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BBC: Syria 'to name Mughniyeh killer'
BBC ^ | Friday, 15 February 2008, 13:39 GMT | BBC Staff

Posted on 02/15/2008 7:34:09 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach

Syria 'to name Mughniyeh killer'

Mobile phone video footage of the blast (al-Alam TV)

Iranian TV said a booby-trapped car had exploded next to Mughniyeh's

Syria has said it will soon present "irrefutable" proof of who was behind the killing of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh in the capital, Damascus.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem would not discuss the ongoing investigation, but insisted the world would "soon hear the results of this mighty effort".

Meanwhile, Iranian TV has broadcast a video reportedly of Tuesday's bombing.

On Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah blamed Israel for the blast and warned it was ready for "open war".

Israel has rejected the claims, but nonetheless has put its embassies around the world on high alert and boosted troop deployments on the Lebanese border.

'Secret investigation'

Speaking after meeting his Iranian counterpart in Damascus, Mr Moualem said the Syrian security services had devoted huge resources to their investigation into "this despicable crime" and would soon unmask the killer.

The fighter Imad Mughniyeh was the target of lots of intelligence agencies - he was a backbone of the Islamic resistance

Walid al-Moualem
Syrian Foreign Minister


"As a state, we will irrefutably prove the party involved in this crime and who stands behind it. An investigation is ongoing," he told reporters on Thursday. "We hope that you will soon hear the results of this mighty effort."

Mr Moualem declined to say whether the security forces had detained anyone in connection with the attack or name the chief suspects.

"I cannot comment to preserve the secrecy of the investigation," he said.

"The fighter Imad Mughniyeh was the target of lots of intelligence agencies. He was a backbone of the Islamic resistance."

Nevertheless, Mr Moualem asserted Mughniyeh's death had "assassinated all efforts for peace" between Syria and Israel.

IMAD MUGHNIYEH

Undated photograph of Imad Mughniyeh released by Hezbollah

Born southern Lebanon 1962

Indicted for 1985 hijack of TWA airliner

Accused of involvement in 1990s Buenos Aires bombings

On FBI Most Wanted list since 2001


The two countries remain technically at war and tensions between them have risen in recent months, with Israeli jets violating Syrian airspace and the government demanding Damascus abandon its support for Hezbollah.

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, was, however, adamant that Israel lay behind Tuesday's bombing.

"The Zionist entity will not harvest the fruit," he warned.

On Friday morning, the Iranian Arabic-language TV channel, al-Alam, broadcast what it said was footage taken with a mobile phone of the bombing.

The report claimed the video showed the explosion of a booby-trapped car parked next to Mughniyeh's vehicle. It said the bomb was detonated by remote control.

'Open war'

Mr Moualem's comments came hours after Sheikh Nasrallah blamed Israel for his death and said its war against the Jewish state was not over.

"Zionists, if you want this sort of open war, then let the whole world hear, so be it!" he told crowds of mourners at Mughniyeh's funeral in Beirut.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah 14/2/08
Nasrallah blamed Israel for Imad Mughniyeh's assassination

Sheikh Nasrallah said that Israel thought that killing "would lead to the destruction of the resistance... but they are wrong".

"The blood of Imad Mughniyeh will make them [Israel] withdraw from existence," he insisted.

Mughniyeh, in his late 40s, had been variously described as special operations or intelligence chief of Hezbollah's secretive military wing, the Islamic Resistance.

He was top of the US "most wanted" list until he was replaced by Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders following the 11 September 2001 attacks.

Analysts say his death is a significant blow to Hezbollah, which battled Israel in the 2006 Lebanon war with help from its Iranian and Syrian backers.

Hezbollah was founded in 1982 by a group of Shia Muslim clerics after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It has emerged in recent years as a major political and military force in Lebanon, after military successes against Israel.




TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: hezbollah; iran; iraq; israel; jordan; mughniyeh; mugniah; mugnieh; syria
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To: Mach5
i think this thread has an embedded link to some discussion on ...who done the deed:

Who Was Imad Mughniyeh?

21 posted on 02/15/2008 7:54:29 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (No Burkas for my Grandaughters!)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Let’s see.....1) The Great Satan (USA) 2) The Little Satan (Israel)......man, I bet that took them HOURS to come up with.


22 posted on 02/15/2008 7:55:35 AM PST by Eagle of Liberty (Ownership, Individuality, Freedom, Responsibility - The Backbone of Conservatism)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Report: Palestinians arrested in Mugniyah assassination investigation

A Lebanese security sources said Friday that a joint investigation by Syria, Iran and Hizbullah into the assassination of senior Hizbullah commander Imad Mugniyah was well under way and suspects had been arrested in Damascus.

The suspects arrested were mostly Palestinians residing in Syria, the Lebanese source said.

-------------------------------------

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3507229,00.html

I'm guessing these are probably people indirectly involved. They may have been providing assistance to Mossad or given help bypassing Mugniyah's security.

23 posted on 02/15/2008 7:56:32 AM PST by maquiladora
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To: SunkenCiv

And about the claim...

The report claimed the video showed the explosion of a booby-trapped car parked next to Mughniyeh's vehicle.

It looks to me like the explosion was in the car...that Mughniyeh was in.

