Thank you, Lenz Iran for the clips.
Category Archives: Espionage
U.S. fears more plots from Iran’s Quds Force
(Reuters) – The United States believes Iran’s shadowy Quds Force is becoming increasingly aggressive overseas and may be working on other international plots beyond the alleged plan to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington, three U.S. officials told Reuters.
U.S. allegations last week of a foiled plot in Washington have escalated tensions between the United States and Iran. They have also renewed Washington’s focus on the Quds Force, the covert operations arm of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which is believed to have sponsored attacks on U.S. targets in the Middle East — but never before in the United States.
“They’re being more aggressive … not only in Iraq but worldwide,” one senior U.S. official said in an interview. The official and others insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record and because of the sensitive nature of the matter.
U.S. officials have long charged that the Quds Force — the Arabic word for Jerusalem — has used proxies to attack U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistanand elsewhere. Continue Reading →
Military Force an Option Against Iran, Rogers Says
This is a part of the article. Please click the link below for the whole thing.
From Business Week
October 16, 2011, 1:56 PM EDT
By Alan Bjerga and Susan Decker
Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) — Military force shouldn’t be ruled out as a response to an Iranian assassination plot on U.S. soil, the top House Republican on intelligence issues said.
“I don’t think you should take it off the table,” said Representative Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on ABC’s “This Week.” Rogers said other options would include rallying the international community against Iran or taking action against Iranian operatives in Iraq.
U.S. officials are considering what action to take following the Justice Department’s Oct. 11 accusation that Iran sponsored a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. The conspiracy involved a secret Iranian military unit and a citizen of the Islamic Republic with a U.S. passport.
President Barack Obama said this week that there were “direct links” to Iran’s government, which has rejected the allegation. Continue Reading →
FOX update on Oct. 12 Iran has tentacles all over
Network of Iranians in US and Central and South America
Islam being taught at US military bases. No, not academically.
Family Security Matters
On August 7, 2011, in a chapel converted to a mosque on Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas, the U.S. government officially became a sponsor of the Mahdi. No, not Barack Husein Obama, but a much more serious and overt candidate: Adnan Oktar, a.k.a. “Harun Yahya,” the Turkish Creationist whose followers consider him the “rightly-guided one” of Islamic tradition, expected to come before the end of time to make the entire world Muslim.
Mahdism was my original area of academic specialization within Islamic history (about which I wrote my doctoral dissertation, first book and numerous articles, and which I track via this website); I interviewed Oktar in Istanbul a few years ago; and, finally, I spent time in the military, both enlisted and commissioned, the latter training to be a chaplain. So I have some familiarity with all aspects of this troubling story, which came to my attention early on 14 August 2011 via photos posted to my Facebook page by contacts within Oktar’s organization. I contacted the Public Affairs Officer (PAO) at Lackland and, in summary, was told the following: that such “religious education” classes are provided every weekend from “other” faith perspectives (Latter Day Saints, Buddhists, Pentecostals) besides the main ones (Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Eastern Orthodox); that these are entirely voluntary; that the “program chaplain …was aware of and approved of the speaker.” Continue Reading →
U.S. formally accuses Iran of working with Al Queda
From The Wall Street Journal:
By JAY SOLOMON
WASHINGTON—The U.S. for the first time formally accused Iran of forging an agreement with al Qaeda, helping operatives move money, arms and fighters through Iranian territory to the terrorist group’s bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The U.S. Treasury Department outlined on Thursday what it said was an extensive fund-raising operation devised by al Qaeda that utilizes Iran-based operatives and draws from donors in oil-rich Persian Gulf countries such as Kuwait and Qatar.
The Treasury said it had sanctioned six al Qaeda members for allegedly overseeing this network. The network’s head, Syrian-national Ezedin Abdul Aziz Khalil, is based in Iran and has been operating there under an agreement with Iranian authorities since 2005, according to senior U.S. officials.
