Davoud Khodakarami was sentenced to four months imprisonment and a four-year suspended sentence. Ebrahim Rashidi and Rouzbeh Saadati were sentenced to four years on probation. The three were charged with propaganda against the regime.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
Elcin Hatami Southern Azerbaijan Human Rights Activist
The First Defeat for the Expansion of the Revolution to the Republic of Azerbaijan Following Disintegration of the Soviet Union Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the newly emerged Republic of Azerbaijan became the first target in security doctrine of the Islamic Republic. Iran has been vigorously contesting with major powers, especially with Turkey and western countries, to increase its presence in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Given that the Shia Muslims form the majority of Azerbaijan¹s population, the Islamic Republic made desperate efforts to encourage formation of an Islamic regime, which could have been to the best interest of Iran, but to no avail. The formation of a secular and nationalist government in the Republic of Azerbaijan dashed Iran¹s hope for the expansion of the Revolution it had envisioned since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The political power in Iran is traditionally and deeply rooted in a sort of coalition forged between, and sometimes contested by, the Revolutionary Guard and the clergies. From the early days of the revolution in 1979, theRevolutionary Guard has penetrated all the country¹s social, cultural, economic and military institutions to the extent that it can be now regarded both as the protector of the regime and commander-in-chief of all the regime¹s branches of power.
By the start of Ahmadinejad¹s presidency in 2005, members of the Revolutionary Guard backed by Ali Khamenei, Iran¹s Supreme Leader, have been able to gradually occupy almost all the major governmental posts and positions. Currently the President himself, thirteen of his cabinet ministers and some of his deputies have served the Revolutionary Guard.
According to Iran Briefing, a website addressing the Revolutionary Guard¹s violation of human rights in Iran, more than half of the Iranian lawmakers are in fact active members of the Revolutionary Guard, and the rest are the clergies or seemingly independent figures that indirectly collaborate with the Revolutionary Guard and security forces, defending their programs and policies.
Revolutionary Guard¹s Strategies for Causing Tension in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The Revolutionary Guard has spearheaded various plans and strategies, some of which are pointed out below, in the Republic of Azerbaijan in an attempt to weaken the central government in Baku.
– It has provoked and backed the oppositions to the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan, especially the Islamists, in a bid to foment social unrest and prop up an Islamic regime similar to that of Tehran. We have seen that in the issue of Islamic dress code.
– It has orchestrated various terrorist activities and has trained terrorist groups in Azerbaijan¹s territory. The terrorists are used to target the US and Israeli interests. Many of the Iranian agents have been recently arrested by Azerbaijani government.
-The Revolutionary Guard has been very active in trafficking narcotics and arms and distributing them among the Azerbaijani youths in order to socially destabilize the country. Many of the drug dealers have been released by the Iranian authorities soon after they were extradited to Iran. That contradicts the very reality of the Iranian regime which hands death sentences to drug traffickers, and the rulings are usually being carried out immediately.
-The Revolutionary Guard is committed to train seminary students and dictate the 
Iranian regime¹s ideologies on them. This move is part of wider strategy to financially support and brainwash the youths in the mosques and religious ceremonies in an attempt to deceive the religious and traditional classes of the society and use them for its own ends at the right time. The seminary students are used to permeate superstitious thoughts in Azerbaijani society and fuel religious strife.
-It has launched libraries and publishing houses in Baku, Azerbaijan¹s capital, in which religious publications are sold at lower price in a bid to erupt the public anger against the central government. Sahar TV channel, which broadcast programs in Azeri language, is an instrument for dissemination of the Iranian regime¹s ideologies, and it is indeed the mouthpiece of radical Islamists of Azerbaijan.
-Red Crescent centers, Martyr Foundation, Imam Khomeini Relief Committee and Cultural centers are primarily built up by the Revolutionary Guard in Azerbaijan in an attempt to attract lower class Azerbaijanis as well as gathering intelligence from Azerbaijani society.
-Azerbaijani citizens have been subject to extreme inspection and control by the Revolutionary Guard, and any sort of travel from Azerbaijan to Iran will be treated as espionage mission threatening the Islamic Republic¹s security. Two Azerbaijani poets, for instance, were recently arrested by Iranian authorities.
