Updates on Iran

Iran's Role In Downing Pan-Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland Raised in Dore Gold's New Book: The Rise of Nuclear Iran

2009-09-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

A recently declassified intelligence document from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) argues that the key Iranian figure behind the 1988 downing of Pan-Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland was Ali Akbar Mohtashemi, the former Iranian ambassador to Syria and later Minister of the Interior. The attack led to the killing of 270 innocent civilians. In The Rise of Nuclear Iran, reference is made to this document the relevant sections of which are quoted here for the first time in full:

"Mohtashemi is closely connected with Al Abas (sic.) and Abu Nidal Terrorist Groups. He is actually a long-time friend of Abu Nidal. He has recently paid 10 million dollars in cash and gold to these two organizations to carry out terrotist activities and was the one who paid the same amount to bomb Pan Am Flight 103 in retaliation for the US shoot-down of the Iranian Airbus" (emphasis added).

For years there have been suspicions of an Iranian role in Lockerbie. Robert Baer, the former CIA operations agent, has claimed that Iran was behind Lockerbie. According to the London Sunday Times, on August 18, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Libyan intelligence officer who was just freed by Scotland, instructed his attorneys to produce documentation on the Iranian role. The attorneys had another DIA document that stated that "The bombing of the Pan Am flight was conceived, authorized, and financed by Ali-Akbar (Mohtashemi)."

As Gold explains in his book, Mohtashemi had also been instrumental in the 1983 attack ordered by Iran against the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut, in which 241 American servicemen were killed. Moreover, Mohtashemi helped found Hizbullah, the deadly Iranian-backed international terrorist organization. Gold also discloses that in recent months Mohtashemi worked closely with Iranian opposition head Mir Hossein Moussavi. Mohtashemi was Moussavi's representative to the electoral oversight board for the June 12 presidential elections in Iran.

Iranian Arms Seized in Iraq, Officials Say

2009-08-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

By Sam Dagher

Iraqi and American troops seized a rocket launcher loaded with about a dozen Iranian-made rockets aimed at an American base in the southern city of Basra, Iraqi officials said Tuesday. The United States military said in a statement that Iraqi security forces confiscated 16 rockets and arrested three in connection with the operation without giving further details. A spokesman for the Basra police force, which took part in the operation, said that a rocket launcher loaded with 13 Grad rockets, positioned on the back of a pickup truck. Three American soldiers were killed in a rocket attack on their base in Basra last month. In April, American troops took responsibility for southern Iraq, including Basra, from departing British forces.

Ahmadinejad at July Rally in Mashhad: The Mahdi and Iran's Global Mission

2009-08-16T04:34:00.000-07:00

"The period when four or five countries considered themselves to be owners of the world is over. The era is an era of appearence of Imam Mahdi [the 12th Imam or Hidden Imam, who reappears in an apocalyptic battle before the End of Time]. We should join hands to build Iran an perform global missions of the Revolution by the grace of God...You saw what Mrs. Foreign Minister (Hillary Clinton) said. We are worried about the influence of Iran near the borders of America..."

See: Iran Early Bird, July 19, 2009

Iranian Backing of the Taliban in Afghanistan

2009-08-16T04:32:00.000-07:00

"Iran is covertly supplying arms to Afghan insurgents while publicly posing as supportive of the Afghan government. Shipments typically inlcude small arms, mines, rocket popelled grenades (RPGs), rockets, mortars, and plastic explosives. Taliban commanders have publicly credited Iranian support for their successful operations against Coalition forces."

See: Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Blair, Responses to Questions Posed During the Annual Threat Hearing, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, February 12, 2009--Released--July 30, 2009.

Iranian Naval Presence--Somalia and the Horn of Africa

2009-08-16T04:30:00.000-07:00

"In June 2009 an agreement was signed allowing Iranian battleships to anchor in the port of Aden, part of an Iranian task force to fight Somali pirates. They are expected to join the six Iranian battleships already patrolling the Somali waters to protect Iranian cargo ships. Tehran is also strengthening its ties with African countries lying on the Red Sea, among the Sudan , Eritrea and Djibouti to enable it to establish an active naval presence in the Red Sea leading to the Gulf of Eilat and the Suez Canal . Iran is liable to exploit its use of the ports in those countries for terrorist and subversive political activity against Israel and moderate Arab countries and to respond, should its nuclear facilities be attacked".

See: "Iran’s Activity in East Africa, the Gateway to the Middle East and the African Continent," Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, July 29, 2009

Iranian Influence in Venezuela and Latin America

2009-08-16T04:28:00.000-07:00

"Venezuela has become Hezbollah's major terrorist outpost in South America. The Venezuelan regime reportedly provides aid for the terrorist organization that has taken root in its territory, according to a senior Israeli official. Western media outlets have reported in recent months about a warming relationship between Iran and Venezuela, under the leadership of anti-American Hugo Chavez. It seems that Hezbollah is taking advantage of the growing friendship in order to establish itself in Latin America. The US Treasury Department indicted two Venezuelan citizens last year for supporting Hezbollah, and froze their assets in the United States. One of them, a diplomat of Lebanese Shiite ancestry, used his position to transfer funds to Hezbollah and to help members of the organization move between Venezuela and Iran for training".

