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Gold9472
04-03-2007, 08:45 PM
The Secret War Against Iran

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/04/abc_news_exclus.html

(Gold9472: Interesting how they specifically say no funding is being provided to them.)

April 03, 2007 5:25 PM

Brian Ross and Christopher Isham Report:

A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News.

The group, called Jundullah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran.

It has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials.

U.S. officials say the U.S. relationship with Jundullah is arranged so that the U.S. provides no funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or "finding" as well as congressional oversight.

Tribal sources tell ABC News that money for Jundullah is funneled to its youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi, through Iranian exiles who have connections with European and Gulf states.

Jundullah has produced its own videos showing Iranian soldiers and border guards it says it has captured and brought back to Pakistan.

The leader, Regi, claims to have personally executed some of the Iranians.

"He used to fight with the Taliban. He's part drug smuggler, part Taliban, part Sunni activist," said Alexis Debat, a senior fellow on counterterrorism at the Nixon Center and an ABC News consultant who recently met with Pakistani officials and tribal members.

"Regi is essentially commanding a force of several hundred guerrilla fighters that stage attacks across the border into Iran on Iranian military officers, Iranian intelligence officers, kidnapping them, executing them on camera," Debat said.

Most recently, Jundullah took credit for an attack in February that killed at least 11 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard riding on a bus in the Iranian city of Zahedan.

Last month, Iranian state television broadcast what it said were confessions by those responsible for the bus attack.

They reportedly admitted to being members of Jundullah and said they had been trained for the mission at a secret location in Pakistan.

The Iranian TV broadcast is interspersed with the logo of the CIA, which the broadcast blamed for the plot.

A CIA spokesperson said "the account of alleged CIA action is false" and reiterated that the U.S. provides no funding of the Jundullah group.

Pakistani government sources say the secret campaign against Iran by Jundullah was on the agenda when Vice President Dick Cheney met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in February.

A senior U.S. government official said groups such as Jundullah have been helpful in tracking al Qaeda figures and that it was appropriate for the U.S. to deal with such groups in that context.

Some former CIA officers say the arrangement is reminiscent of how the U.S. government used proxy armies, funded by other countries including Saudi Arabia, to destabilize the government of Nicaragua in the 1980s.

Gold9472
04-03-2007, 09:13 PM
Do you think the alleged 9/11 hijackers were secretly encouraged and advised by American officials?

Gold9472
04-03-2007, 09:22 PM
When Cheney went on his trip (http://www.yourbbsucks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14746) to see Musharraf, it was reported that deputy director of the CIA, "Mr Kappes also met members of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) and operatives from the CIA's Islamabad station to discuss co-ordinating efforts to track bin Laden."

Do you think it's possible they were also talking about this?

Gold9472
04-03-2007, 09:25 PM
That would prove a working relationship between the Bush Administration and the ISI.

MrDark71
04-04-2007, 10:20 AM
Drug profits are kinda frowned upon when called "funding"....so they just trade off

Gold9472
04-04-2007, 06:13 PM
Here's a transcript from the 4/3/2007 show of Nightline. I had to shell out $14.95 for it so make sure you read every word. :)

[1]23:45:56 BRIAN ROSS XE "BRIAN ROSSXXYYAA:Speaking"(ABC NEWS)
(OC) Good evening, Martin. Pakistani and US intelligence sources tell ABC News that the US has been secretly advising and encouraging a militant group that has carried out a series of guerrilla raids inside Iran that have led to the deaths or capture of Iranian soldiers and officials.

[1]23:46:15 BRIAN ROSS XE "BRIAN ROSSXXYYAA:Speaking" (ABC NEWS)
(VO) The group operates out of the Baluchistan Province of Pakistan just across the border from Iran. The group, made up of Baluchi tribesmen, has produced its own videos showing Iranian soldiers and border guards it says it has captured and brought back to Pakistan. One tape shows what it says is the execution of a Revolutionary Guard official. US government sources say the US provides no direct funding to the group, but since 2005, has maintained close ties to its youthful leader, this man, Abdel Malik Regi, who claims to have personally executed some of the Iranian captives.

[1]23:46:51 ALEXIS DEBAT XE "ALEXIS DEBATXXYYAA:Speaking" (SENIOR FELLOW)
He used to fight with the Taliban. He's part drug smuggler, part Taliban - a Sunni activist.

[1]23:46:56 BRIAN ROSS XE "BRIAN ROSSXXYYAA:Speaking" (ABC NEWS)
They go across the border there.

[1]23:46:57 ALEXIS DEBAT XE "ALEXIS DEBATXXYYAA:Speaking"(SENIOR FELLOW)
Here. And they're based mainly...

[1]23:46:59 BRIAN ROSS XE "BRIAN ROSSXXYYAA:Speaking" (ABC NEWS)
Alexis Debat, a senior fellow on counterterrorism at the Nixon Center and an ABC News consultant, says tribal sources have told him Regi and his group, called Jundullah, are getting money funneled through Iranian exiles who have connections to European and Gulf State countries.

[1]23:47:16 ALEXIS DEBAT XE "ALEXIS DEBATXXYYAA:Speaking" (SENIOR FELLOW)
He is, essentially, commanding a force of several hundred guerilla fighters that stage attacks across the border into Iran on Iranian military officers, Iranian intelligence officers.

