Islam's Cosa Nostra

 

Never loose sight of the unique threat posed by Iran. It's the only country run by Islamic purists with enormous piles of cash to invest in their evil cause. It's Islam's Cosa Nostra and 'The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution', or Revolutionary Guards for short, are their henchmen.

Kim Yong-il needs to resort to criminal activities and starve his people to finance his court of cronies and maintain power over North Korea; diamond trade in Africa has become more transparent and is increasingly better regulated since 9-11, eliminating the livelihood of some of the usual suspects; Taliban in Afghanistan are a nuisance mainly because of the flourishing drug trade -- curb that and you've killed the Taliban -- but they still depend materially on the support from Iran.

Andrew Higgins at the Wall Street Journal penned an important essay about the business of terror, referred to as 'Revolutionary Guard Inc.' (linked to Iran Focus as WSJ is subscription only). The following organizational chart provides the initial overview: Needless to say, Thug-In-Chief Ahmadinejad was a member during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

In fact, we are treated to a rare insight behind the scenes; the kind where we can get a glimpse of our enemy's determination to sustain Oil riches to pay for the sanguinary cause of imposing Shari'a law on the rest of the world -- well, the Middle East first, then the rest of the world... Higgins heading tells all: 'A feared force roils business in Iran'

As Hard-Liners rise, shadowy Revolutionary Guard muscles in on Airport and nabs energy deals.

The secretive paramilitary group, according to the U.S., arms both violent Shiite militias in Iraq and Hezbollah, the Lebanese group that fought a war with Israel this summer. It runs feared prisons inside Iran. The Revolutionary Guard also has a big role that is less understood in the West: an active player in business. [...]

The Revolutionary Guard has long been a major force in Iran's politics. It has its own ground, air and naval units, which operate in parallel to Iran's regular military. Former guardsmen -- including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- are scattered throughout the government and security apparatus. While some Guard veterans have become reformers, the organization has a fearsome reputation inside Iran as a brutal defender of revolutionary orthodoxy.

It runs its own intelligence service and has played a big role in crushing dissent, most recently in 1999 during a wave of student-led protests. The Guard also controls a feared outfit called the Basij, composed of youthful zealots who prowl the streets hunting for insufficiently veiled women and others who violate strict Islamic norms. The Basij claims millions of members.

The Guard has a long history of activity abroad, having helped set up Lebanon's Hezbollah militia in the early 1980s. More recently it has reached into neighboring Iraq. There, according to a senior Israeli security official, its quest for influence is spearheaded by a special unit of the Guard called the Ramadan Headquarters, which trains and funds Iraq Shiite fighters.

The Guard's business activities include engineering, media, trading and energy. "They are taking positions everywhere," says Mohsen Sazegara, a former aide to the late Ayatollah Khomeini and a founder of the paramilitary force in 1979. The Guard, says Mr. Sazegara, who broke with Iran's regime a few years ago and now lives in the U.S., is a "unique organization in the world: a political body, a military force and big, complex company." [...]

The Guard's initial reason for getting into business was both economic and political: newly demobilized and often bitter soldiers needed jobs, and the government, fearful of unrest, wanted to keep them occupied. As Khatam and other Guard ventures grew, they helped generate funds for the Guard and allowed regime loyalists to enrich themselves free from scrutiny by parliament or other state bodies.

The Guard reports not to the government but to Iran's supreme authority, the cleric Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Its business units publish no accounts. Its budget is secret.

Though focused on work inside Iran, Khatam and other Guard ventures have done jobs abroad. They helped build a road in western Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, when the U.S.-backed government of Hamid Karzai pleaded for foreign help. Mr. Sazegara says the Guard is deeply involved in smuggling foreign goods into Iran.

The Guard made its first splashy display of hardball business tactics in May 2004. That month, it ousted a Turkish company that had a contract to run Iran's new Imam Khomeini International Airport. Troops and armored cars crashed a grand opening, blocking the runway. A plane that was about to land was turned away and all further flights were canceled. [...]

The Revolutionary Guard, meanwhile, was on a roll. Iran's new government had given it the lead role in developing two phases of the gas field -- the same project previously assigned to the Norwegian-led consortium. The Guard also won a gas pipeline deal, plus a contract to expand Tehran's subway system. [...]

The U.S. is deeply wary of the Revolutionary Guard but believes that the trials of Iranian firms squeezed by foreign banks may in the future undermine hard-line elements. "While those who are currently benefitting from Iranian integration into the global economy are the ones who will feel this isolation the most, they are also in the best position to persuade the regime that its current track will undermine the future of the Iranian people," said Stuart Levey, Under Treasury Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. [...]

