Chertoff: Hizbullah Could Surpass Qaida as Most Serious Long-Term Threat to the U.S.
Hizbullah could surpass al-Qaida as the most serious long-term threat to the United States, the former head of homeland security Michael Chertoff is to warn in a book published later this year.
Chertoff — who for four years headed efforts to prevent a repeat of the attacks of September 11, 2001 — alleges Hizbullah is better equipped, better trained and better politically positioned than Osama bin Laden”s al-Qaida.
"Al-Qaida and its network are our most serious immediate threat, they may not be our most serious long-term threat," Chertoff writes in a book to be published in September, a draft of which was obtained by Agence France Presse.
"Having operated for more than a quarter-century, (Hizbullah) has developed capabilities that al-Qaida can only dream of, including large quantities of missiles and highly sophisticated explosives."
Chertoff says the group, whose Arabic name means the "Party of God," also has "uniformly well trained operatives, an exceptionally well-disciplined force of nearly 30,000 fighters, and extraordinary political influence."
According to Chertoff, the group was behind a suicide bombing that killed 200 U.S. marines in Beirut in 1983 and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia, which killed more than 20 people. Hizbullah has denied involvement.
Despite its defeat in elections earlier this month, Hizbullah and its allies remain a major force in Lebanese politics.
It is this power, along with Hizbullah”s military weight and ties with Iran that are worrying, according to Chertoff.
"Hizbullah shows what an ideologically driven terrorist organization can become when it evolves into an army and a political party and gains a deeply embedded degree of control within a state, as Hizbullah has done in Lebanon”s democratic infrastructure," he warns.
Chertoff argues Hizbullah poses a growing threat in the Western Hemisphere, despite limited attacks on U.S. targets.
"While Hizbullah may not have carried out attacks in the United States itself, it has developed a presence in the Western Hemisphere, specifically in South America," Chertoff says, alleging that the group carried out bombings of Jewish and Israeli targets in Buenos Aires.
"These acts disturbingly underscore Hizbullah”s reach into the hemisphere, notably the tri-border areas at the margins of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay."