Posted on 07/10/2009 10:59:14 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
As tensions continue to mount between Iran and the United States over Iran’s disputed presidential election, its nuclear program and Vice President Joe Biden’s apparent go-ahead for Israeli strikes on Iran (since refuted by President Obama), authorities in Tehran continue to insist the insurgency and various terrorist attacks in Iran’s Sistan and Balochistan province are inspired and funded by the United States. On June 29, a provincial prosecutor announced that 13 members of the Sunni Muslim and ethnic-Balochi Jondollah insurgent group had confessed that their leader, Abdolmalek Rigi, was an agent of the United States and Israel (Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Sistan-Balochistan Provincial TV, June 29; Khorasan, July 2). Sistan and Balochistan is Iran’s poorest and most underdeveloped province. Its eastern border divides it from Pakistan’s Balochistan province, similarly underdeveloped and also home to a Balochi insurgency.
Abdolmalek’s brother, Abdolhamid, was extradited from Pakistan during the presidency of Pervez Musharraf and tried by Iranian authorities on charges of terrorism, kidnapping and murder. He was reported to have been executed in the provincial capital of Zahedan on June 6, but Iranian authorities later stated Abdolhamid was alive and there had been some confusion when a condemned man with the same name was hanged on that date (Press TV, June 10). Reza Qalandarzehi, a Jondollah member extradited from Pakistan along with Abdulhamid, was hanged at the same time as the other prisoner after his conviction on terrorism charges (Fars News Agency, June 6).
In an interview with Iranian Press TV, Abdolhamid said his brother Abdolmalek had been in steady contact with U.S. FBI and CIA agents in Karachi and Islamabad. According to Abdolhamid, the Americans had initially been wary of Abdolmalek’s previous connections to al-Qaeda, but the Jondollah leader assured them he had no contact with al-Qaeda since 2002 and needed financial support only to fight Iran. Abdolhamid described a meeting in Islamabad where two female U.S. agents had offered weapons, training and bases in Afghanistan. The agents wanted to know how many recruits the Jondollah leaders could bring in for military training (Press TV, June 9; Tehran Times, June 10). A Jondollah statement claimed Abdolhamid’s confessions broadcast on Iran’s Press TV had been extracted through severe torture and prolonged solitary confinement (junbish.blogspot.com, June 8). On July 1, Abdolhamid repeated his allegations of American backing for Jondollah in a Zahedan courtroom.
In the last few years, the Pakistan-based Jondollah organization has claimed responsibility for a string of ambushes on Iranian security forces as well as a series of terrorist bombings, including the May 28 bombing of the Amir al-Mohini mosque in Zahedan that killed 25 people and another two explosions in Zahedan on June 9. A Jondollah spokesman claimed the bombing of the Shi’a mosque had targeted a secret meeting of Revolutionary Guards commanders (al-Arabiya TV, May 29; junbish.blogspot.com, June 10). Pakistan’s ambassador was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran two days after the mosque bombing (Xinhua, May 30). Three men arrested before the bombing on suspicion of terrorism were hanged in public the same day after reportedly admitting to providing explosives for the blast.
The Iranian Interior Minister, Sadeq Mahsuli, laid the blame for the mosque blast on the United States and Israel despite a strong denial of involvement from Washington (E’temad, June 5; Fars News Agency, May 30). Jondollah has not been placed on the U.S. list of designated terrorist organizations (Boston Globe, May 30).
Of course, Obama will probably say you can't extract the truth by torture, which is an idiotic belief.
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