Leon Panetta Calls Israel's Pager Attack in Lebanon 'Terrorism'

Israel is working to expand the war to pull the U.S. into the conflict

Leon Panetta, who served as the CIA director under President Barack Obama, said in an interview on Sunday that the Israeli pager attack targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon — that killed at least 12 and injured thousands — was a form of terrorism.

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“I don't think there's any question it's a form of terrorism,” he told CBS News. “When you have terror going into the supply chain, it makes people ask the question: what the hell is next? The forces of war are largely in control right now of what's going on.”

Brian Finucane, a senior adviser with the U.S. Program at the International Crisis Group, posted on X that he generally finds the term “terrorism” to “obscure more than it clarifies, but notable that a former SecDef & CIA Director characterizes the pager attacks this way,” referring to Panetta.

“The attacks do appear to be a law of war violation, at a minimum with respect to Article 7(2) of Amended Protocol II,” he posted.

Another user mocked: “When even Leon f-ing Panetta thinks you’re a terrorist, you’ve really screwed up.”

The New York Times noted how Panetta, as CIA chief, “set about arranging the assassination of Al Qaeda leaders without hesitation. He oversaw the launching of lethal drones at the American terrorists Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Kahn. He viewed himself simply as the cop on the beat. He writes that on such occasions his deep Catholic beliefs and upbringing caused him great pain, but obviously not paralysis.”

Craig Mokhiber, a former UN lawyer, said last week that Israel introduced the world to a new form of terrorism.

“I think, secondly, is that this opens up a very dangerous new front on global terrorism…putting us all at risk. Once again, Israel has found a way to threaten the safety of all of us because this is another tactic of terrorism that won’t stop with Israel doing it to Lebanon in this case. Israel will likely do it in other places and others will mimic this approach as well…So, once again, Israel has made us all less safe,” he said.