Hezbollah Is A Terrorist Group

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A senior Hezbollah official has told the BBC that Iran is providing the group with money to help fund its reconstruction activities in Lebanon.

Kassam Allaik said Iran also had its own groups in Lebanon, rebuilding bridges, roads and mosques.

Lebanon's Finance Minister, Jihad Azour, also acknowledged that Iranian money is going directly to Hezbollah.

Mr Azour said that he is trying to persuade Iran to finance the relief effort through the government.

Since the end of the conflict with Israel, Hezbollah has shifted focus from fighting to reconstruction.

It has paid lump sums of cash to the 15,000 or so households which lost their homes in the fighting and it has organised teams of engineers to help with the rebuilding.

'Direct transfer'

Mr Allaik, the head of Hezbollah's construction arm - Jihad Construction - has admitted that Iran is providing funds directly to Hezbollah to help the reconstruction effort.

He said that Iran also has its own groups in Lebanon rebuilding bridges, roads, mosques and schools


Kassem Allaik is in charge of Hezbollah's construction arm

Mr Azour has said that he has been in talks with Iranian officials who had promised to direct funds through the Lebanese government but so far no money has been received.

"Iran is officially providing assistance to Hezbollah, but the reconstruction is done by the government," Mr Azour said.

"The government repaired electricity, repaired telecommunication, repaired the roads, repaired the water. And the government is compensating for the loss of houses," he said.

"Therefore what Iran is giving is a direct transfer to a political party, not to Lebanon as a country, as a state, if you want."

Tensions are growing between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah in the aftermath of the conflict with Israel.

Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has threatened to organise street protests later this month to push for a government of national unity in a bid to increase his influence.

And the issue of funding for reconstruction is a sensitive one, especially as many people in southern Beirut and the south of Lebanon have been crediting Hezbollah rather than the Lebanese government for the rebuilding so far.

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Peter MacKay calls Hezbollah 'Taliban on steroids'

OTTAWA - Calling them the ''Taliban on steroids,'' Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay on Wednesday accused the Hezbollah terrorist organization, with the backing of Syria and Iran, of plotting to overthrow the Lebanese government.

MacKay's comments echoed an assessment by the White House hours earlier that said there was ''mounting evidence'' the two countries that fund and support the Lebanese-based militia were plotting to topple the elected government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

''That's always a concern. We saw that Hezbollah are a terrorist organization armed to the teeth. I'm mean they're like the Taliban on steroids,'' MacKay told reporters Wednesday when asked about Washington's assessment. ''They're a very dangerous organization, that we are concerned are still receiving armaments coming into the country, even with a blockade. The Syrians and the Iranians have been doing so in the past. We're concerned that that continues.''

The White House issued a written statement earlier that said it was ''increasingly concerned by mounting evidence that the Syrian and Iranian governments, Hezbollah and their Lebanese allies are preparing plans to topple Lebanon's democratically elected government led by Prime Minister Siniora.''

The statement said there were ''indications'' Syria was trying to prevent Siniora's government from enacting a law that would approve the international tribunal that would send to trial those accused of killing the popular ex-Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri last year.

Syria is named in a United Nations report of masterminding the death of the former Lebanese leader.

The White House said attempts to destabilize the Siniora government could take the form of ''manufactured demonstrations and violence or by physically threatening its leaders" and would constitute a violation of Lebanon's sovereignty and violate several UN resolutions.

''We're making it clear to everybody in the region that it ought to be hands off the Siniora government,'' said White House spokesman Tony Snow. ''We are committed to the success and stability of the Siniora government and we want to make it clear to everybody in the region that that's a priority.''

Hezbollah has called for a national unity government and threatened public protests to rally support for elections.

Washington and Ottawa have been in virtual lock step in their policy towards the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict since it escalated this summer.

MacKay's comments Wednesday are in keeping with the hard line taken by the Harper Conservatives against Hezbollah and its unwavering support of Israel since this summer's conflict between the two entities.

Israel attacked Hezbollah positions inside Lebanon after two of its soldiers were kidnapped in July forcing a land, sea and air offensive that lasted more than a month.

A naval blockade remains in place to prevent Hezbollah from rearming.

MacKay's comments came after testifying before the Senate foreign affairs committee about the government's efforts this past summer to evacuate 15,000 Canadians from Lebanon during that crisis. MacKay said the government would re-examine the 29-year-old law governing dual citizenship of Canadians, but made clear that most of that work would be done at the Citizenship and Immigration Department.

