Posted on 12/17/2006 4:03:30 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
VEVAK learned its methodology from the Soviet KGB and many of the Islamist revolutionaries who supported Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini actually studied at Moscow's Patrice Lumumba Friendship University, the Oxford of terrorism. Documented Iranian alumni include the current Supreme Leader (the faqih) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, under whose Velayat-e Faqih (Rule of the Islamic Jurisprudent) apparatus it has traditionally operated. Its current head is Cabinet Minister Hojatoleslam Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Ezhei, a graduate of Qom's Haqqani School, noted for its extremist position advocating violence against enemies and strict clerical control of society and government. The Ministry is very well funded and its charge, like that of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (the Pasdaran) is to guard the revolutionary Islamic Iranian regime at all costs and under all contingencies.
From the KGB playbook, VEVAK learned the art of disinformation. It's not so difficult to learn: tell the truth 80% of the time and lie 20%. Depending on how well a VEVAK agent wants to cover his/her tracks, the ratio may go up to 90/10, but it never drops below the 80/20 mark as such would risk suspicion and possible detection. The regime in Teheran has gone to great lengths to place its agents in locations around the world. Many of these operatives have been educated in the West, including the U.K. and the United States. Iranian government agencies such as embassies, consulates, Islamic cultural centers, and airline offices regularly provide cover for the work of VEVAK agents who dress well and are clean shaven, and move comfortably within our society. In this country, because of the severance of diplomatic relations, the principal site of VEVAK activities begins at the offices of Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.
Teheran has worked diligently to place its operatives in important think tanks and government agencies in the West. Some of its personnel have been recruited while in prison through torture or more often through bribery, or a combination of both. Others are Islamist revolutionaries that have been set up to look like dissidents - often having been arrested and imprisoned, but released for “medical reasons”. The clue to detecting the fake “dissident” is to read carefully what he/she writes, and to ask why this vocal “dissident” was released from prison when other real dissidents have not been released, indeed have been grievously tortured and executed. Other agents have been placed in this country for over twenty-five years to slowly go through the system and rise to positions of academic prominence due to their knowledge of Farsi and Shia Islam or Islamist fundamentalism.
One of the usual tactics of VEVAK is to co-opt academia to its purposes. Using various forms of bribery, academics are bought to defend the Islamic Republic or slander its enemies. Another method is to assign bright students to train for academic posts as specialists in Iranian or Middle East affairs. Once established, such individuals are often consulted by our government as it tries to get a better idea of how it should deal with Iran. These academics then are in a position to skew the information, suggesting the utility of extended dialogue and negotiation, or the danger and futility of confronting a strong Iran or its proxies such as Hizballah (Hezbollah). These academics serve to shield the regime from an aggressive American or Western policy, and thereby buy more time for the regime to attain its goals, especially in regards to its nuclear weaponry and missile programs.
MOIS likes to use the media, especially electronic media, to its advantage. One of VEVAK's favorite tricks is setting up web sites that look like they are opposition sites but which are actually controlled by the regime. These sites often will be multilingual, including Farsi, German, Arabic French, and English. Some are crafted carefully and are very subtle in how they skew their information (e.g., Iran-Interlink, set up and run by Massoud Khodabandeh and his wife Ann Singleton from Leeds, England); others are less subtle, simply providing the regime's point of view on facts and events in the news (e.g., www.mujahedeen.com or www.mojahedin.ws). This latter group is aimed at the more gullible in our open society and unfortunately such a market exists. However, if one begins to do one's homework, asking careful questions, the material on these fake sites generally does not add up.
Let's examine a few examples of VEVAK's work in the United States. In late October, 2005, VEVAK sent three of its agents to Washington to stage a press event in which the principal Iranian resistance movement, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), was to be slandered. Veteran VEVAK agent Karim Haqi flew from Amsterdam to Canada where he was joined by VEVAK's Ottawa agents Amir-Hossein Kord Rostami and Mahin (Parvin-Mahrokh) Haji, and the three flew from Toronto to Washington. Fortunately the resistance had been tracking these three, informed the FBI of their presence in Washington, and when the three tried to hold a press conference, the resistance had people assigned to ask pointed questions of them so that they ended the interview prematurely and fled back to Canada.
Abolghasem Bayyenet is a member of the Iranian government. He serves as a trade expert for the Ministry of Commerce. But his background of study and service in the Foreign Ministry indicates that Bayyenet is more than just an economist or a suave and savvy businessman. In an article published in Global Politician on April 23, 2006, entitled “Is Regime Change Possible in Iran?”, Bayyenet leads his audience to think that he is a neutral observer, concerned lest the United States make an error in its assessment of Iran similar to the errors of intelligence and judgment that led to our 2003 invasion of Iraq, with its less than successful outcome. However, his carefully crafted bottom line is that the people of Iran are not going to support regime change and that hardliner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually has achieved greater popularity than his predecessors because of his concern for the problems of the poor and his fight for economic and social justice. To the naive, Bayyenet makes Ahmadinejad sound positively saintly. Conveniently overlooked is the occurrence of over four thousand acts of protest, strikes, anti-regime rallies, riots, and even political assassinations by the people of Iran against the government in the year since Ahmadinejad assumed office. So too, the following facts are ignored: the sizeable flight of capital, the increase in unemployment, and the rising two-figure rate of inflation, all within this last year. Bayyenet is a regime apologist, and when one is familiar with the facts, his arguments ring very hollow. However, his English skills are excellent, and so the naОve might be beguiled by his commentary.
Mohsen Sazegara is VEVAK's “reformed revolutionary”. A student supporter of Khomeini before the 1979 revolution, Sazegara joined the “imam” on his return from exile and served in the government for a decade before supposedly growing disillusioned.
He formed several reformist newspapers but ran afoul of the hardliners in 2003 and was arrested and imprisoned by VEVAK. Following “hunger strikes”, Sazegara was released for health reasons and permitted to seek treatment abroad. Although critical of the government and particularly of Ahmadinejad and KhameneМ, Sazegara is yet more critical of opposition groups, leaving the impression that he favors internal regime change but sees no one to lead such a movement for the foreseeable future. His bottom line: no one is capable of doing what needs to be done, so we must bide our time. Very slick, but his shadow shows his likely remaining ties to the MOIS.
http://www.ocnus.net/artman/publish/article_27144.shtml
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Saturday, 24, February, 2007 (06, Safar, 1428)
Ban on Charities Condemned
Indo-Asian News Service —
ISLAMABAD/KARACHI, 24 February 2007 — Political parties and religious bodies in Pakistan have decided to agitate against the government’s ban on two well-known charities.
The ban was imposed as per a UN Security Council resolution that said they have links with militant groups.
Acting according to UNSC Resolution 1267, the Pakistan government directed the schools, hospitals and other activities carried out by Al-Rasheed Trust and Al-Akhter Trust closed on Wednesday.
At an all-party meeting in Karachi on Thursday, the government was warned of an agitation if the ban was not revoked.
The meeting, attended by representatives of both secular-minded and religious parties, passed a resolution condemning the ban.
Copyright: Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=92661&d=24&m=2&y=2007&pix=world.jpg&category=World
Saturday, 24, February, 2007 (06, Safar, 1428)
AP Government Withdraws Order Against the Media
Syed Amin Jafri, Arab News —
HYDERABAD, India, 24 February 2007 — The Andhra Pradesh government has withdrawn the controversial government order that authorized the information commissioner to file defamation cases against newspapers and TV channels publishing or telecasting false charges, even as the entire opposition created a furor and stalled the proceedings of the state legislative assembly on the issue, forcing its abrupt adjournment for the day.
Trouble arose as soon as the assembly sitting commenced at 8.30 a.m. when Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy disallowed the adjournment notices given by all the opposition parties — Telugu Desam, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, CPI-M, CPI, Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen and BJP — on the controversial GO that sought to gag the media, the opposition members loudly protested.
They demanded that the house should take up their adjournment motion as the government, they alleged, tried to gag the media in the name of legal action for publishing or telecasting reports purportedly false, baseless and defamatory in nature.
They claimed that the Congress government led by Chief Minister Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy was seeking to muzzle the media, particularly Eenadu Telugu daily and Eenadu Television channels owned by media baron Ramoji Rao, by imposing curbs. Such attempts were nothing short of censorship and exposed the government’s intention to target not just Eenadu but all newspapers and TV channels.
As the opposition members stood up and continued their protests, the government agreed to make a statement on the issue. Finance and Legislative Affairs Minister K. Rosaiah said that the government withdrew the GO as soon as the matter came to its notice on Thursday night.
“The GO was issued on Feb. 20. Different GOs are issued by various wings of the government. But as soon as this GO came to the chief minister’s notice and it was found that this GO was not proper, it was withdrawn immediately. An inquiry has been ordered into the issue to find out how it all happened, who issued the GO and why it was issued,” he said.
Chief Minister Reddy also told the assembly that the GO has been withdrawn and an inquiry was ordered.
Copyright: Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=92658&d=24&m=2&y=2007&pix=world.jpg&category=World
Saturday, 24, February, 2007 (06, Safar, 1428)
3 Kurdish Politicians Held in Turkey
Agence France Presse —
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, 24 February 2007 — A senior Kurdish politician was arrested here yesterday over remarks that allegedly threatened violence in Turkey, following the arrest of two other Kurdish activists overnight, officials said. All three men are members of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), the main political movement of Turkey’s Kurdish minority.
A court in Diyarbakir, the central city of the predominantly Kurdish southeast, charged DTP provincial chairman Hilmi Aydogdu with “inciting hatred” and jailed him pending trial, judicial officials said.
In the eastern city of Van, DTP provincial chairman Ibrahim Sunkur and another party activist, Abdulvahap Turan, were arrested late Thursday for allegedly supporting separatist Kurdish rebels fighting the Ankara government, Anatolia news agency reported.
