The deputy chief for exiled Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, has been executed in Syria reports the Jerusalem Post:
Hisham al-Labadani, bureau chief for Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, was reportedly assassinated late last week in the western Syrian city of Homs. News of the assassination was reported by the Freedom Party of Syria, an American-based Syrian opposition group. According to the report, Labadani was dragged from his car in the middle of the day and shot dead.
The report said that news of the assassination was purposely kept quiet to prevent an escalation in tensions between two competing camps within the Syrian leadership – the camp that wants rapprochement with the West and the camp that supports a strengthening in Iranian-Syrian relations.
Hmmm, neither Israel, Zionists or Mossad is mentioned directly but there is this tidbit true to type at the end:
The assassination of Mashaal’s bureau chief came just days after Syria reportedly warned Palestinian leaders based in Damascus of Israeli plans to assassinate them.
While I realize there is a distinct belief in Middle East political circles which sees a Mossad agent behind every tree and rock, I cannot imagine the Mossad agent who would openly drag anyone from their car and execute them in broad daylight in Syria. Car bomb, kidnapping on a quiet dark street, or a honey trap – yes. Public execution all up front and personal within Syria – no. There is only one group with the audacity to drag a Hamas leader from his car in broad daylight and publicly execute him – it is called the Syrian Secret Service. What is far more interesting, to all non-family members; is what message his death is meant to convey.
Gadhafi… to say the most outrageous things possible. Ha’aretz:
Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi said on Wednesday that U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s expressed support for Israel stems from his fear that the Mossad would assassinate him, just as it did President John F. Kennedy.
“We suspect he may fear being killed by Israeli agents and meet the same fate as Kennedy when he promised to look into Israel’s nuclear program,” Gadhafi said.
While the existence of Israeli nuclear weapons is widely assumed, Israeli officials have never admitted their existence and U.S. officials have stuck to that line in public. Gadhafi saw a dark motive behind a recent speech by Obama in support of Israel. “Obama offered $300 billion in aid to Israel and more military support. He avoided talking about Israel’s nuclear weapons,” he said.
Okay, I am just having a little trouble getting my mind wrapped around Lee Harvey Oswald as Mossad agent but once I get over all the obvious deficiencies in my imagination I marvel at the ingenuity of the Elders. If you think suggesting the Mossad killed J.F.K and will probably take out Obama should he become president of the United States isn’t outrageous enough there is always this:
Gadhafi said Obama would have an “inferiority complex” because he is black and if elected he might “behave worse than whites.”
“We fear that Obama will feel that, because he is black with an inferiority complex, this will make him behave worse than the whites,” Gadhafi told a rally at a former U.S. military base on the outskirts of the Libyan capital Tripoli.
“This will be a tragedy,” Gadhafi said. “We tell him to be proud of himself as a black and feel that all Africa is behind him because if he sticks to this inferiority complex he will have a worse foreign policy than the whites had in the past.”
Okkkaay – Fine.
What do the Israeli Defense Minister, the Chief of the Mossad and the head of military intelligence for the IDF all have in common? There is a price on their heads put there by an Iranian group calling themselves the ‘Islamic Student Justice Seekers’ reports Ynet News:
According to the organization’s announcement, the financial prizes are to be given to those who take out the three most senior members of the Israeli security establishment: Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Mossad Chief Meir Dagan and Head of Military Intelligence Amos Yaron.
“The prizes will be given to those who succeed in killing these three international terrorists in any place in the world,” the statement read. According to the claims made by the Iranian student organization, Dagan, Barak and Yadlin are responsible for much more than merely Palestinian suffering. The group blamed the trio for the killing of senior Hizbullah military commander Mugniyah, who was killed in a car bomb in Damascus last month.
And just how does the Iranian student group propose to finance the pay-out?
The Justice Seekers also called for volunteers to donate a kidney in order to offer the money acquired via the act to increase the financial prize. The organizers claim that a number of civil groups agreed to take part in the ceremony in order to contribute to the amount of money offered for the heads of the Israeli threesome. The students in the extremist group are connected to another radical organization in Tehran called The Martyrs’ Commemoration Headquarters, which organized the establishment of a monument for Imad Mugniyah in the Iranian capital.
No matter what you can make up, it is never as strange, as what your average anti-Semite can come up with. I suppose this can be considered progress as the group is not using student loan money.
The Jerusalem Post carried this little blurb:
The fact that the Syrian government is not allowing an extensive investigation of Imad Mughniyeh’s assassination proves that Syria was involved in the killing, the arch-terrorist’s widow said Monday.