He said nearly 15,000 Canadians were evacuated and disclosed for the first time that 7,000 of those people returned to Lebanon.

''Citizenship and Immigration are going to be looking at some of these issues around dual passports and dual citizenship,'' MacKay said. ''These are the type of things that people have in mind: What are the obligations, responsibilities that citizens hold when they leave the country and how do we proceed in the future to see that we're keeping expectations real?''

The Conservative government's review of the dual nationality requirements won support from opposition members of the committee as well as from Conservative senators.

Liberal Senator Eymard Corbin questioned whether some dual nationals were treating their Canadian passports as ''ships of convenience.''

The government originally said that it would absorb the full cost of the evacuation, which amounted to $63 million according to federal estimates released this week.

MacKay said Wednesday that he expected to cost to rise as high as $85 million.

''That includes the cost from other departments. I'm in a difficult position to try to estimate what the cost from the Department of National Defence will be'' or from the Immigration department, he added.

Ottawa Citizen

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Mideast expert: Hezbollah can’t be allowed to rearm

Is Hezbollah rearming? That is one of the most crucial questions facing Israel in a post-war landscape.


The terrorist group must not be allowed to rearm, stressed Middle East analyst David Schenker. Otherwise, this summer’s costly war in Lebanon will be “all for naught,” Schenker said during a Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland forum held at B’nai Jeshurun Congregation Oct. 24. The forum was sponsored by Federation’s 2007 Campaign for Jewish Needs.

Schenker, a senior fellow in Arab politics at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a featured commentator on NBC, NPR and “Politically Incorrect,” believes the degradation of Hezbollah’s missile capability was the one accomplishment that Israel could point to from the war.

In most aspects, however, the goateed Middle East expert views the conflict as a tactical and political “disaster” for the Jewish state. Over 1,000 Lebanese civilians were killed in the 34 days of fighting along with about 40 Israeli non-combatants. Moreover, Hezbollah was not destroyed.

Thousands of rockets bombarded northern Israel during the war; Schenker is not confident the international community or the Lebanese government will do enough to prevent a repeat performance.


UN special representative Terje Roed Larsen stated recently that Hezbollah is rearming, noted Schenker, and it’s well known Syria is giving light weapons to the terrorist group. The only question remaining is whether the rearming going on now involves heavy weapons.

“It’s probably headed in that direction,” Schenker asserted.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has made it clear that it will not do anything to stop the transport of missiles and other heavy arms. UNIFIL commander Alain Pellegrini was asked recently what he would do if Hezbollah were about to launch a rocket.

“He said he would beg them to stop,” Schenker said in a recent interview with The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

UNIFIL’s past exploits don’t exactly inspire confidence, Schenker told the audience. During Hezbollah’s cross-border ambush July 12, Hezbollah painted its trucks in UN colors, effectively duping a nearby UNIFIL observation post.


Another question mark is the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), which is supposed to disarm Hezbollah fighters as mandated by UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

It is unclear where LAF’s loyalties lie. The Lebanese army is largely made up of Shia Muslims, and Hezbollah is known throughout the Middle East as a Shia militant group.

Ultimately, a deadly rain of missiles may not come just from the north, noted Schenker. Kassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip have been falling on Sderot in recent weeks.

Groups like Hezbollah and Hamas (and their Syrian and Iranian supporters) know Israel cannot be destroyed. “Resistance” to what the Arab world views as Israel’s “occupation” of the region has nothing to do with delivering that “knockout blow,” remarked the analyst. Instead, Islamic extremists are biding their time with stinging s***mishes against the Jewish state, which they hope will result in an “accretion of will and power for Israel.” Perhaps then, these groups hope, Israel will crumble.


Hezbollah and other like-minded terror groups must not be allowed to gain the weapons with which to sting Israel, concluded Schenker. If they do, the true victor of this summer’s war will become very clear.

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IT'S a 12-year-old murder case and it looks like it has finally been cracked.

Eighty-five people were killed, and since last year we have known exactly who did it.

What is extraordinary is that among the people named in the new arrest warrants are former president of Iran Hashemi Rafsanjani, former intelligence chief Ali Fallahijan and former foreign minister Ali Ar Velayati.

The actual murderer, according to the investigators, was Lebanese Hezbollah member Ibrahim Hussein Berro.

The crime was a suicide truck bombing at the Argentine Israelite Mutual Aid Association Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in July 1994.