-The Revolutionary Guard has stepped up its cyber activities against websites dealing with Azeri issues. The website belonging to the TV channel run by Azerbaijani government known as AZ TV, and Azal, the Azerbaijan airline, have been seriously sabotaged by the Revolutionary Guard.
-The Revolutionary Guard is dispatching massive amounts of military and financial aid to Armenia, especially those situated in northern part. On the other side, the Revolutionary Guard places numerous barriers before the Republic of Azerbaijan in an attempt to prevent it from having military and economic ties with other countries, especially with Israel, which is being regarded by the Islamic Republic as its ideological enemy number one. Revolutionary Guard¹s Strategies for Sowing Discord between Azeri Community in Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan When it comes to Azerbaijani Turks living in Iran, the nature of programs and strategies undertaken by Revolutionary Guard is a little different. From its early days, the Revolutionary Guard has been playing a very destructive role against Azeri culture, music, history and language. During the early decade of the revolution, the Revolutionary Guard¹s members broke into the people¹s houses, similar to what they were doing in other parts of the country, and confiscated music cassettes and whatever related to Azeri culture and language including history books. The holders of the books and music cassettes would be then prosecuted either as counterrevolutionary or communists or anti-Islam. The Azeri culture was generally looked at as outlandish one which was at odds with Shite principles and values. Following the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan from Soviet Union dominance, Iranian Azeris¹ civil struggle against cultural assimilation, alienation and the regime¹s oppression, which is being exerted on all ethnic communities in Iran, took new turn, and people have become more motivated to decide on and determine their own future. That has also led the government to draw up new strategies and plans to curb the ever-increasing national movement by Azerbaijanis.
The Revolutionary Guard and the media run by it have been trying directly and indirectly to portray the Azerbaijani national movement as a pan-Turkish, fascistic movement and its activists as agents of Israel, the US, Azerbaijan and Turkey, who are detrimental to national security. Such false accusations are largely made by the Revolutionary Guard and security forces as a pretext for further suppression of activists of the Azerbaijani national movement.
The Revolutionary Guard held an operation in Ghal-e-Babak festival during Fatemieh Massacre of oppositions to Fars Newspaper, which published cartoons mocking Azerbaijanis, by plain-clothe militias in 2006, suppression of dissenters who were protesting against the government laxness over drying up of Oroumieh lake are just few examples of the
Revolutionary Guard¹s attempt to suppress the Azerbaijani national movement. Iran¹s economy is totally run by the regime, and the Revolutionary Guard controls a major part of the economy and economic resources. The common people, on the other hand, are totally dependent on this regime-owned economy. Those joining either the Revolutionary Guard or security forces are demagogically seeking certain privileges. By pretending to be loyal to the regime and taking part in meetings held by the Basij militia, they are able to get concessions and trophies from the authority. In different parts of Azerbaijan province, the Revolutionary Guard forcefully brings together thousands of people for whom massive political propaganda are then made against the Azerbaijani national movement and the Republic of Azerbaijan.
For instance, the Republic of Azerbaijan is being portrayed as a poor and corrupt country which the Iranian Turks would die of hunger, should the Azerbaijan province of Iran secede from Iran and join the Republic of Azerbaijan. Government offices, cultural centers run by the Revolutionary Guard, mosques and educational institutions are holding annual meetings in which the threat posed by pan-Turkism is being discussed, and the culture, history, language and geography of Azerbaijan is being interpreted in a very unscientific manner. The aim, however, is to detach the people from their culture. For example, the Republic of Azerbaijan is dubbed as ³Aran,² but those parts under the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic are called Azerbaijan. Turkish language is deliberately called Azeri which is different than Turkish. Persian culture and language is promoted and gratified at the expense national heroes of Azerbaijan.
Every week, Friday prayer leaders and representatives of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, in cities such as Ardebil, Oroumieh and Tabriz are targeting the Republic of Azerbaijan by accusing it of being the lackey of Israel and the USA, and, at the same time, they warn the people of the danger posed by pan-Turkism and ask the people and the security forces to stand against such purported danger. Of course, there are dignified people in the government offices and in the Revolutionary Guard who honor their Turkish language and culture and are ready to train their gun against the regime¹s agents, should the regime be tending to display disgraceful behavior against the national heroes and figures of Azerbaijan.
