More trained "pilgrims" to enter Iraq (sent from Iran)

SMCCDI ^ | April 4, 2004

[nuconvert]

More trained "pilgrims" to enter Iraq

SMCCDI (Information Service)

Apr 2, 2004

More alleged "Pilgrims" are set to be sent to Iraq supposedly in order to commemorate the Shia ritual of Arba-in.

In reality these so-called Pilgrims are Iranian Intelligence officers and Arab mercenaries trained, by the Islamic republic regime, with the task of creating more complication for America in its War Against Terror and to avoid the stabilization of Iraq.

Benefiting of the Tehran based Arab speaking "Al-Alam" Satellite TV Network, the regime is intending to create more and more turmoil in Iraq as the US Presidential Election is approaching. Several members of its National Security Council and Intelligence believe that more shocking images will hit American's minds and will push them toward voting for the US Democratic Candidate. They strongly believe that John Kerry, as he has stated, will open negotiations with them and will reward them with parts of their requests if elected as the next US President.

Mr. Kerry who's benefiting of some very friendly US based Iranian lobbyists' advices has qualified the tyrannical and terrorist Islamic republic as a "Democratic frame" and promised to "Repair damages done by the Bush administration".

[McGavin999]

This is what I was talking about.

[nuconvert]

I was going to ping you ......

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[freedom44]

Ex-intelligence officer says Tehran deploying agents in Iraq

BBC - Monitoring Service
Apr 3, 2004

Text of report by Ali Nurizadah in London, entitled "Former Iranian intelligence officer: Tehran is deploying its agents in Iraq from north to south", published by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat on 3 April

The former official in charge of the Iraqi file in Iranian intelligence has disclosed in a statement to Al-Sharq al-Awsat information about the extensive Iranian security presence in Iraq, which he said is not confined to the Shi'i cities alone but extends from Zakho in the north to Umm al-Khasib in the south.

The official, who is known in Iraq by the name "Hajj Saeedi", said that elements from Iran's Revolutionary Guards intelligence and Quds Corps did not infiltrate into Iraqi territories during and after the war only but hundreds of intelligence agents, among them a number of Iraqi agents and returnees (Iraqis expelled by Saddam Husayn's regime in the 1970's and 1980's on the pretext of their Iranian origins) returned to Iraq before the war across the Kurdish areas that were not under the central government's control.

Iranian intelligence benefited after the war from the lack of any controls in the border areas to send a group of its best elements to Iraq, some of them disguised as students and clerics and others as part of the Shi'i organizations' militias.

"Hajj Saeedi", who fled from Iran recently, pointed out that the liquidation of Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, chairman of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, last summer was "one of the most important achievements of the Quds Corps intelligence elements who succeeded in carrying out their mission and leaving Iraq without any difficulty", according to him.

He also revealed a failed attempt to assassinate Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the senior Shi'i religious leader, and said he sent a message through a friend who visited Al-Sistani in his house on the eve of Id al-Adha last year, warning Al-Sistani not to receive some students and clerics who came from Iran to meet him after the id.

As he told Al-Sharq al-Awsat, "Hajj Saeedi" then contacted one of Al-Sistani's aides from inside Iraq and gave him details of the plan to assassinate the Shi'i leader. He added that another plan was prepared to assassinate Ayatollah Ishaq al-Fayyadi too.

Asked where the Iranian intelligence elements are based in Iraq, "Hajj Saeedi" said there are some offices in Al-Sulaymaniyah and Darband-i Khan in the north that are known to everyone, but the Kurdish authorities do not allow these offices' elements to carry out any activities that are harmful to Iraq's security and national interests. The danger comes from the offices that have fronts other than security and intelligence. They include 18 offices of "charity" foundations in Al-Kazimiyah and Madinat al-Sadr (formerly Al-Thawrah) in Baghdad, Karbala, Al-Najaf, Al-Kufah, Al-Nasiriyah, Basra and other cities where the Shi'is are the majority. They operate under the cover of helping the poor and oppressed with money, medicines, and daily necessities from food to clothes. New agents are recruited daily in these offices.

