What’s Good for the Goose is Good For the Gander, Iran Plays the Terrorist Card
18 January 2024 by Larry Johnson 31 Comments
When the United States established a precedent for taking unilateral military action in the name of fighting terrorism, Uncle Sam should not be surprised when another country decides to follow suit. Iran was the victim of a massive terrorist attack in early January that killed more than 100 people. In response Iran launched retaliatory strikes in Syria, Iraq and Pakistan (Baluchistan to be precise) against radical Sunni groups that have a history of backing or executing terrorist attacks inside Iran. How dare they!! Who do the mullahs think they are? Joe Biden?
One part of the story that is not getting much attention in the Western press is that the groups targeted had ties to a intelligence organizations such as MI-6, Mossad and the CIA. I wrote about this in a memo published by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) in 2019. Here is an excerpt:
The last major terrorist attack causing casualties that is linked to Iran was the July 2012 bombing of a bus with Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. That departure from Iran’s more recent policy on terrorism was retaliation for what Iran perceived to be Israel’s role in assassinating five Iranian scientists involved with Iran’s Nuclear program, between January 2010 and January 2012 (the dates and names of those attacked are appended).
One can easily imagine the outrage and lust for revenge that would sweep the U.S., if Americans believed a foreign country sent operatives into the United States who in turn murdered engineers and scientists working on sensitive U.S. defense projects.
Special Operations
There have been other terrorist attacks inside Iran bearing the handprint of support from the United States. Author Sean Naylor, Relentless Strike, which details the history of operations carried out by U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) over the past 30 years, sheds light on this uncomfortable truth:
“JSOC personnel also worked with the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK), a militant Iranian exile group that had based itself in Iraq after falling afoul of the ayatollahs’ regime in Tehran. The State Department had placed the MEK on its list of designated terrorist organizations, but that didn’t stop JSOC from taking an attitude of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” toward the group. “They were a group of folks that could transit the border, and they were willing to help us out on what we wanted to do with Iran,” said a special operations officer.”
The MEK were classified as a terrorist group, until the United States decided that as long as the MEK would help kill Iranians rather than Americans, that they were no longer terrorists. The MEK’s history of terrorism is quite clear. Among more than a dozen examples over the last four decades these four are illustrative:
- During the 1970s, the MEK killed U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians working on defense projects in Tehran and supported the takeover in 1979 of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
- In 1981, the MEK detonated bombs in the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Premier’s office, killing some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including Iran’s President, Premier, and Chief Justice.
- In April 1992, the MEK conducted near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and installations in 13 countries, demonstrating the group’s ability to mount large-scale operations overseas.
- In April 1999, the MEK targeted key military officers and assassinated the deputy chief of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff.
Despite this history, a bipartisan parade of prominent U.S. political and military leaders has lobbied on behalf of MEK and has been well compensated in return.
LIST OF IRANIAN SCIENTISTS ASSASSINATED IN IRAN
January 12, 2010: Masoud Alimohammadi, Iranian Physicist:
Killed by a car bomb. The perpetrator reportedly confessed to having been recruited by Israeli intelligence to carry out the assassination.
November 29, 2010: Majid Shahriari, Iranian nuclear scientist:
Killed by a car bomb. According to German media, Israel was the sponsor.
November 29, 2010: Assassination attempt on Fereydoon Abbasi Iranian nuclear scientist:
Wounded by a car bomb.
July 23, 2011: Darioush Rezaeinejad, Iranian electrical engineer, unclear scientist
Killed by unknown gunmen on motorcycle. Specialist on high-voltage switches — a key component of nuclear warheads. Assassinated by Israeli intelligence, according to the German press.
January 11, 2012: Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, Iranian nuclear scientist
Killed at Natanz uranium enrichment facility by a magnetic bomb of the same kind used in earlier assassinations of Iranian scientists.
Iran is punching back hard. Syria is not protesting because the terrorist site Iran hit in Syria was home to insurgents fighting the government of Bashir Assad. Iraq has:
recalled its ambassador from Tehran for consultations and summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Baghdad on Tuesday in protest over Iranian strikes on northern Iraq that killed several civilians overnight, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said.
I don’t anticipate this escalating beyond diplomatic protests. The wild card is Pakistan. Pakistan also recalled its Ambassador and sent his Iranian counterpart packing. But Pakistan also has launched air strikes on Baluchi controlled areas in Iran today:
Sources in the Pakistani Armed Forces are reporting that the Air Force has conducted several Airstrike tonight on a Baloch Militant Group in Eastern Iran near the City of Saravan, roughly 20 Miles into the Sistan and Baluchestan Provence from the Border with Pakistan; Smoke is currently Engulfing the City as a Large Fire is reportedly Burning near a Militant Compound.
I don’t think this will escalate to a war between Pakistan and Iran. Pakistan’s strike was most likely a face saving display. The sites struck in Iran and Pakistan are not key strategic areas that necessitate each side ramping up for a broader conflict.
Iran’s attack on the Baluchi site in Pakistan was a message to the CIA. U.S. intelligence has had relations with Baluchis that date back to at least 1979. Baluchi operatives in the United States and in Pakistan played a key role in the planning and preparation for Operation Eagle Claw, the ill-fated attempt in 1980 to rescue the American hostages in Iran.
I fear that this is adding another fuel soaked log to the fire already raging in Gaza, the West Bank, Southern Lebanon and Syria. If the United States decides to take military action against Iran in response to Tehran’s actions then we are entering a new and dangerous phase that could lead to a full blown war.
I did a chat with Wera in Moscow today. Andrei Martyanov did a great job translating.