Authors: Matthew Levitt
Lebanon’s foreign hostage crisis ended when Iran—in desperate need of foreign investment and improved relations with the West after the Iran-Iraq War—and Syria—aiming both to compensate for flagging Soviet support by wooing the United States and to solidify its control over Lebanon—pressured Hezbollah to accept a political and military agreement with Amal in January 1989.
175
A September 1990 US intelligence report declared, “The hostages have been a major obstacle to ending Iran’s international isolation and attracting foreign investment.”
176
And once the Kuwait 17 escaped from prison, Hezbollah agreed to facilitate the release of its remaining foreign hostages in return for being allowed to remain armed as a resistance movement in Lebanon despite calls for all Lebanese militia
to disband under the 1989 Taif Agreement, which laid out the terms for ending the civil war in Lebanon.
177
By this time the CIA was concerned not only with Hezbollah’s ongoing plots targeting US interests in Beirut but also with its efforts to strike at US interests internationally. In December 1991, when the CIA assessed the presence of a series of threats to US interests in Beirut, it also reported on the possibility of Hezbollah attacks outside Lebanon. Apparently still sensitive today, that section of the report remains redacted in full in the declassified version.
178
The concerns were clearly well placed, however, given Hezbollah’s track record of carrying out attacks not only in the Gulf but in Europe as well.
1.
D. Peterson et al. v. The Islamic Republic of Iran, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Information and Security
, United States District Court, District of Columbia, Docket No. CA 01-2684, March 17, 2003, pp. 24–25.
2.
Jaber,
Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance
, 83; US Department of Defense, “Report of the DOD Commission on Beirut International Airport Terrorist Act, October 23, 1983,” December 20, 1983, 32.
3.
Geraghty,
Peacekeepers at War
, 92.
4.
Ibid., 95.
5.
US CIA, “Iranian Support for Terrorism in 1985.”
6.
US CIA, “Middle East Terrorism: The Threat and Possible US Responses.”
7.
Wright,
Sacred Rage
, 16; “Terrorist Attacks on Americans, 1979–1988: The Attacks, the Groups, and the U.S. Response,”
PBS Frontline
, 2001.
8.
Jaber,
Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance
, 77.
9.
US CIA, “Lebanon: The Hizb Allah.”
10.
Kirit Radia, “Beirut U.S. Embassy Bombing 25 Years On,”
ABC News
, April 28, 2007; Wright,
Sacred Rage
, 70.
11.
Jaber,
Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance
, 77;
D. Peterson et al. v. The Islamic Republic of Iran
, p. 17; Wright,
Sacred Rage
, 70.
12.
Geraghty,
Peacekeepers at War
, 101.
13.
Wright,
Sacred Rage
, 72.
14.
Jaber,
Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance
, 83.
15.
US CIA, “Planning to Prosecute Shaykh for Bombing.”
16.
Jaber,
Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance
, 80.
17.
US CIA, “Lebanon: Theology of Power.”
18.
Ibid.
19.
US CIA, “Lebanon: Hizballah at the Crossroads.”
20.
US CIA, “Lebanon: Theology of Power.”
21.
Ibid.
22.
Ibid.
23.
David Kenner, “The Sheikh Who Got Away,”
Foreign Policy
, July 6, 2010.
24.
US CIA, “Lebanon: Theology of Power.”
25.
US CIA, “Lebanon’s Khomeini: Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah.”
26.
US CIA, “Lebanon: Prospects for Islamic Fundamentalism,” 7.
27.
US CIA, “Lebanon: Hizballah at the Crossroads [redacted],” 23.
28.
US CIA, “Lebanon: Theology of Power.”
29.
Kenner, “Sheikh Who Got Away.”
30.
US CIA, “Lebanon: Theology of Power.”
31.
US CIA, “Lebanon: Prospects for Islamic Fundamentalism.”
32.
Ibid.
33.
US CIA, “Shia Extremists Taste Own Medicine.”
34.
Blanford,
Warriors of God
, 74.
35.
Woodward,
Secret Wars of the CIA
, 396; Richard Zoglin, Jay Peterzell, and Bruce van Voorst, “Did a Dead Man Tell No Tales?”
