Iran & Ahmadinejad

Let’s Condemn Iran –  its Threat to World Peace

Let’s Condemn Ahmadinejad – for his Crimes against Humanity

Article & Call for Letter-writing - by Take-A-Pen!*

2008 November 9

Threat to world peace

Everybody knows and when can talk openly - everybody tells - that Iran is today and tomorrow the major threat to world peace. Or, to put it more bluntly and painfully: Iran is a huge potential threat to its region and to the whole world, which under certain conditions can lead to WW III, to a global war which may destroy the whole world.

This ultimate threat has four major components:

1. Iran is the leading State Sponsor of Terror in the world

2. The Iranian regime’s global Islam supremacy vision - extremist Islam rule in Iran is the hotbed of the Islam supremacy vision: to bring the whole world under the rule of Islam by global Jihad. This is the final goal of the Iranian-sponsored global terror network, but of course it is not publicized by Ahmadinejad.

3. Ahmadinejad’s brazen talks of Holocaust denial and his consistent incitement for the destruction of Israel – are intended to prepare the world for aggression against Israel by Iran or its proxies. But Israel’s destruction would be only the first step towards Iran’s global goals.

4. Iran as a nuclear threat - Iran’s nuclear ambition is different from that of all nuclear powers until now; this is the first time that nuclear power would get into the hands of an openly aggressive and irresponsible state which supports global terror.

These threats are the subjects of the present article, concluding in our Call for Action - see close to the end. We call for intensive public Letter-writing, to the Media and to VIP’s, demanding clear, loud and consistent condemnation of Iran’s extremist regime and of the severe illegal deeds of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.         

By no means should this be a condemnation of the Iranian people; just the other way around: ! A public and global outcry against the extremist Iranian regime may be the savior of the Iranian people. Because of horrendous internal terror and worst violations of human rights by the regime, the Iranian people would be the primary beneficiary from any moderation of that regime, including decreasing the violent persecution of opposition and freedom of talk, and stopping wide extra-judiciary executions of ‘misbehaving’ women, of religious minority (like Bahai) activists, homosexuals and other victims of the fanatic regime [a].

Iran – leading State Sponsor of Terror

In a well-researched editorial “Iran: Leading State Sponsor of Terror”  [b], the known international organization The Israel Project proved, based on plenty of serious sources, that Iran is widely recognized as the world's leading state sponsor of international terrorism.

In the present article we accept this finding as proven and wish to go two steps further. Step One: we question why, if Iran is widely recognized as the leading state sponsor of terrorism, do the political world and the global media accept Iran’s blatant breaches of international law with relative silence and tolerance?  A silence and tolerance criticized decent democracies would never enjoy?  Two: we Call For Actions: action to condemn Iran for sponsoring terror and action to condemn Iran’s president, Ahmadinejad, for his role in this; in particular for his consistent incitements and calls for genocide. Our actions are in the form of individual letter-writing, to editors and to VIP-s, demanding their strong condemnation of Iran and Ahmadinejad, in every case when those are mentioned without disclosing and condemning their malpractices***.

Iran, both directly and indirectly, funds, trains and arms many groups around the world that share the Iranian regime's goals of seeking global Islam supremacy and, as a first step, of destroying the state of Israel. 

Iran offers such military funding, training and other support to the Taliban and to Shia insurgent groups, which have inflicted casualties on American, British and other forces in Afghanistan and Iraq [1]  [2], to Hezbollah, to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas [3], and to less famous but also deadly smaller Islamist groups as far as in Argentine, Kenya or the Far-East.  Iran is expanding its terror network also to the West, relying on Hezbollah and splinter groups of Iran's Revolutionary Guard to recruit and train sleeper cells in foreign, first of all European, capitals [4]. The extensive terror network that Iran created and sustains combined with the regime's ambitions to become a nuclear power, pose an ominous threat and cause growing concern for the international community [5].

As said before, Iran poses threats to many nations and regions across the entire globe, illustrated by the following cases:

Afghanistan

Iran has shrewdly armed the Taliban's campaign against NATO forces and civilians in Afghanistan even as it publicly supports the government of Hamid Karazai. [18] British intelligence reported Iran is providing the Taliban 107mm mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, C-4 explosives and small arms. [16] [20] Iran also gave the Taliban surface-to-air missiles, which they have used against British troops [1].

