Israel Matzav

Iranian secret agent to America: 'Stop Iran now'

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a man who was a CIA spy in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the '80's and '90's. Kahlili has written a book about his experiences called A Time to Betray, in which he describes his disenchantment with the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and how it led him to offer his services to the FBI and later to the CIA. In this interview, Kahlili describes what's going on in Iran today, why the West must stop Iran and how it should go about doing so. Interestingly, he assumes that it is the United States must act, and does not take into account (or at least does not discuss) the possibility that the United States will refuse to act and that Israel will have to take action in its stead. What is clear from the interview is that someone must act before Iran becomes a nuclear power, or the implications will go far beyond the destruction (God forbid) of the Middle East's only democracy.

DB: What do you see Iran looking like five years from now?

RK: Obviously no one can see into the future, but there’s one thing that I believe: If the West sticks with sanctions, and its mild approach to trying to change the behavior of the Iranian leadership, Iran will become a nuclear power. If Iran becomes a nuclear power, if it becomes a nuclear-armed country, the Iranian people are going to pay a very, very heavy price. And you could see major destruction in Iran. Now I hope to God that doesn’t happen.

DB: What do you mean? Be specific. What do you mean by major destruction?

RK: I think Iran accessing a nuclear bomb, it is going to cause major war with Iran. And I believe the West is moving toward that by just dragging this thing along. This is going to come to a head, and war could break out. And I hope that’s not going to be the case. But if they become nuclear-armed, I think the Iranian people are going to pay a very heavy price.

DB: What’s the option? I mean you keep saying that the West isn’t doing enough—what is the option? What should they be doing?

RK: Look, if you can’t deal with the Guards right now, how are you going to deal with them if they have a nuclear bomb? If they have nuclear-armed warheads and if they cover the whole world? What are you going to do? Study the clerics, the leadership behavior for the previous decades, they’ve taken the world hostage many times over, and they have won. Now just imagine that they have a nuclear bomb. The Saudi kingdom would be in jeopardy. Iraq… forget about it, it’s already under control of Iran. They’re helping the Taliban. In Lebanon, Hezbollah is ruling. Jordan could be in danger, Syria could be empowered, Israel could be threatened day and night, Hamas would be empowered. You could see nuclear proliferation moving into Venezuela. It is going to be unimaginable.

We just don’t know how dangerous the consequences would be. It’s serious. This is a serious situation, and the West is not dealing with it the way they should. One thing they could do very simply is cut off shipping lines—all airspace and shipping lines closed to everything coming into Iran and going out of Iran.

DB: You know that according to all international laws what you are describing—the cutting off of shipping lines—is an act of war.

RK: Well, let it be an act of war. You’ve got two choices: Either take out the Guard right now, or wait until they have a bomb. It’s a matter of who takes the more serious step. Let it be an act of war and let’s see what Iran does. Give them a deadline. No one has taken a serious stand to see if they will back down, and unless you do, they’re going to become a nuclear-armed state. If Iran shoots one bullet [at U.S. troops], we can control the Tehran skies. I mean, I believe people will bring this government down, once they know that the West is serious about it and they don’t have to fire a single bullet. So the decision comes to this, and this is the bottom line: Do we accept Iran as a nuclear-armed state or not? Anything else is just total hot air. It is just one question, do we accept it or not?

Read the whole thing.

I keep thinking back to Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech at the United Nations and how so many Americans said that Bibi was in line to replace President Obumbler as the leader of the free world. That seems to be coming true. It's a weighty and frightening responsibility. But there is no choice. Our rabbis wisely said, "[I]n a place where there are no men, try to be a man." For the most part, Bibi appears to be trying. I give him a lot of credit for that.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:44 AM