I met the prosecutor in this case, Dr Alberto Nisman, at the rebuilt AMIA building while participating in an American Jewish Committee diplomatic mission to South America last year.

Until his appointment, there had been a decade of political obfuscation and legal misconduct in this case. Dr Nisman, appointed by Argentinian President Nestor ***chner, has turned all that around.

The latest indictments are based on evidence that at a meeting in August 1993, attended by Rafsanjani, Fallahijan and Velayati, a decision was taken to attack the AMIA building with assistance from Iran's Lebanese terrorist client, Hezbollah.

It is also alleged that the explosives used in the bombing were smuggled into Argentina in the Iranian Embassy's diplomatic pouch.

Experts have always believed that the AMIA attack was probably carried out by Hezbollah. It is also widely believed that Hezbollah was behind another bombing two years earlier on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people.

In view of events like these, it never ceases to amaze me that some people insist that Hezbollah is a Lebanese "resistance" movement that only operates against Israel in southern Lebanon.

Terrorism experts say there are Iranian-funded operational cells of Hezbollah in 59 countries. The organisation has conducted bombings, suicide attacks and assassinations throughout South Amer-

ica, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

According to Dr Zachary Abuza, an expert on terrorism in South-East Asia who has just visited Australia, Hezbollah has cells in our region, too.

He has cited evidence that Hezbollah operates in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The most spectacular evidence of the danger it poses to Australia's neighbourhood came in March 1994 in Bangkok. Hezbollah, with Iranian intelligence assistance, prepared a huge truck bomb.

It was to be detonated outside the Israeli Embassy and would probably have killed dozens of bystanders.

However, it was thwarted when the driver of the truck had a traffic accident on the way to carry out his attack.

Iran views terrorism as a legitimate means to promote its strategic goals, including the elimination of Israel and the removal of pro-Western Middle East governments, and its theological aim: the expansion of its brand of Islamic fundamentalism throughout the world.

All three major Palestinian terrorist organisations attacking Israeli civilians -- Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade -- are dependent on funding and other help from Iran and Hezbollah.

Iran has consistently tried to foment terrorism against Israel every time there are signs of progress on peace with Palestinians.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for "wiping Israel off the map". Former president Rafsanjani, the one named in the AMIA case, speculated in 2001 that a nuclear conflict with Israel would be worth it since it would wipe out the Jewish state, but only "damage" the Muslim world.

I RAN is also a very likely conduit through which terrorist groups could acquire nuclear weapons. For example, the regime could hand them over as part of an effort to bring on an apocalypse leading to the messianiac age, something about which Ahmadinejad has speculated.

Alternatively, rogue elements in the radical Revolutionary Guards, who control most of Iran's most advanced weaponry, could pass them to their terrorist comrades.

By any measure, the Iranian regime constitutes a clear and present danger to its own people, the Middle East region and beyond.

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Argentina seeks arrest of former Iranian leader

An Argentine federal judge said on Thursday he was seeking the "international capture" of former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani and eight others in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center that killed 85 people.
A special prosecutor sought the order, alleging that the worst terrorist attack ever on Argentine soil was orchestrated by leaders of the Iranian government and entrusted to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah.

Speaking with journalists at his offices in the Argentine capital, Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral said he had ordered the "international capture" of Rafsanjani and eight others and was seeking the help of Interpol in his effort.

Although he did not specify whether he had already issued arrest warrants, he said he also was issuing an "international exhortation" to Iran to comply with his request, adding he had received "serious" evidence warranting detentions of the nine.

"How Interpol or the Iranian state evaluates this request is beyond my jurisdiction," added Canicoba Corral, cautioning that he expected the "diplomatic process will take a long time."

Separately, Iran's leading diplomatic envoy in Buenos Aires, said that his government would oppose efforts to detain Rafsanjani and other Iranian nationals.

Mohsen Baharvand, charge d'affaires for Iran in Argentina, called the case politically motivated and added Iranian officials would seek a meeting with Interpol officials challenging the order.

"We reject and condemn this accusation," Baharvand said, charging the Argentine case was "fraught with irregularities" and driven by US and Israeli interests.

There appeared to be a complete media blackout in Iran over the arrest warrants yesterday. No radio or TV reported the incident, and officials issued no comments.

The July 1994 bombing of the Jewish cultural center here killed 85 people and injured more than 200 others. Investigators say an explosives-packed van was driven up to the building and detonated.

Iran's government has vehemently denied any involvement in the attack.