The Revolutionary Guard and its affiliated news agencies, like Fars news agency, are even making territorial claims on the Republic of Azerbaijan, spreading the false belief that the Republic of Azerbaijan seceded from Iran as a result of the Turkmenchai and Golestan Treaties. A magazine called ³Northern Iran² is being published with the support of the Revolutionary Guard in Ardebil and is being widely distributed in Azerbaijan province of Iran.
The Revolutionary Guard brought his agents onto the streets of Tabriz and other cities ordering them to hold ideologically-tainted rallies against the Republic of Azerbaijan after the bilateral relation between Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan deteriorated over a number of contested issues. Head of Tabriz Basij militia, a semi-military unit operating under the command of the Revolutionary Guard, even threatened to storm Azerbaijan¹s consulate in Tabriz in retaliation for Azerbaijan-Israel relation and Eurovision competition which was held in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Revolutionary Guard¹s Cyber Attacks on Websites Dealing with Azerbaijan National Movement
The Revolutionary Guard has intensified its cyber activities against websites which deal with Azerbaijani national movement. Many websites such as ³Tribon² and ³Sana News² have been hacked by the Revolutionary Guard and have gone out of operation since early 2012.
The Revolutionary Guard is the enemy number one of the internet and press, not only in Azerbaijan but across the globe, and it tends to disrupt the activities of Azerbaijan national movement in cyber space by hacking their emails and websites.
Conclusion
The Revolutionary Guard¹s strategies in regard with the Republic of Azerbaijan have nothing to do with its relation with the west, the US and Israel, but its hostile position has somewhat ethnic roots. For example, the countries like Tajikistan and Armenia are being supported by the Islamic Republic, although they have close ties with the US and Israel. As far as common religion is concerned, the Islamic Republic has either remained silent against massacre of Muslims in Chechnya, China and Karabach, or it has even taken side with the perpetrators. The Revolutionary Guard sees the progress made by the Republic of Azerbaijan, which can be seen as an impetus for Iranian Turks to ask to for their civil and cultural rights, as a threat to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Islamic Republic. That is exactly why it is desperately trying to suppress civil activists and instigate damage to the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The Revolutionary Guard¹s future plan is to install missile shields in north-western Iran from which it can easily attack Azerbaijan¹s oil fields and economic centers should the Islamic Republic be attacked by either the west or Israel.
The ever-increasing power of the Revolutionary Guard is not only a threat to the Republic of Azerbaijan, but also it is a threat to global peace and security. Nobody is to survive the massacre which is likely to take place, should the Revolutionary Guard be able to acquire an atomic bomb, and for that the international community must be held accountable for its failure to curb the Revolutionary Guard.
Hamas leader Mahmoud A-Zahar and deputy commander of its military arm, Marwan Issa, spent the second week of September in Beirut and Tehran finalizing and signing protocols covering a binding commitment by the radical Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip to join Iran, Syria and Hizballah in a war on Israel, DEBKAfile’s exclusive military sources disclose.
The protocols set out in detail the circumstances, procedures and terms governing Hamas’s participation in a conflict, whether it arises from an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program or the involvement of Iran’s allies, Syria and Hizballah, in comprehensive or partial hostilities against Israel. Hamas agreed to obey any orders to attack the Jewish state coming from Tehran, Damascus or Beirut.
Tehran also required A-Zahar and Issa to attach their signatures to copies of the military understandings Iranian National Security Director Saeed Jalili concluded with Bashar Assad during his visit to Damascus on Aug. 7. Those understandings, DEBKAfile reports, touched off the massive Iranian airlift currently carrying hundreds of military personnel and weapons day by day to the embattled Syrian regime.
Hamas’s signature provided a booster shot of 22,000 trained fighters including reservists for the battle array of elite Iranian al Qods Brigades units building up in Syria and Lebanon and taking up positions along Israel’s borders.
This buildup prompted the large-scale snap military exercise Israel staged on the Golan Wednesday, Sept. 19. Most of the forces stayed on after the exercise was over and spread out along the Syrian and Lebanese borders.
The directives Hamas leaders received in Tehran after their meetings with top officials were detailed and precise. They were handed down in person by Defense Minister Ahmed Wahidi, Revolutionary Guards Chief Gen. Ali Jafari, the Al Qods Brigades commander, Qassem Soleimani, and a select group of Iranian intelligence experts on the Israel.
