Desperately Seeking Mughniyah

The Iranian Jackal, a nom de guerre that perfectly suited Imad Mughniyah as the model terrorist, was the subject of an intense search by the Israeli Mossad and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was a search launched by both those government agencies to halt the viciously destructive depredations of a master mass murderer, a man whose ability to plan and to execute atrocities was unparallelled.

In fact, the intense surveillance and espionage that was engaged upon with that purpose in mind did result in the man being found and ultimately tracked and disposed of.  The pursuit may have been elegant in the fine details of its prosecution, but the manner of his death most definitely was grisly and gruesome, befitting one who visited death by the most bloodily atrocious methods upon others.

The East German Stasi had developed a close relationship with Syrian counterparts, a relationship that was sustained even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the Stasi was dispersed. An ex-Stasi spy had vital documents which he was aware the Mossad would be eager to acquire, and he contacted a representative of the Mossad. A meeting between them took place in Berlin.

And an invaluable file, one that related directly to Mughniyah was handed over in exchange for a briefcase reputed to have held $250,000. Expensive, but a necessary expense. Perhaps one of the most important parts of the file were photographs of Mughniyah, for the fact that he was sought internationally compelled him to dramatically change his appearance. 

And now, among other useful pieces of data about this man, the Mossad agents knew what he now looked like. Former CIA operative Robert Baer described Mughniyah as tall, slender, well dressed and handsome, and the "most intelligent, most capable operative we have ever run across, including the KGB or anybody else. He enters by one door, exits by another, changes his cars daily, never makes appointments on a telephone, never is predictable. He uses only people that are related to him that he can trust."

An elusive, diabolically clever shadow, in other words. A shadow whose expert work on behalf of Hezbollah's brand of terror-jihad made him the prime Hezbollah strategist. He had gone so far as to establish a Hezbollah network in Montreal to "prepare for the execution of terrorist attacks should the U.S.A. strike at Iranian nuclear installations".

And he had numerous murderous assaults on Western targets to his credit, making him a much-admired figure, the very personage whom aspiring jihadists had reason to look up to, and fashion themselves after. Even Osama bin Laden was enthralled by his cleverness, by his amazing successes. Successes like deadly bomb attacks in Lebanon.

The 1983 Beirut bombing at the U.S. Embassy saw 63 people killed. The one at the U.S. Marine barracks succeeded in slaughtering 241. At the French paratrooper barracks in Beirut that same year there were 58 left dead. Hijacking, kidnapping, assassination as well as bombings all listed to his credit. The Israeli embassy and the Jewish cultural center in Argentina bombed with 124 dead.

He was responsible for the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 where a mere 6 were killed. In Saudi Arabia three years later a suicide bombing left 19 dead. In Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 more bombings of U.S. embassies with 223 killed. And the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Aden Yemen, where 17 lost their lives.

He has also been linked to the 9/11 attacks, as "a senior Hezbollah operative" who herded the hijackers in and out of Iran. This man's lethally successful orchestration of mass attacks were without peer. So when Mossad agents discovered that he had been invited to attend the Iranian Cultural Centre in Damascus for celebrations honouring the Iranian Revolution, opportunity reared.

A Mossad strike team took up position outside the Iranian Cultural Centre. Vehicles with remote controlled explosives were positioned along the street at various intervals. When Mughniyah pulled up with his driver in a silver Mitsubishi Pajero, and Imad Mughniyah emerged, he walked up the street and when he passed one of the cars it exploded. Beheading Mughniyah.

"The world is a better place without this man in it. One way or the other he was brought to justice", stated U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.  Hezbollah, however, was far from pleased and vowed revenge.  The bombing last year in Bulgaria represented one of those pay-back IOUs, and there will be more. Hezbollah has these vengeance attacks high on their agenda.

But then, given their self-approved mandate, encouraged by their executive state sponsor Iran, they really need no such incidents to spur them to action.