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The US has released the leader of an Iranian-backed Shia terror group behind the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in Karbala in January 2007.Qais Qazali, the leader of the Asaib al Haq or the League of the Righteous, was set free by the US military and transferred to Iraqi custody in exchange for the release of British hostage Peter Moore, US military officers and intelligence officials told The Long War Journal. The US military directly implicated Qais in the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in Karbala in January 2007. “We let a very dangerous man go,...

The head of Iran’s shadowy Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force, responsible for the regime’s terror operations abroad, has issued a fiery message to all the militant factions in the Gaza Strip, underlining support for their violent campaign against the Jewish state. Gen. Ghasem Soleimani also called on Allah to “damn” those who support Israel, “especially the United States who is the chief propagator of injustice and oppression in the world.” …

Joint Subcommittee Hearing: Iran’s Support for Terrorism Worldwide Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa 2172 House Rayburn Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Mar 4, 2014 10:00am

WASHINGTON—U.S. authorities said Tuesday they had charged two men in an Iranian-directed plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. The alleged assassination plot would represent an escalation in the confrontation between mostly Shiite Iran and mostly Sunni Saudi Arabia, two longtime Middle East rivals. The charges are also a rare instance of Washington accusing Iranian groups of fomenting terrorism on U.S. soil. Elements of the Iranian government were ready to spend $1.5 million to hire what they believed was a drug-cartel hit squad from Mexico, said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Prosecutors filed several criminal charges against...

While negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program are at a standstill, news this week indicates that Iran is clearly losing the economic battle. As in other cases, currency problems in Iran may contribute to an unpredictable and destabilizing political outcome. Iran’s currency fell by more than 18 percent against the dollar on Monday and another 8 percent on Tuesday, marking a new low in Iran’s continuing economic crisis. The figures are grim: a sheaf of rials worth ten thousand dollars a year ago would be worth about $3,750 Monday and $3,500 Tuesday; on Wednesday, there were protests in the bazaar.Short of...

SNIPPET: "I. When considering the matter of jihadis online, remember that most of what we think we know is based on analyses of the comments made by an handful of vocal activists. The vast majority of jihadis online, be they on forums or social networking sites[i], say nothing. Skillful translations and insightful analyses by definition tell us little about this potentially lethal yet silent majority."

An al Qaeda cell slated to take part in one of the final plots ordered by Osama bin Laden made use of an Iran-based terror network that, according to the Obama administration, operates “under an agreement between al Qaeda and the Iranian government.” That revelation has emerged from legal proceedings in Germany, including the trial of Ahmad Wali Siddiqui, an al Qaeda recruit who took the stand for the first time last week in Koblenz. … The alleged terror recruit, with dual German and Afghan citizenship, has discussed the time he and his fellow plotters spent at the same mosque...

SNIPPET: "In July, the British government warned that Al Qaeda’s exploitation of social networking websites is on the rise." SNIPPET: "The massive and multifarious network of websites and social media has presented a challenge to authorities in trying to combat it. Additionally, civil liberty concerns have conflicted with government efforts to spy on communications. Reducing terrorist activity on social media sites has been particularly difficult because users have adopted new forms of communication to conform with the new formats. Many Arabic speakers on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites use Arabizi, a form of colloquial Arabic written in the Latin...

forum.internet-haganah.com/showthread.php?272 "Sign that the goods are meant for the IRGC?" (October 27, 2011) SNIPPET: "The modules in question are radio transmitters used in IED's that killed and wounded American service members in Iraq. They were purchased from a US firm through intermediaries in Singapore. Final destination? Tehran." SNIPPET: "Mahan Air is no ordinary airline. Rather it appears to be the official air transport arm of the IRGC's Qods Force."

INDIANAPOLIS -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry says an Iranian-backed terror plot coordinated in Mexico proves the U.S. must secure its southern border. The Republican presidential hopeful used Tuesday's announcement that Iranian forces had sought to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. to call for more border troops, improved fencing along the Mexican border and increased border patrols including the use of predator drone surveillance. Perry opened his speech to Republican activists in Indianapolis on Wednesday with a call for increased border security. He called allegations that Iranian forces sought to kill the Saudi diplomat "business as usual" for Iran.

From Afghanistan, some surprising news: U.S. and coalition forces have arrested a member of Iran's notorious Qods Force who was simultaneously serving as a Taliban commander. But sophisticated foreign policy observers have said for years that the Taliban and Iran were adversaries, even enemies – that they come from different strains of Islam and have cultural differences that would preclude cooperation? They would never work together, right?For years we've known about the increasingly lethal support Iran has been providing the Taliban various insurgents in Afghanistan. (See here, here, here, here, and here.) And yet senior Obama administration officials have either...