Those orders were presented in the language of commands and brooked no argument. Tehran had two goals:
1. To leave no leeway for the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, of which the Palestinian Hamas is an offshoot, to veto the pledges Hamas signed in Tehran. The Palestinian Hamas was put on notice that the group was now under contract to defer to Tehran in military matters ahead of Cairo.
2. Iran, Hizballah and Syria instructed Hamas to stop obstructing Jihad Islami’s activities in the Gaza Strip and be ready to operate in harmony with Iran’s Palestinian proxy against Israel. In a potential outbreak of war, both must take their orders from Iran’s Middle East command.
For placing itself under Tehran’s jackboot, Hamas was assured of the resumption of Iranian economic aid and fresh supplies of missiles, advanced hi-tech war equipment to improve the accuracy of its rocket attacks on Israel – which rarely hit much – and anti-air weapons systems.
Iran had been keeping Hamas short pending the guarantees and pledges of allegiance A Zahar carried to Tehran and Beirut in the round trips he made between Sept 8 and 13. Even then, to make sure there were no loopholes in their accords, the Iranians forced the Hamas delegation to break its journey home to the Gaza Strip in Beirut, repeat their commitments to Tehran to Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah and re-sign the documents in his presence. Failing to honor the deal, they warned, would elicit the immediate cutoff of Iranian aid and supplies.
DEBKAfile’s military analysts report Hamas’ decision to unreservedly hitch its star to the Iranian wagon produced immediate fallout – especially on Egyptian-Israeli relations and counter-terror operations in Egyptian Sinai.
Friday, Islamist terrorists breached the Egyptian-Israeli border from Sinai, shot dead IDF Corp. Netanel Yahalomi and injured a second soldier, before the IDF killed three of the gunmen in a shootout. In the last year, Sinai has become the stamping ground for al Qaeda cells and allied Islamic terrorists. Egypt’s new rulers have proved unequal to the job of controlling the territory.
At the same time, Cairo is demanding the revision of the 1979 peace treaty’s military clauses. President Mohamed Morsi said Sunday, Sept 23, that his government would uphold the peace pact with Israel only if US commits to helping the Palestinians attain self-rule.
Israeli leaders are now asking what guarantees is President Morsi offering for offsetting any Iranian-orchestrated Hamas war operations from Gaza in line with the accord they have just signed in Tehran and Beirut.
Furthermore, they ask, what happens to the al Qaeda cells and other military groups rampant in Sinai? Up until now Iran and Hamas ran their ties with those terrorists on separate tracks. Will they now effect a merger?
A note of foreboding on this score was struck by Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz Sunday, Sept. 23, when he toured the scene of the last shootout with Sinai terrorists.
“The Sinai border will continue to present us with a challenge,” he said. “We have made a colossal effort in the last two years to seal off the Egyptian border and it will be done. But even then, the threat will not disappear.”
Source: Debka
The Obama administration on Monday will link Iran’s state oil company to the country’s elite Revolutionary Guard, a focus of U.S. sanctions for its support of terrorism and human rights abuses, according to a news report.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will present a report to Congress that contains evidence that the National Iranian Oil Co, or NIOC, is an “agent or affiliate” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, Bloomberg reported, citing an unidentified U.S. official.
The Treasury Department will submit the report to Congress on Monday, a source there confirmed, b ut would not say what the report contains.
Treasury o fficials did not find the major carrier of Iranian crude, the National Iranian Tanker Co, or NITC, to have close enough ties to the IRGC for it to be sanctioned, Bloomberg reported.
Congress directed the d epartment to determine whether Iran’s oil and tanker companies were linked to IRGC as part of a new package of sanctions, signed into law in August.
The United States and the EU are restricting purchases of Iranian oil because they suspect Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is strictly for civilian purposes.
While U.S. companies already are prohibited from buying Iranian oil, the new determination means the United States can impose further sanctions on any foreign bank that facilitates transactions with NIOC, acc ording to the sanctions law.
But the new penalties will not apply to countries that have been granted “exceptions,” or waivers to the sanctions because they have significantly cut their purchases of Iranian oil.
The United States this year issued 180 day waivers for all of Iran’s major crude buyers. China and India’s waivers are due to be reviewed in coming months.
