Iran's Hizbollah says ready to attack US, Israel

[AR182]

Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:09pm ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Hizbollah, which claims links to the Lebanese group of the same name, said on Tuesday it stood ready to attack Israeli and U.S. interests worldwide.

"We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year," said Iranian Hizbollah's spokesman Mojtaba Bigdeli, speaking by telephone from the central seminary city of Qom.

"They have been trained and they can become fully armed. We are ready to dispatch them to every corner of the world to jeopardise Israel and America's interests. We are only waiting for the Supreme Leader's green light to take action. If America wants to ignite World War Three ... we welcome it," he said.

Iranian religious organisations have made great public show of recruiting volunteers for "martyrdom-seeking operations" in recent years, usually threatening U.S. interests in case of any attack against the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.


But there is no record of an Iranian volunteer from these recruitment campaigns taking part in an attack.

Iran's Hizbollah (Party of God) says it is spiritually bound to Shi'ite Muslim guerrillas in Lebanon but its command structure and funding are unclear.

Despite Iranian Hizbollah's insistence that it takes orders from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, government ministries say Hizbollah does not implement official policy. Iran's government has said it hopes for a diplomatic solution to the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.

While Iran did fund and support Lebanese Hizbollah during the 1980s, Tehran says it has not contributed troops or weapons in the latest violence. Israel says Iranian armaments have been fired against it.

 

[Chadman]

Although I am not OVERLY concerned about this, I see a possible convergence of events that an opportunistic terrorist group could try to make a statement with. When I see that our warships (did I read that a cruise ship, too) are headed to the middle east to evacuate our citizens, and knowing that missiles are flying around all over that area, I could sure envision a really disturbing headline in the coming days.

I hope and pray that not to be the case, and I assume stronger powers would be smarter than that, but some wildcard sure has an opportunity here, don't they? And stranger things have catapulted our country into conflicts before, that's for sure.

 

[AR182]

chad..

i heard that the u.s. is sending 9 battleships to go to the area to protect the ships, including a cruise (hope it's not carnival..heard their food sucks) ship that are being used for evacuations.

 

[SixFive]

2000 fanatics. That should stand up well against the well trained US military.

I watched Newt G. interviewed yesterday (He thinks this is the start of WWIII). Interesting points. There's no bargaining with these wackos.

Again, where's the outcry from the regular muslims, ie those who aren't fanatics?? If a misguided Christian bombed an abortion clinic or killed a MD that did abortions, I would be the first to condemn his actions.

 

[djv]

The Problem with 2000 screw balls. Our well trained military won't see them. That's the problem. Now A new and outstanding intelligent services is needed. They may catch some before they blow to many trains plans or tunnels up. Our military no way.

 

[zoomer]

Again, where's the outcry from the regular muslims, ie those who aren't fanatics?? If a misguided Christian bombed an abortion clinic or killed a MD that did abortions, I would be the first to condemn his actions.

Sixfive,
I've often wondered the same. In NY After 9/11, we heard over and over what a "peaceful" religion Islam really was and how most Muslims were "shocked" and "disgusted" by what happened.. So when will all of these "peaceful" Muslims speak up? I'm not going to hold my breath or stand on one leg waiting.

 

[StevieD]

Again, where's the outcry from the regular muslims, ie those who aren't fanatics?? If a misguided Christian bombed an abortion clinic or killed a MD that did abortions, I would be the first to condemn his actions.

Sixfive,
I've often wondered the same. In NY After 9/11, we heard over and over what a "peaceful" religion Islam really was and how most Muslims were "shocked" and "disgusted" by what happened.. So when will all of these "peaceful" Muslims speak up? I'm not going to hold my breath or stand on one leg waiting.

Very true. This is the key to the whole mess in my opinion. You are either with us or against us.

 

[freelancc]

i am sure US intelligence is monitoring phone traffic between Hezbollah and Iran. :nono:

 

[kosar]

Your life isn't at stake if you speak out against an abortion clinic bombing.

What would you guys have 'peaceful' Muslims do? What *can* they do?

What would *you* do, keeping in mind that your whole family is at stake, if you really wanna get down to it?

 

[zoomer]

Your life isn't at stake if you speak out against an abortion clinic bombing.

What would you guys have 'peaceful' Muslims do? What *can* they do?

What would *you* do, keeping in mind that your whole family is at stake, if you really wanna get down to it?

I'm talking about Muslims all over the world (there are millions of them), especially the ones living here in the United States. During the holocaust and during the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, people used the same excuses.

 

[AR182]

Your life isn't at stake if you speak out against an abortion clinic bombing.

What would you guys have 'peaceful' Muslims do? What *can* they do?

What would *you* do, keeping in mind that your whole family is at stake, if you really wanna get down to it?

i think there should be a dmz between israel & their neighbors. in addition to a u.n. peace keeping force, maybe it would be a good idea if countries like jordan, egypt, & suadi arabia have some of their military join these u.n. peace keeping forces. i think that would send a message.

 

[kosar]

I'm talking about Muslims all over the world (there are millions of them), especially the ones living here in the United States. During the holocaust and during the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, people used the same excuses.

I understand that. But what would you have regular, peaceful Muslims do?

Rise up, speak out, snitch, and get blown up along with their family?

Maybe you're more brave than I, but I try to place myself in their situation when I feel like condemning them for not rising up.

