Obama put Iran's ballistic missile program back in business
The Washington Free Beacon reports that the Obama administration
put Iran's ballistic missile program back in business by removing sanctions on its primary bank, and then lied to Congress about it for nine months.
The Obama administration misled journalists and lawmakers for more
than nine months about a secret agreement to lift international
sanctions on a critical funding node of Iran’s ballistic missile
program, as part of a broader “ransom” package earlier this year that
involved Iran freeing several U.S. hostages, according to U.S. officials
and congressional sources apprised of the situation.
The administration agreed to immediately lift global restrictions on Iran’s Bank Sepah—a bank the Treasury Department described
in 2007 as the “linchpin of Iran’s missile procurement”–eight years
before they were to be lifted under last summer’s comprehensive nuclear
agreement. U.S. officials initially described the move as a “goodwill
gesture” to Iran.
The United States also agreed to provide Iran $1.7 billion in cash to
release or drop charges against 21 Iranians indicted for illegally
assisting Tehran. Full details of this secret agreement were kept hidden
from Congress and journalists for more than nine months, multiple
sources told the Washington Free Beacon.
State Department officials who spoke to the Free Beacon now
say the United States “already made” the decision to drop U.S.
sanctions, but declined to address multiple questions aimed at
clarifying the discrepancy between past and current explanations for
dropping international sanctions.
...
Senior Iranian officials said in January that the $1.7 billion
payment and delisting of Bank Sepah were part of the agreement to free
U.S. hostages, a charge the Obama administration denied at the time.
“The annulment of sanctions against Iran’s Bank Sepah and reclaiming
of $1.7mln of Iran’s frozen assets after 36 years showed that the U.S.
doesn’t understand anything but the language of force,” Mohammad Reza
Naqdi, commander of Iran’s Basij Volunteer Force, told Iran’s state-controlled press in early February.
Senior congressional sources apprised of the matter told the Free Beacon
that these latest revelations provide further proof of the
administration’s intentional bid to deceive the public about its
dealings with Iran.
“Facts are facts, no matter how much the administration tries to hide
them,” said one senior congressional aide involved in investigating the
matter. “Journalists and Members of Congress are on the trail and have
already uncovered so much, including the cash payment of almost $2
billion to the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism as a ransom
for four American hostages. The truth, no matter how disturbing it is,
will continue to come out.”
“This should eliminate any remaining doubt that the administration
paid a ransom to Iran,” said another source familiar with the issue.
“Why else would they keep Congress and the American people in the dark
about this unprecedented concession? President Obama’s continued
capitulation to the Iranian regime is a hazard to our national
security.”
Another source who serves as a senior adviser to Congress and is familiar with the administration’s thinking told the Free Beacon
that the Obama administration misled the public to avoid sparking
outrage over its decision to drop sanctions on the top funder of Iran’s
ballistic missile program.
“The Obama administration couldn’t tell the American public that it
had just unleashed Iran’s ballistic missile program as one part of an
enormous ransom extracted by Iran,” the source said. “So instead they
ran to friendly reporters to misleadingly boast about how successful
their diplomacy was, while they were bribing Iran with billions of
dollars and military concessions to stay at the table.”
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based
think tank, described the administration’s move as putting Iran’s
ballistic missile program “back in business.”
“It represents a unilateral dismantling of the international ballistic missile embargo against the Islamic Republic,” FDD wrote in a recent policy analysis. “Iran’s preferred missile-financing bank is back in business.”
Can't wait to see what comes out after the elections. Maybe they'll even find that
missing Obama video.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, intercontinental ballistic missiles, Iran Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander vows to continue weaponizing until Israel is destroyed
As you read this piece (which you saw yesterday if you follow me on Twitter), please keep in mind that the results of President Obama's sellout to a nuclear-armed Iran include the removal of Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Suleimani (pictured) from the designated terrorist list, and billions of dollars in weapons being released to Iran as a result of the ending of the weapons boycott and the release of billions of dollars of Iranian money that was being held by the West.
A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander (not Suleimani) has told Iran's FARS News that
Iran will continue to arm itself until 'Palestine' replaces Israel.
"...they (the US and the Zionists) should know
that the Islamic Revolution will continue enhancing its preparedness
until it overthrows Israel and liberates Palestine," IRGC's top
commander in Tehran province, Brigadier General Mohsen Kazzemeini, told
operating units in Tharallah Drills in the Iranian capital on Wednesday.
"And we will continue defending not just our own
country, but also all the oppressed people of the world, specially those
countries that are standing on the forefront of confrontation with the
Zionists," continued the General.
Sum 250,000 Iranian Basiji (volunteer) forces in
the form of 250 battalions started massive drills in Tehran on Wednesday
and Thursday to practice fighting against security threats.
In relevant remarks in 2014, Supreme Leader of the
Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei noted that criminal
acts of the wolfish and child-killer Zionist regime in Gaza had revealed
its true nature, and said, "Only way to solve this problem is full
annihilation and destruction of the Zionist regime."
He also underlined that Palestinians should also continue their armed struggle against Tel Aviv.
"The armed resistance by the Palestinians is the
only way to confront Israel," Ayatollah Khamenei said addressing a group
of Iranian university students in Tehran at the time.
If you're a Jew and you voted for Obama in 2012, are you ashamed of yourself yet? Because you ought to be. (I can excuse - reluctantly - people who voted for him in 2008 because a lot of people didn't realize he was an anti-Semite, but there was no excuse for repeating that mistake in 2012).
And this doesn't even consider the probability of a nuclear-armed Iran down the road....
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Iran Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Qassem Suleimani
Europe to allow Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to operate on its territory
Europe is going to
allow the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to operate on its territory beginning in 2023.
