No Excuses
By JAMES TARANTO
"Intelligence agencies in the United States and Canada are warning of mounting signs that Hezbollah, backed by Iran, is poised to mount a terror attack against 'Jewish targets' somewhere outside the Middle East," reports ABC News:
Intelligence officials tell ABC News the group has activated suspected "sleeper cells" in Canada and key operatives have been tracked moving outside the group's Lebanon base to Canada, Europe and Africa. . . .
Suspected Hezbollah operatives have conducted recent surveillance on the Israeli embassy in Ottawa, Canada and on several synagogues in Toronto, according to the officials.
Latin America is also considered a possible target by officials following Hezbollah's planning. . . .
"They want to kill as many people as they can, they want it to be a big splash," said former CIA intelligence officer Bob Baer, who says he met with Hezbollah leaders in Beirut last month.
"They cannot have an operation fail," said Baer, "and I don't think they will. They're the A-team of terrorism." . . .
Baer says his Hezbollah contacts told him an attack against the US was unlikely because Iran and Hezbollah did not want to give the Bush administration an excuse to attack.
Assuming Baer is right, everything changes if Barack Obama--who one suspects would look for an excuse not to attack--is elected president. Baer's information also implies that Iran, its theocratic ideology notwithstanding, is subject to deterrence--that it does act more restrained in the face of a credible threat of force.
Actually, that was clear more than a quarter century ago, when the Iranian regime released U.S. hostages immediately after the inauguration of that cowboy, President Reagan. Will Jan. 20, 2009, be Jan. 20, 1981, in reverse? Stay tuned.
