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Tuesday, March 18, 2008
W. Thomas Smith, Jr :: Townhall.com Columnist
Jihadism's Dangerous Liasons
by W. Thomas Smith, Jr
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Analysts with MI6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, believe an elite force of Hamas fighters in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon will launch a coordinated attack against Israel within a few months, says author and espionage expert Gordon Thomas.

According to Thomas’s report published at World Net Daily’s G2 Bulletin:

“Iran's Revolutionary Guards are training hundreds of Hamas fighters to prepare for an all-out war this summer against Israel.

“The Gaza-based organization's elite Izzedine al-Qassam Brigade will form the southern front of an attack against the Jewish state while Hezbollah will launch its simultaneous assault from southern Lebanon, according to MI6.

Thomas contends the attacks would come at a time when the Bush White House is all but “spent,” and the Democrat and Republican parties are “looking inward to their conventions.”

No surprise there: Jihadists are patient opportunists. And terrorist allies like the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, and the Lebanon-based terrorist army, Hezbollah; as well as marginally – perhaps unlikely – connected terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and Hezbollah are increasingly coordinating their efforts in campaigns against the West.

Few Americans are talking about any this: Most understand the danger of international terrorism, but few grasp the exponentially increasing danger associated with terror alliances. Problem is it’s not politically correct to discuss Islam’s house of war. The two Democrat presidential contenders seem to be more concerned about who is calling whom names, or who is best able to answer a telephone at 3:00 a.m. And the mainstream media is too busy soft-soaping or completely ignoring the facts about Islamic terrorism. Either that, or MSM reporters are too busy cheering some distorted revelation they have confusingly gleaned in a recent Pentagon report that – the MSM contends – shows no Saddam-Al Qaeda link in pre-war Iraq, when in fact the report reveals stark evidence there was.

But that was then. This is now, and the connections today must be our focus.

Two weeks ago, a Jihadist gunman brutally murdered eight Israeli children at a Jerusalem seminary. Israel’s Haaretz newspaper has since reported the gunman was “acting on instructions” from Hamas, with instructional dots connecting Gaza operatives to bosses in the Syrian capital, all “in coordination with Hezbollah.”

Daniel Doron, writing for the Wall Street Journal, says, Hamas has been massively rearmed with “Iranian weapons, bought with Saudi money and transported into Gaza with the connivance of Egypt.”

The mass killing in Jerusalem comes on the heels of the assassination of Hezbollah terrorist-mastermind Imad Mughniyeh, of which columnist Caroline Glick writes:

“Every Palestinian terror group - from Fatah to Hamas to Islamic Jihad, to the Popular Resistance Committees, the PFLP and DFLP - mourned Mughniyeh as a hero and martyr and called for revenge against Israel and the U.S.”

True, and it wasn’t just the Palestinians. Others mourning Mughniyeh’s death and calling for revenge include likely and unlikely sorts from Somalia to Argentina to Indonesia all with common goals against the West. After all, Mughniyeh was respected by both the Iranian mullahs and Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants. Both Iraq’s Shiia militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr and Sunni Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (Al Sadr’s “supposed arch-foe,” as Glick says) called for revenge killings. Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moualem publicly referred to Mughniyeh as “a backbone of the Islamic resistance.” And ranting in the wake of Mughniyeh’s death, Hezbollah’s secretary general Hassan Nasrallah declared that a state of “open war” exists with Israel.

There’s more.

In January, French counterterrorist commandos – Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure – raided a terrorist safe-house in Paris and nabbed six men, including two Lebanese and one Syrian. In doing so, the commandos disrupted a major Hezbollah plot to kill or kidnap international leaders in several European cities. A plan of this magnitude – to be carried out far beyond Lebanese borders – could never have been executed without the assistance of other Islamic fundamentalist groups and Jihadist sympathizers, not necessarily Hezbollah, operating in the region.

In a recent conversation with Human Events editor Jed Babbin, Gen. David Petraeus – commander of Multi-National Force—Iraq, who currently has his hands full fighting both Shiia insurgents and Al Qaeda in Iraq – said:

“We do, with a pretty high degree of confidence, we know that the Iranians continued to train militia extremists, the so-called ‘special groups’ that are supported by the Iranian Qods Force, that are literally funded, trained, equipped, and directed by the Qods Force with help from Lebanese Hezbollah. And you may recall, we captured the deputy commander of Lebanese Hezbollah Department 2800. We captured the head of the special groups. We’ve captured other very senior leaders in those organizations in recent weeks.”

Then there is the previously mentioned coordination between Al Qaeda and Hezbollah: Despite their differences, these two have been cooperating in varying degrees since at least the 1990’s. They were discovered to be working together again last month when a 35-man terrorist sleeper cell was discovered and shut down in Morocco. The members of the cell had received tactical training by Al Qaeda operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They had received weapons and explosives training by Hezbollah based in Lebanon. Hezbollah, financed by Iran, also helped fund the North African cell. The cell-members – businessmen, politicians, a police official, a journalist, and others – were planning to assassinate senior civilian and military leaders, as well as Jewish Moroccans.

Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, their sponsors and subsidiaries (to include their allies, apologists, and sympathizers) are increasingly working together throughout the Middle and Far East, in Africa, in Europe, and, yes, even the Americas to recruit foot soldiers, probe Western defenses, and attack us at any weak point in those defenses.

“Different groups will coalesce and align against conventional wisdom,” Dr. J. Peter Pham, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told me during a recent interview for Human Events. “What most analysts view as the Shiia-Sunni divide is papered over as militants and extremists will take money from anyone, and build alliances of convenience against their common enemy.”