 

[kosar]

i think there should be a dmz between israel & their neighbors. in addition to a u.n. peace keeping force, maybe it would be a good idea if countries like jordan, egypt, & suadi arabia have some of their military join these u.n. peace keeping forces. i think that would send a message.

Yes, but I was speaking more to the sentiment that regular Muslims should somehow overcome these extremists as Clint suggested.

 

[moe777]

I'm talking about Muslims all over the world (there are millions of them), especially the ones living here in the United States. During the holocaust and during the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, people used the same excuses.

during the holacaust thosands of jews that lived and fled to albania (90 % muslim pop) all survived .they were hidden in muslim homes and protectedted from authorites by villages..look it up ,intresting..just disgusts me when people on here like generlize a billion people.i like to judge people by the way they have treated me.im guilty of believing some sterotypes also but i knoe im wrong for thinking that way ,i like to treat people the way they treat me.ive had and have some crazy friends in my life and some people cant belive im friends with a few of them,but theyve never done me wrong so until they show ME otherwise i have to treat them with respect,the way they treat me...BAD makes headlines not good.

 

[Mjolnir]

Iran and Syria think they are so cute. if they dont smarten up, there gonna get a big time bitch slap.


Arming of Hezbollah Reveals U.S. and Israeli Blind Spots
By MARK MAZZETTI and THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON, July 18 ? The power and sophistication of the missile and rocket arsenal that Hezbollah has used in recent days has caught the United States and Israel off guard, and officials in both countries are just now learning the extent to which the militant group has succeeded in getting weapons from Iran and Syria.

While the Bush administration has stated that cracking down on weapons proliferation is one of its top priorities, the arming of Hezbollah shows the blind spots of American and other Western intelligence services in assessing the threat, officials from across those governments said.

American and Israeli officials said the successful attack last Friday on an Israeli naval vessel was the strongest evidence to date of direct support by Iran to Hezbollah. The attack was carried out with a sophisticated antiship cruise missile, the C-802, an Iranian-made variant of the Chinese Silkworm, an American intelligence official said.

At the same time, American and Israeli officials cautioned that they had found no evidence that Iranian operatives working in Lebanon launched the antiship missile themselves.

But neither Jerusalem nor Washington had any idea that Hezbollah had such a missile in its arsenal, the officials said, adding that the Israeli ship had not even activated its missile defense system because intelligence assessments had not identified a threat from such a radar-guided cruise missile.

They said they had also been surprised by the advances that Hezbollah had made in improving what had been crude rockets ? for example, attaching cluster bombs as warheads, or filling an explosive shell with ball bearings that have devastating effect.

The Bush administration has long sought to focus attention on Iranian missile proliferation, and regularly discusses with journalists intelligence evidence of those activities. But American officials in Washington made clear this week that they were reluctant to detail Iran?s arming of Hezbollah in the current conflict.

The reason, according to officials across the government, was a desire by the Bush administration to contain the conflict to Israeli and Hezbollah forces, and not to enlarge the diplomatic tasks by making Iranian missile supplies, or even those of Syria, a central question for now.

Still, some officials in Washington admitted to being blindsided by the abilities of Hezbollah?s arsenal.

?You have to acknowledge the obvious ? we?ve seen a new capability in striking the naval vessel and in the number of casualties that have been sustained from the Hezbollah missile attacks,? a Bush administration official said.

?In the past, we?d see three, four, maybe eight launches at any given time if Hezbollah was feeling feisty,? the official added. ?Now we see them arriving in large clusters, and with a range and even certain accuracy we have not seen in the past.?

The officials interviewed agreed to discuss classified intelligence assessments about Hezbollah?s capabilities only on condition of anonymity.

While Iranian missile supplies to Hezbollah, either by sea or overland via Syria, were well known, officials said the current conflict also indicated that some of the rockets in Hezbollah?s arsenal ? including a 220-millimeter rocket used in a deadly attack on a railway site in Haifa on Sunday ? were built in Syria.

?The Israelis did forensics, and found several were Syrian-made,? said David Schenker, who this spring became a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy after four years working on Middle East issues at the Pentagon. ?Everybody recognizes that Syria has played an important role in facilitating transshipment ? but not supplying their own missiles to Hezbollah.?

Officials have since confirmed that the warhead on the Syrian rocket was filled with ball bearings ? a method of destruction used frequently in suicide bombings but not in warhead technology.

?We?ve never seen anything like this,? said one Western intelligence official, speaking about the warhead.

But it was Friday?s successful launching of a C-802 cruise missile that most alarmed officials in Washington and Jerusalem.

Iran began buying dozens of those sophisticated antiship missiles from the Chinese during the 1990?s, until the United States pressured Beijing to cease the sales.

Until Friday, however, Western intelligence services did not know that Iran had managed to ship C-802 missiles to Hezbollah.

Officials said it was likely that Iran trained Hezbollah fighters on how to successfully fire and guide the missiles, and that members of Iran?s Al Quds force ? the faction of the Revolutionary Guards that trains foreign forces ? would not necessarily have to be on the scene to launch the C-802.

At the same time, some experts said Iran was not likely to deploy such a sophisticated weapon without also sending Revolutionary Guard crews with the expertise to fire the missile.

An administration official said intelligence reports have concluded that a small number of Iranians are currently operating in Lebanon, but the official declined to disclose their number or mission.