Making matters significantly worse from the Israeli and European Jewish
perspective is Europe’s decision to allow the Army of the Guardians of
the Islamic Revolution, or the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps as
it usually called in the West, broad latitude to operate within the EU
starting in 2023.
“The EU delisting of IRGC military
organizations and personnel is tantamount to a green light for
Iran-sponsored terrorism. Likewise, the EU delisting of IRGC financial,
engineering, construction, energy and transport sector entities
amounts to European approval of the IRGC’s dominance in Iran’s economy,
which equates to the continued repression of the Iranian people by a
regime that just cashed in on temporarily deferring aspects of its
nuclear program,” Ali Alfoneh, an expert on the Revolutionary Guard, and
a fellow a the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote.
Europe’s
media are not paying attention to some of the fine print in the
nuclear agreement that largely affects their citizen’s security as well
as that of Israel institutions across the continent.
Alfoneh
noted, “After the nuclear agreement signed last week, the United States
will maintain most of its sanctions on individuals and entities
connected to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the regime’s
elite forces for external terrorism and domestic repression. The
European Union, however, has chosen a different path: a mass delisting
of the Guards on the date the deal calls ‘Transition Day.’” Europe’s
“Transition Day” is to take place eight years after the agreement has
been formally implemented.
Alfoneh wrote, “barring unforeseen
circumstances [implementation] will occur at some point over the next
three months. On that day, the EU will delist the IRGC, as well as its
Air Force and Missile Command. Most unexpectedly, it will lift nuclear
sanctions on the Quds Force, the IRGC’s external arm tasked with
‘exporting the revolution’ and extending support to terrorist proxies.”
The
EU is slated to delist Iranian banks such as Ansar and Mehr , which
are under sanctions because of their nuclear proliferation and nuclear
weapons delivery activities. The EU did not object to delisting the
notorious Brig.-Gen. Mohammad Hejazi.
Hejazi is a former commander of the Basij militia, Alfoneh told The Jerusalem Post.
It's time for European Jews to leave the hostile continent. What could go wrong?
Labels: Basij, Europe, European Jews, Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Sunni Gulf States critical of Iran deal
The Sunni states in the Persian Gulf are extremely critical of the Iran nuclear sellout. But less because of the nuclear issue than because of the release of sanctions and the
lack of restrictions on Iran's terror support. You know, the things Obama-Kerry decided were '
less important.' This is from the first link and it's from Jonathan Spyer.
“Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states can only welcome the nuclear deal,
which in itself is supposed to close the gates of evil that Iran had
opened in the region. However, the real concern is that the deal will
open other gates of evil, gates which Iran mastered knocking at for
years even while Western sanctions were still in place.”
From this perspective a particularly notable and dismaying aspect of
the deal is its removal of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and
its Quds Force commander, Maj.-Gen. Qasem Soleimani, from the list of
those subject to sanctions by the West.
The ending of sanctions on the IRGC, and more broadly the likely
imminent freeing of up to $150 billion in frozen revenue, will enable
Iran to massively increase its aid to its long list of regional clients
and proxies. Iran today is heavily engaged in at least five conflict
arenas in the region.
...
In Syria, beleaguered dictator and Iranian client Assad remains in
control in the west and south largely because of Iranian support and
assistance – up to $1b. per month, according to some estimates. For as
long as Assad remains, the war remains, allowing such monstrous entities
as Islamic State and al-Qaida to flourish.
...
In Iraq, the Iranian-supported Shi’ite militias of the Hashd
al-Shaabi are playing the key role in defending Baghdad from the advance
of Islamic State. These militias are trained and financed by the
Revolutionary Guards and organized by Soleimani and his Iraqi right-hand
man, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, also thought to be an IRGC member.
In Yemen, the Iranians are offering arms and support to the Ansar
Allah, or Houthi rebels, who are engaged in a bloody insurgency against
the government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Among the Palestinians, Tehran operates Palestinian Islamic Jihad as a
client/proxy organization, and is in the process of rebuilding
relations with the Izzadin Kassam, the powerful military wing of Hamas.
All this costs money. In a pattern familiar to the experience of
totalitarian regimes under sanctions in the past, Iran has preferred to
safeguard monies for use in service of its regional ambitions, while
allowing its population – other than those connected to the regime – to
suffer the consequent shortages.
Still, in recent months, things weren’t going so well. Assad has been
losing ground to the Sunni rebels. Hezbollah has been hemorrhaging men
in Syria. The Shi’ite militias were holding Islamic State in Iraq but
not advancing. Saudi intervention was holding back further advances by
the Houthis in Yemen. Hamas was looking poverty-stricken and beleaguered
in its Gaza redoubt.
The sanctions, plus these many commitments, were bringing the Iranian
regime close to an economic crisis that would have confronted the
regime with the hard choice of lessening its regional interference or
facing the consequences.
No longer. The deal over the nuclear program is set to enable Tehran
to shore up its investments, providing more money and guns to all its
friends across the Middle East, who will as a result grow stronger,
bolder and more ambitious. This, from the point of view of the main
powers in the Sunni Arab world, is the key fallout (so to speak) from
the deal concluded in Vienna. IRGC “outreach” to Shi’ite minorities in
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and to the Shi’ite majority in Bahrain, is also
likely to increase as a result of the windfall.
...
