Organization in Lebanon

This Economist article discusses three problems in Lebanon threatening its "peace." One, predictably, is the car bomb that killed Wissam Eid in late January. The article, referring to Eid's position as an intelligence officer investigating assassinations for the UN says, "his death sent the chilling message that someone will stop at nothing to wreck the case before it comes before a special international tribunal due to be set up in the Hague." This is interesting to me because of the obvious organization required to plan the sabotage of the UN's investigation. In class on Friday, Group C presented on the Irgun and different components of the organization (the Sea, Delek, HATAM, HAT...you can see this on the powerpoint presentation they emailed everyone). This was the first discussion we've had on organizational structures (other than the existence of recruiters) within terrorist organizations, and it got me thinking about the division of labor: only some terrorists are actual militant fighters, others plan, others gather intelligence, etc. So Wissam Eid's murder was more than a car bomb fatality and more than an assassination; it involved lots of strategic planning from people with different assignments within the same organization. Furthermore, it was only part of a larger strategy to botch a UN investigation. When you think beyond the headlines, you can see how much organization and effort actually go into successful attacks.