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Inside the Zarqawi Network

August 16, 2004
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Jonathan Schanzer, Soref Fellow

At least 13 Iraqis were killed in fighting with U.S. soldiers in the Iraqi city of Falluja on July 30, part of the ongoing U.S. offensive against fighters loyal to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the man Bush administration officials claim is the most dangerous terrorist in Iraq today. Critics, however, contend that the Jordanian-born Zarqawi is a Washington-made bogeyman who is not worth the $25 million bounty on his head. They doubt the strength of Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group, citing intelligence officials who generally agree that no more than 1,000 foreign fighters are active in Iraq.

A memo acquired by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy from Iraqi intelligence sources, however, provides a first glimpse into the configuration of Zarqawi's Iraqi network, which may be more dangerous than previously imagined. The memo, "Structure of Tawhid and Jihad Islamic Group," details several days of recent interrogations of one of Zarqawi's captured lieutenants. Umar Baziyani, Zarqawi's number four, a member of the Tawhid legislative council, and the "emir" of Baghdad, was captured by U.S. forces in late May 2004. The account of his confessions details the hierarchal structure of Zarqawi's group, its ties to Syria and Iran, the number of fighters it commands in Iraq, the names of the regional emirs, its media strategy, and more.

The memo explains that Zarqawi, who had allied himself with the Kurdish al Qaeda affiliate Ansar al Islam in northern Iraq, lost his lifeline to al Qaeda in January 2004 when U.S. intelligence arrested Hassan Ghul. Ghul, according to U.S. officials, was carrying a message from Zarqawi to Osama bin Laden. Ghul, who was reportedly a lieutenant of 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was considered to be the top al Qaeda operative captured in Iraq. Baziyani explains that after Ghul's arrest, Tawhid and Jihad was cut off from al Qaeda. Recent reports, citing U.S. intelligence agencies, indicate that Zarqawi may have been trying to reconnect with bin Laden "in the last few weeks."

Baziyani explains, however, that Zarqawi's group did not wither when it fell from the al Qaeda vine. He claims that there are nine regional leaders of the Falluja-based Tawhid and Jihad under Zarqawi. His deputy, also based in Falluja, is known as Mahi Shami. If U.S. intelligence manages to catch up with these two top leaders, there are still regional "emirs" fanned out around Iraq, which could make the network incredibly difficult to break. For instance, Baziyani explained during his interrogation that he had been replaced as emir of Baghdad after his arrest. There are also regional emirs in the Kurdish north (Hussein Salim), the western Anbar province (Abdullah Abu Azzam), and the city of Mosul (Abu Tallah). In this way, Tawhid and Jihad can execute spectacular terrorist attacks throughout the country. These include the Baghdad-based bombing of the Jordanian embassy; suicide bombings against Shiites and an attack on Basra's oil infrastructure in the south; suicide bombings against Kurds in the north; attacks against police recruiting centers throughout the country; and the beheading of American Nick Berg in an unknown location.

In addition to its regional bases, Zarqawi's group has a specially designated media department. Baziyani claims that a man named Hassan Ibrahim heads this department, along with lieutenants Khadi Hassan and "Adil," who were responsible for taping and releasing the May 11 beheading of Berg.

Baziyani also details the military strength of Tawhid and Jihad. He lists seven military commanders under Zarqawi's control throughout Iraq with about 1,400 fighters at their disposal. Not surprisingly, Baziyani stated that the Falluja group, headed by Abu Nawas Falujayee, has the most fighters with 500. Second to Falluja is Mosul, with 400 fighters. (Analysts believe Mosul is a haven for former Ansar al Islam fighters.) There are also strongholds in Anbar (60 fighters), Baghdad (40 fighters), and Diyala, the province just northeast of Baghdad (80 fighters). According to Baziyani, most of the fighters in Tawhid and Jihad are Iraqi Arabs and Kurds -- not foreign jihadis -- which corroborates reports by U.S. intelligence that the foreign fighter presence is much smaller than previously imagined.

One senior administration official, however, doubts Baziyani's claim that Zarqawi has 1,400 fighters under his command. A more realistic figure, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity, might be 500. But the official admitted, "I'm not sure how anyone would really know. If we knew more, we would have probably rolled up this group by now. It could be wrong for us to think we know better than the man we debriefed."

Interestingly, Baziyani's interrogation reveals that Tawhid and Jihad maintains a strong military presence (150 fighters) in the town of al-Qaim, which is close to the Syrian border, just west of the Euphrates River. One Pentagon official believes that the number of fighters Baziyani put in al-Qaim is likely inflated, but says that the importance of the town cannot be overstated. Al-Qaim, to the bewilderment of U.S. officials, was where the Iraqi army put up some of its fiercest resistance during the 2003 Iraq war. A senior administration official calls Qaim "critical" and "the key to understanding how Syria is involved" in the insurgency.

