Hezbollah Welcomes a World War 3

Wednesday, August 2, 2006

By Jane Skinner, Fox News

July 19, 2006

Transcript

Jane: Well some quite brazen statements from the group Hezbollah in Iran. That terror group, which claims links to the Lebanese group says it is welcoming World War III. In the meantime, a few months ago in Iran, a group calling itself, “martyrdom seekers,” said it was conducting training seminars to recruit potential homicide bombers to attack coalition military bases in Iraq. Could this play into what is going on in the Middle East right now? Joining us now is former Indiana congressman, Tim Roemer. He’s also a former 9/11 Commissioner. Congressman Roemer, thanks for being here.

Tim Roemer: Good morning Jane.

Jane: Let’s start internationally, and then we’ll get to domestically. It sounds like there really are threats from both fronts from this group. You know a legitimate concern with Iran’s Hezbollah; Hezbollah itself it sounds like it has a lot of tentacles all throughout the world. This group saying if America wants to start World War III, quote, “we welcome it, we have two thousand volunteers ready to take aim at American interests;” probably meaning American interests abroad. Should we be legitimately concerned?

Tim Roemer: Well certainly we should be legitimately concerned, and we should be genuinely concerned about any kind of infiltration into the United States from any kind of terrorist group. I think that the MO on Hezbollah, Jane, has been one; that they have a global focus but more of a regional reach. Al-Qaeda has had a global focus and a global reach. Al-Qaeda has been trying to infiltrate soft targets lately with spectacular attacks, recruiting around the world. Hezbollah is now engaged regionally. They have a history of going after consulates, military installations and focusing on the Middle East, but Jane, as you probably know yesterday was a tragic anniversary of a Hezbollah attack on a consulate in Argentina. So I think we got to have Congress and the president a little bit less concerned about maybe gay marriage and flag burning and a little bit more concerned about what do we do about foreign policy in the Middle East to provide leadership in the world, instead of sitting on the sidelines. How do we better protect the United States and pass the twenty remaining bipartisan 9/11 Commission recommendations that’ll make our country safer?

Jane: You know Congressman it’s easy to forget that before 9/11, before al-Qaeda became the top of the agenda, Hezbollah was really responsible as a single group for more American deaths than any terror group. Is one more dangerous to us right now: Hezbollah or al-Qaeda?

Tim Roemer: Well certainly they’re both dangerous and I wouldn’t be surprised—I’m not sure I’d make the prediction based on a certain amount of time—but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if somebody like Zawahiri or even bin Laden, both of whom have released about six or seven tapes in 2006, might come out in the next couple of weeks with a tape and take advantage of this regional conflict in southern Lebanon now; make it an Israeli-Palestinian issue, make it an issue about the United States and Israel, so-called doing things to attack the Arab world, and telling al-Qaeda and other groups to attack the United States in Iraq. This has consequences for the United States in a lot different ways and regions, and we need to engage the world. We need to use both our diplomatic power, our influence, maybe reach out to try to isolate Iran further by innovatively trying to build some bridges or provide some incentives and disincentives for Syria. If we can cut off the bridge of arms moving from Iran into this area and further isolate Iran diplomatically, economically, with leverage, I think that might be an innovative diplomatic contribution that we could make here.

Jane: Former 9/11 Commissioner and former congressman, Tim Roemer. Congressman, thank you very much.

Tim Roemer: Thank you.

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