Lebanon

Lebanon
Capital city	Beirut
Location	Middle East
Type	nation state
Interest of	CENTCOM, United States Committee for a Free Lebanon
Member of	Arab League, La Francophonie, UN
Religiously diverse Middle Eastern country.

Lebanon was on a list of seven countries which retired 4-star general Wesley Clark (former supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe 1997-2001) stated the US military had plans to invade:

In 2001, in the Pentagon, a general told me : ‘I just received a classified memo from the Secretary of Defense: we will take seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and finally, Iran.’

2020 Beirut blast

On August the 4th, a giant explosion destroyed the port in Beirut.

Wikileaks cables

Wikileaks released cables leaked to them by US officials in 2010.

Lebanese Civil War

In a 1976 diplomatic cable, a US diplomat stated "if I got nothing else from my meeting with Frangie, Chamoun and Gemayel, it is their clear, unequivocal and unmistakable belief that their principal hope for saving Christian necks is Syria. They sound like Assad is the latest incarnation of the Crusaders."

2006 Lebanon War

Two years after a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel, then Lebanese defense minister Elias Murr gave a message to US diplomats, to be passed on to Israeli authorities, stating that the Lebanese authorities would not take revenge if Israeli military attacked Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Murr argued that Israel support and keep the support of Lebanese Christians if they do not attack Christian communities, and that they should not pass re-write borders to avoid legal retaliation from Hezbollah.

According to the diplomat supplying the cable, "Murr's opinion is that an Israeli action against Hizbollah would not be a war against Lebanon and that Syria and Iran did not ask Lebanon's permission to equip Hizballah with its rockets. As such, the LAF has been ordered to not get involved with any fighting ..."

The message was discussed with the president of Lebanon, Michel Suleiman, who at the time was also the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, with Murr stating that "he promised Suleiman the political cover for LAF inaction."

A cable from 17 July 2006, quotes Nabih Berri suggesting that he supported limited strikes against Hezbollah in a meeting with Jeffrey D. Feltman and describe "It's like honey. A little bit is good, but if you eat the whole jar you get sick." Berri's press office denounced reported cable leaks and described them as part of a "conspiracy".

Nabih Berri and Amal

Nabih Berri and the Amal movement had significant support among Shi'a in Lebanon, but that the movement is rife with corruption saying that "Amal is near universally derided as corrupt to the core, but it is also considered the only alternative for moderate, secular Shia.

Berri was described as giving social services in the south only through "wheeling, dealing, and stealing", and that Berri receives US$400,000 a month from Iran, using a fourth of the sum to shore up his support and pocketing the rest.

Amal was declining as its supporters turned to Hezbollah. Berri was allegedly grooming his son to be the leader of Amal, and expelled other popular candidates who could have posed problems for him.

Emirati and Saudi involvement

According to an April 2009 cable, Saudi Arabia did not financially support the March 14 Alliance. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported military involvement in the election and was said to promised "the need to support Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in the run up to the elections with concrete displays of support". Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman stated that "the UAE had been particularly helpful already by funding the delivery of the first ten refurbished tanks for the LAF".

Saad Hariri's-Hezbollah animosity

Saad Hariri has vowed to crush Hezbollah once the Lebanese Army was consolidated. Druze leader MP Walid Jumblat, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, talked with the US Charge d'Affairs warning the US and Michele Sisone, over reports that Prime Minister Saad Hariri's Future Movement was training a Sunni militia of 15,000 men in Beirut and 10000s others in Tripoli to fight Hezbollah. Jumblat said that private security companies by Hariri in Beirut and Tripoli were proof that "some persons", like Major General Ashraf Rifi, director general of the Internal Security Forces (ISF), were giving Hariri bad advice.

Wissam al-Hassan, the then head of the ISF's intelligence branch right hand of Hariri, said Rifi was wrong in advising Hariri to establish a Sunni militia. Jumblat was worried that Hariri's militia caused damage to the March 14 groups, especially since the Lebanese Forces led by Samir Geagea and Suleiman Frangieh's Marada Movement were training their supporters all along.

