Security source denies existence of Al Qaeda cells in Lebanon

A well informed security reference in Lebanon denied the existence of “Al Qaeda”elements in Lebanon and infiltration of terrorists from Lebanon to Syria . He told Al Sharq Awsat newspaper :

“There are no Al Qaeda cells in Lebanon and no terrorists infiltrated from Lebanon to Syria.”

He told Al Sharq Awsat “if the patient goes to the doctor and does not tell him the facts about his illness, the doctor will not be able to prescribe to him the medication that will cure the disease… this is the case with the inventors of these allegations they know what their illness is but they refuse to take medications to treat it.”

He added if the aim of the fabricated allegations about the infiltration of al-Qaeda elements from Arsal to Syria , is to launch an attack against the town , that time is gone forever , and they better think twice before considering such an option.

His comments come after Syrian helicopters on Sunday circled over the outskirts of the Bekaa border town of Arsal before returning to the Syrian airspace according to a report by Future News TV.

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn who is reportedly closely associated with Hezbollah and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun informed the Lebanese cabinet last Thursday that al-Qaeda members had infiltrated the Bekaa town of Arsal.

But according to Lebanon’s Interior Minister Marwan Charbel Ghosn only spoke of information he obtained and not of reports that al-Qaeda members had been arrested, especially since the border region is controlled by the Lebanese army.

“I don’t know if this information is a result of the coordination between the Lebanese and Syrian armies,” Charbel told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper on Sunday.

This development comes after the Syrians blamed Friday’s twin suicide bombing on the al-Qaeda minutes after the incident took place.

March 14 official Fares Soueid commented on the speed by which the Syrians accused al-Qaeda of the bombing.

If they were able to find out within minutes who was behind the twin explosions , why don’t they tell us who killed ( Hezbollah commander ) Imad Mughniyeh?

Mughniyeh who was assassinated in Damascus on February 12, 2008 in a car bomb was the head of Hezbollah’s security section, a senior intelligence official and one of the founders of the organization.