IRAN PREPARING MAHDI'S SPECIAL FORCES

by REZA KAHLILI

Reza Kahlili served in the CIA Directorate of Operations, as a spy in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and counterterrorism expert. He currently teaches at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy and serves as a senior fellow with EMPact America and on the newly formed federal Task Force on National and Homeland Security. He is the author of the award-winning book "A Time to Betray."

Iranian unit of thousands of operatives tasked with exporting Iran’s Islamic revolution, are being told to step up preparations for terrorism for the coming of the last Islamic messiah and the destruction of the West.

Ali Saeedi, the Iranian supreme leader’s representative to the Revolutionary Guards, emphasized during a Friday sermon in Tehran that the Islamic republic must directly confront America so that the necessary environment is created for the reappearance of Mahdi, the Shiite’s 12th imam, who will kill all infidels and raise the flag of Islam in all corners of the world.

“In three points of history, God directly confronts the will of unruly humans in which, of course, the Right will overcome the False,” Saeedi said, according to the Sepah News, the Guards’ official publication. “The first point in history was during the era of pharaoh, the second era was Bani Abbas, and the third is our current era in which it seems that God has willed us to enlighten the world with the coming of Imam Mahdi.”

Saeedi, “Many of the signs [necessary] for the coming have taken place during the previous years; however, the main sign will take place right before the coming.”

There are five levels of readiness that have to be prepared for the coming, he said: “Individual readiness, the readiness for creating the environment, systematic readiness, the readiness in the region and the international readiness. This means Occupy Wall Street must take place, the Americans must lose hope with the Democratic Party and others, and lose faith in the U.N., while at the same time the unraveling in the Middle East, which was not ripe before, must have taken place before the coming.”

This is the first time a high-ranking Iranian official has stated on the record that the Quds Forces are not only involved in the region, but also internationally for a final confrontation with the West.

“The Revolutionary Guards are one vehicle for preparation for the coming, and in the current Islamic Awakening [the Arab Spring] in the region and on international arena, the Quds Forces play a major role in preparing the readiness of the human force needed for such an event,” Saeedi said. “The chief commander of the Guards and the supreme leader’s representative are tasked for preparing the individual readiness, regional readiness as well as international readiness for the coming.”

In another Guards’ weekly publication, Sobhe Sadegh, a front-page analysis explains that the opening of Iran’s geopolitics and the empowerment of its Islamic power are a reality in which Iran’s influence has expanded not only in the region, but also in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Asia and even in Europe and America.

As was the fall of socialism and the Eastern bloc, the analysis promises, so will be the fall of the capitalism and liberal democracy.

The analysis refers to the statements of the founder of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini:

“I say with all certainty that the 21st century will be the century of Islam.”

“I say with all certainty that Islam will conquer all key entrenchments of the world.”

“I say with all certainty that Islam will defeat all world powers.”

“I say with all certainty that the 21st century is the century where the oppressed will be victorious over the oppressors.”

While the Quds Forces have recently expanded their operations in shipment of explosives to Latin America, Africa and other places in the world, and at the same time have put terror cells on high alert for terrorist acts, the Islamic regime in Iran has expanded its nuclear program in which over 11,000 centrifuges are now running at two facilities, increasing its enriched uranium stock.

As of the last report in May by the IAEA, Iran had enough enriched uranium for six nuclear bombs, and despite all negotiations and recent sanctions, the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced days ago that there will be no turning back from the nuclear path.

Reza Kahlili translated this Iranian video about Islamic prophecies of a coming messiah and the destruction of Israel:

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Israel stepping up covert ops: defence chief

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Israel's defence chief has confirmed his forces are carrying out increased special operations beyond the country's borders.

In an interview to be published on Wednesday to mark the eve of Israel's independence day, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz also says Israel is ready to attack Iran's nuclear sites if ordered to do so.

"We think that a nuclear Iran is a very bad thing, which the world needs to stop and which Israel needs to stop - and we are planning accordingly," he said.