See: Shimon Shiffer, "Hezbollah suspected of setting up camp in Venezuela" Yediot Ahronot (Hebrew) August 13, 2009

U.S. Enagagement with Iran in Light of the Internal Political Crisis

2009-08-16T01:19:00.000-07:00

"By prematurely calling for enagement [with Iran] I think we run the risk of demoralizing the opposition and the millions of people who took to the streets and who continue to reject the legitimacy of the Ahmadinejad government; we implicitly endorse an election that is still being hotly contested in Tehran and tip the balance in favor of the hardliners."

Karim Sadjadpour, Interview, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, July 16, 2009.

"President Obama has said that if Iran is serious about negotiations, it should respond by the end of September to his overtures for talks. That's fine but he shouldn't go further than that or let the Iranians stall with more non-answers to the prorposal delivered months ago by the European Union's chief diplomat Javier Solana. If the Iranians want talks, let them chase the West this time. If not, Obama should push for tougher scantions that will deepen Iran's crisis.

David Ignatius, "A Waiting Game with Iran," Washington Post August 2, 2009.

The Iranian Nuclear Program and the Internal Iranian Political Crisis

2009-08-16T01:18:00.000-07:00

"The hard-line elements in the regime, those now more fully in control than at any time since the early 1989's, have always opposed negotiations witht he international community and have always been the most virulent supporters of the Iranian nuclear program. There has always been reason to suspect that many of them desire an arsenal itlself, and not merely the theoretical capability to build one. With the voices of restraint silenced, it seems much less likely that those in control in Tehran will agree to negotiate the dismantling of that program, or even ways of limiting it."

Kenneth Pollack, "Persian Paradoxes: the Reflections on the Saban Center-CENTCOM Conference," July 14-15, 2009.

Kayhan, Iranian Conservative Newspaper, on U.S.-Iranian Engagement:"The Americans Are Begging Iran for Dialogue"; U.S. Strategic Needs in Pakistan, Af

2009-08-16T01:13:00.000-07:00

In a July 27, 2009 editorial, the conservative Iranian daily Kayhan stated that the U.S. has only one strategy for dealing with Iran, namely striving for dialogue with it - particularly, Kayhan said, after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recognized Iran as nuclear.

It should be noted that Tehran is depicting Clinton's July 22, 2009 statements in Thailand - that the U.S. would offer its allies in the region a "defense umbrella" against a nuclear Iran, and that the U.S. has a plan to prevent Iran from taking over the Middle East if it obtains nuclear weapons - as proof that the U.S. is coming to terms with a nuclear Iran. In its editorial, Kayhan explained that the U.S. interests in the region, particularly in Pakistan and Afghanistan, are more important for the U.S. than the threat of Iran going nuclear. Thus, it said, the Americans are sending a desperate message to the world, begging Iran for dialogue. Tehran understands that Washington is not overly concerned about the prospect of a nuclear Iran; moreover, it knows that enhanced sanctions against Iran or even an attack on the country are impossible, and that threats of the same are only an American maneuver to bring Iran to the negotiating table.

See: MEMRI Special Dispatch - No. 2467, July 31, 2009

The EMP threat

2009-08-16T01:08:00.000-07:00

Avi Schnurr, July 2009

Since the first atmospheric nuclear tests fifty years ago, it has been known that a single nuclear weapon exploded above the Earth’s atmosphere produces an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), radiating down to the Earth in a massive electrical surge of over 10,000 volts per meter. An EMP weapon’s range is limited only by its altitude: it hits everywhere on a continent not blocked by the earth’s curvature, and strikes about ten times as fast as lighting,burning out computers, electronics, electrical networks and control systems.

EMP would destroy the country’s computers, bring the economy to a halt by disrupting its banking and financial databases and burn out telephones, cell phones, the internet, email, radio and television. It would destroy the electrical grid, stop cars and trucks on the country’s highways, disrupt the government, stop the nation’s water and waste management systems, drive oil refineries out of control and cripple the nation’s military. It would shatter the foundation of modern society.

The EMP Commission found that knowledge of this threat is particularly widespread in the world’s most dangerous nations, including Iran and North Korea. Iran, in particular, has been conducting what appear to be missile tests to simulate a nuclear EMP strike. According to Senate testimony, an Iranian military journal publicly discussed using EMP against the West.

"Once you confuse the enemy communication network,” the Iranian journal said,“ … you will, in effect, disrupt all the affairs of that country. If the world's industrial countries fail to devise effective ways to defend themselves against dangerous electronic assaults then they will disintegrate within a few years.”

Hezbollah sleeper cells in South, Central America ready for action

2009-08-16T00:30:00.001-07:00

Ronen Bergman

Hezbollah’s cells in Venezuela are part of the organization’s apparatus dedicated to attacks overseas. It is also known as the “Special Operations Command.”

For years, this apparatus operated overseas under Imad Mugniyah’s command. Today, the apparatus is headed by the man who served as Mugniyah’s deputy, Talal Hamiyeh.

Based on in-depth research performed by Israeli and American intelligence arms, the cell that carried out the attacks in Argentina was one of dozens of sleeper cells deployed by Hizbullah and the al-Quds force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards worldwide, including in the United States and Europe.

Some of these cells were deployed in South America, where large communities of Lebanese Shiites, some of whom support Hezbollah, can be found. Many of them live in towns that serve as focal points of the drug and arms trade.

In Venezuela, Hezbollah cells are mostly found in the centers of the oil industry, which brings in workers from the Middle East.