Weekly Commentary

The Many Faces of Tehran’s Rogue Regime

Last week, the rogue government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rebuffed by the international community on several fronts. Early last week, it was revealed that Tehran had infiltrated the Iraqi Ministry of Interior following the discovery of a secret torture chamber run by the Badr Brigade, an Iraqi militia that is a brainchild of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Mid-week, Tehran began a new round of converting uranium ore into the feedstock gas for making enriched uranium. Two days later, a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran had partial instructions for making the core of a nuclear bomb since late 1980s. A diplomat familiar with document described it as a "cookbook" for the enriched uranium core of a nuclear weapon.

And finally on Friday, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution voicing "serious concern" at human rights violations in Iran, including the use of torture and public executions.

In short, Iran’s export of terrorism, interference in Iraq’s internal affairs, horrific rights abuses and continuing nuclear cheat again came under further international scrutiny and scorn.The US military's uncovering of a secret torture center near Baghdad, made it clear just how deep Tehran had penetrated various branches of Iraq’s government.

Iraqis, the US and British officials as well as the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin (PMOI) had repeatedly warned of Iran's expanding meddling in the affairs of its neighbor to the west. U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad told NEWSWEEK last week that Tehran's "short-term goal may be to keep the U.S. preoccupied in Iraq while it's advancing its long-term goal of establishing [regional] domination."

Associated Press reported last Friday that Iranians had staged a rally outside the Prime Minister Blair’s office in London, calling for the release of two PMOI members abducted by the agents of the Badr Brigade working for Iraq’s Interior Ministry last August. On August 15, the US-led Multinational Force - Iraq “strongly condemned the abduction … of two Iranian dissidents who were protected persons under the Geneva Conventions.”

Over the weekend, Brig. Gen. Montazer Samera’ee, the former Inspector of the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s Special Forces, told Al-Arabiya Television network that six other facilities similar to the one in Jadriyah still existed and that members of the Badr Brigade, the military wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), ran them.

Iraq's Interior Minister, Bayan Jaber, is a senior SCIRI official, which was founded in 1982 in Tehran on the orders of Ayatollah Khomeini with the primary goal of installing a Khomeini-style regime in Iraq.

Recent reports on Tehran’s interference in Iraq come as Iran continues to recruit suicide volunteers for dispatch to Iraq and elsewhere in the region. Iranian state news media reported last week that 50,000 potential suicide bombers had signed up for “martyrdom-seeking operations.” At least 1,000 of them have already been organized into “operational units,” according to Mohammad-Ali Samadi, the spokesman for the “Headquarters to Commemorate the Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement. Samadi is a senior IRGC officer.

The reports coming from the Jadriyah jail indicate that the Badr Brigade is very well-coached on how to run torture chambers. This should come as no surprise. Its Iranian trainers have mastered dozens of torture techniques in Iran against Iranian dissidents for the past two decades. That Tehran was censured last Friday by the UN for its "continuing use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" as well as "public executions, violations of the human rights of ethnic and religious minorities and intimidation and persecution of human rights defenders," was no coincidence. The mullahs have earned every bit of the world body's wrath.

On Thursday, the IAEA will convene to deal with Iran’s nuclear program. As the events of last week make it abundantly clear, Tehran poses a multi-faceted threat to the well being of Iranians and Iraqis, and to peace and security of the region and beyond. Diplomatic efforts to defuse Iran’s nuclear threat will prove futile and only serve to provide Tehran much-needed time and diplomatic cover to advance its quest for the A-bomb.

The only way to thwart this nuclear menace is to deal with it in the framework of a comprehensive and resolute policy aimed at empowering the indigenous democracy movement in Iran that seeks to unseat the mullahs. Never before, the interest of Iranians and security needs of the region and the free world have been so singularly embodied in the strategic imperative of having a democratic secular Iran; free of tyranny, terrorism and nuclear weapons. (USADI)
 

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Associated Press

November 21, 2005

Exiled Iranian Says Nation Hides Materials

WASHINGTON (AP) - Iran has expanded the tunnels it uses to hide a major part of its nuclear weapons program to a network covering a large area of southeastern Tehran, an Iranian exile who opposes that nation's Islamic government said Monday. Alireza Jafarzadeh said the secret construction of missiles extends well beyond Parchin, a military zone 20 miles southeast of the Iranian capital. Jafarzadeh told reporters in September about the Parchin tunnels.

On Monday, Jafarzadeh said that on orders of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian defense ministry has taken over an area in eastern and southern regions of Tehran.

Jafarzadeh is credited with having aired Iranian military secrets in the past, but U.S. officials consider some of his assertions to have been inaccurate.

Despite accusations from the United States and the European Union, Iran denies any nuclear weapons ambitions, saying its nuclear program is purely for civilian needs.

It has rejected new inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, and expressed opposition to a proposal by European countries to have reprocessing of Iran's nuclear material done in Russia. North Korean experts have cooperated with Iran in the design and building of the complex, producing blueprints, for instance, Jafarzadeh said.