Similarly, in Lebanon the West is supporting and equipping the Lebanese
Armed Forces, without understanding that the Lebanese state is largely a
shell, within which Hezbollah is the living and directing force. In
Syria, the US is pursuing a half-hearted campaign against Islamic State,
while leaving the rest of the country to its internal dynamics.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Hezbullah, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Lebanon, P 5+1, Persian Gulf, Qassem Suleimani, Saudi Arabia, Shiites v. Sunnis, Sunni, terrorism
Hezbullah's drone airstrip in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley
Jane's Defence News reports that Hezbullah has constructed an
airstrip for drones in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
Located in a remote and sparsely populated area 10 km south of the
town of Hermel and 18 km west of the Syrian border, the airstrip was
built sometime between 27 February 2013 and 19 June 2014, according to
imagery that recently became publicly available on Google Earth.
It consists of a single unpaved strip with a length of 670 m and
width of 20 m. Material has been excavated from a nearby quarry to build
up the northern end of the strip so that it is level. It is built over a
shorter strip that had been in existence since at least 2010.
The short length of the runway suggests the facility is not intended
to smuggle in weapons shipments from Syria or Iran as it is too short
for nearly all the transport aircraft used by the air forces of those
countries. One exception could be the Islamic Revolutionary Guards
Corps' (IRGC's) An-74T-200 short take-off transports, but landing one
with a useful load on a 670 m strip in the mountains would be considered
dangerous by most operators.
An alternative explanation is that the runway was built for
Iranian-made UAVs, including the Ababil-3, which has been employed over
Syria by forces allied to the Syrian regime, and possibly the newer and
larger Shahed-129.
Hizbullah sources have confirmed to IHS Jane's that the
organisation is using UAVs to support operations against rebel forces in
Syria, particularly over the mountainous Qalamoun region on Lebanon's
eastern border.
...
Hizbullah has operated UAVs from Lebanese airspace since at least
November 2004, when it dispatched one that it identified as a Mirsad-1
for a brief reconnaissance mission over northern Israel. It then flew
attempted to fly at least three UAVs into Israel during the July-August
2006 war.
Hizbullah said it was responsible for the UAV that was shot down over
southern Israel on 6 October 2012. It said it used an Iranian-made
aircraft that it had designated as the Ayoub for the incursion.
...
The Saudi Al-Watan newspaper claimed in March 2014 that Hizbullah
had built a "military airport" for its UAVs in the Bekaa Valley.
Lebanese media reports erroneously claimed the location was at Iaat in
the central Bekaa Valley, apparently mistaking a long-abandoned Second
World War-era Royal Air Force airfield for the Hizbullah facility.
What could go wrong?
Shabbat Shalom everyone.
Labels: Bekaa Valley, Hezbullah, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Syria
Iranian Revolutionary Guard: 'No foreigners allowed in our military sites'
Waiting for President Hussein
Obama to cave in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1....
A senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard said Sunday that
inspectors would be barred from military sites under any nuclear
agreement with world powers.
Gen. Hossein Salami, the Guard's
deputy leader, said on state TV that allowing the foreign inspection of
military sites is tantamount to "selling out."
"We will respond
with hot lead (bullets) to those who speak of it," Salami said. "Iran
will not become a paradise for spies. We will not roll out the red
carpet for the enemy."
...
A fact sheet on the framework accord issued by the State Department
said Iran would be required to grant the U.N. nuclear agency access to
any "suspicious sites." Iran has questioned that and other language in
the fact sheet, notably that sanctions would only be lifted after the
International Atomic Energy Agency has verified Tehran's compliance.
Iran's leaders have said the sanctions should be lifted on the first day
of the implementation of the accord.
The fact sheet said Iran has
agreed to implement the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation
Treaty, which would grant the IAEA expanded access to both declared and
undeclared nuclear facilities.
But Salami said allowing foreign
inspectors to visit a military base would amount to "occupation," and
expose "military and defense secrets."
"It means humiliating a
nation," Salami said on state TV. "They will not even be permitted to
inspect the most normal military site in their dreams."
So there won't be inspections. We can trust Iran, right? What difference does it make?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Hillary Clinton, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, John Kerry, P 5+1, Parchin
UN Observer Force crying over Hezbullah deaths
The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights says that Israel carried out Sunday's strike with drones (not helicopters as previously reported) and says that the strike
violated the disengagement agreement.
The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights
released an official statement on Monday describing its troops' witness
accounts of the incident. According to the statement, the observers saw
two unmanned aircraft coming in from the Israeli side of the border and
crossing the demilitarized zone at UN position number 30 near the
village Masada in the northern Golan Heights.
The peacekeepers "observed two unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) flying from the Alpha side and crossing the ceasefire
line," UNDOF said in its statement, referring to the Israeli side of the
border.
The UN observers lost sight of the aircraft as
their approached the UN position, the statement said, and an hour later
saw smoke arising from the general direction of the position. The origin
of the smoke could not be identified, the statement added.
Soon after the observers saw the UAVs flying in
from the area of Position 30 and over the Jabbata crossing of the
cease-fire line.
"This incident is a violation of the 1974 Agreement
on Disengagement between Israeli and Syrian forces," the UN said in its
statement.
Before the UN criticizes Israel, it needs to ask itself what Iranian and Hezbullah forces are doing in the Golan. The only Syrian forces in the area - the rebels - are apparently AOK with what happened.
Labels: drone, Golan Heights, Hezbullah, IAF, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, UNDOF
Iranian Revolutionary Guard murdered Iran nuke scientist, blamed Israel
An Iranian nuclear scientist who was gassed to death in 2007 was
murdered by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and not assassinated by Israel as was claimed at the time (Hat Tip:
Honest Reporting). The reason for his murder was his refusal to cooperate in Iran's nuclear weapons program.
