators headed by US journalist Joe Goldman and Argentine investigative journalist Jorge Lanata, as soon as the team arrived the federal police put forward a thesis that a white Renault Trafic van had carried the bomb that destroyed the AMIA.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/74331/

Attacks against foreign military intruders are by definition not terrorism no matter how many times they are called that.

Cee, as far as I can determine there is no actual evidence for much, if not most, of what Muqhniya is “believed to have done”. His supposed affiliation with bin Laden seems very unlikely, and I am unaware of any actual evidence for that, either. And it is really odd to think about him being simultaneously best buddies with bin Laden, AND the Ayatullahs in Iran. I’m not saying it never happened, I’m just saying that I haven’t seen or heard anything but “believed to be”, “U.S. (or Israeli) officials say”, etc., none of which has ever been very convincing.

Oh yes, and don’t forget how many times they have insisted that Iran was “sheltering Al Qa`eda”, or “in league with the Taliban” (a particularly ludicrous suggestion), and had Zarqawi, Muqtada Sadr, Iran, and `Izzat Ad Douri all working closely together to defeat “the forces of democracy in Iraq”.

“Call me a callous troglodyte or an antiquedated cold warrior, but payback is payback.”

And heaven help us all when the U.S. receives all the payback due to it!

That’s the trouble with payback. The more payback you’ve earned, the bigger bitch your payback is gonna be.

It seems like he had a hand in too many items. A fallback man to blame events on?

Those earlier days, the networks they operated in were smaller, so it’s true assets doubled up. The ability to determine who he worked with, as Shirin notes, conflicts with the stance of animosity between the main elements thought to support terror in strategic forms. The tendency to tag the “Al-Qaeda number three” tag on anyone killed can always be considered an item as well.

It’s possible he was victim to a counteroperative from the rivalry of factions in Lebanon as well. That’s how I’d try to report, in ways similar to cointelpro terms. You’d have to examine the M.O. and match a forensic evaluation to that.

The more overlying item seems to be his ability to have patterned a resistance model that Osama would later apply vs. both superpowers in Afghanistan. He doesn’t have to have worked with him all that time, one could have simply copied the other after studying his approach.

This must have been why the oil market spiked up two bucks a barrel in late trading. My opinion near the bell time earlier today was that this was the result of our having tried to increase pressure on Syria in the wake of that.OPEC is sending the USA a reminder.

The bombing on the heels of Burns’ State departure has heightened concerns of this thing spreading out. Syria already has major pressure for and from war refugees.

Shirin,

I do believe he hijacked that plane but he’s done far less than Sharon and Bush.
They killed him now and won’t admit so they can play the victim if someone retaliates.
They also killed Harai and won’t admit it.
But when something does happen, ask yourself who is really doing it.

Former CIA official: Mossad behind Mugniyah killing

Evidence in Damascus car bombing points to Israel, says Bruce Riedel, former advisor to three US presidents on Middle Eastern affairs. ‘This proves Israel has (infiltrated)Hizbullah,’ he notes, adding that Nasrallah has genuine reason for concern
Yitzhak Benhorin

WASHINGTON – While Israel has formally refuted allegations it was involved in the assassination of Hizbullah ‘operations officer’ Imad Mugniyah in Damascus on Tuesday, former CIA official Bruce Riedel says all signs seem to indicate the Mossad was behind the killing.

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3506535,00.html

CK,

In both cases they didn’t want us there to see their crimes.

Even now when people (not me) advocated a US force or UN forces to move in Israel objects.

I agree with you regarding Reagan.

This must have been why the oil market spiked up two bucks a barrel in late trading

Mr.,

I smell some prior knowledge just like when stocks were sold short prior to 9-11.

The conflict will spread out and they will make sure of.

Ha’aretz’s Yossi Melman:

The big and more important question arising from the killing in Damascus is not whether Hezbollah will respond, but how and when.

There is no doubt Hezbollah and its Iranian masters, who had excellent relations with Mughniyah, have long memories and will demand revenge. It will not necessarily come immediately in a reflex action. …The more reasonable and likeliest possibility is that Hezbollah, with Iranian approval, will try to make a revenge attack against Israel overseas, in particular against an embassy.

In this case it seems they will look for areas that are Israel’s “soft underbelly” such as the Israeli Embassy in Jordan, Egypt or certain African capitals – where it will be easier for them to act surreptitiously.

Some interesting opinons here:

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mesh/

Muslims Against Sharia congratulate the organization responsible for elimination of terrorist Imad Mugniyeh on a job well done!

http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2008/02/targeted-killing-of-imad-mugniyeh.html

They don’t need to cut the cables. It’s the last thing anyone would want to do since it limits the collection timeframe.

Robert Baer’s TIME Article on same subject:

Justice Served: Killing Mughniyah
by Robert Baer

There are two ways to look at today’s assassination of Hizballah’s most notorious terrorist, Imad Fa’iz Mughniyah. In this country it will be one of rendering justice, one less terrorist, a turn on the war in terror.

There was an outstanding American arrest warrant for Mughniyah, for the murder of a Navy diver in 1985. The diver was a passenger on TWA 847, which was diverted to Beirut. Mughniyah personally ordered the diver’s murder. And, unlike other cases where Mughniyah’s role was shadowy, there is solid evidence for his presence in the hijacking; his fingerprints were found on the airplane.

Mughniyah also was the mastermind of several other savage hijackings and the taking of Western hostages, including a former colleague, CIA station chief Bill Buckley. All of these attacks were carried out at the behest of Iran.

…