Time
, October 12, 1987, 23.
36.
George V. Lauder, letter to the editor,
Washington Post
, June 21, 1985.
37.
Vincent Cannistraro, interview by Target America,
PBS Frontline
, September 2001.
38.
US CIA, “Western Government Installations Targeted by Shia Terrorists.”
39.
Woodward,
Secret Wars of the CIA
, 397.
40.
US Department of the Treasury. “Specially Designated National List Changes,” January 10, 1995.
41.
Associated Press, “Treasury Acts against Hezbollah Financing,”
Washington Times
, July 25, 2007; Kenner, “Sheikh Who Got Away.”
42.
US CIA, “Lebanon: Theology of Power.”
43.
Australia, Attorney General’s Department, “Hizballah External Security Organisation,” Listing of Terrorism Organisations, November 8, 2010; Borzou Daragahi and Sebastian Rotella, “Hezbollah Warlord Was an Enigma,”
Los Angeles Times
, August 31, 2008; Simon McGregor-Wood, “U.S. Wanted Terror Suspect Killed in Syria,”
ABC News
, February 13, 2008.
44.
Barton Gellman, “West Pursues Terror Camp’s Possible Link to Saudi Bombing of U.S. Troops,”
Washington Post
, December 1, 1996.
45.
Jeffrey Goldberg, “In the Party of God: Hezbollah Sets Up Operations in South America and the United States,”
The New Yorker
, October 28, 2002.
46.
James Risen, “Before bin Laden, One of the World’s Most Feared Men,”
New York Times
, February 14, 2008; Baer,
See No Evil
; Tim Llewellyn, “Imad Mughniyeh: Hizbullah Chief High on the US-Israeli Hitlist,”
Guardian
(London), February 13, 2008.
47.
Buenos Aires, Argentina Judicial Branch, AMIA Indictment, Office of the National Federal Court No. 17, Criminal and Correctional Matters No. 9, Case No. 1156, March 5, 2003 (hereafter cited as AMIA indictment).
48.
US CIA, “Lebanon: Prospects for Islamic Fundamentalism.”
49.
Elisabeth Smick, “Profile: Imad Mugniyah,”
Council on Foreign Relations
, February 13, 2008.
50.
Goldberg, “In the Party of God: Hezbollah Sets Up Operations.”
51.
Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 68.
52.
US CIA, “Inching toward a Hostage Release.”
53.
Smick, “Profile: Imad Mugniyah.”
54.
Ibid.
55.
US CIA, “Lebanon: Hizballah at the Crossroads.”
56.
Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 71, 85–86.
57.
Ibid.
58.
AMIA indictment; Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 69.
59.
Edward Cody, “Lebanese Suspect in Past Attacks on U.S Makes FBI List,”
Washington Post
, October 31, 2001; Blanford,
Warriors of God
, 76; Jacobsen,
Hostage
, 250; Diaz and Newman,
Lightning Out of Lebanon
, 68.
60.
Cody, “Lebanese Suspect in Past Attacks”; Diaz and Newman,
Lightning Out of Lebanon
, 68.
61.
Diaz and Newman,
Lightning Out of Lebanon
, 68.
62.
Cody, “Lebanese Suspect in Past Attacks”; US CIA, “Inching toward a Hostage Release.”
63.
McGregor-Wood, “U.S. Wanted Terror Suspect Killed in Syria”; Caroline B. Glick, “Hizbullah Mastermind’s True Legacy,”
Jewish World Review
, February 15, 2008.
64.
James Risen, “U.S. Traces Iran’s Ties to Terror through a Lebanese,”
New York Times
, January 17, 2002.
65.
US CIA, “Hizballah Terrorist Plans against U.S. Interests.”
66.
D. Peterson et al. v. The Islamic Republic of Iran
, p. 53.
67.
Ibid., 55.
68.
US CIA, “Hizballah Terrorist Plans against U.S. Interests.”
69.
Peterson v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, Memorandum Opinion, pp. 6–7.
70.
Ibid., 6–7; Jaber,
Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance
, 82.
71.
Jaber,
Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance
, 83.
72.
Wright,
Sacred Rage
, 88.
