[Mb-civic] FW: Terrorism as Statecraft

[Golsorkhi]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Samii Shahla <shahla at thesamiis.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 14:42:42 -0400
Subject: Terrorism as Statecraft


  Terrorism as Statecraft


  April 13, 2005
Iran va Jahan
Shaheen Fatemi


  Terrorism is like cancer, if not encountered it will grow and destroy
everything on its path. It is generally defined as the unlawful use or
threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group
against people or property with the intention of intimidating or
coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political
reasons. By this or any other accepted definition of terrorism, the
inception, growth and survival of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as a
system, is based on terrorism.

  For the Americans the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on 4
November 1979, is the starting point for terrorist adventures of the
Mullahs in Tehran. But for the Iranian people this evil practice long
predates the nefarious act of hostage taking on that day.

  For the Iranian people massive terrorist acts began in the summer of
1978, just a few months before the Islamic Revolution when Islamic
terrorist closed all the exit doors of a movie house in the city of
Abadan in southern Iran and set the building on fire. More than 400
innocent people were burned alive in this terrorist act. Subsequent
investigations have clearly identified the present leaders of the
Islamic Republic as the people responsible for the planning,
authorization and implementation of this criminal act.

  One needs to take note of how this regime employed terrorist tactics
for gaining and consolidating power and how it has maintained itself in
power with its unabashed use of terrorist behavior. The day after the
revolution they began shooting people on the roof of the Mosque in
which Khomeini had taken residence in Tehran. Anyone who could possibly
resist them or not go along with their bloody revolution was labeled
Œcombatant with God¹ and done away with on the spot. They executed
thousands indiscriminately while the rest of the world watched. This
reign of terror was deliberate. They were trying to intimidate the
public into submission. And it worked for them.

If it works at home, why not go after those who have sought refuge in
foreign lands. Hundreds of Iranian dissidents were chased all over the
world and assassinated. Only the famous ones were noticed by the
international press. The next step in their road to success required
setting up terrorist groups in the region and beyond.

The State Department calls the Islamic Republic of Iran the world¹s
³most active state sponsor of terrorism.² Iran continues to provide
funding, weapons, training, and sanctuary to numerous terrorist groups
based in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Looking at the IRI from the outside often the following acts of
terrorism are among the most talked about:

In November 1979, Iranian student revolutionaries widely thought to be
linked to the Khomeini government occupied the American Embassy in
Tehran. Iran held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
  Observers belive 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 U.N. 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 and inspired the group behind the
1996 truck bombing of Khobar Towers, a U.S. military residence in Saudi
Arabia, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen.


Just within the past two weeks both governments of Egypt and Yemen have
accused the Islamic regime of supporting the terrorists in those
countries. In Egypt an Iranian diplomat has been convicted for
involvement in a plot to kill President Hosni Mobarak.

This world-wide menace to freedom and democracy is no longer an Iranian
problem. The region and the world needs to realize this fact and assist
the Iranian people in their struggle for liberation.
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http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2005&m=04&d=13&a=3

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