24 posted on 02/15/2008 7:59:54 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (No Burkas for my Grandaughters!)
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To: Mach5

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1970437/posts

I think Iran did it. They have to sever loose strings before they are taken down.

Syria knows they’re going down a dead-end road with their Iranian alliance.


25 posted on 02/15/2008 8:00:36 AM PST by txhurl
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To: crosslink

ping to #12


26 posted on 02/15/2008 8:02:54 AM PST by txhurl
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To: Lurker
"Let me guess. It starts with an "I" and ends with an "L"."

You clever fellow, you are so right! The purpetrator is.....(drum roll)....

"It's Lurker L"!

:-)

27 posted on 02/15/2008 8:05:09 AM PST by Redleg Duke ("All gave some, and some gave all!")
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Syria announces that it has irrefutable evidence that the killers of Moughniyah are the International Jew and the Evil Imperialist Yankee. The Syrian Ministry of Propaganda then released the following illustration of the accused perps:


28 posted on 02/15/2008 8:05:35 AM PST by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
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To: Lurker
Let me guess. It starts with an "I" and ends with an "L".

Too easy. Remarkably enough, compounding a bad couple weeks for the Mormons, Syria will name THEM as the killer. :)

Who saw that coming? :)
29 posted on 02/15/2008 8:05:53 AM PST by Daus
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To: Alter Kaker

Miss Scarlet did it in the Dining Room with a candlestick...that whore.


30 posted on 02/15/2008 8:06:52 AM PST by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Mr Moualem declined to say whether the security forces had detained anyone in connection with the attack or name the chief suspects. "I cannot comment to preserve the secrecy of the investigation," he said.

They won't name Israel, unless they're already planning to go to war with Israel. I don't think they are ready or willing to go to war over this.

So what they'll do, is blame somebody from Lebanon or even Syria itself, who is an agent of a group that they will claim is funded or supported by the US or Israel. And then they'll go after this group, etc....

But what they'll really be doing, is going after the opponents of Bashir Assad. This will be Assad's excuse for purging the opposition without having to admit there is one.

31 posted on 02/15/2008 8:07:53 AM PST by r9etb
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To: jveritas; FARS; Ernest_at_the_Beach; knighthawk; Marine_Uncle; SandRat; Steel Wolf; CAP; ...
I read a report about 8 hours ago where a journalist talked to a lady near the site of the explosion; she said the police asked fewer questions of her than she’d have even asked had she been investigating. The dictatorship in Damascus will use this as a pretext for its ongoing war with Israel. Assad’s dictatorship should be destroyed for the blood it has on its hands. That blood includes Israelis, Lebanese, Americans, Iraqis, and our coalition partners in Iraq. Any hostile acts by Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran against any of our allies should lead to a massive and unremitting aerial onslaught against those aggressors to destroy their military infrastructures and their abilities to conduct war, with the specific minimum goal of not stopping until we have assured the destruction of their missiles and nuclear weapons programs. Regime change should be accomplished by those in Syria and Iran who prefer self-rule to the squalor of Syria's Baathist regime and Iran's mad mullah theocracy.
32 posted on 02/15/2008 8:08:10 AM PST by elhombrelibre (Al Qaeda: enemy of civilization and humanity.)
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To: MindBender26

it should only be so.


33 posted on 02/15/2008 8:09:11 AM PST by APRPEH (Fred, say it ain't so.......)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

I sure would like to take credit for this POS’s death.


34 posted on 02/15/2008 8:09:24 AM PST by ßuddaßudd (7 days - 7 ways Guero >>> with a floating, shifting, ever changing persona....)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Car bombs aren’t really the Israeli style...


35 posted on 02/15/2008 8:09:50 AM PST by GVnana ("They're still analyzing the first guy. What do I have to worry about?" - GWB)
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To: Mach5
There’s a train of thought in another FR thread that the Iranians did it to cover up their involvement with 9/11 - through Mughniyeh.

One thought immediately came to mind:

- "The Ezekiel Option" - by Joel C. Rosenberg, basically Russia and Iran stage an "incident" and blame it on USA and Israel to start an all-out campaign on Israel. Remember, Ahmadinejad has stated that he wishes to start events rolling which will bring forth the 12th imam.

Iran president paves the way for arabs' imam return
36 posted on 02/15/2008 8:10:57 AM PST by Eagle of Liberty (Ownership, Individuality, Freedom, Responsibility - The Backbone of Conservatism)
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To: maquiladora

Very interesting.


37 posted on 02/15/2008 8:11:46 AM PST by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we write in marble. JHuett)
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To: elhombrelibre

If the Syrians will be stupid enough to try to do something against Israel the terrorist regime in Damascus will be destroyed once and for all.


38 posted on 02/15/2008 8:12:06 AM PST by jveritas (God bless our brave troops and President Bush)
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To: jveritas

I certainly hope so; it is long overdue and well deserved.


39 posted on 02/15/2008 8:14:11 AM PST by elhombrelibre (Al Qaeda: enemy of civilization and humanity.)
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To: jveritas

J, have you seen this? Very under-discussed theory from Ken Timmerman

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1970437/posts

Gotcha! (Ken Timmerman interviewed on assassination of Imad Mugniyeh)


40 posted on 02/15/2008 8:16:52 AM PST by txhurl
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