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Terror Networks
Imad Mughniyah -- Master Bastard Of Terrorists, Part 1
2006-05-30
Part II - click here
Hardly a day goes by that retired Marine Colonel John Garrett doesn't wonder if this is the day that Imad Mughniyah steps out of the shadows to take credit for latest deadly strike against the United States. For the past twenty-plus years, Mughniyah has plotted and then acted to murder Garrett's fellow Americans.

Garrett is certain of two things. Unless the US takes Mughniyah out, this cold, calculating killer will continue to murder Americans. And, if history is any guide, his successes will on occasion be spectacular.

Former Navy SEAL Platoon Commander, Tom Short goes through his day with similar concerns. Ditto for former Marine sniper platoon commander Bill McSwain.

And these concerns are echoed and amplified by former member of the CIA's clandestine services, and best-selling author, Bob Baer. Baer spent much of his career in the bazaars and back alleys of the Mid-east and made a specialty of studying Imad Mughniyah. "He is the most dangerous terrorist we've ever faced. He's a pathological murderer," says Baer. "Mughniyah is probably the most intelligent, most capable operative we've ever run across, including the KGB or anybody else. He enters by one door; exits by another. Changes his cars daily. Never makes appointments on a telephone; never is predictable. He only uses people that are related to him that he can trust. He doesn't just recruit people. He is the master terrorist, the grail that we have been after since 1983."

That year Mughniyah is credited with using a car bomb to destroy the US Embassy in April, killing several key members of the CIA's Near-east Division who were attending a regional meeting at the embassy. Mughniyah killed 63 in this attack.

Just six months later, Mughniyah made it personal for Colonel John Garrett when a suicide driver detonated a truck bomb inside the building serving as the barracks for Marines at the Beirut airport. Mughniyah's operation murdered 241 American servicemen, mostly Marines and Navy corpsmen. One of the murdered Marines was Capt. Mike Haskell who had been Garrett's first platoon sergeant in Viet Nam in 1969.

Garrett had stayed in contact with Haskell who rose through the ranks, making the rank of Captain by 1983. Haskell mailed Garrett from Beirut shortly before Mughniyah's attack on the Marine barracks. So for Colonel John Garrett, Imad Mughniyah was not just some abstract figure seen on slides in intelligence briefings.

Mughniyah had also kidnapped and murdered U.S. Marine Lt.Col. Rich Higgins, a Garrett contemporary, and William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, and according to several informed authorities, personally tortured Buckley until he died.
Posted by:3dc

#15  Mugniyah's also been known to occasionally dress in drag.
Posted by: doc   2006-05-30 21:11  

#14  LOL - never made the name connection, before!
Posted by: Jomong Ebbeck8983   2006-05-30 19:56  

#13  That's not Mughniyeh. That's Dick Cheney' pappy, Lon.
Posted by: Fred   2006-05-30 19:50  

#12  I remember that year, a5089. It didn't make the American news in a noticeable way, but Mr. Wife spent some time there that summer, and he didn't tell me about the troubles until it was much later. I think it was the following summer he just missed taking the Greek island ferry that was attacked by machine gunning terrorists in speed boats, and had only stepped around the corner from the Athens post office when it was blown up. I stopped worrying about what could happen to him at that point, because it was so obviously pointless.
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-05-30 19:10  

#11  The wiki bit about his missed capture in 1986 because french authorities refused to act is very interesting, because a) prime minister was you-guessed-it Shiraq, and b) this is the year Iran bombed Paris into submission through a terror wave, about debt and support for Iraq.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2006-05-30 17:50  

#10  doc, close but no cigar
Posted by: tipper   2006-05-30 17:14  

#9  This just in: Mugniyeh photo taken by an Interpol operative in Syria.
Posted by: doc   2006-05-30 15:55  

#8  Of course part 2 has this gem:

The latest intel from a very credible source is that Mughniyah has also had his fingerprints altered. According to this same source, Mughniyah was recently identified as being in the entourage of the President of Iran during a visit to Syria.
Posted by: 3dc   2006-05-30 12:51  

#7  I should point out that Part I has a lot more to it than what is posted here.
Posted by: 3dc   2006-05-30 12:41  

#6  Must be another one of those damn Amish again. Of course we must not 'profile'.

BTW: OldSpook - are you talking about Mughniyah or Clinton?
Posted by: CrazyFool   2006-05-30 10:57  

#5  I don't think he's Episcopalian.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2006-05-30 10:31  

#4  Is he muslim by any chance?
Posted by: Howard UK   2006-05-30 07:56  

#3  Mughniyah is tied to Iran. Make Iran pay in blood and treasure daily unitl this psychopath dies a slow and pain filled death.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2006-05-30 04:26  

#2  This is one guy I'd love to have some time alone in a room with. Just him cuffed to a chair, and me with bolt cutters, vice grips, a 3 foot long 1 inch thick stainless steel rod, a straight razor, nitric acid and a hypodermic needle.

Plus some injectable stimulants for him to perk him up and keep him properly able to feel each and every thing happening to him with utter clarity.

The shame of it is my humanity would likely prevent me from doing things to him that he easily did to others. I'd just put a pistol to his head and kill him the way one disposes of rabid animals.
Posted by: Oldspook   2006-05-30 04:06  

#1  My utter contempt for "Slick Wille" Clinton is so complete, that nothing can further diminish my respect for this disgraceful fop. But - this particular story is new to me - and further confirms my views of Clinton.
Posted by: Lone Ranger   2006-05-30 01:35  

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