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Thread: Hizbullah / Hezbollah (just the group)

  1. #141
    Council Member Kevin23's Avatar
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    Default Ties to "Lebanese Bernie Madoff" hits hezbollah

    A financial scandal has hit the leadership of Hezbollah after they are indirectly linked to a prominent Lebanese businessman who is accused of swindling money out of Shia throughout the country.

    Which comes on the heels of series of setbacks for the Shia militant group.

    http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...924186,00.html

  2. #142
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Stockpiling in Bangkok

    A really odd report from Bangkok via LWOT Blog, citing news wire services:
    Thai police on January 12 arrested a suspected member of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Atris Hussein, and later charged him with illegal weapons possession after receiving a tip from Israeli intelligence sources that Hezbollah operatives were plotting to attack various tourist attractions in the Thai capital of Bangkok (NYT, CNN, Reuters, AP, AFP). After his arrest Hussein led police on January 16 to a warehouse he had been renting for a year, where he had stockpiled a large amount of ammonium nitrate and urea, both of which can be used to make explosives, though a police spokesman later said the alleged plot involved the chemicals being shipped out of Thailand for use in another country (BBC).
    Link:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...chemical_stash
    davidbfpo

  3. #143
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Bangkok: clarity & smoke

    Stratfor's report is interesting, not only for the details, such as this "taster":
    The sheer amount of fertilizer (nearly 5 tons) is a wholesale amount. The largest vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) in recent history have contained about a ton of fertilizer.
    Naturally there is speculation too on what was going on:http://stratfor.com/weekly/hezbollah-threat-thailand
    davidbfpo

  4. #144
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    Default

    This part:

    Hezbollah operatives were plotting to attack various tourist attractions in the Thai capital of Bangkok
    ...makes no sense at all. It's just not a Hizbullah modus operandi.
    They mostly come at night. Mostly.


  5. #145
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Covert conflict speads

    This Israeli think tank report 'Iranian and Hezbollah Terrorist Attacks against Israeli Targets Abroad: The Situation on the Ground and Background Information'
    would really fit a thread on the covert conflict between interested parties around the world, but there isn't one. So here it will rest.

    Link:http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/mal.../iran_e157.htm

    It is interesting that the Bangkok attack did not feature large bombs, but "sticky" bombs - a very basic effective method.
    davidbfpo

  6. #146
    Council Member tequila's Avatar
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by davidbfpo View Post
    This Israeli think tank report 'Iranian and Hezbollah Terrorist Attacks against Israeli Targets Abroad: The Situation on the Ground and Background Information'
    would really fit a thread on the covert conflict between interested parties around the world, but there isn't one. So here it will rest.

    Link:http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/mal.../iran_e157.htm

    It is interesting that the Bangkok attack did not feature large bombs, but "sticky" bombs - a very basic effective method.
    Which also were used to assassinate Iranian scientists in the past few years - clearly the Iranians meant to send a similar message with these attacks.

  7. #147
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    Default Will Hezbollah Attack Israel? Only if...

    Will Hezbollah Attack Israel? Only if...

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  8. #148
    Council Member bourbon's Avatar
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    Default Paintballing with Hezbollah

    Paintballing with Hezbollah, By Mitchell Prothero. Vice, vol.19 no3.
    Yes, I remind myself, this is really happening: Four Western journalists (two of whom alternated in and out of our rounds of four-on-four), plus one former Army Ranger-turned-counterinsurgency expert, are playing paintball with members of the Shiite militant group frequently described by US national security experts as the “A-Team of terrorism.” It took nearly a full year to pull together this game, and all along I’d been convinced that things would fall apart at the last minute. Fraternizing with Westerners is not the sort of thing Hezbollah top brass allows, so to arrange the match I’d relied on a man we’ll call Ali, one of my lower-level contacts within the group.
    Four Beirut based ex-pat journalists and Abu Muqawama challenge five members of Hezbollah to a night of paintball in Beirut. Surreal.
    “[S]omething in his tone now reminded her of his explanations of asymmetric warfare, a topic in which he had a keen and abiding interest. She remembered him telling her how terrorism was almost exclusively about branding, but only slightly less so about the psychology of lotteries…” - Zero History, William Gibson

  9. #149
    Council Member The Cuyahoga Kid's Avatar
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    Saw this last night, definitely a worthwhile read.

