Exclusive to moqawama.org By Mariam Saleh

Lebanon has been under the outrage of continued reports of “Israeli” spying equipment and agents being found on its land. Lately, the Lebanese Army uncovered that it spotted and dismantled two long-range spying devices crediting the Resistance with providing information that enabled the discoveries. The two pieces of equipment were camouflaged with artificial mountain rocks and were found simultaneously in a period of two days. 

The first on Sannine Mountain in the upper Metn area, which overlooks Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley, and the second, was found on Barouk Mountain in the Shouf area, southeast of the capital.

People in Lebanon had previously heard that “Israel” had the capabilities to intercept Lebanese cell phone transmissions, yet the discovery of these two devices have brought to light new conclusions related to the “Israeli” infiltration of Lebanon’s telecommunications system.

Vice- Chairman of the board of South Asia & Middle East North Africa Telecom Council (SAMENA), Riad Bahsoun tells us that these discoveries are actually evidence that “Israel” has gone to the extent of building an autonomous network on Lebanese territory. “The devices are not only spying equipment with optical laser photography characteristic and military features for interception and localization, but are communication stations on their own. The equipment found on Sannine Mountain proved to have BTS cellular features” Bahsoun tells us.

BTS is short for Base Transceiver Station. In mobile communications the BTS is the networking component of a mobile communications system from which all signals are sent and received. A BTS is controlled by a base station controller. A BTS is also called a base station (BS) and is commonly referred to as a “cell phone tower.”

The base station controller in this case is an “Israeli” tower which also transmits to its “mother station”. People living in the vicinity of Zahleh had complained that their mobiles had shifted at certain times to an “Israeli” roaming network. Lebanon has no common cellular coverage with “Israel”.

“Israel’s” efforts before and after the 2006 war on Lebanon which focused on interception and localization through various devices and the use of agents planted on Lebanese land had proven insufficient. “Israel” had concluded this after it realized that it was not able to locate and assassinate any of the Resistance leaders. Despite “Israeli” claims early on in the war that it had exterminated Hizbullah’s rocket launchers and even underground arsenal; the rockets kept going during the 33 day war. The Sannine and Barouk stations are considered part of its efforts to complete their objective to target the resistance.

The equipment, we are told by Bahsoun is very much modern and capable, yet dismantling it is an enormous strategic blow to “Israel’s” advanced capabilities.

Add to this the fact that Hizbullah’s Resistance had provided the national army with the intelligence to locate the devices. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman praised the cooperation between the Lebanese Armed Forces and Hizbullah that led to the discovery of the stations, and called for filing a complaint with the U.N. Security Council in addition to other complaints against “attacks on Lebanon’s telecommunications system.”

In October of 2010, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) condemned “Israel’s” violation of Lebanese sovereignty, and demanded it ceases its threats to Lebanon’s security, and compensates Lebanon for the harm it inflicted on Lebanon’s telecommunications network.

Infiltration of Lebanon’s Telecoms network has been considered by international observers as a serious a crime. Yet, can Lebanon take more decisive action against the building of an independent telecoms station on its territory by the enemy of modern times. Hizbullah leaders have declared that such a massive violation of Lebanon’s absolute indisputable sovereignty will need more than just words of condemnation.