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While still denying involvement in Lebanon, Iran sweetens the martyrdom deal with a paycheck to surviving relatives of Hizballah fighters. This runs contrary to Stephen Schwartz's recent assertion that "Lebanese ... Shias resent, are contemptuous of, and will not take dictation from Iranians."
Meanwhile, Hizballah is scrambling to keep Lebanese papers from releasing information about the extent of the casualties it has sustained. From the New York Sun: "Iran Is Compensating Families of Hezbollah Dead"
Iran has set up a fund to compensate the families of Hezbollah fighters killed or wounded in the conflict with Israel, Lebanese security officials have disclosed.
Iran's Shaheed Foundation is making initial payments of $1,000 to relatives, in a program that was originally set up in the 1980s to compensate the families of Iranian soldiers killed during the country's eight-year war with Iraq.
Tehran is believed to have set aside $2 million for its Lebanon compensation fund, and further payments will be made to bereaved families when Iranian officials have assessed their needs.
Although Hezbollah has refused to make public the extent of the casualties it has suffered, Lebanese officials estimate that up to 500 fighters have been killed in the past three weeks of hostilities with Israel, and another 1,500 injured.
Lebanese officials have also disclosed that many of Hezbollah's wounded are being treated in hospitals in Syria to conceal the true extent of the casualties. They are said to have been taken through al-Arissa border crossing with the help of Syrian security forces.
Iran's compensation payments offer further proof of its close ties with Lebanon's radical Shiite Muslim militia.
Although Tehran has denied having any direct involvement in the hostilities in southern Lebanon, Lebanese security officials say the Shaheed Foundation has sent a number of representatives from Iran to set up temporary offices in local schools and kindergartens — closed for the summer holidays — to assist with the payments. An estimated 20 commanders from Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps are already based in Lebanon, helping Hezbollah with the Iranian-made rockets being fired into Israel.
Surely there is other office space, but this way, even during the summer holidays, any Israeli action against the Shaheed Foundation can be spun as action against civilian targets.
Iran has previously paid compensation to the families of Palestinian Arab suicide bombers who have hit Israeli targets.
Hezbollah's operational council has drawn up casualty lists that have been passed to the Shaheed Foundation. Copies have been seen by the Daily Telegraph and have also been obtained by Lebanese newspapers, which have been pressured by Hezbollah not to publish them.
"Hezbollah is desperate to conceal its casualties because it wants to give the impression that it is winning its war," a senior security official said. "People might reach a very different conclusion if they knew the true extent of Hezbollah's casualties."
Posted by Marisol at August 4, 2006 6:49 AM
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Hezbollah's wounded = fish
al-Arissa border crossing = barrel
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at August 4, 2006 7:35 AM
What? Only $1,000/martyr's head? Given that Saddam used to top up Yasser's cheques by $10K or more, that Ahmadinejad is a real piker, isn't he?
Lots more on this topic posted yesterday at frontpagemag.com and memri worth reading:
Libyan Reformist Author in Essays Critical of Hizbullah
July 26: The Dreams of Ahmadinejad, Hamas, and Nasrallah "Bring Nothing but Massacres and Unbalanced Wars"
"In southern Libya... there was a dervish by the name of 'Abdallah bin Mas'ud, who had disciples and students. One morning Sheikh bin Mas'ud gathered together his disciples and said to them: 'I dreamt that the infidels' weapons have "gone cold" - meaning they are no longer deadly - and thus I have decided that we will attack the French Army's fortress with cold arms.' Many of the dervishes who were his students went after him, armed with knives, scythes, and swords, and attacked the French fortress in Sabha, the capital of the south. The French destroyed them all, to the last man...
"The latest dream [of this kind] was that of the president of Iran, Ahmadinejad, who said in a speech that was broadcast on Iranian television in Mashad that Iran's joining the group of nations with nuclear technology derives from the Iranian nation's struggle, which is making a step forward towards the coming of the awaited mahdi (Al-Watan magazine, May 5, 2006). So Iran needs to manufacture a nuclear bomb before that time, in order to help the mahdi eliminate the infidels and the polytheists...
"[Ahmadinejad] found people who believe him in the Hamas movement, and especially Khaled Mash'al... The awaited mahdi is coming, so why then defile the struggle with negotiations with Israel or with recognition of it? It may be that Mr. Mash'al hasn't noticed that he [himself] will be among those doomed to perdition, since he isn't a Shi'ite.
"It appears that Hassan Nasrallah [also] believed this prophecy, since he says that there is nothing called Israel on the world map, that he does not recognize the international community, and that he attributes no importance to the U.N. The awaited mahdi is about to come. He will wipe out Israel and the Sunnis, the Christians, and the Druze of Lebanon, and he [i.e. Nasrallah] will be the Imam's viceroy in all of Greater Syria...
"These dreams and prophecies are madness, that bring nothing but massacres and unbalanced wars with foreign [forces]... If it were only these leaders who became possessed with this madness, then things would not be as bad as they are. But the majority of the public have been swept after them.
"The large public that supported Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and believed that he would redistribute the Arab wealth to all of the Arabs was surprised at the reality on the day that Saddam was defeated, although they did not admit it. This is a public that believed, relying on the analysis of the Al-Jazeera channel's experts, that Saddam Hussein would deliver a humiliating defeat to the United States. When Baghdad fell, this public came up against the bitter reality, but to this day it has not owned up to the truth. It pins all its hopes on the defeat of Israel, and seriously believes that Mr. Nasrallah will defeat it...
