Article

2008-05-08 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Beirut gunbattles as Hezbollah says govt 'declares war'

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Posted by anonymous5089 2008-05-08 12:07|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ] Top

#1 Weren't the Paleos one of the seven players in their last civil war? Maybe the Jooos could ship them up there to help out with the festivities. Trouble, meet Paleos, Paleos, meet trouble.

Posted by Guillibaldo Thogum8821 2008-05-08 12:17|| 2008-05-08 12:17|| Front Page Top

#2 so far wire serv reports indicate Hezbollah vs Sunni Leb militias. No reports of involvement by Leb Army, by Christians, by Pals, etc.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-05-08 12:29|| 2008-05-08 12:29|| Front Page Top

#3 IF a protracted war breaks out between Hezb'allah and the Sunnis, Druze etc.. there are at least two things I hope for:

1) The Sunni Clerics around the World and Saudi Arabia in particular, *DO* lots of Fatwas against Hezb'allah, there by drawing al-Qaeda and their likes out of the woodwork in Iraq to fight in Lebanon against Hezb'allah.

2) As the War in Lebanon escalates It would be a Puurfect time for Israel to Strike Iran and take out their reactors and centrafuges..

Posted by RD">RD 2008-05-08 13:00|| 2008-05-08 13:00|| Front Page Top

#4 I suspect Iran is encouraging this, in some demented way, to take the heat off of Sadr's thugs in Iraq.

Posted by 3dc 2008-05-08 13:08|| 2008-05-08 13:08|| Front Page Top

#5 3dc...just like iran did 3 years ago when they were up for security council review of nuke program..

Posted by Dan 2008-05-08 13:18|| 2008-05-08 13:18|| Front Page Top

#6 Like I said on another thread, crapping in your own bed is an Arab thingy.

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2008-05-08 13:47|| 2008-05-08 13:47|| Front Page Top

#7 Hmmmmm. Maybe "somebody else" is pissed off for some reason and has their Hezzbie lapdogs doing their bidding?

Beirut- Hezbollah has linked its private telephone networks to the Syrian Army's communications system as well as to Syria's mobile telephone network allowing Syrian intelligence to operate freely in Lebanonand avoid Lebanese controls, al-Mustaqbal's Faris Khashan wrote Tuesday.

Internal Security Forces Commander Gen. Ashraf Rifi and Director of Military Intelligence Brig. George Khoury were assigned by the government more than a month ago to discuss the issue with Hezbollah, Khashan added.

However, Hezbollah's security chief Wafiq Safa and the party's international relations official Nawaf Moussawi informed Rifi and Khoury that "anyone who touches the network would be treated the same way we treat the Zionist enemy," he wrote.

Khashan labeled Hezbollah a "militia," noting that Hezbollah is not registered with the interior ministry as a political organization operating in Lebanon. He said police counter-terrorism expert, Maj. Wissam Eid, has been assassinated because he managed to detect the serial assassinations committed against March 14 figures to the Hezbollah telephone network.

He reported that Hezbollah sped up work on extending the network after Eid's assassination, "which means that the killing was aimed at destroying evidence on previous assassinations, including one that appears linked to Hezbollah."

The crime also aimed at creating "safe communications criteria for further assassinations," he added.

Khashan urged the government to speed up efforts aimed at separating the Hezbollah network from the Syrian networks, lodge complaints with the U.N. Security Council and the International Telecommunication Union against Syria, inform the International Investigation committee of the development, allow municipalities to interrupt the Hezbollah network in their respective jurisdictions and link the network to the public telephone network.

Hezbollah should be asked to choose either to give up its illegal network or be declared an "illegal organization," Khashan concluded.

http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2008/05/hezbollah_netwo.php

Posted by tu3031 2008-05-08 13:55|| 2008-05-08 13:55|| Front Page Top

#8 Israel, which fought a devastating war with Hezbollah in 2006, said it had no comment on the latest events in its northern neighbour, with foreign affairs spokesman Arye Mekel bluntly stating: "It's none of our business."

Thus they throw Lebanon under the big Hezbollah Bus once again.

Ask not who the Bus is coming for, Israel, it's coming for _you_, and it's not going to be stopped by throwing all the non-Hezbollah-supporting Lebanese under it.

Posted by Abdominal Snowman 2008-05-08 14:05|| 2008-05-08 14:05|| Front Page Top

#9 Nobody can stop the Lebanese from fighting, not even Israel, Abdominal Snowman. They tried that once, remember? And got blamed for Sabra and Shatilla (or whatever the names were) for their pains. This time the Lebanese Army actually might be allowed to fight Hizb'allah, as they were allowed to fight the Al Qaeda-linked Palestinians in that one "refugee camp". If the Lebanese can't fix this themselves, with the U.S. sitting on the far side to keep Syria from interfering (much), then it can't be fixed. And should Israel get involved when they're already fighting the Gazans, keeping the lid on the West Bank, and Syria has got troops practically lined up at the border?

