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Spy crackdown in Lebanon

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Lebanon has been rocked by an espionage scandal. The country has arrested scores of its own citizens on charges of spying for Israel. As The World’s Aaron Schachter reports, Lebanese feel betrayed – and baffled – by the revelations.
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JEB SHARP: Lebanon has been rocked by an espionage scandal.  The country has accused dozens of its own citizens of spying for Israel.  The World’s Aaron Schachter has the story.

AARON SCHACHTER:  Lebanon began announcing the arrests almost three months ago.  Since then, at least 60 people have been detained and 100 others taken in on suspicion of espionage.  Lebanese authorities say some suspects were caught with hi-tech spying equipment, like cameras hidden in crutches and backpacks.  In one case, they claim a suspect planted hidden GPS devices in cars sold to Hezbollah operatives.  According to the allegations, the spies were providing Israel with information about the Shiite militant group, including its leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.  Israel hasn’t commented on the issue, but last week the UN Security Council said that if the Israeli espionage allegations are confirmed, they would constitute a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty.   Those arrested include everyone from high-level military personnel to hometown heroes.  Soha Homsi sits in the garden planted by her brother, Ziad, in the village of Saadnayel.  Ziad was arrested in May, two weeks before the Lebanese elections.   Homsi maintains her brother hates Israel; he fought against them in the 1970s and ‘80s.  He’s also a pillar of the community in Saadnayel and a die-hard supporter of a pro-Western, anti-Syrian political party.  Homsi gestures at their modest home and asks whether it looks like her brother got tens of thousands of dollars from Israel, as is alleged.  Soha Homsi says people here would doubt their wives or kids before suspecting Ziad Homsi of spying.  But, she says, his enemies have resorted to tricks before.

SOHA HOMSI:  “This kind of tactic happened with Ziad in ’93 when the Syrians were here.  They convicted him of drugs felony.  It happened exactly before the elections as well.  It’s becoming something casual for the Lebanese authorities to accuse people of being traitors.”

SCHACHTER:  But in another garden in a Shiite village down the road, Abu Abbas tells a different story.  “I’m a friend of Ziad Homsi,” Abu Abbas says, “but I believe 100 percent in his guilt.  Well-placed friends of mine in the security services told me the facts.”   “And if it weren’t true,” Abu Abbas asks, “why would the Lebanese government still hold him?  And why hasn’t the Sunni leadership, who Ziad was close to, proclaimed his innocence?”  Abu Abbas says he believes Ziad Homsi, a Sunni, fell into what he calls “the pit of sectarianism”, thinking that if he helped take down Hezbollah he’d be helping Lebanon.   But perhaps what’s amazed people here most about the spy allegations are their lack of sectarianism. It’s an equal opportunity scandal.  Those arrested span Lebanon’s 3 main religious groups:  Christian, Sunni and Shiite.   This is Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah calling for the Death Penalty for “agents who assisted Israel.”  Nasrallah has lived literally underground for more than a year, fearing an Israeli assassination attempt.  In the past, Israel has allied with some Lebanese Christians, but right now, no one here is pointing fingers at any one particular religious group.   Israel is accused of spying on Hezbollah and its institutions, not Lebanon itself.   But Sami Baroudi, a political science professor at Lebanese American University, says many here don’t make that distinction.

SAMI BAROUDI:  While some groups in Lebanon have some question marks about the weapons of Hezbollah, there is absolutely no divisions in Lebanon that Hezbollah is Lebanese group and that its members are entitled to all the protection that all Lebanese citizens are entitled to.

SCHACHTER:  Analysts here say the arrests reflect a revitalized effort by Lebanon’s various security agencies, and a newfound cooperation between the state and Hezbollah’s own security apparatus.   Ironically, the arrests of the alleged Israeli spies may have been aided by the United States.  The US has provided Lebanon with about $400 million dollars worth of training and sophisticated new technology over the past few years, in an attempt to give the army an edge over Hezbollah, which the US considers a terrorist group.  For The World, I’m Aaron Schachter, in Beirut.

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