With the help of Zarqawi, the town is said to be a depot for weapons, cash, and fighters supplied by Zarqawi's financiers -- the bulk of whom are now believed by U.S. intelligence to be operating out of Syria. Abu Muhamed, whom the memo fingers as the military emir of the Baghdad cell, is a former Lebanese military officer who once lived in Denmark. According to Baziyani, he was smuggled into Iraq via Syria. Many other fighters, including Zarqawi's driver and bodyguard, are of Syrian descent.

There are other foreign links. Baziyani explained to his interrogators that the Zarqawi network received a great deal of assistance from Iran. One Tawhid and Jihad militant, Othman, was reportedly responsible for transferring former Ansar al Islam fighters and other jihadis back and forth from Iran to Baghdad once the U.S. occupation was underway. In other words, Iran has been involved in supplying fighters to tangle with U.S. soldiers. This should come as no surprise, given the 9/11 Commission's recent report that Iran was a transit state for 9/11 plotters.

Looking back, Sunni-Shia enmity has never been a concern for Iran when it comes to providing logistics to al Qaeda, or even supporting Sunni groups such as Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza. Iran, it is also worth noting, provided assistance to the Sunni and Kurdish Ansar al Islam on the eve of the 2003 U.S. invasion. Tehran allowed Ansar fighters to cross the border to escape the U.S. assault. According to several Ansar prisoners, Iran allowed fighters to remain there, and then later helped them back into Iraq to join the insurgency.

Interestingly, the Baziyani memo is not all bad news. The captured militant says that U.S. forces have hammered the Falluja bases of his organization in recent months. This, he said, has caused the network's leadership to disperse. Thus, Baziyani states, some of Zarqawi's deputies have considered Samarra as a new base. According to one Iraqi source close to the new Iraqi security cabinet, there has been some indication of "command and control in the Samarra area." Several U.S. officials, however, believe this assertion to be untrue -- perhaps wishful thinking or even disinformation on the part of Baziyani.

The information in the Baziyani interrogation memo needs to be further vetted by U.S. and Iraqi intelligence. Still, the memo provides an unprecedented look into the mind of one of Zarqawi's lieutenants. It also provides a view of the small but powerful network that may or may not be at the center of the Iraqi insurgency, but has established itself as its brutal, public face.

Jonathan Schanzer is a Soref Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and author of the forthcoming Al-Qaeda's Armies: Middle East Affiliate Groups and the Next Generation of Terror.

Weekly Standard, August 16, 2004

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/media/schanzer/schanzer081604.htm

Iran: OPEC Powerless to Lower Oil Price [Excerpt]

August 14, 2004
Reuters
CNN Money

TEHRAN -- OPEC can do nothing to douse scorching oil prices when markets are already oversupplied by 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude, Iran's OPEC governor said on Saturday, warning that prices could fall sharply.

"Now there are more than 2.8 million bpd of crude more than demand," Hossein Kazempour Ardebili was quoted as saying on the Iranian Oil Ministry Web site.

"There is no reason for OPEC members to increase production," he added. "This organisation is unable to do anything at present."

Oil futures prices raced to record highs on Friday, further boosted by a U.S. refinery fire, underpinned in a long term rally but soaring demand led by China and fears of disruption to supply, particularly in Iraq.

U.S. crude oil futures hit $46.65 a barrel, the latest peak in a series of record highs in all but one of the last 11 trading sessions.

Iran is OPEC's second-biggest producer but like all its fellow members but for Saudi Arabia, it has no spare capacity left to contribute to a further rise in OPEC's production after the cartel's most recent 2.5 million bpd quotas hike agreed in June.

Iran's attempts to lift capacity further are weighed down by cumbersome investment deals.

"It seems that prices will continue to go up without taking into consideration the basic elements of the market, supply and demand," Kazempour said. "The current trend of prices stems from political and military developments."

He reiterated that oil prices could still crash if security fears subsided.

"If a calm political and military situation prevails in the market, the amount added to crude reserves will pressure the price," he said.

The Organisation of the Petrolem Exporting Countries, due to meet next on September 15, is already pumping at a 25-year high of 30 million bpd, casting aside the restraint of official quotas.

Saudi Arabia is producing around 9.5 million bpd, against a quota of 8.45 million bpd, and is expected to reach near 10 million bpd in September.

