Hezbollah @ MindSay

I subscribe to a financial newsletter, Outside the Box, of which John Mauldin is the editor.  Honestly, I don’t understand a lot of it, but I try to glean something helpful and increase my knowledge.  Once in a while, Mr. Maudlin publishes a piece by George Friedman with Stratfor, a civilian intelligence agency.  This article is lengthy, but it’s worth your time.

A Mystery in the Middle East

By George Friedman 

"The Arab-Israeli region of the Middle East is filled with rumors of war. That is about as unusual as the rising of the sun, so normally it would not be worth mentioning. But like the proverbial broken clock that is right twice a day, such rumors occasionally will be true. In this case, we don't know that they are true, and certainly it's not the rumors that are driving us. But other things — minor and readily explicable individually — have drawn our attention to the possibility that something is happening.

The first thing that drew our attention was a minor, routine matter. Back in February, the United States started purchasing oil for its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The SPR is a reserve of crude oil stored in underground salt domes. Back in February, it stood at 96.2 percent of capacity, which is pretty full as far as we are concerned. But the U.S. Department of Energy decided to increase its capacity. This move came in spite of record-high oil prices and the fact that the purchase would not help matters. It also came despite potential political fallout, since during times like these there is generally pressure to release reserves. Part of the step could have been the bureaucracy cranking away, and part of it could have been the feeling that the step didn't make much difference. But part of it could have been based on real fears of a disruption in oil supplies. By itself, the move meant nothing. But it did cause us to become thoughtful.

Also in February, someone assassinated Imad Mughniyah, a leader of Hezbollah, in a car bomb explosion in Syria. It was assumed the Israelis had killed him, although there were some suspicions the Syrians might have had him killed for their own arcane reasons. In any case, Hezbollah publicly claimed the Israelis killed Mughniyah, and therefore it was expected the militant Shiite group would take revenge. In the past, Hezbollah responded not by attacking Israel but by attacking Jewish targets elsewhere, as in the Buenos Aires attacks of 1992 and 1994.

In March, the United States decided to dispatch the USS Cole, then under Sixth Fleet command, to Lebanese coastal waters. Washington later replaced it with two escorts from the Nassau (LHA-4) Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG), reportedly maintaining a minor naval presence in the area. (Most of the ESG, on a regularly scheduled deployment, is no more than a few days sail from the coast, as it remains in the Mediterranean Sea.) The reason given for the American naval presence was to serve as a warning to the Syrians not to involve themselves in Lebanese affairs. The exact mission of the naval presence off the Levantine coast — and the exact deterrent function it served — was not clear, but there they were. The Sixth Fleet has gone out of its way to park and maintain U.S. warships off the Lebanese coast.

Hezbollah leaders being killed by the Israelis and the presence of American ships off the shores of Mediterranean countries are not news in and of themselves. These things happen. The killing of Mughniyah is notable only to point out that as much as Israel might have wanted him dead, the Israelis knew this fight would escalate. But anyone would have known this. So all we know is that whoever killed Mughniyah wanted to trigger a conflict. The U.S. naval presence off the Levantine coast is notable in that Washington, rather busy with matters elsewhere, found the bandwidth to get involved here as well.

With the situation becoming tense, the Israelis announced in March that they would carry out an exercise in April called Turning Point 2. Once again, an Israeli military exercise is hardly interesting news. But the Syrians apparently got quite interested. After the announcement, the Syrians deployed three divisions — two armored, one mechanized — to the Lebanese-Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley, the western part of which is Hezbollah's stronghold. The Syrians didn't appear to be aggressive. Rather, they deployed these forces in a defensive posture, in a way walling off their part of the valley.

The Syrians are well aware that in the event of a conventional war with Israel, they would experience a short but exciting life, as they say. They thus are hardly going to attack Israel. The deployment therefore seemed intended to keep the Israelis on the Lebanese side of the border — on the apparent assumption the Israelis were going into the Bekaa Valley. Despite Israeli and Syrian denials of the Syrian troop buildup along the border, Stratfor sources maintain that the buildup in fact happened. Normally, Israel would be jumping at the chance to trumpet Syrian aggression in response to these troop movements, but, instead, the Israelis downplayed the buildup.

When the Israelis kicked off Turning Point 2, which we regard as a pretty interesting name, it turned out to be the largest exercise in Israeli history. It involved the entire country, and was designed to test civil defenses and the ability of the national command authority to continue to function in the event of an attack with unconventional weapons — chemical and nuclear, we would assume. This was a costly exercise. It also involved calling up reserves, some of them for the exercise, and, by some reports, others for deployment to the north against Syria. Israel does not call up reserves casually. Reserve call-ups are expensive and disrupt the civilian economy. These appear small, but in the environment of Turning Point 2, it would not be difficult to mobilize larger forces without being noticed.

