Lebanon Plan Hatched in Damascus

According to Intelligence Online sources in Beirut, Hezbollah’s anti-government demonstration and current sit-in in the Lebanese capital were carefully prepared in November in Damascus.

The events were orchestrated in Syria by the head of military intelligence, general Assef Shawkat, who was visited on several occasions last month by general Qassem Suleimani, head of the Al Qods force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (Pasdarans). The two have been in permanent contact in Beirut with Hussein Khalif, security adviser of Hezbollah’s leader, as well as with the notorious Imad Mughnieh who has returned to Lebanon after spending several years in exile in Iran. Our sources said a dozen tents pitched by demonstrators near the government’s headquarters are guarded by heavily-armed militia men. The tents house sophisticated eavesdropping gear to tap into government communications. Elsewhere, Lebanese intelligence agencies, which had been girding themselves against the possibility of provocations and violent attacks, have identified 30 Al Qaeda activists who slipped into the country from Syria.

INTELLIGENCE ONLINE N° 536