US funds terror groups to sow chaos in Iran
By William Lowther in Washington DC and Colin Freeman, Sunday Telegraph
America is secretly funding militant ethnic separatist groups in Iran in an
attempt to pile pressure on the Islamic regime to give up its nuclear programme.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime is accused of repressing minority rights
and culture
In a move that reflects Washington's growing concern with the failure of
diplomatic initiatives, CIA officials are understood to be helping opposition
militias among the numerous ethnic minority groups clustered in Iran's border
regions.
The operations are controversial because they involve dealing with movements
that resort to terrorist methods in pursuit of their grievances against the
Iranian regime.
In the past year there has been a wave of unrest in ethnic minority border
areas of Iran, with bombing and assassination campaigns against soldiers and
government officials.
Such incidents have been carried out by the Kurds in the west, the Azeris in
the north-west, the Ahwazi Arabs in the south-west, and the Baluchis in the
south-east. Non-Persians make up nearly 40 per cent of Iran's 69 million
population, with around 16 million Azeris, seven million Kurds, five million
Ahwazis and one million Baluchis. Most Baluchis live over the border in
Pakistan.
Funding for their separatist causes comes directly from the CIA's classified
budget but is now "no great secret", according to one former high-ranking CIA
official in Washington who spoke anonymously to The Sunday Telegraph.
His claims were backed by Fred Burton, a former US state department
counter-terrorism agent, who said: "The latest attacks inside Iran fall in line
with US efforts to supply and train Iran's ethnic minorities to destabilise the
Iranian regime."
Although Washington officially denies involvement in such activity, Teheran
has long claimed to detect the hand of both America and Britain in attacks by
guerrilla groups on its internal security forces. Last Monday, Iran publicly
hanged a man, Nasrollah Shanbe Zehi, for his involvement in a bomb attack that
killed 11 Revolutionary Guards in the city of Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchistan. An
unnamed local official told the semi-official Fars news agency that weapons
used in the attack were British and US-made.
Yesterday, Iranian forces also claimed to have killed 17 rebels described as
"mercenary elements" in clashes near the Turkish border, which is a stronghold
of the Pejak, a Kurdish militant party linked to Turkey's outlawed PKK
Kurdistan Workers' Party.
John Pike, the head of the influential Global Security think tank in
Washington, said: "The activities of the ethnic groups have hotted up over the
last two years and it would be a scandal if that was not at least in part the
result of CIA activity."
Such a policy is fraught with risk, however. Many of the groups share little
common cause with Washington other than their opposition to President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, whose regime they accuse of stepping up repression of minority
rights and culture.
The Baluchistan-based Brigade of God group, which last year kidnapped and
killed eight Iranian soldiers, is a volatile Sunni organisation that many fear
could easily turn against Washington after taking its money.
A row has also broken out in Washington over whether to "unleash" the
military wing of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), an Iraq-based Iranian opposition
group with a long and bloody history of armed opposition to the Iranian regime.
The group is currently listed by the US state department as terrorist
organisation, but Mr Pike said: "A faction in the Defence Department wants to
unleash them. They could never overthrow the current Iranian regime but they
might cause a lot of damage."
At present, none of the opposition groups are much more than irritants to
Teheran, but US analysts believe that they could become emboldened if the
regime was attacked by America or Israel. Such a prospect began to look more
likely last week, as the UN Security Council deadline passed for Iran to stop
its uranium enrichment programme, and a second American aircraft carrier joined
the build up of US naval power off Iran's southern coastal waters.
The US has also moved six heavy bombers from a British base on the Pacific
island of Diego Garcia to the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which could allow
them to carry out strikes on Iran without seeking permission from Downing
Street.
While Tony Blair reiterated last week that Britain still wanted a diplomatic
solution to the crisis, US Vice-President Dick Cheney yesterday insisted that
military force was a real possibility.
"It would be a serious mistake if a nation like Iran were to become a nuclear
power," Mr Cheney warned during a visit to Australia. "All options are still on
the table."
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany will meet
in London tomorrow to discuss further punitive measures against Iran. Sanctions
barring the transfer of nuclear technology and know-how were imposed in
December. Additional penalties might include a travel ban on senior Iranian
officials and restrictions on non-nuclear business.
Comment:
Does this surprise any of us to know that " Terrorism " is a phrase used by
America to justify attacks and boycotts of its enemies, and when it serves
their interests they would forge alliances with the devil himself.
Those people who are working for an alternative system to the Capitalist one
are now being seen as the new enemy with American politicians making references
to the Caliphate as being the new evil empire.
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