Hezbollah terrorist group

Introduction The threat of terrorism has steadily increased globally over the last 35 years. With advances in technology, terrorist acts have become much more destructive and the perpetrators of the act more elusive. Terrorism have become undeniably a pivotal tactics terrorist have decided to adopt in pursuance of their objectives which are not devoid of religious or political reasons. Terrorism was an act that was associated mostly with the Arab world, but due to its unending nature, terrorist groups have come to be identified in all continents as there is proliferation of terrorist organizations in the world today. It is evident however that the act of terrorism is mostly associated with Islamic fundamentalist groups who push for radical authoritarian Islamic Ideologies. The Hezbollah terrorist group is one of the most active terrorist organizations in the world and has successfully built a global terror network. Their long list of achievements includes bombings, plane hijackings, assassinations, weapons smuggling and firing rockets at civilians. Since its inception in the 1980’s, thousands of civilians have lost their lives and thousands more have been injured to Hezbollah terrorist activities. The reason for embarking on this assignment therefore is to understand the working of the Hezbollah terrorist group so as to know its origin, the kind of ideology/philosophy driving the group, its tactics/terrorist activities and its sources of finances so that it can help to designing modalities that may help halt the groups continue operation. The assignment is divided into segments as follows: the ongoing segment is an introduction; the following looks at a brief history of Hezbollah; followed by the ideology/philosophy of Hezbollah: the tactics and activities of Hezbollah; is followed by a segment on the support and funding of Hezbollah; how to counter the operation of the group is ensured in the next segment and the last section was a conclusion. A Brief History of Hezbollah The terrorist group Hezbollah is also known as ‘Party of God’, or ‘Islamic Jihad’, (Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine). The group was established in in 1982 by Lebanese Shiit clerics and ideologically inspired by Iranian revolution. Hezbollah’s formation was a direct response to Israel’s 1962 inversion of Lebanon designed to eliminate the Palestinian liberation organization’s base operations (Wikipedia 2014). The group was the principal supporter of anti-western and anti-American terrorism in the 1980’s and is directed by its Majlis Al-Shura, or consultative council, which is the group’s highest governing body and is led by its secretary general Hasan Nasrallah. The group is today believed to have expanded its tentacles of operation having major cells in the Southern subhurbs of Beirut, the Bekaa Valey, and southern Lebanon. Additionally, it has established cells in Europe, Africa, South America, North America and Asia. The group has splinter groups such as (Ansar Allah), and ally’s such as Hamas, Islamic Movement of Change and also a major enemy known as Asbat al-Ansar (Kenneth, 2002: US Department of state 2002). Ideology/Philosophy of Hezbollah The major ideology of this group is to create a pure Islamic in Lebanon (Jewish Vitual Library, 2014). According to its manifestos, Hezbollah is dedicated to the liberation of Jerusalem, the destruction of Israel, and the ultimate establishment of an Islamic State in Lebanon (Hezbollah’s manifesto, Retrieved 29, January 2014). Further ideology of the group is to fight allies of US as they blame U.S for most of its countries problems. To this end, the group vowed to use any means necessary to advance its cause. Hezbollah has consistently pushed for the elimination of western influences from the Middle East. The group paint itself as a moderate national liberation organization aimed at “Introducing the Islam that is confident in achieving justice, as well as introducing the Islam that protects all human rights”. They try to portray the image of a group who would rather not commit acts of terror, but must for the benefit of the Arab world (Jewish Vitual library, Retrieved 29 January, 2014). Hezbollah’s Favoured Tactics/Activities The group had adopted a dynamic tactic to push its cause. Hezbollah has been using tactics such as engaging in kidnappings, bombings, and high jacking’s, as well as rocket strikes against Israeli settlements and the firing of Surface-to-air missiles at Israeli Jets (terrorism database, Retrieved 29 January, 2014). Using the above tactics, the Hezbollah terrorist groups has coordinated a series of activities involving numerous Anti-U.S and Anti-Israel terrorist attacks, which includes: The suicide truck bombings of the U.S Embassy and U.S marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 killing 241 peace keepers and the U.S Embassy Annex in Beirut again the following year in 1984, killing 58 Americans and Lebanese. Similarly, three members of Hezbollah, ‘Imad Mughniyah, Hassan IZZ-al-Din, and Ali Atwa, are on the FBI’s list of 22 most wanted terrorists for the 1985 high jacking of TWA flight 847 during which a U.S navy was murdered; groups kidnaping and detention of Americans and other Westerners in Lebanon in the 1980’s; the attack on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina in 1992: the Israeli cultural center in Buenos Aires in 1994; in 2000, the groups operatives captured three Israeli soldiers in the Sha’a farms and kidnapped and Israeli non-combatant and also provided guidance and financial co-operational support for Palestinian extremist groups in terrorist operations in Israel and occupied territories (terrorism database, Retrieved 29 January, 2014). Furthermore, Hezbollah’s terrorist activities include launching an unarmed aerial vehicle (UAV) that left Lebanese airspace and flew over the Israeli town of Nahariya before crashing into Lebanese