Perhaps Things Are Looking More Just For Iran

[Annie]

Links at site:

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5728

Mullahs in Denial: Can't Keep Their Story Straight
August 3rd, 2006

Does the name Ali Larijani ring a bell?

No, he’s not the brilliant TV and movie character created by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, famous for duping celebrities and political figures into interviews where he asks outrageous questions and watches his victims squirm.

No, Ali L is involved in another kind of duping altogether. And the squirming is taking place on Ali L’s part. But like Ali G, the spectators get to have a lot of fun. At least this week.

You see, Mr. Larijani is Tehran’s representative on earth, wherever Tehran chooses to stir things up. His real title is Supreme National Council Secretary, but his most recent antics make the moniker Ali L far more appropriate.

Where Ali L goes, trouble follows, along with a lot of Iranian armaments and Revolutionary Guards.

But a very curious thing happened this week. Mr. Larijani, the mullah media announced the other day, attended a meeting in Damascus with Sheikh Nasrallah, the Hezbo chief. Then he had a meeting with the good folks from Hamas.

Except that a day later, he didn’t. It never happened, according to this denial of the earlier announcement.

What up?

Iran is now paying both Hamas and Hezbullah many millions of dollars a year to do its bidding. As David Pryce-Jones points out in the Australian,

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has declared: “Lebanon is the scene of an historic test, which will determine the future of humanity.” ... It was surely not a coincidence that Hezbollah attacked Israel on the very day set as a deadline by the international community for the Iranian response to the proposal concerning its nuclear program.​

No, it wasn’t a coincidence. And it’s not a coincidence that Ali Larijani just happened to meet with Hamas and Hezbollah’s head honchos in Damascus at the very time both of those organizations kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Identical provocations within a few days of each other, by two terrorist organizations supported by Tehran’s oil money, in a pincer movement centered on Israel.

But then the IDF started to fight back, and three weeks later, Hezbollah is in trouble. Its very heart has been raided by Israeli special ops troops. Israel is being close-mouthed about who and what the commandos brought back, and a report yesterday of computers seized has disappeared from the site of the usually well-informed and well-connected Israeli blogger Yoni Tidi, who spoke of it on-air Wednesday with talk show host Hugh Hewitt.

But the Mullahs are upset. Very, very upset. Or, as President Ahmadinejad puts it:

“When I see the behavior of America, England, and their other accomplices in recent days, I get the impression that they are preparing even greater crimes. I warn them: Know that the fire of the wrath of the peoples is about to erupt and overflow. If you do not put an end to your crimes, know that the ocean of the peoples will soon rage. When the peoples begin to move, they will drag everybody to the defendant’s bench, and will remove them from the throne of power.”
​

It’s odd, though, that the Mullahs would want to deny their connection with the coming vengeance against the infidels if all were going well.

Just a little while ago, Ali L’s visit with the chiefs of Hezbollah and Hamas was the talk of the Middle East. But back then the Iranians were feeling a lot more confident.

Chances are that Mr. Larijani does not want to be associated with a great public defeat for Iran’s imperial plan. If Hezbollah loses face, so does Tehran. And the mullahs cannot afford to lose face. Their own populace has a disturbing tendency to break out in anti-mullah riots whenever large numbers gather.

If things go badly for Hezbollah, if incriminating evidence humiliates the mullahocracy, in the inevitable search for scapegoats Larijani’s enemies might just want to pin the blame on him.

So we are privileged to witness some fine mullah mambo.

Larijani’s Hezbo meeting? What Hezbo meeting was that?



James Lewis

 

[Annie]

A bit more on the special ops 'raid'. 4.5 hours, ahem, wonder what they were finding?

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnew...dnews_uri_dan_______mideast_correspondent.htm

RAIDERS FOLLOWED TRAIL OF KIDNAPPED TROOPS TO TERRORISTS' HOSP

By URI DAN Mideast Correspondent

August 3, 2006 -- JERUSALEM - Israeli commandos made their daring raid on a Hezbollah hospital because they believed that the two soldiers whose kidnapping started the Lebanese war had been treated there, sources revealed yesterday.

The commandos didn't find the Israeli soldiers but they seized five Hezbollah fighters, killed at least 10 others and took a treasure trove of intelligence documents when they escaped, as they came, by helicopter.

The bold foray into the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, about 80 miles north of the border, stunned war watchers.

But a high-ranking Israeli official said there had been 14 other commando raids since the fighting began, including at least five in the Baalbek region - and some even deeper into Lebanon.

In yesterday's raid, one group of commandos, backed by helicopter gunships and unmanned drones, landed in the Bekaa Valley city after midnight, within sight of ancient Roman temples, sources said.

After the town's electricity was cut off, they swept into the Iranian-run Dar al-Hikma Hospital and killed four heavily armed guards.

Then they searched the building from the top floor to its basement, which was described as a Hezbollah headquarters.

They found a large cache of weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles, and seized computers, cellphones and what one official called an "enormous' amount of Hezbollah documents and other valuable intelligence information about the terrorist group.

Officials did not indicate if the commandos found evidence in the hospital of the kidnapped soldiers, who were believed to have been treated there shortly after they were captured inside Israel on July 12.

Outside the hospital, the helicopter rained machine-gun fire on Hezbollah fighters, cutting them off from the commandos.

Another group of commandos were simultaneously raiding the Majdal Salim section of the town where they seized more documents and fought gun battles with guerrillas.

The raid came within 10 miles of the Syrian border and not far from a Lebanese army outpost.

After 41/2 hours on the ground, the commandos were whisked away by helicopter, along with their captives.

Israeli officials said the raid sent a message to Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.

"The army and air force proved their ability to go everywhere, even when Hezbollah turns a hospital into a headquarters," said the mission commander, Brig. Gen. Yochanan Locker.

Israeli television said the real target of the raid may have been a senior Nasrallah deputy, who escaped.

When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was asked whether any of the five men seized were "big fish," he replied, "They are tasty fishes."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Olmert also said Israel's offensive will stop only once a robust international peacekeeping force is in place in southern Lebanon.

"We can't stop before, because if there will not be a presence of a very effective and robust military international force, Hezbollah will be there and we will have achieved nothing," he said.

He had harsh words for Syrian leaders, calling them "reckless," "immature," and promoters of terror.

"I don't see that Syria is ready or is even prepared to avail itself to any act of moderation," Olmert said. With Post Wire Services