The Syrians already were deeply concerned by the Israeli exercise. Eventually, the Lebanese government got worried, too, and started to evacuate some civilians from the South. Hezbollah, which still hadn't retaliated for the Mughniyah assassination, also claimed the Israelis were about to attack it, and reportedly went on alert and mobilized its forces. The Americans, who normally issue warnings and cautions to everyone, said nothing to try to calm the situation. They just sat offshore on their ships.

It is noteworthy that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak canceled a scheduled visit to Germany this week. The cancellation came immediately after the reports of the Syrian military redeployment were released. Obviously, Barak needed to be in Israel for Turning Point 2, but then he had known about the exercise for at least a month. Why cancel at the last minute? While we are discussing diplomacy, we note that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney visited Oman — a country with close relations with Iran — and then was followed by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. By itself not interesting, but why the high-level interest in Oman at this point?

Now let's swing back to September 2007, when the Israelis bombed something in Syria near the Turkish border. As we discussed at the time, for some reason the Israelis refused to say what they had attacked. It made no sense for them not to trumpet what they carefully leaked — namely, that they had attacked a nuclear facility. Proving that Syria had a secret nuclear program would have been a public relations coup for Israel. Nevertheless, no public charges were leveled. And the Syrians remained awfully calm about the bombing.

Rumors now are swirling that the Israelis are about to reveal publicly that they in fact bombed a nuclear reactor provided to Syria by North Korea. But this news isn't all that big. Also rumored is that the Israelis will claim Iranian complicity in building the reactor. And one Israeli TV station reported April 8 that Israel really had discovered Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, which it said had been smuggled to Syria.

Now why the Bush administration wouldn't have trumpeted news of the Syrian reactor worldwide in September 2007 is beyond us, but there obviously were some reasons — assuming the TV report is true, which we have no way of establishing. In fact, we have no idea why the Israelis are choosing this moment to rehash the bombing of this site. But whatever their reason, it certainly raises a critical question. If the Syrians are developing a nuclear capability, what are the Israelis planning to do about it?

No one of these things, by itself, is of very great interest. And taken together they do not provide the means for a clear forecast. Nevertheless, a series of rather ordinary events, taken together, can constitute something significant. Tensions in the Middle East are moving well beyond the normal point, and given everything that is happening, events are moving to a point where someone is likely to take military action. Whether Hezbollah will carry out a retaliatory strike or Israel a pre-emptive strike in Lebanon, or whether the Israelis' real target is Iran, tensions systematically have been ratcheted up to the point where we, in our simple way, are beginning to wonder whether something has to give.

All together, these events are fairly extraordinary. Ignoring all rhetoric — and the Israelis have gone out of their way to say that they are not looking for a fight — it would seem that each side, but particularly the Americans and Israelis, have gone out of their way to signal that they are expecting conflict. The Syrians have also signaled that they expect conflict, and Hezbollah always claims there is about to be conflict.

What is missing is this: who will fight whom, and why, and why now. The simple explanation is that Israel wants a second round with Hezbollah. But while that might be true, it doesn't explain everything else that has happened. Most important, it doesn't explain the simultaneous revelations about the bombing of Syria. It also doesn't explain the U.S. naval deployment. Is the United States about to get involved in a war with Hezbollah, a war that the Israelis should handle themselves? Are the Israelis going to topple Syrian President Bashar al Assad — and then wind up with a Sunni government, or worse, an Israeli occupation of Syria? None of that makes a lot of sense.

In truth, all of this may dissolve into nothing much. In intelligence analysis, however, sometimes a set of not-fully-coherent facts must be reported, and that is what we are doing now. There is no clear pattern; there is no obvious direction this is taking. Nevertheless, when we string together events from February until now, we see a persistently escalating pattern of behavior. In fact, what we can say most clearly is that there is escalation, without being able to say what is the clear direction of the escalation or the purpose.

We would like to wrap this up with a crystal clear explanation and forecast. But we can't. The motives of the various actors are opaque; and taken separately, the individual events all have quite innocent explanations. We are not prepared to say war is imminent, nor even what sort of war there would be. We are simply prepared to say that the course of events since February — and really since the September 2007 attack on Syria — have been startling, and they appear to be reaching some sort of hard-to-understand crescendo.