The authorities acted after documents and banners of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as well as banned books by its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan were seized in the city’s DTP office.
Aydogdu, meanwhile, was arrested after the media quoted him as saying this week that Turkey’s Kurds would “consider a Turkish attack on Kirkuk as an attack on Diyarbakir.”
Ankara has issued harsh warnings over the future of the ethnically mixed, oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, which the Iraqi Kurds want to incorporate into their autonomous region. The city is also home to Arabs and Turkish-backed Turkmens.
Aydogdu’s remarks provoked a harsh reaction here at a time when Iraqi Kurds are accused of supporting the PKK, whose militants have long taken refuge in the mountains of the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq.
The Turkish Army chief said last week that Iraqi Kurds provided the PKK with explosives for bomb attacks across the border in Turkey.
Ankara has threatened a military incursion into northern Iraq to crack down on rebel bases if Baghdad and Washington fail to act against the group, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community.
In another case, dozens of mayors belonging to the Democratic Society Party are being tried on charges that they were helping terrorists by arguing to keep a Kurdish TV station on the air in Denmark.
Nearly 60 mayors had signed a letter to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen asking him not to pull the plug on the Denmark-based Roj TV station, despite claims by Turkey that it is a PKK propaganda machine.
Copyright: Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=92651&d=24&m=2&y=2007
Saturday, 24, February, 2007 (06, Safar, 1428)
All Options Open on Iran: Cheney
Agencies —
WASHINGTON, 24 February 2007 — US Vice President Dick Cheney vowed the United States would “do everything” it can to stop Iran from producing nuclear weapons, and refused to rule out military action.
“We haven’t taken any options off the table,” Cheney said in an interview with the US ABC News network from Australia, where he is traveling.
“A nuclear-armed Iran is not a very pleasant prospect for anybody to think about,” Cheney said. “We need to continue to do everything we can to make sure they don’t achieve that objective.”
Cheney was speaking a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report saying that Iran had not halted, and in fact had expanded, its uranium enrichment program, defying a UN Security Council demand to stop by this week. The UN nuclear watchdog’s report brought new calls for tough UN sanctions on Tehran, and the six major powers dealing with Iran’s suspected push to develop nuclear weapons will meet in London on Monday to mull their response to Iran’s reticence, the US State Department said.
The United States, France and Britain called for tougher Security Council sanctions on Tehran, while Germany, China and Russia have taken softer stances ahead of the meeting.
“We hope we can solve the problem diplomatically,” Cheney told ABC. President George W. Bush “has indicated he wants to do everything he can to resolve it diplomatically. That’s why we’re working with the (European Union) and going through the United Nations with sanctions.
“But the president has also made it clear that we haven’t taken any options off the table,” he said.
When pressed about what he meant, Cheney said: “I’m not going beyond where I am. As we’ve said, we’re doing everything we can do resolve it diplomatically. We haven’t taken any options off the table.”
Bush, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and other US officials have insisted that the United States is not planning to go to war with Iran.
Iran’s current president and a former president declared yesterday that critics of the country’s nuclear program are “bullying” Tehran. The comments from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in separate speeches, appeared to show that the Iranian ruling establishment is closing ranks ahead of the possible new measures.
Divisions had emerged within the Iranian leadership over Ahmadinejad’s handling of the nuclear standoff following the UN Security Council’s adoption of limited economic sanctions against Iran in December.
Some Iranians believe Ahmadinejad has been too antagonistic toward the United States and its allies. Rafsanjani in recent weeks has emerged as a high-level advocate of a more conciliatory stance toward the West in the nuclear dispute.
But Rafsanjani told worshippers gathered for Friday prayers in Tehran that Western countries would fail to achieve anything by pressuring Iran over its nuclear activities.
And, in northern Iran, Ahmadinejad told a crowd of thousands: “The Iranian nation has resisted all bullies and corrupt powers and it will fully defend all its rights.”
Copyright: Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36693
Readers Opinions
EGYPT:
Iran-Bashing Fails to Get Far
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
CAIRO, Feb 23 (IPS) - A news report in the state press late last month suggesting Iranian involvement in the 2005 death of an Egyptian ambassador to Iraq triggered a series of contradictory statements from the foreign ministry. Now that the dust has settled, many local observers see the incident as a heavy-handed attempt by Cairo -- following Washington's lead -- to jump on the anti-Tehran bandwagon.
"Egyptian foreign policy is organically tied to U.S. policy and takes the same positions," Gamal Zahran, head of the political science department at Suez Canal University and speaker for the independent bloc in parliament told IPS. "If Washington re-established relations with Tehran, Egypt would be first on line to do the same."
The controversy arose when the Jan. 28 edition of government daily al-Ahram quoted unnamed "diplomatic sources" as saying that "Iranian intelligence services stood behind the murder of Ihab el-Sherif, the former Egyptian ambassador to Iraq." According to the same source, Tehran's motive for the crime was to "sever Egypt's foothold in Iraq."
El-Sherif was appointed Egypt's chief diplomat to Iraq in early June 2005. One month later, Jul. 3, after leaving his home in Baghdad's Mansoura district, he was reportedly abducted by unknown assailants.
His execution was announced on the Internet four days later by a group claiming to represent "al-Qaeda in Iraq", but el-Sherif's body was never found.
Al-Ahram's headline story, meanwhile, offered no evidence of Iranian involvement in the crime.
The unnamed source went on to offer a degree of justification for Cairo's support of the new U.S. plan for Iraq, announced during U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent trip to the region. The plan includes deployment of additional U.S. troops to the war-torn country.
Egyptian support for the plan, the source noted, is based on the aim of "saving our fellow Muslims who are subject to ethnic cleansing, especially in Baghdad, at the hands of armed militias whose affiliations are well known."
The Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo reacted quickly and angrily to the implications of the al-Ahram story.
"This report is totally devoid of truth and we strongly deny and condemn it," read a statement released by the mission immediately after publication of the story. "We suspect that the enemies of the Islamic and Arab worlds are the ones instigating this sectarian strife and spreading divisions between Muslim nations."
The issue became further confused when, after receiving a flurry of enquiries by journalists seeking to confirm the report, the foreign ministry issued a press release stating that the story was baseless. "In reference to the story carried in al-Ahram...it is invalid," the statement read.
Within hours, however, a second statement was released, which seemed to retract the earlier announcement. The ministry "has no relationship with the al-Ahram story," the statement noted, "which can neither be confirmed nor denied."
Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit seemed to confirm this position in the Feb. 8 edition of government daily al-Gomhouriya, where he was quoted as saying that "the enthusiasm of some foreign ministry officials prompted them to deny the validity of the (al-Ahram) story, but we can't comment at this time on statements made by unknown sources."
While the identity -- and motivations -- of the unnamed source remain unknown, the al-Ahram report's anti-Iranian flavour was hardly an isolated incident.
Al-Ahram editor-in-chief Osama Saraya blasted Tehran in his weekly editorial Jan. 26, accusing it of using "divisive, underhanded" means to achieve its regional ambitions.
"Iran is not particularly interested in keeping Iraq stable or in one piece," Saraya wrote. "Iran has been using Hezbollah to undermine the government of Fouad al-Siniora (in Lebanon)" and "has been obstructing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas every step of the way, simply because it doesn't want to see an end to the Arab-Israel conflict."
"Some say the Iranians have no ill intentions towards the region. I doubt it," wrote Saraya, who is closely affiliated to the ruling regime's new guard headed by President Hosni Mubarak's son, Gamal. "Iran isn't just reacting to the Americans. It has always been disruptive in its methods and aims."
Many local observers, however, say al-Ahram's accusations against Tehran only serve to show up Cairo's willingness -- at U.S. prompting -- to vilify the Shia Muslim theocracy.
"The Egyptian position regarding Iran is the same as the American position," said Zahran. "And this position doesn't cater to Egypt's vital interests, which are best served by stability between big regional powers like Iran."
Abdel-Halim Kandil, editor-in-chief of opposition weekly al-Karama, also expressed skepticism over the state paper's accusations of Iranian complicity in el-Sherif's reported murder.
"Egyptian intelligence agencies don't have any information regarding el-Sherif's fate," Kandil told IPS. "This was made obvious by the fumbling of the foreign ministry, which first denied the al-Ahram story, then denied the denial."
"I tend to believe Iran had nothing to do with the ambassador's abduction," Kandil said, "despite Tehran's obvious ambitions in Iraq." He went on to question the veracity of the official story regarding the diplomat's death, going so far as to mention serious speculation among informed Iraqi sources that el-Sherif was, in fact, still alive.
Critics of the official story also point to a Jul. 28 2005 "al-Qaeda in Iraq" statement in which the group flatly denied any involvement in the murder. "We strongly deny any connection with el-Sherif's execution," read the statement. The group went on to point out that the methods employed in the diplomat's abduction and alleged execution were "not even close to those we usually employ."
According to Mohamed Abu al-Hadid, political analyst and chairman of the state-owned print house that publishes al-Gomhouriya, the vilification of Tehran is part of a U.S. plan supported to a degree by Cairo aimed at "turning Iran into an enemy of all the countries in the region."
"This involves turning the confrontation between Muslim countries and Israel and the U.S. into one in which Arabs and Muslims fight against each other," Abu al-Hadid told IPS. "Unfortunately, some are helping the U.S. create animosity between the regional actors, and the primary struggle -- for the liberation of occupied Arab land -- is being forgotten."
Tehran severed diplomatic relations with Cairo in 1979 after former president Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David peace agreement with Israel. Egypt further alienated the nascent Islamic Republic later the same year by granting political asylum to then freshly deposed Shah of Iran, Mohamed Reza Pahlavi. (FIN/2007)
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36707
RIGHTS-ARGENTINA:
Hunting Down the Triple A Death Squad
Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 23 (IPS) - The renewed investigation into political crimes committed by the Triple A "para-police" group in Argentina in the 1970s is finding fresh evidence and information daily, and is shaping up into a major case of crimes against humanity.
