Lebanese receive threatening mobile messages
from ‘state of Israel’ : Telecommunications
Minister writes letter of complaint to UN chief
Dalila Mahdawi, Daily Star (Beirut) , July 18, 2008
BEIRUT: Israel is sending automated voice messages to mobile phones and interfering with phone lines in Beirut and southern Lebanon in what appears to be an attempt to incite the Lebanese against Hizbullah one day after a United Nations-brokered prisoner swap, Lebanese media reported on Thursday morning. Various television and radio stations said they had been receiving telephone calls from residents of Beirut and South Lebanon saying they had received threatening messages. The messages warned against allowing Hizbullah to create “a state within a state” in Lebanon and promised “harsh retaliation” for any future Hizbullah assault. The speaker is said to sign off the message with the words “The State of Israel.” A Lebanese Army source confirmed the messages and phone-line interference.
Speaking to the Daily Star on Thursday, Sherif al-Husseini said he received a telephone call from an unknown number at about 8:15 a.m. Thursday. “It sounded like a tape-recorder. I heard the voice of a Lebanese man speaking Arabic. From his accent it sounded like he was from the mountains, maybe a former member of the South Lebanon Army,” a group which during the 1975-90 Civil War was allied to Israel. “The voice said ‘beware of Hizbullah and the Lebanese government. They are happy now but they are going to be shocked later. Don’t trust them because you will be surprised.’ It seemed as though he was going to give a long speech and I wasn’t in the mood to hear it so I hung up,” said Hussein. The official National News Agency reported Thursday that Telecommunications Minister Jibran Bassil wrote to UN chief Ban Ki-moon and commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Major-General Claudio Graziano to object to what he called Israel’s “flagrant aggression against Lebanese sovereignty” and UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which put an end to the 34-day summer 2006 war. Bassil’s letter also demanded that the UN and peacekeeping force forward all data available on the matter to the Telecommunications Ministry. UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouzianne acknowledged receiving a copy of the letter but said the force “had no further details at this time.”
Bassil, who urged every department within the Telecommunications Ministry to act accordingly to confront Israel’s infiltration of Lebanon’s telephone network, contacted President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Speaker Nabih Berri to inform them of the measures taken by the ministry. The Israeli government, which has not yet commented on the allegations, used similar technology during the summer 2006 war on Lebanon. Then, Israel or its allies sent text and voice messages to Lebanese mobile phones and hacked into Hizbullah’s television station Al-Manar, which it unsuccessfully tried to take off air. “I wasn’t shocked at all to receive the call,” remarked Hussein. “It’s the first time I have ever gotten such a call but the Israelis did it in the summer 2006 war. What I understood from the message is that they are angry about the prisoner exchange. The message was a sign of defeat and anger. The mother of my colleague got the call too and panicked, but I don’t think it was important. Let them shout, it won’t change what happened.”
Niqnaq 