Senior Hezbollah militant killed By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer FEB 13,08
DAMASCUS, Syria - Imad Mughniyeh, the suspected mastermind of dramatic attacks on the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine barracks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s, has died in a car bombing in Syria. The Islamic militant group Hezbollah and its Iranian backers on Wednesday blamed Israel for the killing of Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's security chief in the 1980s who was one of the world's most wanted and elusive terrorists. Israel denied involvement.Syria's official news agency SANA said he was killed a car bombing in Damascus on Tuesday night.The ongoing investigation over the car bomb in the residential Kfar Sousse neighborhood last night has proven that it targeted Lebanese combatant Imad Mughniyeh, SANA quoted Syrian Interior Minister Brig. Gen. Bassam Abdul-Majid as saying.Mughniyeh, 45, had been in hiding for years. He was one of the fugitives indicted in the United States for planning and participating in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed. He is on an FBI most wanted list with a $5 million bounty on his head for that indictment.
Mughniyeh was believed to have directed a group that held Westerners hostage in Lebanon. Among them was journalist Terry Anderson, a former Associated Press chief Middle East correspondent who was held captive for six years.I can't say I'm either surprised or sad, Andersen told the AP by phone from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, where he was sailing. He was not a good man — certainly the primary actor in my kidnapping and many others, he added. To hear that his career has finally ended is a good thing and it's appropriate that he goes up in a car bomb.In Washington, the State Department also welcomed news of his death but stressed it did not have independent information on the reports.The world is a better place without this man in it, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, who added that one way or the other, he was brought to justice.Israel accused Mughniyeh of involvement in the 1992 bombing of its embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina in which 29 people were killed.Argentine prosecutors alleged that Iranian officials orchestrated the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center that killed 85 people and entrusted Hezbollah to carry it out. Argentine special prosecutor Alberto Nisman accused Mughniyeh of involvement.
Tehran denied that Iranians were involved in that attack and accused the United States and Israel of using the case as a political weapon against Iran.Hezbollah, whose top leader Hassan Nasrallah has been largely in hiding since the 2006 war fearing Israeli assassination, did not immediately threaten revenge.With all pride, we declare a great jihadist leader of the Islamic resistance in Lebanon joining the martyrs, said a statement carried on Hezbollah television. The brother commander hajj Imad Mughinyeh became a martyr at the hands of the Zionist Israelis. Iran also blamed Israel.Israel denied involvement and said it was looking into the death.Israel rejects the attempt by terror groups to attribute to it any involvement in this incident, said a statement from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office.Israeli lawmaker Danny Yatom, a former head of the Mossad spy agency, praised the killing.
In the fight against terror today by the free and democratic world, I think that the free and democratic world today achieved a very, very important goal, Yatom said. Syria's confirmation that Mughniyeh was in Damascus could be an embarrassment for the government of President Bashar Assad. The U.S. already accuses Syria of sponsoring terrorism and hosting a number of Palestinian extremist groups. The death could also could further stir up turmoil in deeply divided Lebanon, where a Hezbollah-led opposition is locked in a bitter power struggle with the Western-backed government. Hezbollah called for a massive gathering of its supporters for Mughniyeh's funeral in southern Beirut on Thursday.
