From The Washington Times
By Bill Gertz
Iran is increasing its paramilitary Qods force operatives in Venezuela while covertly continuing supplies of weapons and explosives to Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the Pentagon’s first report to Congress on Tehran’s military.
The report on Iranian military power provides new details on the group known formally as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), the Islamist shock troops deployed around the world to advance Iranian interests. The unit is aligned with terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, North Africa and Latin America, and the report warns that U.S. forces are likely to battle the Iranian paramilitaries in the future.
The Qods force “maintains operational capabilities around the world,” the report says, adding that “it is well established in the Middle East and North Africa and recent years have witnessed an increased presence in Latin America, particularly Venezuela.”
“If U.S. involvement in conflict in these regions deepens, contact with the IRGC-QF, directly or through extremist groups it supports, will be more frequent and consequential,” the report says.
The report provides the first warning in an official U.S. government report about Iranian paramilitary activities in the Western Hemisphere. It also highlights links between Iran and the anti-U.S. government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has been accused of backing Marxist terrorists in Colombia.
• Click here to view the report. (PDF)
The report gives no details on the activities of the Iranians in Venezuela and Latin America. Iranian-backed terrorists have conducted few attacks in the region. However, U.S. intelligence officials say Qods operatives are developing networks of terrorists in the region who could be called to attack the United States in the event of a conflict over Iran’s nuclear program.
Qods force support for extremists includes providing arms, funding and paramilitary training and is not constrained by Islamist ideology. “Many of the groups it supports do not share, and sometimes openly oppose, Iranian revolutionary principles, but Iran supports them because they share common interests or enemies,” the report says.
Qods force commandos are posted in Iranian embassies, charities and religious and cultural institutions that support Shi’ite Muslims. While providing some humanitarian support, Qods forces also engage in “paramilitary operations to support extremists and destabilize unfriendly regimes,” the report says.
The report links Qods force operatives and the larger IRGC to some of the deadliest terrorist attacks of the past 30 years: the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983, the bombing of a Jewish center in Argentina in 1994, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia and many insurgent attacks in Iraq since 2003.
FARC!
This guy who is the leader of Iran acts like he has a lot of money. Of course that is not true. His government is going broke due to mismaganement of the dwindling oil resources of the country. With a GDP – per capita (PPP) of $12,900 (2009 est.) , this is hardly a first world country. Even if it were to double on this measure of GDP per capita little Isreal would still come out ahead. So It might be a good idea for this gentleman to tackle the problems of prositution, poverty and drug addiction in his country. Iran will turn from the world’s fourth leading exporter of oil to an importer in eight years. So he really needs to look ahead and see the economic disaster that is coming.
And do not believe the lies of the Iran government when they talk about their oil reserves in the ground. Just BS from load mouths who do only that one thing well.
The “disaster that is coming” will be that Iran will start a war that even Obama can’t ignore. As it is, they run much if not most of Afghanistan and when NATO leaves, it will be an Iranian proxy state like Venezuela is rapidly becoming.
When Iran gets the bomb, the world will know suffering like it has not known for many decades. And it will not understand that people like Thomas Jefferson had it right.
“The price of liberty, is eternal vigilance.”
My good friend Eeyore I am afraid I must disagree. I think you are taking the Iranians at face value. They not capable of doing anything other than boasting and threatening. They have some despot called Cyrus release a few of his own people from prison and they go round boasting that he did some great thing when he was following his own racism. Type into google UN Treasure Honors Persian Despot and check the story yourself. Now they are boasting that they will do great things once they have the bomb. Believe me they can only boast and that is a fact.
Arabconquoredpersian, the thing of it is, very rarely is Pascal’s wager a valid argument. Perhaps in the logical sense it never is. However let me apply it here.
Iran: We will destroy Israel in one great storm!
World: No they wont, because blah blah blah.
The fact is, if you analyze the 4 possible outcomes, they are telling the truth, we dont act, Israel is destroyed, a nuclear war begins. 2. They are lying, we dont act, nothing happens, ok. 3. They are telling the truth we act, stop them and all is well. 4. They are lying, we act, destroy the nuclear facilities, all is well.
Clearly the cost of acting is far far lower than the cost of risking scenario 1, a scenario, I happen to believe, and dare i say, have good reason to believe, is the case. Further, I wager Iran has bombs now, and is basically just biding time making more, and playing games of brinkmanship and false flag until they can claim the moral authority to act.
Oh there is scenario 5. Iran builds several bombs, does not nuke Israel, becomes a regional hegemon and their demands cannot be ignored and destroy any hope for democracy and freedoms for the people of Iran’s near far.