Source: Inside Of Iran
Last week, Ministry of Intelligence Agents arrested Ali Ranjbar and Hamid-Reza Abdollahi, who are both bloggers and translators. Agents broke into their homes and arrested them. The families were not informed of the reason for their arrest. Ranjbar was arrested in the past for political activity. Since the arrest, they have not made contact with their families.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, an Iranian political activist and the daughter of the head of Iran’s Expediency Council, has been arrested at her home and transferred to Evin Prison in Tehran.
The head of prisons told the Mehr News Agency that Faezeh Hashemi was arrested on orders from the prosecutor to serve out her prison sentence.
Faezeh Hashemi was sentenced last year to six months in jail and a five-year ban from political, cultural and media activities for the charge of “propaganda activities against the regime.” The charge was in connection with an interview Faezeh Hashemi had given to the Rooz-on-line website in which she referred to the Iranian judiciary as “thugs and hoodlums who [target people] in the name of Islam, the Revolution and its values.”
The Kaleme opposition website reports that Evin Prison authorities called Hashemi on Saturday and told her she should report to the prison on Saturday afternoon in order to serve out her sentence. She reportedly told them that she would report to their office the following day, after which security officers entered her home at 11 PM and arrested her.
According to the head of prisons, Hashemi will serve her sentence in the women’s security ward of Evin Prison.
Faezeh Hashemi was briefly arrested on several occasions during the election protests of 2009, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory was being challenged by mass demonstrations across the country. Faezeh Hashemi is the editor-in-chief of “Zan” (woman) newspaper.
The Iranian judiciary is also pursuing another offspring of Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, the moderate cleric who cautiously sided with protesters after the 2009 presidential elections. His son, Akbar Hashemi, is currently in Britain.
Akbar Hashemi is also accused of involvement in the 2009 protests, which the authorities refer to as sedition.
Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani was seriously sidelined after the crackdown on the 2009 election protests and was removed from his role as the head of the Assembly of Experts.
Source: Radiozamaneh
Iran blocked access to Google’s popular and relatively secure Gmail service Monday amid first steps by the Islamic republic to establish a walled-off national intranet separate from the worldwide Internet.
Access to Google’s search page (www.google.com) was also restricted to its unsecured version, web users in Iran found. Attempts to access it using a secure protocol (https://www.google.com) were also blocked.
The curbs were announced in a mobile phone text message quoting Abdul Samad Khoramabadi, an adviser to Iran’s public prosecutor’s office and the secretary of an official group tasked with detecting Internet content deemed illegal.
“Due to the repeated demands of the people, Google and Gmail will be filtered nationwide. They will remain filtered until further notice,” the message read.
Google’s own website tracking country-by-country access to its services did not immediately reflect the blocks (www.google.com/transparencyreport/traffic/?r=IR&l=GMAIL&csd=1230796800000&ced=1348461000000).
But several residents in Tehran told AFP they were unable to get into their Gmail accounts unless they used VPN (virtual private network) software.
VPNs are commonly used by tech-savvy Iranians to get around extensive online censorship, though bandwidth of connections through the software is routinely strangled and occasionally even cut entirely.
Gmail is used by many Iranian businessmen to communicate and exchange documents with foreign companies. Iran’s economy is suffering under Western sanctions that have cut oil exports and made trade more difficult.
Iranian authorities previously and temporarily cut access to Google and Gmail in February, ahead of March parliamentary elections.
Google’s popular YouTube video-sharing site has been continually censored since mid-2009, following protests and opposition claims of vote fraud in the wake of elections that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.
Other social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, are also routinely blocked.
Iran is working on rolling out its national intranet that it says will be clean of un-Islamic content. Officials claim it will be faster and more secure, even though users’ data will be more easily subject to monitoring.
Despite fears by Iranians that the new intranet would supplant the Internet, Mohammed Soleimani, a lawmaker heading a parliamentary communication committee, was quoted this week by the ISNA news agency as saying that “the establishment of the ‘National Internet’ will not cut access to the Internet.”
He added: “Cutting access to the Internet is not possible at all, because it would amount to imposing sanctions on ourselves, which would not be logical. However, the filtering will remain in place.”
Source: Alarabiya
BY: Bill Gertz
Pentagon Joint Staff: Iran cyber attacks, terrorism reveal Tehran engaged in covert war on the West
The Iranian government recently conducted a major cyber attack on a major U.S. financial institution that a military intelligence report said is a sign Tehran is waging covert war against the West.