Read the whole essay, and more importantly, read between the lines of the detailed account concerning those who suffered the same fate as businesse-owners, who were opposing the will of the Cosa Nostra over here. Some excerpts to wet your appetite:

After a day of heated exchanges between Tehran and Bucharest, President Ahmadinejad telephoned Romania's president to assure him that Iran had no hostile intent, merely commercial interests. [...]

Today, Mr. Nasseri, the diplomat who was a target of the campaign against Oriental, says he has sold his 10% stake in Oriental. He won't say to whom. "I'm tired," he says. "I just want to lead a normal, comfortable life." [...]

"I wouldn't wish my biggest enemy to be in the situation I'm in," the Romanian executive adds. "Do you think the Revolutionary Guards went to...the Harvard Business School?" [...]

Sounds to me remarkably like they have been made an offer they could not refuse....

Comments

[Alexandra]

Ariel,

Sorry, this person has been banned from ATB long ago, so anything he posts will be deleted, whatever he calls himself.

[Ariel]

post soviet,
Have you read James Joyce recently? Into the stream I fall...

[Red Violin]

The best analysis of Iranian power structure by Mehdi Kia. Although, the guy is a communist and I don't agree with his views on his struggle against the so-called "imperialism", of course, without ever mentioning the devestating and pathological effect of Impenetrable and insidious Islamic Imperialism which has plagued the region for centuries, his insight on the Iranian power structure and where it's headed are right on the money. For those who are interested: A MUST READ.
Here is the link.

[Red Violin]

There have been some more nation-wide protests in Iran via
Winston
Gateway Pundit
Potkin

[Ghost Dansing]

Some more interesting information from the WIKI.

Following the end of the Iran-Iraq war, some efforts were made to create a joint command between the Army and the Revolutionary Guards, but these have been limited in nature and have not had a dramatic impact. [citation needed] Ultimatly, it seems that the two forces will operate seperately but focus on different operational roles.

The IRGC was formed in May, 1979, as a force loyal to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, but later became a full military force alongside the army in the Iran-Iraq War. It was infamous for its human wave attacks such as during Operation Ramadan, an assault on the city of Basra.

The present Chief Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi who was preceded by Mohsen Rezaee. Iran's current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a member of the Revolutionary Guards during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

The group's logo was inspiration for the Shia-Lebanese group 'Hezbollah'. It has also been claimed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has given many of Hezbollah fighters and commanders military training in their military bases.

During the Lebanese civil war the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps sent around 2000 to train guerrillas in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon (1982).

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

And don't forget IRGC and hisballa involvement in Iraq:

BADR ORGANIZATION. This group served as the armed wing of a Shiite political party in Iraq known as the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution. Members of the Badr group opposed Saddam Hussein's rule, and fled to Iran in the early 1980s. A British intelligence report says that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps "funded, trained, and armed the group, as well as assigning IRGC personnel in a support capacity." Members returned to Iraq after the coalition invasion in March 2003.

ANSAR AL-ISLAM is a Sunni Muslim group of Iraqi Kurds and Arabs established in December 2001. It is closely allied with al Qaeda and the terrorist network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Intelligence reports indicate that elements of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have provided safe haven and training for Ansar al-Islam members. Reports also say that Ansar al-Islam and al Qaeda have crossed into Iraq from Iran and Syria. Additionally, they suggest an Ansar al-Islam tie with former members of Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen paramilitary force.

MAHDI ARMY. This is the armed militia group of the radical Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr. Intelligence reports say that Iran used Hezbollah to train and provide funds to Sadr's militia and may have also used front companies to fund Sadr's attacks against coalition forces.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/041122/22iran.htm

[Red Violin]

Call against international Al Quds Day

http://regimechangeiran.com/

[Red Violin]

More on the Basijis:

Khomeini and his supporters learned from the Stalinist techniques of establishing informers in every neighborhood. This, coupled with fierce punishments for suspected traitors and their families, created a fear among the population that made rebellion and uuprising difficult. A basiji could be an eighty year old grandmother with her entire family as spies networked throuought the city. They are entitled to free education and welfare. In a nutshell, they are spies to the tune of 15% of the population who have infilterated every democratic and opposition movement so far and have captured and killed their leaders. That is why it's so hard to have a revolution in Iran.

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

[Jenn]

Scary.

[Red Violin]

Brilliant post. Thank you. Here is another article regarding the inner working of the Aytollah mafia:

http://www.israelnn.com/article.php3?id=6617