[lit-ideas] Iran (5), Some of Iran's achievements
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 10:34:56 -0800
Page 14: (1) "In Europe, Tehran's inroads were demonstrated dramatically in
1993, when three Iranian Kurdish dissidents and their translator were
assassinated in Berlin by a hit team made up of Iranian and Lebanese
radicals. After a three-year trial, a German court tied the assassinations
directly to the upper echelons of Iran's clerical regime, including Supreme
Leader Khamenei and President Rafsanjani.
"Iran's activism was not limited to assassinations. Working hand in glove
with Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Iran began to recruit
terrorist cadres throughout Europe. This effort was so successful that by
1995 the Office of Constitutional Protection, Germany's equivalent of the
FBI, was charging publicly that Iran had begun a massive 'political and
cultural offensive' in their country.
"Iranian officials even expanded contacts with the Irish Republican Army
(IRA). As a result of ties forged in the early 1980s, the IRA was a
prominent fixture at the global terror conference convened in Tehran in
February 1993, and the Irish separatist group became an important part of
Iran's planned 'New Terrorist International.' By the following year, the
British government had taken the unprecedented step of publicly accusing
Tehran of supporting and sponsoring the IRA, and had expelled the Iranian
charge d'affaires from London.
(2) Iran also became deeply embroiled in the Balkans. In 1991, the mounting
unrest in the former nation of Yugoslavia, then in the process of
fragmentation, had led the United Nations Security Council to impose a
sweeping arms embargo. The move, already a controversial measure, was made
all the more so as the inadequate Bosnian military began to lose ground
against Serb militias controlled by strongman Slobodan Milosevic. The
Clinton Administration was sympathetic to the resulting plight of the
Bosnian civilian population, but stopped short of unilaterally lifting the
arms embargo. It did, however, give a tacit nod to proposed Iranian arms
shipments to Croatia and Bosnia.
"Tehran, in turn, parlayed this opening into a major regional presence,
expanding its assistance beyond simple arms supplies to the terrorist
training of Bosnian Muslims and the infiltration of its intelligence
operatives and agents of the Pasadaran into the region. It also allowed
Hezbollah to acquire a regional foothold, enabling it to provide crucial
training and indoctrination to the Bosnians mujahideen. A subsequent
Congressional investigation highlighted the scope of Iran's intrusion.
'Iranian influence in Croatia,' the House of Representatives report
stressed, 'came at the cost of endangering the safety of U.S. citizens in
the region and the U.S.'s ability to work with Croatia to counter Iran's
terrorist designs.' By 1997, the New York Times was reporting that Iranian
elements were 'mounting extensive operations' in Bosnia and had 'infiltrated
the American program to train the Bosnian army."
(3) In Latin America, Iran actively assisted its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah,
in expanding its already substantial international drug-trafficking and
smuggling activities to the 'Tri-Border' region of Argentina, Brazil, and
Paraguay. With Iran's help, the Lebanese militia also formed cells in
Columbia and Venezuela, working through the sizeable Shi'ite Muslim
communities in those countries. Hezbollah's successes led Ambassador
Phillip Wilcox, then the U.S. state Department's counterterrorism czar, to
dub Hezbollah 'the major international terrorist threat in Latin America' in
1995 testimony before Congress.
"This newfound niche was demonstrated dramatically in March 1992, when
Hezbollah carried out a suicide bombing against Israel's embassy in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, killing 29and injuring 242 others. Two years later, in
July 1994, the group struck again, bombing the Argentine Israel Mutual
Association (known as AMIA) in Buenos Aires. Though Tehran official denied
any involvement in the AMIA bombing, which left 100 dead and more than 200
wounded, a nine-year investigation led an Argentine court in the spring of
2003 to issue international arrest warrants for five people, including
Hezbollah's notorious terrorist mastermind, Imad Mughniyeh, Irnian diplomats
Mohsen Rabbani and Barat Ali Balesh-abadi, and Ali Akbar Parvaresh, a former
Iranian minister and one of the founders of the Pasadaran."
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] Iran (5), Some of Iran's achievements