Baharvand called the effort a "huge propaganda" campaign against his country, adding that Iran was "a scapegoat for the shortcomings of the countries that are not able to find the real perpetrators of this act."

Two special prosecutors on Oct. 25 urged Canicoba Corral to seek international and national arrest orders for Rafsanjani, who was Iran's president between 1989 and 1997 and is now the head of the Expediency Council, which mediates between parliament and the clerics in ruling the country.

Alberto Nisman, the lead prosecutor, said last month that the decision to attack the center "was undertaken in 1993 by the highest authorities" of the Iranian government at the time, and that the actual attack was entrusted to Hezbollah.

Nisman also asked Canicoba Corral to detain several other former Iranian officials, including intelligence chief Ali Fallahijan, foreign minister Ali Ar Velayati, two commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, two diplomats and a former Lebanese Hezbollah security chief for external affairs.

The judge confirmed he was seeking those men as well as Iran's former envoy to Argentina.

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Democrat win paves way for Mideast 'chaos'

The Democrats' midterm election victories last week and the subsequent resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent a message of American weakness to Syria that will likely result in "instability and chaos" in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, Lebanon's Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt said in a WND interview today.

Jumblatt is head of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party and is widely considered the most prominent anti-Syrian Lebanese politician.

He charged the Democrats' calls for a withdrawal from Iraq and for changes in U.S. Middle East policy in part emboldened the Syrian-backed Hezbollah militia to bolt the Lebanese parliament this past weekend and to threaten street protests that many say could easily turn violent.

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Would an editor who had never visited the scene of a photograph deliberately contradict the photographer's account of events? Is it possible that someone would change a caption that ends up incorrectly describing what took place? Moreover, would a prominent media outlet accept the claims of a terrorist organization over that of its own photographer?



Sounds hard to believe, but according to recent revelations by a photojournalist, this is exactly what happened with a photograph that was featured in Time Magazine during Israel's conflict with Hizbollah. A few months ago, Time Magazine published the above photograph with the caption below.




Hizbollah propagandists were busy throughout the war claiming that they were achieving military victories. The caption in Time (which was published one week after the incident) would have only given credibility to their claims.



The only problem was: it never happened. What follows is the account of the photographer, Bruno Stevens. (His entire account and anger at having his caption changed can be read on Lightstalkers, a website for professional news photographers)

Around 3:30 pm, I was in the office of Mr. Abisaad, the French press attache at the French Embassy, when Lebanese TV started to show looped footage of a large metallic object falling from the sky and exploding upon touching the ground, the subsequent fire seemed to be massive. The TV announced it as an Israeli jet being shot down over an army base in Kfar Chima about 4 miles from where I was. I took my car and rushed to the scene.

So Stevens rushed out to the scene to take pictures and see if the story broadcast on Lebanese television was accurate. It turns out, the story was not accurate at all. While his initial submission mentioned an "alleged Israeli jet" being shot down, Stevens quickly followed up and clarified that the destruction he photographed was from the explosion of a Hizbollah missile. The caption he submitted in the end makes no mention of an Israeli jet being shot down.



Look carefully at the following reverse angle picture that Stevens shot:



As Stevens himself describes, this picture is:

clearly a medium range ground to ground missile launcher hidden into a large truck that was the target of the Israeli raid. This is a very important piece of evidence showing probable collusion between Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army, there is little doubt that the Lebanese Army was aware of the presence of at least one missile launcher and at least one large missile on their parking lot. The size of the launcher, destroyed a couple of days later from the ground by an unknown party suggest missiles 10 to 14 meters long.



There were 6 to 8 large articulated trucks parked there, making it a very legitimate target for the Israeli Air Force, quite far away from civilian houses.

How does Stevens explain the caption switch. In his own words:

They choose to caption it this way (I had NO control in this matter), they HAD my original caption.

So the on-the-scene photographer collects evidence that this so called Hizbollah "victory" was a lie and in reality the result of a legitimate and successful Israeli attack on a military target. Furthermore, his picture is evidence of cooperation between the "neutral" Lebanese Army and the Hizbollah terror group. Even more compelling was that his pictures show evidence that rocket launchers were being hidden inside civilian trucks. Yet while these issues were ignored by his editors, the same editors rewrote his caption to create a story that never took place, a story that Hizbollah used for propaganda.

