Pakistan Springboard Against Iran
The CIA has launched operations to destabilize Iran in the east (Sistan and Baluchistan) with the help of Pakistan’s ISI and in the west (Khuzestan) with MI6.
Immediately after the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, told Congress on Jan. 11 that Al Qaeda had established itself in Pakistan, a furious Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf dispatched the boss of the country’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, lieutenant-general Ashfaq Pervez Kiani, to Washington.
According to diplomatic sources in Islamabad, Kiani met with Negroponte himself as well as with CIA director Michael Hayden and national security adviser Stephen Hadley. A few days later he was joined by the head of ISI’s anti-terrorist division, lieutenant-general Muhammad Zakki. The latter is handler to several extreme Sunni movements in Pakistan belonging to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).
The two ISI bosses reached an agreement with the Americans: they would launch destabilization operations in the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan, where Sunnis form the majority of inhabitants, by inciting a number of violent groups like the Jundallah to stage attacks, particularly against the Revolutionary Guards (Pasdarans).
Jundallah claimed responsibility for a bomb attack against a bus at Zahedan, capital of Baluchistan, on Feb. 14 that killed 11 Pasdarans in what was the first strike in the Pakistani offensive. It was indeed interpreted by Tehran as a Pakistani operation because Iran reacted immediately by rounding up hundreds of Baluchis (a suspected perpetrator was hanged in public on Feb. 19). Then, on Feb. 18, a suicide bomber blew up a courtroom in Quetta, capital of the Pakistani part of Baluchistan, killing 16.
The same day the Pakistani envoy to Tehran was called in to the foreign ministry to be told: “We’re in a position to destabilize your country if you continue to work with the Americans.”
Backed by British troops deployed in southern Iraq, MI6 and British special forces carried out an attack against the Revolutionary Guards University in the center of Ahvaz, the capital of the Iranian part of Khuzestan, on Feb. 7. The British have been infiltrating the region since 2003 with the help of Sunni Arabs who are in the majority in the area. The Feb. 7 operation, like others in Dezful (which houses a major military base) and in the oil port of Abadan, were hushed up by the Iranian authorities.
American policy planners can also count on the possibility of activating some 5,000 members of the People’s Mudjihideen, which fiercely opposes the Iranian regime and trains under the protection of the US Army at the Ashraf base some 120 km north of Baghdad.
INTELLIGENCE ONLINE N° 541
Immediately after the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, told Congress on Jan. 11 that Al Qaeda had established itself in Pakistan, a furious Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf dispatched the boss of the country’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, lieutenant-general Ashfaq Pervez Kiani, to Washington.
According to diplomatic sources in Islamabad, Kiani met with Negroponte himself as well as with CIA director Michael Hayden and national security adviser Stephen Hadley. A few days later he was joined by the head of ISI’s anti-terrorist division, lieutenant-general Muhammad Zakki. The latter is handler to several extreme Sunni movements in Pakistan belonging to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).
The two ISI bosses reached an agreement with the Americans: they would launch destabilization operations in the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan, where Sunnis form the majority of inhabitants, by inciting a number of violent groups like the Jundallah to stage attacks, particularly against the Revolutionary Guards (Pasdarans).
Jundallah claimed responsibility for a bomb attack against a bus at Zahedan, capital of Baluchistan, on Feb. 14 that killed 11 Pasdarans in what was the first strike in the Pakistani offensive. It was indeed interpreted by Tehran as a Pakistani operation because Iran reacted immediately by rounding up hundreds of Baluchis (a suspected perpetrator was hanged in public on Feb. 19). Then, on Feb. 18, a suicide bomber blew up a courtroom in Quetta, capital of the Pakistani part of Baluchistan, killing 16.
The same day the Pakistani envoy to Tehran was called in to the foreign ministry to be told: “We’re in a position to destabilize your country if you continue to work with the Americans.”
Backed by British troops deployed in southern Iraq, MI6 and British special forces carried out an attack against the Revolutionary Guards University in the center of Ahvaz, the capital of the Iranian part of Khuzestan, on Feb. 7. The British have been infiltrating the region since 2003 with the help of Sunni Arabs who are in the majority in the area. The Feb. 7 operation, like others in Dezful (which houses a major military base) and in the oil port of Abadan, were hushed up by the Iranian authorities.
American policy planners can also count on the possibility of activating some 5,000 members of the People’s Mudjihideen, which fiercely opposes the Iranian regime and trains under the protection of the US Army at the Ashraf base some 120 km north of Baghdad.
INTELLIGENCE ONLINE N° 541
posted by Marko at 2/22/2007 09:20:00 PM
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