Argentina

Iran was directly involved in the 1994 bombing of the Jewish School and Community Center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 civilians and injuring more than 300 – the worst terror attack ever in Argentine. In 2006 Argentine public prosecutors formally accused the government of Iran directing the bombing, and Hezbollah of carrying it out.[14]

Iraq

Iran has for all the years of the Iraq War worked intensively to fuel violence in Iraq. Iran supports Shia insurgents by giving them about $3 million per month in funding, as well as training and increasingly advanced weapons. [13] Of greatest concern to American soldiers are Iranian-supplied explosively formed penetrators (EFP's).These weapons were responsible for 18 percent of American combat deaths in the last quarter of 2006, and 30 percent in Shiite-dominated areas. [2] In July 2007, Iran planned an operation that killed five American servicemen, according to the U.S. Army. [15] Shia groups now use Fajr-3 rockets bearing the markings of Iran's Revolutionary Guard that are dated 2007 (Hezbollah also receives the Fajr-3). [16] Iran also stokes Iraq's infighting, and to that end, has begun arming Sunni groups as well. [17]

Israel

The Shia terrorist group Hezbollah, which operates mainly out of Lebanon, is Tehran's primary weapon against Israel and the West. Iran helped found, organize and train Hezbollah and gives the group $100 to $200 million a year. It also continues to provide arms to the group, despite the demands of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701. [6] Since the Hezbollah-Israel war, Iran has replenished Hezbollah's cache of Katyusha and longer-range rockets, and has supplied more advanced anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air rockets. [7] Hezbollah maintains close ties with Islamic Revolutionary Corps officials, who are under the command of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.  [8]

Iran supports Palestinian terror groups opposed to a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. [9] It gives Hamas $20 million a year, [10] and it provided an additional $50 million after Hamas won control of the Palestinian Authority in 2006. [11] Iran also provided Hamas members with intensive military training in the weeks and months leading up to the group's takeover of the Gaza Strip. [12] 

Europe and beyond

European Union (E.U.) officials have identified 800 Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists residing in Germany and sleeper cells in 20 E.U. nations. Hezbollah cells are utilizing key European capitals as intelligence-gathering centers. Europe serves as a popular location for Hezbollah operatives to conduct fundraising activities that accrue an estimated $198 million a year. [4]

Iran has worked directly and through proxies, namely small groups linked to the Iran Revolutionary Guards, to recruit potential suicide bombers to attack Europe, Israel and the United States.

???? Xxxxx Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has praised martyrdom as an "eternal art." [23] The Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign, backed by the regime and linked with the Iran Revolutionary Guards, has reportedly enlisted 40,000 people to carry out suicide attacks. [24]  A division within the Islamic Revolutionary Guards seeks to recruit Iranians to commit acts of terror abroad.

Iran maintains terrorist training camps within its borders and abroad. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, an extra-territorial arm of the Iran Revolutionary Guards, operates 20 known terrorist training camps and centers. [25] Hamas, Hezbollah and Shia groups in Iraq send fighters to camps in Iran for months and even years of intensive training. Through Hezbollah, Iran trains insurgents in Iraq. [13]

So, it can be safely stated that Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism in our era.

Ahmadinejad’s criminal ideas

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ideas are not his own, he serves as the primary mouthpiece of the Iranian regime. However, he is not only part of the problem; the top administrator who leads Iran’s sponsoring global and local terror. Ahmadinejad personally adds to the dangers of Iran’s state sponsorship to terror through at least three personal “contributions”: first, by his consistent Holocaust denial, then his consistent public calls to destroy Israel and finally his brazen use of western freedom of speech, of media and of academy, plus his own diplomatic immunity, to spread and to popularize these illegal ideas, making them household phrases.  In all civilized countries on earth both Holocaust denial and genocidal incitement are serious crimes which have rightfully led to actual imprisonments, while Ahmadinejad gets away with it until today.

Ahmadinejad has praised martyrdom as an "eternal art" [23]. The Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign, backed by the regime and linked with the Iran Revolutionary Guards, has reportedly enlisted 40,000 people to carry out suicide attacks [24].  A division within the Islamic Revolutionary Guards seeks to recruit Iranians to commit acts of terror abroad. Ahmadinejad’s open moral support to suicide bombings should be legally suspected and tried as complicity with those crimes against humanity.

Iran’s and Ahmadinejad’s plans are not confined to Israel. The extremist Islam rule in Iran is one of the hotbeds of the Islam supremacy’s vision: bringing the whole world under the rule of Islam by Jihad: Jihad by the word, Jihad by the power of money, and, when and where it becomes possible, “Jihad by the sword” – that is by war.