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-05-08 14:11|| 2008-05-08 14:11|| Front Page Top

#10 #8 Israel, which fought a devastating war with Hezbollah in 2006, said it had no comment on the latest events in its northern neighbour, with foreign affairs spokesman Arye Mekel bluntly stating: "It's none of our business."

Thus they throw Lebanon under the big Hezbollah Bus once again.

Just because they have no comment publicly doesn't mean they're not taking sides privately. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Israel was providing the Lebanese army with info and other support.

Posted by PlanetDan 2008-05-08 14:27|| 2008-05-08 14:27|| Front Page Top

#11 I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Israel was providing the Lebanese army with info and other support.

Doubtful.

Posted by Pappy 2008-05-08 14:33|| 2008-05-08 14:33|| Front Page Top

#12 It would be insane for Israel to publicly back the Leb govt, and no help to the Leb govt. It would immediately be used by Hezb/Iran propaganda.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-05-08 14:34|| 2008-05-08 14:34|| Front Page Top

#13 re info - Im not sure (based on 2006) that Mossad has Hezb penetrated anyway. As for sigint and sat pics, the Lebs can get that from the US, France, etc rather than from Israel.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-05-08 14:36|| 2008-05-08 14:36|| Front Page Top

#14 Israel can help by quietly backstopping against Syria, and by general background cooperation (including intel) with the US. Also by continuing the policy of restraint and negotiations on the Pal front, which strengthens the US position generally.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-05-08 14:38|| 2008-05-08 14:38|| Front Page Top

#15 Probably Israel has some agents among low ranking
Hezbollah folks but no one in or close to the inner circle.

The IDF can, however, send air drones over Beirut using off shore platforms and send the info somewhere for redaction and transmission.

Posted by mhw 2008-05-08 14:47|| 2008-05-08 14:47|| Front Page Top

#16 Hizbullah are scum AS. And so are the rest of the Lebanese. Israel has been paying the price of your Dep. of State ME fantasies---fantasies whose main source is that Arabs are very competent flatterers and your diplomats & journalists, and even ordinary travelers, just lap it up---for thirty years now. This time around we'll watch the animals killing each other with the greatest of pleasure. And then, God willing to send us a PM with balls to defy our great ally, we'll finish off the victors.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-05-08 14:57|| 2008-05-08 14:57|| Front Page Top

#17 Israel could probably do most good by encouraging some of the local Sunni nations to send some of their more elite killers incognito into Lebanon, so that the Hezbollah leadership starts having fatal accidents.

Nothing like an invisible hand to unnerve bad guys.

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-05-08 16:26|| 2008-05-08 16:26|| Front Page Top

#18 Bibi aint going into Leb, Grom. hes too clever for that.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-05-08 16:59|| 2008-05-08 16:59|| Front Page Top

#19 This time Wally's Druze will be on the other side.

Posted by phil_b 2008-05-08 17:49|| 2008-05-08 17:49|| Front Page Top

#20 This would be a great opportunity for France to assist the Leb Govt. Hey...I'm serious! The more pressure that can be brought upon Hezb/Syria, the better.

Posted by remoteman 2008-05-08 18:11|| 2008-05-08 18:11|| Front Page Top

#21 Have no fear - I'm sure the ever vigilant UN peacekeepers will maintain calm in the country.

Posted by DMFD 2008-05-08 19:13|| 2008-05-08 19:13|| Front Page Top

#22 Lib I beleive he is referring to Damascus. And only a brief visit.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-05-08 19:33|| 2008-05-08 19:33|| Front Page Top

#23
Letting Hezbollah have Lebanon's population as its personal human shield for attacking Israel with hasn't exactly been good for Israel's security in the past, what makes everyone think it'll be good for it now? Or good when someone finally figures out the best way to get a Bomb into Israel is on the top of a SMERCH-sized rocket that's part of a cloud of a couple hundred others with conventional warheads?

Posted by Abdominal Snowman 2008-05-08 22:39|| 2008-05-08 22:39|| Front Page Top

#24 Hezbollah is Iran West. I doubt that a majority of Syrians welcome their presence on their frontier. I would think that the government of Lebanon would have a free hand in laying waste to those savages.

Posted by McZoid 2008-05-08 23:52|| 2008-05-08 23:52|| Front Page Top

23:57 McZoid
23:52 McZoid
23:52 JosephMendiola
23:50 USN,Ret. (from home)
23:45 JosephMendiola
23:30 JosephMendiola
23:26 JosephMendiola
23:22 JosephMendiola
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23:08 Secret Master
23:00 Abdominal Snowman
23:00 Procopius2k
22:59 Abdominal Snowman
22:44 JosephMendiola
22:39 Abdominal Snowman
22:39 JosephMendiola
22:34 JosephMendiola
22:29 g(r)omgoru
22:23 JosephMendiola
22:22 Gromoling Dark Lord of the Sith7535
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22:11 OldSpook