According to Haaretz, the U.S. intelligence chief said Sunday that internal Hezbollah factions or Syria may be to blame for the killing of top Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyah last week.
Ok, I know all the caveats which one should be aware of when quoting somebody like Mike McConnell and I agree with all of them. Yes, this might be a way of blaming Syria in order to further divide the anti-US countries and forces in the Middle-East. Still, this might also be the professional opinion of a Director of National Intelligence whose analysts are crying to high heaven that the ‘official’ version makes no sense at all. Whatever may be the case here, I am sure that more and more people with experience in intelligence operations will speak up and raise the issue of Syria’s role.
VS,
But here is another angle. Is it possible that he is engaged in a campaign of cover-up for Syria?
When he lumps Hizbullah and Syria as the likely culprits, the immediate reaction is to say no way! How could Hizbullah do that to its top commander? The next thing he wants us to conclude is that Syria couldn’t be involved either (when in reality it probably was).
maybe so, but purely on pragmatic grounds he is correct: Hezbollah *could* have killed him, in fact Hezbollah is just about the only organization besides the Syrian Mukhabarat which could have killed him. The fact that such a scenario is totally incredible for a long list of other reasons does not affect that stricly in terms *means* Hezbollah could have done it. Again, and to be very clear his, I totally dismiss such an option and I am in no way accusing Hezbollah, or even a faction within Hezbollah, of being behind this murder. I am only saying that McConnell, as a professional, knows that only the Syrians and Hezbollah could have done it.
Now, once he knows this he can be very truthful and, as you suggest, lump the two together in order to cover for Syria while, at the same time, suggesting that there are warring factions within Hezbollah. In the same vein, I listened to an ex-Mossad guy on Israeli TV saying that this murder proves that the Mossad had infiltrated Hezbollah at the very top. Total nonsense of course, but that is just the kind of “deza” (disinformation) the Imperial forces would spread now to try to achieve some panic inside Hezbollah: one of the most damaging things which the murder of Mughniyah could possibly achieve is a witch-hunt inside Hezbollah for a never existing mole as such a witch-hunt would paralyze the organization from within. I don’t expect the organization to fall for such a cheap trick, but it never hurts to try, at least not from a Mossadnik‘s point of view, don’t you think?
Don’t buy it.
I agree with VS: this is misinformation designed to create a rift between Syria and Hizballah and/or to try to create the impression that Hizballah is not the unified organisation it claims to be. Granted, this is Lebanon/Syria and you always have to suspect that the least ‘obvious’ culprit is actually the one wot dun it. However, I really do think Israel was responsible, their recent intelligence/military incompetence aside.