“Khalil moves money and recruits from across the Middle East into Iran, then on to Pakistan for the benefit of al Qaeda’s senior leaders,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a written statement.
U.S. officials alleged Mr. Khalil requires all operatives transiting through Iran to deliver the equivalent of $10,000 to al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan. The officials also said that Mr. Khalil has worked closely with Iranian authorities to secure the release of al Qaeda militants held in Iranian prisons who are then returned to Pakistan-based camps.
“By exposing Iran’s secret deal with al Qaeda allowing it to funnel funds and operatives through its territory, we are illuminating yet another aspect of Iran’s unmatched support for terrorism,” David Cohen, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said on Thursday.
Please click through to the WSJ for the rest of this article.
Hezbollah In The Western Hemisphere
Ilan Berman
by Ilan Berman
Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence
July 7, 2011
Chairman Meehan, distinguished members of the Subcommittee:
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the Hezbollah terrorist organization, its capabilities, and its activities in the Western Hemisphere. It is an issue of critical importance to the ongoing struggle against international terrorism, and to the safety and security of the U.S. homeland.
A year after the 9/11 attacks, then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in contextualizing the terrorist threat facing the country, made a telling assessment. “Hezbollah may be the A-team of terrorists,” Mr. Armitage told an audience at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, “and maybe al-Qaida is actually the B-team.”[i] The description was apt, and remains so. With a presence in an estimated forty countries on five different continents, the Lebanese Shi’ite militia represents one of the very few terrorist groups active today that possess a truly global presence and reach.
This footprint extends not only to the greater Middle East and Europe, but to the Western Hemisphere as well.[ii] Over the past quarter-century, Hezbollah has devoted considerable energy and resources to establishing an extensive network of operations throughout the Americas. Today, its web of activity in our hemisphere stretches from Canada to Argentina, and encompasses a wide range of illicit activities and criminal enterprises, from drug trafficking to recruitment to fundraising and training.
A STRONGHOLD SOUTH OF THE BORDER Continue Reading →
Propellor on illegal flotilla boat to gaza cut.
As the weapons blockade of Gaza is in fact, perfectly legal and in accordance with all military conventions including UN ones I can’t help but wonder if cutting the prop on a boat who’s stated intention is to break that blockade and deliver un-checked goods into the hands of a terrorist group that has on its charter, genocidal ambitions, is basically the same as police removing the tires from a getaway vehicle setting out for a bank robbery.
Any thoughts welcome.
Iranian Commander: ‘We Have Infiltrated America and the UK’
From Pajamas Media:
According to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Fars News Agency, on Tuesday night — during a gathering of high-ranking members of the IRGC command and the Basij militia — Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Naghdi announced:
Today we are in a full-scale war with our enemies. During the last 32 years, the enemy has gone from pillar to post and from one angle to another in order to find a way to bring us down. But the enemy has been hit hard and the proof of that is in the collapse of the Western block, the humiliation of the banking and investment sector, the awakening of our various nations, the spread of the religion of God, and people distancing themselves from the devil-worshipping elitists. This is a sign of our populist progress.
Naghdi, the commander of the Basij militia, added:
You all have managed to infiltrate into the heart of the enemy’s various nests to the point where even in the streets of New York, Ashura is known as Imam Hossein Day and it is observed by pious self-mortification and prayer; in London, the month of Muharram and the passing of Fatimah are observed. This is what it means to penetrate into the enemy camp. Today, our enemy is at the front line of a confrontation with us.
Please click here for the balance of this article:
Canada’s National Arts Centre hosts “cultural day” by Iranian embassy front
From Macleans.ca
by Michael Petrou on Friday, May 27, 2011 12:26pm – 6 Comments
The National Arts Centre in Ottawa is hosting a “cultural day” put on by a front for the Iranian embassy in Canada.
“Iran Culture” is run out of the Iranian embassy on Metcalfe Street in Ottawa and is described on its website as the “cultural consulate” of the Islamic Republic. Its phone number, however, is different than that of the embassy, and there is no street address listed on the cultural centre’s website.
