Tag Archives: Shiites

Iran Spy Network 30,000 Strong

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Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security

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Iran’s intelligence service includes 30,000 people who are engaged in covert and clandestine activities that range from spying to stealing technology to terrorist bombings and assassination, according to a Pentagon report.

The report concluded that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, known as MOIS, is “one of the largest and most dynamic intelligence agencies in the Middle East.”

The ministry actively supports Iran’s radical Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) that has been involved in terrorist bombings from Argentina to Lebanon, according to the report produced by the Pentagon’s Irregular Warfare Support Program and published last month by the Library of Congress Federal Research Division.

The Washington Free Beacon obtained a copy of the 64-page unclassified report.

“MOIS provides financial, material, technological, or other support services to Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), all designated terrorist organizations under U.S. Executive Order 13224,” the report said.

The spy service operates in all areas where Iran has interests, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Central Asia, Africa, Austria, Azerbaijan, Croatia, France, Georgia, Germany, Turkey, Britain, and the Americas, including the United States.

Iranian activities in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela have raised alarm among U.S. government officials.

The effort appears part of “Iran’s strategy of establishing a presence in the backyard of the United States for purposes of expanding Shi’a and revolutionary ideology, establishing networks for intelligence and covert operations, and waging asymmetrical warfare against the United States,” the report said.

“In Latin America, Iran’s intelligence agencies—MOIS but mostly the Quds Force—use Hezbollah to achieve their goals.”

Israel also is a major target of the MOIS and support for Hezbollah in Lebanon is a major Tehran intelligence objective.

The ministry is under the direct control of Iran’s theocratic dictator, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and all its ministers must become Islamic clerics as a precondition for the post. However, the agency recruits foreigners, including British nationals and Israeli Jews.

“To advance its goals, MOIS recruits individuals regardless of their beliefs, including Arabs or Jews to spy in Israel,” the report said.

One MOIS deputy minister, Saeed Emami, was appointed to a key post despite being Jewish by birth.

According to the report, Iranian intelligence is expanding operations in the Middle East and Mediterranean by setting up electronic eavesdropping stations.

“Two Iranian-Syrian [signals intelligence] stations funded by the IRGC reportedly have been active since 2006, one in the al-Jazirah region in northern Syria and the other on the Golan Heights,” the report said, noting that additional stations were planned for northern Syria.

“The technology at the two established SIGNIT stations indicates that Iran’s capabilities are still limited, with little scope for high-level strategic intelligence gathering,” the report said, noting they “appear to concentrate on supplying information to Lebanese Hezbollah,” Iran’s main proxy for terrorism and intelligence-gathering in the region.

Iran also has formed a “cyber command” to conduct both offensive and defensive cyber warfare operations following the June 2010 Stuxnet virus that crippled Iran’s uranium-enrichment infrastructure.

“The success of this virus is an indication of the weakness of Iran’s cyber development,” the report said.

The spy agency was linked to a series of assassinations in the 1990s called the “Chain Murders” that exposed it to western criticism.

According to the report, Russia was active in training Iranian intelligence operations beginning in the 1990s.

The Russian SVR spy service, the successor to the Soviet KGB, trained hundreds of MOIS operatives despite the two agencies’ different doctrines.

The cooperation was based on both nations’ goal of limiting U.S. political influence in Central Asia and efforts to stifle ethnic unrest.

“The SVR trained not only hundreds of Iranian agents but also numerous Russian agents inside Iran to equip Iranian intelligence with signals equipment in their headquarters compound,” the report said.

Iran’s intelligence is also cooperating with al Qaeda despite the Sunni-Shiite differences in religious ideology.

“Cooperation between Iran and al Qaeda is based on their shared opposition to U.S. hegemony in the region—Iraq and Afghanistan, chiefly—and dates to the 1990s,” the report said.

Iran helped a number of al Qaeda terrorists travel safely from Afghanistan to Iran after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“The fact that al Qaeda operates in many countries helps Iran achieve its goal of diverting U.S. attention away from Iran’s immediate neighborhood,” the report said. “In return, al Qaeda uses Iran as a place where its facilitators connect al Qaeda’s senior leadership with regional affiliates.”

“Iranians engage in two types of terrorist attacks,” the report said. “One type includes sabotage, espionage, and bombing of target locations, while the other involves the assassination of dissidents of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Both are perpetrated inside and outside of Iran.”

