Hezbollah Preparing Chemical Weapons
Evidence of cooperation with al-Qaida on rockets in Lebanon

GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT INTELLIGENCE BRIEF
April 25, 2002

Western intelligence sources said Israel and the United States have been monitoring Lebanon for evidence that Islamic insurgents have been storing weapons of mass destruction.

The sources said the evidence is not conclusive, but that both countries suspect that al-Qaida and Hezbollah are cooperating in the transfer and storage of chemical weapons.

The sources said the nonconventional weapons are believed stored in two locations in Lebanon. Both of the locations are along the Mediterranean coast near Beirut.

The sources said al-Qaida and Hezbollah – with the help of Iranian agents – are believed to be experimenting with weaponizing surface-to-surface rockets with chemical warheads. Hezbollah has some 10,000 rockets, a quarter of them believed to be the Iranian Fajr-5, with a range of 70 kilometers.

The evidence of chemical warheads in Lebanon has prompted harsh warnings by Washington to Lebanon. The sources said Lebanese President Emile Lahoud was shown evidence during his Washington visit last week that Iran was helping Hezbollah deploy rockets throughout southern and eastern Lebanon.

The focus of the Iranian missile help is the Imam Ali military base in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border. The sources said Iran virtually controls much of the Bekaa Valley, to the increasing consternation of Syrian military officers.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27390