Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler Senior Fellow and director of the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute.
Articles & Testimony
With the CIA's role in Mughniyeh's assassination revealed, it may not be long before Hezbollah once again puts Americans in its crosshairs.
The truth is now out: Almost exactly seven years ago, on Feb. 12, 2008, American spies on the ground in Damascus, Syria conducted reconnaissance of a Hezbollah master terrorist and informed their Israeli counterparts, who pushed the button on a remote-controlled, custom-made American explosive device that instantly killed Imad Mughniyeh. The spies had to wait several days for a chance to detonate the bomb without anyone else around in order to avoid any collateral damage. In fact, they resisted the temptation to kill two dangerous birds with one stone when Mughniyeh was spotted walking the street with his Iranian counterpart, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force Commander Qassem Soleimani. The story, revealed by the Washington Post and Newsweek, reads like a paperback thriller -- except this story is true.
In fact, this is only the final chapter of a much longer story about the hunt by Western intelligence services for Mughniyeh, nicknamed "the Fox" and "the One Who Never Sleeps" for his uncanny ability to slip through the fingers of Israeli, American and many other intelligence agencies -- sometimes with the help of otherwise friendly foreign services...
