Dissecting the Iran-Hamas Terror Connection
To understand the depth of Iran’s commitment to spreading terrorism, look at who is running its defense ministry:
- Mostafa Najjar, the current defense minister and the former Revolutionary Guards commander who facilitated the 1983 Marine Corps barracks bombing in Beirut, is in charge of Iran’s arms production.
- Ahmad Vahidi, the current deputy defense minister and former Quds Force commander and the chief intelligence officer of the Guards, is in charge of the terrorist activities outside of Iran; he is on Interpol’s most wanted list for the 1994 Jewish center bombing in Buenos Aires and now is overseeing the proliferation of arms and missiles to Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas.
While working in the Revolutionary Guards, I continually reported to the CIA on their activities and connections with terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. In one of my meetings with Carol, my contact at the agency, I detailed how leaders of Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah routinely traveled to Iran and left with millions in cash and how arms were provided through Syria.
I informed the CIA that the Guards were going to become a major force controlling every corner of Iran and at the same time expanding their presence outside of Iran. Their main goal was to export their Islamic belief that the flag of Islam should ultimately be raised in every corner of the world. The Guards’ elite forces had infiltrated countries in the Persian Gulf, Lebanon, Africa, Europe, and even Latin America, setting up safe houses, recruiting volunteers, and training martyrs.
In a coded letter in the 1980s, I wrote the following:
Dear Carol,
1. The Guards are sending hundreds more fighters to Bekaa Valley in Lebanon through Syria.
2. The operations are being coordinated by:
— The Revolutionary Guards Commander Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, who is in charge of the forces in Lebanon, and
— Ahmad Vahidi, the chief intelligence officer of the Guards in Iran, who is also charged with expanding the Guards’ extraterritorial activities in Lebanon.
3. Rasool, who works out of the intelligence unit at our base, is constantly traveling to Syria. He tells me that the activity is picking up and Guards are transporting arms and ammunition to Syria.
4. The Guards’ Special Forces is in contact with several other terrorist organizations, among them:
— The Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain,
— Militant Egyptian Islamist “Gamaat Islamiya,”
— The Japanese Red Army,
— ETA Basque nationalist terrorist group, and
— The Armenian Secret Army.
5. Through Akbar, I learned that the Foreign Ministry has assigned members of the Revolutionary Guards’ Special Forces to Iranian consulates and embassies. These are not political assignments; it is a diplomatic cover for their operations. Their task is to take control of all intelligence activities overseas, including assassinations, abductions, and the transfer of arms and explosives.
6. Kazem told me that Rafiqdoost, the minister of the Revolutionary Guards, was personally involved in setting up a relationship with Red Army Faction in Germany.
7. Rafiqdoost is personally involved in buying arms through the black market. Some of these arms are then shipped to Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad through Syria — with their cooperation.
The head of the snake of terrorism rests in Iran and the world will not know peace until that head is cut off. How much more bloodshed will the world witness? How much more instability? Don’t the children of the Middle East deserve a better future?
An Iran without mullahs would mean an orphan Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas. It would mean the end of hostilities in the Middle East; it would mean a chance for a lasting peace between Palestine and Israel. Syria would be much more willing to negotiate. Hezbollah would have no choice but to put down arms. Hamas would no longer be. Iraq would become stable, enabling us to focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan and do what we should have done in the first place: find Osama bin Laden and destroy al-Qaeda.
Iran, which already has enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb, is said to have relocated some 50 to 60 tons of UF6 — enough to make six nuclear bombs, according to the nuclear inspectors of the IAEA.
