The $7 Million Question About Ibrahim Aqil

Who was Ibrahim Aqil? The Washington Post said he was a “Hezbollah leader who sat on the group’s military council…. Aqil appeared to have taken over from Fuad Shukr, the senior Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli strike in the same southern Beirut suburb over a month ago.” He led Hezbollah’s Operations Unit for two decades, according to the IDF. And he was killed on September 20 by the IDF. 

The State Department said the following on April 18, 2023: 

Today, on the 40th anniversary of Hizballah’s bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, the U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program, which is administered by the Diplomatic Security Service, is announcing a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the identification, location, arrest, and/or conviction of Hizballah key leader Ibrahim Aqil.
Ibrahim Aqil, also known as Tahsin, serves on Hizballah’s highest military body, the Jihad Council.
During the 1980s, Aqil was a principal member of Hizballah’s terrorist cell the Islamic Jihad Organization, which claimed responsibility for the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, which killed 63 people, and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in October 1983, which killed 241 U.S. personnel.
Also in the 1980s, Aqil directed the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon and held them there.
On July 21, 2015, the U.S. Department of the Treasury listed Aqil as a Specially Designated National, pursuant to Executive Order 13582, for acting for or on behalf of Hizballah. Subsequently, on September 10, 2019, the U.S. Department of State designated Aqil as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to Executive Order 13224, as amended.
Anyone with information on Ibrahim Aqil should contact Rewards for Justice via Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp….

Two questions arise. The first is whether the State Department owes the IDF that $7 million. Why not? The reward was for the “identification, location, arrest, and/or conviction” of Aqil. Too late for arrest and trial, but the Israelis did the identification and location. Why should they lose the reward just because they brought him to justice themselves?

But there is a larger question. Aqil was named first in 2015 as a “Specially Designated National,” but has been called a Specially Designated Global Terrorist since 2019. The reward was posted last year. This man killed over 300 Americans. Did the United States try to seize him or kill him? The United States government posted a reward, but was that it? For the killer of more than 300 of us? Did we demand that the Government of Lebanon arrest him and render him to us? They could not have defied Hezbollah and done so because Hezbollah actually runs the country, but did we at least put the demand on the books? Did we ever send any teams to Beirut to locate him or kill him? 

Israel did us a great favor by eliminating this murderer. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said "Any time a terrorist who has murdered Americans is brought to justice, we believe that that is a good outcome.” He went on: 

“That individual has American blood on his hands and has a Reward for Justice price on his head. He is somebody who the United States promised long ago we would do everything we could to see brought to justice.”

Sounds like he’d give the IDF the $7 million. But no reporter asked “Did you keep that promise? Did the United States do everything we could to get him?” Or was this country simply passive, waiting for someone who wanted the money to come forward secretly or waiting for the Israelis to do the job for us?