Read more at Free Beacon

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The Unlikely and Dangerous Shi’ite-Sunni Terror Partnership

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The twin towers of the World Trade Center burn behind the Brooklyn Bridge

by: Ryan Mauro

On October 18, The Obama Administration again confirmed that the Shi’ite Iranian regime is working with the Sunni-Salafist Al-Qaeda terrorist group when the Treasury Department blacklistedtwo Al-Qaeda leaders operating in Iran. In July 2011, the administration revealed that Iran had struck a “secret deal” with Al-Qaeda, blowing apart the myth that the hostility between Sunni and Shi’ite Islamists precludes them from helping each other fight a common enemy.

The Treasury Department sanctioned two Al-Qaeda operatives in Iran: Muhsin al-Fadhil, the leader of the network there, and Adel Radi Saqr al-Wahabi al-Harbi. David S. Cohen, the Treasury Department’s Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, describes the Iran-based network as “critically important” to Al-Qaeda operations and he stated that Iran permits its existence. The Obama Administration has repeatedly stated that Iran and Al-Qaeda work together, as chronicled by the Long War Journal.

This network has been in Iran since at least 2005, formerly under the leadership of Yasin al-Sura, with funding coming from supporters in Kuwait and Qatar. The Obama Administration disclosed the “secret deal” in July 2011. Al-Qaeda agreed not to attack Iran or to recruit operatives within the country, but it is free to use Iranian territory to move personnel and money as long as the regime is kept abreast of the activity. Strangely, this activity includes supporting Al-Qaeda elements in Syria, which are trying to topple Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, an Iranian ally.

Al-Fadhil became the leader of the network in late 2011. He began working with Al-Qaeda operatives in Iran in 2009 and was arrested by the regime. Apparently, a partnership grew while he was locked up because he took over the network shortly after he was let loose. He previously worked for Al-Qaeda in Iraq and took part in attacks on U.S. Marines in Kuwait and a French oil tanker in October 2002.

Al-Harbi oversees the movement of Al-Qaeda operatives to Afghanistan and Iraq. He also has helped Al-Qaeda with its Internet-based operations.

The Obama Administration’s accusations means there is bi-partisan agreement that the Iranian regime is sponsoring Al-Qaeda, as contradictory as it may seem. The Iranian regime helps Al-Qaeda operations in Iraq, even though these operations include massacring Shi’ites and destabilizing the Shi’ite-led Iraqi government that is increasingly close to Iran. The regime also helps Al-Qaeda operatives that are fighting against Iran’s ally in Syria. It doesn’t seem to make sense, but much of what Islamists do doesn’t make sense to Westerners.

The 9/11 Commission Report confirms that Iran and Al-Qaeda have had a relationship since late 1991 or early 1992 when its representatives began meeting in Sudan. It didn’t take long for senior Al-Qaeda operatives to go to Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, where Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps operate, to learn how to make better bombs. In the fall of 1993, another group of Al-Qaeda terrorists went there to learn about explosives, intelligence and security. Osama Bin Laden was especially keen to learn how the Iranians carried out truck bombings.

Read more at Radical Islam

Ryan Mauro is RadicalIslam.org’s National Security Analyst and a fellow with the Clarion Fund. He is the founder of WorldThreats.com and is frequently interviewed on Fox News.

 

Picking sides in the Muslim world proves deadly

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By: Kerry Patton:

“The Blaze” television network aired a two part series last night and Wednesday night called The Project. It showed how the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrated the United States, is seeking to take over the entire world with Sharia (Islamic) Law, and literally turn the globe into an Islamic world.

Many facts and true investigative reporting was displayed by Glenn Beck and his team who created The Project. Experts were brought in discussing some alarming findings. For those who have been following Islamic movements, very little should have been seen as new. But for those who don’t really “get it,” it is something worth watching.

The Project came during a critical time. The Middle East has imploded with violence, Al Qaeda exemplified through the assassination of Ambassador Chris Stevens that it has not been defeated, and Iran continues its nuclear endeavors barking the extermination of Israel.

After watching the two part series, some questions need to be asked. The most important question is whether anyone in either political party realizes that neither the Sunni sect nor their Islamic rival, the Shi’ites, are worthy any American support.

