Until recently, Lebanese security agencies, as well as a large swath of political powers, had insisted on denying the existence of an al-Qaeda presence in the country.Those espousing this position can no longer skirt the truth, however, following the recent discovery of sleeper jihadist cells in Lebanon. 

The naysayers had built their erroneous stance on the premise that Lebanon’s geographical and demographic peculiarities did not fit al-Qaeda’s adopted operational agenda. It was assumed that al-Qaeda required vast geographical areas, similar to those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, that would permit its members to hide prior to and after conducting a strike. Furthermore, the network would need a social environment of a particular sectarian flavor offering popular refuge to its cells. In Lebanon, most areas are a hodgepodge of various religious and sectarian affiliations.

Based on these assumptions, Lebanese security agencies thought that, at best, al-Qaeda would be limited to using Lebanon as a support area — for instance, a site for safe havens for operatives' temporary use during their travels from one country to another — not as an arena for jihad itself. This theory no longer has many advocates, even within Lebanese security circles, following repeated security incidents and the discovery of jihadist Takfiri cells in mid-2011, in more than one region, preparing to lead terrorist strikes inside the country.

The operations and who's who