HISTORY OF TERRORISM

PART XViii-The Demise of the Heart of Darkness #1- Emod Mughniyeh

David Yazdan

“if you live by sword, you die by sword.”

Unknown

n February 12, 2008 a very powerful car bomb exploded under a sports utility car in which Mughniyeh was riding in Damascus, Syria. As we mentioned in the previous article he was the most wanted terrorist in the world before Osama Bin Laden. He was also the most wanted and elusive terrorist, a man with an FBI price tag of $5 million dollars on his head, which was increased to $25 million. He had masterminded many of Hezbollah’s operations beginning in the 1980’s and 1990’s forward. The most devastating attacks were the attacks of the Marine Barracks in 1983 in Beirut, 241 Marines died and many more were wounded. At the same time they also bombed the French Embassy leaving 58 soldiers dead and they bombed the US Embassy.

Robert Stephem, a Navy diver was beaten to death and his dead body was left on the tarmarc during the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847. He was later moved to Iran where he was tortured and killed in the mid-1980’s. Twenty-nine people died in the 1992 bombing of Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires and 85 more killed in the 1994 bombing of Jewish Center in BA as well. According to many reports Mughniyeh died in a car bombing, probably orchestrated by Mossad, though Israel denied it. It would be nice to think the CIA was up to this, but we have our doubts. The location of his killing is of special note, and the private intelligence agency staff reports said that he died as he was leaving a meeting at a Syrian intelligence office.

Syrian officials surely knew of his where-abouts and could have arrested him if they really wanted some accommodation with the U.S. At least Mughniyeh will kill no more. Many theories are circulating inside U.S. intelligence agencies on who killed notorious Hezbollah terrorist Emod Mughniyeh. One theory popular in the Middle East is that the hit was an Israeli intelligence operation. This is possible but unlikely since even though Israel’s Mossad has a long arm, the bombing took place in the Syrian capital, considering a very difficult intelligence operating area. A prime suspect is Syria itself, specifically Syrian intelligence agents who would have known Mughniyeh’s personal security measures and travel. Syria’s government is investigating the killing and recent reports from the region state Damascus is blaming Saudi Arabian agents for the killing, a charge Riyadh has denied. Iran also is suspected. Despite its decades long backing of Mughniyeh, Tehran, and the theory goes, was not happy with Mughniyeh and wanted him out of the way. This is very unlikely since Mughniyeh was hand picked by Ayatollah Khomeini to do his dirty work. When someone asked who killed Mughniyeh, Mark Kimmitt, deputy assistant defense secretary for the Middle East, said in a brief interview recently that he knows at least 15 theories on the death of this guy, who has been blamed for killing more Americans then anyone else until September 11, 2001.

Emod Mughniyeh, a shadowy figure who was among the worlds most wanted men had plastic surgery on his face, changed his name many times and had many different passports. This made it extremely difficult for intelligence operatives to find him and follow him. This guy also orchestrated the war of 2006 between Hezbollah and Israel. His death was very similar to the death of the former Lebanese Prime Mister Rafik Hariri in Lebanon. Many believe that the Lebanese Government was extremely upset and might have been involved in Mughniyeh’s death, but blaming Israel would not completely satisfy everybody since Israel was not alone to want to see Emod Mughniyeh dead. More then 3-dozen countries including the U.S., which held him high on its most-wanted list. Sean McCormack, State Department spokesman in Washington said, “The world is a better place without this man in it.” The Bush administration reintroduced the assassination to U.S. policy after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Senior U.S. counter terrorism officials refused to either confirm or deny an American role in Mughniyeh death. But they hailed it as a major step forward in the fight against terrorist groups. Yossi Kuperwasser, who retired in 2006 as the chief of analysis for Israeli Military intelligence, said Mughniyeh’s deadly skills were unmatched amongst all the terrorist. He had an innovative mind, always working out of the box, coming up with new ideas,” said Mr. Kuperwasser, who is a retired brigadier general. “He was very creative, very thorough, and he was a wicked man, which made him very dangerous.’ Mr. Kuperwasser and others, including current U.S. intelligence officials, also said the Hezbollah leader served as a vital emissary between his group and Iran, as well as Hezbollah and Syria. He also maintained significant contact with Palestinian terrorist groups and allegedly oversaw training from some Shiite militiamen fighting U.S. forces in Iraq. “There are a lot of things that only he knew,” said Mr. Kuperwasser.

Hilal Khashan, a Lebanese political analyst and professor at the University of Beirut, said Mr. Mughniyeh was more important than the group’s better known, spiritual leader Hassan Nasrallah. Emod Mughniyeh was the key military player during the 2006 war with Israel and Hezbollah. Israel naturally was quite concerned that the rockets again would start flowing from Hezbollah over its territory. The Buenos Aires attack, along with the bombing of the Israeli Embassy there, were in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Sayyed Abbas Moussawi. Hezbollah yesterday reminded its followers of Mr. Moussawi’s death, and its response.

The former CIA agent that tracked Hezbollah for decades said, “its operatives regularly conduct surveillance of the U.S. embassies in Europe in anticipation of the need for retaliatory strikes.’ The U.S. also is concerned. “Whenever there’s an event like this involving Hezbollah, we always worry about reaction either in the Middle East or in other theaters,” said a senior Bush administration counter terrorist official. The U.S. at the time was still involved to find out more information about another attack on January of that year against the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. In that attack no Americans were killed in the bombing. In recent years the FBI has rolled up Hezbollah’s fund raising operations in the States like Michigan and North Carolina. But many U.S. officials doubt Hezbollah would seek to execute strikes against the U.S., because of concerns of large-scale American reprisals and fear of losing its U.S. revenue stream. Israel however, has a different policy and it has long wielded assassination as a tool of state policy and has had to live with the repercussions, raising a question among many Israelis.

If this was another assassination, will it do more harm than good? The last time Israel killed such a senior Hezbollah official was on Feb. 16, 1992, when an Israeli missile strike assassinated the group’s then leader, Abbass Musawi, in his motorcade in southern Lebanon. Following Mr. Musawi’s death, Israeli got what many see as far more dangerous adversary, Hassan Nasrallah replaced the slain cleric, according to Israeli analysts and former intelligence officials.