"In a short time, the public will understand that they have seen another mirage - but then it will look for another leader to give them what they are missing... [another] fantasy..." [3]
Read the whole piece at http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD122706
Iranian Regime Tries to Deny Hizbullah Report of July 27 Meeting in Damascus Between Iranian Supreme National Council Secretary Larijani and Hizbullah Leader Nasrallah http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD122806
The title of the next one alone reminds me of Khomeini sending hundreds of thousands of young Iranians to their certain deaths in the eight year war against Iraq:
Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei: 'America Can Expect a Resounding Slap and a Devastating Fist-Blow From the Muslim Nation'; Hizbullah is the Muslim Nation's 'Front Line of Defense'; 'There is No Way to Confront... the Zionists... and the 'Great Satan' Except Through Martyrdom'http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD123006
and Hezbollah on the Ropes by Steve Schippert of threatswatch.org:
[...]
In fact, in a radio interview with John Batchelor, retired Air Force General Tom McInerney detailed a debriefing with a senior IDF official in which he detailed that Israel believes their airstrikes have eliminated 70 percent of the long-range Iranian ZelZal missile systems in Hizballah hands. McInerney noted that over 1000 Hizballah infrastructure targets have been struck by Israeli air power up and down the Bekaa Valley (once called the most heavily defended air corridor on the planet) and throughout Southern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities, command and control centers, vehicle repair facilities and 18 Hizballah financial centers which serve in the place of banks.
While sustaining these enormous losses, Hizballah is having difficulty re-supplying across the Syrian border. Convoys from Syria are struck by F-16’s and drones once they are within Lebanese borders, often with the massive secondary explosions that indicate arms shipments. The Israelis believe that Bashar Assad is “directly involved” in the attempts to smuggle rockets, other arms and ammunition to Hizballah, and the release of the results of "defense establishment" intelligence is Israel’s way of sending a message to the Syrian president.
[...]
Posted by: waterdragon52 at August 4, 2006 8:35 AM
There is one problem here. That is that your orientalist racist mindset always comes in the way of your reason. The Israelies cleary said that destroying Hezbollahs rockets is no longer a reasonable option. In your mind evil and stupid Orientals cant win against good( and white) Europeans, that is Israelies. Wake up to the facts. Disarming Hezbollah is impossible. Defeating a geurillia movement, especially an efficient, smart and super organized force like Hezbollah is out of the question. That is whay Israelie aims keep changing from disarming Hezbollah, to destroying rockets, weakening and finally just pushing them south of the Litani river. Hezbollah is winning again because of inneficient and poor Israelie military intelligence. Quite contrary to one of your stated articles of faith this war has united Shia and Sunni Muslims like nothing before. Not Osama, but Nasralla is now the heroe of the arab street.
Posted by: karim at August 4, 2006 8:44 AM
Another idiotic mohammedan troll who thinks we give a rat's ass about the rabid savages on the "arab street".
On your way, islamic donkey. Your silly braying would be better expressed on one of your fellow barbarians' jihad sites.
Posted by: Eisenhund at August 4, 2006 10:03 AM
Once again you find the cowardly Muslim conducting business in schools, hospitals, and other "civilian" locations. Israel is showing the correct attitude, "no matter where you hide, you die".. It is sad that innocent children die, But That is the will of Allah.
Posted by: exsgtbrown at August 4, 2006 10:13 AM
karim
Even the worst of Nazis or Fascists - despicable as they were - were better than the best of you Mohammedans.
Instead of ranting on here, why not take a trip to Dimashq, and get to Lebanon and join Hizbullah? That way, your trip to meet your Houris gets expedited.
Vamoose!
Posted by: Infidel Pride at August 4, 2006 11:16 AM
I really dont know why i am wasting my time playing therapist...Get in line, troll
at August 4, 2006 11:29 AM
Can someone remove my above 2 posts as well as this one, since the absense of Karim's posts, which I was responding to, makes them irrelevant?
Thanks
at August 4, 2006 1:51 PM
karim,
Israelis are "white Europeans?" Thanks are a quality morning laugh. Fear not, now that the main road to Damascus is once again disrupted, along with other routes,(dispite the best efforts of UN engineers) Hez command and control will soon follow. Look to the manipulation of casualty statistics as evidence of this slow erosion. Natrurally, it will be an ongoing process as much was stockpiled in the six years since the Israelis pulled out.
Shia, Sunni united against a common foe? Both inflict more worldwide daily carnage on each other than the Jews would ever care to.
That is just one more obvious reason why a worldwide caliphate will never come about. The wars and massacres would just continue under a different name. The players would change, the score would be the same.
Posted by: We need G.C. Scott at August 4, 2006 2:02 PM
Maybe the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans can come to the aid of their fellow "Orientals?" Sounds like our friend has "Asian envy."
Posted by: We need G.C. Scott at August 4, 2006 2:07 PM
This revelation explains why the Qana deaths
were padding upwards , Muslims can claims the rewards by asserting it was their family member
still trapped in the rubble with other martyrs.
Posted by: ala-sux
at August 4, 2006 8:30 PM
Lebanese security officials say the Shaheed Foundation has sent a number of representatives from Iran to set up temporary offices in local schools and kindergartens — closed for the summer holidays —
...........
Yeesh! I think of local schools here, most of which are also closed now for the Summer holidays.
Let's see--they offer Summer School, meeting space for kid's groups like the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, field trips to museums and local historic sites, and just-for-fun trips to places like outdoor public swimming pools, county fairs and amusement parks.
Every so often there will be a "scandal" if a program is poorly run--chaotic finances, minor safety issues, that sort of thing. Sometimes there will be an outcry if a program is threatened with closing due to lack of funding.
Nope, no terrorists setting up schools them during the off-season that I'm aware of.
Posted by: gravenimage at August 4, 2006 10:47 PM
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