BEIRUT // The revelation last week that Israeli intelligence had penetrated the highest levels of Hizbollah left the normally secretive militant group scrambling to contain the damage.
The initial reports, detailed in the Lebanese media last week, revealed that Marwan Faqih, a long-time associate of the group’s tight-knit leadership, has been accused by an internal Hizbollah investigation of spying for Israel since at least the mid-1990s. Hizbollah is thought to have arrested Mr Faqih last month before recently turning him over to the Lebanese authorities for prosecution.
A well-known businessman in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, Mr Faqih ran several automobile-related businesses, including dealerships and mechanic shops. Official leaks from Lebanese security forces accused Mr Faqih of using access to Hizbollah vehicles to install tracking and listening devices on behalf of Israeli intelligence services to track Hizbollah members.
Although local press reports have put the number of vehicles potentially compromised in the low dozens, military and security officials say the actual figure is in the hundreds, and that most of the vehicles supplied to the group by Mr Faqih have been found to contain the GPS-tracking devices. Multiple sources also said this particular operation had continued for more than four years and Mr Faqih was a major, if not sole, supplier of vehicles to the group’s military wing. The source said it could comprise all of the officials and their vehicles right up to the Hizbollah leader, Hasan Nasrallah. “At this point Hizbollah knows that all of the movements by major officials for the past four years are probably detailed on a screen in an Israeli intelligence centre.”
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090223/FOREIGN/98546967/1135
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