Chertoff Warns On Hezbollah Threat

Hezbollah could surpass Al-Qaeda as the most serious long-term threat to the United States, the former head of homeland security Michael Chertoff is to warn in a book published later this year.

Chertoff — who for four years headed efforts to prevent a repeat of the attacks of September 11, 2001 — alleges Hezbollah is better equipped, better trained and better politically positioned than Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda.

“Al-Qaeda and its network are our most serious immediate threat, they may not be our most serious long-term threat,” Chertoff writes in a book to be published in September, a draft of which was obtained by AFP.

“Having operated for more than a quarter-century, (Hezbollah) has developed capabilities that Al-Qaeda can only dream of, including large quantities of missiles and highly sophisticated explosives.”

Chertoff says the group, whose Arabic name means the “Party of God,” also has “uniformly well trained operatives, an exceptionally well-disciplined force of nearly 30,000 fighters, and extraordinary political influence.”

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