A closer look at the Iranian regime’s increased terrorist activities

A closer look at the Iranian regime’s increased terrorist activities

The Iranian regime used its official embassies in Europe to plot a terrorist attack on the MEK meeting

Adapted from El-Bashayer Online – written by Abdul Rahman Mahabadi (Professional writer and Iran analyst)

Sept. 20, 2018 - In its 40-year history, the terrorist and fundamentalist regime of Iran has done everything within its power to terrorize and destroy its dissidents and opponents. 

The regime has been engaging in terrorism across the world in different ways. 

This is a reality that parliamentarians and politicians have confirmed in the past years, and they have recognized the Iranian regime as the biggest state sponsor of globalterrorism.

At the turn of the year, when protests erupted across Iran, the Iranian regime increased its efforts to strike at the Iranian opposition in hopes of stifling the uprisings. Following the remarks of the Iranian regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in which he emphasized the role of the PMOI/MEK in the uprisings, the Iranian regime engaged in several terrorist attempts. 

At the doorsteps of the Iranian new year in March, the Iranian regime dispatched a group of terrorist to Albania to detonate bombs at the annual gathering of the MEK. Again, in June, another team of Iranian regime terrorists tried to bomb a large Iranian opposition rally in Paris. Shortly after, a similar attempt was discovered in the U.S. If any of these terrorist attempts succeeded, it would have caused a disaster.

What’s significant about these terror attempts is the haste in which the Iranian regime has tried to carry out its plots, to the extent that it has overlooked all the sensibilities that surround its own present circumstances. The Iranian regime even overtly employed its embassies and diplomats in implementing its plans. The disclosures made by the Iranian opposition and the arrest of Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi in Germany and the other members of its terrorist network in Albania, France, Belgium, and the U.S. have become a diplomatic disgrace for the regime of Tehran.

Iranian regime officials are resorting to such measures while they are under international scrutiny. They are shamelessly carrying out terrorism through their embassies, which can only be described as a stupid move. While the world is rallying against terrorism, resorting to terrorist measures further arouses international anger at the regime. This is especially bad for Tehran because after the U.S. exited the Iran deal, the regime has become increasingly in need of support from European countries.

The regime’s hasty terrorist measures and its increase of domestic suppression and executions only hint at its desperate state in its final days.

On September 8, the Iranian regime executed three Kurdish political prisoners. At the same time, the regime attacked the headquarters of Kurdish opposition groups in Iraq, killing and injuring dozens of people. There is evidence indicating that the attack was staged from inside Iraq, through a missile base in Sulaymaniyah. 

If the allegations are proved to be true, it means that the Iranian regime has entered a dangerous game in the region.

History has seen many dictatorships, but the mullahs’ regime of Iran is unique in its own right, especially in terms of shamelessness. The officials of the Iranian regime describe Iran as “the most democratic country in the world” and claim that “there are no political prisoners in Iran.” They also claim that Iran is the most secure country in the world. What they don’t say is that the Iranian regime is the record-holder of executions in the world and it is the biggest state-sponsor of terrorism.

Another aspect of the Iranian regime’s shamelessness is it cyber-terrorism. Recently, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google shut down several online accounts linked to the Iranian regime because of their role in undermining public discourse and spreading propaganda. 

The Iranian regime’s huge cyber-terrorism machine is being run by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), employing thousands of IRGC agents and hackers and spending millions of dollars out of the pockets of the impoverished Iranian people to spread misleading news and lies about the Iranian opposition.

What is evident is that execution, terror, missile attacks and other hollow muscle-flexing moves are being decided at the highest levels of power in the regime. But it won’t help the regime out of it current predicament. The Iranian people are determined to continue their uprisings, and the Iranian community is more vigilant than ever. The regime’s efforts are only further proving that the PMOI/MEK and the NCRI are the main Iranian opposition movements and the real alternatives to the mullahs’ rule.

We’re also witnessing that the international community is becoming increasingly aware of the need to stand against the terrorist regime that rules in Iran and to protect the Iranian opposition. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Iranian regime’s embassies shut down soon and the NCRI recognized as the real representative of the Iranian people.

NCRI – Security And Anti-Terrorism Committee Unveil Iran Regime’s Terrorism Plot

NCRI – Security and Anti-terrorism Committee unveil Iran regime’s Terrorism plot

August 6, Hassan Rouhani, the President of the regime: “There is nothing wrong with the people’s protests … but it shouldn’t be like some people respond to a group let (’s requests).”

The nonstop demonstrations in cities across Iran and the key role of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and their resistance units have caused in increasing concerns for the Iranian regime’s authorities and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). Given the regime’s increasing internal crisis following the U.S. withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and popular protests against aggressive foreign policies of the clerical regime, which have become the main source of concerns,  the regime finds no ways out of crises, but to confront its main democratic alternative, the NCRI, by terror measures.

Subsequently, the regime’s Supreme Security Council, in an instruction to the Ministry of Intelligence, the terrorist Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence and other agencies involved in export of terrorism and fundamentalism, ordered them to take further measures to spy on the PMOI and the Iranian Resistance and to set the stage for terrorist acts.