What will it take for the world to wake up? I hope not a nuclear war.
let me take four issues with Reza’s analysis
1. No mention of the root cause for the need to destroy Israel. This is a fundamental flaw which permeates all Western thinking regarding the prospects of peace. Starkly, Islam negates the very possibility of Jewish sovereignty as blasphemy, a negation of Muhammad’s legacy. a Jewish State is proof-positive Muhammad was a liar. I have it from an Iranina born Jew that the people of Bushher demonstrated on the night of Israel’s proclamation of indepepndence “what of islam??” If Isreael exists islam is wrong, so Israel must be destroyed. There is no compromise over this issue
2. Palestine: Reza referrs to a place or an entity called Palestine as if it actually exists or existed. The Palestine mandate was a British creation, carved out of the Ottoman Empire’s collapse. Prior to that only the Kingdom pf Jerusalem under Crusader rule was a sovereign entity wipes out by Muslim forces and annexed to the Muslim Empire. Once the State of Israel supplanted the British Mandate, it inheritte3d all of its land area, the sliver of land between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean. The West Bank is a defunct claim of the Jordanian kings, abandonned by treaty between Israel and Jordan. The only possible Palestine is Jordan, wholly Arab, all Jews forcibly expelled.
3. HAMAS is not a proxy of Iran, but rather of Egypt. HAMAS is an off-shoot of the Jammaat Islamiyah (muslim Brotherhood) of Egypt, most of the Arabs living in Gaza are actually Egyptians in origin and dialect. Egypt, whilst using HAMAS as a proxy in its ongoing Isalmist-motivated war on Israel, allows Iran to aid HAMAS. HAMAS is Sunni, Iran is Shiite, but vis-a-vis the Jews, they share a common goal. Elimination, liquidation, final solution.
4. head of the Snake: Should Iran be defanged, emasculated, unable to render assistance to all colleagues cohorts and proxies, nothing will change in the attitude of the Muslim faith and adherents toward israel. Wahabbism regards jews and Jewish dominion as an anathema no less than iran. Wahabbi Al Kaeda will take up the slack anytime. This is a Hydra, not a snake. The base of the Hydra is not in the Middle East, it is in the West, where the thirst for Oil overwhelms all other motivations. Ergo, kill the need for Oil, the Hydra dies. Arabs and Muslims become inconsequential unless as carriers of terror and death. Look to your own garage, that is where the Hydra starts.
New info :
Menlu Israel Tzipi Livni mengakui ketangguhan Hamas. Dalam wawancara dengan majalah Jerman Der Spiegel, Livni mengatakan bahwa militer Israel belum berhasil menghancurkan Hamas meski serangan ke Jalur Gaza sudah berlangsung selama 19 hari.
Livni yang pernah menjadi agen Mossad itu mengklaim bahwa militer Israel “baru sukses melemahkan dan memberikan pukulan yang keras” pada Hamas tapi belum berhasil menumbangkan Hamas.
“Tujuan kami adalah memulihkan kemampuan kami dalam melakukan pencegahan tembakan roket dari Gaza. Mereka akan berpikir dua kali sebelum berani menembakkan roketnya ke Israel,” kata Livni meski pada kenyataannya, tentara-tentara Zionis yang dikerahkan ke Jalur Gaza hanya mampu membantai warga sipil Gaza termasuk perempuan dan anak-anak.
Atas banyaknya jumlah korban di kalangan warga sipil Palestina, Livni berkomentar,”Kita harus seimbang antara perang melawan teror dengan situasi kemanusiaan. Israel melakukan hal itu. Kami telah membuka koridor untuk kemanusiaan.”
Meski fakta di lapangan yang terjadi, alih-alih memberi kesempatan bantuan kemanusiaan masuk ke Jalur Gaza, tentara-tentara Zionis malah menembaki dan membombardir pekerja bantuan kemanusiaan, klinik-klinik medis, rumah sakit, ambulance bahkan menghalang-halangani tim kemanusiaan yang ingi mengevakuasi korban.
Menurut Palang Merah Swedia hari Selasa kemarin, tentara-tentara Israel dengan sengaja menembaki petugas palang merah yang sedang bertugas.
Sementara itu, di kalangan pejabat pemerintahan Israel sendiri mulai terjadi perpecahan tentang serangan brutal Israel ke Jalur Gaza. Tiga arsitek serangan Israel ke Gaza, Perdana Menteri Ehud Olmert, Menteri Pertahanan Ehud Barak dan Menlu Tzipi Livni berbeda pendapat tentang bagaimana perang akan berlanjut.