Not long ago, many astute researchers of Islam said that entering Afghanistan may have been the wrong nation to attack after 9-11. We have been fed insight declaring the Taliban as Al Qaeda’s protectors and that Afghanistan was Al Qaeda’s “base.” All of this information may be true under the physical sense of things. But much more to the story exists.

How many Afghans were on those aircraft on that beautiful September day which sparked the Global War on Terror? How many Afghans actually contributed monetary expenses to see the terror attack come to fruition?  To both questions, the answer is zero.

So who did truly support 9-11? Two main nations were behind the 9-11 incident and interestingly enough, they are not friendly to the other—Saudi Arabia and Iran—one Sunni and one Shi’ite state. And yes, Iran was identified as a culprit behind the terror attacks based off a recent federal magistrate’s finding. But the United States did nothing to Saudi Arabia and frankly we did nothing to Iran per the 9-11 attacks.

Read more at the Examiner

Kerry Patton, a combat disabled veteran, is the author of Sociocultural Intelligence: The New Discipline of Intelligence Studies and the children’s book American Patriotism. You can follow him on Facebook or at kerry-patton.com/.

Decline In Hizbullah’s Status In Lebanon

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By E. B. PICALI

There has been a tangible decline lately in Hizbullah’s political and public standing in Lebanon. This is evident, for example, in attacks and provocations of unprecedented boldness made by Ahmad Al-Asir, a Salafi sheikh from Sidon, against the organization and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah; in the decision of Michel ‘Aoun, a prominent partner in the March 8 Forces and Hizbullah’s political ally for the past six years, to revoke political understandings with Hizbullah; in the May 22, 2012 abduction of 11 Lebanese Shi’ites in Syria, who, according to some reports, were senior Hizbullah members (and in the fact that Hizbullah has not publicly reacted to this incident); and in criticism by Hizbullah’s own supporters over its handing of social and economic affairs in the government and parliament.

The issue of Hizbullah’s declining status was addressed by editors of two Lebanese dailies associated with the March 8 Forces. Ibrahim Al-Amin, editor of the Hizbullah-affiliated daily Al-Akhbar, wrote that only “divine help”[1] would save Hizbullah in its current state.[2] Some 10 days later, he even called on Hizbullah to leave the political arena and focus on resistance, in order to improve its situation.[3] Sati’ Nour Al-Din, editor of the pro-Syrian daily Al-Safir, assessed that the Shi’ites’ silence over the actions and statements of Sunni extremists throughout Lebanon – especially those of Al-Asir – stemmed from weakness and fear. This fear, he said, was triggered by the possible collapse of the Syrian regime, which has heretofore supplied the Shi’ites with weapons that gave them an advantage over the other sects in the country.[4]

Indeed, it can be assessed that the weakening in Hizbullah’s standing has been caused by the decline in Syria’s status in Lebanon; by the growing power of Sunni-Islamist forces throughout the Arab world, and especially in Syria and Lebanon; and by Hizbullah’s unwavering support for Assad, whom many Lebanese regard as a tyrant oppressing and butchering his people.

Sheikh Al-Asir Slams Hizbullah

In a June 23, 2012 appearance on the Lebanese TV channel Al-Jadid, affiliated with the March 8 Forces, Sidon-based Salafi sheikh Ahmad Al-Asir personally threatened Nasrallah and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the leading representatives of the Shi’ite community in Lebanon, saying: “I challenge you directly, Berri and Nasrallah… I swear by Allah that I will not let you sleep at night, along with your wives and children, until balance is restored to Lebanon.”

Al-Asir accused Hizbullah of using its weapons not to promote the Palestinian cause but rather to control Lebanon and subjugate it to Iran.[5] In a July 6, 2012 sermon, he called Nasrallah and Berri “war criminals,” and blamed them for all the assassinations and assassination attempts in Lebanon since the murder of Rafiq Al-Hariri in 2005.[6]

Al-Asir did not confine himself to verbal attacks. On June 27, 2012, he and hundreds of his followers – men, women and children – launched an indefinite sit-down strike at the northern entrance to the city demanding to disarm Hizbullah, and even blocked traffic on the main highway to Beirut.[7] Al-Asir said that Hizbullah’s weapons “have lost their honor in the eyes of most Lebanese,” because, since Israel’s withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000, they have served the organization as a tool for taking over Lebanon. He rejected Hizbullah’s claim that the demand to disarm it is a Zionist and American demand, adding that the Sunnis were slaves to no one, and that he does not fear his actions could spark a civil war. On the contrary, he said, what might lead to civil war is the public acquiescence to Hizbullah’s takeover of Lebanon by means of its weapons.