When Iranian scientist Dr. Ardeshir Hosseinpour was killed in February
2007, the cause of death was reported to be “gassing” and most presumed
the act was carried out by Israel. That belief stood, largely because of
Iranian accusations to that effect; and because of Israeli policy to
neither confirm nor deny such acts. But now, seven years later,
Mahboobeh Hosseinpour has come forward with the claim that the IRI was
behind her brother’s death because of his refusal to be involved in
Iran’s nuclear enrichment program whose use was for atomic purposes.
If Hosseinpour’s account can be confirmed, it could have impact on the
next round of between Iran and the P5+1 -- the five permanent members of
the U.N. Security Council and Germany.
Speaking to The Media Line from Turkey via Skype in a conversation
arranged by the Iranian opposition group The New Iran, 52-year old
Mahboobeh Hosseinpour said that she learned through her sister-in-law,
Sara Araghi, of her brother’s secret research, and particularly about a
DVD which contained research and formulas for building an atomic bomb 12
times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb and methods for
neutralizing it.
Mahmoobeh Hosseinpour learned that her brother was contacted in
November 2004 by three special agents of IRI’s Defense Department with a
personal message from IRI’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
enlisting him to work on increasing IRI’s uranium enrichment
capabilities for the purpose of building atomic weapons; and with a
secondary goal of teaching and supervising Russian and North Korean
scientists in order to accelerate the project. Speaking about her
brother, Hosseinpour said that “he was offered a two star rank in the
revolutionary guard and ownership of factories,” if he agreed.
Mrs. Hossenpour told The Media Line that Israel did not kill her
brother but the IRI did, allegedly because he would not co-operate with
them, claiming those projects would result in serious financial damage
for the people of the Iran as well as the international community.
Read the whole thing. It's been clear all along that Iran is after nuclear weapons. This makes it even clearer.
Labels: Iranian assassination plots, Iranian nuclear threat, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, nuclear scientists, nuclear weapons
Israel's Krav Maga conspiracy
Krav Maga is a self-defense system developed for the military in Israel that consists of a wide combination of techniques sourced from boxing, savate, Muay Thai, Wing Chun, Judo, Jujutsu, wrestling, and grappling, along with realistic fight training. Krav Maga is known for its focus on real-world situations and extremely efficient and brutal counter-attacks.
Here's an example. Let's go to the videotape.
A website with affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps is warning of a
worldwide Israeli Krav Maga conspiracy.
Mashregh News, which is close with Iran’s security and intelligence organizations, writes that Israel is secretly promoting Krav Maga in Europe and North America for "unknown purposes."
According to Mashregh, Israel had previously kept the existence of Krav Maga, which the site describes as a dangerous martial art of “Zionist Jewish origin," under wraps.
“Why, after nearly a century of [Krav Maga] being kept quiet and limited to the boundaries of this regime, it is suddenly being promoted is a question that has drawn the attention of experts,” Mashregh claims.
The Iranian news site claims that Krav Maga is the dominant sport in Israel and is taught to the military, police, Mossad, and Shin Bet. “Jewish settlers in the occupied territories” are also given serious training in Krav Maga, Mashregh writes, adding that the martial art is designed to cause maximum damage and cripple an opponent, thus lacking “tolerance and compassion.” Mashregh goes on to write that Krav Maga is also practiced by “women Zionists” and is used in war and against “resistance groups,” the latter being a reference to Palestinians.
Mashregh warns that Israel is now undertaking “mysterious activities” involved in spreading Krav Maga worldwide. The news site concludes that it cannot yet give an answer as to what is behind Israel’s plot to spread the martial art, but notes that the dangerous trend should be observed.
Mashregh’s comments come amid reports that Hollywood celebrities, particularly Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, are taking lessons in Krav Maga.
You don't think they're paranoid or something, do you?
Labels: Iranian conspiracy theories, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Krav Maga
Iranian spy arrested in Israel
Yes, yesterday was a travel day and I am somewhere in Europe today. I tried to post last night, but my internet connection crashed in the middle.
Israel's General Security Service has arrested a spy sent by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Among other things, he was scouting the
United States Embassy in Tel Aviv. The man was arrested while trying to leave Israel on September 11.
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said the 55-year-old suspect
had been recruited by Iran’s Quds Force, the extraterritorial unit responsible
for special operations, terrorism and subversion run by the Revolutionary Guards
Corps.
The suspect was found with photographs of the US Embassy and
Ben-Gurion Airport.
“During questioning, the suspect, Ali Mansouri,
described entering Israel under a Belgian identity using the alias Alex Mans, as
well as his recruitment and activation process by Iranian intelligence
elements,” the Shin Bet said.
Mansouri is a Belgian citizen and a
businessman of Iranian origin, who was instructed to arrive in Israel and set up
a business network that would serve as a covert base of operations for the
Iranian regime to act against Israeli and Western interests, the investigation
revealed.
Iran offered him $1 million in exchange for his
activities.
Mansouri answered directly to the Quds Force, which is led by
Khamed Abdallahi and Majid Alawi, both of whom are subordinate to the unit’s
notorious commander, Qassem Suleimani, the Shin Bet added.
...
He visited Israel in July 2012, January 2013
and, most recently, came on September 6, for a visit that ended in his
arrest.
Security services found in his possession many photographs of
sites in Israel, some of which are of interest to Iranian intelligence agencies,
such as the US Embassy building in Tel Aviv.
During questioning, Mansouri
divulged information about his handlers, including details about Haji Mustafa, a
senior Quds Force headquarters operative, who met with Mansouri and received
updates about his missions in Israel; Hajai Hamid Na’amti, a Quds Force liaison;
and Mahdi Hanababai, Mansouri’s guide during his time in Israel.
Mansouri
described how his handlers ordered him to cover up his flights to Iran, which he
would take after his visits to Israel for debriefings and
instructions.
But under the 'moderate' Rohani, they love Israel..... Right....
