Iran's nuclear deception: Taqiyya and Kitman (Part I).

• Author: Campbell, Andrew
• Position: 143722959
• Pages: 8(18)

"Chemical bombs and biological weapons are poor man's atomic bombs and can easily be produced. ... Although the use of such weapons is inhuman, the war taught us that international laws are only drops of ink on paper."--Iran's parliamentary Speaker (and future President), Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, speaking two months after the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. (1)

The Western world, Israel, and the United States in particular, face a unique threat: the prospect of a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic of Iran, the foremost state sponsor of terror and the most fervently anti-U.S. country in the world. In January 2005, the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (N.I.E.), in its first review of Iran since 2001, assessed that Iran would be a nuclear power close to 2015. (2) The German foreign intelligence agency (B.N.D.) reportedly estimated that Iran would have a nuclear weapon in three to four years. (3)

According to the U.S. Institute for Science and International Security, predicting the date Iran will have a nuclear bomb is dependent on the number of working enrichment centrifuges in Iran. If Iran had 1,300-1,600 centrifuges by late 2006, it would be enough to produce bomb fuel. Iran would need another year to install, test and convert the uranium into weapon components. Iran could therefore have its first nuclear weapon by 2009. (4) The Israelis estimate Iran "will probably have a nuclear bomb by 2012, but could have the capability as early as 2008". (5)

A particularly disturbing development, given Tehran's almost three-decadeslong links with the most dangerous terrorist groups in the world, was the remark by Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Turkey's prime minister, on 15 September 2005, at a United Nations gathering, where he informed him that Iran was "ready to transfer nuclear knowhow" to other Islamic countries, according to their needs. (6)

Israel was recently specifically threatened with annihilation by the Tehran leadership. President Ahmadinejad, in a keynote speech he delivered to the "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran, on 26 October 2005, declared that "Israel must be wiped off the face of the map". He called on Palestinians to unite and resist Israel to the point where "the annihilation of the Zionist regime will come". (7) He also envisaged "a world without America", threatening that such a goal was "attainable, and surely can be achieved". He concluded his address with the words: "[L]ook at this global arena. ... We have to understand the depth of the disgrace of the enemy, until our holy hatred expands continuously and strikes like a wave." Other speeches at the Tehran conference were delivered by Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, and the head of Hamas's political wing, Khalid Mashal. (8) Earlier, in July 2005, President Ahmadinejad stated: "The message of the [Islamic] revolution is global. ... Have no doubt, Allah willing, Islam will conquer all the mountain tops of the world". (9)

Since the revolution of 1979, Iran has been waging a de facto, if not de jure, war with the United States. On 9 November 1986, Iran's President, Ayatollah Ali Hassani Khamenei, openly declared in a sermon in Tehran: "We are at war with the United States." (10) Khamenei's own personal newspaper, in July 2005, warned: "The White House's 80 years of exclusive rule are likely to become 80 seconds of hell that will burn to ashes. Those who resist Iran will be struck from directions they never expected." (11)

On 23 August 2005, the commander of Iran's "Lovers of Martyrdom Garrison"--who is also a general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (I.R.G.C.)--Brigadier-General Mohammad-Reza Jaafari, addressed a gathering in Tehran of thousands of volunteers for martyrdom operations from Arak, Natanz, Isfahan and Bushehr, four cities closest to the sites of nuclear activity in Iran. He said: (12)

"If America were to make a mistake and carry out an attack against the sacred state of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we will set fire to its interests all over the world and will not leave it with any escape route. ... Let the U.S. know that if it starts a war on our soil, a war of attrition against Washington will start immediately and we will destroy all its sensitive spots."

In previous comments, the general stated that the strategy would be based on "asymmetric warfare" and referred to suicide operations as a key element. (13)

Iran conducts its terrorist operations using "cut-outs". The Tehran leadership can therefore distance itself from its sponsorship, funding, and training of terrorist proxies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (P.F.L.P.) and Islamic Jihad, which are orchestrated by the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (I.R.G.C.) and Ministry of Intelligence and Security (M.O.I.S.), the external intelligence service. Iran is estimated to provide approximately $U.S.200 million per year to Hezbollah, and $U.S.13-18 million to Hamas. (14) Iran has targeted and killed more C.I.A. officers and American citizens--without suffering massive and justified retribution--than has any other country. A former Middle East C.I.A. operations officer specialising in Iran, Raoul Marc Gerecht (who writes under the pseudonym, Edward Shirley), observes: "No other country [apart from Iran] has been so contemptuous of U.S. power, principles, and personnel and got away with it." (15)

