It was a nice sunny day in Beirut.Not too hot, not too cold — that's why I like visiting this city on the Mediterranean.That, and the great restaurants. Some of them favourites of the late chef and author Anthony Bourdain.Me and Mr. Wolf sat and waited at the appointed cafe, at the appointed time.Suddenly, Mr. X showed up. Former head of intelligence in Beirut.Now doing security for a major banking concern.A serious looking man, perhaps a bit older, but nothing about him would raise any suspicion.The meeting was mostly about just getting together — and Mr. Wolf had some new spy equipment that he wanted to hand over.Some cool stuff — fake shirt buttons, with pinhole cameras. So small, you wouldn't have a clue.Mr. X was quite happy to see the toys and promised us a very special wine made by a Druze Christian group.Lebanon has been making wine for more than 5,000 years and continues to do so today. The soil of the Bekaa Valley is very fertile, which means that mainly French grape varieties can grow perfectly here.A day after our meeting, two of these bottles of wine were delivered straight to our door, without a word.Mr. X was not happy with his replacement, who he said travelled in a big black limousine, surrounded by motorcycles.A bad way to travel in Beirut, he said, because it attracts attention.And attention is not a good thing in this part of the world.One only has to reference the spectacular assassination of former Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafic Hariri, on February 14 2005.Hariri was killed along with 21 others in front of the St. George Hotel in Beirut. Explosives equivalent to around 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of TNT were detonated as his motorcade drove by.So great, was the explosion (from below) the top of the car flew up into the air and latched onto a crane that was towering above the hotel.The wreckage of that car, by the way, is in the basement of the main police station in Beirut. Mr. X told us he drove himself to work and varied his schedule — just to be on the safe side. He attracted no attention..He was also eager to tell us about a recent case that had frustrated banks in Beirut and the Mideast, for several years.Eventually, they caught up to the guy, a Canadian and a brilliant fraudster apparently. Millions had been lost, but then — as happens to many criminals, even the best of them — they eventually make a mistake.That's when it all comes to a sad end. A trap was set for him, at an ATM, and he was immediately arrested. The Canadians wanted him, said Mr. X, so he was handed over. His scamming days were over.Such is the life of a former intelligence officer in Beirut — a city with a long-storied history of espionage.The most famous intelligence officer associated with Beirut was the KGB double agent and British Intelligence officer Kim Philby, who disappeared from there on the evening of January 23 1963, turning up in Moscow.Philby's work led to the deaths of dozens of British agents, making him a reviled traitor. The most successful of the Cambridge spies, he tried to drink himself to death in Moscow because he was disillusioned with communism and tortured by his own failings. Philby died in the city in 1988. Rufina Pukhova, his Russian-Polish wife, told The Guardian Philby struggled to control his drinking by downing only two glasses of cognac a night and then handing her the bottle to hide."His alcoholism was suicide," she told the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper. "He once even said that it was the easiest way to bring life to an end."We parted ways and I never saw him again. Fast forward to today, and Beirut is a very different place. For one thing, it's still recovering from the 2020 fertilizer blast that levelled the port and caused an estimated $4.6 billion damage to more than 77,000 apartments and businesses.Runaway inflation also continues to be one of the main drivers of food insecurity. In August 2023, year-on-year food inflation was a staggering 274%, among the highest food inflation rates in the world..All this, along with inflation, currency depreciation, income losses and expected cuts to humanitarian food assistance, have negatively impacted the city.A city, by the way, whose southern districts are controlled by Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim political party and militant group with a very capable intelligence network."If you are there, they know," said Mr. Wolf, "They know everything."Recently there have been fears the Gaza conflict could spread, drawing Hezbollah into the conflict. Some fire fights have erupted along Lebanon's southern border with Israel, resulting in some deaths.Israel is also believed to have assassinated senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arour with a drone strike in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh. One could say he had it coming. But so far, the Mideast conflict has not expanded. So far.Analysts also say the US/UK airstrike on the Houthis was also designed to not to provoke a wider regional war.Hamas' command and control and leadership was not targeted.Further, it is widely believed if the Israel Defence Force does invade southern Lebanon, it will do poorly, as was the case during the 2006 Israeli-Lebanon war. While Israel won the air war, it was continually stymied by Hezbollah in the hills of southern Lebanon.Backing that up is a secret assessment leaked to the Washington Post from the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) in Washington. It claims the Israeli forces would find it “difficult to succeed” in a two-front war and according to the report, US officials have privately warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against opening a second front.The fear is Israel's military assets and resources would be spread too thin given the conflict in Gaza.“Anonymous officials fear a full-scale conflict between Israel and Lebanon would surpass the bloodshed of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war on account of Hezbollah’s substantially larger arsenal of long-range and precision weaponry,” the paper stated, citing officials who also warned the group could target “sensitive targets like petrochemical plants and nuclear reactors.”Once called the Paris of the Mediterranean, Beirut is now a shadow of its former self and life is tough there for the locals.So what is so special about it? Well, to quote writer and journalist Robert Fisk: “When I arrived in Beirut from Europe, I felt the oppressive, damp heat, saw the unkempt palm trees and smelt the Arabic coffee, the fruit stalls and the over-spiced meat. It was the beginning of the Orient.”