Iran, however, is straining to produce nearly four million bpd against a quota of around 3.8 million bpd. ...

http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/14/news/international/iran_opec.reut/index.htm

IRAN’S NEO-CONSERVATIVES POISED TO TAKE CHARGE OF POLITICAL AGENDA

By Kamal Nazer Yasin
Posted Saturday, August 14, 2004

In response to deepening domestic and social challenges, a neo-conservative movement is fast gaining influence in Iran, and now appears poised to take charge of shaping the country’s political agenda. This new force in Iranian politics features a blend of old-style devotion to the principles of the 1979 Islamic revolution with new-found pragmatism on nagging domestic issues.

Many leaders of Iran’s neo-conservative movement, including Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nezhad, maintain close connections with the Revolutionary Guards, the chief enforcer of the Islamic Revolution. For much of the Islamic republic’s existence, there has been an effective taboo on the Revolutionary Guards’ involvement in politics. This taboo now appears to have been broken.

Neo-conservatives have grown increasingly assertive in recent months, especially after the controversial parliamentary elections in February that gave conservatives a stranglehold on the legislature. In March, a prominent neo-conservative and former Revolutionary Guards commander, Ezatollah Zarghami, was named to head Iran’s state television and radio network. Meanwhile, the head of the country’s judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, named a former Revolutionary Guards commander to be his legislative liaison.

According to political observers in Tehran, the neo-conservative movement is still taking shape. In particular, the movement’s leadership structure remains ill-defined. Perhaps as many as 80 MPs out of the 270-seat legislature are believed to be proponents of neo-conservative beliefs. The movement is believed to be steadily gaining adherents.

Many neo-conservatives are members of the second-generation of the Islamic revolution - people who were too young to play important roles in the 1979 overthrow of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In general, political experts say, the neo-conservatives share many of the same orthodox views held by the older generation of conservatives on the special, dominant role of Islam in Iranian society.

In sharp contrast to the older generation, however, the neo-conservatives seem unfazed by globalization issues and express a willingness to tackle the country’s myriad social and economic problems, especially unemployment. Iran’s old conservative guard, which is dominated by clerics, has largely avoided confronting the country’s daunting economic dilemmas.

There are indications that the Old Guard, including the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, has tacitly encouraged the neo-conservatives to assert themselves. The Supreme Leader’s office, along with other top Iranian institutions, has praised neo-conservative initiatives. On July 11, for example, Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, the head of the Assembly of Experts, lauded Ahmadi-Nezhad, the conservative Tehran mayor, saying; "not only the people of Tehran, but the entire Iranian nation is pleased that a new management team has come to power at the Mayor’s Office."

Such statements are being interpreted by Tehran political observers as an admission by the Old Guard that the younger generation now offers the best hope for defending the ideals of the Islamic revolution. Many neo-conservatives lack an extensive track record of public service, and thus are believed to be better able to gain the trust and support of a wary population.

In general, conservative forces can rely on the support of 20 percent or less of Iran’s population. Conservatives have been able to wrestle power from reformists in recent years in part through the manipulation of the country’s religious oversight bodies, in particular the Council of the Guardians, and by taking advantage of public apathy generated by the inability of reformist forces to push through their legislative agenda.

In another sign that the neo-conservatives are in the ascendancy, institutions closely identified with the Old Guard - such as the Society of Combatant Clergy and the Islamic Coalition Association (ICA) - have recently seen their authority scaled back. Throughout the Islamic republic’s history, the ICA managed billions of dollars in various economic projects with little or no accountability for expenditures. Rumours are now circulating in Tehran that some ICA-affiliated organizations may soon be the targets of an anti-corruption investigation.

Some observers consider former Majles Speaker Hojjatoleslam Ali-Akbar Nateq Nouri, who officially serves as Khameneh’i’s chief of staff, as the chief liaison between the Old Guard leadership and members of the neo-conservative movement.

Influential conservative clerics appear to hope that the neo-conservatives will be able to restore the popular consensus for Islamic republican principles, which have eroded since 1997, following the election of reformist president Mohammad Khatami. The neo-conservatives are reputed to be strong supporters of Khamenei’s spiritual authority, and they currently enjoy a reputation of shunning corrupt practices. The also express a willingness to embrace new tactics, which are more in step with public preferences, in going about defending Iran’s Islamic orthodoxy.

The performance of Ahmadi-Nezhad’s mayoral administration in Tehran offers some insight into the neo-conservative movement’s operating methods. Its twin motto is "efficiency" and "clean government." Ahmadi-Nejad has sought to improve public services, including garbage collection, while seeking to reorient the city’s cultural policies. Tehran officials have closed down youth centres and music and film clubs, and instead pressed ahead with efforts to organise new youth-oriented religious programs.

