December 26, 2005
SHARED INTERESTS:
Hizbullah is Lebanon's bulwark against Al-Qaeda: 'We do not have any relations with that group' (Clancy Chassay, 12/24/05, The Daily Star)
Since the events of September 11, 2001, there have been numerous attempts to link Hizbullah to Al-Qaeda - some more plausible than others. Investigation, however, reveals considerable animosity between the two groups, and two leading academics on the subject suggest Hizbullah may be Lebanon's best protection against an Al-Qaeda presence in the country. [...]Amal Ghorayeb of the Lebanese American University believes any operational cooperation between the two groups is out of the question. "Hizbullah would in no way share Al-Qaeda's goals. The Americans have to understand Al-Qaeda is a threat to American security, Hizbullah is simply a threat to American interests," says Ghorayeb.
An expert and writer on Hizbullah, Ghorayeb says: "Al-Qaeda would never work with Hizbullah; their greatest enemies are the Shiites. There is a very strong cultural and religious animosity on the side of Al-Qaeda."
Last week a Shiite cleric in Lebanon received a death threat from an Al-Qaeda-type Salafi jihadist group confirming this hostility.
There's a reason al Qaeda is so dead set on preventing a Shi'a state in Iraq. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 26, 2005 10:01 AM
"These are not the droids you're looking for. . .
move along"
You do too much cut and paste. Every page in your blog is a pasted article from a newspaper and a one-line comment from you.
Posted by: Dale Andersen at December 26, 2005 11:48 AMThen why are you advocating that the Sunni be allowed more voice in the new government than their numbers allow?
Posted by: erp at December 26, 2005 12:09 PMGee, Dale Andersen, please tell the person with the gun to your head to stop forcing you to read the blog.
Posted by: Brian (MN) at December 26, 2005 12:25 PMAgreed.
Posted by: oj at December 26, 2005 12:47 PMOJ's just funning with us, right? How is this different from the claims that the Iraqi Ba'ath would never work with Al-Qaeda for basically the same reason? Or the Syrian Ba'ath and the Iranian mullahocracy?
Not to mention the using Hizbullah to avoid Al Qaeda is like getting cancer to avoid heart disease.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at December 26, 2005 3:36 PMiran is harboring the top al queda leadership, so obviously the two sects are willing to work together against a common enemy.
Posted by: toe at December 26, 2005 7:00 PMAs toe's point suggests, it's not important what the rank and file want. It's the governments that direct, sponsor, and train these terrorist organizations whose desires determine what they do. Al Qaeda may have had a few years of largely independent decision-making when they controlled Afghanistan, but now they're helpless but for shelter and aid from host governments.
Al Qaeda is against democracy in Iraq, and their murders of the Shiites occurred because the Shiites were cooperating with the US to bring about democracy.
Posted by: pj at December 26, 2005 7:47 PMThe mullahs and Ba'ath won't work with al Qaeda. They're Shi'ite and Stalinist and al Qaeda is Sunni fundamentalist.
Posted by: oj at December 26, 2005 8:14 PMMr. Judd;
Yes, just as incompatible as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. And for your claim that the Ba'ath and Al Qaeda won't work together, are you now denying any cooperation between those two Al Qaeda and the Iraqi Ba'ath?
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at December 26, 2005 11:58 PMMe aginst my brother.
Me 'n my brother aginst my cousins.
Me 'n my cousins aginst my tribe.
Me 'n my tribe aginst their tribe.
My tribe 'n their tribe aginst my (so-called) guvirnmint.
All of us aginst the US and the goshdarn zionists what run it.
And on day, god willing, I c'n get back to kicking the stuffing outta my brother.
Posted by: Barry Meislin at December 27, 2005 4:13 AMHizbullah is just as evil so who really cares if they won't cooperate. Kill both groups.
Posted by: Bob at December 27, 2005 9:32 AM"I did not have relations with that woman, Ms. Lewins--uh, I mean, that group, al Qaeda!"
Posted by: Tom at December 30, 2005 9:28 AM