Hezbollah threat to U.S. 'serious'

Hezbollah threat
to U.S. 'serious'
Agents seized at border, while Iranians
ID targets to 'end Anglo-Saxon civilization'

WASHINGTON – The Iranian-sponsored terrorist organization Hezbollah' threats to attack U.S. interests around the world are being taken seriously by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials who say the group's agents have attempted illegal entry into the country through the southern border and have staked out 20 potential sensitive targets that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasted could "end Anglo-Saxon civilization".

"We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year," Hezbollah spokesman Mojtaba Bigdeli told Reuters yesterday. "They have been trained and they can become fully armed. We are ready to dispatch them to every corner of the world to jeopardize Israel and America's interests. We are only waiting for the supreme leader's green light to take action. If America wants to ignite World War III … we welcome it."

The "supreme leader" is Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei.

Hezbollah and Iranian officials are known for their hyperbolic rhetoric, but U.S. officials say it would be a mistake to dismiss them categorically.

FBI Director Robert Mueller confirmed earlier this spring that Hezbollah agents were caught trying to enter the country illegally through the Mexican border.

Likewise, James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in February that "Ahmadinejad who is close to Hezbollah, says that he knows of the 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and the West, which he has spied out and is ready to attack in order to, quote: 'End Anglo-Saxon civilization."

In May – long before the recent escalation of conflict with Israel – more than 100 "martyrdom-seeking volunteers" affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps gathered to warn the U.S. they would blow up American interests around the world if their country's nuclear installations came under attack.

Mohammad-Ali Samadi, spokesman for a government-orchestrated campaign to recruit suicide bombers, said more than 55,000 volunteers had been registered, according to Iran Focus.

The group – called the Headquarters to Commemorate the Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement – was established in 2004 to carry out suicide attacks against three targets: "The infidels occupying Iraq," Israel and author Salman Rushdie.

In February, it launched a new recruitment drive to fight "global blasphemy."

Iran estimated then that Israel would strike Tehran's nuclear facilities within a year and has been planning retaliatory attacks against Israeli, American and British interests, according to senior Lebanese political sources who spoke to WorldNetDaily on condition of anonymity.

The sources said while Iran is expecting lone Israeli military action, Iranian intelligence estimates the Jewish state is coordinating a planned attack with the U.S.