General Hotait: Hizbullah Defeated the CIA in Lebanon
Once again, Hizbullah succeeded in foiling Washington's "security arsenal" in Lebanon. This time its ability appeared after the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) suspended its espionage work following the exposure of many of its agents in Beirut this year, according to US journals.
In this context, the Associated Press indicated, quoting former and present US officials, that the CIA has worked so hard in the past few months to protect its agents in Lebanon before Hizbullah exposes their identities. The news agency added that it is not known whether anyone in the CIA would be held accountable for this "intelligence failure", or whether this revelation would affect the intelligence agency's ability to recruit more agents.
On this level, retired Lebanese Army Brigadier General Amine Hotait considered that the aforementioned suspension of intelligence activities is a victory for Hizbullah. He added that Hizbullah currently possesses intelligence abilities and methods in mind wars and combating espionage, which exceed the abilities of the CIA, especially after Hizbullah defeated the Mossad.
General Hotait believed that this success came through the additional step in which Hizbullah exposed the agents of the US, noting that therefore "Hizbullah has reached the top on the international level, in the security war battle".
In an interview with Al Intiqad Online Newspaper, Hotait stressed, "Exposing the agents in Lebanon shows the level of security breach executed by the US intelligence in our country, and how much the Lebanese sovereignty and security have been violated, which belies the false US claims of respecting our national sovereignty".
Furthermore, he affirmed, "The use of this number of agents directly raises a question about the responsibility of the US administration for the many security breaches that took place in Lebanon during the past seven years; especially since February 2005, and until today, aiming at destabilizing th situation, contrary to what some claim".
General Hotait compared the US statements, especially the press analysis, to the phrase used by the Zionists following the May 7, 2008 operation, where the enemy said: "What we built in three years, Hizbullah demolished in three hours".
Regarding the CIA's performance nowadays, General Hotait stressed, "This agency chooses its field of work in accordance with its needs and intelligence goals. In Lebanon, it needs extensive intelligence activities classified by categories, because the current events taking place in the region are considered a strategy, in regard to both the resistance and Hizbullah, and even to the resistance system in Syria and Iran".
Also, he believed that after the blow the CIA was subject to by Hizbullah, the US intelligence level diminished and needs restoration. "restoring these cells is not considered an easy step", Hotait indicated.
Commenting on the US official's stance to As-Safir newspaper, indicating that the suspension of the CIA activities in Beirut is "non-sense", Retired Brigadier General Hotait stated that "this comes in the framework of raising morale and trying to prevent Hizbullah from investing in its victories on the moral level".
He noted, "The CIA's will exists, because Lebanon represents the key area on the intelligence level, after Jordan was the main station for the said US intelligence agency for seven years".
"However, the CIA productivity will not remain as it was after its agents were exposed. It has deteriorated a lot and it needs restoration especially that discovering the methods, tools, and how they work for this purpose, makes it more complicated to build the intelligence system all over again", former Brigadier General Hotait concluded.
Source: Al Intiqad Online Newspaper, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org team
