Hassan Nasrallah

New York writer Adam Shatz gives this short overview of Hassan Nasrallah by (All Things Considered, 7/17/06 - 4:30), the leader of the Lebonaese terrorist, paramilitary, and policitical party known as Hezbollah ("Party of God"). You can also read an article by Shatz, "Nasrallah's Game" from The Nation (7/31/2006). Guy Raz has also posted this written profile of Nasrallah at NPR; also on this same page is a piece by Jennifer Lunden entitled, "Hezbollah's Changing Mission."

In March 2005, Ivan Watson filed this report, Hezbollah's Political Wing Flexes Muscle (4:48), on the changing status in Lebanon in the face of Syria's withdrawal from the country. There's a longer, detailed discussion (with transcript), "Who Is Hezbollah?", including a 1st-person account of Nasrallah on Talk of the Nation (7/19/2006 - 33:58).

One important element of the discussion here is the role of villains in political discourse--what has become a significent since 9/11 and what is now called the global war or terror. The notion of villain (Wikipedia), however, comes not from politics, but from theater, and one can legitimately raise the issue of the benefits and possible problems of such a theatrical understanding politics.

One might also want to look at the Nasrallah entry at Wikipedia to see the problems in trying to produce "objective" account of such a controversial figure.