Iranian Unit to Be Labeled ‘Terrorist’
By Robin Wright, Washington Post Staff Writer
The United States has decided to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a “specially designated global terrorist,” according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group’s business operations and finances.
The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran’s nuclear program, officials said.
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Whacking Iran By Ralph Peters
The real reason for the move is to set up a legal basis for airstrikes or special operations raids on the Guard’s bases in Iran.
Our policy is that we reserve the right to whack terrorists anywhere in the world. Now we have newly designated terrorists. And we know exactly where they are.
DEBKA
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief hits back at US plan to list his force as terrorists
The RG commander Yahya Rahim Safavi said Wednesday that Iran’s 2,000km range missiles (capable of reaching Israel) could now be remote controlled. DEBKAfile’s military sources interpret this as a reference to Shahab-3 missiles kept in hiding places, even possibly outside Iran, which can be operated at a distance from Tehran.
Safavi also said his RG ground forces had missiles that could penetrate the armor plating fitted to Israel’s Merkava and US Abrams tanks.He spoke the day after Iran’s Lebanese pawn, Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah, bragged about new weapons that would surprise Israel and change the course of a war and the face of the Middle East.
The Iranian general went on to declare: “Our coast-to-coast missiles can now reach the breadth and length of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea and no warships can pass in the Persian Gulf without being in range of our coast-to-sea missiles.†According to DEBKAfile’s sources, he was referring to the new generation shore-to-ship C-802, recently acquired by Iran and supplied to Syria and Hizballah.
The RG commander did not say so, but his threatening boasts were undoubtedly Tehran’s response to Washington’s plan to list his force a specially designated global terrorist.
This would be the first time the United States had designated the military force of a sovereign nation terrorists and declared war on its business and financial operations.
This move by the Americans like the others we are seeing lately have to be understood within the context of America’s coming complete withdrawl from Iraq.
It needs to be understood that the US will NOT be preemptively attacking the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The only way America launches a military attack of any type against Iran will be if Iran or its proxies able to mount a successful attack against the American home land.
While the US will not target the Revolutionary
Guard in a military strike, labeling them as a terrorist group will make it possible to target their fianances. In any attack on the US, the Republican Guard would probably play some type of role. Perhaps if terrorist proxies carry out the attack the Revolutionary Guard may provide training, financing, or logistical support. By targeting their finances, if this can be done successfully, this will make it harder for the Iranians to carry out their planned attack on the American homeland.
Prior to the attack on America the Iranians will need want to justify it. It could take the form of a staged coup. The Iranian leadership may stage a coup that will last a couple of days. Then they will come back to power and blame the Americans. This will be the justification for the attack that will have been planned over a period of several years, if not the last two decades. The anti-American world media will eat it up. Even many American news publicatsions will eat thsi up.
Staged coups have a precedent of being successful. A few years ago, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela staged a coup and blamed the Americans. This helped to bolster his image within Venezuela. Tyrants of all types need external enemies to stay in power.
The Americans are perfect in this regard. They are a powerful country who lacks the moral confidence in their position as a major power to defend it adequately. As such, the Americans have a tendency to squeeze their freinds or their would be friends while appeasing their enemies or those who are thinking about becoming an enemy.
This leads people to calculate that it is more profitable to be an enemy of America than it is to be a friend. With this kind of action on the part of Aemrican leaders it is not surprising that many people hate America.