In addition to Iran’s political, social and economic problems, the confrontational stance adopted by the United States under the Bush administration has infused the neo-conservatives with a sense of urgency. The Bush administration, in which American neo-conservatives hold sway over Iranian policy, view Iran as a member of the "Axis of Evil," and, before US forces became bogged down in Iraq, often spoke of the need for regime change in Tehran.

Some observers in Tehran believe that the recent emergence of the Revolutionary Guards as a force in Iranian politics is a direct response to the country’s developing geopolitical challenges.

Given Iran’s complex political system, featuring elected and un-elected institutions, many observers say it is too early to tell whether the neo-conservative movement can gain enough traction, especially among the electorate, to successfully implement their agenda. At the same time, experts believe the neo-conservatives will soon have the opportunity to test their political leadership skills.

ENDS IRAN CONSERVATIVES 14804

Editor’s Note: Kamal Nazer Yasin is a pseudonym for a freelance journalist specializing in Iranian affairs.

Highlights, some ediding and phonetisation of names are by IPS

This article was published by EurasiatNet on 25 July 2004

http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2004/august/iran_conservatives_14804.shtml

Sadr thugs should surrender with out truce

August 14, 2004
http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/

Truce failed which is good thing because truce with Muqatad Sadr means big victory for him and it will be a very big mistake which will never be corrected. It will mean he will control the entire south and his thugs are already spreading fears in people opposing them.

The action is started and should end with Sadr surrender himself and his thugs captured and tried or else. By this only Iraq will be stable otherwise it will be disaster and will end with Iranian puppet regime of Mullahs.

You can monitor how weak is Sadr's position by when the truce announced failed he immediately asked for UN troops and beg for truce.

Press hard and if needed tear gas those who are inside the shrine to get them out and capture them. By this only we will win otherwise Iranian Mullah will win.

When Falluja left alone after the first strikes it is now a very strong hold for the Zarqawi thugs and the terrorists who control every thing including the Police force. They also arranged a net work with all other cities like Hadietha, Tikrit, Samara, Baghdad, Baquba and other areas. There was a new report by the (Le nouvel observateur) on the 5 August 2004 from inside Falluja with a meeting with one of the Leaders of Zarqawi group (Abo Rashed â€“ called the Iron Man) who decapitated many foreigners including M Berg which showed how strong they are now in converting Falluja into a new Talaban strong hold region. There should be a return to that village after Sadr issue solved by force.

Sadr thugs like Kaies Khazali (the white turban wearing adolescent boy) who appears in the TV channels talk like as if they are a government. There should be an end to those thugs soon so as to send signal to all others to think about their fate if they act outlawed like Sadr thugs.

Iran should be from now put under pressure to solve the issues of Arabs, Kurds, Bishtons, and all non-Persians nations as well as the nuclear issue. Ending the Sadr thugs is a strong signal to Iran to remove its hands from Iraq and to turn to solve the issue of its oppressed nations.

The Trapped Rat!

Let ask the question if Saddam is still in power what will be the position of Muqtada Sadr and the mob which follow him?

OK; let us what happen when Saddam send his security to ask for Maqtad to met the maid of Saddam. The security knocked the door and Maqty open. When he saw them he shivered and stammered while trying to modify his donkey like voice. They told him Mr President's maid like to see you. Before they finished their sentence they noticed water coming down in between the legs of Maqty! He urinates on himself and his shivering continued. He said can I go to put my turban on my head. They said no. He said but I wet myself! They said; yes, we noticed that; this is what we like you to do. The maid of Mr President will feel happy about that.

They dragged him from his head and put him in the car like sheep! When in the room of some one supposed to be Mr President's maid Maqty run to his shoes and tried to kiss them to save his life. We don't like to talk about the next but in one sentence if Saddam is still there what Maqty will do other than being deaf, dumb, dull, mute, and garbage.

Now what was the action of the mobs that follow him now? The answer is very clear because the same people who are with him now are the savages who used to bow in humiliation to Saddam! They used to bend to kiss the shoes and hands of Saddam. They are the same savages who if Saddam kills one of them tell him yes we disown him as he is traitor. They are also the same thugs who were part of his security and some of them are just Iranians subsidiary illiterate riffraff.
In one sentence they are uncivilised barbaric thugs especially those with white turban in the close circle of that small donkey!

If they are civilised and would like to have power they would have chose to take their chance in democratic free election but they know that most people don't like them. Now the people in Najaf feel that Saddam's security is much merciful and better with them than Maqty thugs. Similar changes are going on in the other areas where Maqty groups had an influence like in the city of Thawra in Baghdad.
The regime of turban wearing Mullahs proved its failure in Tehran and the Iranian people waiting for any opportunity to get rid off that regime of the Mullahs.