Lebanese Army's Incompetence

Nimrod Barkan, an Israeli official, said that "The March 14 camp is brave, but it has been castrated." Feltman wanted the US to support the Lebanese army against Hezbollah, but Barkan screamed at Feltman that's useless "because the LAF would never directly confront Hezbollah and it could eventually fall under its control". Barkan wanted a US-Saudi funded Sunni army.

Iranian takeover of Lebanon

The Lebanese Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh complained 'Iran Telecom is taking over the country!' Hamadeh had seen reports of 'the complete fiber optic system that Hezbollah had established throughout Lebanon' which he claimed were a Zionist and Iranian 'strategic victory for Iran, since it creates an important Iranian outpost in Lebanon, bypassing Syria.' 'The value for Hezbollah is the final step in creating a nation state. Hezbollah now has an army and weapons; a television station; an education system; hospitals; social services; a financial system; and a telecommunications system'.

'Hezbollah is like a tumour'

Lebanon's prime minister-designate Najib Mikati said Hezbollah was a "tumor that must be removed, whether benign or malignant" and "Lebanon could not survive with a Hezbollah mini-state" and it would bring Lebanon to a 'sad ending" and argued it must be removed.

Iranian and Syrian conspiracy

Israeli Mossad Chief Meir Dagan said "it is necessary is finding the right way to support PM Fouad Siniora. He is a courageous man, Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are working hard against him". Dagan noted that "Hariri, Jumblat and others had their parents executed by the Syrians". Although the odds were against him, he was motivated because Anti-Syrian people killed his family members.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Ziad Abdelnour	“The end justifies the means. I don't care about how it's done. The important thing is that it is done. I don't rule out force. I'm not against force. If it's an option, it will be an option... I have — we have — absolutely no problem with heavy US involvement in Lebanon. On an economic level, military level, political level, security level... whatever it is. Israel is the 51st state of the United States. Let Lebanon be the 52nd state. And if the Arabs don't like it, tough luck.”	Ziad Abdelnour	18 November 2005
Wesley Clark	“In 2001, in the Pentagon, a general told me : ‘I just received a classified memo from the Secretary of Defense: we will take seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and finally, Iran.’”	Wesley Clark	2 March 2007
Document:US Planned Syrian Civilian Catastrophe Since 2007	“Nasrallah said he believed that President Bush’s goal was “the drawing of a new map for the region. They want the partition of Iraq. Iraq is not on the edge of a civil war — there is a civil war. There is ethnic and sectarian cleansing. The daily killing and displacement which is taking place in Iraq aims at achieving three Iraqi parts, which will be sectarian and ethnically pure as a prelude to the partition of Iraq. Within one or two years at the most, there will be total Sunni areas, total Shiite areas, and total Kurdish areas. Even in Baghdad, there is a fear that it might be divided into two areas, one Sunni and one Shiite... “I can say that President Bush is lying when he says he does not want Iraq to be partitioned. All the facts occurring now on the ground make you swear he is dragging Iraq to partition. And a day will come when he will say, ‘I cannot do anything, since the Iraqis want the partition of their country and I honor the wishes of the people of Iraq.’" Nasrallah said he believed that America also wanted to bring about the partition of Lebanon and of Syria. In Syria, he said, the result would be to push the country “into chaos and internal battles like in Iraq.” In Lebanon, “There will be a Sunni state, an Alawi state, a Christian state, and a Druze state.” But, he said, “I do not know if there will be a Shiite state.””

