Author:
Publication: NewsMax.com
Date: April 18, 2003
URL: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/4/17/195849.shtml
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader
of Hezbollah, in a speech before 150,000 supporters in a Beirut suburb
said the U.S. will be made to suffer greatly as a result of its presence
in Iraq, according to a report in the L.A. Times:
"In the past, when the Marines were
in Beirut, we screamed, 'Death to America!' Today, when the region is being
filled with hundreds of thousands of American soldiers, 'Death to America!'
was, is and will stay our slogan."
Even before the U.S.-led invasion
of Iraq began, Nasrallah raged, "The people of the region will receive
[America] with rifles, blood, arms, martyrdom and martyrdom operations."
Hezbollah, the so-called "attack
dog" of its sponsors Iran and Syria, with active terrorist cells on four
continents, has made good on its threats before:
In 1983, the group blew up the U.S.
Embassy and the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing hundreds. The
Marines were there to help cover Israel's withdrawal from the capital.
In 1996, Hezbollah bombed Khobar
Towers, the U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia. The blast killed
19 U.S. servicemen.
The Equal of al-Qaida
"I'll tell you that Hezbollah, as
an organization with capability and worldwide presence, is its equal, if
not a far more capable, organization," CIA Director George J. Tenet testified
to Congress recently - comparing the terrorist group to al-Qaida.
According to the Times report, Hezbollah's
TV station has been broadcasting music videos that call for suicide attacks
against American forces in Iraq. Despite such overt activity, Hezbollah
has not yet claimed any responsibility for the suicide bombings against
U.S. forces in Iraq thus far. However, U.S. officials have not ruled out
its involvement, noting that it has a history of using proxy groups to
hide its involvement in attacks.
U.S. officials concede that the
U.S. presence in Iraq could provoke a violent reaction from Hezbollah.
"We take it seriously, and we're looking at them. They've been lethal before
and continue to be," one senior administration official told the Times.
This recent round of militant bluster
by Hezbollah has provoked a resurgence of the feeling that sooner or later
the U.S. will have to deal directly with the threat. Some suggest that
it such action is long overdue:
Shut the Camps Down
When Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., was
chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he called on the administration
to order Syria to shut down Hezbollah training camps in Lebanon and attack
the facilities if Damascus refused.
More recently, Israeli Prime Minister
Arial Sharon demanded that the U.S. take diplomatic and economic moves
against Syria if it did not rid its territories of the terrorist camps.
But any decision to move aggressively
against the state-sponsored terrorists is fraught with issues - not the
least of which is the potential of broadening the Iraq conflict into a
regional crisis.
So far, Bush administration officials
have sternly warned Syrian President Bashar Assad against supporting terrorism
or sheltering fleeing Saddam henchmen.
In the meantime, Hezbollah continues
to receive as much as $100 million annually from Tehran, with Damascus
throwing in weapons and logistical support, according to the report.
Already bristling with thousands
of well-armed terrorists and thousands of missiles, Hezbollah may be outstripping
al-Qaida as public enemy number one.