Iran Arabs in Arabstan are looking for their independence and the International Community should really support them in their freedom! On their behalf we call for the international community to support them as soon as possible for their independence. They are very oppressed and treated as second class citizens and prevented from using their own language.

Also the Kurds in North Iran are much suppressed and they international community should support their cause for more freedom. The Beshton population are another people who would like to get their independence from the regime of Tehran. The Persian regime controlled and suppressed too many populations and occupied them for long time. Now it is time for independence for all these oppressed people. They also dictate their roles on the Iranian Christians and Jewish. Iran should now be put under the scrutiny of the international community for the human rights violation.

The Iranian interference in Iraq internal affairs and the destruction resulted from that should be considered by the UN.

There should be no truce for Maqty until he gives up himself and ask his barbaric mobs to lay their arms.

In Hilla

Sadr's gangs looted the gold market, the bank and the shops in Hilla city. They break down the prison and freed all the criminals and outlawed there like killers, rapists, robbers, and terrorists. They terrorised the people and some cases of rapes have been kept silent.

Every thing in the city has been looted including the foreign currency from banks by Sadr thugs!

Updated Alert!

Al-Sharqyiah TV showed captured Iranians, Arabs, Afghanis and a lot of Iranian arms and ammunitions used by Sadr militia during Najaf fighting!

The peace-mouth of terrorist and the bullshit of the Wahabists Al-Jazeera (Qatari TV) showed a meeting with Muqtada Sadr today who appeared shaky ignorant and uneducated. He commented that he is ready to help Falluja with any thing they want including military help! He stops shortly of saying he would help Zarqawi thugs!

His hand was dressed by a very clean white bandage! If he had an injury to his hand then the bandage could have been stained with some blood or Betadine antiseptic solution through the bandage. Clean bandage mean fabrication or just a Mosquito bite!

The Stealth Nuclear Threat [Excerpt]

August 15, 2004
Newsweek
Fareed Zakaria

Terror is understandably on everyone's mind, but there is yet another growing danger over the horizon: an Iran ambitious for nukes.

Who could have imagined that alliance management would be a hot election issue in America? But it is. John Kerry's repeated pledge to restore relations with America's allies has struck a chord. The trouble is, if he is elected president, Kerry is going to find that promise hard to keep—at least with America's allies in Europe. Most of them would be delighted to see Kerry win, but that doesn't mean they will be more cooperative on policy issues. Terror is understandably on everyone's mind, but there is yet another growing danger over the horizon. Early into a Kerry administration, we could see a familiar sight—a transatlantic crisis—except this time it wouldn't be over Iraq but Iran.

The threat to America from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, if they ever existed, is in the past. Iran, on the other hand, is the problem of the future. Over the last two years, thanks to tips from Iranian opposition groups and investigations by the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has become clear that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. In the words of the agency, Iran has "a practically complete front end of a nuclear fuel cycle," which leads most experts to believe it is two to three years away from having a nuclear bomb.

European countries were as worried by this development as Washington and, since the United States has no relations with Iran, Europe stepped in last fall and negotiated a deal with Iran. It was an excellent agreement in which Iran pledged to stop developing fissile material (the core ingredient of a nuclear bomb) and to keep its nuclear program transparent. The only problem is, Iran has recently announced that it isn't going to abide by the deal. As the IAEA's investigation got more serious, Tehran got more secretive. One month ago the agency condemned Iran for its failure to cooperate. Tehran responded by announcing that it would resume work in prohibited areas.

That's where things stand now, with the clock ticking fast. If Iran were to go nuclear, it would have dramatic effects. It would place nuclear materials in the hands of a radical regime that has ties to unsavory groups. It would signal to other countries that it's possible to break the nuclear taboo. And it would revolutionize the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and Egypt would feel threatened by Iran's bomb and would start their own search for nuclear technology. (Saudi Arabia probably could not make a bomb but it could certainly buy necessary technology from a country like Pakistan. In fact, we don't really know all of the buyers who patronized Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan's nuclear supermarket. It's quite possible Saudi Arabia already has a few elements of such a program.) And then there is Israel, which has long seen Iran as its greatest threat. It is unlikely to sit passively while Iran develops a nuclear bomb. The powerful Iranian politician Ali Rafsanjani has publicly speculated about a nuclear exchange with Israel. If Iran's program went forward, at some point Israel would almost certainly try to destroy it using airstrikes, as it did Iraq's reactor in Osirik. Such an action would, of course, create a massive political crisis in the region.

