W. Thomas Smith Jr.

Hizballah’s thugs are at it again – as they so-often are despite scant-if-any media coverage of their ongoing activities aimed at achieving complete political and military dominance over Lebanon, which is why their operations are so often successful in that country. And it is why their strategic/political leverage continues to strengthen unabated.

Saturday, members of the Shia terrorist organization and their allies reportedly attacked members of the pro-democracy March 14 movement whom – representing a majority in that country – were marching and speaking out against Hizballah’s leaders following a Beirut rally commemorating the 4th anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Several March 14 members were injured; and one man, Lutfi Zein Eddine, was killed (reportedly stabbed multiple times as he attempted to shield his son, who was wounded in the attack).

According to sources, “Police watched from a distance and did not intervene.”

Naturally, Hizballah denies having any responsibility in the man’s death. They often do deny such things, and they get away with it. In fact they always get away with murder, and are even rewarded on those rare occasions that they do accept responsibility. Remember May 2008.

Some Lebanese media – to include some international correspondents – try to paint Hizballah as a somewhat misunderstood religious-based political party (with, ahem, military grade weapons). But Hizballah is clearly one of the most dangerous, expanding terrorist organizations on Earth. And nobody is permitted to speak out against Hizballah. Nor is any reporter to attempt to accurately report the strength and activities of Hizballah until Hizballah is ready – if ever – for those activities to be disclosed.

As we have exhaustively reported, Hizballah – the so-called “party of God,” which rules a Shia kingdom inside the sovereign state of Lebanon, and which gained enormous strategic/political leverage when they turned their so-called weapons of resistance against the Lebanese government and citizenry in May 2008 – is in the words of former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin S. Indyk, ”a premier terrorist organization. Beyond that, it has built up an independent military capability that is greater than the military capabilities of the Lebanese armed forces.”

Let’s recap what I have been reporting since 2007:

• Hizballah is trained, equipped, and heavily financed (an estimated one-billion dollars annually) by Iran, and the organization is operationally supported by both Iran and Syria.
• Hizballah is expanding its base, and the organization is increasing its global reach.
• Hizballah has “conducted very large, spectacular” terrorist operations worldwide.
• Hizballah has defiantly refused to surrender its arms in Lebanon as called for under United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701.
• Hizballah has demonstrated time-and-again since May 2008 that it has no qualms about overtly killing Lebanese civilians as a means of furthering the organization’s aims.
• Hizballah has heavily infiltrated the Lebanese Army.
• Hizballah, since May, has wormed its way into position as an official component of the overall Lebanese Defense apparatus.

Yesterday Hizballah’s attacks against those who would speak the truth resulted in Zein Eddine’s death. His son, Shadi, was treated in a hospital and released.

Our sources also tell us, members of the pro-democracy movement traveling toward northern Lebanon were attacked by Hizballah’s allies, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and others.

“The pro-democracy majority turned out in enormous numbers,” says Tom Harb, secretary general of the World Council of the Cedars Revolution. “They want 1559 implemented. They want justice for the killing of Hariri. But Hizballah and their allies keep trying to undermine democratic progress.”

Harb adds, “The current U.S. administration must understand the dangers of Hizballah and the Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah axis. To rush into dialogue would be a huge mistake, because the terrorists and terrorist supporters will perceive themselves as having been granted greater leverage.”