Terror cells have been placed on high alert to attack targets in the
United States and Europe should Iran’s nuclear facilities be
attacked, a source in the Revolutionary Guards says.
The terror cells in the U.S. are being coordinated by Quds Force
personnel operating out of the Iranian Interests Section in
Washington, the source says. Because Iran and the U.S. have no
diplomatic relations, Iran’s Interests Section operates under the
umbrella of the Pakistani embassy.
“These cells work out of safe houses where ammunition and explosives
are stored, each with an operational commander who reports back to
Iran,” the source says.
Analysts in Iran believe Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader,
has provided two choices to the West: either accept a nuclear Iran or
face all-out retaliation if its nuclear facilities are attacked.
According to the source, who has served in the Guards’ intelligence
apparatus, Iranian leaders have long prepared for an all-out
confrontation with the West. The Guards’ commander, Hussein Babai,
has openly stated that after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in
Lebanon, Quds Force and Hezbollah terror cells began expanding in
cities across Europe and America.
In an interview last October, Rep Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the
House Homeland Security Committee, stated he was convinced that
Iranian diplomats out of New York and Washington, D.C., were involved
with terrorist forces in Iran, attempting to spy on America.
The source says these cells are divided into two groups: one is
operational and awaits the order to attack; the other gathers
information, monitoring such sensitive sites as power plants, water
and food distribution, refineries, railroads and others along with
information on officials of the host countries and their activities.
This information, transferred to Iran, is being used by the Quds
Force command in Tehran “to select targets for maximum effect.”
In testimony before a U.S. House panel in March, the director of the
New York Police Department’s intelligence analysis unit, Mitchell
Silber, revealed that the Iranian diplomats had carried out “hostile
reconnaissance” of sites in New York as many as six times, alarming
police officials that the city might be targeted for terrorist attack.
The operatives enter the Western countries through several means, but
some use fake identities and claim to be part of religious minorities
under persecution in Iran. According to the source, several hundred
have entered the U.S. as members of the Baha’i faith whose lives
supposedly are threatened by the Islamic regime.
Others enter from Mexico where the cells are supported with cash from
an illegal drug operation. Businesses run by Hezbollah, mosques and
Islamic foundations provide another source of financing for these
cells in America. Other assets, the source indicates, are of Mexican
and Latin American origin, which the Guards’ intelligence apparatus
has longed worked to train and recruit.
Hassan Abassi, a former Guard commander and current strategist, has
stated that the Guards have identified more than 800 sensitive sites
in the U.S. to be attacked, and “if America dares to destabilize the
Islamic Republic of Iran, it should have no doubt that we will
destabilize America.”
Last week the Guards warned that any retaliation to any threat by
Israel or the West will be much more devastating than the recent
terror attacks on Israeli interests worldwide.
The cells within the U.S. and Europe are now on high alert, according
to the source. Targets have been chosen and are prioritized: First,
attack energy resources (power, gas and oil facilities); second,
create fear by attacking high-population areas; last, assassinate
officials of the host country who have supported war with Iran.
If Iran is attacked by America or if America supports Israel in an
attack, then these assets are to retaliate. However, the source says,
their actions will be sequential unless the attack goes beyond the
nuclear sites with the aim of overthrowing the Islamic regime, in
which case there is to be an all-out response.
The source indicates an all-out response will include attacks on
other countries in the region, such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain,
after Israel has been targeted by hundreds, if not thousands, of
missiles.
The most ominous message from the source is that an all-out response
will not be based on a defense doctrine but rather on the belief that
total chaos will hasten the return of last Islamic messiah for the
final defeat of the infidels. It believes that the coming will take
place from the city of Qum in Iran.
Meanwhile, the General Command of Iran’s Armed Forces has warned it
will provide a crushing response to any threat by America and Israel
that will jeopardize their “disgraceful existence.”
The Arab Spring is “a result of the message of the Islamic Republic
of Iran and its path, which is based on true Islam,” the command’s
statement, issued days ago, said. “This message has not only helped
with the spread of the Islamic Awakening in the region but has spread
through protests in Europe and the U.S. (the Occupy Wall Street
movement).
“Soon with the help of Allah, in this most significant juncture in
human history, the evil and despotic powers will be defeated and a
new world order will take place, led by the Islamic republic. … This
leadership today has created the biggest danger yet to the fake and
illegal Zionist regime and has sent shock waves to the infidels’
empire with its center at the White House.”
The United States would not be safe from retaliation if Iran is
attacked by Washington, the Iran newspaper quoted a senior
Revolutionary Guards commander on Tuesday as saying.
Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s
Revolutionary Guards and the author of the award-winning book, A Time
to Betray. He is a senior Fellow with EMPact America, a member of the
Task Force on National and Homeland Security and teaches at the U.S.
Department of Defense’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy
(JCITA).