In the face of these stark dangers, Europe seems remarkably passive. Having burst into action last fall, it does not seem to know what to do now that Iran has rebuffed its efforts. It is urging negotiations again, which is fine. But what will it tell Iran in these negotiations? What is the threat that it is willing to wield?

Last month the Brookings Institution conducted a scenario with mostly former American and European officials. In it, Iran actually acquires fissile material. Even facing the imminent production of a nuclear bomb, Europeans were unwilling to take any robust measures like the use of force or tough sanctions. James Steinberg, a senior Clinton official who organized this workshop, said that he was "deeply frustrated by European attitudes." Madeleine Albright, who regularly convenes a discussion group of former foreign ministers, said that on this topic, "Europeans say they understand the threat but then act as if the real problem is not Iran but the United States."

American policy toward Iran is hardly blameless. Washington refuses even to consider the possibility of direct talks with Iran, let alone actual relations. Europeans could present Washington with a plan. They would go along with a bigger stick if Washington would throw in a bigger carrot: direct engagement with Tehran. This is something Tehran has long sought, and it could be offered in return for renouncing its nuclear ambitions. ...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5635447/site/newsweek/

Mullah-nnihilation?

August 09, 2004
FrontPageMagazine.com
Reza Bayegan

The Associated Press reported on July 27 that in defiance of any international monitoring of its program, Iran had broken seals put on its equipment by the IAEA, the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency. On the same day in London, The Times warned that Iran was only “months away” from having the capability to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb. With the American officials disclosing that last February IAEA inspectors found P-2 centrifuge parts, which are more suited to making weapons than the P-1 parts that Iran has confirmed it possesses,[1] there can be little doubt about the mullah's intentions.

Obviously, a nuclear-armed Tehran would be cataclysmic for the democratic world (particularly the state of Israel). What is less apparent are the devastating effects of such an eventuality on Iran's own culture and civilization. The Islamic bomb would give a great boost to Arab and religious extremism, while at the same time dealing a severe blow to the hopes of salvaging a Persian Iran whose cultural references sharply differ from its Arab neighbors.

Granted basic human freedoms and relieved from the frenzy fomented by the Ayatollahs, there can be no question that the allegiance of the majority of Iranian citizens is to values and sentiments represented by cities like Shiraz and Isphahan, rather than Mecca and Jerusalem.

Getting their hands on the nuclear bomb would help the clerical rulers plunge Iran yet deeper into regional conflicts where, by nature, it does not really belong. As Reuel Marc Gerecht has argued, obtaining nuclear weapons fits in well with the “grand objective of the Iranian mullahs to use them as leverage to enhance their security and sphere of influence throughout the Middle East.”

Reaching nuclear capability will give a freer hand to the fanatical regime to further undermine the country's national identity. It will strengthen those repressive forces that have been assaulting the human rights and cultural independence of Iranian citizens since the inception of the revolution. In other words, what is a dream for the ruling clergy, can only translate into a hideous nightmare for the Iranian nation.

At the heart of the nuclear issue lies the dual purpose of sworn animosity of the Islamic Republic against the state of Israel on the one hand, and the mullahs wish to perpetuate their illegitimate rule on the other. The vast resources of Iranian natural wealth, instead being directed to alleviate poverty within the country and invested in badly needed development projects, are poured into the coffers of Lebanese and Palestinian militia groups and used for arming and financing terrorist operations around the globe.

The anti-Jewish campaign of the Islamic Republic is utterly repugnant to the attitude Iranians have adopted towards the nation of Israel throughout their long history. It was deeply ironic last month when UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) listed the tomb of Cyrus the Great in Pasargadae as a world heritage site. At a time when Iran is known as a member of the Axis of Evil, and the most active sponsor of international terrorism, the image of Iranian heritage that the world honors and commemorates is of a country whose founding monarch put together the first human rights declaration, the articles of which guaranteed the right of religious practice in general, and the freedom of Jewish people in particular.

The ill-will towards the Jews therefore goes hand in hand with the hatred today’s clerical regime displays against the continuity of Iranian national values and traditions. Let us not forget that scores of Iranians are arrested every year for observing festivals that date back to the pre-Islamic period. The hostility of the mullahs towards Israel, as Roger Howard has stated, is “directed not only towards Israeli policies but, in many cases, towards the rights of the Jewish state to exist at all.”[2]

Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, has time and again asserted that the only way to solve the Middle East crisis “is to destroy the Zionist regime.” The most effective way to accomplish such a result is by a nuclear bomb. Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani the powerful ex-President does not make any bones about such deadly projects. Reassuring his audience about the dangers of nuclear confrontation with the Jewish state, he tells them that comparing with the “devastation” of Israel by a nuclear bomb, a retaliation (that is if they are still there to retaliate) will only cause a scattered “damage” to the far greater population of the Islamic world.[3]

