Posted on 09/23/2001 6:56:48 PM PDT by vrwc54
JACK STRAW will begin his goodwill mission to Tehran by asking the whereabouts of one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, who is believed to be hiding in Iran. Israeli intelligence is among a growing number of security agencies that suspect Imad Mughniyeh, the man behind the kidnapping of Terry Waite and other Western hostages in Beirut, played a significant role in organising the simultaneous suicide hijacks in the United States. Mughniyeh was a founder of the Hezbollah suicide squads in Lebanon and is suspected of masterminding at least six previous hijackings. There is no suggestion that President Khatami’s Government has any links with him.Mughniyeh is understood to have left his home in Tehran and fled south to the religious city of Qom, where he claims to be studying the Koran. Sheltered by militant clerics, he is believed to have met some of Osama bin Laden’s key lieutenants in recent months.
Foreign Office officials say that Mr Straw will show his confidence in President Khatami by sharing some of the suspicions of the intelligence services about Mughniyeh’s recent role.
Intelligence officers studying previous hijacks are sure that they detect the hand of Mughniyeh behind the US operation in the use of pocket knives and scissors, rather than guns.
One diplomatic source said: “There is no reason why the Foreign Secretary’s visit would be soured by raising the issue of this man. Iran has condemned what happened in the United States and says it will help in any way it can. It could be they know things about this man’s recent movements, or it could be he now lives elsewhere in the region.”
President Khatami is not thought to have sufficent influence with those sheltering Mughniyeh to persuade them to hand him over, presuming that he has not already left Iran. There is embarrassment among Western governments that the man responsible for some of the world’s worst terrorist atrocities is still at large after 20 years.
President Bush’s father put a $2 million (£1.4 million) bounty on Mughniyeh’s head after his old friend, William Buckley, the CIA station chief, was taken hostage and tortured to death. Recordings of Mr Buckley’s merciless interrogation were heard by George Bush Sr, who, in similar language used by his son, said that Mughniyeh would be taken dead or alive.
Mughniyeh now boasts of surviving several US-backed assassination attempts that killed two of his brothers. His suicide squads in Lebanon are blamed for the attack on the US Marine base in Beirut that killed more than 300 in 1983, the lorry bomb at the US Embassy where 63 died and the bombing of the Embassy annexe the following year, which killed 14.
It is his ruthless proficiency as a hijacker, however, that is preoccupying security agencies. One of the hijackers who flew into the World Trade Centre is thought to have been among the team that seized an Air India flight on Christmas Eve, 1999.
Flight IC814 was on its way from Kathmandu to Delhi when it was hijacked by a gang wielding knives and scissors. The hijackers stabbed Rupin Katiyal, 25, who was returning from his honeymoon, and ordered other passengers to watch him bleed to death. The hijackers also stabbed members of the cabin crew.
The same tactic was used on the flight that crashed in Pennysylvania, where passengers had time to telephone warnings that a stewardess had been stabbed and other hostages were ordered to watch the death of a man in the business section who had his throat cut.
The aircraft was taken to Kabul and then Kandahar with 174 passengers and 18 crew. The hijackers were allowed to go free after the Indian Government released three jailed militants, including a radical cleric, Maulana Masood Azhar, who later founded the the Jaish e Mohammed group, which has close links with bin Laden’s al-Qaeda operation.
One security source said: “The evidence shows that Mughniyeh has been involved in hijackings since the early Eighties. What we want to know now is how many of those he used in these operations could have been employed again.”
They believe that in 1984 Mughniyeh organised the seizure of a Kuwaiti airliner in which two passengers were stabbed. Four years later another Kuwaiti plane was hijacked and taken to Mashhad in northern Iran, where Mughniyeh was seen getting on the aircraft to talk to the hijackers. Again a handpicked hostage on board was stabbed to death before his hijack team was allowed to escape.
In 1994 one of his team prematurely detonated a bomb that he was trying to smuggle on to an El Al aircraft, which Israeli security chiefs believed would have been detonated over its terrority.
