Connecting the dots: Hezbollah, Iran's web of plots

 

Connecting the dots: Hezbollah, Iran's web of plots

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

LAST UPDATED: 04/28/2013 03:03

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?ID=311311&R=R1

 

Reports of foiled operations might stand as "tipping point" for EU to

include Hezbollah on blacklist; "There is certainly a feeling that Iran and

Hezbollah have ramped up their networks."

 

As the European Union grapples with a ban of the Lebanese Shi'ite

organization Hezbollah within its territory, reports emerged last week of

foiled Iranian and Hezbollah terror and criminal plots against targets

spanning Bulgaria, Nepal, Canada and the US.

 

 

Will the mushrooming patchwork of global terrorism push the EU to include

Hezbollah in its terror list? An EU designation could deal a one-two punch

to the Lebanese group and its chief proxy Iran.

 

Last week, Canadian police officials charged Tunisian Chiheb Esseghaier and

Palestinian Raed Jaser with planning an "al-Qaida-supported" attack on a

passenger train from Toronto to New York City. The Royal Canadian Mounted

Police's assistant commissioner James Malizia accused the two men of

securing "direction and guidance" from al-Qaida elements in Iran.

 

Sheryl Saperia, the director of policy for Canada at the Foundation for

Defense of Democracies, spoke to The Jerusalem Post on Friday. "Importantly,

Canada also listed Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah as a terrorist organization

over a decade ago, at the same time as it did al-Qaida," she said.

 

"The Iran-IRGC [Revolutionary Guards]-Hezbollah trifecta is widely

recognized by the intelligence and security establishment as being

responsible for horrific terrorist attacks throughout the world. Canada

understands this. The EU should, too," Saperia continued.

 

Reports in Canada's National Post and the Jerusalem Post - confirmed through

multiple sources - state that Bulgarian police authorities arrested an

Iranian woman, in possession of a Canadian passport, who scouted the Chabad

center in Sofia. The Iranian woman's surveillance mission in July 2012 came

on the heels of a July terror attack resulting in two alleged Hezbollah

operatives blowing up an Israeli tour bus in the Black Sea resort of Burgas

in Bulgaria.

 

US and Israeli intelligence officials initially attributed the Burgas

attack, which killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian bus driver, to a

joint Hezbollah-Iran operation. Europol's (the European Police Office's)

2012 counter-terrorism report noted on Friday that "indications suggest

possible links" between Hezbollah and the Burgas bombing.

 

There are hints that Germany's Interior Minister Hans- Peter Friedrich may

recommend to Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle that Hezbollah's entire

organization should be outlawed in Europe.

 

In an April telephone interview with the Jerusalem Post, a spokesman for

Friedrich cited the 2003 EU ban of Hamas as example of a possible final

German position. The EU labeled Hamas a terrorist organization in 2003 and

did not split its organization into military and political wings.

 

The spokesman was cautious and said the interior minister has turned to his

counterparts in Cyprus and Bulgaria to secure additional evidence of

Hezbollah terrorism.

 

"It depends on Bulgaria and Cyprus" and "whether the evidence meets a ban of

the full structure [Hezbollah]," said the spokesman. He added that the

evidence could also lead Friedrich to recommend a partial ban of Hezbollah's

military wing or no designation of the Lebanese organization.

 

A Cypriot criminal court convicted last month a self-professed member of

Hezbollah for plotting to murder Israelis on the island. Writing on the

online investigative-journalism publication ProPublica, Sebastian Rotella

cited a US counter-terrorism official in his article: "How Hezbollah wages

its secret war against Israel."

 

"Even before the Burgas attack, we were growing concerned about what

Hezbollah is doing around the world," the US official said on ProPublica.

 

"They are plotting in a way we hadn't seen since the 1990s.There is

certainly a feeling that Iran and Hezbollah have ramped up their networks."

 

The disclosure last week about the Iranian woman monitoring the Chabad

center is one more element in Iran and Hezbollah's overt and covert war

against Israeli and Jewish institutions across the globe. A Nepali paper

reported last week that a highly suspicious Iranian man was detained by

Israeli Embassy officials in Katmandu for surveillance of the diplomatic

facility.

 

US and Canadian efforts to ratchet up the pressure on Europe to evict

Hezbollah from the 27-member EU body have been front and center in the media

and policy branches.

 

In a National Post opinion article in April, Canada's foreign affairs

minister, John Baird, wrote, "Since it reared its ugly head in 1982,

Hezbollah has become one of the most technically advanced terrorist groups

in the world. It is a grave threat to security and stability in the Middle

East and beyond. While Hezbollah hides behind its social programs, it

remains, in its heart and deeds, a terrorist entity."

 

And in a clear message directed at Hezbollah's use of criminal enterprises

mixed with fund-raising for terrorism in Europe, the Obama administration

sanctioned two Lebanese money-exchange houses for conducting Hezbollah's

financial transactions related to illicit narcotics.

 

The Wall Street Journal reported, "The alleged [drug-]trafficker, Ayman

Joumaa, is a joint Lebanese and Colombian national that the US charged with

trafficking tens of thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to

Europe, West Africa and Latin America."

 

US, Dutch and Israeli counter-terrorism experts have long criticized Europe

for allowing Hezbollah wide latitude to raise money in Europe for its terror

operations and criminal enterprises.

 

France and Germany - the main Continental European powers - have resisted

US, Canadian, Dutch and Israeli efforts to rescind their opposition to

banning Hezbollah.

 

Now that a new string of Iranian and Hezbollah terror and criminal

operations have been exposed over the past week, the growing evidence might

very well be a tipping point to the hold-out EU countries.

 

Benjamin Weinthal is a European affairs correspondent for the Jerusalem Post

and a fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

 

==========================================

(F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this

message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to

these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed

within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with

"Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976.

The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The

Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain

permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials

if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting,

teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria

for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies

as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four

criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is

determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not

substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use

copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you

must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

 

THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS

PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS.