Rethinking Hizballah Legitimacy Authority

Violence Samer Nassif Abboud download

https://ebookbell.com/product/rethinking-hizballah-legitimacy-
authority-violence-samer-nassif-abboud-36692628

Explore and download more ebooks at ebookbell.com

Here are some recommended products that we believe you will be
interested in. You can click the link to download.

Rethinking Political Judgement Arendt And Existentialism Maa Mrovlje

https://ebookbell.com/product/rethinking-political-judgement-arendt-
and-existentialism-maa-mrovlje-44912164

Rethinking Teacher Supervision And Evaluation 2nd Edition Kim Marshall

https://ebookbell.com/product/rethinking-teacher-supervision-and-
evaluation-2nd-edition-kim-marshall-45002202

Rethinking Secular Time In Victorian England Stefan Fisherhyrem

https://ebookbell.com/product/rethinking-secular-time-in-victorian-
england-stefan-fisherhyrem-45003184

Rethinking The Australian Dilemma Economics And Foreign Policy

19421957 New Bill Apter

https://ebookbell.com/product/rethinking-the-australian-dilemma-
economics-and-foreign-policy-19421957-new-bill-apter-45209502
Rethinking Europes Future David P Calleo

https://ebookbell.com/product/rethinking-europes-future-david-p-
calleo-45299362

Rethinking The Music Business Music Contexts Rights Data And Covid19
Guy Morrow

https://ebookbell.com/product/rethinking-the-music-business-music-
contexts-rights-data-and-covid19-guy-morrow-46084248

Rethinking The Ancient Druids An Archaeological Perspective Miranda

Aldhousegreen

https://ebookbell.com/product/rethinking-the-ancient-druids-an-
archaeological-perspective-miranda-aldhousegreen-46088054

Rethinking Urbanism Lessons From Postcolonialism And The Global South

Garth Myers

https://ebookbell.com/product/rethinking-urbanism-lessons-from-
postcolonialism-and-the-global-south-garth-myers-46192160

Rethinking Thinking Problem Solving From Sun Tzu To Google Martin

Cohen

https://ebookbell.com/product/rethinking-thinking-problem-solving-
from-sun-tzu-to-google-martin-cohen-46222702
Rethinking Hizballah
Dedicated to Kalila, Nadim, Xavier and Nikolas
Rethinking Hizballah
Legitimacy, Authority, Violence

Samer N. Abboud
Arcadia University, USA

and

Benjamin J. Muller
King’s University College, Canada
First published 2008 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright © 2012 Samer NAenjamin j. muller

Samer N. Abboud and Benjamin J. Muller have asserted their rights under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Abboud, Samer Nassif.
Rethinking Hizballah : legitimacy, authority, violence.
1. Hizballah (Lebanon)--History. 2. Hizballah (Lebanon)--
Influence. 3. Power (Social sciences)--Lebanon.
4. Lebanon--Politics and government--1975-1990.
5. Lebanon--Politics and government--1990- 6. Lebanon--
Social conditions.
I. Title II. Muller, Benjamin J.
322.4’2’095692-dc23

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Abboud, Samer Nassif.
Rethinking Hizballah : legitimacy, authority, violence / by Samer N. Abboud and
Benjamin J. Muller.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-7966-0 (hardback)
1. Hizballah (Lebanon) 2. Lebanon--Politics and government--1990- 3. Political
violence--Lebanon. I. Muller, Benjamin J. II. Title.
JQ1828.A98H6214 2012
324.25692’082--dc23
2012020462

ISBN: 9780754679660 (hbk)

ISBN: 9781315606057 (ebk)
 Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments   vii

1 Introduction   1

2 Lebanon’s Sectarian System   13

3 Legitimacy, Authority and Resistance   39

4 Violence and Legitimacy in the Lebanese Context 1985–2010   61

5 Sovereignty, International Relations and the Curious

Case of Hizballah   83

6 The Special Tribunal for Lebanon   99

7 Conclusion   119

Bibliography   129
Index   137
This page has been left blank intentionally
 Preface and Acknowledgments

For those familiar with the diverse and complex politics of the Middle East, and
specifically Lebanon, many of the claims and considerations raised throughout this
text will be familiar. In the pages that follow, we grapple with the complexities of
Lebanon’s domestic politics, while also considering the global/local dimensions
of the actors operating there. This has led us towards an analysis that is as much
about what we refer to as “the curious case of Hizballah,” as it is about the extent
to which the knowledge claims and approaches to understanding valorized be
International Relations have rendered such a case “curious.”
Hizballah has evolved considerably since its formation in 1985. Its Iranian-
inspired political program and desire for an Islamic Republic in Lebanon eventually
gave way to a more pragmatic politics that saw its leadership opt for gradual
engagement and integration, rather than confrontation, with the Lebanese political
system. Indeed, today, Hizballah is a political party and organizational network
that operates like any other in the Lebanese arena. It competes in local and national
elections, operates a vast array of social and cultural institutions, and serves as one
of the main political parties that participates in inter-communal negotiations. Its
raison d’être was, and remains, resistance to Israeli occupation and aggression.
There are varying explanations for the relationship between its resistance activities
and its socio-political activities that we delve into in the coming pages, but our goal
here is not to track Hizballah’s evolution in the Lebanese political system. Nor is
our goal to provide explanations for this evolution. Rather, our goal here is to
interrogate Hizballah’s positioning within the discipline of International Relations
(IR), more specifically, within the dominant frameworks and theories offered by
what Ling and Aganthangelou call “the house of IR.”
In making an effort to unpack the complexity of Hizballah, the manner in which
it is constituted out of the sui generis aspects of Lebanese state-society relations,
and the way in which novel forms of legitimacy and authority in global politics
can be seen to emerge as a result, we have critically engaged IR theory. In varying
degrees and at varying points throughout the text, we not only strive to expose
the shortcomings of IR, specifically its inability to take seriously and with the
necessary refinement, an actor like Hizballah, but also the wide ranging accounts
that have emerged and continue to emerge, which provide popular, journalistic
visions of Hizballah. These conceptions not only reinforce the Orientalist accounts
prevalent in the media, so persuasively unpacked in Said’s Covering Islam (1997),
viii Rethinking Hizballah

but also emphasize the extent to which there is little space – indeed, perhaps only
a small guest room – in the so-called “house of IR.” As such, our analysis here also
focuses on the extent to which IR has little space to deal adequately with the rich,
fecund and diverse politics of the Middle East and the sort of analysis forwarded by
Arab scholarship. The point is not to valorize some specific indigenous knowledge
claims, but to make room for complex and diverse actors and actions that are not
captured by IR, or perhaps more aptly put, whose capture leads to the eventual
taming of such fecund political possibilities.
We do not purport to “know” Hizballah in these pages. Until spies within
the organization were discovered in 2011, the organization had demonstrated
remarkable impenetrability. Our intention is thus not to speak to the inner working
of the organization – something which is virtually impossible – but rather to the
ways in which it has embedded itself within Lebanon’s Shi’a milieu, and how
this embeddedness reflects and generates forms of authority, legitimacy, and the
right to violence that is beyond the analytical purview of the house of IR, which is
content to dismiss Hizballah as misfits and terrorists, outliers of an orderly world.
That Hizballah has emerged as an actor of global relevance has been underscored
by many of the transformations Lebanon has endured in the last twenty-five years.
The end of the Lebanese civil war and the establishment of a Syrian-dominated
order; the collapse of that order in 2005; continued Israeli occupation in the South
of the country and repeated wars to “wipe out” Hizballah, most recently in 2006;
the Global War on Terror; the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-
Hariri and the subsequent establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon; and,
finally, the Arab uprisings. All of these events have brought to the fore Hizballah’s
central role in domestic and regional politics, forcing us to reconsider how we
can think beyond the house of IR to a more inclusive, nuanced, and sensitive
understanding of how an actor such as Hizballah emerges within the global system
and how it is differentially positioned within it.
This book is no different than most: it is the product of a great many influences,
discussions, conference and workshop presentations, and the invaluable input of
the many colleagues and scholars present in these wide ranging contexts. There is
no greater debt than to our close friend and colleague, John Measor. A generous
and engaging scholar, John’s influence is ubiquitous in the argument presented
here; which, in whole or in part, was debated, stirred, and rehashed together with
John over many dinners at conferences and late-night sessions on Skype. This
personal and professional relationship that all three of us are fortunate enough to
have is one that we value greatly, and is responsible for stirring and maintaining
much of the intellectual vitality we each possess for our research.
We are especially grateful for the generous research support provided by King’s
University College, the Centre for American Studies at the University of Western
 Preface and Acknowledgments ix

Ontario, Susquehanna University and Arcadia University. Both in providing

financial support for us to travel to one another’s institutions for some critical
face-to-face meetings necessary to work out the more challenging dimensions of
the argument, as well as the final completion of this text, and enabling us to rely on
the extremely capable research support of both Summer Thorp and Jacob Skinner,
to whom we are deeply indebted for helping to make this text come into fruition.
Over the course of writing this text, we’ve had the opportunity to present this
work at a number of conferences and workshops, and the many colleagues there
provided excellence feedback guidance. We would like to especially acknowledge
some supportive peers and colleagues, Tozun Bahchelli, John Bodinger de Uriarte,
Tom Cooke, Marc Doucet, Miguel de Larrinaga, Can Mutlu, Dave Ramsaran,
Jennifer Riggan and Mark Salter.
Also of particular note, Youssef Masrieh and Rami Siklawi, two scholars living
in Lebanon during the writing of this text provided specific on the ground regional
knowledge that helped enrich this book immensely. Their local knowledge,
research assistance and support are integral to the project that is now here in print.
Our greatest debt is to our respective families. Our spouses, Sonia and Michele,
provided much needed encouragement and unwavering support throughout the
project, often giving us the proverbial “kick in the pants” to get us on track as the
regular obligations of teaching and administration kept us away from the project,
sometimes for far too long. This project also required time away from family,
which Sonia and Michele took in stride, and which is why this text is dedicated
to our children, that remind us of the importance of Elmo, hockey practice, and
artistic pursuits, from which even a manuscript can only temporarily detain us.
Finally, this project would not have been possible without the dozens of people
in Lebanon who took time to speak with us over the course of this research. These
conversations further confirmed our understandings of how non-Western forms
of organization, authority, and legitimacy were simply absent from the dominant
conversations being had in the discipline of IR. Without the insight and perspective
of these people, whose lived realities form our “curious case” this project would
not have been possible. We thank them immensely.
This page has been left blank intentionally
 Chapter 1
Introduction

Introduction

The emergence of the Lebanese resistance movement Hizballah in the mid-1980s

has had a profound impact on shaping contemporary state-society relations in
Lebanon. There is a well-rehearsed, and indeed accurate narrative that explains this
emergence: borne out of Shi’a communal dislocation from the Lebanese economy
and the brutalities of Israeli occupation after 1982, the Shi’a community in Lebanon
organized along sectarian lines to form a movement to resist the dual oppression
of the Lebanese state and the Israeli occupation. This was precipitated by Shi’a
communal organization in the 1970s. However, while the mobilization narrative
provides a broad understanding of the emergence of Hizballah in Lebanon, it fails
to sufficiently account for how the movement gained loyalty and popularity in the
Shi’a community, how it has mobilized violence in pursuit of its aims and how
this has been made possible by the very structure of the Lebanese state and inter-
sectarian relations in the country. Thus, this book asks how we can think about
Hizballah as a different form of authority and legitimacy in world politics – and
the extent to which International Relations (IR) theory has constituted the limited
conceptualizations of legitimacy, authority and violence. Moreover, what are the
“conditions of possibility” for an actor like Hizballah to exist and be considered
in such a serious manner? What are the unique features of the Lebanese state and
state-society relations that create favorable conditions for this actor to emerge?
In considering these research questions, we counter-pose the processes of
economic poverty and dislocation in Lebanon, Israeli occupation, the fragility of
the Lebanese state, Shi’a communal identity, regional political developments, and
of course, inter-sectarian relations within Lebanon, in order to understand key
questions about the movement’s historical trajectory and contemporary politics.
Our aim is to interrogate and unbundle sovereignty: the interplay between
legitimacy, authority and violence in Lebanon. Specifically, the classic depiction
of sovereignty forwarded by Krasner (1999) and others that reifies the distinction
between domestic and Westphalian sovereignty, in many cases forwarding a
disparaging account of sovereign claims by weaker states (Krasner 1999, 21).
How does Hizballah represent a challenge, or “problem” for the Lebanese state?
How does it acquire authority in Lebanon?
2 Rethinking Hizballah

Thus, this project challenges dominant IR scholarship on notions of legitimacy,

authority and violence vis-à-vis the narrative of sovereignty. At the same time, it
seeks to contribute to critical comparative politics by exploring the dynamics of
state-society relations in Lebanon. It does so by considering Hizballah as a case from
which to interrogate key questions about sovereignty and legitimacy. Hizballah, as
a movement embedded in the social fabric of Lebanese society, has emerged within
a specific socio-political context defined by internal strife, communal oppression
and economic alienation. Thus, our study seeks to understand the development
of the movement within this broader Lebanese context, and, theoretically, how
it poses a challenge to conceptions of sovereignty, authority and legitimacy that
frame scholarship in IR.
Sovereignty is central to IR’s vision of world politics. As the essential site of
legitimacy, power and authority in world politics, not to mention the Weberian
notion of monopolizing legitimate violence, the discourse of sovereignty also
acts as a condition of possibility for a series of differentiations such as domestic/
international, inside/outside, here/there, political/anarchy, which are integral to IR
and its articulation of world politics (Walker 1993, George 1994). Although the
representation of sovereign power as indivisible, apolitical, and ahistorical has
been contested from a range of perspectives (Bartelson 1995, Thomson 1996),
not least of which being challenges from postcolonial scholarship (Chowdry and
Nair 2003, Jones 2006), it remains a critical site for discussion and analysis. The
increasing reliance on Private Military Firms in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere,
escalating incidents of Piracy, specifically in the Malacca straits and along the
eastern coast of Africa, the relevance and relative legitimacy and authority of
a range of market actors, are just some of the considerations that have caught
the attention of a burgeoning number of scholars and policy-makers. Hizballah
is arguably one of the more developed, complex, and dynamic non-state actors
that clearly fit within these wider discussions of the contemporary (dis)location of
sovereign power.
It is our contention that Hizballah is a key case from which to explore these
theoretical questions. This case provides a means to challenge IR’s imagining of
world politics and to demonstrate how legitimacy, authority and violence can be
acquired and exercised outside of the sovereign nation-state and its narrative of
political possibility.

A Brief Historical Narrative

Any discussion in the Lebanese context must be tethered to the historical evolution
of Lebanese politics dating back to the civil war of 1860. Political sectarianism in
 Introduction 3

Lebanon has its genesis in French involvement in Lebanese politics after this war.
After having received special permission from the Ottoman authorities to exercise
stewardship over the Christian Maronite community, the French imperial powers
sought to transform Lebanon’s power structure to favor this community. In the
wake of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the French Mandate, political
sectarianism in Lebanon was institutionalized and the Maronite community
installed in key positions of political, military and economic power.
This power structure did not last long. In 1943 Lebanese leaders from across
different sects agreed to what became known as the National Pact. This Pact
would govern relations between the Lebanese communities and would divide
representation in parliament according to a 6:5 formula that favored Lebanese
Christians. Moreover, the Pact contained an unwritten agreement that saw
Christian and Sunni Muslim elites acquire access to economic rents and key sectors
of the economy. The Shi’a community, by now the fastest growing community
in Lebanon, remained dependent on agriculture and the cultivation of tobacco,
sectors of the economy that were controlled by a relatively small number of land-
owning Lebanese families.
As the Lebanese economy transitioned in the post-colonial era to a service
oriented economy, agriculture, and thus the livelihood of Shi’a communities, was
increasingly neglected. The decline of agriculture in Lebanon initiated massive
waves of emigration from the Southern parts of the country. At the same time,
emergent leaders within this community, particularly the Imam Musa al-Sadr,
challenged the authority of the land-owning elites and began to organize the Shi’a
under political banners. This was the first time in Lebanon’s contemporary history
that the Shi’a were organized into a sectarian party, later to be named Harakat
Amal (The Movement of Hope). Harakat Amal was primarily concerned with
alleviating conditions of poverty and economic dislocation in the Shi’a community.
Financially, it relied on the nouveau riche Shi’a who had acquired wealth outside
of Lebanon. Politically, it rejected the politics and hegemony of the land-owning
elite. Socially, it advocated a transition away from the dominant secular identities
(communism, nationalism) to a more religious identity. The seeds of collective
Shi’a mobilization, and thus the seeds of Hizballah, grew in this period.
The Lebanese Civil War erupted in 1975 and by 1978 Imam Musa al-Sadr had
disappeared on a trip to Libya. In his place, Nabih Berri, the secular, green card
holding, West African entrepreneur, took over the leadership of Amal. Many of the
more religious leaders objected to his leadership, and the 1979 Iranian revolution
emboldened their calls for a more religious politics. By 1982, the Israelis had
invaded Lebanon, giving rise to a resistance movement that crossed sectarian and
party lines. Communists, Islamists, Nationalists and Amal fighters all coalesced
around a common cause: resisting Israeli occupation. It was not, however, until
4 Rethinking Hizballah

