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Courtesy of Wikipedia
Imad Fayez Mugniyah (Arabic: عماد فايز مغنية, born December 7, 1962) is a senior member of the Lebanese group Hezbollah. He is alternatively described as the head of its security section, a senior intelligence official and as a founder of the organization. He's widely believed to be heading the international branch of the Hezbollah. This discrepancy can be traced to the limited information known about him. He uses the alias of Hajj. Mugniyah is also included in the EU list[1] of wanted terrorists.[2][3]
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 Hizballah's security apparatus, the Special Operations Command, which handles intelligence and conducts overseas terrorist acts. Although he uses Hizballah as a cover, he reports to the Iranians.[4]
The European Union lists him as "Senior Intelligence Officer of HIZBALLAH".[5]
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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.
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.[6] This reward remains outstanding.[7][8]
The Israeli government has also made several alleged attempts to assassinate Mugniyah. His brother Fuad Mugniyah was killed in 1994 by a Lebanese allegedly working for Israel. [citation needed]
In 1999, the Argentinean government issued an arrest warrant for Mugniyah for his involvement in the 1994 AIMA 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 abduction of Israeli Colonel 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, 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.
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August 20, 2006 at 09:23 PM in Al Qaeda | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home