'Israeli spies protected by Western media'

The following is the rush transcript of Press TV's interview with Political analyst Thabet Salem from Damascus and retired army general Hisham Jaber from Beirut on the recent revelations about Israel's spying activities in Lebanon.

Press TV: Mr. Thabet, how extensive do you think this spying system is Sir?

Thabet: Well, it has been proven [that] it is not the only incident where the Lebanese authorities have disclosed [information] about the existence of an Israeli agent working inside Lebanon. I think this is the fourth officer and before that there were many many civilians and maybe there are hundreds of these spies in that country who have perpetrated criminal acts -- as it looks --against civilians and maybe assassination attempts or acts against many [others] -- it could be even politicians nobody knows.

But the fact [is] that the world is being silent about what's going on -- the Israeli scandal -- you know what happened in the Emirates regarding Mabhouh. The history of Israel in this region has many many examples of this. Even in the 50s, they killed Iraqi Jews to force them to immigrate to Palestine - or as they call it the "Promised Land" -- at that epoch.

But why it has become a fact that we have to accept these Israeli acts, I don't know what has happened to the international conscience regarding these oppressions and crimes.

Press TV: Let's go to Beirut now. Mr. Jaber is also joining us. Mr. Jabber we had Mr. Thabet there saying why the international community is kind of silent on this issue. Would you agree with that?

Jaber: Yes, I do agree and I'm not surprised, since the mass media and the Western countries, especially the United States and Europe, is under the pressure and dominance of Israel, especially look at the Mabhouh case. Great Britain is accused and is touched and it was a target of the Mossad use of passport and as you know we heard many voices in the Great Britain saying punish Israel and take some measures. But, then the mass media closed this file and started -- even in the Great Britain -- to return and to turn the attention to Iran and to focus on the Iran's peaceful nuclear program.

We are not surprised to see the mass media [not] focusing on Israel's crime. What happened in Dubai is state terrorism and not one American official made any statement about this. No one, not a newspaper in America focused on this. Now in the Great Britain and some countries like France, today, we discover that three French are also involved in this crime… and what happened [was that] Dubai [did not take] any serious measure and did not put any pressure on those countries who are victims, like Dubai, to this terrorist state, and nor are those states trying to do anything against Israel.

I'm not surprised at all and I think it's a failure for Mossad, even if they killed Mabhouh, because everybody came to know, the mass media showed everybody in the world that the public believes Israel is a terrorist state -- especially Mossad. Mossad did not even recognize or deny this crime.

And if you are talking about the mass media -- especially in the Western countries -- go to the other countries, we didn't see any position, any hard position, any serious position from any Arab country who could be a victim of the Mossad like Dubai was.

Lebanon is trying to discover, and [is] doing well in discovering, from time to time, some spies. Until now we had 50 arrested as agents of Mossad and I do believe we do have in Lebanon hundreds of agents of Mossad who are not discovered yet, and we want to discover them and protect the country against the crimes of Israel and whatever that will come of the Mossad or from the Israeli army, because it is very important now.

They are especially focusing on Lebanon now, since Israel was defeated in 2006. [Israel] is trying now with all means to get much more information to prepare another war against Lebanon, because the lack of information on the Israeli side, according to Winograd, was the first reason of the failure of Israel in 2006.

Press TV: All right, Mr. Thabet in Damascus what is your opinion on this? If Israel is actually looking for instability in the Middle East, as our guest there was suggesting in Beirut does it have any god reason to do that?

Thabet: Everybody tries to have spies all over. Intelligence work is common, but this is not the idea. The idea is how come the Israeli Mossad [agents] have used European passports, Australian passports, even New Zealander passports in their operation -- the Mabhouh operation. This is that big question mark. What was the reaction? They may expel one guy who was in charge of the Mossad at the embassy, but there are tens who are similar to him. The idea is who made the passports available to Israeli Mossad. It has been proven that the passports were not forged so they are genuine documents. How come they have got it? Who helped them? Where did the investigation lead to? All these are big question marks which have to be answered. Otherwise the world will become a jungle.

A more severe response should have been given to the Mossad. I think the Mossad and the Israeli authorities always depend on the short memory of Western and mainly American, let's say, authorities so that over time these acts will be forgotten. But, I think regarding the Mabhouh case, it shook the world one-way or another regardless of the attempts of the governments of these countries to play it on a low level. I think then people have started to open their eyes about how heinous these Israeli crimes are.

Press TV: Well, Mr. Thabet, Sir, do you think there won't be any kind of consequences for what Israel has done, the Mabhouh assassination? What should Israel be expecting for what it's done?

Thabet: Well, I think the first thing is that the authorities in the region, the Persian Gulf region, have started to open up there eyes. This is one. We expect more agents to be in that part of the world, because the Israelis were planning a war…, which automatically implies they are planting more and more agents to observe and bug the armies, the facilities, whatever they can find out about preparing for a possible offensive against Iran. This is one.

Two, I think the Interpol should also do more. I think they have been informed and maybe they are doing something now we don't know. I heard -- I was watching just hours ago an interview with the [United] Arab Emirates commander of police, who was in charge of this investigation. He said that we will never stop unless we get hold, or at least try to get hold, of these criminals whose pictures have been distributed over the world, whose governments… even they have got DNA elements of three of these people who have participated in the killing of Mabhouh and the world in general has been notified of what was going on. It's the duty of these countries and their neighboring countries, which could be a target of Israel, to open their eyes more and more and be aware of any elements. I think this is a good lesson to learn from.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=125864

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