1985 that the Islamic elements of the movement were consolidated under the
umbrella of the Islamic resistance movement Hizballah.
Over the next four years Hizballah continued its resistance against Israeli
occupation while engaging in periodic clashes with its co-religionists in Amal.
Once the Civil War ended with the Ta’if Agreement, Hizballah’s leadership
was faced with a strategic political decision: should it accept the agreement and
participate in Lebanon’s post-war political order, or should it maintain its initial
opposition to the Lebanese state and hence acceptance of sectarianism in Lebanon,
a system which it deemed as complicit in the poverty and exploitation of Lebanese
Shi’a? The former position prevailed. Hizballah’s leadership chose to participate
in the Lebanese political arena because it was deemed necessary to safeguard the
aims of the resistance movement. As Hizballah participated in local, regional and
domestic elections, its constituency grew and it began to exhibit and articulate a
fluid identity politics that was responsive to domestic and regional patterns.
Currently, Hizballah-elected ministers hold Cabinet positions in the Lebanese
government. This dramatic evolution, from a position of rejecting the Lebanese
state to one of increasing participation in the state apparatus, should be understood
as the outcome of strategic political positions taken by the movement to safeguard
its right of resistance to Israeli occupation and aggression. Hizballah’s relations
with the Lebanese state, domestic political parties and other sects are determined
in relation to the political aims of maintaining their authority and right of resistance
against Israeli aggression. It is in thinking about Hizballah’s relations to the Shi’a
of Lebanon, the Lebanese state and other Lebanese sects and parties that we take
as the main aim of this project a critical exploration of Hizballah’s acquisition and
exercising of private authority in the Lebanese context.

Who/What is Hizballah?

As the title of this book indicates, the challenge is to “Rethink Hizballah.” However,
in order to come to terms with what this means, some consideration for the subject
– Hizballah – and how and why a “rethink” is required deserves reflection. As we
note in Chapter 2, Hizballah is far more than the sum of its parts: it is a governance
structure and leadership cadre, but it is also a resistance movement, the progenitor
of a resistance society, rich with sectarian, media, and communal institutions
that bolster the resistance society that ultimately constitutes a resistance identity
that seeps through sectarian lines. These organs of Hizballah are integral in our
analysis in so far as we advocate a necessary rethink of legitimacy, authority, and
violence. However, the diversity that this broad sense of Hizballah connotes – a
diversity that has expanded and broadened particularly in the past five or so years
 Introduction 5

– is too slippery for our reference point. As such, when we refer to Hizballah,
our analysis focuses on the elite political leadership and the broader, discernable
political strategies adopted by this leadership.
Under the leadership of Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the
senior leadership, represented in the Shura Council, is responsible for the politics
and policy positions of the organization. As we discuss in greater detail in Chapter
2, the Shura council is comprised for five main councils of the party: Political,
Executive, Judicial, Council of Deputies, and Resistance Council. This elite level
of Hizballah, led by Nasrallah, which articulates clearly the political and military
focus and direction of the organization, is what represents Hizballah for our
analysis. As noted in Chapter 2 and elsewhere in our argument, this is by no means
to undermine the broader organs of Hizballah, most notably its essential identity
as resistance and the resistance society, which it has institutionalized in various
forms. All political goals of Hizballah are deeply rooted in the commitment to a
comprehensive notion of resistance – political, social and military. Hizballah’s
resistance is an essential and integral constitutive element of its identity, and is
fully public.
Focusing on the elite leadership of Hizballah allows us to interrogate the clear
expressions of authority, the conditions of possibility for legitimacy, the power to
exercise violence, and the manner in which this is all bound up within Hizballah’s
notion of the “resistance society.” As such, one must take seriously the manner in
which a “resistance identity” is forged from Hizballah’s actions and its constitutive
role in an identity that is much broader than the Shi’a community in Lebanon. This
overt challenge to the sovereign narrative and the alleged monopoly over identity
is as important to our analysis as the claimed monopoly of violence regularly
undermined by Hizballah. Moreover, the account and description of Hizballah
engaged in here challenges directly the familiar trope vis-à-vis IR, which portrays
it as simply a paramilitary organization; little more than a spoiler in sovereign
order of contemporary global politics.

Structure of the Book

Sectarianism in Lebanon

The first chapter of the book asks the following question: what are the conditions
of possibility that give rise to an actor such as Hizballah in Lebanon? This
chapter is structured around an understanding of how political sectarianism in
Lebanon structures the distribution of political-economic authority through formal
(constitutional) and informal (intra-communal) mechanisms. This discussion
6 Rethinking Hizballah

reveals a central paradox of the Lebanese political system, mainly, that the system
functions to distribute resources and positions of political power across different
sectarian communities, rather than promoting national governance. Lebanese
politics is as much shaped by inter-communal negotiations over power and
authority as it is about how to govern the country. Politics in Lebanon is Janus-
faced as it is shaped by both inter- and intra-communal relations: the latter because
actors within each community are forced to compete for communal leadership to
acquire and control the resources distributed by the state (which include positions
of political, security, and economic power), and the former because these actors,
once having acquired legitimacy and authority within the community, are then
forced into political relations with other communal leaders over issues of power
and resource distribution. In addition to the role of sectarianism in structuring
political-economic power, it has shaped and reinforced exclusivist identities
among many Lebanese.
Our concern here is not so much with the debilitating impact sectarianism has
on national governance and the authority of national institutions, but rather with
asking how communal groups, such as Hizballah, acquire legitimacy and authority
vis-à-vis their main constituency, in this case, the Shi’a of Lebanon. This, in turn,
raises a second question issue concerning how Hizballah, as one representative
actor within the Lebanese Shi’a community, interacts with the Lebanese state and
other Lebanese actors. We structure this discussion around the idea of “becoming
sectarianized,” which refers to how sectarianism is politicized and institutionalized
in Lebanese society, and how this impacts a range of actors and the possibilities for
the exercise of political agency.

The Resistance Society

The question of legitimacy and authority within Lebanese politics is further

complicated by the presence of multiple groups claiming to speak for and represent
certain communities. There are also issues concerning support for secular and
nationalist groups, who have often appealed to many Lebanese across sects. The
question taken up in the second chapter asks how Hizballah has come to acquire
legitimacy and authority within the Shi’a community. Here, we are interested in
how the group has emerged within the Lebanese political system as one of the main
representatives of the Shi’a community. For outside observers, their participation
in electoral politics or their resistance against Israel are often considered to be the
main factors behind their legitimacy within the community. However, in contrast
to these notions of legitimacy, we try and provide an account of the “microphysics
of power” at work here that help explain how an actor such as Hizballah acquires
and exercises legitimacy and authority.
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Radio
Detectives Under the Sea
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: The Radio Detectives Under the Sea

Author: A. Hyatt Verrill

Release date: April 21, 2013 [eBook #42569]

Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Roger Frank

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RADIO

DETECTIVES UNDER THE SEA ***
THE RADIO DETECTIVES UNDER THE SEA
BY

A. HYATT VERRILL
AUTHOR OF “THE RADIO DETECTIVES”,
“THE RADIO DETECTIVES SOUTHWARD BOUND,”
“THE RADIO DETECTIVES IN THE JUNGLE,”
“THE DEEP SEA HUNTERS,” ETC.