Labels: Ben Gurion Airport, Iranian nuclear threat, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, spying, Tel Aviv, US embassy in Tel Aviv
'Moderate' Rohani's defense minister behind Beirut Marine barracks bombing
What a surprise.... Adam Kredo reports that new 'moderate' Iranian President Hassan Rohani has appointed as his defense minister a general who was
behind the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut that murdered 241 American soldiers.
Rowhani, who some described as a “moderate” following his election in
June, has selected General Hussein Dehqan as his defense minister, according to retired Israeli Brigadier General Shimon Shapiro.
Shapiro was a top intelligence official in the Israeli Defense Forces
and remains a leading authority on Hezbollah who recently penned a
report on Dehqan for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA).
Dehqan has “spent his entire military career” in the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and served as the military group’s
commander in Tehran until 1982, according to Shapiro.
Dehqan spent many years in Lebanon helping to build the terror group
Hezbollah and was later appointed as the IRGC’s top official in that
country.
Dehqan received an order to launch a terror assault on the
Beirut-based Multinational Force while serving as commander of the IRGC
forces in Lebanon in 1983, according to Shapiro’s report.
“Instructions for the attack on the Multinational Forces were issued
from Tehran to the Iranian ambassador to Damascus, who passed them on to
the Revolutionary Guards forces in Lebanon and their Lebanese Shiite
allies,” the report states.
“According to the U.S. Marine commander, the U.S. National Security
Agency (NSA) intercepted on September 26, 1983 the Iranian orders to
strike,” according to the report. “It is difficult to imagine that such a
high-level directive to the Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon would be
transmitted without the knowledge of their commander, Hussein Dehqan.”
On October 25, 1983, about a month after the order was issued, “a
Shiite suicide bomber detonated a truck at the U.S. Marine barracks in
Beirut, killing 241 Marines [and sailors and soldiers]; simultaneously,
another Shiite suicide bomber blew up the French paratroopers’ barracks
in Beirut, killing 84 soldiers,” Shapiro recounts in his report.
Dehqan is not the only appointment that belies Rohani's 'moderacy.'
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Beirut, Hassan Rohani, Hezbullah, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Lebanon, United States marines
War on terror celebrates 20th anniversary two years too late
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Wednesday, February 27.
1) It's been more than 20 years
Jonathan Tobin writes in The Day the War on America Began:
Exactly 20 years ago on this date, a terrorist attack at the World
Trade Center took the lives of six people and injured more than a
thousand others. The tragedy shocked the nation but, as with other
al-Qaeda attacks in the years that followed, the WTC bombing did not
alter the country’s basic approach to Islamist terrorism. For the next
eight and a half years, the United States carried on with a
business-as-usual attitude toward the subject. The lack of urgency
applied to the subject, as well as the disorganized and sometimes
slap-dash nature of the security establishment’s counter-terrorist
operations, led to the far greater tragedy of September 11, 2001 when
al-Qaeda managed to accomplish what it failed to do in 1993: knock down
the towers and slaughter thousands.
All these years after 9/11 and the tracking down and killing of Osama
bin Laden, are there any further lessons to be drawn from that initial
tragedy? To listen to the chattering classes, you would think the answer
is a definitive no. Few are marking this anniversary and even fewer
seem to think there is anything more to be said about what we no longer
call the war on terror. But as much as many of us may wish to consign
this anniversary to the realm of the history books, the lessons of the
day the war on America began still need to be heeded.
The truth is that the war on America didn't begin with the first World
Trade Center bombing. It began two and a half years earlier. El Sayyid
Nosair was an associate of those who carried out the bombing. He also
was the killer of Rabbi Meir Kahane.
In the wake of the World Trade Center bombing, the New York Times reported Trade Center Blast Prompts Kahane Case Review:
It was not clear to what extent the disciplinary action and the
reopening of the Kahane investigation were part of an effort to pressure
Mr. Nosair to divulge information that could help in the bombing case. A
senior law-enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity, maintained that Mr. Nosair had been thrust into the bombing
investigation because of his contacts with others under investigation.
Federal agents, meanwhile, continued to trace the flow of foreign money
into bank accounts of two of the arrested suspects, Mohammed A. Salameh,
a 25-year-old illegal immigrant who was born in the West Bank, and
Nidal A. Ayyad, 25, a chemical engineer who was born in Kuwait.
...
Throughout the Nosair investigation, Chief Borrelli has insisted that
the assassination was the work of a gunman acting alone. While he said
yesterday that he remains convinced that no one else was directly
involved in the killing, he allowed for the first time that Mr. Nosair
might have been involved in a terrorist organization that had ordered
the rabbi executed for his hard-line approach toward Palestinians in
Israel.
It took two and a half years until Nosair's connection to others was
investigated. Until the World Trade Center attack, authorities insisted
that the Kahane murder was an isolated incident.
However as the New York Times reported a few months later in RENO SEES GROWING EVIDENCE AND MAKES CALL; New Charges Give U.S. 2d Chance to Try Kahane Suspect:
And when Mr. Nosair was arrested on Nov. 5 in the Kahane shooting, a
search of his home in Cliffside Park, N.J., turned up formulas for the
construction of bombs, political tracts and documents, video and audio
tapes advocating the destruction of symbolic statues, tall buildings and
buildings of political significance, the indictment said.
Investigators have said that the reams of materials, all in Arabic, sat
in boxes untranslated until the bombing of the World Trade Center, and
that the emergence of associates of Mr. Nosair as suspects led them to
reopen the Kahane case.
Think about that. There was potential evidence at Nosair's house but no
authorities bothered translating it. There was an assumption that Rabbi
Kahane had brought his fate upon himself. It is incredible that many
documents at Nosair's house were not analyzed. Had authorities done that
they might have prevented the first World Trade Center bombing!
