Archives
AND MORE...
Europe Simply Being Europe
_____________________
Brits Reverting To Chamberlainism
____________________
Europe Aids & Abets... Again
_____________________
PU to the EU
_____________________
May 17, 2013
Et Tu, Australia?
Australia still recognizes Hezbollah's so-called “political wing” and draws a distinction between Hezbollah's political and military wings.
A fact that deeply saddens us, especially since we'd hoped Australia, a close ally of the U.S., would follow the lead of another close U.S. ally, i.e., Canada.
Our very good friends, the Canadians, rightfully view all of Hezbollah as one big terrorist organization, as does the U.S.
Well, a couple of weeks ago, an influential Sunni cleric in Lebanon, Sheik Bilal Radwan, revealed to The Weekend Australian that three Hezbollah cells were operating in Australia (see below).
Yes, we know Hezbollah is Shia, and Sheik Radwan is Sunni, and there is zero love lost between the two sects. We also know Australian Jewish groups are concerned about the revelation and are calling on the Australian government to “drop the artificial distinction” between the two wings of Hezbollah, and ban the entire organization (story here) .
Iranian, Bahraini, Hezbollah and Palestinian flags dominated an Al-Quds Day rally in Sydney last year. Photo courtesy: jwire.com.au
“Australia may have followed the ‘erroneous thinking’ of the British government in distinguishing between the military and political arms of Hezbollah,” said Peter Wertheim, executive director of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
To which we say: C’mon Australia, you should know better. Follow the lead of countries like Canada (and the U.S.), not the Neville-Chamberlain-appeasing wing of the United Kingdom!
The Australian | April 27, 2013
Hezbollah 'Has Sleeper Cells Here'
By John Lyons, Middle East Correspondent
Cleric Sheikh Bilal Radwan says as many as 50 Australians have gone to Syria to join the rebels. Picture: Sylvie le Clezio.
HEZBOLLAH is operating three different sleeper cells in Australia, a leading religious leader in Lebanon has warned.
Sheik Bilal Radwan, an influential Sunni cleric in Tripol, also told The Weekend Australian he had knowledge that as many as 50 Australians have gone to Syria to join rebels fighting against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Sheik Radwan identified three Hezbollah cells operating in Australia -- Abu Abbas, Abu Jafaar and Zaiter.
In an interview in Lebanon, Sheik Radwan said: "There are sleeper cells for Hezbollah in Australia. I warn your government about such a thing.
"It is well known that they have sleeping cells like Abu Abbas, Abu Jafaar and Zaiter.
"All these are operating on the Australian ground."
Sheik Radwan is a key figure in Lebanon's Sunni Islam community and is at the frontline of the battle against Shia Islam.
Hezbollah -- the Party of God -- is one of the main political opponents of Sheik Radwan and other Sunnis. Sheik Radwan said he believed as many as 50 Australians had joined the fight in Syria against the Assad regime.
He said most of the Australians he knows who are fighting in Syria are about 30 years of age, but some are in their early 50s.
He said he has asked some why they were going and "they were so determined to go to Syria and fight".
Sheik Radwan said the Australians in Syria were both Muslim and non-Muslim.
The Assad regime has a heavy proportion of Alawites, an off-shoot of Shia Islam aligned to Iran.
Sheik Radwan said the involvement of Australians had not been solely military. "For example, I know of an Australian surgeon who came all the way from Australia just to help the Syrian people and went into Syria and is still in Syria," he said.
This week, the EU's anti-terror chief Gilles de Kerchove estimated that about 500 Europeans were fighting with the rebels in Syria.
He said this posed a challenge for intelligence services. "Not all of them are radical when they leave, but most likely many of them will be radicalised there, will be trained," he told the BBC.
"And as we've seen this might lead to a serious threat when they get back."
The BBC also reported that Britain and Belgium had increased efforts to track how people were recruited.
It said officials in The Netherlands had raised the terror threat level to "substantial", partly due to concerns about returning citizens.
Sheik Radwan said due to sanctions on Iran, Hezbollah was relying more on drugs and prostitution to fund terrorist attacks such as the one in Bulgaria in July last year, which killed five Israelis.
He said Hezbollah was now seeking "to create sleeper cells and to create chaos in Saudi Arabia, the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and different countries".
Original article here.
Log In »
Notable Quotables
"Mr. Netanyahu is one of the most media-savvy politicians on the planet. On Friday he appeared live via video link on 'Real Time with Bill Maher,' taking the host’s alternately sardonic and serious line of questioning with gazelle-like alacrity."
~ Anthony Grant, jourrnalist who has written for many major newspapers and worked in television at Paris and Tel Aviv, interviewing former PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, at the outset of Mr. Netanyahu's new book (more here).
And Then Some
Dangling Israel
March 24, 2022
New Global Leaders
March 23, 2022
Ukraine Can Learn From Israel
January 31, 2022