Mughniyeh was Hezbollah's security chief during a turbulent period in Lebanon's civil war. He has been accused of masterminding the April 1983 car bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans, and the simultaneous truck bombings of the U.S. Marine barracks and French military base in Beirut, killing 58 French soldiers and 241 Marines. He was indicted in the United States for the 1985 TWA hijacking in which Shiite militants seized the 747 and flew it back and forth between Beirut and Algiers demanding the release of Lebanese Shiites captured by Israel. During the hijacking, the body of Navy diver Robert Stethem, a passenger on the plane, was dumped on the tarmac of Beirut airport. During Lebanon's civil war, Mughniyeh was also believed to have directed a string of kidnappings of Americans and other foreigners, including Anderson — who was held for six years until his release in 1991 — and CIA station chief William Buckley, who was killed in 1985. Anderson was the last American hostage freed in a complicated deal that involved Israel's release of Lebanese prisoners, Iran's sway with the kidnappers, Syria's influence and — according to an Iranian radio broadcast — promises by the United States and Germany not to retaliate against the kidnappers. Giandomenico Picco, an Italian diplomat working at the time as a special assistant to U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, said he was certain but never able to absolutely confirm that the hooded man he met in the slums of Beirut to finalize the deal was Mughniyeh. On Wednesday afternoon, Mughniyeh's body was brought to Beirut and laid in a refrigerated coffin, wrapped in Hezbollah's yellow flag. Al-Manar showed four black-clad uniformed guerrillas standing at attention on both sides of the coffin in a Hezbollah hall in south Beirut suburb of Roueiss, a stronghold of the militant group. His father, Hezbollah's deputy leader, Sheik Naim Kassem, and other Hezbollah officials received condolences at the hall from allied Lebanese politicians and representatives of militant Palestinian factions. Some pro-U.S. politicians including Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri set aside their deep differences and offered written condolences. Mughinyeh's killing was the first major attack against a leader of Hezbollah since the 1992 helicopter strike that killed the Hezbollah secretary-general Sheik Abbas Mussawi in southern Lebanon.
Little has been known about Mughniyeh since the end of the Lebanese civil war and Hezbollah has consistently refused to talk about him. The announcement of his death was the first mention of him in years. Al-Manar on Wednesday aired a rare picture of Mughniyeh — showing a burly, bespectacled man with a black beard wearing a military camouflage and a military cap. It did not say when the picture was taken. Mughniyeh has been reported by the media and intelligence agencies to have undergone plastic surgery to avoid detection as he moved around in the 1990s. American intelligence officials have described Mughniyeh as Hezbollah's operations chief who was believed to have moved between Lebanon, Syria and Iran in disguise. Mughniyeh's last public appearance was believed to be at the funeral of his brother Fuad, who was killed on Dec. 12, 1994, when a booby-trapped car blew up in the southern suburb of Beirut.
In 2006, Mughniyeh was reported to have met with hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Syria. Tehran and the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guards have never publicly disclosed the extent of their links with their protege Hezbollah. On the Net:
http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/termugniyah.htm
World Bank urges opening up of Palestinian telecoms Wed Feb 13, 11:00 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The World Bank on Wednesday urged an opening up of the Palestinian telecommunications sector, saying this would yield far-reaching benefits to the overall economy. It also lamented that Israel had failed to free up frequencies for the second Palestininian mobile operator, Wataniya, preventing it from beginning to compete with the Jawwal unit of PalTel, which currently has a monopoly.Improved efficiency brought about through competition will reduce the cost of doing business in all sectors, lower the cost of telecommunications services to consumers and help increase government revenues, said a statement issued in Jerusalem.
Also, by developing the capacity to regulate the largest monopoly in the West Bank and Gaza and spur competition, the bank said the Palestinian Authority will develop its ability to provide a better regulatory environment in the entire economy.Agreements between Israel and the Palestinians prohibit Israeli operators from providing service in the West Bank and Gaza, but the World Bank said these companies nonetheless account for 20 percent of the market.The bank said the delay in giving frequencies to Wataniya means the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority has not received the 355 million dollars due to it for the sale of the licence and that the company has made little of the badly needed 600 million dollars in investment it has promised.It added that the delay will cost the Authority 13 million in revenues in the first year and 28 million in the second.Wataniya was awarded the licence in 2006, but objections from the Israeli army have led to the frequencies not being made available.At a meeting with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in January, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised to break the impasse, but this has not yet happened.The World Bank said it also recommended that the Palestinian telecommunications ministry issue new licences in the data sector and issue frequencies for eventual wireless data licences.And it called on the Palestinian Authority to regulate and monitor anticompetitive behaviour, including the concentration of monopoly power in PalTel.
Ex-Israeli generals denounce checkpoints By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 13, 9:55 AM ET
JERUSALEM - A group of retired Israeli generals has launched a campaign urging the army to remove West Bank roadblocks, warning on Wednesday that the travel restrictions sow Palestinian hatred of Israel and stymie the peace process. The 12 top former commanders say the hundreds of checkpoints dotting the West Bank are excessive and other military means can be used to prevent suicide bombings in Israel.The Palestinians have long demanded that Israel remove the roadblocks as a way to build faith in recently renewed peace talks.