And yet despite this, there are those who think that authorities are too
aggressive in seeking to prevent terrorism. Matthew Continetti recently
wrote in the Matter in Handschu:
Elshafay, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years in federal
prison in 2007. Siraj is serving a 30-year sentence. Their conspiracy is
just one of the 16 known terrorist plots against New York City that
have been foiled in the decade since nearly 3,000 men, women, and
children were murdered in Manhattan on the morning of September 11,
2001. Hard to argue, it would seem, with the NYPD’s 12 years of keeping
its city safe.
But people do argue, intensely, and with a lack of proportion and
context that is simply mindboggling. Consider: For years now, the
February 9 New York Times editorial page breathlessly informed readers,
New York police officers, “deploying an army of spies,” have been
“spying on law-abiding Muslims” and “targeting Muslim groups because of
their religious affiliation, not because they present any risk.” Such is
the allegation of a motion lawyers connected with the New York Civil
Liberties Union filed in federal court in early February. “New York City
police,” the motion details, “routinely selected Muslim groups for
surveillance and infiltration.” Which is “more than ample reason,”
concludes the Times, “to be concerned about possible overreach and
unconstitutional activity.”
...
At issue are the so-called Handschu Guidelines, an unwieldy set of
judicial protocols that limit NYPD surveillance of “political activity.”
These guidelines, named after Black Panther attorney Barbara Handschu,
are the result of a class action filed against the police in 1971 and
settled in 1985. “No other police department in the country is bound by
these rules,” notes former director of NYPD intelligence analysis
Mitchell Silber. And no other police department in the country has had
to deal with such a persistent and adaptive terrorist threat, while
assuring critics in activist groups and the media that no, sorry,
martial law has not been imposed on the five boroughs. A federal judge
recognized as much in 2003 when he modified the Handschu Guidelines to
allow the NYPD freedom to uncover and disrupt incipient plots.
The scrutiny given the NYPD would be comical if it weren't so dangerous.
There is still a hesitance among certain elites to acknowledge
religious based violence, when the perpetrators are Muslims. Tobin is
correct when he writes:
All these years after 9/11 and the tracking down and killing of Osama
bin Laden, are there any further lessons to be drawn from that initial
tragedy? To listen to the chattering classes, you would think the answer
is a definitive no. Few are marking this anniversary and even fewer
seem to think there is anything more to be said about what we no longer
call the war on terror. But as much as many of us may wish to consign
this anniversary to the realm of the history books, the lessons of the
day the war on America began still need to be heeded.
My only disagreement with him is that February 26, 1993 reflected one of those unheeded lessons.
2) Iran vs. Israel
Yesterday I cited a New York Times report that the Al Aqsa Martyr
brigades claimed credit for the recent rocket fired into Israel breaking
the three month old ceasefire that ended Operation Pillar of Defense.
However taking credit (and whatever that reflects) is not the same thing
as being responsible. Avi Isacharoff reports for the Tower, Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps Operating in Gaza; Grad Rocket Fired at Israel:
Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps are currently in the Gaza
Strip, high-level Palestinian security sources tell The Tower.
The Iranians, according to our security sources, are experts in missile
production, and are in Gaza to help Hamas and Islamic Jihad develop
long-range missiles. Israeli security and political officials declined
to elaborate, telling The Tower only that this isn’t the first time
delegates from Tehran had entered the Hamas-controlled territory.
...
This morning’s rocket attack was apparently not carried out by Hamas,
but by its rival Islamic Jihad, a smaller organization believed to be
largely, if not entirely, under Iran’s control. Two weeks ago one of
Islamic Jihad’s leaders in the West Bank, Sheikh Bassam al-Saadi, told
TheTower his group enjoys “warm and positive” ties with the Islamic
republic. There are also reports in Arabic media that Fatah has claimed
responsibility.
While it doesn't prove that the IRGC was behind the Grad attack, the
presence of the IRGC in Gaza is notable as Israel (apparently) recently killed an IRGC commander in Syria. It would appear that Iran - nuclear weapons or not - is attempting to project its power against Israel by its proxies.
3) Has the New York Times ever tried this?
Simply Jews and Honest Reporting note an excellent tactic employed by the New York Daily News. Pesach Benson of Honest Reporting explains:
Here’s something I never saw before: After Omar Barghouti was given op-ed space in the NY Daily News to explain the BDS movement, the paper itself slammed Barghouti with a staff-ed.
It’s one thing to present dueling op-eds. But responding with a sharply
worded staff editorial — which represents the paper’s official view — is
much stronger. I also liked the staff-ed’s style. Bloggers would refer
to the point-by-point refutations as a fisking.
A few years ago in defending the New York Times for publishing an op-ed
by a Hamas spokesman, the paper then-public editor wrote The Danger of the One Sided Debate:
Op-ed pages should be open especially to controversial
ideas, because that’s the way a free society decides what’s right and
what’s wrong for itself. Good ideas prosper in the sunshine of healthy
debate, and the bad ones wither. Left hidden out of sight and
unchallenged, the bad ones can grow like poisonous mushrooms.
This was silly on a number of levels. Fundamentally the problem is that
the New York Times, if it is one-sided any way, it one-sided against
Israel. The New York Times doesn't shine light on extreme anti-Israel
opinions as much as it reinforces them.
The behavior of New York Daily News is an admirable counterpoint to the
dishonesty of the New York Times.
Labels: anti-Israel media bias, Gaza, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Middle East Media Sampler, Rabbi Meir Kahane, rockets, Soccer Dad, World Trade Center
In an interview with al-Arabiya on Friday, former Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab, who defected six months ago, says that
Iran is now in control of his country.
