FWD: Jane's Security Digest

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Jane's Security Digest - the whole text


19 September 2001
Who did it? Foreign Report presents an alternative view

Israel's military intelligence service, Aman, suspects that Iraq is
the state that sponsored the suicide attacks on the New York Trade
Center and the Pentagon in Washington. Directing the mission, Aman
officers believe, were two of the world's foremost terrorist
masterminds: the Lebanese Imad Mughniyeh, head of the special
overseas operations for Hizbullah, and the Egyptian Dr Ayman Al
Zawahiri, senior member of Al-Qaeda and possible successor of the
ailing Osama Bin Laden.

The two men have not been seen for some time. Mughniyeh is probably
the world's most wanted outlaw. Unconfirmed reports in Beirut say he
has undergone plastic surgery and is unrecognisable. Zawahiri is
thought to be based in Egypt. He could be Bin Laden's chief
representative outside Afghanistan.

The Iraqis, who for several years paid smaller groups to do their
dirty work, were quick to discover the advantages of Al-Qaeda. The
Israeli sources claim that for the past two years Iraqi intelligence
officers were shuttling between Baghdad and Afghanistan, meeting with
Ayman Al Zawahiri. According to the sources, one of the Iraqi
intelligence officers, Salah Suleiman, was captured last October by
the Pakistanis near the border with Afghanistan. The Iraqis are also
reported to have established strong ties with Imad Mughniyeh.

"We've only got scraps of information, not the full picture," admits
one intelligence source, "but it was good enough for us to send a
warning six weeks ago to our allies that an unprecedented massive
terror attack was expected. One of our indications suggested that
Imad Mughniyeh met with some of his dormant agents on secret trips to
Germany. We believe that the operational brains behind the New-York
attack were Mughniyeh and Zawahiri, who were probably financed and
got some logistical support from the Iraqi Intelligence Service
(SSO)."

Mughniyeh was the only one believed to have tried it before. On April
12th 1997, he was reported to be only two hours away from achieving
the highest goal of any terrorist organisation (until last week):
blowing up an Israeli El-Al airliner above Tel Aviv. A man carrying a
forged British passport with the name Andrew Jonathan Neumann was in
a Jerusalem hotel preparing a bomb he was supposed to take on board
an El-Al flight leaving Israel, when it accidentally went off. Andrew
Jonathan Neumann was very badly injured but strong enough to reveal
later to the Israelis that he was not British but Lebanese, and that
his operation was supposed to be a special "gift" to Israel from Imad
Mughniyeh.

`A psychopath'

"Bin Laden is a schoolboy in comparison with Mughniyeh," says an
Israeli who knows Mughniyeh . "The guy is a genius, someone who
refined the art of terrorism to its utmost level. We studied him and
reached the conclusion that he is a clinical psychopath motivated by
uncontrollable psychological reasons, which we have given up trying
to understand. The killing of his two brothers by the Americans only
inflamed his strong motivation."

Experts on Iraq and Saddam Hussein also believe that Iraq was the
state behind the two terror masterminds. "In recent months, there was
a change, and Iraq decided to get into the terror business. On July
7th, they tried for the first time to send a suicide bomber, trained
in Baghdad, to blow up Tel Aviv airport (Foreign Report No. 2651)."

Our sources believe that it will be very difficult to get to the
bottom of this unprecedented terror operation. However, they believe
the chief of the Iraqi SSO is Qusai Hussein, the dictator's son, and
his organisation is the most likely to have been involved.

Mughniyeh, 48, is a "sick man", says an intelligence officer who was
in charge of his file. He is considered by Western intelligence
agencies as the most dangerous active terrorist today. He is wanted
by several governments and the Americans have put a $2m reward on his
head.

[Detailed list of Mughniyeh operations removed for Non-Subscriber
Extract]

It was the assassination of one man in March 1984 that is said to
have made Mughniyeh the CIA's most wanted terrorist. Mughniyeh
allegedly kidnapped the head of the CIA station in Beirut, William
Buckley. The kidnapping triggered what later became known
as `Irangate', when the Americans tried to exchange Buckley (and
others) with arms for Iran. However, the attempt ended in a fiasco.
By one unconfirmed account, Mughniyeh tortured and killed Buckley
with his own hands.

A year later, in a combined CIA/Mossad operation, a powerful car bomb
went off at the entrance to the house of Hizbullah's spiritual
leader, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah. Seventy-five people were
killed. One of them was his brother. Hunted by the CIA and the
Mossad, Mughniyeh hid in Iran.

In February 1992, Israeli helicopter gunships attacked the convoy of
the then head of Hizbullah, Sheikh Abas Musawi, in South Lebanon.
Musawi, his wife and children were killed and the revenge attack
followed a month later. According to press reports, Mughniyeh was
called back into action and, in a well-planned and devastating
attack, his people blew up the Israeli embassy in Argentina. The
building was demolished and 92 were killed. Only last year, after a
long investigation, did Argentina issue a warrant for Mughniyeh's
arrest.

The reprisal for the attack in Argentina came in December 1994, when
a car bomb went off in a southern Shi'ite suburb of Beirut. Four
people were killed. One of them was called Mughniyeh, but to the deep
disappointment of those Israelis who planted the bomb it was the
wrong one. Mughniyeh's life was saved, but his other brother Fuad was
killed. Mughniyeh waited for his opportunity for revenge.

Our Israeli sources claim to see Mughniyeh's signature on the
wreckage in New York and Washington. How to counter this kind of
terrorism? "To fight these bastards you don't need a military
attack," said an experienced Israeli commando officer. "You only need
to adopt Israel's assassination policy."


Kurt-Werner Pörtner