On the face of such open threats to its security, Israel has every right to a preemptive strike. Prime Minister Sharon has declared that it will constitute a state of war for any country hostile to Israel to acquire a nuclear bomb. As a matter of fact, the state of war between the Islamic Republic and the state of Israel has existed for a long time, albeit unilaterally. The mullahs pay $50,000 to the family of every suicide bomber attacking Israeli targets. This figure is twice the amount offered by Saddam Hussein for such terrorist attacks. A considerable chunk of the budget of the country is allocated for killing Jews inside Israel – and throughout the world. The bombing of the Jewish Center in the capital of Argentina in July 1994, which resulted in the death of 85 people and the injury of more than 200, is only one instance of this ongoing war. The high officials of the clerical regime who masterminded this carnage spent $10 million only to bribe the Argentinian officials to keep quiet about the Iranian role in this attack.[4]

The efforts of the Islamic Republic against Israeli interests are only matched by the government's relentless persecution of the Iranian people. The Islamic Republic remains at the top of the list of violators of Amnesty International and other international human rights agencies. The mullahs’ obsession with the Arab-Israeli issue has been exploited to justify internal repression. Portraying the Islamic faith as in danger of annihilation by American “imperialism” and Israeli Zionism, the mullahs trample on the rights of individual Iranians in the name of saving Islam and securing the freedom of the Palestinian people.

Like other empty rhetoric of the regime, the support for the “Palestinian struggle” however has been regarded by the Iranian population as political cant devoid of any reality. Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1979 creation of a “Ghods Day,” rallying in support of the Palestinian cause to “liberate Jerusalem,” was odd and alien to Iranian sensibility. Roger Howard, attending rallies held on the Ghods Day, managed to talk to students on university campuses, who tell him in private that Arab-Israeli dispute is “nothing to do with us.” He writes:

In mid-June 2003, students held a series of large rallies at Tehran University that called not only for more democracy in Iran but also for the government to “forget about Palestine and think of us.”

The “liberation of Jerusalem” and the extermination of Israeli Jews has been an aspiration for Iran's revolutionary fascists and the Islamic-Marxists urban guerrillas who were shut off from the reality of Iranian worldview in training camps sponsored by Yasser Arafat and Muammar al-Qaddafi. Their mission was to fight the Shah and impose a mindset on Iranians that was totally incongruous with their country’s tolerant culture and long established humanitarian tradition.

The failure of their relentless propaganda is evident in the way Iranians turn to Israeli radio for reliable news and trustworthy information. Traveling in Iran in 1999, I was amazed that a local official in Hamadan, who was frequently mouthing the government's line about the Zionist enemy, took me to his orchard and proudly showed off his walnut tree. “It is the very best,” he said. “It has been brought in from Israel you know.” The very best of Israel has also been imported from Iran: Israeli President Moshe Katsav and the Defense Minister Lt. General Shaul Mofaz were both born in Iran.

This strong affinity with between the two nations has enabled the Israelis to look beyond the crimes of the present regime and exercise great military restraint towards Iran. This restraint should continue until all other peaceful options are probed and exhausted. An Israeli attack on Iranian soil, albeit on selected military and nuclear targets, would be used by the mullahs as welcomed propaganda to rally the national sentiments at a time when Iranians are most united in their hatred of the Islamic regime. It should be kept in mind that the destruction of the regime’s nuclear facilities will only serve as a temporary patch on a dangerous infection. What Iran desperately needs is an opportunity to emerge from the long nightmare of the clerical tyranny.

This can happen with the mobilization of international efforts to isolate the mullahs and strengthen internal forces truly representative of Iran’s cultural heritage and national identity. To search for those forces we need to go no further than the most popular Iranian national figure today: Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah of Iran, who leads a political campaign from his exile in the United States to hold a free and fair national referendum on the political future of his country. He represents the modern voice of a cultural tradition that is distinctly Iranian in its broadmindedness and humanity. His campaign which embraces all political groups and unites Iranians under one democratic agenda is not only the best means of stopping the terrorist regime in Tehran to threaten the world with nuclear weapons, but its success will be the most effective preemptive strike at the heart of the forces of violence and instability in the region of Middle East.

ENDNOTES:

“Iran denies uranium centrifuge is part of plan to build a nuclear bomb,” Paul Harris, The Observer. August 1, 2004.

Iran in crisis? Nuclear Ambitions and American Response. Roger Howard. (Zed Books, 2004).