“Syria is occupied by the Iranian regime,” he said. “Who runs the
country isn’t Bashar Assad but Kassem Suleimani, the head of Iran’s
al-Quds Brigades [within the Revolutionary Guards].”
Hijab’s comments come less than a week after a Washington Post article claimed Iran and Hezbollah were “building a network of militias”
in Syria to protect their interests when Assad falls. The militias are
fighting alongside the regime, sources told the newspaper, but also
preparing for a day-after scenario in which Assad is gone. A senior
Obama administration official put the number of Iranian mercenaries in
Syria at 50,000.
That 'leading from behind' sure is working out well, isn't it?
Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Iranian-Syrian axis, Syrian uprising
Shateri killed by Israel?
Iran has vowed to
take revenge against Israel for the killing of Revolutionary Guards' commander Hassan Shateri in Syria last week. And while that might seem like ordinary Muslim irrationality and Jew hatred at first, at least some Syrian rebels are claiming that
Israel really did kill Shateri. Israel has not commented.
Israel was responsible for the assassination of a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander in Syria, a faction of Syrian rebels said Friday according to the Wall Street Journal.
According
to reports, the man was killed in his car while traveling from Damascus
to Beirut. However, the Syrian rebels dispute this account, claiming
that the Iranian commander, identified as Gen. Hassan Shateri, also
known as Hessam Khoshnevis, had actually been assassinated on January
30, when Israel attacked a convoy and military factory in Jamaraya,
Syria, near the Lebanon border.
The account seems in line with Iranian allegations that “suspected Israeli agents” carried out the attack.
Hmmm.
Labels: Free Syrian Army, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Syrian uprising, weapons smuggling
Shateri as important as Mughniyah
Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Hassan Shateri, who was killed by Syrian rebels this past week, was apparently an important cog in the IRG machine. He is being
compared with Imad Mughniyah.
Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli-Iranian Middle East analyst who teaches
Iranian politics at the Interdisciplinary Center (Herzliya), said
reports in the Iranian media suggest Shateri was an important figure who
had an overt and a covert role.
One of the mourners at Shateri’s funeral, an employee of the Iranian
Embassy in Beirut, described him as being “no less [important]” than
Hezbollah’s assassinated field commander Imad Mugniyah, Javedanfar said.
Mugniyah
was a critical figure in the Hezbollah hierarchy, who was behind the
Shi’ite terror organization’s most ambitious attacks over many years.
The
comparison to Mugniyah could be a reference to the centrality of
Shetari’s role in aiding Hezbollah’s armaments efforts. The organization
is estimated to be in possession of some 65,000 rockets at this time.
Officially,
Shateri was described as being in charge of Iranian construction
efforts in southern Lebanon following the 2006 Hezbollah war.
But
Javedanfar said reports in Iran openly acknowledged Shateri’s double
role. “They said he did reconstruction and other secret stuff which we
don’t know about... those who belong to the Quds Force have a double
role.
They don’t introduce themselves as Quds Force Operatives in Lebanon.”
You don't think the Mossad had anything to do with this, do you? Heh.
Labels: Hezbullah, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Lebanon, Syrian uprising
Senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards official killed in Syria
Hassan Shateri, a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, has been
killed in Syria, but no one is saying precisely how or where.
Iranian media reported on Thursday February 14 that Hassan Shateri
was laid to rest in Tehran in the presence of Ayatollah Khamenei’s
representative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the
commander of the Qods forces in Tehran. The Qods are the international
branch of the IRGC.
The Fars News Agency writes that Shateri was assassinated on Tuesday
by what the report describes as “Zionist regime mercenaries”, but no
reference is made as to where it happened.
ISNA quotes an IRGC public relations officer saying Shateri was killed “en route from Damascus to Beirut.”
Another report on the Belagh website says: “Commander Hassan Shateri
and two of his men were ambushed by terrorists in Aleppo, and Commander
Shateri was the only one to be martyred.”
Iranian media refer to the Syrian opposition as terrorists.
Reuters also reports that a commander of the Syrian armed rebels
reported that Shateri was killed near the Lebanese-Syrian border in
Zebdani.
The Iranian embassy in Beirut referred to this commander as Hessam
Khoshnevis, saying he was killed by “armed terrorist groups” en route
from Damascus to Beirut.
Beirut’s Alsafir daily also writes that the commander had gone to “Syria to examine inspection plans of the city of Aleppo.”
Aleppo has been the site of severe fighting between Syria’s
opposition forces and the Syrian army, and reports say it is now in
ruins.
More
here.
Labels: Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Syrian uprising
Iran and Hezbullah setting up militias in Syria 'just in case'
One of the downsides of 'leading from behind' is that sometimes - most of the time - someone else is going to decide that what you're standing behind is important enough to lead from the front. So they'll step into the vacuum you've created and start leading. Unfortunately, whoever steps to the front is not always the party you'd want to step to the front. That's what's happening in Syria right now,
Because the Obama administration and the Europeans refused to get involved, the rebels are now lead by al-Qaeda and other Islamists. And because the rebel side of the equation is not being led by a world power,
Iran and Hezbullah felt safe getting involved on Bashar al-Assad's side. Now that Assad is on the verge of being deposed, Iran and Hezbullah are taking another step: They are
setting up their own militias to ensure that the civil war continues for decades and to make sure that Syria continues to be a confrontation front against Israel (Hat Tip:
Memeorandum).
A senior Obama administration official cited Iranian claims that
Tehran was backing as many as 50,000 militiamen in Syria. “It’s a big
operation,” the official said. “The immediate intention seems to be to
support the Syrian regime. But it’s important for Iran to have a force
in Syria that is reliable and can be counted on.”