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Two suspected over Hezbollah cash

TWO Australian citizens suspected of sending thousands of dollars to Lebanon to help fund Hezbollah during the recent conflict with Israel are being investigated for allegedly breaching terror financing laws.
Australia's anti-money laundering regulator Austrac has identified at least five suspicious transactions involving two people after closely examining every financial transfer between Australia and Lebanon during the 57-day war.

Austrac's head of intelligence, John Visser, confirmed that an investigation was under way into a "network" suspected of providing financial assistance to the banned terror organisation, which launched more than 4000 Katyusha rockets into Israel during the conflict, killing 53 people and damaging 2000 homes.

The conflict from July 12 to September 8 resulted in about 1500 deaths. Many were civilians.

"One particular network was of interest," Mr Visser told a national security conference in Sydney on Wednesday.

"The people in that network have been picked up."

Mr Visser revealed that Austrac's specialist financial intelligence unit had linked two suspect transaction records to a name and an address and a further three suspect transaction records to another name.

But Mr Visser, citing official secrecy, refused to give further details, including whether the people had been arrested or charged with an offence, or the amounts involved.

An Australian Federal Police spokesman told The Australian they had not charged anyone in relation to the matter.

Hezbollah's terrorist arm, the External Security Organisation, is a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia and supporting its political and military wings isillegal under UN counter-terrorist financing declarations. Hezbollah, which was criticised for launching attacks on Israel while hiding within Lebanon's civilian population, is committed to creating a Shia Islamic state in the country.

At the time of the conflict, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock warned the Lebanese community in Australia it was illegal to provide financial support to Hezbollah.

The latest investigation comes after The Australian revealed last year that Tamils living in Australia were supporting the Tamil Tiger terrorist group in Sri Lanka.

Last year, domestic spy agency ASIO assured federal parliament's joint intelligence committee that the Hezbollah organisation had no active links to Australia.

The head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council of Australia, Kamal Mousselmani, told The Australian yesterday he had also assured ASIO at the beginning of the conflict that the Shia community would not provide any financial support to Hezbollah. He said his community often sent money to relatives in Lebanon, but not to Hezbollah.

He added that he was confident there was no organised financial support for Hezbollah in Australia.

"That's what we told ASIO," he said.

"There is no benefit in being with Hezbollah. We support our people in Lebanon, but not Hezbollah."

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is manager of research for the Coalition Against Terrorist Media, a project of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (www.defenddemocracy.org) in Washington

Gaza is exploding in violence. Street battles have been going on in the territory ever since Hamas took control of the government in January. These fights have ranged from s***mishes between Palestinian factions to military engagements between Hamas gunmen and the Israeli Defense Forces.

A standoff on Nov. 3 between the IDF and Hamas terrorists hiding inside a mosque illuminates a dangerous development: Hamas's use of the media as a weapon of terror.

Earlier that week, Israel launched a military offensive, "Operation Autumn Clouds," in an attempt to stop weapons smuggling and keep rockets from being fired at Israeli targets from Gaza. The IDF is trying to prevent Hamas and other terror groups from creating a Hezbollah-like terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

The standoff at a mosque in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun began when militants fleeing the IDF soldiers sought refuge there. The Israelis encircled the mosque, demanding the surrender of the terrorists inside, most of whom were believed to be members of the Ezzedin al-Qassim Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement.

Scenes like this are not unusual in the region. What was different in this case was how the 19-hour standoff came to a close. As options for the gunmen began to diminish, a Hamas-run radio station in Gaza, Sawt al-Aqsa (Voice of al-Aqsa), put out a message over the airwaves calling on Palestinian women to act as human shields for the terrorists inside the mosque. Hundreds of women responded, placing themselves between the gunmen and the IDF troops, allowing the armed men to escape under the cover of the mob.

The international media heavily reported the story, with a focus on the fact that two of the women who rushed out as human shields were accidentally killed. What is not being discussed is how Hamas used its own media arm to allow scores of armed terrorists to escape almost certain capture, nor how Hamas has repeatedly used its media properties to recruit suicide bombers, incite violent attacks, raise money, and provide direct operational support for terrorists.

The Sawt al-Aqsa radio station is just one part of a web of Hamas media properties, including newspapers, magazines, Internet sites, and radio and television stations. Hamas' television station, also called al-Aqsa, began broadcasting in January, just in time to reinforce Hamas' violent message to Palestinians heading to the polls. The station, modeled after Hezbollah's al-Manar television in Lebanon, uses "news reports," music videos, and fiery speeches to inspire acts of violence and inculcate hate against Jews and the West.

