Does Anyone See A Threat From Iran?

Democrats Okay Funds for Covert Ops
Secret Bush "Finding" Widens War on Iran

By ANDREW COCKBURN - CounterPunch

Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, "unprecedented in its scope."

Bush’s secret directive covers actions across a huge geographic area – from Lebanon to Afghanistan – but is also far more sweeping in the type of actions permitted under its guidelines – up to and including the assassination of targeted officials. This widened scope clears the way, for example, for full support for the military arm of Mujahedin-e Khalq, the cultish Iranian opposition group, despite its enduring position on the State Department's list of terrorist groups.

Similarly, covert funds can now flow without restriction to Jundullah, or "army of god," the militant Sunni group in Iranian Baluchistan – just across the Afghan border -- whose leader was featured not long ago on Dan Rather Reports cutting his brother in law's throat.

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All this costs money, which in turn must be authorized by Congress, or at least a by few witting members of the intelligence committees. That has not proved a problem. An initial outlay of $300 million to finance implementation of the finding has been swiftly approved with bipartisan support, apparently regardless of the unpopularity of the current war and the perilous condition of the U.S. economy.

Read more: http://www.counterpunch.org/andrew05022008.html

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Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) is the largest and most militant group opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Also known as the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, MEK is led by husband and wife Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. MEK was added to the U.S. State Department’s list of foreign terrorist groups in 1997.

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Incidents linked to the group include:

The series of mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids during 2000 and 2001 against Iranian government buildings; one of these killed Iran’s chief of staff
The 2000 mortar attack on President Mohammad Khatami’s palace in Tehran
The February 2000 "Operation Great Bahman," during which MEK launched 12 attacks against Iran
The 1999 assassination of the deputy chief of Iran’s armed forces general staff, Ali Sayyad Shirazi
The 1998 assassination of the director of Iran’s prison system, Asadollah Lajevardi
The 1992 near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and institutions in 13 countries Assistance to Saddam Hussein’s suppression of the 1991 Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish uprisings
The 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party and of Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, which killed some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei and Bahonar Support for the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by Iranian revolutionaries
The 1970s killings of U.S. military personnel and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran


In the early 1970s, angered by U.S. support for the pro-Western shah, MEK members killed several U.S. soldiers and civilians working on defense projects in Iran... MEK members also supported the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, in which 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/mek.htm

Jundullah — also known as "Army of God", "Allah's Soldiers", and "God's Brigade", as well as the Popular Iranian Resistance Movement — is a Sunni "Pakistani tribal miltant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran." It is "made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran,"...

...ABC News was told by tribal sources "that money for Jundullah is funneled to its youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi... Regi "used to fight with the Taliban" and is "part drug smuggler, part Taliban, part Sunni activist"...

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jundullah

In an interview with Dan Rather, Rigi describes the Iranian military as "cowardly" and in that video, he cuts off a person's head in front of the camera , in Al-Qaeda style.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jundallah