There is a weird story making its rounds about a young Swedish-Lebanese man who was arrested in Cyprus while clandestinely monitoring Israeli tourists. The man claims to work for Hizbullah:
He admitted he has been a member of Hezbollah for the last four years, claiming he was working as a member of the political party and not what many call the ‘terrorist’ branch, and although a Muslim, he has never supported fanatical Islam.
According to his testimony, he used the code name Wael and would receive orders from another Hezbollah member called Ayman, although he admitted he had no idea what Ayman looked like as whenever they met he would have his face hidden.
Why would someone working for the political party of Hizbullah work clandestinely?
And how or why would the guy know that he was in contact with Hizbullah at all? Because some masked guy called Ayman told him so?
Like the false "Hizbullah bombed Israeli tourists in Bulgaria" fairy tale this story stinks.
But we might find out who is behind it when we analyze what this story, like the Bulgaria story, is used for:
At issue, analysts say, is not only Yaakoub’s guilt or innocence but also the broader question of whether Cyprus and other European Union countries will take a harsher attitude toward Hezbollah. While the United States designed the organization as a terrorist group, the E.U. continues to view it as a political party.
U.S. officials said they hope evidence linking the attack in Bulgaria and Yaakoub’s plotting to Hezbollah will persuade the Europeans to move against the group and restrict its movements and fundraising.
For the Americans, time is important. Current and former U.S. counterterrorism officials said Hezbollah’s ambitions and reach have expanded in the past two years, coinciding with tougher sanctions on Iran. At least a dozen plots linked to the group or Iran have been foiled, including botched bombing attempts in India, Thailand, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kenya.
Despite the claim of "evidence linking the attack in Bulgaria" there is none. Despite pressure from the U.S. the Bulgarian authorities only claimed that the Hizbullah thesis is a "reasonable assumption."
The U.S. and Israel want to frame Hizbullah to get the European Union to declare it a terrorist group.
Does anyone really believe that Hizbullah, which proved to be better than the Israeli army in the 2006 war, is so incompetent that it botches bombing attempts in at least six countries? Is Hizbullah so incompetent that it uses a masked man, who then openly claims to be Hizbullah, to control some incompetent naive?
No, this story does not pass the smell test.