RABBI DANIEL M. ZUCKER
Middle East Times- May 14, 2008
The Islamic Republic of Iran has just extended its power into Lebanon through its completion within the last 90 days of a new microwave communications system, ostensibly meant as an aid to its ally, Hezbollah – in reality its local proxy militia.
However, the communications system, which the pro-Western Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora tried to dismantle – touching off the current round of warfare between Hezbollah and the Sunni-Christian-Druze coalition led by Saad Hariri – is much more important than a private phone system for Hezbollah.
My source, a high ranking military communications staff member, informs me that the microwave communications system is a high density military data transmission link that links all Hezbollah missiles in Lebanon directly to Tehran with telemetry directed by the Sepah-e Qods of the Pasdaran (Qods Force Unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps), the same group that was recently designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. Department of State (Oct. 25, 2007). With this microwave link in place, Tehran can activate within three minutes its mobile units of Fajr-5 and Shahab-3 missiles.
My sources indicate that the 2006 Israeli destruction of southern Beirut and southern Lebanon gave Iran and Hezbollah a perfect excuse to come in and reconstruct the Hezbollah strongholds.
However, now everything was upgraded with immense interconnected underground tunnels placed under all the reconstructed areas. These tunnels are used to store and transport the rockets.
As was common in the 2006 war, rockets would be launched from amid such dense population areas. Additionally, all major buildings, including public housing complexes, have the lowest underground basement level reserved for the location of the transponders.
Located in such positions, any attack to destroy the transponders or to knock out additional rockets would result in horrific collateral damage to civilian Lebanese Shiite populations, a guaranteed propaganda coup for Hezbollah and Iran.
All the reconstructed buildings of Beirut, in their last and highest stage are housing the microwave antennas and IF and BB repeaters of this data link, and they are completely and exclusively controlled by the Iranian Qods Force personnel deployed in Lebanon.
These microwave links are carried on the IntelSat satellites. The “BK 15” relay station, installed in 2002, was purchased by a Lebanese company located in Marseilles, and now is controlled by Hezbollah.
Reports, earlier this year, of extensive excavations in the reconstruction projects in southern Lebanon would appear to indicate that Iran has supplied Hezbollah with an extensive set of tunnels both north and south of the Litani River, from which Hezbollah can launch missiles when Iran chooses for it to do so.
Not only is Israel at risk, but all pro-Western Arab governments in the area, as is the Suez Canal, and of course, American troops in Iraq.
The importance that Tehran attaches to this microwave link is vividly demonstrated by the regime’s propaganda in its daily media. With this strategic base, Iran has established itself on the Mediterranean. Is anyone in Washington, London, or Paris paying attention? Ignore this threat long enough and 9/11 will seem, by comparison, like a picnic in the park.
Professor Rabbi Daniel M. Zucker is founder and Chairman of the Board of Americans for Democracy in the Middle-East, a grassroots organization dedicated to teaching government officials and the public of the dangers posed by Islamic fundamentalism and the need to establish genuine democratic institutions in the Middle-East as an antidote to the venom of such fundamentalism.