EFL
Syria is allowing some members of Hezbollah to travel from Syrian-controlled south Lebanon to Iraq, current and former U.S. intelligence officials say. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday that the U.S. government had "intelligence that indicates that some Iraqi people have been allowed into Syria - in some cases to stay and some cases to transit." He did not identify the Iraqis, or indicate whether they were leaders in Saddam's government. Syrian officials have denied the accusations.
Rumsey: "I'm not going to name any names ... but their initials are M.U.D."
Among Iraqis who have taken refuge in Syria in recent weeks and months are weapons scientists who fled Iraq to avoid questioning by UN inspectors and capture by American forces, an American intelligence official said. The official said some scientists and others with links to the Saddam government may have fled screaming traveled on to other countries, including Libya and Russia. One of Iraq's top scientists, Jaffar Dhia Jaffar, the head of its nuclear program, turned himself in and was in American custody. The allegations about Hezbollah members moving into Iraq implicates Syria because its members cannot enter Iraq without the consent of Syrian government officials, said Matthew Levitt, a former FBI terrorism analyst who is now a senior fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Hezbollah, which has about 2,500 fighters and is armed and supported primarily by Iran, was the main force resisting Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon before Israel's withdrawal in 2000. The group also kidnapped and held hostage more than a dozen Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s, and a cell within the organization is regarded by American intelligence as a major terrorist threat to American and Israeli interests around the world. American officials say that they have evidence that Hezbollah has plans to attack U.S. embassies and other American targets. The officials said Hezbollah's intentions in Iraq are unclear, but expressed concern that its presence there could threaten a new, American-backed government of Iraq. Hezbollah officials in Beirut have denied that the group's members have traveled to Iraq to carry out operations there.
"Nope, nope, nope! Never happened!"
| My guess is that they'd like to find a nice barracks full of Marines and boom it. Last time, that got us out of Lebanon. This time, I think it'd get us into the Bekaa Valley and points north and east quicker than you can say "airmobile assault"... |
The reported movement of Hezbollah fighters into Iraq would reflect what experts say has been an effort by Syria's Boy President current leader, Bashar Assad, to forge closer ties with an organization that his father, Hafez Assad, generally kept at arm's length. Dennis Ross, a former American special envoy to the Middle East, said last June that Syria had shipped Syrian-made rockets directly to Hezbollah in Syrian-controlled parts of southern Lebanon. Until last year, Ross said, Syria's role in arming Hezbollah was limited mostly to permitting shipments of Iranian-made arms - including Katyusha rockets - through its territory. With a range of about 70 kilometers (45 miles), the Syrian-made rockets have a longer reach than the Katyushas. |