territorial waters. The group is also responsible for other small scale attacks that left so many Israeli soldiers and civilians’ death. In 2004, Hamas and Hezbollah came into an agreement to increase joint efforts to perpetrate attacks against Israel (Wikipedia 2014). Support and Funding of Hezbollah This terrorist group has continued to enjoy the support of other terrorist groups in terms of finances and technical and military support. The Al-Qa’ida and Hamas are a good example of groups that have worked with Hezbollah in carrying out terrorism. A relationship was develop between the group and Al-Qa’ida, according to a former Al-Qa’ida member who was captured and convicted of bombing U.S Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Ali Muhammed said that “Hezbollah provided explosives training for Al-Qa;ida”, and that he personally arranged a meeting between Hezbollah chief and Osama Bin ladin in Sudan. In 2002, it was reported that leaders of Hezbollah, Al-Qa’ida, and Hamas met in Lebanon to discuss future joint terrorist attacks against America, Britain, and Israel (Wikipedia 2014). Some countries have also been identified with funding the Hezbollah terrorist organization. According to the U.S Department of state 2002, Iran supports Hezbollah with financial, political and organizational aid, while Syria provides diplomatic, political and logistic support. According to Iran’s official budget, Iran gave $500 million in support of radical Islamic organizations around the world in the 1990’s. Of that amount, Hezbollah was reported to receive at least $250 million. Similarly, in May 1996, Secretary of state Warrren Christopher testified that Iran provides “up to $100 million a year for Hezbollah. According to Mathew (2013), Hezbollah is Iran’s most trusted professional and deniable proxy. It is further suspected that Hezbollah has received financial and military aid from Russia in the past as Russia did not denounce Hezbollah as a terrorist organization (Jewish Vitual Library, Retrieved 29 January, 2014). In a similar vein, Hezbollah has a number of illicit fund-rising rings operating in the United States and other Countries. In 2003, the Drug enforcement Administration discovered the existence of an organized drug smuggling operation that was funneling money to Hezbollah from Chicago and Detroit. Again, in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Bureau of alcohol, Tobacco, and firearms investigated a multi-million dollar Cigarette smuggling ring that gave over $2million to Hezbollah over a period of 8 years which allowed the group to purchase advanced military technology and global positioning systems. It was further discovered that Hezbollah gets more finances from Latin America, West Africa, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, and cocaine smuggling from Colombia. In January 2010, German officials arrested two suspects in Frankfurt’s Airport after linking four Lebanese individuals to €10 million in drug profits and sending such to relatives directly connected to Hezbollah officials (Jewish Vitual Library, Retrieved 29 January, 2014). Recommendation on How to Possibly Counter Operations of Hezbollah It is evident that Hezbollah has ally’s that supports its activities financially. Therefore, such countries should be identified and sanctioned by the United Nations from doing business with the rest of the world. By so doing, they won’t have money to further finance terrorist groups and they should be compelled to designate such groups as a terrorist organization. There should be improved international intelligence and cooperation by all countries towards Fas tracking all the means of funding to the Hezbollah terrorist group. When all countries comply with this kind of cooperation, it would become hard for the organization to easily access international support as it used to which would weaken their ability of purchasing more weapons perpetrating terrorism. With good education and effective poverty eradication program targeted at the youths who are the most populated section of the society and most vulnerable, it would go a long way in reducing the number of youths who are idle and readily available for recruitment by this devil incarnate group. With good and affordable education, people would be reoriented on morally sound ideologies thereby hardening their chances of easily adopting radical ideologies of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah. When this is done, the group would lose majority support and sympathizers resulting to weakening their strength. Conclusion It is unfortunate that in as much as Hezbollah is a renown terrorist organization but a lot of people especially ‘some Muslims’ around the world and some Muslim countries have continued to show support for this blood thirsty group called ‘Hezbollah’. As such, they may not be willing to welcome giant strides towards countering the menace of this group. At the same time, there is a good number of people out there who know that for whatever reason the Hezbollah are for, it is unjustifiable to resort to violence in achieving it. There are so many ways of advancing grievances and therefore, terrorism is totally a bad strategy to adopt as it is more evil on its own than whatever injustice a terrorist group might think is fighting. References Hezbollah’s Manifesto: Available at [http://www.ict.org.il/Articles/Hiz_letter.htm] Retrieved 29 January, 2014. Kenneth, K. (2002): Near East Groups and State Sponsors. CRS Report RL31119, Terrorism: updated February 13, 2002. Terrorism Database. Periscope, USNI Database. [http://www.periscope1.com] Retrieved 29 January, 2014. www.jweishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/hezbollah.html U.S. Department of State (2002): Patterns of Global Terrorism: Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, p. 120. Also accessible at [http//www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/]. 7