Seemingly it is an intriguing controversy that the Iranian president Ahmadinejad makes Iran’s plans for Israel’s destruction public, in a surprisingly open and even provocative way; while in the same time he covers up or denies Iran’s similar plans later against the whole Western civilization.  In fact it is no controversy at all but two parts of one master plan. Ahmadinejad calculates cunningly that his anti-Israel incitement and even close to genocidal calls “to wipe off Israel from the map” may be accepted well by wide circles involved in Israel-hatred, and may be regarded with liberal tolerance and without a united outcry by the civilized western countries. Unfortunately, until know his tactics has achieved its goals: the world growingly takes this incitement as part of life. It has also distracted the world’s attention from the perpetrator: Iran, and redirected it to the weakest target, Israel.

Ahmadinejad said in several occasions and in different forms that Israel is a "disgraceful stain [on] the Islamic world" that has to be "wiped off the map”. His comments were condemned by the civilized world; the EU, the US, Russia, the UN Security Council and Secretary General. Even more moderate Muslim countries expressed displeasure about Ahmadinejad’s remark. Canada's then PM Paul Martin pointed at the heart of the danger when said that “this threat to Israel's existence, this call for genocide coupled with Iran's obvious nuclear ambitions is a matter that the world cannot ignore.”[125]

The Wikipedia informs us that the translations of Ahmadinejad’s statements have been disputed. Some experts state that the phrase in question is more accurately translated as "eliminated" or "wiped off" or "wiped away" from "the pages of history", rather than "wiped off the map".[127] Reviewing the controversy over the translation, the NYT observed that "all official translations" of the comments, including the Iranian foreign ministry and president's office, "refer to wiping Israel away".[128]

Dr. Joshua Teitelbaum, in a paper for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, an independent, non-profit research think tank, examined the language that President Ahmadinejad has used when discussing Israel in  “What Iranian Leaders Really Say about Doing Away with Israel: A Refutation of the campaign to excuse Ahmadinejad’s incitement to genocide”.  Using Farsi translations from a British expert in Islamic studies, Teitelbaum pointed out that "the Iranian president was not just calling for “regime change” in Jerusalem, but rather the actual physical destruction of the State of Israel" and asserted that Ahmadinejad was advocating the genocide of its residents as well. In a speech given on 26 October 2005, Ahmadinejad said the following about Israel: "Soon this stain of disgrace will be cleaned from the garment of the world of Islam, and this is attainable."
Teitelbaum argued that this type of dehumanizing rhetoric is a documented prelude to genocide incitement. Teitelbaum’s work seems to be the most complete and best documented. But whichever of the translations is accepted, it proves that President Ahmadinejad has committed major crimes against humanity several times, and until now has get away with it.

Some western writings are rather conciliatory towards this “madman’s stupid ramblings”.  We can see however, that the last century’s “madmen”; from Mussolini and Hitler to Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Arafat and Osama Bin Laden, all realized or at least tried to realize even their craziest ideas and could be stopped by enormous sacrifices only. This time we should not to pay the whole price when those tragedies already happen, but respond already to the Iranian madman’s words to prevent those tragedies.

Iran as a nuclear threat

Without entering into details of the cat-and-mouse Iran has been playing with the UN and the western world about the control of its nuclear operations, and of the ineffective partial economic sanctions the West tries to impose; we wish to focus on the major crucial aspect of a potential nuclear Iran.

Iran’s nuclear ambition is different from those of all nuclear powers until now. This is the first time that nuclear power would get into the hands of an openly and brazenly aggressive and irresponsible state which supports global terror. This may lead even to a nuclear war, provoked by Iran itself or by its terrorist proxies.

Conclusions and Call For Action

We can conclude that:

-  Iran is the leading State Sponsor of Terror in the world

-  The Iranian regime’s global Islam supremacy vision - is to bring the whole world under the rule of Islam by global Jihad. That is the long-term goal of the Iranian-sponsored global terror.

-  Ahmadinejad’s brazen incitement for the destruction of Israel – threats with immediate aggression against Israel, by Iran or its proxies. And Israel’s destruction would be only the first step towards Iran’s global goals.

-  Iran’s nuclear threat - Iran’s nuclear ambition is different from that of all nuclear powers until now; this is the first time that nuclear power would get into the hands of a state which supports global terror, and this is extremely dangerous.

To counter these threats Take-A-Pen Calls for Action: Let’s write our Letters about Iran!

Dear Take-A-Pen pen-friends!