Israeli intelligence signalled its concern, based on Mughniyeh’s recent meetings, that he was organising a big operation, probably involving aircraft. Their suspicions that he masterminded the US attacks were passed by the Israelis to the Foreign Report newsletter published by Jane’s Defence Weekly. Again knives were used to murder a handpicked hostage to show that they meant business.
Security agencies have been asked to study every hijacking there has been to identify patterns. They are looking for someone with experience of the mechanics of hijacking, which bin Laden does not have. Mughniyeh does.
Mughniyeh’s link to alQaeda is said to be an Egytpian surgeon who is regarded as bin Laden’s second in command. Dr Ayman al-Zawahri is another master of disguise who uses bogus passports from Switzerland, France and The Netherlands to travel around the Middle East and Europe under a variety of assumed names.
He is said to have lived in Britain for a time after fleeing Cairo, but ministers here refused Egypt’s request to arrest and extradite him. His ability to switch appearances is matched by Mughniyeh, who is reported to have undergone plastic surgery after President Bush Sr said that he was the world’s most wanted man.
Charge sheet
Among Imad Mughniyeh’s alleged crimes:
1983: Suicide bombing at American Embassy, Beirut; at least 63 killed. Bombing of US Marine and French paratroop barracks, Beirut; more than 300 killed. Bombing, with the Iranian-backed ad-Dawa Islami (Islamic Call), of US and French Embassies and other targets in Kuwait, killing five.
1984: Bombing of US Embassy Annexe, Beirut. Fourteen killed, at least 30 wounded. Seventeen men, including Mughniyeh’s brother-in-law and cousin, convicted. A wave of terrorist attacks followed. Hijack of Kuwait Airways aircraft. Kidnap of chief of CIA office in Beirut.
1985: Unsuccessful attempt to kill the Emir of Kuwait. Hijack of TWA airliner. Bomb blast supposedly arranged by Mossad and CIA kills Mughniyeh’s brother.
1988: Kuwait Airways airliner hijacked.
1992: Israeli Embassy in Argentina blown up, killing 28.
1994: Mughniyeh’s second brother, Fuad, killed in bomb blast as revenge for Buenos Aires explosion. Bomb intended to be taken aboard El Al airliner detonated prematurely.
1999: Organised hijacking of Indian airliner on Christmas Eve.
2000: Kidnap of three Israeli soldiers.
As well there should be.
May Bush correct this, and many more lingering "embarrassments".
It looks as if Tony Blair may actually be helpful; but Jack Straw is incorrigible, IMHO.
Further evidence of two issues - first, that those who commit terrorism in Israel are also disposed to commit terror elsewhere. Second, that the moslems are sheltering these terrorists.
On the first point, one can only conclude that Israel needs to be encouraged to eliminate the terrorist threat instead of always being held back. As for the second point...that's obvious to any with eyes to see.
Straw remark angers IsraelForeign Secretary Jack Straw has been forced to defend himself after provoking anger in Israel with remarks about the Palestinians and terrorism.
An Israeli Cabinet minister described Mr Straw's comments as "obscenity" which, he said, turned Israel from the victim of terrorism into the accused.
Mr Straw, who is starting a four-day tour of the Middle East, prompted controversy by writing a letter in which he twice referred to Palestine. The Israelis do not recognise the term for that part of the Middle East.
In the letter, published in the Iranian press, he also suggested that anger over the plight of the Palestinians was a cause of terrorism in the region.
Mr Straw wrote: "One of the factors that helps breed terror is the anger that many people in the region feel at events over the years in the Palestinian territories."
The Foreign Secretary defended himself, insisting he was not acting as an apologist for Palestinian terrorism.
In a statement, he argued that he was merely highlighting the importance of conflict resolution to removing the tensions which helped breed terrorism.
But his remarks brought sharp criticisms from the Israeli media and politicians in Jerusalem.
Israeli transport minister Ephraim Sneh, speaking on Israel radio, described the commentary as "an obscenity" and criticised the very fact that Mr Straw was visiting Tehran.
"The journey of that foreign minister who made these statements and is making the trip with the concurrence of the United States, to Tehran, the capital of Iran, is a stab in the back for Israel," Mr Sneh said.
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