1. The Ministry of Intelligence stations in various European countries were ordered to collect more information from movements and activities and to use more resources.
2. The Ministry of Intelligence and the Quds Force should examine the human, political and technical capabilities and potentials for terrorist acts in European countries, in particular Albania.
3. To justify the already disclosed terrorist plots and scandals in Albania and France (April and July 2018), it is imperative to add to the dimensions of the psychological warfare and the demonization campaign accompanied by the massive influx of false information and the production of fake documentaries.
4. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Intelligence, and the Quds Force have been ordered to press upon European governments, especially Albania, to curtail the activities of the Iranian Resistance.
5. The regime’s mercenaries and agents should be dispatched to Albania and used under the pretext of PMOI family members.

Understanding IRGC’s long-term goals in Iraq

Hamid Bahrami

I announce from here the end and failure and the collapse of the terrorist state of falsehood and terrorism which the terrorist Da’esh (ISIS) announced from Mosul,” the Iraqi Prime Minister declared on state television recently.

Following a three-year long blitz, Iraqi forces with the support of the international coalition, have now defeated ISIS in Mosul, despite all challenges and sectarian disputes.

But the defeat of ISIS has created a vacuum and there are some hard questions about Shi’ite militias such as the People Mobilization Units (PMU) that must be answered. This is particularly important because the PMU was established because of the sectarian divisions in Iraq.

But what role will the PMU play in the future of Iraq? Who will control and command the PMU? It is a known fact that some Shi’ite militant groups in Iraq – such as the Kata’ib Hezbollah, Badr Organization and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq – are supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Thus, it is not surprising that these militias pursue IRGC’s goals and depend on Tehran for their financial and military supplies. It is worth pointing out that a few days ago, the commander of IRGC’s Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, said that the IRGC “had been working around the clock to arm the PMU” after its establishment.

This makes them under command of the IRGC’s Quds Force. Apart from financial affiliation and weapons, these groups have indicated that they believe in and are loyal to the Iranian regime’s ideology of Khomeinism who was the flagbearer of “the path to Quds(Jerusalem) goes through Karbala”.

In 2014, a Reuters report said that “Asaib and Kata’ib Hezbollah, who have sent fighters to Syria to defend Shii’te shrines ... recognize Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei as their spiritual leader.”

Based on the realities on the ground, it is no exaggeration that the regime in Tehran has the last word in Iraq and the IRGC controls some part of the current Iraqi government

Hamid Bahrami

Direct dependence on Tehran

Despite this direct dependence on Tehran, the PMU has been incorporated in Iraq’s armed forces. Muqtada al-Sadr, an influential Shii’te cleric who Lead one of the PMU's groups, expressed his concern with this development in Iraq in an interview and said, “I can see that Iraq will be under the control of militia groups.”

He then demanded that security should be exclusively under the control of Iraqi army. The Iranian regime has long sought to create a safe corridor from Iran to Lebanon. Consequently, the existence of a domestic paramilitary force parallel to the traditional army in Iraq is crucial for the IRGC and Tehran’s plan for future of that country.

Due to the growing demand in the US Congress and the White House contemplating to designate the entire IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the Iranian authorities, need a heavily-armed paramilitary force, such as the PMU, to keep the corridor safe and to achieve their goals in Iraq.

This is because the successful terror designation of the IRGC will limit the Iraqi government’s ability to cooperate and provide facilities to the Iranian regime. Hence at this stage after the defeat of ISIS, it is only the regime in Tehran who will profit and rip the benefits of the PMU’s existence.

In addition, the existence of a parallel paramilitary force with an extreme Shi’ite ideology will undermine the country’s constitution, as this militia will follow the politicians who support it rather than the country’s constitution or the government.

Replicating Hezbollah

In this case, the Iranian regime is trying to replicate its creation of Hezbollah in Lebanon and strives to establish a similarly trustworthy paramilitary force in Iraq in order to take control and dominate the Iraqi politics in favor of its agenda.

It is true that there are disagreements among the militia groups, which form the PMU about the destructive and destabilizing actions of the IRGC. But the Iranian regime will try to bribe or eliminate any influential clerics or opposition, if this proves to be necessary.

Another reason for the Iranian regime increasing its intervention in Iraq today is the upcoming Iraqi elections. If the Islamic Dawa Party with the former Iranian-backed PM, Nouri al-Maliki, loses that elections to some other politicians like the progressive Shi’ite voice Ayad Allawi, the IRGC’s corridor will be threatened.

Unchallenged, the commander of IRGC’s Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani will use the PMU to tilt the upcoming elections in Iraq to Tehran’s favor and secure the outcome that the regime in Iran prefers.

The solution

So, what is the solution to prevent a new sectarian war in Iraq? As long as the Iranian regime and its proxies are allowed to continue their destructive role in Iraq, Iraqi people will never see peace.

Based on the realities on the ground, it is no exaggeration that the regime in Tehran has the last word in Iraq and the IRGC controls some part of the current Iraqi government.