"Every day new victims and relatives and members of leftwing parties or organisations are coming forward," federal prosecutor Eduardo Taiano, who was responsible for reopening the investigation that lay buried for nearly two decades, told IPS. "Many of these cases had never been reported to the criminal justice authorities before," he said.
Taiano argued in late 2005 that the Triple A, the now-defunct ultra-rightwing Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, had committed crimes against humanity, which are not subject to any statute of limitation.
Federal Judge Norberto Oyarbide, who was presiding over the case at the time, ruled in favour of Taiano's argument, and the investigation was reopened. There are three suspects, and several victims a day are being added to the case.
"Just today I took a statement from a trade unionist belonging to a socialist party, who in those days was the target of three attempts on his life by the Triple A. Afterwards he fled the country, and today for the first time he came forward to make his complaint," said Taiano, who envisages a flood of similar cases.
A few minutes after the interview, the Justicia Ya (Justice Now) network, made up of the Centre of Professionals for Human Rights (CEPRODH) and more than 10 other organisations, presented to the justice system 683 cases of people executed between 1973 and 1976.
This was a period of democratic rule preceding the military dictatorship (1976-1983) which murdered thousands of civilians and forcibly "disappeared" 30,000 more.
The lawyers remarked that this list is only partial, as it remains open to new complaints. It includes murders never reported before as well as high-profile cases like the assassinations of leftwing Peronist deputy Rodolfo Ortega Peña, and of Marxist intellectual Silvio Frondizi, the brother of former President Arturo Frondizi (1958-1962).
Their petition to Oyarbide includes taking measures to identify both the killers themselves and those who planned and ordered the murders.
Juan Domingo Perón, who founded the eclectic movement officially called the Justicialista Party in the mid-20th century, had been elected president of Argentina for the third time. His personal secretary José López Rega set up the clandestine Triple A organisation, made up largely of off-duty police officers, while he was minister of social welfare.
Perón died on Jul. 1, 1974, and the vice-president, his third wife María Estela Martínez, a former cabaret dancer better known by her artistic name, Isabelita, stepped in. She was overthrown by the armed forces on Mar. 24, 1976.
During that period the activities of the Triple A became even more brutal.
Lawyer Myriam Bregman, of CEPRODH, told IPS that investigations of Triple A crimes had been deferred because of the large number of trials for human rights violations that occurred during the dictatorship.
The latest depositions will be added to 15 lawsuits presented so far this year on behalf of some 40 victims. In January, the Communist Party filed complaints on behalf of members killed by the Triple A, and in February the Workers' Socialist Movement reported 15 murders and one disappearance that occurred in 1974 and 1975.
Lawyer Marcelo Parrilli, one of those who presented the Workers' Socialist Movement case, told IPS that although the executions of members of the movement had been publicly announced at the time they occurred, this was the first time that the criminal justice system had been asked to act.
This week the Workers' Party presented three cases of murders of its activists in 1974, and the Liberation Party also reported that the bullet-riddled bodies of two of its activists were found in 1975 in an empty lot on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
Taiano said that the Association of Former Detained-Disappeared, the Argentine League for Human Rights, the University of Buenos Aires professors' association and other groups had come forward as litigants, but had not yet given details of the victims they would represent.
The prosecutor said the trial was likely to take on huge dimensions, and he predicted that the various litigants would have to try to join their complaints together into one suit.
Recent investigations allege that Perón approved the creation of the Triple A as a parallel entity to eliminate leaders and members of leftwing parties, social organisations and trade unions, and to neutralise radical leftwing factions within his own Justicialista (Peronist) party.
An appendix to a file at the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP), created in 1984 to record the reports of kidnapping, torture and forced disappearance committed during the dictatorship, lists the cases of victims of Triple A crimes and extrajudicial executions that occurred prior to the 1976 coup d'état.
The CONADEP list includes reports of 1,170 victims of such cases occurring between 1966 and 1976. Of these, 1,122 were victims of forced disappearance or extrajudicial executions that took place between 1973 and 1976.
Among the most notorious crimes committed by the Triple A were the shooting of Ortega Peña in front of his house, and the murder of then deputy chief of the federal police Julio Troxler.
The Triple A is also accused of the murder of Jesuit priest Carlos Mugica, who espoused liberation theology and was active in the Third World Priests' Movement. He worked tirelessly alongside slum-dwellers, and supported the left wing of the Justicialista Party.
Lawyer Miguel Radrizzani Goñi lodged the first accusation against the Triple A in 1975 when he asked for a judicial investigation into the organisation headed by López Rega. But so little progress was made on the case that it was not until 1986 that the former minister was arrested.
López Rega spent three years behind bars before he died, and the case was closed. It was reopened in December 2005 thanks to prosecutor Taiano, and a year later it began to build momentum. In December 2006, former assistant police chief Rodolfo Almirón, who had belonged to the Triple A, was arrested in Spain.
In January former police chief Juan Ramón Morales, another leading member of the organisation, was arrested in Buenos Aires. Felipe Romeo, editor of the ultra-rightwing magazine El Caudillo, which was financed by advertising contracts from the ministry then headed by López Rega, was also taken into custody.
But the greatest stir has been created by the extradition order against former president Martínez (Isabelita), who is living in Spain, where she is now in custody. The first warrant was issued by a federal judge in the western province of Mendoza, and Judge Oyarbide followed suit a few days later. Martínez is being held in Madrid under house arrest because of her age and poor health. (FIN/2007)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36665
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:
Flour, Sugar - Vehicles of Food Fortification Plan
Diógenes Pina
SANTO DOMINGO, Feb 21 (IPS) - Lack of vitamin A is associated with the deaths of 350 people a year in the Dominican Republic, where some 400 babies are born annually with brain and spinal cord defects caused by folic acid deficiency, according to official statistics. In addition, many women are at risk of serious complications during childbirth due to iron deficiency anaemia.
On Feb. 15 the Public Health Ministry, with the cooperation of international organisations, launched a national food fortification programme aimed at dramatically reducing the rates of iron and vitamin A deficiency in women and children.
The project will enable all wheat flour milled for human consumption to be fortified with iron, folic acid and other B-complex vitamins, while sugar will be fortified with vitamin A.
The Dominican authorities hope food enrichment with vitamins and minerals will reduce iron deficiency anaemia rates from 27 percent to 20 percent in children under five.
Another aim is to bring vitamin A deficiency, which currently affects 22.7 percent of the population, down to 10 percent by the end of the three-year project, and to reduce the number of babies born with birth defects to the brain and spinal cord by 20 percent.
The programme is in receipt of a grant of nearly 1.9 million dollars from the Geneva-based Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), for which the World Bank serves as trust agent. The GAIN grant is part of a wider programme costing 13.45 million dollars, to include contributions from food producers and consumers.
The donation from GAIN will support the programme developed by the National Micronutrients Commission, made up of public sector, civil society organisations, food production companies and research institutions.
"GAIN grants are awarded on a competitive basis and we congratulate the Commission on the launch of this project, which we are confident will bring significant and sustained health benefits to the people of the Dominican Republic," Executive Director of GAIN Marc Van Ameringen said in a press release.
The donation will contribute to the purchase of premix equipment, food control and regulatory systems, communication and marketing campaigns, impact studies and administration costs.
Six flour mills and seven sugar mills are participating in the project. By 2009, 80 percent of the Dominican Republic’s population of around nine million people should be consuming fortified flour and sugar. The government is planning to pass a law to make fortification of these basic staples mandatory.
"Through this project fortification will become a more nutritional and healthier way of processing flour and sugar in the country, with the cost being absorbed by the food companies, with no or negligible increases for the consumer," said Public Health Minister Dr. Bautista Rojas Gómez.
"All such actions (of enriching foods) are a good idea, because they improve people's quality of life," Silvio Minier, an expert in social policy, told IPS. The trouble with these programmes is that they are not necessarily long-term, he said.
Local authorities say the project is part of the efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the international community in September 2000, particularly those related to improving maternal and child health.
The fourth MDG is to reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate for children under five by 2015, on 1990 levels. In the Dominican Republic the present mortality rate of 38 per 1,000 live births would have to fall to 13 per 1,000.
Christina Malmberg Calvo, World Bank representative in the Dominican Republic, said that it was time to stop talking about fortifying flour and sugar, and to start producing and consuming healthy foods that are richer in nutrients, which would improve the lives of all Dominicans.
According to a comparative study by the World Food Programme (WFP), malnutrition in this Caribbean country has increased in recent years, from 6.1 percent of the population in 2000 to 7.2 percent in 2006.
Depending on which survey results are accepted, the number of children under five suffering from chronic malnutrition is between 56,000 and 74,000 in the Dominican Republic, Pavel Isa Contreras of the WFP told the local weekly Clave. The Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that 27 percent of Dominicans suffer from hunger.
Isa Contreras said that it was likely that the bank collapses of 2003, which triggered the worst economic crisis in the country's history, were directly linked to the rise in malnutrition.
