Re: Iran test-fires more missiles in Persian Gulf
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Enjoy the read,
if you believe all of this to be bullshit, that's your business. [I don't]
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Iran’s history of state sponsored terrorism.
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Iran’s history of state sponsored terrorism is frightening.
Iranian terror continues without stop, just as it has for nearly 3 decades. The nuclear program is real and needs to be dealt with soon.
Since the criminal 1979 storming of the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran’s complicity in horrible terrorist attacks around the world has continued. The US embassy bombings in Kuwait and Lebanon in 1983 along with the US Marine Barracks is well known by Americans.
But how many know of Iran’s support for Ayman al-Zawahiri’s planned Egyptian coup in 1990? Any effort towards peace in the middle East is attacked by Iran. This, according to top al-Qaeda operative Ali Mohamed now in US custody.
Iran met with (eventual) al-Qaeda operatives and Hezbollah at the Popular Arab Islamic Conference meetings held in Sudan after the Gulf War of 1990-1991? Osama Bin (let's kill innocent men women and children) Laden met regularly with Iranians in Sudan for the purposes of uniting attacks against the United States and the Free World.
How many know about Iran’s Satanic Hezbollah training al-Qaeda terrorists in the art of suicide truck bomb operations in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley ahead of the 1998 simultaneous US embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya where more innocent men, women and children were murdered?
Note that the Iranian funded terrorist organization in Lebanon has taken the original Iranian name of Hezbollah.
The 2003 al-Qaeda attacks on three housing complexes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were ordered by al-Qaeda commanders Saif al-Adel and Saad bin Laden, operating from within Iran while supposedly under “house arrest.” Their operating fund came directly from Iranian Oil revenue.
Everybody knows that Labanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas are funded and equipped with Iranian money and weapons like the thousands of missiles used to attack innocents in Israel. Those missile attacks have been going on for twenty years now.
Most of the explosives that are used in Iraq to kill men, women and children and American soldiers is provided by Iran. That is a simple proven FACT.
The horrific explosions in Spain, England, Germany and France were partially Iranian funded.
The list goes on and on and on.
Only one country besides Israel has identified the source of bombings and terrorism.
That country was Argentina. There has been a lot of Large Scale Iranian terrorism in Argentina.
There are about a quarter of a million Jews who live in Argentina so it will continue to be a target of Insane Radical Islamic attacks, just like New York City has been. Most Americans are totally oblivious to the Iranian sponsored terrorism all around the world because the smaller attacks don't make the headlines. But some bigger ones did make the headlines. Here are two of them that you might remember.
1992 Iranian Attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires
The First BIG attack was in Buenos Aires, Argentina and was a bomb attack against Israel's embassy on March 17, 1992. A modified delivery truck, driven by a Radical Islamic suicide bomber and loaded with high explosives, smashed into the front of the Israeli Embassy and detonated, destroying the embassy, a Catholic church, and a nearby elementary school building. There is no doubt in my mind that the Catholic Church and the school were deliberately considered as viable targets because Radical Islam is at war with all infidels no matter what age, sex or faith. Islamic Jihad, allegedly a front for Hezbollah, proudly claimed responsibility for its “Glorious Attack” on the infidels and their children.
The Argentine government subsequently expelled seven Iranian diplomats from the country, stating that it had
"Convincing Proof" of criminal Iranian involvement in the horrific bombing, but could not prosecute the Iranians because they were shielded by “Diplomatic Immunity.”
The AMIA Bombing
The AMIA Bombing was an attack on the Asociaci?n Mutual Israelita Argentina building in the capital of Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, that killed 85 people. It was the deadliest bombing in Argentina's history. On October 25, 2006, Argentine prosecutors formally accused the government of Iran of directing the bombing, and the Hezbollah militia of carrying it out.
Subsequent to these attacks, the Iranians have sponsored attacks against innocent civilian people of Jewish ancestry living throughout Latin America. These attacks have been one by one and have on occasion been made to look like bungled kidnappings of children or robberies that have gone awry. It is so singularly directed one is left with no doubt that it is a continuing attack on the Jewish people just because they are Jewish.
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Proof That Tehran Backed Terrorism;
As a former Iranian intelligence officer was providing testimony in a courtroom in Germany detailing operational ties between the September 11 hijackers and the government of Iran, lawyers from the U.S. departments of State and Justice and appeals-court judges in Washington were working hard to overturn a law that has allowed victims of terrorism to sue foreign governments for sponsoring terrorist crimes that have killed Americans.
The measure, known as the "Flatow amendment," was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in October 2000. Terrorism experts believe it has had a sobering effect on terrorist sponsors, including Iran and Libya, because it has made them financially accountable for the crimes of their proxies by awarding damages to victims from frozen assets held in the United States.
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The simple message of the Flatow amendment is this: If you direct terrorist groups to kill Americans, you will pay. Damage awards to victims from Iranian government assets in the United States in some 50-odd cases now top $3 billion.