The bombing of Syria symbolizes our confusion. Why would Syria want a nuclear reactor and why put it on the border of Turkey, a country the Syrians aren't particularly friendly with? If the Syrians had a nuclear reactor, why would the Israelis be coy about it? Why would the Americans? Having said nothing for months apart from careful leaks, why are the Israelis going to speak publicly now? And if what they are going to say is simply that the North Koreans provided the equipment, what's the big deal? That was leaked months ago.

The events of September 2007 make no sense and have never made any sense. The events we have seen since February make no sense either. That is noteworthy, and we bring it to your attention. We are not saying that the events are meaningless. We are saying that we do not know their meaning. But we can't help but regard them as ominous."

So you think that Middle Eastern media outlets and Mohammedan organizations (i.e. murdering Islamofascist terrorists) are moderate and peaceful? Well think again!

Abdallah Safialdeen representing Hezbollah in Iran claims that as soon as the US military leaves Iraq, Hezbollah will waltz into “Palestine” (i.e. the Land Israel). The Jews will either leave with America or be obliterated.

READ ABOUT IT HERE.

What is it you think of when you see Mohammedans in America and abroad burning the United States flag? Most Americans would not be pleased but our heritage would view our flag desecration as freedom of speech or expression. Some Americans further down the Right side of the scale may even react with hostile anger. Some Americans further down the Left side of the scale may actually cheer the Mohammedans along (because Lefties tend to be America haters).

Recently some College Republicans at San Francisco State University stepped on the flags of Hezbollah and Hamas at a college function. These Republican kids did not burn Mohammed in effigy or even the flags of terrorist organizations that are not even sovereign nations; they merely stepped on the flags.

A Mohammedan placed an official complaint that the act of stepping on Hezbollah and Hamas flags was an insult to Allah. Further the complaint stipulates that the young Republicans were inciting violence and hate crime by “stepping” on the Hezbollah and Hamas flags.

SFSU is actually investigating the matter and considering punishment. Can you believe it?! Mohammedans protest in the most inciteful of manners even on American soil yet stepping on the flags of the enemies of America is a hate crime, it is incredulous!

Biography from The Intelligence Summit:

Paul "Dave" Gaubatz, former Federal Agent with the equivalent rank of major, is a U.S. State Department-trained Arabic linguist and counterterrorism specialist. He has acquired over two decades of experience while working on assignments in Middle-Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, and Iraq. Currently Chief Field Investigator with the Dallas County Medical Examiner, Dallas, Texas, Mr. Gaubatz created Gaubatz Arabic & Counterterrorism Lecture Services in December, 2004.

 

The first U.S. civilian Federal Agent deployed to Nasiriyah, Iraq, in 2003, Mr. Gaubatz was able to travel to various cities throughout Iraq, using his Arabic-language training extensively. During this time, he led a mission to rescue the family of Mohammed Odeh Al-Rehaief, the Iraqi lawyer who saved the life of Private Jessica Lynch. Today, Mr. Al-Rehaief and his family live safely in the Washington, D.C. area.

 

Upon returning from Iraq in July 2003, Mr. Gaubatz wrote a practical, basic Arabic street survival guide, and began lecturing in schools and businesses, and also to law enforcement officers. He instructed …

Dave Gaubatz knows what he is talking about. I am certain the Slanted Left has had the benefit of Gaubatz’s professional expertise. I am also certain that the national politics of America and the potentiality of geopolitics (confronting Syria and Iran militarily) has spurned public acknowledgement of Gaubatz’s Intelligence findings.

It is my opinion that the Left Elite and the Right Elite have dropped the ball on the War on Terrorism. There is way too much emphasis in not offending Mohammedans and not enough emphasis in seeking out Islamofascist terrorists that do not follow International Conventions or the Laws of the Land in the various nations the terrorists anonymously roam.

Islamofascism needs to be stamped out at least on a local level. YES, this means the utilization of profiling. If it makes Lefties more comfortable, the profiling should not be so much racial profiling as Islamofascist profiling.

Islamofascism and radical Islamism reach beyond race. This odious ideology clothed in religion is not just Middle Eastern. This radicalism has infected Western nations on a local level through the Petro-Dollars of Sunni Wahhabists and Iranian Shi’ites.

Those two ideologies preach and teach hatred of Israel and America in particular. Those two ideologies have exported that hatred by building Mosques in the West and providing the ideology of hate to be taught in the Western Mosques.

To comprehend the danger which I speak, read Dave Gaubatz’s Essay on SLEEPER CELLS IN AMERICA AND CANADA.