Source: Monday Morning, 20-6-2006
Hizbullah's leading official in South Lebanon, Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, said the dismantling of the network showed that "Israel" continued to represent a real threat to the security, stability and sovereignty of Lebanon. According to him, the threat was not limited to one region or one community but weighed on the whole of Lebanon. "The break-up of this network is a great victory for [the Army], but also for all Lebanese. We shall now see to what extent the support of the international community is biased. Will Mr. [Terje] Roed-Larsen [the special UN envoy in Lebanon] dare to condemn [the "Israeli" network]? And Mr. [John] Bolton [US ambassador to the UN] will probably cast a veto to prevent the voting of a resolution condemning this new blow to Lebanon's sovereignty and stability"?
MP Pierre Serhal also paid tribute to the effectiveness of military intelligence, affirming that a defense strategy "to counter the designs of the "Israeli" enemy" was more necessary than ever.
The question of framing a "national defense strategy" is one that has been debated, and will continue to be discussed, at the national dialogue conference. A salient point in the debate is the role Hizbullah will play in such a strategy.
In its announcement, the Army said on Tuesday the network had been used by the "Israeli" spy agency Mossad to carry out attacks in Lebanon, mainly against Hizbullah and Palestinian groups.
"The Army arrested a terrorist cell working for "Israel's" Mossad, and its members admitted responsibility for the May 26 attack that killed Mahmoud al-Majzoub and his brother", the statement said.
Majzoub, one of the leaders in Lebanon of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, was killed by a car bomb in the southern city of Sidon.
The members of the cell also "admitted taking part in the assassination of Hizbullah officials Ali Saleh in 2003 and Ali Hassan Dib in 1999, as well as the killing of Jihad Jibril in 2002", the army added.
Jibril's father, Ahmad, is the Damascus-based chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- General Command.
"The cell would appear to have had ties with "Israel" for several years, and its members were trained there", the statement said. "It would also seem that in the bombing that killed the Majzoub brothers, the cell brought a booby-trapped door from "Israel" for the car used in the attack".
The Army said it had seized the detonator that set off the device, as a well as explosives and electronic materials.
Mahmoud al-Majzoub had been responsible for operations "inside" the Palestinian Territories, according to Lebanese security sources.
His killing sparked an escalating series of tit-for-tat cross-border exchanges between "Israel" and Lebanon that included rockets fired into the Jewish (Zionist) state and retaliatory air strikes on militant camps inside Lebanon.
Defense Minister Elias Murr indicated that an "Israel" aircraft probably set off the bomb that killed the Majzoub brothers.
"Information received so far shows there is a strong possibility that the detonator in the booby-trapped car was set off by an "Israeli" aircraft monitoring his movements via a camera mounted on a truck", Murr told journalists at the Defense Ministry.
Referring to daily violations of Lebanese air space by "Israeli" aircraft, Murr said "the worst thing is that these violations enable the carrying out of terrorist operations in Lebanon, which is both frightening and dangerous".
He said it was "the first time in the 30 years "Israel" has been carrying out operations in Lebanon that an operation has been executed at such a high-tech level. Nothing can provide protection in the face of this superior technique in terrorism and explosives".
Murr also stressed that there was no link between the attack in Sidon and the attacks which have shaken the country since October 1, 2004.
The Army presented the sophisticated communication equipment found in the cellar of the home of Mahmoud Kassem Rafeh, head of the network, in Hasbaya, South Lebanon. The group received their equipment by road from "Israel" through points of passage between Kfarkila and (occupied) Shibaa, but also by sea.
According to security sources, after the "Israeli" pullout in May 2000, Rafeh was tasked with carrying out several operations. He communicated directly with "Israeli" intelligence from his house in Hasbaya, which was equipped with sophisticated material such as computers, cell phones with international lines, equipment for the reception and transmission of coded messages, a printer capable of reproducing digital images, etc. There were also false passports and other forged identity documents and Lebanese driving licenses.
It was established that the cell comprised four persons, two of whom were arrested; the other two fled. One of the latter was Rafeh; the other Hussein Khattab, a Palestinian from the Ain el-Helwé camp.
In its meeting last Thursday under the chairmanship of President Emile Lahoud, the cabinet heard details of the affair from Murr and decided to lay a complaint against "Israel" at the UN Security Council, which will be convened as soon as Lebanon has completed its dossier on the affair. This dossier would be "coherent, solid and documented, condemning "Israel" and clearly noting its hostile intentions and ongoing aggression, in the hope that the international community will react, if only once, to put an end to "Israeli" designs", as Information Minister Ghazi Aridi told journalists.
The cabinet unanimously acknowledged that "Lebanon's principal enemy is "Israel", which continues its attacks and its attempts to undermine the security, stability and sovereignty of the country, and which has therefore not withdrawn from the country, as it claims to have done".
Lahoud: The danger posed by Mossad
President Lahoud congratulated military intelligence for dismantling the pro-"Israeli" intelligence network, without omitting to express his fears that Mossad agents were involved in other criminal activities aimed at compromising internal security and destabilizing Lebanon.
The president thought it strange that no one had implicated "Israel" in the crimes committed in the country in the last few months, saying that "the malevolent intentions of the Zionist state in regard to Lebanon, Palestine and the Arabs in general are no secret to anyone. These intentions are made clear by the existence of this terrorist network in our country and the attacks perpetrated in Gaza recently, leading to the deaths of numerous Palestinian civilians.
President Lahoud made a new call for national solidarity, "the sole true force capable of foiling "Israel's" plots".
He also urged Lebanese of all persuasions to unite behind the Army and the national Resistance, warning against "the turmoil the Zionist state seeks to foment among us through its intelligence service, as it did in 1975".