Imad Mugniyah

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Imad Fayez Mugniyah (Arabic: عماد فايز مغنية‎; born December 7, 1962) is a senior member of the Hezbollah organization. He is alternatively described as the head of its security section, a senior intelligence official and as a founder of the organization. Limited information is known about him. He uses the alias of Hajj. Mugniyah is included in the European Union's list^[1] of wanted terrorists.^[2][3]

According to his Lebanese passport application, Mughniyah was born in Tayr Dibba, a poor village in southern Lebanon. CIA South Group records state that he lived in Ayn Al-Dilbah; a ghetto in South Beirut.^[4] His father was a vegetable seller and during the civil war, his house was on the Green Line.

Little is known about his adolescence as he did not attract the attention of analysts until 1976 when he joined Yasir Arafat's Force 17. His role at that time was as a sniper, targeting Christians across the Green Line. At some point he spent a year at the American University of Beirut.

Mugniyah has been implicated in many of terrorist attacks in the 1980s and 1990s, primarily American and Israeli targets. These include the April 18, 1983 bombing of the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed 63 people including 17 Americans. He was later blamed for the October 23, 1983 simultaneous truck bombings against the French paratroopers and US Marine barracks (see: Marine Barracks Bombing). The attacks killed 58 French soldiers and 241 Marines. Almost a year later on September 20, 1984, he attacked the US embassy annex building. The United States indicted him for the June 14, 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847, which resulted in the death of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem. He was also linked to numerous kidnappings of Westerners in Beirut through the 1980s, most notably that of Terry Anderson. Some of these individuals were later killed such as U.S. Army Col William Francis Buckley. The remainder were released at various times until the last one, Terry Anderson was released in 1991. In 1985 his group also kidnapped four Soviet Embassy officials, one of which, Arkady Katkov, was killed^[5][6].

Contents 1 Relationships to al Qaeda and other organizations 2 Actions of law enforcement 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Relationships to al Qaeda and other organizations

Mugniyah has been accused of being an ally of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. According to the testimony of Ali Mohamed, he arranged security for a meeting between Mugniyah and al-Qaeda operatives in 1993. This connection has lead some to believe he was also behind the 1996 attack on the Khobar Towers complex, which resulted in the deaths of 19 American service members, 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in East Africa and the USS Cole bombing in 2000.

Many foreign policy experts including Michael Ledeen have speculated that Mughniyah has had a strong working relationship with Al Qaeda and Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, especially in recent years with the invasion of Iraq. However, other experts speculate that Zarqawi's intense hatred towards Shia Islam, which Mughniyah belongs to, would have prevented such an alliance.

He has also been linked to Palestinian actions, such as the Karine A incident in 2002, where the Palestinian Authority was accused of importing fifty tons of weapons. He was previously a member of Force 17, an armed branch of the Fatah movement charged with providing security for Yasser Arafat and other prominent PLO officials.

In mid-February 1997, the pro-Israeli South Lebanese Army radio station reported that Iran's intelligence service dispatched Mughniyah to Lebanon to directly supervise the reorganization of Hezbollah's security apparatus concerned with Palestinian affairs in Lebanon and to work as a security liaison between Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence. Mughniyah also reportedly controls Hezbollah's security apparatus, the Special Operations Command, which handles intelligence and conducts overseas terrorist acts. Although he uses Hezbollah as a cover, he reports to the Iranians.^[7]

The EU lists him as "Senior Intelligence Officer of Hezbollah".^[8]

[edit] Actions of law enforcement

Various law enforcement agencies have attempted to capture Mugniyah. The United States tried to secure his capture in France in 1986, but were thwarted by French refusal to detain him.

The United States tried to detain him several times afterwards, the first being a 1995 attempt to detain him as the plane he was traveling on was supposed to stop in Saudi Arabia. However Saudi officials refused to allow the plane to land and he was not captured. The next year US military personnel planned to seize him off a ship in Doha, Qatar, but the operation was called off. This plan, dubbed Operation RETURN OX, was carried out by ships and Sailors of Amphibious Squadron Three (USS Tarawa, USS Duluth, USS Rushmore), Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and Navy SEALS assigned to the U. S. Fifth Fleet. The operation was underway, but was canceled at the last minute when it was not verified that Mughniyah was actually on board the Pakistani ship.

On October 10, 2001 Mugniyah appeared on the initial list of the FBI's top 22 Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by President Bush, with a reward of up to $5 million offered for information leading to his arrest.^[9] This reward remains outstanding.^[10][11]

The Israeli government has also made several alleged attempts to assassinate Mugniyah. His brother Fuad Mugniyah was killed in the 1985 Beirut car bombing.

In 1999, the Argentinean government issued an arrest warrant for Mugniyah for his involvement in the 1994 AMIA culture center bombing.

Mugniyah has been formally charged by Argentina with participating in the March 17, 1992 bombings of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 and the AMIA cultural building in July 1994, killing 86 people. He has been accused of orchestrating the 2000 abductions of three Israeli soldiers in the southern part of Lebanon and kidnapping of Israeli businessman Elchanan Tenenbaum, and the more recent attack on Israel, killing 8 soldiers and abducting two.

Recent articles by the Counter-terrorisim Blog, and by The New Yorker Magazine^[12][13], suggest that Imad Mugniyah recently attended a meeting between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Mugniyah was there representing Hezbollah in Lebanon. According to the same articles, Mugniyah has been informed that he is currently at the top of a US Military and CIA assassination list. For this reason he is said to avoid certain areas of Beirut for fear of being killed by CIA SAD paramilitary operatives, or US Special Operations Hunter/Killer teams.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Rewards for Justice Site
• Mugniyah profile at FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
• "Hizbullah Terrorism in Argentina" (a Federation of American Scientist editorial of the Free Europe Radio service
• In The Party Of God: Hezbollah sets up operations in South America and the United States
• In The Party Of God: Are Terrorists In Lebanon Preparing For A Larger War
• Mind of Mugniyeh
• "Deadly infiltrator's trail" ("Washington Times" commentary)
• "U.S. renews bid to catch Beirut bombing suspect" (CNN, 10/10/01)
• 60 Minutes II article about Mugniyah and an attempted seizure of him back in 1996
• 1/2002 article by the British newspaper Telegraph linking him the Karine A incident
• PBS Frontline website for its show on the Hizbullah
• Another Frontline website- interview with a former CIA officer about Mugniyah
• Michael Ledeen on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
• [1]-Mugniyah engineered the kidnapping of the two Israeli soldiers which sparked the current fighting