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

NEW YORK :: 1922 :: LONDON

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

CONTENTS
 I. In the Bahamas
II. A Mysterious Disappearance
III. Surprises
IV. Radio Magic
V. A Narrow Escape
VI. On the Trail of the Submarine
VII. The Fight With the Octopus
VIII. Lost
IX. Prisoners
X. Radio to the Rescue
XI. The Devil Dancers
XII. Smernoff Pays His Debt
XIII. The Tramp

THE RADIO DETECTIVES UNDER THE SEA

 CHAPTER I—IN THE BAHAMAS

“Oh, look, Tom! There’s land!” cried Frank Putney as, coming on
deck one beautiful morning, he glanced across the shimmering sea
and saw a low cloud-like speck upon the horizon ahead.
“Hurrah! it must be the Bahamas,” exclaimed Tom Pauling, as he saw
the first bit of land they had sighted since leaving New York three
days previously. “Say, isn’t it bully to see land again? And isn’t this
water wonderful?”
To the two boys, the short sea trip had been a constant source of
interest, for while they had both been on ocean-going steamships
before and Frank had crossed the Atlantic, yet neither had ever
visited the tropics. The glistening flying fish which had skittered like
miniature sea-planes from under the plunging bows of the ship had
filled them with delight; they had fished up bits of the floating yellow
sargassum or Gulf Weed and had examined with fascination the
innumerable strange crabs, fishes and other creatures that made it
their home; they had watched porpoises as they played about the
ship and they had even caught a brief glimpse of a sperm whale.
The wonderfully rich indigo-blue water of the Gulf Stream was a
revelation to them and now that they were rapidly approaching the
outlying cays of the Bahamas, with the surrounding water malachite
and turquoise, emerald and sapphire with patches of dazzling purple
and streaks of azure they could scarcely believe it real.
“It doesn’t look like water at all,” declared Tom, as his father joined
them.
“It looks like—well, like one of those futurist paintings or as if some
one had spilled a lot of the brightest blue and green paint he could
find and had slapped on a lot of purple for good measure:”
Mr. Pauling laughed. “That’s accurate if not poetical,” he replied,
“and you’ll find, when you go ashore, that the imaginary man with
the paint pot did not stop at the water. The land is just as gaudy and
incredibly bright as the sea.”
“Is that Nassau ahead?” asked Tom.
“No, that’s a small cay,” replied one of the officers who had drawn
near the little group, “Egg Cay they call it. We’ll raise Rose Cay next
and should sight New Providence and Nassau about two o’clock.
Pretty, isn’t it?”
So intensely interested and excited were the two boys that they
could scarcely wait to eat their breakfast before they again rushed
on deck to find the little islet close to the ship, its cream-colored
beaches and purplish-gray coral rocks clear and distinct above the
marvelously tinted water edged by a thread of surf and with a few
straggling palm trees nodding above the low, dull-green bush which
covered the cay.
But to the boys, there were more reasons for being interested and
excited than the mere fact that they were gazing for the first time at
a tropical island or were about to visit a strange land. They were on
an exciting and strange trip, a remarkable mission for two boys and
one which promised an abundance of adventure.
Like so many boys, they had become interested in radio and during
their experiments with various sets had heard peculiar messages
from some unidentified speaker. With their curiosity aroused, they
had tried, merely for the fun of the thing, to locate the sending
station by means of loop aerials or radio compasses.
Having decided that the voice came from a certain block on the East
Side of New York, they had reported their discovery to Mr.
Henderson, a federal employee and an associate of Tom’s father, for
their boyish imaginations had been fired with the idea that the
speaker was a lawbreaker associated with a gang of rum smugglers
whom Mr. Pauling was endeavoring to run down. But when a search
of the block by Mr. Henderson’s men failed to reveal any trace of a
radio outfit the boys had lost interest in the matter.
Then, when Mr. Pauling had returned from a mission to the Bahamas
and Cuba, he had told the boys of a young man named Rawlins who
had devised a remarkable type of diving suit which required no life
line or air hose, the oxygen for the diver to breathe being produced
by means of certain chemicals. Mr. Pauling had mentioned that the
inventor of the suit had stated that its one fault was that the user
could not communicate with those on a ship or on shore and Tom;
his mind ever on his favorite hobby, had suggested that radio might
be used. Later, when Rawlins met the boys in New York and Tom
told him his ideas, the diver fell in with the scheme and declared
that he believed it would be feasible to make a radio telephone
apparatus which could be used under water.
Fitting up his father’s dock on the East River front as a workshop
and laboratory, Rawlins and the boys worked diligently at Tom’s
invention and at last succeeded in devising a radio set with which
the diver could talk freely and easily with people on shore or with
others under the sea.
While trying out the device Tom and Rawlins discovered two other
divers whose actions were suspicious, and watching them, were
amazed to see the men enter an old disused sewer. Following them
into the sewer Tom and his companion were startled at hearing a
conversation in some foreign tongue and Rawlins insisted it came
from the other divers and that they too possessed undersea radio
telephones. Hiding in the shadows the two saw the strangers
standing under a trap-door into which they disappeared, taking with
them a mysterious, cigar-shaped, metal object like a torpedo.
A little later, as Tom and Rawlins were about to return to their own
dock, they again saw the men and following them were
thunderstruck to discover that they were about to enter a submarine
lying at the bottom of the river. Curious to find out more about the
undersea craft, Rawlins approached it and was suddenly attacked by
the two men. Tom unconsciously screamed and at the sound Frank,
who was anxiously waiting at the receiver on shore, asked what was
wrong. Suddenly, realizing that he was in touch with his friends, Tom
called for help asking Frank to send for the police. At his cries the
submarine quickly got under way, deserting the two strange divers
who, seeing their craft had left, surrendered to Rawlins.
In his excitement one of the men had been careless and as a result
the chemicals in his suit had flamed up at the touch of water and the
man had been seriously injured. With the captured diver, Tom and
Rawlins had made their way to the dock, carrying the wounded man
and had arrived just as Mr. Pauling with Mr. Henderson and the
