Hezbollah - The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God

546 Pages·2015·3.21 MB·English

by  Matthew Levitt

Additional Advance Praise for
Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God
“Matthew Levitt has laid out a timely and relevant history of Hezbollah, a global
terrorist organization often referred to as the ‘A Team’ of terror. This book comes
at the right time as Hezbollah continues its decades-long war against the United
States, Israel, and our allies around the globe while it attempts to consolidate
political power in Lebanon—on its behalf and for the Iranian regime.”
—Juan Zarate, former Deputy National Security Advisor for Combatting
Terrorism and author of the forthcoming book, Treasury’s War
“Richard Armitage, then Deputy Secretary of State, once described Hezbollah as
the ‘A team’ of international terror. In his extraordinary new book, Matthew
Levitt explains why Hezbollah is seen as such a global threat. Levitt paints a
compelling picture of Hezbollah’s terror activities not just in the Middle East but
throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America. While Western
intelligence and law enforcement agencies have tracked and disrupted
Hezbollah’s global activities for years, this highly unsettling story has been
largely unknown to wider publics. Thanks to Levitt’s meticulous and well-
written book, that should no longer be the case.”
—Ambassador Dennis Ross, counselor at the Washington Institute; former
Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for the Central
Region at the National Security Council
“This book tells the sinister story of a highly sophisticated organization that for
more than thirty years has been an archetype of worldwide illicit activities.
Hezbollah effectively combines its overt social and political activities with
covert criminal and terrorist operations on a global scale. Matthew Levitt’s
painstaking collection of a rich array of data provides uncomfortable evidence of
‘The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God’. This book is essential reading
for policymakers and the international intelligence community.”
—Uri Rosenthal, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands
“In Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God, Matthew
Levitt, through adept storytelling and impressive attention to historical detail,
manages to teach even long-time students of the Middle East a great deal about
Hezbollah. The book leaves little doubt as to the increasing importance, danger,
and international reach of Hezbollah. It will be an important resource for serious
scholars of the Middle East and a great read for anyone interested in better
understanding the region.”
—Andy Liepman, Senior Policy Analyst, RAND Corporation; former Principal
Deputy Director, National Counterterrorism Center
“Matthew Levitt’s book touches a key point of the growing debate on Hezbollah:
the European approach to the phenomenon. It is a reminder for us Europeans that
there are threats that might seem distant geographically, but could nevertheless
have a strong impact politically on the continent as well.”
—Franco Frattini, Justice and Chamber President of the Italian Conseil d’Etat
(Supreme Administrative Court); President of the Italian Society for
International Organization (SIOI); former Italian Foreign Minister (2002–4
and 2008–11)
“This book on Lebanese Hezbollah is a unique incisive insight into its global
terror tentacles around the globe. No one has catalogued these terrorist
connections and plots in such forensic detail as Matthew Levitt, especially how
the terror nexus between Hezbollah and Iran has continually evolved. It
systematically lays bare Hezbollah’s operational capability and its multiple
intersections with Iranian intelligence architecture. This should be required
reading for every intelligence analyst and terrorism researcher.”
—Magnus Ranstorp, Research Director, Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies,
Swedish National Defence College
HEZBOLLAH
HEZBOLLAH
The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God
MATTHEW LEVITT
©2013 Matthew Levitt. All rights reserved. No part of this book may
be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Levitt, Matthew, 1970-
Hezbollah : the global footprint of Lebanon’s party of god / Matthew Levitt.
pages cm
Includes bibliographic references and index.
ISBN 978-1-62616-013-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Hizballah (Lebanon) 2. Lebanon—Politics and government.
I. Title.
JQ1828.A98L48 2013
324.25692'084—dc23
2013002933
∞This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the
American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library
Materials.
15 14 13 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 First printing
Printed in the United States of America
For my parents,
who made it all possible
And my wife and children,
who make it all worthwhile