The cyber attack was not successful but was one of several Iranian-backed electronic strikes detected in recent months that highlights the growing threat from Tehran, a major backer of international terrorism, according to a recent report by the Joint Staff intelligence directorate, known as J-2.
“Iran’s cyber aggression should be viewed as a component, alongside efforts like support for terrorism, to the larger covert war Tehran is waging against the west,” the report, dated Sept. 14, concluded.
Iran’s hostile posture against the United States is well known. However, the Joint Staff J-2’s hawkish assessment of the Iranian threat contrasts sharply with the more conciliatory policies of the Obama administration, a defense official familiar with the report said. For Pentagon’s J-2 to acknowledge in the internal report that a covert war is underway was unusual, the official added.
Since 2009, the administration has avoided supporting the Iranian opposition groups that took to the streets to opposed rigged elections. The administration also opposes a near-term Israeli military strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities favoring instead the use of economic sanctions, which critics say have not slowed Iran’s drive to develop a nuclear weapons capability.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported earlier this month that Iran is building up stockpiles of enriched uranium and continues to stonewall the U.N. nuclear watchdog on its nuclear arms-related work.
No other details were available on the previously undisclosed attempted Iranian financial cyber attack.
A Joint Staff spokesman declined to comment.
In the past, China and Russia were singled out as major nation-state cyber threats, using their militaries and intelligence services to conduct sophisticated cyber-espionage and preparation for future cyber sabotage in a conflict.
Now, Iran is emerging as a strategic threat to U.S. cyber systems that control critical infrastructure such as military systems, financial networks, communications, the electrical power grid, transportation networks, and other vital functions.
“They’re technically proficient, well-funded, and have placed a top priority on cyber defense and offense thanks in large part to the high number of sophisticated malware discovered on their oil and energy networks,” said Jeffrey Carr, a cyber warfare specialist.
Iran’s official computer emergency response team is a respected organization in the information security community, he said, noting, “Some Iranian hackers have demonstrated a high level of proficiency.”
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said during Senate testimony in February that “Iran’s intelligence operations against the United States, including cyber capabilities, have dramatically increased in recent years in depth and complexity.”
Dmitri Alperovitz, another cyber security expert, told NPR in April that Iranian cyber attack capabilities are growing.
“There is a great deal of worry in terms of what they may be able to do if they’re pushed to the brink,” Alperovitz said. “If they believe the regime is threatened, if they believe they’re about to be attacked, [they may consider] how can they employ cyber weapons, either to deter that attack or to retaliate in a way they can’t do militarily.”
Former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told a security conference recently that U.S. military power is a deterrent for “most nation-states [who] have no more interest in conducting an easily traceable and highly destructive cyber attack than they do a conventional military one.”
However, terrorist groups “have no such hesitation,” Gates said, according to Infosecurity Magazine.
“With few assets to strike back at, they are hardly deterred,” Gates said. “If a terrorist group gains a disruptive and destructive [cyber] capability, we have to assume it will strike with little hesitation. So in cyber we have a small window of opportunity to act before the most malicious actors acquire the most destructive technologies.”
Iran’s support for international terrorism is better known than its cyber warfare capabilities.
The FBI linked Iran’s government to a failed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in October 2011. Tehran also supports the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, which has conducted numerous deadly terrorist attacks in the Middle East and other part of the world.
The Treasury Department in February identified Iran’s intelligence service as taking part in “multiple joint projects with Hezbollah in computer hacking.”
The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, along with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, have been linked by Treasury to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, and have provided help to al Qaeda terrorists, including the provision of documents, identification cards, and passports. Iran also has supported the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Treasury Department said in a Feb. 16 statement.
In July, after reports surfaced that the United States was involved in cyber attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, an Iranian official told the official IRNA news agency that Iran would make a decisive response to U.S. cyber attacks. “If the vain American cyber attacks against our country do not end, they will receive a decisive response,” IRNA quoted an “official of the cyber base” on July 25.
Iran has sought to insulate itself from cyber attacks like the Stuxnet and Flame strikes that affected Iran’s nuclear program. Stuxnet disrupted industrial control technology used by the Iranians to enrich uranium. Flame is said to be targeted at gathering intelligence.
Iranian officials also announced that they plan to remove the country from the Internet this month in anticipation of stepped up cyber attacks.
