[Mb-civic] Red Reporting

[Michael Butler]

Iran's Growing Threat
By Rachel Ehrenfeld
FrontPageMagazine.com | July 23, 2004

Recent events have made it clear that the threat posed by Iran should be
dealt with sooner rather than later.  Today's 9/11 Commission report
documents extensive ties between Iran and terrorism, and the mullahs' drive
to create a nuclear weapon is well known.  In recent days, Iranian officials
and clerics have increased the incitement for violence against American and
Coalition forces in Iraq.  However, ending the real threat this
fundamentalist Islamic theocracy poses to the United States and the West may
be impossible, thanks to the Left¹s and the pro-Islamists non-stop assault
on the president's credibility.
 
The case against Iran should be air-tight. The Bush administration is now
armed  with:
 
[1] The 9/11 Commission¹s report, documenting the  logistical, operational
and material support from Iran and Hezbollah (Iran¹s  international
terrorist arm) to al-Qaeda;
 
[2] Iran¹s  own admission of its intention to develop nuclear weapons;  
 
[3] Iran¹s increasing anti-American rhetoric;  and
 
[4] Iran¹s growing support of terrorism in Iraq.
 
According to the just-released 9/11 Commission Report,  Iran¹s support of
al-Qaeda dates back to 1991, when operatives from both  sides met in Sudan
and agreed ³to cooperate in providing support‹even if  only training‹for
actions carried out primarily against Israel and the  United States.²
 
By 1993, ³al-Qaeda received advice and training from Hezbollah² in
intelligence, security and explosives, especially in ³how to use truck
bombs.² The training took place in the Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah¹s stronghold
in Lebanon. 
 
The commission further reports that ³at least 8 to 10 of the 14 Saudi
Œmuscle¹ operatives traveled into and out of Iran between October 2000 and
February 2001,² and that Iran facilitated ³the travel of al-Qaeda members
through Iran on their way to and from Afghanistan.² Yet in an ostrich-like
move, the commission refrained from accusing Iran of supporting al-Qaeda.
 
This is how the commission phrased it: ³There is strong evidence that Iran
facilitated the transit of al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan
before 9/11, and that some of these were future 9-11 hijackersŠhowever, we
cannot rule out the possibility of a remarkable coincidence...[and] we found
no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was  aware of the planning for what later
became the 9/11 attack.²

Indeed, the commission recommends that further investigations should be
carried out, but looking at the body of evidence about Iran¹s leadership
role in worldwide terrorism and the war against the U.S., one can only hope
that we can act in time to restrain it.  
 
"Iran is closer to nuclear capability that it was two years  ago," said Dr.
Ephraim Kam, deputy director of the Jaffee Center for  Strategic Studies in
Tel Aviv, earlier this week. And U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, R-KS, also
added that Iran is clearly developing nuclear weapons.  Pakistan, as we
found out earlier this year, provided Iran with information on how to build
an atomic bomb. 
 
Iran¹s admission that they are working on developing nuclear capabilities
was made in November 2003 by a member of the Iranian Parliament, Ahmad
Shirzad. He made reference to the existence of a then-unknown essential
nuclear facility, at a time when the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) and Iranian opposition had identified at least 8 different nuclear
facilities in Iran. Despite all the evidence, it is unlikely that the
international community will take steps to disarm Iran any time soon ­
indeed, the IAEA and EU overtures have been disastrous. And undoubtedly,
China and Russia will block any real disarmament efforts.  
 
Iran denies that it is developing nuclear weapons; however on July 6, 2004,
the Iranian daily, Kayhan¹s editorial warned that, "The entire Islamic
Middle East is now a volatile and tangled trap, and will be set off by the
smallest bit of silliness ­ and will reap many victims of the sinful
adventurersŠIndeed, the White House's 80 years of exclusive rule are likely
to become 80 seconds of Hell that will burn to ashes everything that has
been built.² Earlier, according to reports in the Kuwaiti, Al-Siyassah,
Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Expediency Council stated, "The present
situation in Iraq represents a threat as well as an opportunity... It is a
threat because the wounded American beast can take enraged actions, but it
is also an opportunity to teach this beast a lesson so it won't attack
another country.² He ended his speech calling for "Death to America, Death
to Israel.²
 
Iran¹s support of the growing terrorist activities in Iraq and its attempts
to destabilize the interim government resulted in warnings issued this week
by the Defense and Interior Ministers of Iraq in an interview for the London
based Arabic-daily, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.  The Defense Minister, Hazem
Al-Sha¹lan, after accusing Iran of supporting terrorism on Iraqi soil,
warned, ³We have the capability to move the assault into their
country[ies].² 
 
If you think that Iran has its hands full with terrorist activities already,
think again. Last month, according to Reuters, the Islamic Republic of Iran
­ through the proxy known as the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs
of the Global Islamic Campaign ­ launched a new campaign calling for
volunteers to carry out suicide attacks against U.S and Coalition forces
inside Iraq, as well as missions targeting Israel and author Salman Rushdie.
Since the 10,000 volunteers already registered are not enough, they
distributed a ³Preliminary Registration for Martyrdom Operations²
application for the position of ³martyr.² Announcing this new campaign, the
cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati urged the public that "It is the duty of
every Muslim to threaten U.S. and British interests anywhere.²  
 
So, what are we waiting for? The president's  impaired credibility, a
dividend of the perpetual partisan assaults of the  political Left, most
elements of the Democratic Party in general, and the pro-Islamists
anti-American elements in Europe and elsewhere now poses a grave danger to
our security at home and abroad. Since the Democratic Party has embraced its
activist core, its politicians have denounced the war in Iraq as unjustified
and immoral, each American and Iraq death the intended by-product of
President Bush's wilful lies. Ted Kennedy  claimed the war was "cooked up in
Texas" months or years before it was  launched; Al Gore screeches that
President Bush "betrayed us!"; and the Left  at large has claimed the
president massaged intelligence to manipulate the  public into attacking the
benign despot of Iraq. The 9/11 Commission¹s and Lord Butler¹s report
debunked the Left¹s and the pro- Islamists¹ allegations, but the damage was
already done. Having tarnished the president's veracity specifically on the
War on Terror for political advantage, the Democrats hope is to render us
impotent to respond to the genuine threat posed by Tehran. If the damage
they have caused cannot be reversed, their self-seeking rhetoric may prove
to have mortal consequences.

*Rachel Ehrenfeld is the author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed
and How to Stop It and is the Director of the American Center for
Democracy.