White House Advisor is wrong and his statements are confusing the American public, no moderates inside the terrorist group Hezbollah
Wednesday, May 19th 2010
Washington, DC
By John Hajjar *
We read with great dismay comments made by John Brennan, White House advisor on Counter Terrorism regarding the so-called ‘moderates inside Hezbollah’. The Hezbollah terror organization was created by the Iranian regime Terror militia-the Pasdaran, (Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards) in 1981. Hezbollah perpetrated heinous terror attacks against the US Marines operating in the Multinational Peace forces in Lebanon killing 341Marines in 1983. Then Hezbollah blew up the US embassy twice and held American and European hostages in the 1990s.
Hezbollah, as a terror militia operating on Lebanese soil killed, kidnapped and tortured Lebanese citizens for 20 years. In May 2008 it invaded West Beirut and Mount Lebanon killing innocent civilians and burning media institutions. Hezbollah is increasing its arsenal of missiles in full breach of UN resolutions 1559 and 1701. In addition, Hezbollah has perpetrated Terror attacks in Argentina, assisted in attacks against US and Coalition forces in Iraq, trained insurgents in Yemen and formed terror cells in Egypt.
Mr. Brennan, as a US official has stated that there were moderates inside Hezbollah he wanted to reach out to. Mr. Brennan is wrong and his statements are confusing the American public. We haven’t seen any statement or document by Hezbollah members who call for moderation. We haven’t seen so-called moderates calling for disarming the militia. Mr. Brennan said Hezbollah has members in the Lebanese parliament. Although true, Mr. Brennan draws the wrong conclusion as this means that the terrorist organization has used its weapons and money to penetrate the Lebanese legislature and not the other way around.
We in the World Council of the Cedars Revolution (WCCR) ask Mr. Brennan to give the US public and Lebanese Americans one example of a moderate official inside Hezbollah. He can’t because there are none. This is an organization that tolerates absolutely no dissent or nuanced views. It executes the orders of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mr. Brennan’s statements about Hezbollah’s “moderates” are an insult and an affront to the Lebanese who were assassinated by the terror organization, to the US citizens and military personnel who were killed by the Iranian funded group and to the Lebanese American community that has been working hard on exposing terror inside Lebanon and on implementing UNSCR 1559 and 1701.
We call on Mr. Brennan to apologize for this insult or to resign. Two million Lebanese Americans won’t stand by idle as a US official is disfiguring the truth in Lebanon.
*John Hajjar, National Director, World Council of the Cedars Revolution