World of shadows: Hezbollah’s External Security Organization

The charging of two men, Ali Kourani from the Bronx, New York, and Samer El Debek of Dearborn, Michigan this month, brought to light an organization that has been able to remain in the shadows for over thirty years.

These two men were recruited by, and part of, what is now known as the External Security Organization of Hezbollah (ESO). This is a shadowy group, inside the larger Iranian-sponsored terror organization, Hezbollah, that is responsible mainly for conducting surveillance and gathering intelligence on prospective targets outside Hezbollah’s country of origin, Lebanon. So the question is, what were these men doing and what has the larger organization, Hezbollah, been planning?

Hezbollah, as an organization, has deep roots in terrorism and was one of the United States’ first adversaries of this type. Hezbollah was most notably responsible for the bombing of the U.S. barracks, in 1983, where 241 Marines and 58 French paratroopers lost their lives. Hezbollah is also believed to be responsible for a similar attack at the U.S. embassy in Beirut. Since then, it is assumed Hezbollah is likely responsible for hundreds, or maybe thousands more deaths through bombings and other terrorist activity. “The Party of God,” was once headed by Abbas al-Musawi until his assassination by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in 1992, and is now led by Secretary General Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah – a radical Shi’ite cleric. Hezbollah is beholden to and primarily funded by the Iranian government and its Islamic Republican Guard Corp (IRGC). Though these facts about Hezbollah are relatively well-known, their intelligence and surveillance wing, the ESO, has remained much in dark.

Ali Kourani and Samer El Debek were arrested for acting as Hezbollah and ESO operatives in the planning, training, and attempted supplying of material support on the organization’s behalf. Kourani and El Debek were conducting missions in Panama and surveilling vulnerabilities at the Panama Canal and both the Israeli and U.S. embassies in Panama. These men were also surveilling potential targets within the United States, particularly potential attacks upon NYPD officers or officials. This arrest reaffirms the frighteningly long reach of this long established terrorist adversary of the U.S. and Israel. Kourani and El Debek were also receiving military-style training which included the use of rocket propelled grenades and machine guns. Kourani entered “lawfully” into the United States in 2003, but had been recruited by Hezbollah as far back as 2008. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Kourani earned a BS degree in Medical Engineering in 2009, and an MBA in 2013.

This arrest also confirms that Hezbollah’s ESO is much more than part of a larger terrorist organization. The ESO has established cells and networks worldwide, including in the United States. “The ESO is the Hizballah element responsible for the planning, coordination, and execution of terrorist attacks outside of Lebanon,” according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Despite Hezbollah being up front about their motives and goals, which among them is the destruction of the Jewish state, the ESO has been able to conduct business and plan attacks in relative secrecy.

Australian National Security, along with many of their neighboring countries, have specifically designated the ESO as a global terrorist network. The United States’ classification of the ESO is as part of the larger terrorist label applied to Hezbollah. “The ESO has an ongoing program of contingency planning for terrorist activities around the world. Due to the secretive nature of the ESO, it is difficult to gather detailed information about the group’s role and activities,” Australian National Security has stated. The arrest of Kourani and El Debek may offer intelligence and counter-terrorism officials some further insight into the ESO’s ability to operate in such a secretive fashion, despite the Hezbollah’s brazen posture in Lebanese politics and on the world stage.

It’s important to note that, terrorist organizations like Hezbollah cannot be viewed as a single organism. Much like a mythical Hydra, there are often many branches which can and will work independent of the larger group. This independence that Hezbollah and the ESO share from one another is in many ways deliberate. The External Security Organization (sometimes referred to as the Foreign Action Unit or Revolutionary Justice Organization) was headed by Imad Mughniyah until being assassinated in Damascus in 2008, with the help of the CIA as reported by the Jerusalem Post in 2015 using recently declassified agency documents. The current head of the ESO is believed to be Mustafa Badr Al Din, cousin to Mughniyah, and who was added to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists in 2012. This addition to the terror list also included Talal Hamiyah, Chief of the ESO.

The “separate” operational status of the External Security Organization also exists to shield Hezbollah’s public face within Lebanon from any nefarious activity the military wing conducts. “This reinforces Hizballah’s need to distance the organisation from any activity that could be construed as terrorism. Consequently, Hizballah is unlikely to either claim responsibility for a terrorist attack or acknowledge any ESO activities,” according to Australian National Security.

Inside Lebanon, Hezbollah heads many social, educational, health, and welfare programs. Hezbollah members also hold a majority of seats in the Lebanese parliament, which offers more benefits to the terror organization. “The function of the Lebanese government is to defend Hezbollah, and to align its policies with the preferences of the group and its patrons in Tehran,” writes Tony Badran of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

The secrecy of the ESO allows them to also act as a go-between from Hezbollah to The Islamic Republic of Iran, its Republican Guard, and its violent Qods Force. All of which have been conducting operations on behalf of the Assad Regime in Syria. “Assad’s and Iran’s adversaries would use every instrument at their disposal to intensify and accelerate the Syrian uprising. They would fuel its evolution into an insurgency to disastrous effect,” writes author Marc Lynch in “The New Arab Wars”.

Such a buffer is commonly used by Iran to “legitimize” Hezbollah. The Iranians have done so, in the past, by labeling groups like Hamas and Hezbollah as ones that are acting on behalf of a greater cause. “The Iranians claimed these organizations [Hamas and Hezbollah] were legitimate liberation movements that seek to end the Israeli occupation of Arab lands,” Jay Solomon writes in his book, “The Iran Wars”.

With so much emphasis being placed on militant organizations like Al Qaeda and Islamic State, it is worth noting that Hezbollah was and still is one of the largest and most dangerous Islamic terrorist groups in the world. Hezbollah continues to receive material and financial support from state sponsors like Iran and Syria, and its military wing has been able to conduct proxy wars in several nations. And it also bears remembering that Hezbollah is fully capable of conducting direct engagements such as its brief war with the Israeli Defense Force in 2006. According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Hezbollah has been able to secure a constant flow of finance through “smuggling contraband goods, passport falsification, trafficking narcotics, money laundering, and credit card, immigration, and bank fraud.” Moreover, this organization has been able to set up longstanding network of support from Shia communities all over the world, including countries in North and South America through private donations from legal and illegal businesses and Shia communities. The arrest of Al Kourani and Samar el Debek should be, if any, a stark reminder that Hezbollah is capable and fully willing to take its call for jihad to country it sees fit to prosecute its deadly rampage of militancy and violence.