Bankruptcy in three of the main banks cost the Dominican economy over two billion dollars. According to the Report on Poverty in the Dominican Republic, published in 2006 by the World Bank, after the banking crisis about 1.5 million Dominicans were plunged into poverty. (FIN/2007)
[an interesting Pakistan blog, I think it has been shut down by the gov, or he may have moved it.........I like the below...granny]
http://emullah.blogspot.com/
Life is one long road
1 comments
(Emele! Thanks for inspiration*)
Life is one long road, and
I am standing on the red light
Looking through the windshield
Night is pouring around me
Dampness in air, inside driving cabin
Is drenching my soul
Falling rain drops
Are splitting into tiny splashes
Before they are swept
By droopy wiper blades
All bent to erase our memories, and
I am standing on the red light
In the downtown of my soul
Looking at dull brick houses
Smoked grey closed doors
And broken windows …
Staring at the long road, standing on red light
I am searching for answers
Changing colors on distant traffic lights
Are sending incandescent reflections
On gleaming asphalt road
Brimming with dancing rain drops
Creating broken rainbows, and
I am standing on the red light
Looking through the windshield
I am waiting for signal to change
Thinking, if all next will be green
On this life like long road
I will cruise through
All the way -- to you
Police in Iran kill four alleged drug traffickers, seize nearly 5 metric tons of narcotics
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/24/africa/ME-GEN-Iran-Drugs.php
Police in Iran kill four alleged drug traffickers, seize nearly 5
metric
tons of narcotics
The Associated Press
Published: February 24, 2007
TEHRAN, Iran: Police killed four alleged drug traffickers and seized
nearly 5 metric tons (5.5 tons) of opium and morphine during armed
clashes in southeastern Iran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency
reported Saturday.
Gen. Eskandar Momeni, a top police commander, said 4,635 kilograms
(10,218 pounds) of opium and morphine were seized in the mountains
outside Bam, a city in southeastern Iran, on Friday night, IRNA
reported.
Momeni said four alleged drug traffickers were killed and two others
arrested after they exchanged gunfire for several hours, IRNA reported.
Iranian security forces frequently have armed clashes with drug
traffickers. More than 3,000 police officers and soldiers have died in
such gunbattles since 1979.
Iran has more than two million drug addicts and lies on a major drug
smuggling route flowing from Afghanistan to Europe. Large drug seizures
are common.
Thanks
http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/2267.cfm
[2006]
Worldpress.org
Al Qaeda Escape in Yemen: Facts, Rumors and Theories
Jane Novak, Worldpress.org contributing editor, February 16, 2006
Unidentified members of a terrorist cell who may be part of the Al Qaeda network attend the second session of their trial at the state security court in Sanaa last week. (Photo: Khaled Fazaa / AFP-Getty Images)
One theory circulating in Yemen these days is that the recent escape of 23 prisoners from a maximum-security intelligence facility was orchestrated to transfer them to U.S. custody, circumventing Yemen's extradition laws. Certainly the U.S. would have an interest in obtaining custody of the escapees. Several were convicted of complicity in the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, which killed 17 U.S. service members on Oct. 12, 2000. Others include convicted bombers of a French oil tanker, the Lindburg. One was an American, Gaber Elbaneh, who was convicted in the U.S. of involvement in an Al Qaeda cell in Lackawana, New York.
After the jailbreak, the Yemeni government failed to provide Interpol with the prisoners' photographs fingerprints and other information that would have enabled an international red alert. Lacking the information, Interpol issued a lower, orange alert. If the regime had been acting in concert with the United States, it likely would have attempted to reap the publicity benefit of prompt cooperation with Interpol. Rather, there are many indications that the escape was carried out in concert with Al Qaeda sympathizers in the Yemeni security apparatus.
The prisoners were in custody of Yemen's Political Security Organization, an intelligence agency answerable directly to President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The P.S.O. reputedly engages in regime dirty work like beating journalists and harassing political opponents. In theory, the escapees used cooking utensils to break through a thick concrete floor and to tunnel 460 feet. The tunnel exited in the nearby mosque of a prominent preacher, Judge Hamoud al-Hittar, who is reported to have "close ties to security officials" according to a published report. A U.S. Embassy cable sent from Yemen's capital, Sanaa that was described to Newsweek noted "the lack of obvious security measures on the streets" after the escape and concluded: "One thing is certain: P.S.O. insiders must have been involved."
After the escape, the Yemeni Interior Minister, Rashad al-Alemi, was promoted to deputy prime minister, while retaining his position as Interior Minister. A few prison guards were charged with "slackness" on their jobs. Over 200 of the escapees' relatives and associates have been detained for questioning; the Yemeni government has denied a U.S. request to interrogate them, citing sovereignty concerns. Published reports initially indicated that some of the prisoners were captured on the day of the escape; no official statements were made, leading to speculation that the prisoners had been re-released. Other unconfirmed reports include a phone call from the escapees to a high ranking official of the P.S.O. to advise of their success, and the installation of electric lines in the prison in the weeks prior to the escape, the continuous drilling for which may have covered the sounds of the escapees own drilling and power tools.
Yemen has increased its cooperation in the War on Terror since the Sept. 11 attacks, making some progress with arrests, intelligence sharing, counter terrorism cooperation, and setting up a coast guard. Yemen recently brought to trial a suspected high-ranking Al Qaeda leader, Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal. U.S. officials have reported, however, that Yemen's cooperation is neither institutionalized nor consistent. To the extent that cooperation is ongoing however sporadic, a pattern of escapes and terrorist facilitation may render cooperation a zero-sum game.
Pattern of Facilitation
Despite cooperative rhetoric when dealing with Western allies, the Yemeni government has not clamped down on terrorist financing, a primary strategy in disrupting terrorist operations. In 2003, in response to a U.N. directive to freeze 144 Al Qaeda or Taliban affiliated banks accounts the regime closed one. In 2004, it did not circulate the U.N.'s banking notice to the banks at all.
The Yemeni regime has issued false statements. According to the U.S. State Department's 2004 Patterns of Terrorism report, "In October 2003, despite repeated statements that [Aden Abyan Islamic Army] leader Khalid Abd al-Nabi was dead, Yemeni officials revealed that he was not killed in the confrontations … Instead, al-Nabi surrendered to the Yemeni authorities, was released from custody, and is not facing charges for any of his activities." Similarly, Yemen failed for months to acknowledge to the United States that an American, Gaber Elbaneh, was in Yemeni custody, and has not replied to a U.S. request for extradition issued over a year ago.
Weaponry channeled through Yemen is supplying terrorists, as well as militants in Sudan, Somalia, the Palestinian Authority territories, Eritrea and Saudi Arabia. The wide scale enterprise, described as a weapons emporium, is reputed to be supervised by top military officials, many of whom are President Saleh's close relatives. Two AK-47 assault rifles used in a deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia have been traced to Yemen's Defense Ministry.
The Gulf States Newsletter reported that the P.S.O., "seeded with Salifists," is responsible for much of the "revolving door strategy" that has seen militants escape or be released to engage in recidivist militancy. One method of release is through Yemen's Dialog Committee, a rehabilitation program under the chairmanship of Judge Hamoud al-Hittar. As a result of the work of Al-Hittar, who engages in a Koranic dialog with imprisoned extremists, over 300 "rehabilitated" prisoners have been released. U.S. officials have complained that they did not get an opportunity to question some high level detainees released under the program.
In a 2003 interview, Al-Hittar told the Associated Press that he uses his dialogue sessions to try to persuade extremists not to attack Western or government interests inside Yemen. Recently Osama bin Laden's former bodyguard, Nasser al-Bahri, told the BBC that the authorities helped set him up as a small businessman, and that he has ceased militant activities. He said Judge Hittar did not seek to convert prisoners, but rather sought only to obtain a guarantee that they would not launch attacks on the West from Yemeni soil.
In 2003, Al Qaeda described President Saleh as "the only Arab and Muslim leader who is not an agent for the West," and offered the Yemeni government a truce. If Yemen stopped hunting down suspected Al Qaeda militants, and released those already jailed, Al Qaeda would put an end to its attacks inside the country. Termination of military cooperation with the United States was another of Al Qaeda's conditions, the Yemen Times reported. There were eight in all. Judge al-Hittar remarked at the time, "Some of these conditions cannot be negotiated at all." Negotiations reportedly failed.
Use of Al Qaeda as an Internal Paramilitary Force
Another popular theory in Yemen explaining the escape is that the prisoners were released to be used against political opponents. Militant Islamist Ahmed Haidrah Abubakr, also known as Abulashaath, leader of the Al Qaeda affiliated Abyan Aden Islamic Army said in an interview after his recent arrest, "We know that we were imprisoned again only to be used against those opposing the regime."
The regime has a history of employing militant Islamists as an internal fighting force. In the 1994 civil war in Yemen, President Saleh's northern forces gained victory over the South in part through the utilization of Afghan Arabs, proponents of jihad who had returned from Afghanistan and pledged their loyalty to the regime in return for continued influence.
A militant Islamist carried out the 2004 murder of Jarallah Omar, a leading opposition politician. Many observers believe it was part of a wider conspiracy. Amnesty International said that it had observed indications of complicity by regime figures and organizations that required a thorough investigation, but one has yet to be accomplished.
The Gulf States Newsletter, in its December issue, noted that the Yemeni government is currently employing Afghan Arabs alongside its military in battling the Houthist uprising in the north, "Some irregular units of former jihadists have been used against Zaydi militants in the Saada area." The military force in Saada includes former Iraqi generals and is under the command of the North West Region commander, Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who is President Saleh's half-brother, and a reputed Wahhabist. Al-Ahmar worked with Bin Laden recruiting Yeminis to fight in Afghanistan. After 9/11, as author and analyst Robert Kaplan notes, "Giving Ali Mohsen's regiment a chunk of the American military aid package was the only way that Washington could do business in Yemen."
Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has labeled Mohsen's assault against Yemen's Shiites a jihad and military analyst James Dunnigan has called it "a religious conflict between radical Shia tribes, and pro-Al Qaeda Sunni Yemenis." It is important to note that the predominant religious affiliation in Yemen is Shaifi Sunni, a moderate and tolerant orientation, and the vast majority of Yeminis overall oppose the targeting of civilians within Yemen and beyond its borders. In remarking on the November terrorist attack in Jordan, Hosnia Al-Mikhlafi, a mother said, "How do these people think that they are Muslims while they terrorized innocent people? They killed infants on the laps of their mothers. If bin Laden and Zarqawi think that this is jihad, they should be resisted till we get rid of their evil deeds."