SNIPPET: "The US Treasury department has added four Iranian Qods Force commanders to its list of specially designated global terrorists, two of whom are charged with directly providing support for the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan." SNIPPET: "General Hossein Musavi is the commander Qods Force's Ansar Corps, "whose responsibilities include IRGC-QF activities in Afghanistan," the Treasury stated. "As Ansar Corps Commander, Musavi has provided financial and material support to the Taliban." Colonel Hasan Mortezavi is described as a senior Qods Force officer who "provides financial and material support to the Taliban." Qods Forces' Ansar Corps is the command that is assigned...

SNIPPET: "The top US general in Iraq has identified the three main Shia terror groups in Iraq that are backed by Iran. General Ray Odierno said Iran continues to back the League of the Righteous (or Asaib al Haq), the Mahdi Army spin-off Promised Day Brigade, and the Hezbollah Brigades (or Kataib Hezbollah). "The Iranians... continue to fund, train and provide weapons and ammunition to Shiite extremist groups," Odierno told reporters in Baghdad according to AFP. Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has "gone to a more sophisticated program with a smaller set of...

Federal prosecutors are taking steps to seize four U.S. mosques and a New York City skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization

SNIPPET: "Iraqi officials in Al Kut are seeking four suspected Iranian Qods Force operatives behind attacks on security forces. Members of the Iraqi security forces put up wanted posters with photos of the Iranian operates on the streets in an effort to detain the men. The Qods Force agents are wanted for "armed operations against Iraqi security personnel and civilians," an Iraqi security official told Voices of Iraq. "The security authorities in Kut appealed to local residents to report these dangerous persons who are wanted on charges of involvement in terrorist operations in Iraq." The campaign was announced the same...

The Air Force Times' Sean Naylor scored an interview with Major General Mike Flynn, director of intelligence for General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan. There isn't a lot new here to longtime readers of The Long War Journal and Threat Matrix. Flynn gives an overview of the Taliban groups, notes that al Qaeda operatives serve as combat enablers for the Taliban, estimates Taliban forces in Afghanistan at between 19,000 to 27,000 fighters, and said Pakistan remains a major haven for the Taliban and al Qaeda. Of particular interest are Flynn's comments on Iran and the role...

Iraqi security forces detained an Iranian operative in southern Iraq in the latest operation designed to curb Iran's influence in the war-torn country. Iraqi security forces have detained four Iranian operatives since the beginning of October. On Oct. 1, the US military announced that Iraqi paramilitary police from the National Emergency Response Brigade arrested Khalid Masur Isma’il during a raid in the Shia slum of Sadr City. Isma’il served as "financier and recruiter" for the Hezbollah Brigades... Two other Hezbollah Brigades operatives have been captured in Baghdad this month. On Oct. 3, Iraqi troops arrested a man thought to be...

The US military recently released five Iranian Qods Force agents who had posed as diplomats and were detained in northern Iraq in late 2006. The Iranian agents were released to the Iraqi government, which is expected to promptly turn them back over to Iran. In January 2007, the five Iranian agents were detained by US forces in the Kurdish city of Irbil. Iran claimed the men were part of a diplomatic mission in Irbil, and protested the arrest. The men were operating from a liaison office that did not enjoy diplomatic privileges, however. The US military accused the five Iranians...

Iraqi security forces captured three members of Qods Force, Iran's special operations branch, during a raid in Diyala province. “The three were arrested inside al-Khalis district, north of Baaquba city,” an Iraqi official told Voices of Iraq. Iraqi and US forces have killed one Qods Force operative and captured 14 since mid-October 2008 during raids throughout southern and central Iraq. A Dec. 19, 2008 raid in the town of Qastin in Diyala province netted a senior Qods force officer and his associate. The officer was described as a "commander of Iranian special operations in Iraq who is also believed to...

On Tuesday, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in a press conference in London exposed the Iranian regime's manufacture of new and advanced EFP (roadside) bombs in three secret centres in Iran. Also exposed were the names and particulars as well as the methods used of 51 networks smuggling the weapons on behalf of Iran's Qods force to terrorist militias in Iraq. The advanced EFPs can penetrate deeper into armoured vehicles causing more deaths and advancements have also made them more difficult to detect and defuse. I have attached the press release, the information provided at the press...