"In principle, we are ready to act."

But General Gantz says that does not mean he is about to order the air force to strike.

He says 2012 will be a critical year in efforts to halt what Israel and much of the international community believe is an Iranian nuclear arms program.

The United States says it does not believe Iran has so far taken a decision to develop a nuclear weapon or that the time is right for military action, preferring to give international sanctions time to work.

But Israel, which sees a nuclear Iran as a threat to its existence, claims Tehran may be on the cusp of "breakout" capability - when it could quickly build a nuclear weapon - and it does not rule out staging a pre-emptive strike.

General Gantz said he had increased the number of covert Israeli operations in other countries, but gave no details.

"I do not think you will find a point in time where there is not something happening, somewhere in the world," he said.

"The threat level is also higher.

"I'm not taking the credit," he added.

"I'm just accelerating all those special operations."

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Crack Israeli commando unit formed to target Iranian nuclear programme

An elite unit of Israeli commandos called the Depth Corps has been secretly created to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.

Mossad hit squads have already carried out assassinations on key Iranian scientists and the Depth Corps has been sent deep inside Iran to prepare an all-out strike against its nuclear programme.

Israel fears Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could order the facilities to be buried hundreds of feet underground out of reach of air strikes.

And a senior source in Tel Aviv warned: “We will reach the point where Iran gets delivery systems to fire weapons of mass destruction. The time to act is now.”

Five Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated in recent years, but Israel is now gearing up operations against Tehran which has refused to abort its nuclear programme.

Trained in SAS-style covert operations, the Depth Corps was launched just a few weeks ago.

Israel refuses to officially discuss the Corps or the assassinations. Dan Meridor, minister for Intelligence and Nuclear Affairs, told the Mirror about the killings: “Are they natural, are they unnatural? I do not know what to tell you.”

Plans for an Israeli-led assault include air strikes against up to 12 key suspected nuclear sites backed by salvos fired from Dolphin Class subs in the Gulf.

President Obama wants to try sanctions before military action, but Israel hopes America and Britain could be drawn into a conflict and there are claims that Mossad is plotting to do that.

A well-timed Israeli strike against Iran, with US and UK warships in the Gulf may mean Tehran fires upon our forces, an act of war forcing us to act.

Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan was the latest Iranian scientist killed in a bomb blast on January 11.

The killings – many by motorbike assassins – were carried out by dissidents recruited by Mossad then smuggled into a covert desert base in Northern Iraq and trained in spy tradecraft and explosives.

Mossad agents have also launched a successful false flagging campaign to recruit Sunni Muslim dissidents to act against largely Shia Muslim Iran.

False flagging is when spies persuade recruits that they are from a different country in order to make missions appealing.

To do this they may have posed as officers from the CIA or MI6 to trick the agents into thinking they were working for America or Britain and not Israel.

Our source said: “Mossad officers are the most aggressive at false flagging since many in the Muslim world are nervous about dealing with Jewish spies.

“So spies sign up dissidents to do their dirty work for them.”

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Israeli Mossad training Iranian exiles in Kurdistan

A leading French newspaper has claimed that Israeli intelligence agents are recruiting and training Iranian dissidents in clandestine bases located in Iraq’s Kurdish region. Paris-based daily Le Figaro, France’s second-largest national newspaper, cited a “security source in Baghdad”, who alleged that members of Israeli intelligence are currently operating in Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdish region. According to the anonymous source, the Israelis, who are members of the Mossad, Israel’s foremost external intelligence agency, are actively recruiting Iranian exiles in Kurdistan. 

Many of these Iranian assets, who are members of Iran’s Kurdish minority and opposed to the Iranian regime, are allegedly being trained by the Mossad in spy-craft and sabotage. The article in Le Figaro claims that the Iranian assets are being prepared for conducting operations inside the energy-rich country, as part of Israel’s undercover intelligence war against Iran’s nuclear energy program. 