Ehud Olmert menginginkan perang dilanjutkan, karena operasi militer itu belum mencapai tujuan. Barak mengatakan operasi militer ke Gaza sudah berhasil mencapai tujuan utama mereka memberangus Hamas dan mengembalikan kekuatan Israel. Barak juga mengatakan pengerahan pasukan ke Gaza bisa diperpanjang, jika perlu sampai satu tahun.
Livni sepakat dengan Barak. Menurutnya, operasi militer ke Jalur Gaza selayaknya sudah dihentikan atau paling tidak dihentikan sementara tanpa adanya kesepakatan.
Di Israel, sekitar dua ribu orang hari Minggu kemarin berunjuk rasa di depan gedung kementerian pertahanan Israel di Tel Aviv. Mereka menyerukan agar Israel mengkaji kembali kebijakan militernya di Gaza. Para pengunjuk rasa itu juga mengungkapkan kekhawatiran mereka pada nasib prajurit-prajurit Israel dan tembakan roket balasan dari Jalur Gaza. (14/01/09)
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Tzipi Livni of Israel Reliability recognize Hamas. In an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, Livni said that Israel has not been a military success despite the Hamas attack to the Gaza Strip have been held for 19 days.
Livni was a Mossad agent is claiming that the Israeli military “new success weaken and give a strong jolt” on Hamas, but Hamas has not successfully subvert.
“Our goal is to restore our ability to perform in the prevention of rocket fire from Gaza. They will think twice before roketnya to the fire with Israel, “Livni said even though in reality, the army-army Zionis to the Gaza Strip were only able to slaughter Gaza civilians including women and children.
Top of the large number of victims among Palestinian civilians, Livni said, “We have to balance between the war against terror with the humanitarian situation. Israel is doing. We have to open a humanitarian corridor. ”
Despite the fact that occur in the field, instead of allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, the army-army Zionis bomb and strafe even humanitarian aid workers, medical clinics, hospitals, ambulance and even prevent human-team that to evacuate victims .
According to the Swedish Red Cross on Tuesday yesterday, the army of Israel-army officer deliberately fire on a red cross on duty.
Meanwhile, officials in the government of Israel began going their own divisions on the brutal attack Israel to Gaza Strip. Three architects of Israel to attack Gaza, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Menlu Tzipi Livni different opinions about how the war will continue.
Ehud Olmert wanted the war continue, because the military operation that has not reached the goal. Barak said the military operation to Gaza has been successfully achieve their main suppress Hamas and restore the strength of Israel. Barak also said conscription army to Gaza could be extended, if necessary, up to a year.
Livni agreed with Barak. According to him, the military operation due to the Gaza Strip have been stopped or at least suspended without agreement.
In Israel, about two thousand people on Sunday demonstrate feeling yesterday in front of the Israeli defense ministry building in Tel Aviv. They proclaim that Israel return the policy militernya in Gaza. The demonstrator sense that they also revealed a concern on the fate of Israel soldiers, soldiers and rocket fire from the Gaza Strip replies. (14/01/09)
The head of the snake of terrorism is in Iran and no peace is possible until that head is cut off.
True. What are we going to do about it?
#1 Yuval:
I hate to agree with you but I will. The Iranians have publicly stated that nuking Tel Aviv is fine even though millions of Arabs will die. Why does the West not believe them? Of course the Arabs are being used as dupes by the Iranians but their hatred is so great that it doesn’t matter as long as they wipe out Israel.
The West ignores this at its own peril. Oddly enough there is some percentage of Israel that doesn’t believe it either.
I’m hoping all the bleeding heart liberals will read carefully the 4th paragraph of the article. Hamas is hoping for high casualties in Gaza to win sympathy from the world. It saddens me that so many innocents have to die, but I’m also angered by so many that want a cease fire. This will only give Iran time to bring more weapons into Gaza. If you want Israel to stop their fight against Hamas, you cast your vote in favor of a stronger Iran. There is no other way to explain it.
#5: ThinkingPerson:
Succinctly said.
