Capture of 'spies' hits Israel
UPI Published: June 25, 2009 at 1:20 PM
www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2009/06/25/Capture-of-spies-hits-Israel/UPI-66891245950455/

The roundup of around 40 alleged Israeli agents in Lebanon in recent weeks
has in all probability been a serious blow for Israeli intelligence at a
time when its longtime adversary, Hezbollah, is bracing for another
onslaught by the Jewish state.

Both sides are nervous -- Israel because valuable eyes and ears inside
Lebanon have been lost, Hezbollah because the existence of these cells, some
of them set up 25 years ago, was an immense security failure on its part and
will mean it will have to do a lot of housecleaning and reorganizing.

All this means is that two of the Middle East's most ferocious adversaries,
whose intelligence war over the years has been one of the most heated in the
region, have both been badly damaged and want to hit back.

The turmoil in Iran and the emergence of a hard-line, right-wing government
in Israel under hawkish Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu fuel this unease
and sense of vulnerability on both sides. And in the volatile Middle East,
those are usually portents of trouble.

With one cell after another being rolled up, the Israelis will no doubt have
told whatever other intelligence assets they may have in Lebanon to lie low.
And it seems clear, given the rank of some of the Lebanese arrested in the
crackdown, that the Israelis had penetrated Lebanese society and its
military widely and deeply.

The alleged agents included a former general in Lebanon's premier security
service, two army colonels and a former mayor. Lebanese authorities say most
of those arrested, including those just listed, have all confessed that they
had been spying in Lebanon for years.

Some said they were recruited by Israel's various intelligence services --
Mossad, which operates outside Israel; the Shin Bet internal security
service, which operated in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories; and
Aman, military intelligence -- as far back as 1982 when Israel invaded
Lebanon.

In Lebanon, given Hezbollah's nationwide military structure and the danger
it poses for the Jewish state, the Israelis will have to rebuild the
networks smashed by Lebanese intelligence and Hezbollah's security branch to
regain the intelligence flow that is vital to military operations.

This means that to an extent that can only be guessed at, the Israelis are
more vulnerable regarding Hezbollah than they have been for many years.

When Hezbollah abducted Israeli soldiers on the border on July 12, 2006,
Israel responded with wave after wave of airstrikes in what became a 34-day
war. The Israelis were able to destroy bunkers containing most of
Hezbollah's long-range rockets capable of striking deep into Israel, almost
to Tel Aviv, in under an hour.

Their intelligence was that good, and some of that must have come from
agents they had on the ground. Those assets may no longer be available, and
the Israeli air force may not be able to strike with such devastating
accuracy next time around.

Hezbollah, too, is jumpy, and with some reason. From what information is
available about the alleged spies' activities, they were focused primarily
on tracking Hezbollah leaders and key operatives, identifying command
centers and safe houses.

Several senior Hezbollah officials who were assassinated were probably
targeted by intelligence provided by the Israeli agents. At least one of
these agents had secured a commercial contract with Hezbollah's
administrative branch to maintain its vehicles and had planted tracking
devices in them that went undetected for years.

It does not take a great stretch of the imagination to surmise how many
secret facilities and key Hezbollah operatives were uncovered in what must
stand as one of the most successful espionage operations mounted in many
years.

It seems that the assassination of several senior Hezbollah figures likely
resulted from the activities of the Israeli spy rings. Among those killed
was the Shiite movement's fabled and shadowy operational chief, Imad
Mughniyeh, the most wanted fugitive in the world until Osama bin Laden
struck on Sept. 11, 2001.

Mughniyeh, indicted in the United States for the June 1985 hijack of a TWA
jetliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was murdered, was assassinated in one of
the most secure districts of Damascus, the Syrian capital, after a meeting
with Syrian intelligence chiefs.

A bomb placed in the headrest of his SUV was detonated by remote control
when he got into the vehicle. It was one of the most spectacular
assassinations in the Middle East for years. It hit Hezbollah hard, and it
has carried out no operation of any significance against Israel since then.