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The Dark Genius of Hizbullah

[National Post-Canada] Jonathan Kay - The 2006 Lebanon War will be remembered as an important milestone in the long war between the West and militant Islam. While the Taliban and al-Qaeda are alienating their would-be followers with nihilistic violence, Hizbullah has developed a strategy that combines terrorism with sophisticated guerilla warfare, state-of-the-art weaponry, savvy public relations, charismatic leadership and state sponsorship. The group's surprisingly strong effort a year ago highlighted at least a half-dozen important innovations in Islamist war-making. In public relations, al-Qaeda and the Taliban are shadowy organizations that occasionally emit videos full of rambling apocalyptic speechifying. Hizbullah, on the other hand, operates a professional satellite channel, Al-Manar television. When Israeli bombs went astray and killed civilians, Hizbullah media handlers quickly descended on the scene to manage the coverage. Since its creation in the early 1980s, Hizbullah has been armed, trained and financed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Even during the war itself, IRGC officers assisted Hizbullah, and ensured that supply routes through Syria remained open.
2007-08-17 01:00:00
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