However, the Iraqi government must now dissolve and dismantle the PMU, effectively, cutting off IRGC’s hand in Iraq. This is particularly important following the defeat of ISIS in Iraq.

It also needs to reconstruct the Iraqi army based on national interests and to run an independent foreign policy. The West and the Arab countries should push the Iraqi government towards this direction otherwise Iraq will be offered to the regime in Tehran in a silver plate.
______________________
Freelance journalist Hamid Bahrami has served as political prisoner in Iran. He is a human rights and political activist living in Glasgow, Scotland. His works covers Iran’s destructive actions in the Middle East and social crackdown in Iran. He tweets at @HaBahrami & blogs at analyzecom.

Newt Gingrich: Trump Will Work with Democrats to Shut Down Iran’s ‘State Terrorism’

PARIS, France, Breitbart, 6 Jul 2017 – Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich says he sees “a new round of resistance” on the horizon for Iran during Donald Trump’s presidency

PARIS, France, Breitbart, 6 Jul 2017 – Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich says he sees “a new round of resistance” on the horizon for Iran during Donald Trump’s presidency.
“I think that what’s happening is the [Iranian] regime is getting weaker,” Gingrich told Breitbart News at the annual “Free Iran” rally, organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ) near Paris on Saturday.

“I think it’s getting more desperate, I think it’s alienating more and more young people, and I would not at all be surprised to see a new round of resistance in the next three to four years.”
He added, “You’re going to have a Trump administration [that is] eager to be helpful. And with people like Secretary [James] Mattis and National Security Advisor McMaster–people who understand in a realistic way the nature of the Iranian dictatorship.”

Earlier in his speech to the crowd at the Free Iran rally, Gingrich said, “I think it’s safe to say that the Trump administration has much fewer illusions about the nature of the Iranian dictatorship.”
Gingrich said he believes the Democrats will work with Trump on Iran. “I think a lot of Democrats will work with him. I think there’s a general recognition, even under the Obama administration, they admitted and kept saying that Iran was the leading supporter of state terrorism in the world. There’s no question that that’s still true.”

He added, “Not even worrying about the nuclear program, you have to worry about the state terrorism.” He expressed little doubt that the Iranians are working with the North Koreans and that the Iranians are cheating on the nuclear deal.

Asked to respond to reports in the mainstream media suggesting the Mujaheddin e Khalq (MEK)–which is part of the NCRI—does not have a large following in Iran, Gingrich laughed and said, “Are they just nuts? Iran is a dictatorship.

“If you stood up and said, ‘hi, I support the MEK,’ they kill you. You have a justice minister who presided over killing 30,000 people. So when western journalists say, ‘hi, do you see anybody around here who is for the MEK?’ that’s so childish it’s unbelievable.”
The MEK is also known as the Organization of the People’s Holy Warriors of Iran, the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA), the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), and Sazeman-e Mujahedin-e Khalq-e Iran.

The State Department, under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, delisted the MEK as a terrorist organization. They were initially placed on the terrorist list under President Bill Clinton in 1997, a move that some suggested was highly politicized by the administration in an attempt to garner favor with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

So far, they are the only organized Iranian opposition group and have been responsible for providing highly important and valuable intel about the Iranian regime’s internal dealings to the U.S. government.
In 2002, the MEK uncovered and exposed that the Iranian regime was cheating on the nuclear deal, they have provided intel that allegedly shows the locations of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)’s terrorist training centers, and North Korea’s aid to the Iranians for their missile program.
On that note, Gingrich added, “In terms of intelligence, they have consistently gotten good intelligence out of Iran, because they actually do have sources that are real.”

Iran gets North Korean expertise in building up, testing and hiding its ballistic missiles

Iranian dissidents have documented work at 42 missile centers operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, A dozen of those sites had never been disclosed before

By Rowan Scarborough
The Washington Time, June 20, 2017 - Iran has increased production and testing of ballistic missiles since the 2015 nuclear deal with the U.S. while playing permanent host to scientists from North Korea, which has the know-how to build and launch atomic weapons, a leading Iranian opposition group said Tuesday.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a white paper that the dissidents say identifies and documents work at 42 missile centers operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the regime’s dominant security force.
A dozen sites had never been disclosed before, said the council, which operates a spy network that has exposed Iran’s hidden nuclear program.
Tehran views expertise from North Korea as being so critical that it has established residences in Tehran for Pyongyang’s scientists and technicians, according to the white paper. North Koreans have shown Iran how to dig tunnels and build “missile cities” deep inside mountains to prevent destruction by airstrikes, among other projects.
“On the basis of specific intelligence, the IRGC’s missile sites have been created based on North Korean models and blueprints,” the white paper said. “North Korean experts have helped the Iranian regime to build them. Underground facilities and tunnels to produce, store, and maintain missiles have also been modeled after North Korean sites and were created with the collaboration of the North Korean experts.”
Iranians also are traveling to North Korea, which uses occasional missile test-firings to rattle its neighbors South Korea and Japan, two strong U.S. allies.