Iran’s strategy,
a senior Arab official agreed, has two tracks. “One is to support Assad
to the hilt, the other is to set the stage for major mischief if he
collapses.”
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
The
fragmentation of Syria along religious and tribal lines is a growing
concern for neighboring governments and the administration, as the civil
war approaches its third year with little sign of a political solution
or military victory for either Assad’s forces or the rebels.
Rebel
forces, drawn largely from Syria’s Sunni majority, are far from united,
with schisms along religious, geographic, political and economic lines.
Militant Islamists, including many from other countries and with ties
to al-Qaeda, are growing in power.
...
“Syria is basically disintegrating as a nation, similar to how
Lebanon disintegrated in the ’70s to ethnic components, and as Iraq
did,” said Paul Salem, director of the Beirut-based Middle East Center
of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It’s going to be
very hard to put Syria the nation back together.”
“We’re looking at a place which is sort of a zone, an area called Syria, with different powers,” Salem said.
...
In a divided Syria, Iran’s natural allies would include Shiites and
Alawites concentrated in provinces near Syria’s border with Lebanon and
in the key port city of Latakia. Under the most likely scenarios,
analysts say, remnants of Assad’s government — with or without Assad —
would seek to establish a coastal enclave closely tied to Tehran,
dependent on the Iranians for survival while helping Iran to retain its
link to Hezbollah and thereby its leverage against Israel.
Experts
said that Iran is less interested in preserving Assad in power than in
maintaining levers of power, including transport hubs inside Syria. As
long as Tehran could maintain control of an airport or seaport, it could
also maintain a Hezbollah-controlled supply route into Lebanon and
continue to manipulate Lebanese politics.
Preservation of an
Iranian-supported area on the coast has always been “Plan C or Plan D”
for core regime supporters, Salem said. “If everything fails and they
lose, they have always prepared for the fortress region
. . .
with everything they can cart away, even if they lose Damascus.”
“That’s
not necessarily what they want,” he said. “They want to hold on to the
whole thing.” But the worst-case scenario is that “the whole regime
relocates to the northwest, and they still have the most powerful
[armed] unit inside Syria, with a lot of the current structure.”
Short of undertaking a full-scare war in Syria, it is highly doubtful that this scenario or similar ones can be avoided.
Labels: al-Qaeda, Bashar al-Assad, Free Syrian Army, Hezbullah, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Syrian uprising
Europe joins the fight FOR Islamic terror
And you thought it was bad that the Europeans
refused to declare Hezbullah a designated terror organization.
This just might be worse (Hat Tip:
Shy Guy). Twice in the last two weeks, the Europeans have
lifted sanctions that were already in place against Iranian banks.
The European Union's Court has ruled for the second time to lift the sanctions against the Saderat Bank, Iran's and the MIddle East's largest bank.
The decision was reached due to lack of sufficient evidence proving that the bank was connected to Iran's nuclear program.
Last week, the court issued a similar ruling for Bank Mellat, the biggest private sector lender in Iran.
These rulings, if not appealed and overthrown, will considerably weaken the sanctions imposed by the West on Iran.
The whole point was that these banks are owned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and the Guards - who run the nuclear program - are using them to pay for it.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Bank Mellat, Bank Saderat, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Report: Many Iranian Guards killed in attack on 'military research' facility
A report in an Iraqi newspaper claims that there were heavy casualties among Iranian Revolutionary Guards and among Russia experts, who were stationed at the 'military research facility' outside Damascus that was attacked during the pre-dawn hours on on Wednesday morning. Of course, the Iraqi report is attributing that attack to Israel, while we saw on Thursday that both
Israeli sources and the
Free Syrian Army (the rebels) do not attribute that attack to Israel. It must be quite traumatic for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (and the Russians if they know) to know that the Free Syrian Army can hit them, and maybe that's why they're in denial and
blaming Israel.
Iraqi daily Azzaman quoted a
Western diplomatic source as saying Thursday that the alleged Israeli
attack on Syria reported on Wednesday caused heavy casualties among
special Iranian Guards stationed at the Syrian facility. The source also
said that the attack took place more than 48 hours before it was
reported, eventually being leaked by Israel.
The source for the
story, who was interviewed by the paper in London, said that the report
about a strike on a convoy to Lebanon was probably meant to divert
attention away from the main objective of the operation, which used F-16
aircraft to fire at least eight guided missiles at the facility.
The
source also said that the base was heavily fortified and contained
experts from Russia and at least three thousand Iranian Revolutionary
Guards, who have been guarding the site for years. Many of these Iranian
Guards suffered casualties.
If that's true, it's pretty amazing, because so far all the Syrians have said is two killed and five wounded in that strike.
Israel most likely got its
intelligence, said the source, from penetrating deep inside Iran and
from other operations meant to penetrate Hezbollah.
The report
came as outgoing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday
that there are signs that Iran is sending growing numbers of people and
increasingly sophisticated weaponry to support Syrian President Bashar
Assad.
"It appears that they may be increasing that involvement
and that is a matter of great concern to us," she told reporters as she
prepares to step down on Friday. "I think the numbers (of people) have
increased ... There is a lot of concern that they are increasing the
quality of the weapons, because Assad is using up his weaponry. So it's
numbers and it's materiel."
Israel Radio, citing two different Syrian Generals who have defected, are split over whether or not chemical weapons were manufactured at the plant.
Don't forget also that Syria has an interest in depicting the rebels as being supported by Israel because they believe that will reduce support for the rebels in Syria.
Maybe Israel carried out both attacks? Hmmm.
Labels: chemical weapons, Free Syrian Army, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Russia, Syrian uprising