IRAN'S ROLE IN THE 1983 BEIRUT BOMBING

On 18 April 1983, two Iranian-inspired and trained shahid terrorists--reportedly smiling bassamat al-farah ("smiles of joy") (16)--drove a stolen truck, containing over six tons of explosives, into the massive two-storey U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 Americans, including six to eight C.I.A. officers, the C.I.A.'s Middle East expert, and the Station Chief who was chairing a conference on terrorism. Another former C.I.A. officer specialising in Iranian terrorism, Robert Baer, assessed, "Iran ordered it", and concluded: "The Islamic Republic of Iran had declared a secret war against the United States, and the United States had chosen to ignore it." (17)

On 4 November 1986, in a celebratory speech marking the seventh anniversary of the seizure of American hostages in Tehran, the powerful Speaker of the Iranian parliament, Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, described how the Americans blamed Iran for the October 1983 Beirut bombings that forced the U.S. Marines to evacuate Lebanon. He stated proudly: "[I]n, fact they should blame us for it ... all this was part of the influence of the Islamic Revolution." (18)

A government-backed body in Iran, called the Commemoration of Martyrs of Global Islamic Movement, held a memorial at the Behesht-e Zahra Centenary in Tehran, on 1 December 2004, to honour the perpetrator of the Beirut bombings. An influential hardline Iranian daily praised him as "the man who carried out the biggest martyrdom-seeking operation against Global Arrogance [the U.S.]". It noted that his name "has been kept secret and he has remained anonymous since the operation". (19)

The subsequent U.S. withdrawal from Beirut was interpreted by Osama bin Laden as demonstrating U.S. weakness. In his August 1996 fatwa, or declaration of war against America, bin Laden rhetorically asked of the U.S: "Where was this false courage of yours when the explosion in Beirut took place on 1983 A.D.? ... You were turned into scattered pits [sic.] and pieces at that time...". The U.S.'s retreat inspired him to begin his global jihad, "using fast-moving light forces that work under complete secrecy". (20)

IRAN'S NUCLEAR FATWA

A particularly ominous development was the issuing by Iran's powerful religious leaders, on 16 February 2006, of a fatwa (holy edict) sanctioning the acquisition and possible use of nuclear weapons. The fatwa declared the acquisition of such weapons as a justified "counter-measure" against other nuclear powers and as being in accordance with sharia (Islamic holy law). The fatwa was issued by Mohsen Gharavian, a hardline cleric and a disciple of Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, who is widely believed to be Iranian President Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor. (21) This unprecedented fatwa is particularly disturbing in the context of Shi'ite traditions of martyrdom and apocalyptical teachings. It provides theological sanction for Iran's future use of nuclear weapons. The timing of its release indicates that it implicitly endorses President Ahmadinejad's threatened annihilation of Israel, as well as Iran's ongoing clandestine nuclear weapons programme.

A nuclear device can be fitted into a suitcase or backpack. The C.I.A. and F.B.I. have long feared the prospect of an Iranian terrorist and "martyrdomseeker" entering the U.S. illegally and detonating a nuclear "suitcase bomb"--a nightmare scenario often described as "terrorism without a return address".

DECEPTION VERSUS DIPLOMACY

To assess the threat dimensions of a nuclear-armed Iran, the culture and history of Iran must be understood. The Islamic practices of taqiyya (religiously-sanctioned deception, or "holy dissimulation") (22) and kitman (secrecy) dominate the history of Iranian statecraft.

The unique Iranian fusion of statecraft and tradecraft has resulted in the so-called E.U.-3 countries (France, Germany and Britain) basing their policies on the delusional belief that Iran is a "normal" state, which will adhere to the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.) and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (N.P.T.) provisions and, if tactfully handled through diplomacy, will subject their nuclear programmes to international verification processes. This delusional policy is at stark variance with the realities of Iranian history. Europe specialises in diplomacy; Iran in deception.

European diplomacy is a synonym for appeasement. The Iranians have skillfully played the diplomacy-and-dialogue...