Hamas hopes to soon launch an international broadcast of its television station. It recently began testing its signal via the Saudi-owned Arabsat satellite system, which reaches millions of homes across the Middle East, Northern Africa and Europe, and which already broadcasts Hezbollah's al-Manar.

Hamas is a terrorist group founded to fight against its Jewish neighbors. It has carried out scores of suicide bombings, killing hundreds of people and injuring thousands more. Violence is inherent in the DNA of the movement.

The United States and Europe must recognize the threat posed by Hamas' media, and reject arguments by those who see terrorist media as yet another form of free expression.

Just as the U.S. government designated al-Manar as a terrorist organization, it should do the same for al-Aqsa. This would put strict limits on the kinds of business that U.S. companies and banks can do with the station - a potentially crippling economic hit for a movement already facing a cash crunch.

The European Union, likewise, should prevent Hamas TV from being carried on European satellites. Private-sector companies, which had advertised on al-Manar until being alerted to its true nature, must also refuse to purchase commercial space on the Hamas station.

Further, U.S. and European officials must put more pressure on the Saudi government, which is the majority owner of Arabsat, to deny al-Aqsa, as well as al-Manar, distribution over their satellites. Saudi Arabia portrays itself as an ally against terrorism; removing al-Manar and al-Aqsa television would certainly help improve its shaky image in this regard.

The proliferation of terrorist-controlled media outlets represents a direct threat to any country that it reaches. Taking them off the international airwaves is not an assault on free speech, but rather a legitimate effort to save lives.

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The assassination of Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, a vocal opponent of Syrian involvement in the country and a leader of the country's Maronite Christian minority, shows the dangers of engaging terrorist states in dialogue as if they were not rational actors, as James Baker and other proponents of the "realist" world view seem to believe.

It seems fairly certain that Syria and its allies in Hezbollah, smarting at the loss of influence in Lebanon and wanting to halt the investigation into the Hariri by whatever means necessary, had a hand in what was correctly labeled a terrorist attack. Hezbollah and its allies in Amal are actively working to destabilize the current government in hopes of extracting more power. Syria and Iran are among the most powerful forces moving the Lebanese drama.

The timing of the attack on Gemayel is interesting. With the Baker Commisson clearly leaning toward recommending a U.S. dialogue with Iran and Syria on Iraq, the two terrorist sponsors are now the new power players in the region. The Bush administration will need them to implement the recommended changes on its Iraq policy, and, since the mid-term elections, is already operating from a position of weakness.

But the price of seriously engaging Syria and Iran will be enormously high. It may be viewed as necessary, but ultimately it will be extremely high.

Hezbollah, according to recent intelligence estimates, receives some $200 million a year in combined revenue from Iran, Syria, and diasporas in West Africa and Latin America, particularly the Tri-Border Area. That is a significant amount of money that enables it to be a political force far beyond its natural constituency. It has shown its willingness to carry out terrorist attacks against the United States and against other countries at the behest of Iran (the Buenos Aires bombing in the mid 1990s).

Giving Iran and Syria-and their allies in Lebanon-a favored seat at the negotiating table, and before negotiations have even begun, to give them the upper hand, is a dangerous proposition.

I cannot say it more clearly than Michael Young, the opinion editor of the Daily Star in Beirut, who wrote this in the Wall Street Journa toady_before_ Gamayel was killed:

"It is not clear to many in Washington that asking Syria and Iran for help in Iraq, if that's what the Iraq Study Group advises, will drastically limit the administration's ability to deny both countries' gains in Lebanon. For Syria and Iran, Lebanon is vital in their broader quest for power in the Middle East. They will collect there on whatever is offered to the Americans in Iraq, and the retreating administration already has far fewer means to prevent this.

"Mr. Baker and his fellow realists, custodians of stalemate in their own way, want the U.S. to return to its previous approach to the region, where interests defined behavior more than values--particularly democracy. But if engagement with Syria, or even Iran, is on the cards, then the U.S. might have to surrender the one genuine triumph it can point to after Mr. Bush formulated a democratic project for the Middle East: the peaceful, popular overthrow by the Lebanese of Syria's debilitating domination. The U.S. might also find itself having to relinquish that all-too-rare happening in the region: a vigorous international legal process that promises to punish a state-sponsored crime. Yielding on Lebanon will not advance American interests; it will only damage them more, turning the severe setbacks in Iraq into a full-scale regional rout."

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