By Marty Salo
News Correspondant
Supposedly, Iran has already infiltrated Iraq's government and institutions.
This should not surprise anyone, they are neighbors after all.
The fact that Iran wants to destabilize Iraq and export its own revolution to other countries is troubling.
Perhaps, more troubling seems to be the fact that the current congressional occupants doing the people's business have no stomach for conflict.
Given the displays of courage on the Capital Mall recently, how can one find fault with taking the path of least resistance?
So, do we as a whole care about the future of the middle east? Do we wash our hands oof the affair and claim that we cannot win, so we will not try?
Do we care what happens to global oil supply if we leave the region?
Marty Salo, News Correspondent:
Marty’s column, Can We Talk About This?, published every day to Gather Essentials: Newsis about current news
Marty is 34 years old and lives in Sunny Tampa, FL.
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Iranian Expert Says that Iran Has Infiltrated the Iraqi Government and
Its National Assembly
Posted by jmc1969
On 01/30/2007 11:17:51 AM PST * 8 replies * 228+ views
PRNewswire ^ | January 30 2007
Alireza Jafarzadeh, an expert on Iran and the man responsible for
breaking the news in August 2002 about Iran's nuclear weapons program,
says he has detailed information showing that "agents on Tehran's
payroll involved in violence and death squads hold prominent positions
in the Iraqi government and National Assembly." Jafarzadeh, a leading
authority on Iran, its political position, its government, and policies,
indicated that these efforts by Iran to place its agents in the Iraqi
government form a part of Tehran's larger plan to export its revolution,
and that Tehran will do almost anything to destabilize Iraq. He also
indicated...
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Comments: 23
al-Sadr must be defeated, if Iran is to remain Iran, and Iraq is to remain Iraq.
Opening a bank in Iraq has problems if the United States still seeks to isolate Iran. Of course, if there is a conflict, then perhaps afterward, external banking networks might be beneficial.
Iran should be able to survive isolation by the United States. If Iran only wanted to improve its infrastructure, it could probably do that through contractual relations with the chinese. Unfortunately, I think Iran wants to bring about apocalypse...armageddon...chaos. The return of the messianic figure in Shi'a Islam.
I always try to give comments but I am so sick of the war this is the best I can do. Heres a 10 for your contribution though.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/31/iraq.main/index.html
(copy and paste to browser)
Furthermore, the information in this post comes form a press release, inarguably one sided when it comes to bias and contains mostly assertions and little hard news at all.
Marty, have you ever been to Iran?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alireza_Jafarzadeh
Addressing Stevo's quality complaints, the reason for my writing is to bring discussion to the site. My goals in being a correspondant are not to hone my reporting skills. If I wanted a syndicated column (a guy can dream) then I would be devoting more energy to it.
Addressing Kathleen's substanative comments about whose job it is to control the middle east, I think the only reason we are trying to be the school yard security guard in that region is because no one else is doing it.
We caused instability by removing Saddam, and now the Democrats in Congress want to usurp unconstitutional power to decide troop levels, and micromanage this war through the use of committee.
There is a reason that the president is the chief executive officer.
This is the same reason that Governors who are chief executives at the state level, are elected to President. Senators are legislators, and should not run for president.
Thank you for providing additional links.
Part of the difficulty in in insisting on scrupulous behavior in a part of the world where there is very little scrupulous behavior is that your well of information is dry.
One man's terrorist is another's freedom-fighter.
I am not the chief executive. I have not reviewed the links provided, by I will.
Jafarzadeh was born in Mashad, Iran in 1957.[7] He moved to the United States of America before the 1979 Iranian Revolution. In the USA he studied civil engineering, obtaining his bachelors degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and a masters degree from the University of Texas in Austin.[8]
As of 2007 Jafarzadeh is a Foreign Affairs Analyst for Fox News, a position he has held since 2003 and is often a guest on Voice of America, or ABC Radio Network's John Batchelor Show. He has lectured at Georgetown University and the University of Michigan. He currently lives and works in Washington DC in the USA.
According to a publicity release he submitted[15] to Intelligence Summit, Alireza Jafarzadeh is a well-known and credible authority on terrorism and Islamic Fundamentalism in the Middle East, particularly in Iran and Iraq. Jafarzadeh has published numerous papers and essays and has appeared on most television and radio broadcasts including, Fox news, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, NPR, VOA, BBC and ABC..[16]
In late July 1988, only a few weeks before an official ceasefire went into effect between Iran and Iraq (thus ending the 8-year war), units of the MEK embarked on their most ambitious and one could say suicidal attempt to "capture Tehran" (a feat that not even the Iraqi army had come close to after 8 years).
They poured thousands of their armed cadre along with hundreds of vehicles and tanks across the border from Iraq into Iran - but with no air support from the Iraqi air force. The Iranian army, having had advanced intelligence about this effort, had prepared a terrible fate for them.
To the surprise of the advancing MEK units, Iranian army units did little to resist them. The MEK units even managed to capture the city of Islamabad, with practically no resistance. They saw nothing unusual in the fact no Iranian troops were to be seen anywhere, and so they pressed on till they reached a mountain pass that they had to cross.
Once at the enclosed perimeter of the pass, and virtually defenseless against air attack, Iranian army aviation helicopters and Iranian air force jets descended on them. The scene was horrifying as in a matter of hours, some 3,000 MEK members were massacred and all their equipment destroyed. Mopping up operations by the army and the revolutionary guards cleaned up the area even further. Many were captured alive. I do not know of one who escaped back to Iraq.
In the MEK this operation is known as operation Eternal Light (Forough-e Jaavedaan in Persian). In Iran, the operation has been appropriately called Eternal Lie (Dorough-e Jaavedaan). The Lie, that Tehran's capture was near, and that the MEK's poor and inexperienced foot soldiers were the ones who would taste the glory of that "liberation".
alins April 14, 2005 - 3:58pm
By your rationale then HAMAS is a group of freedom fighters. Is that correct? If not, then what's the difference between the two?
MEK is bad news and Jafarzadeh is affiliated with them. Treat as suspect, in my opnion.
...Addressing Kathleen's substanative comments about whose job it is to control the middle east, I think the only reason we are trying to be the school yard
security guard in that region is because no one else is doing it."
First, We have no such "control" over other peoples or nations. It is a peuliarlly American illusion to suppose otherwise. We may or may not have some influence on some issues in some areas, we may create some positive or negative consequences based on how we assess or misassess the behavior of others and we assuredly can kill and maim. But "control" is way out of our hands.
Second, in addition to believeing in the illusion of control, we also adore action. Unfortunately, we tend to act first and think later which seems to be the case with our tragic Iraq folly. Moreover, the area over which action is most effective is ourselves. For example, we would have far more impact on the islamicists andIran if we moved immediately to curb our use of oil. Lowering the price of oil by reducing consumption, as Tom Friedman has said, will do far more to undercut our foes than will tanks and soldiers. Of course, we Americans feel entitled to maintain our current lifestyle at any cost so we will oppose a gasoline tax and real investment on a crash emergency basis into alternatives sources of energy which would promote reduced oil consumption. It is far easier to blame others than it is to honestly assess our own actions and options. Chris Bell
Would you personally be inconvenienced if you were told that starting next month, all commercial airline flights will be suspended, and over 5 years, SUVs would be phased out of production?
Should we bbe "personally inconvenienced?" Damn right we should. Aren't we at war? Chris
I've read a few pieces by a few columnists where they are wondering what will happen the next time America gets attacked.