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Boston Globe

April 4, 2007

 

US Is Said To Advise Militants On Raids In Iran

 

By Reuters

 

WASHINGTON -- The United States has been secretly advising and encouraging a Pakistani militant group that has carried out a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran, ABC News reported yesterday, citing US and Pakistani intelligence sources.

 

The raids have resulted in the deaths or capture of Iranian soldiers and officials, ABC reported.

 

The group, members of the Baluchi tribe, operates from Pakistan's gas-rich province of Baluchistan, just across the border from Iran, the report said.

 

The only relationship with the group that US intelligence acknowledges is cooperation in tracking Al Qaeda figures in that part of Pakistan, ABC reported.

 

The group, called Jundullah, has produced videos showing Iranian soldiers and border guards it says it has captured, ABC said.

 

ABC cited US government sources it did not identify as saying the United States does not provide direct funding for the group but has maintained close ties to its leader, Abd el Malik Regi, since 2005.

 

A CIA official said the account was not accurate.

 

Regi claims to have personally executed some of the Iranian captives, the ABC News report said.

 

"He is essentially commanding a force of several hundred guerrilla fighters that stage attacks across the border into Iran on Iranian military officers, Iranian intelligence officers, kidnapping them, executing them on camera," said Alexis Debat, a senior fellow on counterterrorism at the Nixon Center and an ABC News consultant.

 

The group took credit for an attack in February that killed at least 11 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on a bus in the Iranian city of Zehedan, ABC said.

 

According to the report, Iranian state television last month broadcast what it said were confessions by those responsible for the bus attack. They reportedly admitted to being members of Jundullah and said they had been trained for the mission at a secret location in Pakistan, ABC said.

 

ABC cited Pakistani government sources as saying the secret campaign against Iran was on the agenda when Vice President Dick Cheney met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in February.

 

Cheney spokeswoman Megan McGinn said, "We don't discuss conversations between the vice president and foreign leaders."

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U.S. protects Iranian opposition group in Iraq

Story Highlights• State Department considers Mujahedeen-e-Khalq a terrorist group

• Group's camp in Iraq protected by coalition forces

• Mujahedeen-e-Khalq provides valuable intelligence on Iran

• Iraqi government demands group leave Iraqi soil

 

From Michael Ware

CNN

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An Iranian opposition group based in Iraq, labeled a terrorist organization by the United States, gets protection from the U.S. military despite Iraqi pressure to leave the country.

 

The U.S. considers the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK, a source of valuable intelligence on Iran.

 

The group also is credited with helping expose Iran's secret nuclear program through spying on Tehran for decades.

 

Iranian officials tied the MEK to an explosion in February at a girls school in Zahedan, Iran. (Full story)

 

The U.S. State Department considers the MEK a terrorist organization -- meaning no American can deal with it; U.S. banks must freeze its assets; and any American giving support to its members is committing a crime.

 

The U.S. military, though, regularly escorts MEK supply runs between Baghdad and its base, Camp Ashraf.

 

"The trips for procurement of logistical needs also take place under the control and protection of the MPs," said Mojgan Parsaii, vice president of MEK and leader of Camp Ashraf.

 

That's because, according to U.S. documents, coalition forces regard MEK as protected people under the Geneva Conventions.

 

"The coalition remains deeply committed to the security and rights of the protected people of Ashraf," U.S. Maj. Gen. John D. Gardner wrote in March 2006.

 

The group also enjoys the protection of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

 

"The ICRC has made clear that the residents of Camp Ashraf must not be deported, expelled or repatriated," according to an ICRC letter.

 

Despite repeated requests, neither Iran's ambassador in Baghdad nor the U.S. military would comment on MEK, also known as Mojahedin Khalq Organization, or MKO.

 

The State Department said Friday the Geneva Conventions protections apply only to MEK residents of Camp Ashraf, and the organization as a whole and its members elsewhere are subject to prosecution for terrorist or criminal acts.

 

"We still regard them as a terrorist organization," former U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said.

 

When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, Green Berets arrived at Camp Ashraf to find gardens and monuments, along with more than 2,000 well-maintained tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, anti-aircraft guns and vehicles.

 

All 3,800 camp residents were questioned by Americans. No arrests were made, and the camp quickly surrendered under a cease-fire agreement -- an agreement that also guaranteed its safety.

 

"Everyone's entry to the camp and his departure are controlled by the U.S. military police force," Parsaii said.