Among those victims have been U.S. hostages held in Lebanon, the families of U.S. citizens
killed by Iranian government proxies in suicide bombings in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and the families of the 241 U.S. Marines who were killed when an Iranian government agent rammed a truck full of explosives into their barracks outside of the international airport in Beirut on Oct. 23, 1983 [see "Invitation to September 11," Jan. 6-19].
Now the U.S. government, apparently without the consent or knowledge of the Bush White House, is about to engage in what observers call "an act of unilateral disarmament" that will comfort
state sponsors of terror,
especially Iran. [
link]
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Does Iran sponsor terrorism?
In March 2006, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, “Iran
has been the country that has been in many ways a kind of central
banker for terrorism in important regions like Lebanon through
Hezbollah in the Middle East, in the Palestinian Territories, and we
have deep concerns about what Iran is doing in the south of Iraq.”
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell told CFR.org
in June 2007 there is “overwhelming evidence” that Iran supports
terrorists in Iraq and “compelling” evidence that it does the same in
Afghanistan. For these reasons, news reports in August 2007 cited U.S.
officials as saying that the United States would consider adding
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to the State Department’s list of foreign
terrorist organizations. Iran has repeatedly denied involvement in
helping attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the popularly elected president, has aroused
controversy by calling for Israel’s elimination but his power is
checked by the Supreme Leader. He has vigorously supported the
country’s nuclear energy program while denying any military
connection, and has emerged as a strong anti-American voice globally.
What terrorist groups are linked to Iran?
U.S. officials say Iran mostly backs Islamist groups, including the
Lebanese Shiite militants of Hezbollah (which Iran helped found in the
1980s) and such Palestinian terrorist groups as Hamas and Palestinian
Islamic Jihad. A few months after Hamas won the Palestinian Authority
(PA) elections in early 2006, Iran pledged $50 million to the near-
bankrupt PA. The United States, among other nations, has cut off aid
to the PA because of Hamas’ terrorist ties.
Iran is suspected of encouraging Hezbollah’s July 2006 attack on
Israel to deflect international attention from its nuclear weapons
program. Iran was also reportedly involved in a Hezbollah-linked
January 2002 attempt to smuggle a boatload of arms to the PA. Some
reports also suggest that Iran’s interference in Iraq has included
funding, safe transit, and arms to insurgent leaders like Muqtada al-
Sadr and his forces.
What terrorist activities have been linked with Iran?
The U.S. government first listed Iran as a terrorist sponsor in 1984.
Among its activities have been the following:
Observers say Iran had prior knowledge of Hezbollah attacks, such as
the 1988 kidnapping and murder of Colonel William Higgins, a U.S.
Marine involved in a UN observer mission in Lebanon, and the 1992 and
1994 bombings of Jewish cultural institutions in Argentina.
Iran still has a price on the head of the Indian-born British novelist
Salman Rushdie for what Iranian leaders call blasphemous writings
about Islam in his 1989 novel The Satanic Verses.
U.S. officials say Iran supported the group behind the 1996 truck
bombing of Khobar Towers, a U.S. military residence in Saudi Arabia,
which killed nineteen U.S. servicemen.
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Overview of State-Sponsored Terrorism
Iran
Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 1997. Tehran continued to be involved in the planning and execution of terrorist acts by its own agents and by surrogates such as the Lebanese Hizballah and continued to fund and train known terrorist groups throughout 1997. Although the August 1997 accession of President Khatami has resulted in more conciliatory Iranian public statements, such as public condemnations of terrorist attacks by Algerian and Egyptian groups, Iranian support for terrorism remains in place.
Tehran conducted at least 13 assassinations in 1997, the majority of which were carried out in northern Iraq. Iran's targets normally include, but are not limited to, members of the regime's main opposition groups, including the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Elsewhere in Iraq, in January 1997 Iranian agents tried to attack the Baghdad headquarters of the MEK using a "supermortar" of a design similar to that discovered aboard the Iranian ship "Kolahdooz" by Belgian customs authorities in early 1996. The attack was unsuccessful, resulting in the death of one person and some damage to an Iraqi hospital building.
April 1997 witnessed the conclusion of the trial in Germany of an Iranian and four Lebanese for the 1992 killing of Iranian Kurdish dissidents, one of whom was then Secretary General of the KDPI, in Berlin's Mykonos restaurant. A German judge found the Iranian and three of the Lebanese guilty of the murders. Two defendants, Kazem Darabi and Abbas Rhayel, were sentenced to life in prison. Two others, Yousef Amin and Muhammad Atris, received sentences of 11 years and five years and three months, respectively. The fifth defendant, Aatollah Ayad, was acquitted. The court stated that the Government of Iran had followed a deliberate policy of liquidating the regime's opponents who lived outside Iran, including the opposition KDPI. The judge further stated that the Mykonos murders had been approved at the most senior levels of the Iranian Government by an extra-legal committee whose members included the Minister of Intelligence and Security, the Foreign Minister, the President, and the Supreme Leader. As a result of elections in May, however, the positions of Minister of Intelligence and Security, Foreign Minister, and President are now held by individuals other than those who were involved in the "Mykonos" murders. In March 1996 a German court had issued an arrest warrant in this case for Ali Fallahian, the former Iranian Minister of Intelligence and Security.