The centre’s website says a “cultural day” under the banner, “Iran, Land of Glory,” will be held in the National Arts Centre’s Panorama Room on June 4, from 12 to 8 p.m. The room has been rented out privately, meaning it is not a formal NAC event and the NAC is not selling tickets. The NAC receives half of its funding from the federal government.
Iran Culture’s website promotes Press TV, an English-language television station that functions as a propaganda arm of Iran’s foreign ministry. It also includes links to the office of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. And it offers free presentations on Iranian culture to school children.
When contacted by Maclean’s, a woman who answered the phone at the number provided on Iran Culture’s website initially refused to say whether the organization was physically located at the embassy.
“I have no idea. I can’t answer that question,” she said.
When pressed about where she was speaking from, she said: “What do you think? Yes, we’re in the embassy.”
Then, claiming she was busy and someone was at her door, the woman hung up.
Kuwaitis among trainees in ‘Guards’ Latin camp
For some perspective on Chavez and Jewish people, check out Kathy Schaidle’s piece here.
h/t Fred
Kuwaitis among trainees in ‘Guards’ Latin camp From the Arab Times:
KUWAIT CITY, April 28: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is allegedly training a large number of Kuwaitis, Bahrainis and Saudis in a private training camp located in Waheera, a remote area near the borders of Venezuela and Columbia, and intends to use them to carry out terrorist activities within their respective countries and other areas across the world in case Iran is attacked militarily, Al-Seyassah daily quoted a reliable source as saying.
The trainees are first sent to Venezuelan capital Caracas or Columbian capital Bogota via Damascus and from there, they are sent to the border region in cars, one of the militants who broke away from the Iranian group told the daily.
Reportedly, the training camp is run by some Iranian intelligence officers and others affiliated to the Revolutionary Guard in cooperation with Hezbollah and Hamas. The trainees were given courses in making bombs, carrying out assassinations, kidnapping people and transporting the hostages to other locations.
The trainees have been trained to act in case there is a war against Iran. As per the plan, all embassies of Gulf countries, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan in Latin American countries were to be targeted. These bombings, however, will not be carried out by Iranian Shiites, but mercenaries from poorer countries like Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador and Bolivia besides some other supporters from Hamas and other individuals so that Iranian involvement won’t even be suspected.
When asked about the financing of this militia, the source said the money Iran makes through drug trafficking and money laundering is equal to the budget of some countries. “For example, Dutch police, in cooperation with security authorities of seven other countries, arrested 17 drug smugglers in 2009 in Korasu and confiscated 2,000 kilos of cocaine from them. The huge quantity was smuggled through tankers from Venezuela to West Africa and then to Holland, Lebanon and Spain. Smugglers also transported cocaine by air from Korasu to Holland, Belgium, Spain and Jordan. The Dutch authorities had then announced that the smuggling network was linked to Hezbollah and Iran,” he added.
Hizb’allah at US-Mexican border
Wikileaks accuses BBC of being part of ‘possible propaganda media network’ for Al Qaeda
From the Daily Mail:
By Daniel Martin
Last updated at 11:55 PM on 25th April 2011
The BBC could be part of a ‘propaganda media network’ for al-Qeada, according to U.S. files published by Wikileaks.
A phone number of someone at the BBC was found in phone books and programmed into the mobile phones of a number of militants seized by the Americans.
The number is believed to be based at Bush House, the headquarters of the BBC World Service.
Leaks: A phone number of someone at the BBC’s Bush House headquarters was found in phone books and programmed into the mobile phones of a number of militants seized by the Americans
The assessment on one of the detainees at the Guantanamo camp, dated 21 April 2007, said: ‘The London, United Kingdom, phone number 0044 207 XXX XXXX was discovered in
More…
- Revealed: How Al Qaeda high command watched 9/11 unfold on TV (while one was in hospital having his tonsils out)
- The Great Escape (Afghanistan style): 500 Taliban prisoners on loose after insurgents dig 1,000 ft tunnel INTO ‘high security’ jail
- £300,000 of YOUR money ‘found its way to Al Qaeda terrorists’ from aid budget
‘The number is associated with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).’