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Researching Hezbollah’s Clandestine Activities
1 The Party of God Is Born
2 Branching Out: Targeting Westerners in Lebanon and Beyond
3 Hezbollah’s European Debut
4 Bombings in Buenos Aires
5 A Near Miss in Bangkok
6 Beirut to the Blue Ridge: Hezbollah Comes to North America
7 Bombing Khobar Towers
8 Unit 1800: Targeting the Israeli Heartland
9 Finance and Logistics in Africa
10 Unit 3800: Hezbollah in Iraq
11 Party of Fraud: Hezbollah’s Criminal Enterprise in America
12 Shadow War
Selected Bibliography
About the Author
Index
Acknowledgments
THIS BOOK IS THE PRODUCT of a decade of research and writing, based on
interviews with officials and experts from five continents, declassified
intelligence reports, court documents, and much more. Some people spoke on
the record, but more spoke on background or not for attribution, either because
they still work in government or because they feared putting at risk their future
access to people in Lebanon. Many people also helped me obtain documents
that, though unclassified (or declassified), were not necessarily accessible to the
public. I have thanked these people privately, and do so again here—the reader
will not know their names, but they know who they are and will recognize
themselves in this acknowledgment all the same.
Special thanks are due to my friends and colleagues at The Washington
Institute for Near East Policy, where I am a senior fellow and direct the
institute’s Stein program on counterterrorism and intelligence. I am especially
grateful for the support of the institute’s executive committee, board of trustees,
and executive director Robert Satloff. The institute’s senior research staff was a
constant source of support, and I am a wiser person for having the opportunity to
be a part of this truly remarkable intellectual community.
I owe a special thanks and acknowledgment to the various research assistants
and interns at The Washington Institute who at some point over the past few
years put their hearts and souls into this study, including David Bagby, Ben
Freedman, Shoshana Haberman, David Jacobson, Julie Lascar, Jake Lipton, Julia
Miller, Michael Mitchell, Jonathan Prohov, Aaron Resnick, Guive Rosen,
Gabriela Rudin, Nick Shaker, Melissa Trebil, and Kelli Vanderlee. As
researchers, data organizers, fact checkers, editors, formatters, sounding boards,
and partners in crime, the institute’s cadre of researchers have been second to
none throughout this project.
But among the research assistants who worked on this book with me, four
stand out for the amount of time and energy they invested in the project. Samuel
Cutler, Stephanie Papa, and Becca Wasser each spent over a year organizing
material, scheduling interviews, drafting timelines, and so much more. These
three saw me through the long haul of organizing the massive quantity of
material I collected into a coherent, usable archive so that I could start drafting
chapters. All told, Divah Alshawa will have spent over two years on this project,
including many rounds of “final” editing, fact checking, and formatting. I often
had to kick her out of the office at the end of the day, only to find that she’d gone
home and worked on the manuscript there too. Any errors or typos that may
have slipped through are mine alone, but the reason there will be so few, if any,
is that Divah made sure that would be the case.
Special thanks to Jason Warshof, editor extraordinaire, who invested
countless hours working with me on each draft chapter. When the final
manuscript submission came out well over the expected word count, Jason
stepped in to help trim the fat and keep the book as lean and focused as possible
without losing key content.
I want to thank the academic peer reviewers selected by Georgetown
University Press who gave generously of their time to review the manuscript in
its entirety and offered tangible comments and guidance. A host of other,
informal readers reviewed sections of the book, and I am very grateful to them
as well. My editor at Georgetown University Press, Don Jacobs, was a calming
influence when I needed him to be and gently prodding when he had to be.
Always supportive and with the patience of Job, he encouraged and supported
me throughout the project as it crept along, sometimes at a snail’s pace. Once
submitted, the manuscript was expertly prepared and promoted by the press staff.
It was a stroke of genius on the part of my literary agent, Robbie Hare, to match
me with Don and Georgetown University Press. Robbie is a valued friend and an
exceptional agent, and from the moment she read the early proposal that became
this book was its most ardent supporter.
Finally, I recognize how tremendously blessed I am to be a part of such a
loving, supportive family. I am truly grateful to my family—including my
parents, in-laws, children, and my incredible wife, Dina—for their love, support,
and patience.