“The Syrian traitors are responsible for his death,” she said in an interview in Iran. “Damascus’s refusal to let the Iranians investigate the incident is only one more proof of that.” Army Radio reported that in the months leading up to the assassination there were rumors of bad blood between Mughniyeh and Hizbullah chief Sheikh Hassam Nasrallah. Mughniyeh, according to the rumors, was trying to usurp Nasrallah and take over as the leader of Hizbullah.
I think the widow Mughniyeh may have a point and my gut instinct has been suggesting that the most likely ‘culprits’ have always been more ‘homegrown” than not. I know it flies directly in the face of everyone who sees a Mossad agent hiding under every tree, rock and cranny throughout the world but even Mossad guys know how to share the joy.
What a shock to realize Mugniyah and I were the same age but the similarities end there. For example, in my 14th year I was entering high school and busy making new friends. Mugniyah, on the other hand, was busy acting as one of Yasir Arafat’s Force 17 snipers picking off Maronite Christians from the green line in Beirut. While I only retain the vaguest of memories of the friends I made from that year – Mugniyah’s enemies have never forgotten him and they are legion.
I know the Iranians, Syrians, and Hezbollah are all screaming that the Mossad planted the car bomb which killed Mugniyah but Mugniyah had a great many enemies besides the Israelis or Americans; which is what happens when you start a career of killing people at 14. I realize common Mid-East paranoida suggests there is a Mossad agent hiding behind every rock, tree, and car seat in the Middle East, but sadly, it is just not so.
In fact, I think it much more likely, that Mugniyah was killed by an enemy much closer to home. While many eyes have been off Lebanon in recent months there has been a string of car bombing targeting the Christian fraction of the March 14th movement. The last one killed Brig. Gen. Francois Hajj just this past December. Or it could be a former Phalange member, Maronite or even relative of Elie Hobeika coming back to settle accounts. What you should understand is that Mugniyah may have been a founding member of Hezbollah but this Palestinian was not cherished or beloved by all Lebanese. Hezbollah is not yet Lebanon and may it never be so.
The Jerusalem Post carries a whiff of the controversy and highlights the danger in Beirut today:
Throngs of Lebanese were turning out Thursday for two opposing Beirut gatherings – Shi’ite Muslims supporters of Hizbullah to bid farewell to its slain top commander Imad Mughniyeh, and their pro-Western opponents at a downtown square to mark former prime minister Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination.
The two gatherings showcased Lebanon’s divided soul but also increased fears of violence between the rival sides, prompting authorities to deploy thousands of troops and set up blockades on major roads. Amid fears of violence between the opposing sides, authorities deployed thousands of troops and blocked major roads.
Hizbullah urged crowds to its stronghold of south Beirut to march behind the coffin of Mughniyeh, the group’s former security chief and one of world’s most wanted terrorists, killed in a car bombing in Damascus. The group called on supporters to “carry on our shoulders a leader of whose leadership we were proud, and a martyr by whose martyrdom we’re honored.” “Let us make our voice heard by all the enemies and murderers that we will be victorious, no matter the sacrifices,” said a Hizbullah statement aired on the militant group’s television station Al-Manar. Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah – himself in hiding because of fears of assassination since the Second Lebanon War – was expected to address mourners through a video broadcast over giant screen.
The anti-Syrian parliamentary majority had hoped that a massive show of popular support, perhaps by hundreds of thousands, on the Hariri anniversary would force the Hizbullah-led opposition to compromise in a 15-month political stalemate that has paralyzed the country. The anniversary rally also meant to send a message to Syria to stay out of Lebanon politics. Billboards on major highways called for supporters to attend: “Come down, so they don’t come back.”
(…)
By the time Mughniyeh’s funeral gets under way in early afternoon, a few miles away in downtown Beirut, a mass rally by government supporters and opponents of Hizbullah marking the third anniversary of Hariri’s assassination was to expected to wind down.
Hariri’s supporters blame Syria for killing the prominent politician in a massive suicide truck bombing in Beirut three years ago and for a series of bombings and assassinations since. Hariri’s assassination ignited mass protests and international pressure that forced Syria to withdraw its army from Lebanon after 29 years of control.
Authorities have deployed some 8,000 troops and policemen to protect the downtown rally Thursday and leading roads. Armored carriers took up positions on major road intersections, and additional razor wire was brought in to separate the two sides on rain-drenched streets.