The Pipeline to Iraq
A third theory about the escape is that well trained and operationally capable Al Qaeda militants were needed to beef up insurgent operations in Iraq. President Saleh has had strong ties to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and he was one of the few Arab leaders to oppose the first Gulf War. In 2003, the United States noted, shipments of night vision goggles from Russia to Yemen were most likely transshipped to insurgents in Iraq. After the fall of Baghdad, top-level Iraqi generals were recruited into Yemen's military.
According to current estimates, about 20 percent of the foreign fighters in Iraq are of Yemeni origin. This figure does not include those who transit, train or receive material or logistical assistance, including travel documents, from Al Qaeda sympathizers in Yemen. One Yemeni official speaking anonymously to a local newspaper reported that Al Qaeda had subverted elements of the Yemeni security forces, which had established training camps for Baathists intent on joining the insurgency in Iraq. As a Saudi source reported to the press, "A young man decides he wants to fight in Iraq, illegally enters Yemen, travels to Syria, and is subsequently smuggled across the border into Iraq."
In November, the Iraqi Attorney General presented Interpol with an extradition request to bring Saddam Hussein's nephew, Omar Sabawi al-Tikriti, who is reportedly residing in Yemen, to Baghdad to stand trial for "committing acts of terror." Iraqi officials say that Al-Tikriti has played a leading role in, and financially supported the insurgency in Northern Iraq. Yemeni officials claim they have been unable to locate al-Tikriti.
Also in November, Al Tajamo, an opposition newspaper based in Aden conducted interviews with the families of Yemeni suicide bombers killed in Iraq. Family members reported that their sons and brothers were trained in suicide bombings with the knowledge of security officials and had logistical support from top military commanders known for their jihadist associations. From Aden and Abyan alone, nearly 100 fighters are thought to have gone to Iraq. Twenty-two are known to have been killed. According to the newspaper's informed source, safe houses were established in Sanaa to house the fighters until their travel arrangements could be finalized. The source said that many members of the Aden Abyan Islamic Army had joined Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group in Iraq.
Lingering Questions About the Cole Bombing
Because the Yemeni government has not allowed the United States full access to some prisoners, another theory circulating is that the prisoners were allowed to escape to keep them away from U.S. investigators. The former head of Yemen's navy at the time of the Cole bombing, Ahmed al-Hasani, said in a press statement in May that President Saleh had prior knowledge of the Cole bombing, and that Saleh had sent high-level officials to Aden in the early morning hours before the attack.
Analyst and author Thomas Joscelyn, who has studied the Cole bombing, notes, "There is still much we don't know about the circumstances surrounding the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, which was tasked with enforcing U.N. sanctions on Iraq. The U.S. investigation into the bombing was initially stymied by Saleh's regime, which at first claimed the bombing was simply an accident. To this day it is not clear how competent the completed investigation was."
A few things are clear about the attack. In 2000, the Yemeni interior minister issued an official letter instructing security personnel to give safe passage to Sheik Mohammed Omar al-Harazi, one of the masterminds of the Cole bombing who is also known as Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Neither he nor his bodyguards were to searched or intercepted. "All security forces are instructed to cooperate with him and facilitate his missions," the letter said. During the 2004 trial of five co-conspirators, one Yemeni political analyst noted the travel pass "confirms that there is a breach in the Yemeni security system."
"This system has been infiltrated for a long time by terrorist elements, because of old relations," he said.
Some of the Cole conspirators were also in possession of weapons permits.
A former C.I.A. agent, Robert Baer, was told by a Saudi military contact that a Saudi merchant family had funded the U.S.S. Cole bombing and that the Yemeni government was covering up information related to that bombing. A leading Yemeni editor said in 2001, "It was clear from the start that the accessories to the attack would be tried, convicted and executed, but that the people inside Yemen who financed it, and used their power to facilitate it, would never be brought to book."
The regime has had difficulty keeping the attackers in jail. In 2003, eight of the Cole conspirators escaped from jail and two later went on to complete suicide operations in Iraq. Among the 2003 escapees was Jamal al-Badawi, another mastermind of the bombing. Al-Badawi was recaptured and returned to prison only to escape again with 22 other inmates.
After the Cole attack, President Saleh denied publicly that he had been notified by the United States that the Cole was en route to Aden. According to former CENTCOM commander Gen. Anthony Zinni, in his 2000 Congressional Testimony, standard U.S. procedure was to notify Yemeni officials about two weeks prior to a ship's arrival at port. It was just about two weeks before the attack on the Cole that the Pentagon's secret intelligence unit, Able Danger, began to pick up "massive terrorist activity" in Aden.
At the time of the bombings, a Yemeni regime official advanced the theory that the United States had blown up the ship itself, as pretense for an invasion. This fear mongering has continued. "There was a plan to occupy Aden," President Saleh said in a 2005 speech. According to President Saleh, eight U.S. warships waited at the mouth of the port of Aden, ready to invade in the days after the bombing. Only through his leadership abilities, he claimed, was the invasion averted.
In reality, there were no U.S. warships in the area and all documentation indicates the Cole was traveling alone. In the days after the bombing, the crew of the Cole struggled unassisted to keep the ship afloat while the wounded were tended on deck. It is inconceivable that any U.S. ship in the area would not have come to their immediate aid.
A reduction in financial aid was the only punitive action against Yemen briefly discussed in the 2000 Congressional hearings, as an inducement for fuller cooperation with the F.B.I.'s investigation. It was deflected by Gen. Zinni's objections. At the time, Congress barely contemplated the possibility of regime involvement, based in large part on Gen. Zinni's assurances of Saleh's sincerity. The Clinton administration never discussed retaliation against Yemen for the Cole bombing, according to the 9/11 report and other documentation. Clinton briefly discussed a military strike against Afghanistan, but the concept of confronting the Taliban was shelved as Clinton's term drew to a close.
An Insider's View
Mr. Ahmed al-Hasani, former commander of Yemen's Navy and long time regime insider says he is not surprised by the escape, "considering the relations between the authorities and al-Qaeda," which he describes as strong and influential. Currently seeking asylum in Britain, Mr. al-Hasani is a vocal opponent of the regime's policies toward the population of the former South Yemen, which some have termed occupation rather than unification.
Osama bin Laden visited Yemen in the late 1990's and held a six-hour meeting in the airport with Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, among others. This meeting must have required the explicit permission of Saleh himself, al-Hasani says. In the interceding decade, there has been no administrative purge or major rehabilitation of top level bin Laden loyalists in the regime. Currently Al Qaeda sympathizers are spread throughout the upper levels of the military and security forces, al-Hasani asserts, including the Republican Guard and the Political Security Organization.
These Al Qaeda loyalists are motivated by ideology, and are well organized and well indoctrinated, he says, with several officers of the Republican Guards responsible for coordinating and aiding the activities of jihadist groups in Yemen including transportation, security, documentation and financing. These regime officials engage in money laundering and remuneration, through large Yemeni companies and through real estate, business and stock transactions in the Gulf States and South Asia including South Korea, Singapore and Thailand.
Those jihadists still in prison are kept to be released on demand, al-Hasani notes, "When they need them to do anything against their political enemies, they will be released for this purpose. This also means they can be used by the authorities against U.S. interests and targets." The escape of the 23 prisoners, he concludes, could not have happened without President Saleh's "will and wish."
Conclusion
The escape in Yemen may point to the need for a highly secure and humane international prison to augment the international criminal court and to house the world's most dangerous and escape prone inmates. Meanwhile, as a multi-nation flotilla patrols Yemen's coast, it seems unlikely the 23 escapees are in U.S. custody. It can be safely said that the United States' policy of elite rehabilitation, which worked well in Pakistan after 9/11, has succeeded less well in Yemen, as months and years of counter terrorism work is undone by repeated jailbreaks. Unless Judge al-Hittar begins a dialog program with some of the upper level military and security forces to dissuade them of their extremist ideology, the best hope for Yemen lies with democratization, a process actively repelled by President Saleh and the well-entrenched elite, but actively sought by a number of activists and a good portion of the Yemeni population.
Jane Novak is an American journalist and political analyst.
Copyright © 1997-2007 Worldpress.org. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Jane+Novak+is+an+American+journalist&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Lackawanna six:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Gaber+Elbaneh&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.google.com/search?q=Al+Qaeda+sympathizers+in+the+Yemeni+security+apparatus&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.google.com/search?q=Yemen%27s+Political+Security+Organization&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.google.com/search?q=Yemeni+Interior+Minister%2C+Rashad+al-Alemi&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.google.com/search?q=Judge+Hamoud+al-Hittar&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.google.com/search?q=the+only+Arab+and+Muslim+leader+who+is+not+an+agent+for+the+West&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.google.com/search?q=Use+of+Al+Qaeda+as+an+Internal+Paramilitary+Force&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.google.com/search?q=Islamist+Ahmed+Haidrah+Abubakr&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.google.com/search?q=Abulashaath%2C+leader+of+the+Al+Qaeda+affiliated+Abyan+Aden+Islamic+Army&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.google.com/search?q=military+force+in+Saada+includes+former+Iraqi+generals&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.google.com/search?q=Abyan+Islamic+Army&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
I posted a bunch of articles to all, tonight.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23386358-details/Muslim+pupils+%27need+their+own+showers%27/article.do
Muslim pupils 'need their own showers'
21.02.07
Classroom
Separate facilities should be provided for Muslim pupils, according to the Muslim Council of Britain
Muslim schoolchildren should be treated differently from other pupils, the country's most prominent Islamic organisation has said.
They should have separate changing rooms for sports and swimming, single sex classes for sex education, prayer rooms and new rights to Islamic worship, and different uniform rules, the Muslim Council of Britain said.