  10. #150
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Page 6 has the "gems"

    For the dedicated 'Small Wars' reader skip the paintball match and go to page 6 for some interesting passages:http://www.vice.com/read/paintballin...?Contentpage=6
    davidbfpo

  11. #151
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    Default ironically...

    I once challenged counter-Hizbullah folks from a USG agency that shall remain nameless to a paintball game. They wussed out because of cold weather.

    (Really.)
    They mostly come at night. Mostly.


  12. #152
    Council Member ganulv's Avatar
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    My story about playing football with the MINUGUA guys in Guatemala suddenly seems far less interesting to me.
    If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)

  13. #153
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Hezbollah as the strategic long arm of the Iranian regime

    More of an update; a paper from an Israeli think tank and the closing judgement in the opening summary:
    In our assessment, Safavi's remark about Nasrallah's being a soldier of Khamenei was a threat against Israel. Its subtext read that Hassan Nasrallah could not have independent considerations when it came to strategic issues of Iran's national security, and that Hezbollah's large arsenal of rockets (60k) would, when necessary, be used according to a decision made by Iran. Such a decision could be made, for example, to respond to an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
    Link:http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/article/20351
    davidbfpo

  14. #154
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    Default Grandmother's Footsteps: Hezbollah Hedging

    Grandmother's Footsteps: Hezbollah Hedging

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  15. #155
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Tracking a resurgent Iran-Hezbollah Threat

    Aware of a SWJ Blog piece I came across this on FP Blog:
    ProPublica has reviewed a string of plots attributed to the Shiite alliance, 10 cases in the past year alone, and found a complex and contradictory evolution of the threat. Iran and Hezbollah have waged a determined campaign to strike their enemies in retaliation for attacks on the Iranian nuclear program and the killing of a Hezbollah chief, counterterror officials say. The offensive led by the Quds Force, Iran's elite foreign operations unit, has displayed impressive reach and devastating potential.
    Link:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...reat?page=full

    SWJ Blog:http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/gra...bollah-hedging
    davidbfpo

  16. #156
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default On the trail of Hizbullah and Iran

    Nigel Inkster from IISS adds a commentary on the issues:http://iissvoicesblog.wordpress.com/...llah-and-iran/

    We often overlook unintended consequences and anniversaries, so this is reminder:
    What principally reactivated Hizbullah’s engagement in transnational terrorism was the assassination in Damascus, of one of its military leaders, Imad Mugniyeh, on 12 February 2008. Mugniyeh had been responsible for many of Hizbullah’s most prominent attacks, including the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, and an attack two years later on a Jewish centre in the same city.

    .....It is noteworthy that several recent attacks attributed to Hizbullah since then including have coincided with the anniversary of Mugniyeh’s death, or the anniversary of the major attacks he masterminded.
    davidbfpo

  17. #157
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    Default Hezbollah: Lying Low and Winning

    Hezbollah: Lying Low and Winning

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  18. #158
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    Default Why is Hezbollah in Syria?

    Why is Hezbollah in Syria?

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  19. #159
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Hezbollah: a global enterprise

    Moderator's Note

    This thread has steadily acquired smaller threads, five today and concerns the group's activities. Hezbollah appears in the title of several threads and in a large number of threads on other subjects (ends).


    Hezbollah has not gone away since the last post in August 2012, notably with its active participation in the Syrian civil war.

    Hat tip to Zenpundit. Matthew Levitt, an ex-USG analyst, gave a talk recently in Washington DC, partly based on his book 'Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God':http://zenpundit.com/?p=29643
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 11-30-2013 at 09:54 PM. Reason: Add Mod's note
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  20. #160
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Hezbollah uncovers top Mossad agent

    I am sure there is more to this. The article linked via Twitter starts with:
    Hezbollah has uncovered a top Mossad agent in its elite external operations branch, who helped foil a number of attempts by the Shiite party to avenge the death of Imad Mughniyeh, according to reports.
    “After a series of failed security operations outside Lebanon, Hezbollah managed to uncover a Mossad cell within its ranks… [it is] the most serious [intelligence] breach in Hezbollah’s history,” Al-Janoubia reported Tuesday.
    Link:https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsRepo...t-reports-say?
    davidbfpo

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