Ibid.

Ibid.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14558

Najaf Update: Alert!

http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/
August 15, 2004

The attack against Sadr thugs in Najaf just started! The US/Iraqi forces moves toward the centre of the city where Sadr groups hide from two direction without resistance yet!

Iran; (Kadhem Al Haairi the God father for Sadr groups) issued Fatwa for the involvement of the Iraqi police and other forces not to attack Sadr groups.

More latter!

Iran deeply involved!

At least 30 Iranian fighters captured near the border in Kut in their way to go with sadr militia. Also two trucks full with arms have been captured near Kut from Iran towards Sadr fighters.

Mortar attack hit Imam Ali shrine outside wall!

No one know from where this attack came but it can be from any one including Sadr fighters who may do this intentionally to attract more support for them.
Sadr and his thugs ever polluted Imam Ali shrine by converting it into a military camp and a hiding place for his timid personality.

Sadr and Iran responsible for all what is going to happen. He now should not be given and chance to play his game of the mouse and the cat again with thousands of innocent lives exposed to danger.

The UN and international community should do their duty to stop and punish Iran for its interference and causing death of many innocent Iraqis. Iran and Sadr are responsible of profaning the Shrine of Imam Ali.

Cautious Silence!

Things get quite and the Iraqi National assembly will send delegates for talks to stop fighting in return for dissolution of the Militia.

The Najaf governor asked the journalists to leave the city as their life is in danger.

There is news from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior that there is about 20 foreign fighters (may be Iranian) heavily armed inside the Shrine of Imam Ali who threatened to blow the Shrine if the US/Iraqi forces commenced its advance towards the shrine.
Maqty still hiding their!

The next few hours seems to be decisive especially with the journalists ordered out of the Najaf!

In a different subject there is nearly certain information about the presence of Azit Al-Dori in the Syrian capital Damascus since last April. He is not in good health accompanied by a woman who may have been married her after the failure of the regime when he was in hiding.

Allawi Stand Eases Iran-Iraq Standoff

August 15, 2004
AFP
The Peninsula

TEHRAN -- Iran’s official media yesterday hailed what it described as conciliatory remarks from Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi following a spate of angry accusations from other members of his US-backed government.

In an interview with the state IRNA news agency in Iraq’s Shiite holy city of Najaf, Allawi welcomed an invitation to visit Iran and said he looked forward to constructive relations between the former foes.

“We want establishment of good relations with neighbouring countries, especially Iran, and believe that our bilateral ties are based on common interests,” IRNA quoted him as saying.

Allawi distanced himself from US-led accusations, voiced by some in his administration, of Iranian interference in the new Iraq, notably by abetting infiltration of militants across the border.

“If there are any complaints, they are pointing to unofficial figures. We do not accuse the Iranian government of interference in Iraq’s domestic affairs,” the premier said.

“Some individuals penetrate Iraqi territory through neighbouring states, and that is true for Iran too.”

Relations between Tehran and Baghdad were severely strained earlier this month when Defence Minister Hazem Al Shaalan accused the Iranian authorities of trying to “kill democracy” in his country by fomenting unrest.

Shaalan also charged that Tehran had abandoned its longstanding favouring of the mainstream Shiite religious parties in Iraq and was arming the rebel militiamen of radical leader Muqtada Sadr in their deadly clashes with US-led troops.

IRNA also reported reassuring comments from Iraq’s charge d’affaires in Tehran, Khalil Salman Al Sabihi, about three of the news agency’s journalists detained in Iraq.

The Iraq embassy is “following the affair closely,” IRNA quoted the envoy as saying.

“We have asked the Iraqi foreign ministry for information about the circumstances of, and reasons for, the arrests, as well as the latest news” of the three detainees.

IRNA’s Baghdad bureau chief Mostafa Darban and journalists Mohammed Khafaji and Mohsen Madani were detained by Iraqi police on Monday night.

The news agency’s foreign editor Hassan Lavasani said yesterday that he still had no idea why his staff had been detained. The Iranian journalists’ association demanded an explanation from the interim Iraqi government on why the three were detained, in a statement carried by IRNA, whose journalists also signed a petition seeking their release.

There has been no word either on the fate of an Iranian diplomat who went missing on the road from Baghdad to the Shiite holy city of Karbala on August 4 and whose kidnapping was later claimed by a Sunni militant group.

Relations between Tehran and Baghdad have also been inflamed over the past week by a US-backed offensive on militia strongholds in Najaf, which is revered by the Shiite majority in Iran as well as Iraq.

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Gulf%2C+Middle+East+%26+Africa&month=August2004&file=World_News2004081574735.xml