Schools win the right to ban the veil after girl's court defeat
Boys should be allowed to grow beards for religious reasons, said new guidelines for schools published by the council.
The call for special treatment for Muslim pupils comes at a time when Government efforts are concentrated on eliminating segregation and encouraging 'British' values to tackle religious extremism.
The National Association of Head Teachers dismissed the ideas as "completely undoable" and warned they ran against the grain of tolerance in schools.
In a paper offering guidance on the treatment of nearly 400,000 Muslim pupils in state schools, the council said some schools "have not been receptive of legitimate and reasonable requests made by Muslim parents and pupils in relation to their faith-based aspirations and concerns".
It added: "Many of these issues relate to aspects of schooling such as collective worship, communal changing, swimming, halal meals and sex education. It is essential that positive account is taken of the faith dimension of Muslim pupils in education and schooling.
"Unfortunately Muslim pupils are sometimes placed in situations where they feel pressured into acting contrary to their beliefs and conscience and also experience Islamophobic sentiments and comments within schools."
It said that in the vast majority of primary schools, boys and girls change for PE together.
"Muslim children are likely to exhibit resistance to this sort of compromising and immodest exposure, but are often pressurised to conform to institutional norms which do not take account of their own or their parents' beliefs and values."
The council said schools could consider building "separate changing facilities that include individual changing cubicles".
"Islam forbids nakedness in front of others or being among others who are naked. Muslim children should not be expected to participate in communal showering," the guidance said.
Sex education, the council said, should be in single-sex groups with a teacher of the same sex and should reflect "Islamic moral perspectives".
More here:
• Girl loses court battle to wear veil in school
• The veil is harming us, says Muslim peer
• Schools accused of ignoring Muslim pupils' wishes
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/newsheadlines/article-23386806-details/UK+terror+threat+at+%27new+high%27/article.do
UK terror threat at 'new high'
25.02.07
The threat of homegrown terrorists attacking Britain is greater now than any time since the September 11 attacks in the US, it has been reported.
More than 2,000 British-based Islamic terrorists are believed to be plotting attacks, according to a leaked Government threat assessment.
"The scale of al-Qaida's ambitions towards attacking the UK and the number of UK extremists prepared to participate in attacks are even greater than we previously judged," the Daily Telegraph quoted the document as saying.
The newspaper said the document was being circulated between the Home Office, Defence Department, M15 intelligence agency and Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch.
The Home Office declined to comment on the report, but said in a statement that security arrangements are under constant review.
"As (MI5 Director-General) Eliza Manningham-Buller has stated publicly, the threat of terrorism in the UK is very real and includes the intent to kill people and damage our economy," the statement said.
Manningham-Buller said in November that 1,600 people were suspected of involvement in terrorist plots against British targets.
Security officials say they have foiled at least six plots since the July 7 attacks. Officials expect the number of plots to increase this year.
The report also said Afghanistan is expected to increasingly become a magnet for Islamic extremists seeking to fight Western military forces.
NATO is struggling to persuade its members to send more troops to southern Afghanistan where the alliance is fighting a growing Taliban insurgency that left 4,000 dead last year.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/newsheadlines/article-23386757-details/Scientist+%27must+have+been+murdered%27/article.do
Scientist 'must have been murdered'
25.02.07
The Hutton Inquiry's finding that David Kelly committed suicide does not "hold water", and the truth is that the Government scientist must have been murdered, said a senior backbench MP.
Following a personal investigation lasting eight months, Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said he did not believe that Prime Minister Tony Blair or the Government were "actually responsible for his death".
But he declined to say who he did believe was to blame, telling GMTV's The Sunday Programme that he had narrowed down his investigation to three or four possible explanations, which he was subjecting to further analysis before announcing his conclusions.
The Lewes MP revealed he had received a plausible explanation for some of the mysteries surrounding the weapons inspector's death from an unnamed individual who he said was in a position to know what happened.
He said Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell had given his blessing to his sleuthing, which is not being carried out under a party banner.
Mr Baker's interview comes on the day of broadcast of an edition of BBC2's The Conspiracy Files examining the theories surrounding Dr Kelly's death in July 2003 at the height of controversy over Government claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
He told GMTV: "I've concluded in my mind, beyond reasonable doubt as it were, that it's impossible for the suicide explanation to hold water.
"The medical evidence doesn't support it in any way, the psychological evidence barely supports it either and as it wasn't obviously natural causes or an accident, then you're driven to the conclusion that it must have been some sort of murder."
Dr Kelly's body was found in a wood near his Oxfordshire home shortly after he was identified as the source for a BBC report claiming the Government "sexed up" its dossier on Saddam Hussein's supposed WMD arsenal.
Following a lengthy and high-profile inquiry, Lord Hutton's January 2004 report - which focused primarily on the journalism of BBC correspondent Andrew Gilligan and the Government's handling of Dr Kelly as an employee - did not halt widespread speculation about supposed inconsistencies in the evidence about his death.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23386770-details/Train+crash%3A+It+could+have+been+sabotage/article.do
Train crash: It could have been sabotage
24.02.07
This aerial view of the crash scene shows how almost the entire train was turned on its side.
In echoes of Potters Bar, train crash investigators find four vital bolts lying at the side of the tracks as Network Rail orders checks on 600 sets of points around Britain...
Rail crash investigators were facing up to the possibility that the Virgin train derailment could have been the result of sabotage.
Four vital steel bolts from a set of points that the train had just crossed were found lying at the side of the track.
More here:
• The train crash in pictures
• Tearful Branson visits accident scene • Upgrade improved West Coast 'Cinderella' line
The bolts should have been firmly fixed to a track stretcher bar on the high-speed West Coast line at Grayrigg, near Kendal, Cumbria.
Network Rail, which is responsible for track maintenance, said it would require a specialist heavy spanner used by rail engineers to remove the bolts.
One senior railway executive told The Mail on Sunday last night: "Four bolts were lying there neatly. They had been removed recently. It's very odd. It's a mystery. We cannot give a rational explanation. We have to try to find out who has been there recently and why somebody would do this. Sabotage cannot be ruled out."
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One woman - 84-year-old Margaret Masson from Glasgow - died and 100 of the estimated 120 passengers were injured, five seriously, when the London to Glasgow Virgin Pendolino tilting train left the track at 95 mph at 8.15pm on Friday night. Experts were astonished there was no greater loss of life.
The crash appears eerily similar to the Potters Bar accident five years ago, which killed seven people.
Investigators found that nuts were missing from key bolts on a track stretcher bar which fractured, derailing the train. An inquiry by the Health and Safety Executive ruled out sabotage, which had been alleged by maintenance contractor Jarvis. Since then, responsibility for maintenance has been taken over by Network Rail.
In Friday's crash, the carriages careered down an embankment, and the leading engine ended up on its own facing in the opposite direction in a field. Police, fire and ambulance crews worked in rain and pitch-black conditions to rescue the injured, smashing their way into carriages.
Dazed passengers showed remarkable resilience and stumbled through the darkness to reach isolated farmhouses nearby.
Last night, as the investigation centred on the points, Network Rail announced that a further 600 similar points around Britain would be checked for faults.
Network Rail chief executive John Armitt said: "A points failure can be due to various causes. I have to live with the reality that something could have gone wrong on our watch."
Mr Armitt said the points at the crash scene had been given a monthly inspection in early February, with the next due in a week. A 13-weekly inspection took place two months ago, and the annual inspection was made last June.
Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union, said: "There was a track inspection a few days ago and there were no problems. But all of a sudden the bolts are off.
"The reality is that after Potters Bar they've allowed a situation where nuts and bolts have fallen off. Nuts and bolts go on jumbo jets, they go on space ships. How come they don't fall off?
"I can't say if it's sabotage. But management have to take the rap when it goes wrong. We will not allow our staff to be scapegoats."
Mrs Masson was travelling home on the train with her daughter Margaret Langley, 61, from Southport, Merseyside, and her husband Richard, 63. Mrs Langley was 'very poorly' and deteriorating in the Royal Preston Hospital last night, and her husband was 'critical'.
Mrs Masson's granddaughter Margaret Jones, 41, said last night: "We are devastated by the death of our Nan and about Mum and Dad being so very poorly.
"We are distraught but we are all here for our parents and we ask that we are left alone to cope during this difficult time."
The train driver, Ian Black, 46, from Scotland, was in a 'very critical but stable' condition with chest and neck injuries at the Royal Preston Hospital.
Sir Richard Branson, who flew back from a family holiday in the Swiss Alps to visit the crash scene, sent his condolences to Mrs Masson's family and described Mr Black as a hero.
He said the driver had done a 'tremendous job' staying at the controls in a desperate attempt to steer the train to safety.
"Our driver could have run from his seat and dashed to the next carriage, where he might well have been safe,' said Sir Richard. "Instead, he tried to steer the train to safety. He ended up quite badly injured. I am honestly not worried at this moment who is to blame. If it was a faulty line, then we have to make sure it never happens again."
He added he was sure the Virgin train was '100 per cent safe' and was 'built like a tank'.
Rebecca Denholme, 25, from Glasgow, who escaped with bruising, described how she was flung around her carriage before it came to rest upside down.
"When I stopped moving my seat was on the ceiling, which was quite strange,' she said. "It was like being in a pinball machine. I feel like I have been beaten up."
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23386778-details/Revealed%3A+Red+Army+colonel+who+dubbed+Maggie+the+Iron+Lady+...+and+changed+history/article.do
Revealed: Red Army colonel who dubbed Maggie the Iron Lady ... and changed history
24.02.07
Maggie Thatcher
The Iron Lady
It is, without doubt, the best known sobriquet of modern politics.
Margaret Thatcher was first dubbed the Iron Lady in 1976 - and many believe it was a stroke that changed the course of history by transforming her image and helping her win three General Elections.