73.
Jaber,
Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance
, 82–83.
74.
US Department of Defense, “Report of the DOD Commission on Beirut International Airport Terrorist Act, October 23, 1983,” December 20, 1983.
75.
US Department of State, “Department Statement, Sept. 20, 1984,”
US Department of State Bulletin
, November 1984; “1984: US Embassy Blast Kills 20,”
BBC News
(On This Day), September 20, 1984.
76.
Wright,
Sacred Rage
, 107–8.
77.
Ibid., 108.
78.
Ibid.
79.
Ibid., 110.
80.
D. Peterson et al. v. The Islamic Republic of Iran
, p. 17.
81.
Ibid., 18; “Iran ‘Liable’ for Beirut Bomb,”
BBC News
, May 31, 2003.
82.
Peterson v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, Memorandum Opinion, p. 4.
83.
Ibid.
84.
Norton,
Hezbollah: Short History
, 34.
85.
Ibid., 73.
86.
Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 64–65.
87.
US CIA, “Inching toward a Hostage Release.”
88.
Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 64.
89.
US CIA, “Western Hostages in Lebanon.”
90.
Qassem,
Hizbullah: Story from Within
, 232–33.
91.
Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 62.
92.
Ariel Merari et al., “INTER: International Terrorism in 1987,” JCSS Project on Low Intensity Warfare,
Jerusalem Post
, 1988, 36; Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 64.
93.
Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 63.
94.
Ariel Merari et al., “INTER 85: A Review of International Terrorism in 1985,” Project on Terrorism, Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies,
Jerusalem Post
, 1986, 5.
95.
Ibid., 62–69.
96.
US CIA, “Beirut: Terrorist Mecca.”
97.
“An Open Letter: The Hezbollah Program,”
Jerusalem Quarterly
48 (Fall 1988): 3.
98.
Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 60.
99.
“Open Letter: The Hezbollah Program,” 1.
100.
Jacobsen,
Hostage
, 290.
101.
US CIA, “Release of US Hostages in Lebanon,” 3.
102.
US CIA, “Iran and the U.S. Hostages in Lebanon.”
103.
US CIA, “Playing Politics with Western Hostages.”
104.
Merari et al., “INTER: International Terrorism in 1987,” 36.
105.
Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 6.
106.
Jacobsen,
Hostage
, 53.
107.
Shaked and Dishon,
Middle East Contemporary Survey
, 405.
108.
Judith Miller, “Driver in Embassy Bombing Identified as Pro-Iranian Iraqi,”
New York Times
, December 17, 1983; Shaked and Dishon,
Middle East Contemporary Survey
, 405.
109.
Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 117.
110.
US CIA, “Iranian Support for International Terrorism.”
111.
Jaber,
Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance
, 129.
112.
Wright,
Sacred Rage
, 112.
113.
Ibid., 113.
114.
Ibid., 122.
115.
Shaked and Dishon,
Middle East Contemporary Survey
, 407; Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 91.
116.
Jaber,
Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance
, 54.
117.
Associated Press, “12 Iraqis and Lebanese Accused in U.S. Embassy Blast in Kuwait,” December 19, 1983; Miller, “Driver in Embassy Bombing.”
118.
Wright,
Sacred Rage
, 124.
119.
Al-Musawi, whose Islamic Amal ultimately merged with other radical Lebanese Shi’ite groups to form Hezbollah, had been suspected of organizing the October 1983 attacks on the American and French Multinational Force barracks in Beirut. See Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 91; Jaber,
Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance
, 80.
120.
The Prosecutor Special Tribunal for Lebanon v. Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Salim Jamil Ayy Ash, Hussein Hassan Oneissi & Assad Hassan Sabra
, Case No. STL-11-01IIfPTJ, June 10, 2011, p. 4.
121.
Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 91.
122.
Wright,
Sacred Rage
, 124–25.
123.
Ibid., 125.
124.
“Iran Denies Kuwait Blast Role,”
New York Times
, December 14, 1983.
125.
Wright,
Sacred Rage
, 125.
126.
Ranstorp,
Hizb’Allah in Lebanon
, 92.
127.
US CIA, “Iran and the U.S. Hostages in Lebanon.”