 

Events

Event	Description
1982 Lebanon War	An Israeli invasion of Lebanon. They militarily occupied some of the country until 2000.
2006 Lebanon War
2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War	Hamas attack on dozens of illegal Israeli settlements in Southern Israel provoking mass retaliatory killings by Israel. Corporate media call it the Israeli "9-11", while critics of Israel refer to "10-7" as a staged, military operation in order to manufacture consent for a disproportionate response.
2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War/October 7	Hamas attacks Israeli settlements in Southern Israel, mass raping and abducting, which get called an Israeli "9-11" by CCM. The NYT and Al Jazeera claimed the Israeli government knew of the impending attack, ignored warnings, shot some of their own civilians, made up several stories and used the resulting increased death toll to go on a revenge killing spree in the 2023 Israeli invasion of Gaza.

 

Groups Headquartered Here

Group	Start	Description
Hezbollah	1985	Political Islamic party, and army fighting many wars in the Middle East, linked to possible CIA drug trafficking.
UNIFIL	19 March 1978	UN force in Lebanon which also functions an an excellent recruitment ground for Mossad.

 

Citizens of Lebanon on Wikispooks

Title	Born	Died	Description
Ziad Abdelnour	3 December 1960		A neoconservative financier who was disciplined by the SEC.
Fouad Ajami	18 September 1945	22 June 2014	Triple Bilderberg "terror expert"
Roland Carnaby	1956	29 April 2008	A senior spook who was shot by a Houston police officer following a high speed motor car chase and died of his wounds.
Amal Clooney	3 February 1978
Brigitte Gabriel	21 October 1964
Rafic Hariri	1 November 1944	14 February 2005
Ziad Jarrah	11 May 1975	11 September 2001
Rania Khalek	27 May 1986		Journalist
Charles Malik	1906	28 December 1987	Lebanese diplomat and philosopher suspected to have visited Le Cercle.
Najib Mikati	24 November 1955		Lebanese Billionaire. Currently serving his third term as Prime Minister.
Hassan Nasrallah	31 August 1960	27 September 2024	Leader of Hezbollah
Roula Khalaf Razzouk	May 1965		FT Editor alleged to be complicit in faking evidence to promote the Skripal affair official narrative
Edmond Safra	6 August 1932	3 December 1999	Banker who involved in drug, gold and currency trafficking, money laundering and organised crime, including what became known as Iran Contra. Died in suspicious fire.
Wael Sawan	July 1974		Attended the 2024 Bilderberg meeting as CEO of Shell
Marwan Sehnaoui
Ali Soufan	8 July 1971		Arab-speaking FBI agent who was involved in a number of high-profile anti-terrorism cases
Ali al-Jarrah	1958		Lebanese national and Israeli intelligence asset. First cousin of one of the hijacker patsies used during September 11.

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bandung Conference	1955	1955	Indonesia	Important conference for the global south; participants soon became prime targets for US foreign policy

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:The BBC is weaponising its Lebanon reporting to help disguise Israel's crimes	Article	27 September 2024	Jonathan Cook	By the third week of September, Israel had killed more than 750 Lebanese, compared to 33 Israeli deaths. The differential is even starker now. And yet the western media has not framed Hezbollah’s attacks as its "right to defend itself" – a right we are continuously reminded Israel has.
Document:The Israeli Terrorist State	blog post	31 July 2024	Craig Murray	"For me it is now axiomatic that there is no two state solution and that apartheid Israel must be completely dismantled as an entity. I believe that more and more people around the entire globe believe that now. "And if we have to dismantle our own political and media classes to get there, so be it."
Document:The Relative Value of Life and Death	blog post	29 July 2024	Craig Murray	Israel has been bombarding Syria relentlessly from long before October 2023 and has continued unabated – and unreported by western media. Israel’s attacks on civilian areas of Damascus this last few weeks have been devastating. It is pretty obvious that any loose missile that dropped on Majdal Shams is likely to have come from Israel, which is slinging huge quantities of munitions into Syria and Lebanon with wild abandon.
File:Horror in Beirut by Philip Giraldi.pdf	article	11 August 2020	Philip Giraldi	Was it an accident or a warning?

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.