Hezbollah boosting ties to Al-Qaeda

Unfortunately this is not really a boosting of ties but the natural growth of the relationship between Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, and Iran which I have been following for several years. As well as Iran's reach into the Palestinian groups. Once again we see Imad Mughniyeh, the lead agent for Iran/Hezbollah in coordinating with Al-Qaeda, on the move -

Hezbollah boosting ties to al-Qaida claim

By Martin Sieff
UPI Senior News Analyst
Dec. 6, 2005 at 5:35PM

Lebanon and Israel may be facing the prospect of massively increased terror attack threats.
New reports claim that al-Qaida has set up an organizing center in Lebanon and that Iran has boosted its ties to West Bank Palestinian militants, especially Islamic Jihad, who have launched a new suicide bomber campaign against Israel.
The Lebanese Shiite weekly Shiraa, which opposes the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, or Party of God, is claiming this week that al-Qaida has already set up an operational command base in the country.
It also claims that Imad Mughniyeh, the prominent Hezbollah leader, is representing al-Qaida in talks with potential sympathetic Palestinian leaders in the south of the country.
Al-Shiraa said Mughniyeh also met with Jemal Suleiman, head of the Palestinian Ansar Allah, and with Abu Mahujayn, Shehada Jawahr and Khaled Safayn, who lead Palestinian militias in the Bureij camp.
The report follows other indications of growing al-Qaida influence in Lebanon.
There have been reports, as yet unsubstantiated, that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, commander of al-Qaida operations in Iraq, has been receiving an increasing number of Lebanese Sunni Muslim supporters.
...
"We are looking at a proxy relationship between Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and their major terror masters, who are directly linked to the Iranian Islamic revolution," former Israeli military intelligence chief Erin Lerman told The Australian.
The Israeli reports and claims of growing ties between Hezbollah and al-Qaida, or between Hezbollah, backed by Iran, and Islamic Jihad, may also strengthen the hands of Bush administration hawks around Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who remain eager to confront Iran.
But they also may reflect the growing militancy of Iran's hard-line President Ahmed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who in October publicly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
Some U.S. security analysts believe the growing public militancy and confidence of Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders reflects the fact that they may for the first time have full access to nuclear weapons bought or stolen clandestinely from former Soviet republics.
It may also reflect the Iranians observing the continuing U.S. inability to make significant progress in scaling down the level of operational violence of the still-spreading insurgency in Iraq.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20051206-045020-7899r.htm

A Friend of a friend took issue with my statement that this is a natural growth of a relationship as they see any growth of Al-Qaeda in Lebanon as likely a Syrian backed effort to maintain influence. This is an excerpt of my reply to that

Number 1 Syria wouldn't unilaterally take on working with Al-Qaeda without Iranian backing. They are too dependent on Iran for everything from the money they supply to their mutual relationship with the various terrorist organizations not to mention the simple reality that the Alawite version of Islam has for generations been viewed as a bastardized heretical form of Islam so if they manage to tick off Iran by doing something like aiding Al-Qaeda without their say so, than the Mullahs could rescind the Fatwa, which was issued by a 12er Shi'a Imam, that granted them official recognition as Muslims. If that happened it would make the minority régime of Assad even more vulnerable, after all they really messed up when they killed the Saudi's boy in Beirut earlier this year. However I have no doubt that the Syrians are working with them, I just see Iran as the primary between the two nations.

As for natural the Islamists ideology cuts across the Shi'a Sunni divide. In fact Khomeini himself, who was originally a Shi'a Gnostic scholar, was heavily influenced by both the Muslim Brotherhood/Qutb and JI/Deobandi/Maududi; the very forces that influenced the formation of Al-Qaeda.

Throw in the material I put together in my last two Briefing Notes on Bin Laden's ties to Iran, which go back to the early 1980's and to me indicates Iranian backing of Al-Qaeda from day 1, and indicators of the operational ties between Hamas and Al-Qaeda, suddenly you have a lot of synergy that is being missed everywhere. Just like my yelling of Iranian covert actions inside Iraq for the last 3 years it never pays to be a head of the curb. Interestingly nobody seems to get that Al-Qaeda gives Iran the one thing all nations seek for their covert wars, plausible deniability. After all few in Langley and Academia much less the media seems prepared to jump the Sunni Shi'a divide no matter how much evidence there is.

Here is a partial listing of some of the indicators of Iran and Al-Qaeda not nearly as extensive as my Bin Laden BN or my files but a good sign of the natural relationship that has been going on almost unnoticed. For example this list doesn't have that the explosives used in both the Cole and African Embassy attacks came from Iran. By the way, Imad Mugniyeh, who was mentioned in the story, has been the primary liaison between the IRGC/Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda and has been for almost 15 years -

Sorry the list was not added because it was endnoted but the BN on Bin Laden was recently submitted for publication with a policy magazine and if it is published I will be placing it up here, if not than I will put up the BN in due course.