A leading Iranian aerospace group, Hemmat Industries, is located in the area and is building three versions of Shahab and Ghadar missiles, he said. The Shahab 3 has a range of 1,300 to 1,900 kilometers and Ghadar, still in the production stage, 2,500 to 3,000 kilometers, he said.

Some of the tunnels are located in Kahk Sefid Mountain, he said.

In an interview, Jafarzadeh said the most significant development was that Iran was concentrating its work on missiles and nuclear warheads all together in tunnels underground in the Tehran area.

"I think the United States should be doubly worried about this because President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sped up its nuclear weapons program and the revolutionary guards are now dominating all three branches of power - executive, legal and judicial," Jafarzadeh said. "It's a nightmare," he said..
 

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Iran Focus

November 19, 2005

Iraqi Interior Minister and Iran run 6 other torture chambers

London, Nov. 19 – Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr is running six other torture chambers similar to the notorious detention centre discovered north of Baghdad earlier this week, a senior Interior Ministry official who stepped down from his positition said on Saturday.

Many opponents of the Iraqi government have been systematically arrested and taken to the detention centres where they are subjected to torture and in many cases their dead bodies are later discovered abandoned in the open, Brigadier General Montazer Samera’ee, the former Inspector of the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s Special Forces told the al-Arabiya satellite news channel, adding that senior officers in the ministry knew of the centres.

Samera’ee said that members of the 9th Badr Brigade, the military wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), were involved in the running of the illegal centres under the cover of Interior Ministry personnel.

He said that the Interior Minister Jabr – himself a high-ranking SCIRI official – personally oversees the project and no operation is carried out by the special security task force without his personal approval.

The new revelations come as the Iraqi minister has come under increasing condemnation by Iraqi dailies for his defence of neighbouring Iran in the affair.

SCIRI’s ties to Iran date back to 1982, when it was founded in Tehran on the orders of then-Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Currently Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was tasked with writing the council’s manifesto and the group’s primary goal was to spread Iran’s Islamic revolution to Iraq.

According to Samera’ee, the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s special security task force, which receives its orders from Jabr, frequently detains and interrogates Iraqis opposed to the present government without obtaining a warrant from the country’s judiciary.

He identified Ahmad Salman as the chief interrogator in the Interior Ministry task force, adding that Salman was a Colonel in the special branch of Iran’s notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).

The latest revelations against the Iraqi Interior Minister come as another high-ranking Iraqi official is facing charges of collusion with Tehran. Iraqi activists have told Iran Focus that Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowafaq al-Rubai has been attempting to white-wash evidence of Iranian meddling in Iraq. Al-Rubai, speaking during a visit to Tehran this week, announced “There is no evidence to prove that Iran is meddling in Iraq’s interior affairs”. Iraqi, American, and British officials in Iraq have repeatedly accused Tehran of backing insurgent groups and dispatching undercover military or intelligence agents to Iraq disguised as pilgrims. according to market investors.

Iraqi activists have told Iran Focus that Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowafaq al-Rubai has been attempting to white-wash evidence of Iranian meddling in Iraq. Al-Rubai, speaking during a visit to Tehran this week, announced “There is no evidence to prove that Iran is meddling in Iraq’s interior affairs”. Iraqi, American, and British officials in Iraq have repeatedly accused Tehran of backing insurgent groups and dispatching undercover military or intelligence agents to Iraq disguised as pilgrims. according to market investors.
 

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Agence France Presse

November 18, 2005

UN voices serious concern about human rights violations in Iran

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 18 (AFP) - The UN General Assembly on Friday passed a resolution expressing "serious concern" about human rights violations in Iran, including the use of torture and public executions, and called on Tehran to end the abuses. The vote was 77 in favor, 51 against with 46 abstentions.

The resolution expressed "serious concern at the continuing use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" of detainees as well as "public executions, violations of the human rights of ethnic and religious minorities and intimidation and persecution of human rights defenders."

It also called on Tehran to ensure "full respect for the rights to freedom of assembly, opinion and expression," to "eliminate, in law and in practice, the use of torture and cruel, inhuman or other degrading treatment or punishment such as amputations and flogging," and "to abolish public executions and other executions carried out in the absence of respect for internationally recognized safeguards."

Unlike those of the Security Council, resolutions passed by the General Assembly are not binding.

"The vote was a little narrow for comfort ... It was a victory for the Iranian people," US deputy ambassador to the UN Anne Patterson told reporters. "We hope that the Iranian people get the message that the international community is with them."

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The US Alliance for Democratic Iran (USADI), is a US-based, non-profit, independent organization, which promotes informed policy debate, exchange of ideas, analysis, research and education to advance a US  policy on Iran which will benefit America’s interests, both at home and in the Middle East, through supporting Iranian people’s  aspirations for a democratic, secular, and peaceful government, free of tyranny, fundamentalism, weapons of mass destruction, and terrorism.

USADI supports the Iranian peoples' aspirations for democracy, peace,  human rights, women’s equality, freedom of expression, separation of  church and state, self-determination, control of land and resources,  cultural integrity, and the right to development and prosperity.

The USADI is not affiliated with any government agencies, political groups or parties. The USADI administration is solely responsible for its activities and decisions.