 

The MEK denies it is a terrorist group. Both Iran and the Iraqi government, however, accuse the group of ongoing terrorist attacks, and the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government wants it out.

 

"We gave this organization a six-month deadline to leave Iraq, and we informed the Red Cross," said Shirwan al-Wa'eli, Iraq's national security minister. "And presumably, our friends the Americans will respect our decision and they will not stay on Iraqi land."

 

For now, however, the United States continues to protect MEK.

 

"There are counter-pressures, too," Khalilzad said. "There are people who say, 'No, they should be allowed to stay here.' And as you know, around the world there are people with different views toward them."

 

find article here.

 

my my humble opinion: given the source, I take this article with a grain of salt. However, the west cannot have it both ways. A sticky situation either way.

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From Defence Talk

 

Defiant Iran to announce 'nuclear news'

Agence France-Presse | Apr 9, 2007

 

Iran on Monday marks its first national day of nuclear technology with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expected to again defy Western pressure by announcing a stride forward in its atomic drive.

 

Just days after Iran released 15 British sailors to end a potentially dangerous stand-off with London, Ahmadinejad will visit the country's most sensitive nuclear site in the central town of Natanz.

 

The nuclear day marks the first anniversary of Iran's production of uranium sufficiently enriched to make nuclear fuel, and is also expected to be marked by demonstrations across the country.

 

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly promised to announce "good nuclear news" in the near future, and is widely expected to use his visit to the heavily defended uranium enrichment plant to do so.

 

Any major announcement of progress is likely to further strain tensions with the West, which fears Iran is seeking nuclear weapons and wants Tehran to suspend enrichment.

 

But the Islamic republic insists its nuclear drive is solely aimed at supplying energy for a growing population.

 

Iranian officials have remained tight-lipped over the nature of the news, which is expected to relate to progress towards enriching uranium on an industrial scale at Natanz.

 

Iran's stated aim is to install 3,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges at a massive underground hall at the plant, and local media have speculated that the announcement will focus on progress towards this goal.

 

"In February they were supposed to announce the installation and launch of 3,000 centrifuges, but it did not happen so it is expected that the good news involves the installation and launch of the centrifuges," the Fars news agency said.

 

Tehran originally wanted to have the 3,000 installed by March, but so far it has officially confirmed only that it has put in place two cascades of 164 centrifuges apiece.

 

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, there are at least 1,000 centrifuges in Natanz at different stages of installation, but only around a third have yet been fed with uranium hexafluoride gas feedstock.

 

The UN Security Council has already imposed two packages of sanctions against Iran over its failure to heed ultimatums from the world body to suspend uranium enrichment.

 

Uranium enrichment is highly sensitive because the process can be used both to make fuel for nuclear energy plants and the explosive core of a nuclear bomb. Iran insists it has every right to the full nuclear fuel cycle.

 

Last April Iran announced it had succeeded in enriching uranium to 3.5 percent, good enough for nuclear fuel but still well off the 90 percent levels required to make an atomic weapon.

 

Tehran on Sunday again dashed any hopes that after the release of the British sailors it might take a softer line on demands that it halt uranium enrichment.

 

"We will not discuss the legitimate rights of Iran," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a news conference.

 

"We can negotiate about the concerns of the different parties and the non-diversion of the Iranian nuclear programme," said Hosseini, referring to Iran's insistence that its atomic drive is peaceful.

 

"We are doing nothing that is against the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and so there is no reason or logic for a suspension," he said.

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From Michael Ware, CNN ... An Iranian opposition group based in Iraq, labeled a terrorist organization by the United States, gets protection from the U.S. military despite Iraqi pressure to leave the country. The U.S. considers the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK, a source of valuable intelligence on Iran. The group also is credited with helping expose Iran's secret nuclear program through spying on Tehran for decades. Iranian officials tied the MEK to an explosion in February at a girls school in Zahedan, Iran ... "my my humble opinion: given the source, I take this article with a grain of salt. However, the west cannot have it both ways. A sticky situation either way.

 

From what I know, the MEK has its roots in efforts in the 60's to challenge the Shah, and played a large role in the effort that brought down his regime, but eventually developed into what is probably one of the largest (if not the largest) opposition groups to the present regime. Saddam supported the group in the 1980s and 1990s, and the MEK helped him to suppress the Kurds and others. Useful in the same way that leeches are useful in helping to heal wounds, I guess. Trustworthy ? Umm, no.

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