"Hajj Saeedi" went on to say that the Iranian intelligence plan for turning Iraq into a second Iran is extensive and the focus is at present on recruiting thousands of Shi'i youths for the stage during the parliamentary elections would be held in Iraq. The recruits have to mobilize their relatives and acquaintances to vote for the candidates selected by Iranian intelligence. He pointed out that the Iranian radio and television networks, press agencies and some newspapers close to the security organs are also fronts through which Quds Corps and Revolutionary Guards intelligence elements enter Iraq.

It is recalled that these networks, agencies and newspapers have more than 300 correspondents and technicians operating in Iraq at present and the possibility cannot be ruled that the Quds Corps and Guards intelligence had planted some of their elements among them as correspondents who can move in all Iraq's areas with their press cards and deliver the intelligence offices' messages and instructions to their local agents in Iraq.

Regarding the reports that the Iranian leadership has allocated 1bn dollars to prevent the establishment of a modern secular democratic state in Iraq, the official said the monthly allocations for the public and secret security offices in Iraq are more 70m dollars. An amount of 5m dollars is distributed in some religious schools as monthly salaries for the students and assistance to some clerics who are cooperating. More than 2,700 houses, apartments, and rooms were leased in Karbala and Al-Najaf by local collaborators to house the intelligence and Quds Corps elements in 14 Iraqi cities. "Hajj Saeedi" added that the measures taken by the two Kurdish administrations during recent months prompted the Revolutionary Guards and Quds Corps intelligence to implement a plan aimed at inciting the Shi'i Turkomans against the Kurds. He added that some Shi'i Turkoman leaders went to Tehran where they received huge financial aid and guarantees that Iran would support them if confrontations broke out between them and the Kurds.

He concluded his statement by saying: "In the 1980's and on the orders of Imam Khomeyni, we took our battle with the United States to Lebanon where we hit the US marines base and the US Embassy in Beirut and kidnapped William Buckley, head of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Middle East, and several American citizens. The United States was forced to recognize our role in Lebanon. We are today moving our battle with the United States to Iraq on the orders of the revolution guide so that it will recognize our role there too."

[monkeywrench]

Was it Iran that kerry sent that letter to?

[MEG33]

Ah,yes.Another endorsement for Kerry.Looks like the pilgrimages will need to be stopped.How soon we forget the Iranian's aims.

[MEG33]

Yes

[expatguy]

Looks like the enemy has found our weakness.

Label their idealogy a religion and watch America go limp.

We can fight Communists because of what they believe but we can't fight Muslims for what they believe.

[McGavin999]

LOL, that's OK, I've been watching this thing so close today I'm catching things the second they're posted. This whole thing has the stench of the mullahs on it. I wonder just how many of these Sadar supporters have made the "pilgramage" over the last couple of months and then just stayed?

[SauronOfMordor]

Any organization needs somebody to pay the bills. The people who pay the bills control the organization.

In Islam, the bill-payers are the Saudis and the Iranians

[cincinnati65]

Anyone read Tom Clancy's "Executive Orders"?

In the book, Saddam is assassinated, and within a week, Iraq and Iran are unified to become the United Islamic Republic. Interesting development, no?

[monkeywrench]

Thank you. A truly vast left wing conspiracy is shaping up.

[saquin]

Can you post a link to that BBC - Monitoring Service story (I'd like to send it to someone) or is it something I'd need to register for?

[Burkeman1]

If there is one thing that Shia of both Iran and Iraq should be grateful for is that our occupation has allowed them to resume their centuries old pilgrimages to the centers of Shia Islam (most of which happen to be in Iraq). The vast majority of these Shia Moslem pilgrims are not terrorists. And even under Sadaam many pilgrims paid brides to go to the holy Shia cities in Iraq from Iran.

But it does raise a security concern as long as we are there. How it is handled is a question left to people with more knowledge than me.

[nuconvert]

"the bill-payers are the Saudis and the Iranians"

Correct

[nuconvert]

Yes. And congressman Ney has an affinity for the regime also.

[McGavin999]

You are right, it does. And most of the pilgrams are good people, it's just that the mad mullahs are taking advantage of our allowing the pilgrimages to smuggle in their thugs.

I read on one of the message boards from our soldiers who have just come home that many of the pilgrims from Iran have come up to them and asked "When are you coming to Iran please"

[massatoosits]

Wisely spoken.

[nuconvert]

We've been reading about al-Sadr on the thread for almost a year now. Here's a thread from Dec. talking about the U.S. not knowing how to handle him.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1034279/posts