In September 1997, Iran's new leadership affirmed the fatwa on Salman Rushdie, which has been in effect since 1989, stating once again that revocation is impossible since the author of the fatwa is deceased. There is no indication that Tehran is pressuring the Fifteen Khordad Foundation to withdraw the $2.5 million reward it is offering for executing the fatwa on Rushdie.
Iran continued to provide support--in the form of training, money, and/or weapons--to a variety of terrorist groups, such as Lebanese Hizballah, HAMAS, and the PIJ. The Iranian Government continues to oppose recognition of Israel and to encourage violent rejection of the Middle East Peace Process. In the fall of 1997, Tehran hosted numerous representatives of terrorist groups--including HAMAS, Lebanese Hizballah, the PIJ, and the Egyptian al-Gama'at al-Islamiya--at a conference of "Liberation Movements." Participants reportedly discussed the jihad, establishing greater coordination between certain groups, and an increase in support for some groups. In October, the Algerian Government accused Tehran of training and equipping Algerian terrorists.
Iran still provides safehaven to elements of the PKK, a Turkish separatist group that has conducted numerous terrorist attacks in Turkey and on Turkish targets in Europe. Following a late 1997 Turkish incursion into northern Iran in pursuit of PKK cadres, Tehran protested the violation of its territory but in 1997 made no effort to remove the PKK from Iranian territory.
In November, Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Kamal Kharrazi, publicly condemned the terrorist attack by the Egyptian al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya on tourists at Luxor, Egypt. Similarly, in early January 1998 the Foreign Ministry's official spokesman, Mahmud Mohammadi, also condemned the vicious attacks on civilians during the Muslim month of Ramadan (late December 1997 to early January 1998) "no matter who was responsible."
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McConnell Cites ‘Overwhelming Evidence’ of Iran’s Support for Iraqi Insurgents
<TABLE class=author-table cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TH></TH><TD class=authors>Michael McConnell, Director of National Intelligence
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June 28, 2007
Admiral Michael McConnell, the U.S. director of national intelligence, says there is “overwhelming evidence” that Tehran is supporting insurgents in Iraq and “compelling” evidence that the same is happening in Afghanistan. McConnell cites insurgents’ increasing use of effective roadside bombs known as Explosively Formed Projectiles that are clearly traceable to Iran.
The Iranians today, we have clear evidence, are providing the very weapons that are causing U.S. servicemen and women to die. That’s clear, that’s not refuted, that’s not hawkish, that’s not shaded. That is the fact.
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Blair: Iran sponsors terrorism
<!-- date --><SCRIPT language=JavaScript type=text/javascript><!-- host = new String(location.hostname); host = host.toLowerCase(); if ( host.indexOf("edition.") != -1 ) { document.write('Tuesday, February 8, 2005 Posted: 1052 GMT (1852 HKT)'); }else { document.write('Tuesday, February 8, 2005 Posted: 5:52 AM EST (1052 GMT)'); }//--></SCRIPT>Tuesday, February 8, 2005
LONDON, England -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has called Iran a state sponsor of terrorism, and urged the Islamic republic to bow to EU demands to renounce its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons.
He also called on Tehran not to hamper peace efforts in the Middle East.
Giving evidence to a UK parliamentary committee, Blair was asked if he shared U.S. President George W. Bush's assessment of Tehran as the "world's primary state sponsor of terror."
The British PM replied: "It certainly does sponsor terrorism, there's no doubt about that at all".
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<TABLE class=pageTitle cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>New Arenas for Iranian-Sponsored Terrorism: The Arab-Israeli Heartland</TD></TR><TR height=5><TD>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>By Matthew Levitt
February 22, 2002
Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet testified before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on February 6 that Iran continues to be "the foremost state sponsor of terrorism." Citing its attempt to transfer offensive arms to the Palestinian Authority (PA) aboard the Karine-A smuggling ship, Tenet said that there has been "little sign of a reduction in Iran's support for terrorism in the past year." In reality, not only has there been no reduction, but there has in fact been a marked increase in Iranian support for terrorism. Two important new arenas for Iran's direct role in terrorist plots and operations are in the heart of the Middle East: Jordan and the Palestinian territories.
Iran was recently found guilty of this kind of terrorist activity in two civil cases from the 1980s and 1990s (involving Hamas and Hizballah) that were tried in U.S. courts. But one need not harken back to Iran's past terrorism-supporting activities to justify characterizing the regime as the "foremost state sponsor of terrorism." As the Jordanians and Israelis have highlighted, Iran is playing an even more direct role in international terrorism, together with terrorist groups of "global reach."
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