I have two backgrounders up.
The first chronicles the support Syria provides Hezbollah, and why it must bear considerable responsibility for the havoc Hezbollah's occupation of Southern Lebanon has wrought in Lebanon and Israel.
Syria's Nexus of Terror
With Hamas and Hezbollah holding three Israeli soldiers captive and the regional crisis intensifying rapidly, attention has shifted to Syria's role in supporting terrorism and its history of facilitating attacks against Israel and U.S. forces in Iraq.
The Assad family has ruled Syria since 1970. President Bashar al-Assad inherited the presidency from his father, Hafez al-Assad. Although a secular dictatorship, it is run by a religious minority, the Alawis, a minority Shiite sect.
Syria has been on the U.S. State Department's list of countries that sponsor terrorism since 1979. It has hosted terrorists in Damascus, allowed terrorists to pass with impunity through its territory, provided seed money to new terrorist groups, and sold weapons on the international black market.
Syria is the subject of sanctions under the Syria Accountability Act 2003. The USA Patriot Act 2001 as well as an executive order restricts contact between U.S. financial institutions and the Commercial Bank of Syria and freezes the U.S.-based assets of Syrian terrorist entities.
Syria's War Against Israel
The origins of Hezbollah date back to Syria's decision in 1982 to let 1,000 of Iran's Revolutionary Guard into the Beqaa Valley in Syrian-occupied Lebanon. Since then, Hezbollah has launched repeated attacks against Israel, culminating this week with the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers and the launching of hundreds of missiles against Israeli civilians. Source: Middle East Intelligence Bulletin.
Hamas has murdered more Israelis than any other Palestinian terrorist group. Its savage attacks accounted for the bulk of Israeli deaths during the Second Intifada. Hamas' leadership is based out of Damascus. Following the kidnappings, Hamas leader Khaled Meshal held a press conference in Damascus. It's the only free speech that Syria permits. Source: Haaretz.
Syria allows others Palestinian terrorist groups to operate from Damascus, including Ahmad Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Abu Musa's Fatah-the-Intifada, and George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Source: U.S. State Department.
Syria has also provided weapons, including rockets, to Hezbollah, which have been used to attack Israel. Source: Middle East Intelligence Bulletin.
Syria allows terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, to train both in the Beqaa Valley in Syrian-occupied Lebanon and in Syria proper. Source: U.S. House of Representatives.
Syria's War Against A Free Iraq
Prior to the Iraq war, Syria helped Iraq avoid U.N. sanctions by accepting the transportation of military products from Iraq. David Kay, head of the Iraq Survey Group, told the Daily Telegraph that he had uncovered evidence that unspecified materials had been moved to Syria shortly before last year's war to overthrow Saddam. Source: Daily Telegraph.
Before the Iraqi insurgency united behind the al-Qaeda-backed Zarqawi, many of its splintered groups operated out of Syria. The insurgent faction loyal to Saddam Hussein was based out of Damascus. At the time, it was led by Saddam's half-brother Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan and Mohamed Yunis al-Ahmed. It was only after extensive U.S. pressure that the regime delivered al-Hassan to U.S. authorities. Source: MSNBC.
Syria's unwillingness to police its borders has allowed terrorists to pass through Syria into Iraq. Despite tremendous U.S. pressure, Syria refuses to provide enough troops to police its border with Iraq. Source: CNN.
Syrian officials have also provided weapons to insurgents crossing its border into Iraq. U.S. attempts to quell smuggling of arms and hosting of insurgents has led to battles that have claimed the lives of many U.S. troops. Source: CNN.
The second explores the deeds and words of Hezbollah's current leader Hassan Nasrallah, explaining how his war isn't just against Israel, nor even against the United States, but against the entire civilized world.
Hassan Nasrallah's Trail of Terror
Hassan Nasrallah is Secretary General of Hezbollah, a militant Islamist group that wants to create a Shiite theocracy in Lebanon.
In the early 1980s, Nasrallah was part of the Amal movement, a Shiite militia with ties to Syria, where he was in charge of the Beqaa area in Lebanon. Later, Nasrallah founded Islamic Resistance, which carried out numerous terror operations in Lebanon. In 1982, Nasrallah abandoned Amal for Hezbollah. In 1992, he assumed control of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks against Lebanon, Israel, the United States, France and other Western countries. Prior to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Hezbollah was responsible for more American deaths than any other terrorist organization. Nasrallah, as a long-time member and leader, bears much responsibility for this.
Nasrallah operates outside the control of his host state. Safe from punishment under Lebanese law, Nasrallah has used his impunity to wage barbaric terror attacks against civilians in Israel, Lebanon and elsewhere.
Hassan Nasrallah's War Against Israel
In a speech on April 9, 2000, Nasrallah said: "All the major disasters which befell the region stem from the existence of the state called Israel. So long as there is a state called Israel, disasters and suffering will continue. This is a cancerous body in the region... When a cancer is discovered, it must be dealt with fearlessly; it must be uprooted."
On July 14, 2006, Nasrallah told al-Manar television: "You wanted an open war, and we are heading for an open war…[w]e are ready for it.”
Nasrallah has also bragged about the military capability of Hezbollah. "The resistance has more than 12,000 missiles," he explained, "[and] the north of occupied Palestine [northern Israel] is entirely within the range of the missiles of the Lebanese resistance."
His overt threats against northern Israel have been coupled with more cagey hints about his ability to attack the rest of the country. "As for reaching beyond the north - the less said the better. We have no reason to say whether or not we have such capabilities. Let's keep quiet about this."
"It will sink and with it will sink scores of Israeli Zionist soldiers," Nasrallah gleefully explained after an attack on an Israeli ship. He went on to warn – more ominously – "this is just the beginning."
As leader of Hezbollah, Nasrallah ordered the launch of Syrian and Iranian-made missiles on Israel, raising the prospect of a greater regional conflagration.
Hassan Nasrallah's War Against the West
In the 1980s, Hezbollah earned the dubious distinction of being the most brutal and ruthless terrorist group operating in Lebanon. Hezbollah was responsible for the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people and an attack on U.S. military barracks that killed 241 American servicemen, as well as the bombing of the French multinational headquarters that killed 58 Frenchmen. Hezbollah was also implicated in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina that killed 85 people, as well as of the Israeli embassy there.
During the Danish cartoon controversy, Nasrallah traced the Danish newspaper's chutzpah in publishing the offensive cartoon of Prophet Muhammad back to the failure to execute Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie: "If any Muslim had carried out the fatwa of Imam Khomeini against the apostate Salman Rushdie, those despicable people would not have dared to insult the Prophet Muhammad - not in Denmark, not in Norway, and not in France."
Speaking at a graduation ceremony, Nasrallah noted that "the US Empire is slithering over our region" and that the United States is controlled by "Christian Zionists."
Nasrallah regularly makes demagogic speeches at Lebanese Mosques where he spreads violence and hate towards the United States. In a speech in February 2006, Nasrallah said, "America, America you are the Great Satan." He then led a chant of "Death to America."
The United Nations Security Council has called "for the disbanding and disarmament of Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias." UN SCR 1559 (2004). Yet Hezbollah continues to operate its own militarized statelet in Southern Lebanon.
War
Syria
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