Quote Originally Posted by Rex Brynen View Post
For the most part, one can assume that the vast majority of OSINT on Imad Mughniyah 's movements are little more than RUMINT.
Rex,

Don't be too quick to dismiss this as RUMINT. That might be a bit of a rash assumption to make with respect to Imad Mughniyeh.

An article written by Magnus Ranstorp in July of 2006 ( counterterrorismblog.org ) might provide some insight. The first paragraph:

Hizballah’s decision to kidnap the two IDF soldiers was taken by Sheikh Hassan Nasserallah and the other six members of the Shura Karar, its supreme decision-making body. Additionally there are two Iranian representatives (from the Iranian embassy in Beirut/Damascus) that provide a direct link on matters that require strategic guidance or Iranian assistance or arbitration. The file for handling special operations of this kind is usually left to Imad Mughniyeh, the elusive terrorist mastermind for Hizballah, who stands with one foot within Hizballah (reporting to Nasserallah directly) and with one foot in Iran inside the architectures of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the al-Qods unit within the Iranian Pasdaran. Mughniyeh is strictly reserved for special occasions (like the Buenos Aires bombing in 1992 to avenge the Israeli assassination of the previous leader Sheikh Abbas al-Musawi) and his primary mission over the last decade has been to forge qualitative ‘military’ guidance to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives inside Gaza and the West Bank.
IF Imad Mughniyeh was in Lebanon and acting in the role reported in the linked Ya Libnon report, then something might be in the offing.