Imad Mugniyeh: More Dangerous Than Osama?
January 29, 2007
CBNNews.com - Newsweek Magazine picks up this week on an individual we've profiled at length at CBN News: Hezbollah "superterrorist" Imad Mugniyeh. Who is Mugniyeh? Merely the innovator of today's jihadi terrorism, and an inspiration to everyone from Osama bin Laden to Hassan Nasrallah. Here's a brief sampling of his "greatest hits," from a blog I posted back in July:
For starters, Mugniyeh, a Lebanese native, is the commander of Hezbollah's military wing. He is one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, right behind Osama bin Laden and Aymann al-Zawahiri. He's been behind some of the most notorious terrorist attacks of the past 20 years, including the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. Marines.
He now resides in Iran. And that's only the beginning.
The Newsweek piece has some additional interesting tidbits about Mugniyeh:
Four serving U.S. intel and counterterrorism officials, anonymous when discussing sensitive material, said Mughniyeh is prominent in recent reporting from the field about Hizbullah activity. Bruce Riedel, a veteran Mideast expert recently retired from the CIA, told NEWSWEEK there is "no question he is heavily involved in terrorist contingency plans in case of a U.S.-Iran confrontation."
And that's not all.
So what is Mughniyeh up to? Two of the U.S. officials interviewed by NEWSWEEK said field reports indicate that he travels between Beirut, Damascus and Tehran. One official said that some reports also suggest he has visited Baghdad. According to Riedel, Mughniyeh is Hizbullah's chief of "external operations," and keeps in touch with cells around the world. FBI and other counterterror officials have said they believe Hizbullah has recruitment and fund-raising cells in the United States. "He is the brain behind all Hizbullah's military activity," says Lt. Col. Guy Hazoot, operations officer of the Galilee Brigade on Israel's northern border.
One wonders how much involvement Mugniyeh continues to have in attacks like this in Iraq against U.S. forces.
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