Hezbollacks To That

And here’s the latest from Anglostan – sorry, Britain:

The British government has spent more than £20,000 of taxpayers’ money – so that civil servants c ould attend a course on Islam. And the keynote speaker? A HEZBOLLAH ‘media relations officer’.

Wait, don’t start screaming and throwing things in frustration yet. It gets better:

When the lucky civil servants in question arrived at the London School Of Oriental Studies, the course venue,  they got a surprise.

For the Hezbollah spokesman, one Ibrahim Moussawi, had been  barred from entering the UK by the Home Office!

(Will continue posting in a sec, just gotta pick myself up off the floor as I have fainted in shock at the home office actually getting something right).

Yep. Even as one government body deemed Moussawi a man worth listening to, another government body deemed him so dangerous that it refused him entry into the country!

Details released under Freedom Of Information laws reveal that the Ministry Of Defence, and the Department for International Development, each had five representatives at the Political Islam seminar, where Moussawi was due to speak. And the title of his lecture? ‘Current Politics And Prospects Of Hezbollah’.

One delegate from the Cabinet Office also attended the conference. The full fee was £1,890 for the five-day course.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the “lavish” spending was “frankly disgusting. This man and his organisation are committed to violence and the spreading of hatred. British people do not pay their taxes to provide a platform to that kind of bile.”

A government spokesperson stated:
“Staff need to improve their understanding of the current thinking and arguments” on Middle East-related issues and there was intrinsic value in their attendance.”

OK – now you can scream.

Hezbollah:
a.k.a. ‘Party of G-d’

Hezbollah was formed in 1982 in. Based in Lebanon, this is a radical Shia group which takes its ideology from the Iranian revolution and the teachings of the late Ayatollah Khomeini.

The group follows the religious guidance of Khomeini’s successor, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Iran is a major supporter of Hezbollah and is believed to support it financially.

Hezbollah also has ties to Syria.

The Majlis al-Shura, or Consultative Council, is the group’s highest governing body and has been led by Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah since 1992.

Hezbollah exerts a powerful influence over Lebanon’s Shia community, which comprises roughly one-third of Lebanon’s population.

Hizballah maintains offices in Beirut and elsewhere in the country, has official liaison officers to the security services, claims 14 elected officials in the 128-seat Lebanese National Assembly and was represented in the Cabinet for the first time, by the Minister of Water and Electricity Mohammed Fneish, until his resignation, along with other Shia ministers on November 11, 2006.

Hezballah supports a variety of violent anti-Western groups, including Palestinian terrorist organizations. This support includes provision of weapons, explosives, training, and funding.

Activities

In 2006, Hezballah launched a number of attacks on Israel, including the May 28 and July 12 attack, which resulted in the capture and kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers.

Hizballah has repeatedly called for the total destruction of Israel and has actively provided support to various Palestinian groups to aid their attacks on Israel.

Since at least 2004, Hezballah has provided training and logistics to Iraqi Shia militants, including for the construction and use of shaped charge IEDs, which Hezballah developed against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon during the late 1990s and which can penetrate heavily armored vehicles.

Hezballah has also taken part in numerous anti-American and anti-Israeli terrorist attacks, and prior to September 11, 2001, was responsible for more American deaths than any other terrorist group.

Hezbollah attacks have included the suicide truck bombings of the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut in 1984.

Four members of Hezballah, Imad Mughniyah, Hasan Izz-al-Din, Mohammed Hamadei, and Ali Atwa, are on the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists for the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847, during which a U.S. Navy diver was murdered.

Hezbollah members were also responsible for the kidnapping, detention, and murder of Americans and other Westerners in Lebanon in the 1980s.

Hezballah has also been implicated in the attacks on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina in 1992 and the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires in 1994.

The U.S. Government has indicted a member of Lebanese Hezballah for his participation in the June 1996 truck bomb attack of the U.S. Air Force dormitory at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia.

In 2000, Hezballah operatives captured three Israeli soldiers in the Sheba’a Farms area and also kidnapped an Israeli non-combatant.

Hezbollah has thousands of supporters, several thousand members, and a few hundred terrorist operatives.

Hezbollah primarily operates in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Beka’a Valley, and southern Lebanon. In addition it has established terrorist cells in Europe, Africa, South America, North America, and Asia.