Until now it has always been believed that the Kremlin coined the phrase in a misguided attempt to smear her reputation.
But today The Mail on Sunday can reveal the real story behind the creation of the nickname - and the identity of the man who dreamed it up.
Yury Gavrilov was a young soldier working as a journalist for the Red Army's Red Star news-paper when he was struck by the idea of likening Mrs Thatcher to Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck.
Gavrilov, speaking publicly for the first time about his decision, admitted:
'It was my idea. I didn't go to anyone higher up. I put those two words in a headline on January 24, 1976.'
'At the time it seemed that everyone liked the label. Her opponents thought it reflected her stubbornness and inflexibility. But her supporters took it as a sign of strength.'
He came up with the phrase after reading a speech Mrs Thatcher, then Leader of the Opposition, had made on the theme Wake Up Britain, warning of the threat posed by the Soviet Union.
'The immediate association in my mind was Bismarck, who was nicknamed the Iron Chancellor,' said Gavrilov.
'Since I couldn't use a male term to describe Margaret Thatcher, I replaced the word Chancellor with Lady. I'm proud of those two words and I meant no offence.
'But I did have the feeling that the Soviet Union would soon face a tough opponent.
'She would not be bullied into endless talks about peace and friendship, she would ignore the anti-war movement in Britain and she would also be a strong ally to the US.'
Yet for Gavrilov, 16 years Mrs Thatcher's junior and married with one son, the admiration went deeper.
'I always found her attractive as a woman,' he admitted. 'If I hadn't, maybe I would have used a harsher label to describe her. She was possessed with a kind of aristocratic beauty.'
Gavrilov, who went on to become a lieutenant-colonel in the Red Army reserve and held senior jobs in Russian newspapers, today lives modestly as a pensioner.
Until his headline appeared, Mrs Thatcher was little known outside Britain and had been ridiculed as 'Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher', after scrapping free school milk while Education Secretary.
Once the Iron Lady tag was applied, though, she rose in stature, especially on the international stage. She saw the nickname as a badge of honour and used it proudly in all three of the Elections she won in 1979, 1983 and 1987.
'The Conservative Party slogan during the 1979 Election campaign amounted to 'Britain needs the Iron Lady', said Gavrilov. 'And Thatcher turned out to be 100per cent right for that nickname.
'Until then, Soviet cartoonists had portrayed Britain as a toothless lion. But after my headline and despite our countries, not very good relations and the ideological confrontation, Thatcher was always respected in the USSR.'
In her autobiography, Baroness Thatcher attributed the nickname to the Soviet news agency Tass.
She wrote that during a brief stop in Moscow just a few weeks after her 1979 victory, en route to a G7 summit in Tokyo, the Russians unexpectedly sent their Prime Minister to meet her.
'The motive for the Soviets' special attention was soon clear,' she wrote. 'They wanted to know more about the Iron Lady, as Tass had christened me following a speech I made in 1976.'
But in fact Tass had picked it up from Red Star, as did newspapers all over the world.
Now aged 81 and in poor health, Baroness Thatcher alluded to her enduring alias last week when a statue of her was unveiled at Westminster. She quipped: 'I might have preferred iron, but bronze will do.'
Though he never met Lady Thatcher, Gavrilov has a message for her: 'The Queen made you a baroness, and that is a high title, but there are many baronesses around. The title I awarded you is unique. And you are the only one in history who deserves it.'
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-iranian-qods-force-is-operating-in.html
How the Iranian Qods Force is operating in Iraq
Tuesday, 20 February 2007
NCRI - In a webinar - a conference on the web - organised on ISCC Site (http://www.iraniscc.info) today, Mohammad Mohaddessin, Chair of the NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee spoke about critical aspects of the clerical regime's meddling in Iraq. Following are excerpts of his remarks:
The documents and information I am going to present, shed light on the scope of the Iranian regime’s interference in Iraqi affairs.
One of these documents is the list of 32,000 agents of the mullahs’ regime in Iraq who receive monthly salaries from the Iranian regime. These people are currently in effect paid staff of the Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force. (IRGC-QF)
A top-secret document of the IRGC, it was obtained by the sources of the resistance inside Iran.
A few points on the list:
This list contains details of only 31,690 Iraqis who are primarily affiliated with the Badr Brigade of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, also known as SCIRI. But it is not limited to them and includes other individuals and groups in Iraq.
It contains the Iraqi and the Iranian name for each individual, meaning that these individuals, who are located in Iraq, also have an Iranian name.
All of these individuals are considered as official members of the IRGC.
The list contains the personnel code, the account number and the amount of monthly salary of each individual in the Iranian currency, Rial.
The list also contains the details of the each individual who is hired by the IRGC according to his personnel file, including the date of recruitment by the IRGC-QF and the Badr Brigade, the unit they served while they were in Iran, their military rank and code of personnel while working for the Qods Force.
I want to reiterate that this list only contains the details of individuals who were hired directly by the Qods Force in Iran and does not include individuals who have been recruited in Iraq in the course of the past four years. So in reality, the actual number of the Iranian regime’s agents in Iraq is much higher than the one on this list.
The Iranian regime has stationed its agents in all the major provinces of Iraq. As you can see, Baghdad and Basra have a very high number of agents and this the reason of the very unsafe situation in these two major cities.
This force was dispatched to Iraq in an organized way and in large groups shortly after the fall of the former Iraqi government in early 2003. They came through major border crossings under the direct command and supervision of the Qods Force, including IRGC Generals Qassem Suleimani, Iraj Masjedi, Ahmad Forouzandeh, and Hamid Taqavi.
The agents of the Iranian regime exposed in this document have an extensive presence and influence in Iraqi government agencies, in particular in the security apparatus some of which they control. They are the very same individuals who abducted two members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran in Baghdad in August 2005. There has been no news about their whereabouts for the past 18 months.
Some of these people are among senior political figures of Iraq. They receive monthly salary from the clerical regime, while they are considered as senior officials of the Iraqi government.
In order to control and keep track of various organs and their personnel, in all government agencies and in particular in military organs, some individuals function under the title of “Representative of Vali-e faqih” (representative of the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei). These individuals report directly to Khamenei’s office. Even the head of that organ or office is not authorized to intervene in the affairs of the representatives of Vali-e faqih. Only Khamenei's office has the authority to appoint or remove these so-called representatives. Since the Badr Corps is considered a functionary of the Qods Force, it is not an exception. In all of its units, departments and general command, representatives of Khamenei ensure that his orders and directives are pursued and carried out. They report directly to Khamenei's Office.
There are 481 representatives of Khamenei in the Badr Corps. Some of them hold key positions in the Iraqi government and Parliament.
How are these agents paid?
Since the transfer of the Badr Forces to Iraq, its budget is being paid through the General Command of the Armed Forces in the Qods Force. This budget is under the title of “Budget and salary of extra-territorial forces.”
Members of the Qods Force take the money to border zone in Mehran (in the central sector of the border), where the money is handed over the Badr agents. Badr agents subsequently take the money to Iraq and transfer it to office of Abdul-Aziz Hakim in Jaderyieh district of Baghdad. SCIRI representatives go to Hakim’s office and receive their money.
The individual in charge of finances of SCIRI is named Abu Kawthar.
The representatives of Badr in various provinces go to Baghdad and to receive the money which they then take it to their provinces for distribution under the supervision of Badr officials.
In this stage I would like to explain a terrorist network of Iranian regime in Iraq. This regime has dozens similar networks in that country.
This specific network was established by one of its veteran agents. His Iraqi name is Jamal Jafar Mohammad Ali- Al-Ebrahimi. His Iranian name is Jamal Ebrahimi.
He is a notorious terrorist and was among those who had planned the explosion of American and British embassies in Kuwait in 1984. He has been staying in Iran ever since.
He was a commander of the Badr Corps for years and has gone through Command and General Staff training at Imam Hossein University of the Guards Corps in Tehran.
Following the downfall of the former Iraqi government in 2003, he went to Iraq. IRGC Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani, the Commander of the Qods Force organized 950 veteran members of Badr Corps under Ibrahimi’s command and called this group “Tajamo-e Islami” or Islamic Assembly.
“Tajamo-e Islami” has branches throughout Iraq and has played a prominent role in setting up Shiite militias that are affiliated to the Iranian regime and its terror activities.
Ebrahimi is on official payroll of the Qods Force and his salary is 2600863 Rials ($300). His bank account number in Iran is 50100460275 and his salary code number in the Qods force is 3829770.
Setting up Hezbollah establishment in Iraq
One of the networks that Ebrahimi has established is the Iraqi Hezbollah. It is very similar to the Hezbollah in Lebanon and is active in Basra and Baghdad. This organization is in direct contact of the Qods Force and Lebanese Hezbollah. The members of Hezbollah go through military and terrorist training in Basra.
Ebrahimi sends his forces to Iran to receive special military and intelligence gathering trainings. They enter Iran across the southern border and are dispatched in groups of 20-50 individuals to Ahwaz and Tehran. They are trained by the Qods Force and the special training course is between 15-30 days.
The allocated budget for Ebrahimi’s network is 1.5 million dollars a month and is paid directly by the Qods Force.
Major part of terrorist operations in southern sectors of Iraq, in particular in Basra, al-emara, Nasserieh and Najaf areas, are carried out by ebrahimi’s network.
Ebrahimi is in direct liaison with IRGC Brigadier General Mojtaba Abtahi who is commander of Fajr garrison, one of the main bases of the Qods Force in southern Iran in Ahwaz.
Transfer of weapons and ammunition to Iraq
A significant number of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) that are used in Iraq are manufactured by the clerical regime and are sent to Iraq by the Fajr garrison.
According to our information, IEDs are manufactured in ammunition production section of the Defense Industries located in Lavizan in northern Tehran in three separate industrial sections called Sattari industries, Sayyad Shirazi industries, and Shiroodi industries. Each of these industries has it own specific production.