He threatened to escalate his struggle and said he was even willing to martyr himself, if necessary, while stressing that all his activity would be non-violent.[8] In a July 13, 2012 sermon, Al-Asir threatened Nasrallah that if the latter failed to heed his demands, he would “harm him as [even] the regional and global forces have not harmed him,” adding: “The power balance has shifted, and now we [Sunnis are the ones who will] determine how you [Nasrallah] and Nabih Berri will enter South [Lebanon].”[9] He demanded that Nasrallah undertake serious talks with President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Mikati on the issue of Hizbullah’s arms.[10]

It should be mentioned that, on June 11, 2012, a new round of national dialogue talks began between various political forces in Lebanon. One of the issues to be discussed was the illegal weapons held by various organizations and bodies in the country, the most prominent of them being Hizbullah. The Lebanese Forces party, headed by Samir Geagea, boycotted the talks on the grounds that Hizbullah has no serious intention of giving up its weapons. Al-Asir endorsed this position, saying that the national dialogue was a joke.

Michel ‘Aoun Revokes Political Understandings With Hizbullah

Another blow to Hizbullah came from within the organization’s own camp, namely from Michel ‘Aoun, chairman of the Change and Reform bloc, an important force in the March 8 Forces. A powerful figure in Lebanese politics, ‘Aoun has been considered a mouthpiece of Hizbullah in recent years. However, a crisis broke out between the sides on July 3, 2012, when Hizbullah’s representatives in parliament supported a draft bill granting full-time employee status to day workers in the Lebanese electric company, many of whom are Shi’ite supporters of Nabih Berri. In supporting this bill, Hizbullah sided with its Shi’ite partner, Nabih Berri, against its Christian partner, Michel ‘Aoun, who opposed the bill (thus siding with some of his fellow Christian MPs in the March 14 Forces).

Read more at Right Side News

 

The Rise of the Saudi Superstate

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by Daniel Greenfield, Frontpage:

The 32nd summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council may be remembered as the dawn of the Caliphate with the Saudi proposal to accelerate the union of the six GCC States likely to dramatically change the region. The union is being described as “EU Style,” but in practice it would be a larger version of the United Arab Emirates, a federation of tribal monarchies.

The combined entity would have a 1 trillion dollar GDP and some 35 percent of the world’s oil reserves, giving it immeasurable influence on the global stage. And that nucleus of power and wealth would be used to consolidate its influence over rest of the region and the world. If the GCC integrates Yemen, it will be able to turn the Persian Gulf into the Arabian Gulf, and if it integrates Libya, Sudan and Iraq, then it will have a combined population of 100 million and be able to approach the 50 percent world oil reserves marker.

Whether or not the GCC can transition to a Muslim EU, in the words of its charter, “founded on the creed of Islam,” is still an open question. In the last five years the GCC has struggled toward adopting a common market and a common currency, its unity undercut by suspicion of the House of Saud and internal rivalries. While Article Four of the GCC Charter had always made unity into a goal of the GCC and previous Riyadh Declarations had called for consolidating their Arab and Islamic identities into a regional union, there was never enough external pressure and internal promise to make that feasible.

Iran’s nuclear program and the Arab Spring have changed all that. Saudi Arabia’s suppression of Shiite protesters in Bahrain was the first significant use of the GCC’s previously inept Peninsula Shield Force. The victory in Bahrain has kept its Sunni monarchy in power and made it dependent on Saudi backing which has also made its officials into the most enthusiastic proponents of the union.

Holding back the Arab Spring in Bahrain was not only a proxy victory against Iran, it also demonstrated that Saudi influence could hold off Western action against GCC members under its umbrella and gave added weight to Saud Al-Faisal’s call for a combined military and foreign policy. Saudi Arabia can offer GCC members the protection of its enormous influence in the West, as well as one of the largest armies in the region, armed and trained by the United States, and an eventual nuclear umbrella.

The Obama Administration has left the nations of the region with very few options. They can either wait for America and Europe to hand them over to the Muslim Brotherhood on a democratic platter. They can become puppets of Iran. They can long for the return of a Turkish Ottoman Empire under the AKP. Or they can look to the Saudis for leadership and aid.