The Baghdad source told the French daily that part of Israel’s sabotage program against sensitive Iranian nuclear facilities, which includes targeted assassinations of Iranian nuclear experts, is directed out of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, “where [Mossad] agents have stepped up their penetration”. For this, “the Israelis are using Kurdish oppositionists to the regime in Iran, who are living are refugees in the Kurdish regions of Iraq”, the source told Le Figaro.

 Although the article makes no mention of official or unofficial sanction of the Israeli operations by the Iraqi Kurdish authorities, it implies that the alleged Mossad activities are an open secret in Iraqi Kurdistan. This is not the first time that allegations have surfaced in the international press about Israeli intelligence activities in Kurdistan. In 2006, the BBC flagship investigative television program Newsnight obtained strong evidence of Israeli operatives providing military training to Kurdish militia members. 

The program aired video footage showing Israeli expects drilling members of Kurdish armed groups in shooting techniques and guerrilla tactics. The Israeli government denied having authorized any such training, while Iraqi Kurdish officials refused to comment on the report. But Israeli security experts told the BBC that it would be virtually impossible for Israeli trainers to operate inside Iraqi Kurdistan “without the knowledge of the Kurdish authorities”. 

More recently, in September of 2010, the government of Lebanonarrested three Kurds in Jounieh, a coastal town 15 kilometers north of Beirut, which it accused of working for Israeli intelligence. All three were members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a secessionist armed group fighting for an independent Kurdish homeland in Turkey’s far-eastern Anatolia region.

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With the P.K.K. in Iraq’s Qandil Mountains

Shiho Fukada for The New York TimesBig Brother: Painted on flat stones laid on a hillside, one of many portraits of the P.K.K. founder Abdullah Ocalan stares down from a hillside in the Qandil Mountains of northern Iraq. The remote and sparsely populated mountain range near the Iranian and Turkish borders provides a haven for the leftist Kurdish separatist group, also known as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

QANDIL, Iraq — It is not easy to visit the mountainous borderlands of northern Iraq where the Kurdistan Workers’ Party operates, but it is not impossible either.

Such is the peculiar position of a group of committed insurgents against Turkish rule in Kurdish lands — even as Turkey and Iraq seek deeper and deeper ties, through diplomacy and trade, especially with Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region.

Turkey’s ambitious desire to wield influence in Iraq — an assertion of soft power through culture, education and business — has done more perhaps than any military operation to isolate the party and its fighters, known as the P.K.K. and designated as terrorists by the United States and the European Union.

Shiho Fukada for The New York TimesSarya Agiri, 22, at a P.K.K. sewing factory where she works in the Qandil Mountains. She is from Maku, Iran, and has been with the P.K.K. for four years. She is a guerrilla fighter and carries her own gun. Although there is a picture of the Virgin Mary on a wall of the factory beside one of Mr. Ocalan, none of the women working there are Christian. They say they chose the image because it is a symbol of a strong woman.

Shiho Fukada for The New York TimesDiler Hewram, 24, sitting for a portrait during the filming of a movie about the P.K.K. He joined the organization three years ago.

At the same time, the warming of relations could also provide the framework at least for the end of a conflict that has lasted more than a quarter of a century and cost at least 40,000 lives in Turkey.

The P.K.K.’s commander, Murat Karayilan,suggested in a recent interview here in Qandil that the group was prepared to end its fight and seek a political accommodation not unlike what Kurds now have in Iraq. His tone, while still blustery, reflected a tempering of the movement’s demands.

“They have murdered tens of thousands of our people,” he said of the Turkish state. “They have imposed sanctions on us for years. They have tried every possible means, but we are still here and we want a democratic solution.”

Shiho Fukada for The New York TimesNecbir Botan, 28, a P.K.K. volunteer from Syria, makes uniforms at the movement’s sewing factory. She has been with the P.K.K. in Qandil for four years.

