Re: Recipe for recruiting terrorist allies. Rename them.

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: RE: [PEN-L] Recipe for recruiting terrorist allies. Rename them.

the US has always favored terrorist groups, if they supported the US. The contras, for example.

------------------------
Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine

> -----Original Message-----
> From: k hanly [mailto:khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 10:30 PM
> To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [PEN-L] Recipe for recruiting terrorist allies. Rename them.
>
>
> Well first you disarm them. Then you rename them. Then you
> arm them again.
>
> Cheers, Ken Hanly
>
> http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/ITeamInsider.html#Iran
>
> The Iran Debate
> Pentagon Eyes Massive Covert Attack on Iran
>
>
>
>
> May 29- The Pentagon is advocating a massive covert action program to
> overthrow Iran's ruling ayatollahs as the only way to stop
> the country's
> nuclear weapons ambitions, senior State Department and
> Pentagon officials
> told ABCNEWS.
>
>
>
> The proposal, which would include covert sponsorship of a
> group currently
> deemed terrorist by the U.S. government, is not new, and has
> not won favor
> with enough top officials to be acted upon.
>
> But sources say it is a viable option that is getting a new
> look as the
> administration ramps up its rhetoric against Iran, and it is
> likely to be
> one of the top items on the agenda as high-level U.S.
> policymakers meet
> today to discuss how to deal with the Islamic republic.
>
> The Pentagon's proposal includes using all available points
> of pressure on
> the Iranian regime, including backing armed Iranian
> dissidents and employing
> the services of the Mujahedeen e Khalq, a group currently branded as
> terrorist by the United States.
>
> The MEK, which had been primarily supported by Iraq and was
> responsible for
> numerous attacks inside Iran, agreed after the Iraq war to a
> truce with U.S.
> forces.
>
> The Pentagon specifically set aside a proposal to
> reconstitute the MEK under
> a different banner and promote their armed incursions into
> Iran, much as the
> MEK had been doing under Saddam. As the State Department
> insisted, and the
> White House concurred, the MEK has been disarmed but their
> forces are still
> in place and their weapons are in storage.
>
> The State Department argument was that MEK is on the
> terrorist list and any
> failure to disarm it would be an act of hypocrisy, which was
> the same line
> taken by the Iranians in confidential meetings that have been
> ongoing in
> Geneva, until the United States recently cut them off.
>
>
> The office of Doug Feith, undersecretary for policy at the
> Department of
> Defense, argued that the MEK has not targeted Americans since
> the 1970s,
> which is true, and was only put on the terrorist list by the Clinton
> administration as a gesture to improve relations with Iran.
>
> The Pentagon argues that the MEK is disciplined, well-trained, and an
> effective lever against the ayatollahs, and could be renamed
> and placed
> under American clandestine guidance.
>
> For the moment, this proposal is blocked, but will be
> revisited as part of
> the greater proposal to institute massive covert action against the
> ayatollahs.
>
> This covert action program, which has not been approved or
> even recommended
> by the so-called deputies committee of Paul Wolfowitz,
> Richard Armitage,
> National Security Council Deputy Steven Hadley and the deputy to the
> director of Central Intelligence, would include intelligence
> collaboration
> with Iranian dissidents, as well as lethal aid (i.e., guns and other
> military assistance to anti-Iranian government elements, both
> inside and
> outside Iran).
>
> The objective of the Pentagon proposal to destabilize the
> Iranian government
> is based on the belief that the religious hard-liners are
> opposed by the
> majority of the Iranian population and any pressure would
> make them crack -
> a view that some analysts find dubious.
>
> The debate over Iran comes after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on
> Tuesday warned Iran against meddling in Iraq, and
> presidential spokesman Ari
> Fleischer described the Islamic republic's efforts to root al
> Qaeda leaders
> out of country as insufficient.
>
> New accusations also surfaced this week from an Iranian
> opposition group,
> the National Council of Resistance of Iran, that the
> government has built a
> uranium-enrichment plant for bomb materials, echoing existing
> charges from
> the United States.
>
> Whether the Pentagon proposal gets to the point of a covert
> action program
> is partly dependent on Iranian responses to U.S. demands,
> such as turning
> over high-ranking al Qaeda lieutenant Saif Al-Adel and
> closing down the
> alleged nuclear weapons program.
>
> The State Department favors diplomatic and political
> pressure, utilizing the
> International Atomic Energy Agency as one pressure point on
> the nuclear
> program.
>
> Whether or not that al Qaeda leaders will be handed over, as
> the United
> States formally requested last week, depends on politics within Iran.
>
> There is an apparent debate under way in Iran between more hard-line
> elements led by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
> Khamanei, and moderates
> led by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.
>
> Khatami seems to argue that cooperation with the United
> States on al Qaeda
> is necessary, and that Al-Adel should be turned over. The hard-liners
> apparently are using the issue of protection of senior al
> Qaeda as a tool
> against the pragmatists who wish to improve relations with the United
> States.
>
> Some senior American intelligence sources are optimistic that
> the issue can
> be resolved in the United States' favor soon.
>
> But the nuclear issue remains, and U.S. officials are
> apparently divided on
> how imminent the threat is.
>
> The Pentagon, and Vice President Dick Cheney, are said to
> believe that Iran
> may have all the means necessary to build a nuclear bomb
> without further
> foreign assistance, although CIA intelligence sources say
> their assessments
> are at variance with these assumptions.
>
> The intelligence agency apparently believes that Iran is
> trying to build a
> bomb, but that it still needs help for parts of the program.
>