Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Face-to-Face with Hezbollah   [W. Thomas Smith Jr.]

BEIRUT (The Christian Sector) — Last night, following a briefing by Toni Nissi, who runs the 1559 Committee here in Beirut and is one of the founders of the Cedars Revolution; he, team members Carol Sokhen and Alexi Capucci, and I, left the offices and drove through the streets of the city.

Soldiers were everywhere. Carol was a bit nervous – responsibly cautious might be a better description – because Toni had been watched leaving his office and then followed by Hezbollah men only a few days earlier. And it has been less than a week since parliamentarian Antoine Ghanem was killed on the same route.

All I could think about was how easily the passenger-side door closed, reminding me that we were tooling around the Lebanese capital in a thin-skinned, unarmored SUV.

Toni knows his life is in danger. But as he says, “What are you going to do?"

I slept at Carol's house. The committee's chief researcher, Carol lives in a charming flat in the Christian section of Beirut. French doors to my room opened to a six-story terrace overlooking other residence buildings – spruced up with lovely hanging plants and flowers — all pock-marked with bullet holes and shrapnel scars from previous fighting. Down below on the street was a Lebanese soldier slowly passing through the yellowish glow of a street light. A foreboding-looking solid black figure at first: as he moved through the light, I could see his camouflaged army uniform, green beret, and folding stock AK-47. I slept with the doors open, watching the clouds and listening to the street noise – screeching cars, a few scooters, and a barking dog — for a few minutes before drifting off.

Today, back on the road with Cedric Achkar, special assistant to the general coordinator (basically Toni's right arm). Cedric is only 25-years-old, but well-respected, educated (a couple of engineering degrees), always with a solution (never a problem), and bears the jaw scars of a Kalashnikov rifle-butt. We drove all over Beirut this morning, passing near the Hezbollah camp and literally a few feet from several Hezbollah militiamen who gave us the hard stare.

Hezbollah are not the only terrorists operating here in Lebanon: There are also Al Qaeda affiliates like Fatah Al Islam (they were not totally wiped out at Nahr al Bared), as well as Jund al Sham (Soldiers of Damascus), Jundallah, Hamas, and — though few Americans are aware of this — operating elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on the Lebanese side of the Lebanese-Syrian border. These are just a few of the problem groups here: All operating under the auspices of Hezbollah.

In a few hours, I'm slated to meet with several senior Lebanese military commanders, and will go with them into the field.

Editor’s note: Please see this note.

09/26 04:48 AMShare