police arrived. Tom had fainted from strain and excitement and when
he recovered consciousness found that the captive had been
recognized as a dangerous escaped criminal, a Russian “red” and
that the other man was at the point of death.
Mr. Pauling, having heard Rawlins’ tale, suspected a connection
between the deserted sewer, the strange divers, the submarine and
the mysterious messages the boys had heard and at once sent the
police to surround the block and search the buildings. As a result of
the raid, a garage had been found with a secret passage connecting
with the sewer and in which were stored vast quantities of liquor,
contraband goods, Bolshevist propaganda and loot taken from hold-
ups and robberies in New York.
Feeling that they had stumbled upon the key to a wave of crime and
“red” literature which had been sweeping the country, Mr. Henderson
questioned the captive, Smernoff, who confirmed the suspicions and
confessed that the submarine had been used for smuggling liquor
and other contraband into the united States and taking the ill-gotten
loot out and that the contraband had been picked up by the sub-sea
boat in mid ocean at spots where it had been dumped overboard
from sailing vessels by previous arrangements.
He insisted, however, that he knew nothing of the headquarters of
the gang or of their leader whom Henderson and his associates
believed was a master criminal, an unscrupulous, fiendish character
who, during the war, had undertaken to destroy the Leviathan,
Brooklyn Bridge, the Navy Yard and many buildings as well as
thousands of people in America and England, but who, failing in this,
dared not return to Germany. The government officials felt confident
that this same master mind was responsible for the wave of crime,
the flood of Bolshevist literature and the threatening letters which
had baffled them.
Mr. Pauling and Mr. Henderson were also most anxious to secure a
statement from the other man, who was still unconscious in the
hospital, and when at last he was able to speak Mr. Pauling hurried
to his side. The dying man, thinking that his comrades had betrayed
him, related an astounding story, admitted the existence of the
master criminal and was on the point of revealing his headquarters
when he died.
At almost the same time word was received that the submarine had
been picked up, drifting at sea, by a destroyer despatched to find
her, but that she was absolutely deserted. When at last she was
towed into New York and was examined by Mr. Pauling, Rawlins and
the boys she was found stripped of everything which would have
thrown light upon the mystery. Questioning the crew of the
destroyer, Rawlins discovered that a fishing schooner had been
sighted near the drifting submarine and from the description he
recognized it as a Bahaman vessel and jumped to the conclusion
that the crew of the submarine had transhipped to it.
Believing that he could locate the headquarters of the plotters,
Rawlins suggested that he and the boys should go to the West
Indies and, after some objections had been overcome, this plan had
been agreed to by Tom’s father. Thus it came about that the two
boys were now upon a steamer’s deck as she churned her way
through the intensely blue sea towards the palm-fringed islands
beyond her bows.
“I wonder when Rawlins will get here with that sub,” remarked Mr.
Henderson.
“Not for several days yet, I imagine,” replied Mr. Pauling. “There was
a lot of work to be done upon her and she cannot make much over
fifteen knots on a long cruise. I’m personally more anxious to hear
from the destroyers that are chasing the schooner. I wonder if
Rawlins was right in his surmise regarding her.”
“We should hear from them soon after we reach Nassau,” declared
the other. “We left three days after the destroyers and that schooner
certainly could not beat the destroyers to the islands or evade them.
I don’t think there’s the least question about their overhauling her.”
“Say, won’t it be great if they do catch her,” exclaimed Tom, “and
find the crew of the submarine aboard?”
“Yes, but it’s very evident they have not even sighted her as yet,”
replied his father. “If they had we would have received a radio.”
“Perhaps they’re out of range of communication,” suggested Mr.
Henderson.
“Oh, no,” Tom assured him. “The operator says all those naval
vessels can send for several hundred miles and the weather’s been
fine—no static to speak of. We were talking to a Porto Rico liner this
morning.”
“I hope you haven’t given away any information in your enthusiasm
over radio,” remarked his father. “Remember we don’t want any one
—not even ‘Sparks’—to have the least inkling of our purpose or plans
Always bear in mind the famous Spanish proverb that ‘a secret
between two is God’s secret but a secret between three is
everybody’s.’”
“You needn’t worry about us, Dad,” Tom assured him, “we haven’t
breathed a word—not even about our under-sea radio, although we
were just wild to tell about it. You know our motto is ‘see everything,
hear everything and say nothing.’”
“Stick to that and you’ll be a credit to the Service,” laughed his
father as he and Mr. Henderson moved away.
Tom and Frank soon forgot all about radio or the chances of the
swift destroyers overtaking the schooner in the many interesting
sights about: the long-tailed graceful tropical birds whose snowy
breasts appeared a delicate sea-green from the sunlight reflected
through the clear water by the white sandy bottom of the sea; the
bigger Booby gannets that kept pace with the ship, seeming to float
without effort just above the rails, and that kept turning their china-
blue eyes with a curious stare upon the boys; the big, clumsy
pelicans that, in single file, flapped along a few inches above the
sea, rising and falling in unison with the waves and now and again
plunging suddenly with a tremendous splash into the water as their
sharp eyes spied schools of small fish. All these were new and
strange to the boys and once they caught a glimpse of a V-shaped
line of twinkling red dots against the blue sky which one of the
officers assured them was a flock of flamingoes.
“Gosh!” exclaimed Tom suddenly. “Say, just look there, Frank! See,
down there between the waves—I’m dead sure I saw the bottom!”
The officer chuckled. “Of course you did!” he assured Tom. “Why
not? You can see bottom at ten fathoms down here anywheres.
Water’s as clear as glass. Why, when you get to Nassau you can look
down and see the sea-fans and corals and marine growths perfectly
plainly—sea-gardens the Conchs call ’em—regular places for tourists
to go. And you can sit on the dock and fish and watch the fool fishes
nibbling at your bait—red and blue and yellow and every color of the
rainbow. Then, when you see one that suits your fancy you can just
yank him up—great thing this being able to pick your fish!”
The boys looked at him half suspiciously. “Say,” exclaimed Frank,