Wherever we read or hear about Iran and about Ahmadinejad in the media or by a politician, in an overly evasive or conciliatory manner;  let’s write our Letters to Editors and to those politicians or VIP’s! Let’s demand their clear, loud and consistent condemnation of Iran’s extremist regime and of the illegal deeds of Ahmadinejad. Let’s demand that Ahmadinejad be a ‘persona non grata’ and in every civilized country and in the UN until his expressed full repentance and withdrawal of his criminal ideas.

As inspiration and practical help for Your Letter you may use any of our sample Letters:

a)    A general sample letter: “Don’t Underestimate Ahmadinejad’s Threats”

b)    An actual Letter to the Editor of the TIME magazine: ”Understanding Ahmadinejad”

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*Take-A-Pen editorial - by E. Mozes

Footnotes:

[ a ]

[ b ]

[ c ]

[1] Harding, Thomas, "Taliban 'using missiles from Iran to target British troops," The Daily Telegraph, May 22, 2007  ???
[2] Gordon, Michael R.; Shane, Scott, "Behind U.S. Pressure On Iran, Long-Held Worry Over A Deadly Device In Iraq," The New York Times, March 27, 2007 ???

[3] O'Toole, Pam, "Rice: Iran is terrorism 'banker'," BBC News, Feb. 17, 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4722498.stm, accessed July 7, 2006
[4] Levitt, Mathew A., "Islamic extremism in Europe," Testimony to the Committee on International Relations Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats, United States House of Representatives, April 7, 2005, http://wwwa.house.gov/international_relations/109/lev042705.pdf
[5] Thomas, George, "Iran trains 'ultimate martyrs,'" Christian World News, May 12, 2006,  http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/CWN/051206Iran.asp; International Institute for Strategic Studies, "Iran's nuclear programme," Strategic Comments, Volume 12, Issue 1, Feb. 2006
[6] U.N. Security Council Resolution No. 1701, Section 15, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4785963.stm
[7] Hughes, Robin, "Iran Replenishes Hizbullah's Arms Inventory," Jane's Defence Weekly, Jan. 3, 2007
[8] Byman, Daniel L, "Iran, Terrorism, and Weapons of Mass Destruction," Subcommittee on the Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attacks of the Homeland Security Committee, The Brookings Institute, Sept. 8, 2005, http://www.brookings.edu/views/testimony/fellows/byman20050908.pdf
[9] Country Reports on Terrorism, Chapter 6- State Sponsors of Terror Overview-Iran," U.S. Department of State Web site, April 28, 2006,  http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2005/64337.htm
[10] Hamas," Council on Foreign Relations Web site, http://www.cfr.org/publication/8968/, accessed July 2, 2007
[11] Iran pledges $50m Palestinian aid," BBC News, April 16, 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4914334.stm
[12] Rabinovich, Abraham, "Hamas digs in for war in Gaza," The Australian, March 16, 2007 
[13] Partlow, Joshua, "U.S.: Iran, Hezbollah Training Iraqi Militants," The Washington Post, July 2, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/02/AR2007070200174.html?hpid=topnews
[14] 1994 AMIA Bombing, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_AMIA_bombing#cite_note-4#cite_note-4 

[15] Burns, John F., Gordon, Michael R., "U.S. Says Iran Helped Iraqis Kill Five G.I.'s," The New York Times, July 3, 2007
[16] Wright, Robin, "Iranian Flow Of Weapons Increasing, Officials Say; Arms Shipments Tracked To Iraqi, Afghan Groups," The Washington Post, June 3, 2007,

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/02/AR2007060201020.html
[17] Rubin, Alissa J., "U.S. Suspects That Iran Aids Both Sunni and Shiite Militias," The New York TImes, A12, April 12, 2007 
[18] Straziuso, Jason; Daniszewski, John, "General: Iran aid to Taliban is strategic," Newsday (Associated Press), June 12, 2006.
[19] [20] Blair, Tony, "What I've learned," The Economist, May 31, 2007, http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9257593
[21]

[23] "Iran's new president glorifies martyrdom," Middle East Media Research Institute, Special Dispatch No. 945, July 29, 2005,  http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP94505
[24] Colvin, Marie, Michael Smith and Sarah Baxter, "Iran suicide bombers 'ready to hit Britain'," The Sunday Times, April 16, 2006,http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article706132.ece
[25] Razi, Farhad, "20 Terrorist training camps in Iran uncovered," Global Politician, March 1, 2006, http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=1639&cid=2&sid=4