The New York Times reports that Lebanese authorities have arrested three men for spying for Israel.
The arrests on Saturday were based on information from Adeeb al-Alam, a retired Lebanese general who was arrested this month and charged with spying for Israel for over at least a decade. Mr. Alam traveled regularly to Europe to meet with Israeli officials, and at their behest he set up a business that brought women to Lebanon to work as maids to help disguise his activities, Lebanese security officials said.
Over the past year, according to the article, Lebanon has arrested 9 people for spying for Israel.
In many cases, Hezbollah has discovered and captured spying suspects before handing them to the authorities in Lebanon. Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group, whose political wing has strong representation in the Parliament and cabinet, is the most powerful military force in Lebanon, and it is also widely thought to have the best intelligence network.
This year, Hezbollah captured Marwan Faqih, a businessman in Nabatiye who is believed to have sold dozens of cars to Hezbollah officials with tracking and listening devices inside them, on behalf of Israeli intelligence. Mr. Faqih was handed over to the authorities in Lebanon and charged with collaborating with Israel.
Clearly there’s been some sort of shadow war going on in Lebanon. And while it may be comforting to Lebanon (and its Syrian and Iranian overlords) to attribute these killings to Israel, I’m not convinced that Israel has had anything to with them. Maybe I’m naive, but I’m not convinced that Israel killed Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus either.
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has said repeatedly that the group would retaliate against Israel for the 2008 killing of Imad Mugniyah, a top Hezbollah military commander.
In other words, arresting people who were inconvenient to Hezbollah for some other reason would be a good way of showing that Hezbollah is doing something and not impotent in that case.
I also think that the arrests are a sign of nervousness about Iran’s nuclear program, as Iran has made a number of arrests and an execution for espionage recently. And as Iran’s proxy bordering Israel, I expect that the nervousness has spread to Hezbollah.
(I should emphasize, that my feeling that Lebanon’s espionage arrests are based on false accusations, is not based on any inside knowledge. I do know that Fatah and Hamas have used the charge of “collaboration with Israel” to rid themselves of people who were inconvenient. I suspect that Hezbollah and Iran work much the same way.)
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