The generals have written a letter to Defense Minister Ehud Barak in an effort to persuade him to gradually remove the checkpoints, which severely restrict movement of the some 2 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and have crippled their economy. Israel maintains the checkpoints are vital for its security.You have to understand that there is damage in having the Palestinian people with its back to the wall, not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, unable to improve their economy, unable to move from place to place, Ilan Paz, a signatory of the letter and a former head of the army's administration of Palestinian civilian affairs, told Israel Radio. This creates a reality that creates terror, and we have to remember that.Barak, currently on a visit to Turkey, was not immediately available for comment, and the Israeli army declined to comment.The retired commanders hope to persuade defense officials to make a gesture to the Palestinians and thus give Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a free hand in peace talks, said Shlomo Brom, another signatory and a former chief of the army's planning division.The removal of the checkpoints is a key issue in the U.S-backed negotiations now under way between the sides, who have said they aim to reach a final peace agreement this year. The talks were renewed after a high-profile peace meeting in November in Annapolis, Md., sponsored by President Bush.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians are seeking an independent state in those territories.The feeling of humiliation and the hate the roadblocks create increase the tendency of Palestinians to join militant groups and Hamas, Brom said. I think that this can help the peace process. Of course the goal is to help the ... plans of Olmert in striving for a peace agreement.As an alternative, Brom suggested using mobile army forces to set up temporary checkpoints when they receive concrete information of militant activity.We believe these alternatives are no worse than the movement restrictions in preventing terror attacks, said Paz.
Brom noted that the current measures, which include impassable dirt barriers and permanent checkpoints where Palestinians can only pass after showing permits to soldiers, are not entirely effective.He added that Israel should quickly complete construction of its separation barrier with the West Bank, which has proven effective in keeping out suicide bombers. The planned 490-mile barrier, a complex of concrete walls and electronic fence, is two-thirds complete.The removal of checkpoints also would bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel's partner in peace talks, in facing the militant Hamas and preventing its takeover of the West Bank, Brom said.Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in fighting with Abbas-allied forces in June.West Bank checkpoints didn't prevent a suicide bombing in the southern town of Dimona last week, Brom noted. One woman was killed and 11 wounded in the attack, in which two bombers sneaked from the West Bank city of Hebron through a section of the barrier that is not yet completed.The 12 former generals who signed the letter include retired chiefs of army branches that oversee the civil affairs of Palestinians in occupied areas and the former commander of the Hebron area. Other signatories include a former police commissioner and two former directors of Israel's Foreign Ministry.
As part of the ongoing peace talks, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni may meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week during a trip to the United States this week, officials said. The talks have been marred by ongoing Palestinian rocket fire from Hamas-controlled Gaza and by disputes over Israeli construction in east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed but which the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state. On Wednesday, the Palestinians' top negotiator sharply protested an Israeli plan announced Tuesday to build more than 1,000 new apartments in Jewish neighborhoods in the city's eastern sector. Ahmed Qureia called the plan a declaration of war on the peace process, and said it aimed at sabotaging and paralyzing any efforts for real work toward real peace in the area.
US mulls whether to promote peace at expense of attack victims Tue Feb 12, 4:57 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said Tuesday it was mulling whether to back a Palestinian bid to avoid paying compensation to US victims of attacks in favor of a broader interest in promoting peace talks. The State Department confirmed it might support efforts by the Palestinian Authority to avoid payments in cases won by the families of American victims of such attacks -- as reported by the Washington Post newspaper.It's a matter of current litigation, and the US government is taking a look at what, if anything, it will do in terms of offering a statement of interest, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.No decision has been taken, he said.Look, we are absolutely committed to defending the rights of our citizens. We are also fully committed to pursuing our national interest and defending our national interest, he said.At this point, I don't have anything to offer in terms of a decision one way or another on this particular issue. We'll keep you apprised in the coming days if there's any change, he added.
The Post said that the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and other senior officials have been linked to specific attacks mentioned in lawsuits by Americans.But it added that Palestinian officials have argued that it was illogical for the US government to give millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority while US courts were threatening it with bankruptcy.The administration of President George W. Bush last November launched the first serious peace talks in seven years between the moderate Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government.