The orders for manufacturing highly explosive IEDs are given by the Bureau of Operations of the Qods Force to Sattari industries. Engineer Rahimi, deputy director of Sattari industries, is in charge of coordinating these projects.
IEDs are the primary types of weapons transferred at Shalamcheh border crossing in southern border.
In coordination with Fajr garrison, other weapons and ammunitions are transferred to Iraq through Bostan, Howizeh and Hour-al Azim border crossing in Missan province.
Conclusion:
What I have said sheds light on only a small portion of the Iranian regime’s meddling in Iraq.
The clerical regime, faced with intensifying domestic crisis and isolation inside Iran, views its only chance for survival in the establishment of a proxy regime in Iraq and the export of Islamic fundamentalism. By resorting to all sorts of means it is trying to achieve its objective in Iraq.
As scores of prominent Iraqis have underscored, Iraq is facing two occupations, with the Iranian regime being the main occupier.
Two forces are currently arrayed against one another in Iraq: democratic and patriotic forces vs. fundamentalist and extremist forces organized and led by the Iranian regime, which provides them with extensive financial, military and political support.
5.2 million Iraqis signed a declaration last June in which they said that the only way to establish democracy in Iraq is to cut off the hands of the mullahs’ regime and its agents in Iraq. They expressed their support for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran in Iraq and the need for their stay in Iraq as a major barrier to the expansion of fundamentalism and terrorism emanating from the clerical regime ruling Iran.
The priority for the Tehran regime's military apparatus, especially the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the IRGC's terrorist Qods Force, is to organize and direct the regime's interference in, and the efforts to dominate Iraq. Iraq is the Iranian regime's launching pad to dominate the entire region and install an Islamic Empire.
Iraq is the main battle ground between fundamentalism and democracy in the whole of the Middle East region. For this reason, the clerical regime views the People's Mojahedin (PMOI), who are anti-fundamentalist Muslims, as the biggest barrier to its attempt to spreading influence in Iraq. As such, Tehran is doing its utmost to secure the extradition or the expulsion of the PMOI from Iraq. The removal of restrictions from the PMOI and the reaffirmation of their political refugee status in Iraq are a decisive factor in confronting the fundamentalism inspired by the Iranian regime.
Evicting Tehran from Iraq is the only solution to resolve the Iraqi crisis. Of course, as far as mullahs are concerned, they are using all the means at their disposal to step up their meddling in Iraq because it is indispensable to their survival. This explains why evicting the Iranian regime from Iraq and change in Iran are entwined.
Qods Force: Iranian regime's instrument for extraterritorial terror activities
Tuesday, 26 December 2006
NCRI - The following brief was prepared by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI):
As far as the Iranian regime’s involvement in terrorism is concerned, Tehran has the most extensive terror network in the world. It is responsible for some 80 percent of all major terror attacks --directly or indirectly-- in the past two decades. Tehran has by far been the most sophisticated, well-funded state-sponsor of terrorism in the world. It is driven by an Islamic fundamentalist ideology and would use any opportunity and employ every source –regardless of its religious tendencies-- to accomplish its objectives. Tehran’s ties can be explained in this context.
The Qods (Jerusalem) Force is the most secretive, elite, and skilled unit of the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Formed in 1990, it is now responsible for all the extraterritorial activities of the Iranian regime, namely all terror attacks abroad. Its commander, Brig. Gen. Qassem Soleimani directly reports to the regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Final coordination of the Qods Force’s activities around the world and provision of the appropriate diplomatic or other cover for its agents, the use of diplomatic facilities and immunities that facilitate receiving supplies and messages, weapons and military equipment for its terrorist agents fall within the responsibilities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tehran’s embassies. The embassies are also heavily involved in intelligence-gathering operations against opposition groups and figures. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs turns over the information to the Qods Force.
The Qods force was originally called the Lebanon Corps. It carried out the suicide truck bomb attack on the US Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983.
The Qods [Jerusalem Force] is the most important agency tasked with the export of terrorism and fundamentalism.
1. In 1990, the Iranian regime consolidated all its intelligence agencies and extraterritorial institutions to form the Qods Force. The most experienced and veteran IRGC commanders were assigned to the Force. Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, the IRGC's Intelligence Directorate Chief was the Qods Force's first commander. He said our objective is the formation of an "international Islamic Army." Brig. Gen. Qassem Soleimani is the current IRGC commander. The headquarters for the Force is the former site of the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
2. The Qods Force has more than 21,000 Iranian members an thousands on non-Iranian mercenaries, which are active in intelligence gathering and terrorist activities in the Middle East and elsewhere, including in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, Jordan, etc. The Force's representatives work in many embassies around the world as diplomats.
3. The Qods Force has 12 directorates. In addition, it has several units called International Affairs Units that pursue developments in other countries. They are: Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, Middle East, Russia, Africa, and Europe.
4. In addition to terrorist operations, the Qods Force also trains non-Iranian terrorist forces, including nations from Pakistan, Morocco, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and other Middle East countries. The training is provided to groups of 40 to 50 persons. The Force has dozens of garrisons across Iran in which it trains its non-Iranian operatives.
5. Some of the Force's training centers for foreign nationals are as follows:
a. Imam Ali Training base. It is one of the most important training bases and is located north of Tehran, in Alborz Kouh Street.
b. Khomeini Training base. It is located on Khavaran-Semnan highway, before reaching Pakdasht Township. Col. Rezai is the commander of the base, where a large number of foreign forces from Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine are being currently trained.
c. Bahonar base. It is located on Chalous highway, near Karaj Dam. This is also among one of the most important training centers.
d. Qods Training Center in Nahavand. It is located 45km from the town of Nahavand, west of Iran. Foreign forces, including those from Lebanon and Afghanistan are trained here.
e. Qom's Beit ol-Moghadas University in the city of Qom.
f. Training center in Tehran's Farahzad district.
g. Training center on Damavand highway.
h. Hezbollah Base in Varamin, southeast of Tehran.
i. Madani Base in Dezful, (southwest Iran).
j. Bisotoun Base in Kermanshah, (western Iran).
k. Tangeh Kenesht Base in Kermanshah, (western Iran).
l. Ghayour Training Base in Ahwaz (southwest Iran).
6. The Qods Force has six major garrisons along Iran's borders with other countries. They are tasked with following up terrorist operations in the neighboring countries. They are:
a. Ramadan Garrison (First Corps) in Kermanshah (west). Mission: Iraq.
b. Nabi-Akram Garrison (Second Corps) in Zahedan (southeast). Mission: Pakistan.
c. Hamza Garrison (Third Corps) in Orumieh (northwest). Mission: Turkey.
d. Ansar Garrison (Fourth Corps) in Mashad (northeast). Mission: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
7. Terrorist Units.
In addition to the six garrisons, the Force has several other corps, including:
a. The Sixth Corps. Mission: Persian Gulf states.
b. The Seventh Corps. Mission: Lebanon and Syria.
c. The Eighth Corps. Mission: African States.
d. The Ninth Corps. Mission: Europe and the United States.
Qods Force in Iraq
The Qods Force is mainly focused on Iraq at the present. Iraq is the gateway to reach the rest of the Islamic world. The most senior IRGC generals as well as thousands of personnel are based in Ramadan Garrison. Their mission: To dominate Iraq. Large parts of southern Iraq are virtually in the control of the IRGC.
The regime has accomplished this feat by allocating billions of dollars, dispatching thousands of clerics and paying thousands of mercenaries on a monthly basis.
The Qods Force Fajr Garrison in Ahwaz has set up intelligence and reconnaissance squads to collect intelligence on the Coalition forces and identifying them. To this end, Fajr Garrison commanders, including Brig. Gen. Obeidavi, the garrison's commander, Hamid Taghavi, Ramadan Garrison's operations commander, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Forouzandeh, Ramadan Garrison's deputy commander, Brig. Gen. Balalek, Fajr Garrison's operational commander, Col. Heidar Saki, Fajr Garrison's intelligence commander as well as a number of other Fajr intelligence and operations commanders have repeatedly traveled to Al-Amara and Basra to make contact with these squads. They have posed as Iraqis in order not to be identified.
Each reconnaissance squad numbers around 20, each entrusted with a specific task. Some work in the streets as venders. Others are engaged in watch operations near their hideouts. Others have opened shops to collect intelligence and carry out surveillance operations on the Coalition forces. Some teams are engaged in filming. They also pose as ordinary people to get close to Coalition bases.
Some time ago, the Fajr Garrison set up an eavesdropping center in Basra. They intercept the communication between the government, police and Coalition forces. All equipment has come from Iran.
By causing chaos and launching terrorist operations on the Coalition columns in Basra, Al-Amara and Nassiriya, the Qods has prevented the Coalition forces from entering major population centers. The objective is to control the inner cities, both militarily and security wise.
The Fajr Garrison is currently smuggling different weapons' caches to Iraq. They use the Ajirdeh Dam region, Al-Aziz, Al-Holafayeh, Al-Moshrah. They also use the marshes in the south and the Tayeb region. The mostly use boats to do so.
The Fajr Garrison commander Obeidavi visits operatives affiliated with the Qods Force in Iraq on a monthly basis. He usually goes to Basra and Nassiriya.
In a confidential report to the Qods Force in June, the Fajr Garrison informed the Qods Force headquarters that "Iraqi groups affiliated with the Garrison have succeeded in setting up a well-coordinated entity to assassinate prominent Sunni personalities, including members of Iraq's Islamic Party, the Society of Muslim Scholars and other Sunni activists. By assassinating officials of these entities, they have succeeded in paving the way for pro-regime groups in Iraq's politics and facilitated their control of government portfolios."
Meet Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran's anti-American Qods Force.
continues..........
Done.
Done.
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