4. SAF said,
“I hate to agree with you but I will. The Iranians have publicly stated that nuking Tel Aviv is fine even though millions of Arabs will die.”
To an Iranian, this is a double-win.
#1 Your analysis seemed well thought out when you pointed out that Muslims would have to deny the teachings of Islam if Israel was allowed to live in peace, a truth that has been a truth well before oil was discovered in that region of the world. I submit to you that the West’s thirst for oil is one of the reasons that Israel was able to re-establish the Nation of Israel again after WW II, since it was in our interest to support a democracy in that region. I also think you should consider that the West’s need for oil caused us to take an interest in the stablility of that area of the world. You could argue that many times we picked the wrong people to back in that pursuit, and many mistakes were made which we will have to answer for, but it was not oil in the Middle East that caused Israel to scatter throughout the world. You might consider what that area did with the tremendous wealth they accumulated over the many years since oil was discovered, and you might consider that the tragedies that Israel faces and faced in it’s history would be there with or without oil. Another words the founding of Islam and the call for death of Israel,not the discovery of oil is the root. That hatred for Israel and the people would not make much differance whether oil or water had been discovered. I think our test might be whether we forsake Israel because of oil.
It’s a good analysis, but I have to disagree with the conclusion.
As Yuval Brandstetter noted, dismantling Iran would not solve the problem of the Wahhabi/al Qaeda. Saudi Arabia is the largest worldwide terror supporter.
Iran without the mullahs would be a better place for all Iranians, but this analysis ignores the fact that Iran’s nuclear threat is strongly supported by Russia. If Iran disappeared tomorrow, Russia would just move its support to another willing America-hater, like Assad in Syria.
We’ve been playing this nuclear whack a mole game for years; there was Libya with their nuclear program, Saddam with his WMDs and now Ahmadinejad with his threats. A Russia-supported little dictator pops up and says “I hate America and I want WMDs”. We can appease them or we can bomb them – both options are incredibly costly. We spend billions of dollars and Russia moves on to the next mole.
Our military buildup during the cold war forced the Soviets to waste billions. It seems that they’re using the same strategy against us. It would make sense to try to dismantle Iran from within, by weakening their economy and their intelligence agencies in Iran and around the world. But we can only deal with the whack-a-mole threat by dealing directly with Russia. If there are deals or threats that need to be made, we should deal with the source of the problem.
This article is pure antit-Iranian propoganda. Hamas is not an offshoot of the Iranian Republican Guard like Hezbollah. Unlike Hezbollah they were not influenced by the Ayatollah Kohmeini. They are an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in neighboring Egypt.
“The head of the snake of terrorism is in Iran and no peace is possible until that head is cut off.”
If Bush had realized this simple truth seven years ago, the Middle East would be drastically different today, and Barack Obama would not be about to take office.
responding to LynnS
True, Muslim animus toward Jewish sovereignty has nothing to do with oil, but the ability of a host of nations whose total output of 300 miliion is less than that of 6 million Israel (sans oil) means that if oil were inconsequential, the world would not be concerend with Arab or Muslim grievances.
British interest in rebuilding the jewish Homeland was motivated by the Suez Canal and communications with the far East, not with oil. Arab oil became an issue much later. Philo-semitism on cultural and faith grounds was a very important motivator. I suggest reading Kevin Crombie’s book regarding Empires and the re-establishment of Jewish soveriegnty. Its a fascinating account of the workings of Philosemitism, and nations (the ANZACS) motivated by the love of the jewish nation.
The fact that the tremendous wealth was squandered on fighting the pitiful band of jews (five million and change) just proved my point that the denial of Jewish sovereignty is illogical, its a Jihad thing, just like the 911 atrocity. It serves nothing but blood-lust and 1300 year desire to rule the world.
Wonder where we would be today if Jimmy Carter had had a spine.
The Guards’ Quds forces are in charge of training the Hamas fighters,providing arms and technical assistance in making rockets.Their agents are present in Gaza helping Hamas.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Friday to keep supporting the Palestinian militant group Hamas until the “collapse of Israel.”