The U.S. assessment file said forces had uncovered many ‘extremist links’ to the BBC number – indicating that extremists could have made contacts with employees at the broadcaster who were sympathetic to extremists or had information on ‘ACM’ (anti-Coalition militia) activities.
Links: The BBC number appears in the file of Turki Mish’awi Zaid Alj-Amri, a Saudi al-Qaeda member, during his 2007 assessment at Guantanamo Bay prison camp
An analyst’s note on the file states: ‘Numerous extremist links to this BBC number indicates a possible propaganda media network connection.
Network analysis might provide leads to individuals with either sympathetic ties to extremists or possibly possessing information on ACM operations.’
Revelation: A leaked account of a top-level BBC meeting showed that executives admitted they would broadcast an interview with Osama Bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda
The BBC number appears in the file of Turki Mish’awi Zaid Alj-Amri, a Saudi who was ‘assessed to be a member of al-Qaeda, who travelled to Afghanistan to participate in jihad.’
The US files says Alj-Amri had stayed at al-Qaeda camps and had received training there. He had also fought against Coalition forces at Tora Bora in Afghanistan.
‘Many of the telephone numbers in his pocket litter have been associated with multiple ACM personnel, indicating he may have played a greater role in multiple activities than previously assessed.’
He was repatriated to Saudia Arabia in late 2009.
The BBC number listed on the file is now dead, but the revelation could further dent the broadcaster’ reputation for impartiality. It has for years faced claims it is biased towards the left.
But this is the first time the BBC has been linked to Islamic extremism.
In September 2006, BBC chairman Michael Grade held an ‘impartiality summit’ to assess whether there was a left-wing bias.
A leaked account of the meeting showed that executives admitted they would broadcast an interview with Osama Bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda.
They said they would give him a platform to explain his views, if he approached them.
Former BBC political editor Andrew Marr later said the BBC was not ‘impartial or neutral’, saying it had a ‘liberal bias’.
A spokesman for the BBC said: ‘Independence and impartiality are at the heart of all BBC World Service output. The service has interviewed representatives of organisations from all sides involved in the Afghan conflict so it would not be surprising that a number believed to relate to the BBC Pashto service was in circulation.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1380498/Wikileaks-accuse-BBC-propaganda-media-network-Al-Qaeda.html#ixzz1KaFhaPTB
Ted.com lecture on STUXNET
h/t expeldarkness
Iranian intelligence ministry to adopt “more agressive” approach
This would appear to be a warning of some kind. Our man for Iran, Reza Kahlili, says he has very important news on Iranian actions to be broken this Monday morning. This promises to be interesting.
Heydar Moslehi
Iran’s intelligence minister says the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei is instructing his ministry to take a more aggressive approach in dealing with “the enemies and intelligence agencies.”
In a memo that followed the Supreme Leader’s six-hour visit to the ministry of intelligence, Heydar Moslehi writes: “Since the best defence is considered to be an attack, the ministry is planning aggressive attacks through intelligence services.”
“Young recruits and experienced servants of the Islamic Republic will take charge of this mission, which will be marked by the coalescence of youthful spirit and experience,” the intelligence minister says.
He adds that the Leader has expressed satisfaction with the the intelligence ministry’s efforts so far in confronting the “sedition.”
The Islamic Republic government refers to the protests that have arisen following allegations of fraud in the 2009 re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as sedition.
In his visit to the ministry, the Supreme Leader recommended that the ministry concentrate on “thorough long-term plans of action.”
He also emphasized that even though the minister of intelligence is appointed by the government, the ministry should not be swayed by political partisanship and should remain consistently faithful to the leadership and the Islamic Revolution.
Iran’s ministry of intelligence has been instrumental in clamping down on the election protests of the past year and a half.