The most disturbing particular in all of this is that almost no one – not the MSM, nor Barack or Hillary, nor anyone hoping to gain or retain a Congressional seat – is talking about the threat, except to downplay the danger, or say that the threat is nothing more than a handful of bad apples who have hijacked the “noble religion” of Islam.

Most Americans I’ve spoken too say either the threat is not as great as counterterrorism experts say it is – that the threat is based on the so-called “politics of fear” – or that the threat is too complex and unwieldy to begin to understand.

The threat of Jihadist terrorism is huge and growing. The Jihadist groups – no matter what side of the Islamic ideological divide they hail from – are increasingly working together. And for the sake of our own existence we had best try to sever the lines that connect the dots, as we crush the dots.

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About The Author
W. Thomas Smith Jr. is a former U.S. Marine rifle-squad leader and counterterrorism instructor. He is the author of six books, and he has covered war and conflict in the Balkans, on the West Bank, in Iraq, and Lebanon. Visit him online at http://www.uswriter.com.
 
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Jihadism
I'm afraid we don't have the will to win this war.
If rational Americans were as committed to defeating Jihadism as those who are foaming at the mouth with Obamania, we might have a chance.
But we're to busy with reality TV, while Islam is coming after us.

MarCi: How right you are, but that's

only part of it.

Those, such as apollo, are so deranged with BDS that they're incapable of seeing the whole picture.


A comment on the formatting
Townhall.com does a phenomenally lousy job on formatting. They let Microsoft-specific characters through, which show up on non-Microsoft browsers as question marks, on Mike Adams' column today delivered a blank screen in response to the "full column and comments" URL, and in this one had the text running under the ads on the right-hand side so that the column couldn't be read.

Could someone at Townhall.com pay a little attention to the product, please?

Clear and Present Danger
The Dems, aided and abetted by the MSM, have intentionally diverted our national attention from the growing jihadist threat, by creating an economic crisis where none previously existed. The Clintons began a process of dismantling the US military, a process that a President Hillary would try to take to completion. A President Barak Hussein Obama would foolishly try to negotiate with people obsessed with America's demise.

For the reasons Mr. Smith laid out, and a score of others, vote out anyone who does not put America first. Either that, or get measured for a turban or burka.

Jorge Bush Is As Much To Blame
as the Dems. He blew a golden opportunity after 9-11 to confront the jihadi problem. Instead, he babbled on about Islam being a religion of peace, he invited imams to the White House, he defended the wearing of disguises by Muslim women, etc.
At this point, CAIR and the ACLU make it impossible to do anything about the jihadis in our midst. Now Harvard has Muslim gym times and Walmart in Dearbornistan peddles Arab products. The dhimmi-ing of America has begun in earnest.

Jihadism Or Religous Scourge
Excellant column Mr. Smith, again as you notice our head's, seem to be stuck in the proverbial sand, especially now in an election year.
With Hamas and Fatah re-armed and we knew this was coming, it's only a matter of time now before the first rockets start raining into southern Isreal.
The all important question I have for Kofi Annan, Hassan Nasrallah and what's his face-Ahamadinejad since the cease fire, "What ever happened to the kidnapped Israeli soldier? remember him folks, is it me or did I miss the memo on this.
Anyway, again great column.

Romney campaigned on this danger
over and over and was dismissed as being an alarmist. He also campaigned on the dire need to fix our economy and to reign back spending programs before they take down our shaky financial walls.

Bring back Mitt. Blaming Pres. Bush, Clinton, Bush, etc. begs the question. These are new problems and ever changing dangers that grow like mold or cancer.

Smith needs to keep writing. And the formatting is terrible on his important essay. We need to be prodded to recognize the real world of anti American terrorists and elect Sen. McCain (with Romney as VP) in the coming election. Both men see the world situation without rose colored glasses.

If it happens
I almost hate to say this, but part of me is really hoping that Hamas and Hezbollah DO launch the offensive Smith is warning about this summer. If they do, then hopefully Israel will at that time tell Hamas, Lebanon, AND Iran, like Michael Douglas did to Kathleen Turner in "The War of the Roses", "THE GLOVES ARE OFF!!" And then act accordingly. I should think that a major new war in the Middle East at our political convention time could only be a boon to John McCain. It would be very interesting then to see how the two Democratic contenders would respond to such an attack. Undoubtedly, Hillary Clinton would find a way to blame it on George Bush. As far as jihadists wanting to try to carry the jihad to our own shores, I have a Dirty Harry approach to that: "GO AHEAD: MAKE MY DAY!"

Apollo
Which arab counties are you speaking of that are moderate.Every one of the want Israel demolished,therefore they are not moderate

worries
The combined efforts of Hamas, Hezbollah, and rin tin tin, are like gnats to the Israelis. A more likely scenario would be for the Israelis to get the US pulled into trying to take out Iran's nukes for them, and using this as a pretext.

jax33
Egypt doesn't bother about Israel anymore. Also what about Kazakastan?

Peace Talks and the United Nations
“Peace Talks and the United Nations”…peace can only become a reality through strength, not weakness. Words alone will not protect and preserve peace. Military and economic strength has always and will continue too preserve and protect the freedom and liberties that many of us take for granted.

Clearly, the UN no longer represents its own Charter. All “Free Nations” need to exercise definitive leadership and insist that it does what its Charter says it should do. Any Nation that refuses to acknowledge that Charter should be exiled until they show to the world that they do acknowledge that Charter and abide by its stated purpose. Working within the framework of the UN Charter can and will change the UN and force it to be responsible for living up to those responsibilities. If this fails, all freedom loving nations of the earth should resign their UN Membership and band together in forming a new United Free World organization, to confront and fight if need be the evils of liberty and freedom.


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