In northern Iraq, the contrast could not be starker. In the Kurdish regional capital, Erbil, a Turkish-built shopping mall offers a temple of consumer prosperity. A few hours’ drive away, the P.K.K.’s fighters live a spartan existence in the mountains where Iraq’s borders with Iran and Turkey meet.

Officially, the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq denies providing safe haven for the rebels and restricts access to the areas where they operate, but not particularly vigorously. Two separate visits by The New York Times — negotiated over several weeks — involved bouncing, surreptitious journeys over dirt roads that evaded the last official checkpoints of the Iraqi state.

Once in the area surrounding Qandil, the party’s presence was indisputable. In the case of a massive hillside portrait of the party’s imprisoned founder, Abdullah Ocalan, it seemed taunting.

The party’s uniformed fighters, men and women, control checkpoints or patrol the roads and tracks that wind through the harsh, craggy terrain. The party has a sewing factory to make its uniforms, a clinic to treat its wounded and a cemetery to bury its dead.

Shiho Fukada for The New York TimesRengin Ararat, 31, from Syria, blowing dust off her Kalashnikov assault rifle outside the sewing factory. She has been with the P.K.K. for 12 years.

A German doctor, Medya Avyan, now works at the hospital. She has no Kurdish roots, but volunteered to help the Kurdish cause after learning of it from friends in the 1990s. Her name is a Kurdish one she assumed after moving to northern Iraq in 1993. (She declined to give her original German name, saying only that she was from Celle in Lower Saxony and had studied medicine in Hamburg.)

On a bookshelf in behind her in the hospital was Mr. Ocalan’s photograph, a volume on Hippocrates and a history of the P.K.K. Asked how she reconciled treating people in a hospital operated by an organization accused of killing thousands, she replied with remarks that many in Turkey would dispute.

“The P.K.K. don’t kill any civilians,” she said. “That’s very important. They are killing those who kill them. They defend themselves, nothing else.”

All of the party’s members — its leaders, its fighters, its volunteers — defended their fight and their cause with a romanticism that makes it difficult to imagine their laying down arms and returning to peaceful civilian life. Many have been in the mountains for years.

Shiho Fukada for The New York TimesThe P.K.K. movie crew, from left to right: Dersim Zerevan, 29, videographer; Jinda Baran, 32, director; and Zozan Agiro, 32, videographer. They have been shooting a film about P.K.K. couriers during the guerrilla struggle with Turkey.

“I have been a guerrilla for 18 years,” Gorse Mereto, 32, a uniformed fighter, said during a break in the improbable shooting of a propaganda film. (The set was a campfire at night, illuminated by stage lights hanging from trees.) “I have seen many difficulties. In all the situations in which I myself was present, no civilian was killed, but soldiers were.”

Shiho Fukada for The New York TimesZozan Agiro, 32, a P.K.K. member and videographer. The P.K.K. movie was shot around the Qandil Mountains with P.K.K. actors, some of whom have fought in the campaign.

He had his own rationale, a history, viewed through Kurdish eyes, of Turkish oppression. It suggested a cycle of violence that would take time to break. “They have destroyed a lot of villages,” he said. “They have killed innocent civilians. They have killed many of our men.”

He continued, “Anybody, even an animal, defends itself.”

Shiho Fukada for The New York TimesP.K.K. actors/guerrillas dancing in a scene from the movie, enacting celebrations around a campfire.

Shiho Fukada for The New York TimesA P.K.K. actor taking part in the movie.

Read Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul in the Times: ‘Step by Step, Gulf Between Turkey and Kurds Narrows’:

It is highly unlikely that Mr. Erdogan would consider autonomy for the Kurds, but analysts expect him to at least entertain notions like restructuring election laws to allow minority parties to have greater access to Parliament and allowing wider use of ethnic languages like Kurdish…

Publicly, the ruling party refuses to negotiate with the P.K.K., which is listed as a terror organization by the European Union and the United States. But behind the scenes, it has been reaching out to Kurdish activists to find common ground on which to build a viable solution.”

[full story].

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