Tehran announced in May that it planned to create a “master” cyber laboratory. A state-run news report quoted Saeed Rahimi, head of the Iranian Cyber Defense Center, as saying the new cyber center would be set by March 2013 and that it would be “responsible for providing protection from cyber threats and attacks, and suggesting reciprocal measure against each threat.”
Source: Freebeacon
For the first time, Iran’s highest-ranking military official has tied the reappearance of the last Islamic messiah to the regime being prepared to go to a war based on ideology.
“With having the treasure of the Holy Defense, Valayat (Guardianship of the Jurist) and martyrs, we are ready for a big war,” Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said, according to Mashregh news, which is run by the Revolutionary Guards.
“Of course this confrontation has always continued; however, since we are in the era of The Coming, this war will be a significant war.”
Shi’ites believe that at the end of time great wars will take place, and Imam Mahdi, the Shi’ites’ 12th imam, will reappear and kill all the infidels, raising the flag of Islam in all corners of the world.
Vahidi became the Revolutionary Guards intelligence officer after the 1979 Islamic revolution and later was promoted to chief commander of the Quds Forces. He is on the Interpol most-wanted list for the Jewish community center bombing in Buenos Aires in 1994 that killed 85 and injured hundreds.
Vahidi also played a major role in the 1996 Khobar Tower bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. servicemen.
Speaking at a mosque in remembrance of the martyrs who died in service to Iran, Vahidi stated that, “The Islamic republic is going to create a new environment on the world stage, and without a doubt victory awaits those who continue the path of martyrs. … we can defeat the enemy at its home and our nation is ready for jihad. Martyrdom has taught us to avoid wrong paths and return to the right path. Martyrdom is the right path, it’s the path to God.”
Vahidi said Iran’s enemies would have taken action in Syria in the past couple of years if they had the capability. Iran is a much more formidable power than Syria, he said, and concluded that Tehran can easily wipe out the “Zionist regime” of Israel.
Several U.S. officials, including Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have called the officials of the Islamic regime “rational actors.”
Meanwhile, a Revolutionary Guards report quoting the head of the Guards’ public relations, Ramezan Sharif, revealed that Iran has military assets in several countries.
The presence of Quds Forces in Syria and Lebanon, Sharif said, is with the goal of supporting the Islamic nations and for the special situations that exist in those countries.
Sharif said Iranian presence is based on international laws and that, “Currently the Revolutionary Guards has presence in 15 countries, among them Syria and Lebanon, while the Iranian military also has presence in some other countries.”
As revealed recently, terrorist assets of the Islamic regime have been put on high alert for attacks on Israeli and U.S. interests. This extends from the Middle East to Africa, Latin America and the United States.
In a report Thursday in the Washington Times, Kevin L. Perkins, deputy director of the FBI, told a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the agency considered Iran’s assets a “serious threat.”
“Quds Forces, Hezbollah and others have shown they both have the capability and the willingness to extend beyond that (Middle East) region of the world and likely here into the homeland itself,” he testified.
Guard commanders have openly stated that they have recruited assets from Latin America and even some from European countries to avoid suspicion by intelligence agencies and will target America should it get involved militarily against Iran.
Source: WND
Iran’s Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei gave his instructions to the country’s Revolutionary Guard, and all its affiliated units, especially the Quds Force, to stop their activities worldwide, especially in Africa and Latin America, and to focus on the neighboring countries, Al Arabiya reported on Friday, citing a source at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
The Quds Force, an elite special operations unit, is an arm of the Guard that is active abroad. The Quds Force is tasked with carrying out operations outside Iran — official and clandestine. It has several thousand members, and it is especially active in the Middle East, according to Western analysts
The source, who talked to Al Arabiya on the condition of anonymity, explained that the Supreme Guide fears a possible military strike against Tehran by Israel, on the one hand; and the grave financial effects of the international sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, especially regarding the funds provided to the Revolutionary Guard and its affiliated units.
Israel and the West believe Iran is seeking to build a weapons capability under the guise of a civilian nuclear program, which it says would pose an existential threat to the Jewish state.
Israel, the Middle East’s sole, albeit undeclared, nuclear power, has refused to rule out a military strike to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear capability, but Washington backs continued diplomatic pressure and says it is not the time for military action.
Source: Alarabiya