“are you trying to kid us?”
“Not a bit of it,” replied the purser. “Just wait and see. Why, if I told
you half the truth about such things you’d swear I was lying.”
“Golly!” ejaculated Tom. “Wouldn’t it be fine to go down in a diving
suit in such water. I don’t wonder that R—” Tom checked himself just
in time and asked, “But what do you mean by saying the ‘Conchs’
call the places sea gardens?”
The purser laughed. “Oh, I forgot you’d never been down here,” he
said. “Conchs is the local name for the Bahamans. Guess it’s because
they’re always diving for conchs or maybe because they’re as much
at home under water as on land. Greatest divers in the world; fact,
I’ve seen ’em diving for sponge and coral many a time and when we
get to Nassau this afternoon you’ll see about ten thousand naked
nigger boys crowding about, begging you to toss pennies to ’em so
they can dive and catch them. Little beggars can grab a coin long
before it gets to the bottom and if you toss a penny off one side of
the ship they’ll dive off the other, swim under the keel and get the
coin before it reaches bottom. And speaking of diving—say, this is
the real home and headquarters of that. Met a chap down here last
winter—Rawlins is his name—was taking a lot of movies under
water, fact. Had a new-fangled sort of suit that didn’t have ropes or
hose or anything and just plumped overboard as easy as is and
wandered around making friends with the fishes.”
The boys nudged each other and winked. “Oh, now you are kidding
us!” said Tom. “How could a fellow go down without air and how
could he take movies under the sea? That’s too big even for us to
swallow.”
“Fact, just the same,” the other declared. “Had some sort of gadget
fixed up on his suit to make air and he took the movies in a big steel
room or chamber at the end of a jointed, water-tight pipe—had
electric lights and everything in it. Sure thing and no fooling. Saw
some of the pictures up in New York too. Yep, one of ’em was called
‘Drowned Gold’ or something of the sort—story of a treasure under
the sea—gathered in by Huns in a submarine and cached in an old
wreck. Rattling good picture too! Say, you boys want to see his place
—got a regular studio here. I don’t think Rawlins is here though.”
“That would be interesting,” agreed Frank, “I’d love to go down in a
diving suit and walk about on the bottom. Don’t the fish and things
ever trouble him?”
“No,” responded the purser, “even sharks keep off—only danger’s in
devil fish—octopus, you know. They grow mighty big hereabouts and
are likely to grab anything. Rawlins was making one picture of a
whopping big octopus fighting with a diver—fake devil fish made out
of rubber, but natural as is. Don’t know how it turned out but I tell
you I’m not keen on running foul of any of the real thing. And
speaking of sharks—say, here’s a fact that you boys will think’s a
whopper. Niggers down here dive in right among the sharks—carry a
long knife in their teeth—and grab hold of a shark’s fin and knife
him, fact!”
“Well, you can’t tell any yarn bigger than that!” laughed Frank.
“Imagine a man tackling a shark under water! Oh come, you must
think we’re easy!”
“Well, just wait and see,” replied the purser, “but I’ll have to be
running along. There’s New Providence ahead—we’ll be getting into
port within the next hour.”
“Gosh, he’s some talker!” exclaimed Tom with a laugh when the
loquacious officer had left. “And wasn’t it rich—his telling us about
Rawlins and the suits and never guessing we knew him or had been
down in those suits ourselves! Say, I’m beginning to think there’s a
lot of fun in being Secret Service people. It’s sport listening to folks
telling all they know about a thing that you know more about and
they never guessing it.”
“Yes,” agreed Frank, “and I can understand now how detectives and
Secret Service men find out so much without any one suspecting
them. They just start a conversation and then let the other fellows
do the talking and pick up a lot of information. But that was rich
about the sharks!”
“And the devil fish too!” added Tom. “Wonder if there is any danger
from being attacked by an octopus. Say, if there is that’s where our
undersea radio would come in mighty fine.”
But whether or not the purser’s tales were true in regard to the
sharks and octopus the boys soon discovered that he had not in the
least exaggerated the clarity of the water or the skill of the native
diving boys when their ship steamed slowly into Nassau harbor.
It was all so wonderfully fascinating and beautiful that the boys kept
constantly uttering exclamations of surprise and delight. Never had
they dreamed that there could be such vivid colors anywhere in the
world. The sky, so blue it resembled a dense solid dome of blue silk;
the water, ultramarine, emerald and turquoise streaked with gold
and purple; the vivid green foliage with masses of scarlet hibiscus
and flaming poinciana trees; the glaring, snow-white coral streets;
the pink, blue, green, yellow, and lavender houses with their red
roofs and green shutters; the bright-hued orange and red bandannas
and gleaming costumes of the negro women crowding the dock; the
lofty nodding palm trees above the beaches and looming like
gigantic feather dusters above the buildings; the crimson and blue
flags of England flying everywhere; the scarlet tunics of strolling
soldiers from the garrison; the little shore boats bobbing upon the
water and painted every color of the rainbow and scores of sponging
and fishing smacks as brilliant in hues as the smaller craft, all
combined to form a kaleidoscopic picture of gaudy tints and blazing
colors such as can be found only in the tropic islands of the
Caribbean. But all these sights were of less interest to Tom and
Frank than the naked black, brown and yellow diving boys who
paddled about the ship in crude home-made boats, formed from
discarded packing cases, or straddled lengths of bamboo and with
grinning faces and rolling eyes begged the passengers to throw
coins into the water exactly as the purser had described. And when
Tom and Frank tossed shining nickels into the sea and the score of
black bodies left the makeshift boats as one, the two American boys
burst into roars of merriment.
“Gosh, they’re just like a lot of black frogs!” cried Tom. “And just
look at them, Frank! See them! Look there! They’re after those
nickels and you can see them as plain as if they were under glass!
There! Look! One of them’s got a coin! And see how funny the pink
soles of their feet look! Say, it’s wonderful!”
For the next half hour the diving boys reaped a rich harvest of small
coins and then, the customs and port doctor’s men having
completed their inspection, Tom and Frank followed Mr. Pauling
down the gangway and a few moments later stood upon the first
West Indian island they had ever visited.
 CHAPTER II—A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE

For the first few days of their stay in Nassau the boys found plenty
to amuse them. They rowed out in a bright-hued rowboat with a
glass set in the bottom and gazed at the famed “sea gardens” and
found them even more wonderful than the ship’s purser had
described. They clambered over the ancient forts Williams and
George; they bathed, swam and fished to their hearts’ content and
they visited the sponge docks where the speedy little schooners and
sloops with their grinning black crews brought their catch of sponges
to barter and trade.
The huge turtles, lying on their backs upon the decks of fishing
boats, were a novelty to the boys and they were absolutely
fascinated by the rainbow-tinted fish that swarmed in the waters and
were sold in the market. And they learned many new and interesting
things also. They had seen the bleached white corals in museums
and saw the same everywhere for sale in Nassau; and the first time
they visited the sea gardens and gazed down through the crystal
clear water they were surprised that no corals were visible.
There were huge sea-fans—purple and golden brown, long, black
sea-rods, brown and purple sea plumes, huge dull-orange and
maroon starfish, innumerable sea anemones with immensely long
and bright-colored tentacles and everywhere red, pink, yellow, blue
and particolored fish, like some sort of exotic butterflies, flitting lazily
among the marine growths. But not a white coral was visible. Great
rounded mounds of orange, bits of scarlet, masses of green and
lavender, of old rose and soft fawn brown were cluttered upon the
bottom, but in vain the boys sought for the massive brain corals and
graceful branched corals they knew so well.
“Well I don’t see any corals,” declared Tom after he had gazed at the
multicolored objects upon the ocean bottom for some time. “It’s
pretty, but I thought corals grew everywhere down here.”
The black boatmen chuckled. “Beggin’ yo’ pardon, Chief,” he
remarked, “tha’s plenty coral down tha’, Chief. Yaas, sir, all erbout.
Doan’ yo’ di’sarn ’em, Chief?”
“No,” replied Tom, “I can’t see a single white thing there—all I see
are bright colored weeds and sea-fans and rocks.”
The negro looked genuinely surprised. “Bless yo’ soul!” he
exclaimed. “Yo’ cawnt be a s’archin’ fo’ white coral is yo’? White
coral’s jus’ dead coral, Chief. Tha’s da culmination o’ tha’ manner o’
it’s prep’ration, Chief. Yaas, sir, all tha’ objec’s yo’ di’sarn growin’
down to tha’ bottom is corals, Chief. Yaas, sir, some of tha’ kin’s is
yellow an’ some red an’ some green.”
It was the boys’ turn to be surprised. “Why, you don’t mean all those
things like stones covered with bright-colored weeds are coral!”
exclaimed Frank incredulously.
“Yaas, sir, Chief,” the negro assured him. “Ah’ll demonstrate it to yo’
entire satisfaction, Chief.”
As he spoke, the half-naked negro stood up in the little craft and
before the astonished boys realized what he was about to do he had
plunged into the clear water and the boys watched in wonder as
they saw him swimming easily straight towards the bottom, a little
string of bubbles rising from him and the pink soles of his feet
flashing strangely. In an instant he had reached the masses of
growth on the sea floor and the boys saw him pulling and working at
a projecting ledge of vivid violet and green. Then he turned and shot
up to the surface like a flash. As he broke through the water he
tossed a large lump of brilliant material into the boat and clambered
over the stern.
Interestedly the boys examined what he had brought and to their
absolute amazement discovered that it really was coral, but as the
man explained, completely concealed under the fleshy covering of
the animals which resembled tiny sea anemones of wonderful tints.
But after their first momentary surprise and interest at the discovery
the two boys found much more to attract them in the denizens of
the mass of coral than in the coral itself. Odd red and white crabs
emerged from their hiding places, a tiny fish that glittered with the
dazzling hues of a fire opal flapped from under a bit of adhering
seaweed, funny slug-like molluscs of intense blue and gold crawled
about the mass, queer little snails were everywhere and when the
boys disturbed the coral or handled it they heard odd snapping
noises like lilliputian firecrackers.
For a time this puzzled them until Frank discovered to his intense
delight that the sounds were made by tiny lobster-like crustaceans
that dwelt in holes in the hard coral and viciously snapped their
claws when disturbed.
“Say,” asked Tom presently, “weren’t you afraid of a devil fish—
octopus, you know—down there?”
“Bless your soul, no, Chief!” grinned the negro. “Tha’ fellow doan’
never humbug us. We eats them down here, Chief.”
“Eat them!” exclaimed Frank in surprise. “Gee! I’d hate to eat the
slimy things. But I thought they attacked divers, pulled them down
with their tentacles and killed them.”
“No, sir!” declared the boatman. “Tha’s jus’ foolishness. 'Cose a big
fellow might humbug a diver, but Ah ne’er knew o’ such a happenin’
an’ Ah was spongin’ fo’ ten years an’ mo’.” Then a broad grin spread
over the man’s face and he shook silently as though laughing to
himself over some amusing memory. “Yaas, sir,” he went on. “Come
to take consideration o’ the matter Ah did know o’ one o’ tha’ fellows
makin’ to fight with a diver. Yaas, sir, a almighty big fellow—jes
erbout three fathoms across he was, Chief. Yaas, sir, he went fo’ to
make trouble with Mr. Rawlins, Chief, jus’ fo’ to commo-date the
picture, but tha’ one was a tame orctopus—made out o’ rubber an’
springs fo’ the occasion, Chief.”
Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.

More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge

connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and

personal growth every day!

ebookbell.com