#12 Yes, as I stated in my previous response, you made a good point, but I asked you to consider that oil in that region being a curse in your opinion, could somehow be considered, in a strange way, one of the driving forces in the Wests desire to promote and support a democracy in the region. I understand the religious reasons for the Wests connection with the Jewish Faith and People, but I was pointing out the possibility that oil was a motivator also (selfish as it may seem).
Pat J….Before you make Hamas sounds like an innocent fraternity read on…
What does Hamas believe and what are its goals?
Hamas combines Palestinian nationalism with Islamic fundamentalism. Its founding charter commits the group to the destruction of Israel, the replacement of the PA with an Islamist state on the West Bank and Gaza, and to raising “the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.” Its leaders have called suicide attacks the “F-16″ of the Palestinian people. Hamas believes “peace talks will do no good,” said the Hamas leader Abd al-Aziz Rantisi in April 2004. “We do not believe we can live with the enemy.”
Source: http://www.cfr.org/publication/8968/
I didn’t say Hamas wasn’t evil. I said the link to Iran is much less tenuous than Hezbollah’s.
Pat. J….The link between Hamas and Iran is NOT tenuous contrary to what your liberal media sources have assured you….
http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/01/the_real_connection_between_ir.php
You might tell Ariana Huffington to do a bit more research before jumping to such inane conclusions.
Two Middle East mothers are sitting in a cafe chatting over a plate of tabouli and a pint of goat’s milk.
The older of the mothers pulls a bag out of her purse and starts flipping through photos. And they start reminiscing.
“This is my oldest son Mohammed. He would be 24 years old now.”
“Yes, I remember him as a baby” says the other mother cheerfully.
“He’s a martyr now though” mum confides.
“Oh, so sad dear” says the other.
“And this is my second son Kalid. He would be 21.”
“Oh, I remember him,” says the other happily, “he had such curly hair when he was born.”
“He’s a martyr too” says mum quietly.
“Oh, gracious me …” Says the other.
“And this is my third son. My baby….my beautiful Ahmed..”
“He would be 18″, she whispers.
“Yes” says the friend enthusiastically, “I remember when he first started school.”
“He’s a martyr also,” says mum, with tears in her eyes.
After a pause and a deep sigh, the second Muslim mother looks wistfully at the photographs and says…
“They blow up so fast, don’t they?”
But, POTUS stated Islam was a religion of peace. Don’t forget, the CFR thinks everyone is good inside somewhere, all you have to do is talk to them long enough.
I wonder if it is as simple as hate. Hate for Jews. Could it be so simple a reason Islam wants Israel destroyed?
Maybe, some of you nice folks can find another reason why Hamas, Hizboallh, Iran, and all the other Muslims protesting across the West want Israel destroyed, or shall I dare write placed into ovens.
ROPMA!
14. Reza Kahlili:
The Guards’ Quds forces are in charge of training the Hamas fighters,providing arms and technical assistance in making rockets.Their agents are present in Gaza helping Hamas.
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I hearby stand corrected. Considering your background please accept my sincere apology.
Mary M is correct to point out Russia as a key source of trouble. The Islamists have their own reasons (Wahaabi, Muslim brotherhood and Shia) but the KGB has been a central actor in the region and continues to be as many articles I wrote in Midstream magazine between 1992 and 2000 demonstrated. The KGB is all over Iran, Russia is its key military supplier and Russia is all over Syria. As a result of Sadaam’s demise Russia lost that chess piece. Fatah has been a Moscow puppet for decades so looking for Abbas to replace Hamas is a mistake. Primakov, key Middle East liason for Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin, said that revolution would be effectuated through Islam. Both movements are global in their aims despite their differences. The fact that Russia fought Islam in Afghanistan never stopped Sadaam or Assad or Arafat, or the Ayatollahs from working with Moscow. The global game is deep and complex but Israel and the US are on the same side and should be working in concert; yet Saudi influence seems to lead the US at key points to forget this and as in the pressure from Rice to make Israel leave the Philadelphi corridor the results backfire.
I agree the mullahs are the mob masters but a free Iran will also serve the Iranians the best who are sick and tired of these bastards.