TV news helping Hizbullah?

A senior terror leader told WorldNetDaily that Hizbullah monitors Israeli and international television news footage of scenes from rocket landings inside Israel and has used the broadcasts in the past few weeks to more accurately target installations in the Jewish state.

Israeli TV and international news outlets such as Fox News, BBC, CNN and SkyNews have been regularly broadcasting, many times live, from the aftermath of Hizbullah rocket attacks on northern Israel.

"Of course the constant stream of television news is helpful for Hizbullah to know whether they hit targets and the location of strategic facilities. A whole department of Hizbullah in part monitors this footage," said Abu Oudai, who is a chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group's rocket infrastructure in the West Bank.

The Al Aqsa Brigades, the declared "military wing" of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, is responsible for scores of shooting attacks, rocket launchings and, together with Islamic Jihad, every suicide bombing inside Israel the past two years.

Israel says senior Brigades leaders, particularly the group's cell in Nablus in the northern West Bank, coordinate their attacks with Hizbullah and receive funding from Iran and Syria funneled through Hizbullah channels. Several Brigades leaders have spoken openly to WorldNetDaily about their group's affiliation with Hizbullah.

'Communications department of hundreds of officers'

Since Israel started its military campaign in Lebanon last month following a Hizbullah attack, the Lebanese militia has fired more than 3,100 rockets into northern Israeli cities, including into Haifa, the country's third largest. About one-third of the Israeli population is under rocket threat. Forty-nine Israelis have been killed so far by Hizbullah rocket attacks.

While Hizbullah projectiles lack guidance systems, the rockets are launched from specific areas in Lebanon using a rocket's known trajectory and travel distance to score hits on particular Israeli sites.

Israeli security officials say they have been surprised by the accuracy of Hizbullah's rocket attacks.

Several Katyushas have scored direct hits on Israeli military installations and other strategic facilities. Last weekend, 12 Israeli soldiers were killed and another 12 were wounded by a Hizbullah rocket attack on a military post at Kfar Giladi in the Upper Galilee.

Abu Oudai, an Al Aqsa rocket chief, told WorldNetDaily that Hizbullah has a "communications department" of hundreds of "officers" who monitor the media, Israeli society and military movements and transmissions.

He said the department is consists of both civilian and military monitoring. The military section attempts to eavesdrop on Israeli military installations and communications. He said the civilian section, among other things, translates the speeches of Israeli leaders and monitors the Israeli and international media.

"Of course Hizbullah uses some of the television footage to help look at Israeli facilities and get better aim," Abu Oudai said. "Especially the Israeli news, which covers the rocket attacks so extensively and broadcasts from the scenes all day."

Abu Oudai admitted if news outlets regularly broadcast footage from the scenes of his group's firing of Palestinian Qassam rockets into Israel "it would be very helpful to us also."

'Extremely high-quality information from agents'

Hizbullah publicly has boasted it has a communications department that employs 120 officers in shifts around the clock to monitor Israeli society and the Jewish state's military.

Israel says Hizbullah has been trained by Iran on methods of intelligence gathering and electronic communications.

During it's military campaign in Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Forces has found several high-tech Hizbullah communications facilities, many in underground bunkers along the Israeli-Lebanese border. In Bint Jbail, a Hizbullah stronghold in south Lebanon, Israeli troops entered a Hizbullah bunker in which they found war rooms with advanced eavesdropping and surveillance equipment reportedly made by Iran.

Abu Oudai said Hizbullah doesn't rely on television footage for information on Israeli targets and rocket attacks.

"It is nice that Hizbullah can watch the news but they don't need it at all. Hizbullah has tens of agents in Israel that provide it with the information it needs. Much better information than they can get from any television news," Abu Oudai said.

In an exclusive WND interview, Abu Oudai said Hizbullah has an advanced spy network operating inside Israel consisting of "tens" of agents, mostly Arab-Israelis who provide the Lebanon-based terror group with strategic information such as rocket targets and locations of military installations.

"Hizbullah receives extremely high-quality information from their agents inside Palestine," Abu Oudai said. "We are talking about detailed maps of neighborhoods, locations of military bases and regular information every day from many sources to help the heroes (Hizbullah) fire rockets more accurately into (northern Israel)."

'Hizbullah works like the army of a sovereign country'

He said after rocket attacks, Hizbullah agents send the terror group information on hits and misses.

Israeli intelligence officials tell WND they are "very aware" of a possible Hizbullah spy network currently inside Israel and have been working to crack it.

At least 12 suspected Hizbullah agents have been arrested in Israel the past year, including Jasaan Athamleh, leader of an Arab-Israeli political coalition. Athamleh was arrested seven months ago along with his brother and is thought to be a senior Hizbullah agent. It recently was revealed a Canadian professor accused of spying for Hizbullah was arrested here just before fighting broke out July 12.

In 2002, Israel convicted a Druze Arab IDF lieutenant-colonel of spying for Hizbullah in exchange for money and drugs. Prosecutors said the colonel provided Hizbullah with intelligence about army movements, details of weak spots along the Israeli border and a map of Tel Aviv identifying gas and electrical depots.

Security sources say they suspect most Hizbullah agents operating here are Arab-Israeli. They say Hizbullah's most successful recruiting ground is Mecca, where Arab-Israelis travel for the pilgrimage there required by Islam. While Saudi Arabia does not admit Israelis, Arab-Israelis can travel to Jordan where they turn in their passports temporarily for a Jordanian passport voucher they can use to enter Saudi Arabia.

The sources said Israeli Hizbullah agents receive advanced training by Hizbullah and Iranian Revolutionary Guard members.

"Hizbullah, with the help of Iran, works like the army of a sovereign country," said a security official. "This includes the recruitment and development of spy networks."

Reprinted with permission of WorldNetDaily