The Arab Spring has set two Caliphate movements on track. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Caliphate which is to consist of the Arab Socialist countries whose governments were overthrown in the Arab Spring, Egypt and Tunisia, and possibly Syria and Libya. And the GCC, a more traditional Caliphate of tribal monarchs with oil wealth.

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Iran’s Grand Strategy

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by RYAN MAURO at FSM:

The Iranian regime believes what it says and can achieve its stated objectives. That’s the blunt truth that few can accept.

To determine Iran’s strategy, we must determine its goals and ideology. President Ahmadinejad consistently states that he acts in order to ”hasten the arrival” of the Mahdi, also called the Hidden Imam, who is to appear during the End Times to bring victory over the enemies of Islam. Since at least July 2010, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has been telling his inner circle that he has met the Mahdi, who promised him an imminent return.

A number of voices opposed to a potential Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities reassure us that the regime is a rational actor and we should not take this rhetoric seriously. Former Mossad director Meir Dagan went so far as to say Iran is “very rational.” The statement made headlines but their simplicity is misleading. Dagan actually said that Iran is “not exactly our rational.” What Dagan likely meant is that the regime weighs costs and benefits. It rationally pursues goals that we’d consider irrational.

Eight Christian leaders are among those that want the U.S. to embrace a policy of containment towards a nuclear-armed Iran. On March 5, the director of the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Office of Public Witness co-wrote a letter to Congress, urging that resolutions ruling out such a policy be shot down.

It said the resolutions “sets a dangerously low threshold for war” and compares Iran to the Soviet Union.

A little-noticed documentary titled “The Coming is Upon Us” was produced by Ahmadinejad’s office last year and it lays out the regime’s beliefs and planned path forward, much like Mein Kampf did. And it debunks the notion that the U.S.S.R. and the Iranian regime are equivalent. The film makes the case that the regime’s leaders are the incarnations of specific End Times figures foretold in Islamic eschatology.

Iran is the “nation from the East” that paves the way for the Mahdi’s appearance. Supreme Leader Khamenei is Seyed Khorasani, “the preparer” who comes from Khorasan Province with a black flag and a distinct feature in his right hand. Khamenei’s right hand is paralyzed from an assassination attempt. Khorasani’s commander-in-chief is Shoeib-Ebne Saleh, who the film says is President Ahmadinejad. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is the incarnation of Yamani, a commander with a Yemeni ancestry who leads the Mahdi’s army into Mecca.

These three “preparers” wage war against the Antichrist and “the Imposters”-the U.S., Israel and the West’s Arab allies. The film also mentions that a figure named Sofiani will side with Islam’s enemies. Former Iranian Revolutionary Guards officer Reza Kahlili, who leaked the film, told me that the full-length version identifies him as Jordanian King Abdullah II.

The film lists various End Times prophecies that have been fulfilled to argue that the Mahdi’s appearance is near. The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran; the invasion of Iraq from the south and subsequent sectarian violence and death of Saddam Hussein; the Houthi rebellion in Yemen; the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the increasing amount of open homosexuality, cross-dressing, adultery and women taking off the hijab are correlated to specific Islamic prophecies.

There are two signs yet to be fulfilled that will trigger the final grand conflict that the Mahdi will intervene during: An Arab coalition is to unite and rid itself of foreign influence and Saudi King Abdullah, who is 87 years old, is to die. The Muslim Brotherhood’s rise is fulfilling the first prophecy,the film says.

The speakers state that Islamic prophecy talks of the Bani Abbas Dynasty ruling modern-day Saudi Arabia during the End Times, which is the Saudi Royal Family. The prophecy is that this dynasty will be ruled by someone named Abdullah, whose death will lead to internal turmoil right before the Mahdi’s appearance. It notes that no one named Abdullah has ruled there in the past 100 years.

“For about 10 minutes [in the full-length film], the video lists the names of clerics, including very influential ones like Ayatollah Haeri Shirazi and former Revolutionary Guards chief commander Seyed Yahya Safavi, who affirm their belief that Khamenei is Seyed Khorasani. This isn’t propaganda, the regime really believes it,” Kahlili told me.

The Iranian regime has a realistic strategy to dominate the Middle East and lead an Arab coalition in taking Jerusalem–the two tasks that will, in its mind, trigger the Mahdi’s appearance.
Read more: Family Security Matters

 

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