[1]23:47:29 BRIAN ROSS XE "BRIAN ROSSXXYYAA:Speaking" (ABC NEWS)
Last year Iran actually paid a $1.3 million ransom to get the release of some of their kidnapped border guards. And who do they pay it to?

[1]23:47:38 ALEXIS DEBAT XE "ALEXIS DEBATXXYYAA:Speaking" (SENIOR FELLOW)
They are escorted by Pakistani intelligence into Pakistan to meet with Jundullah officials and, probably, Regi himself to make the exchange, to give the money and get the hostages back. So Pakistani intelligence, in many ways, is involved in that.

[1]23:47:52 BRIAN ROSS XE "BRIAN ROSSXXYYAA:Speaking" (ABC NEWS)
Most recently, Jundullah took credit for an attack in February that killed at least 11 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the city of Zahedan. Last month, Iranian state television broadcasted what it said were confessions by those responsible for the bus attack. The TV report interspersed the confessions with the logo of the CIA, which it accused of organizing the plot, something the CIA strongly denies. The captured militants reportedly admitted to being members of Jundullah and said they had been trained for the mission at a secret location in Pakistan.

[1]23:48:30 ALEXIS DEBAT XE "ALEXIS DEBATXXYYAA:Speaking" (SENIOR FELLOW)
This absolutely could not happen without the approval at the most senior level of the Pakistani government.

[1]23:48:36 BRIAN ROSS XE "BRIAN ROSSXXYYAA:Speaking" (ABC NEWS)
In fact, Pakistani sources say the secret campaign against Iran was on the agenda when Vice President Cheney met with Pakistani President Musharraf in February. Some analysts fear it is a policy that will backfire for the US in Iran.

[1]23:48:51 WAYNE WHITE XE "WAYNE WHITEXXYYAA:Speaking" (FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL)
I don't think it makes sense at all. The center of gravity of this government is its Farsi speaking Iranian population. They are the ones who control the action. And to the extent you start playing games with the minorities in the country, the more you anger this group. And among this group are vast numbers of people unhappy with the regime. The more you bother them by playing games with the minorities, the more they would tend to rally around the clerical regime, corrupt or not.

[1]23:49:18 BRIAN ROSS XE "BRIAN ROSSXXYYAA:Speaking" (ABC NEWS)
But there are signs someone is trying to organize the country's disparate minority groups. This well produced website has just recently appeared online, reporting to be the work of a group called, The Oppressed Nations Organization. It has its own national flag representing the Baluchis, the Arabs and other minority groups in Iran.

[1]23:49:36 VALI NASR XE "VALI NASRXXYYAA:Speaking" (SENIOR FELLOW)
There is a suspicion that the United States, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, other governments in the region, who worry about Iran have come to the conclusion that the ethnic minority issue is the Iranian regime's Achilles heel. It's much more likely to respond to an ethnic challenge from within.

[1]23:49:54 BRIAN ROSS XE "BRIAN ROSSXXYYAA:Speaking" (ABC NEWS)
Finally, there is the ironic twist that the group the US has been secretly advising and encouraging, Jundullah, shares many of the same religious beliefs and violent tactics of al Qaeda itself.

[1]23:50:06 VALI NASR XE "VALI NASRXXYYAA:Speaking" (senior fellow)
We already got burned with the Taliban, with this - with turning a blind eye, or supporting this kind of a thing in Afghanistan. Supporting al Qaeda type groups, in the Middle East, if that indeed is the case, will come and bite us at some point.

[1]23:50:21 BRIAN ROSS XE "BRIAN ROSSXXYYAA:Speaking" (ABC NEWS)
The only relationship the US government will acknowledge with this group is accepting help in tracking al Qaeda figures in this part of Pakistan. Otherwise, US officials strongly deny any direct funding for action against Iran. Martin?

[1]23:50:35 MARTIN BASHIR (ABC NEWS)
Brian, what is the objective in sponsoring these attacks within Iran? What does the administration hope to achieve by this?

[1]23:50:43 BRIAN ROSS XE "BRIAN ROSSXXYYAA:Speaking" (ABC NEWS)
The administration has spoken several times about the importance of the minority groups in Iran. And in an attempt to destabilize the central government in Tehran, can flow out of the effort, they believe, of stirring up, essentially, the minority groups across the country.

[1]23:51:00 MARTIN BASHIR (ABC NEWS)
There's clearly no direct relationship between the news - you've been breaking tonight and the fate of those 15 British soldiers. But what does it tell us about the pressures that are being exerted on the regime in?

[1]23:51:11 BRIAN ROSS XE "BRIAN ROSSXXYYAA:Speaking" (ABC NEWS)
Well, Martin, whatever the CIA is or is not doing, certainly the Iranian government believes in its heart that the CIA is behind all of these attacks. So, that tempers and clouds and colors every decision they make. And in fact, when those 15 British sailors were captured, Iranian officials went on TV locally, and said they're here to stir up the minorities. And this was a way to sell it to the Iranian people that the British and the US are out to get us.

Gold9472
12-03-2007, 07:46 PM
bump

Gold9472
12-27-2007, 11:01 PM
bump

Gold9472
12-08-2008, 10:50 PM
On a whim, I did a search for the word "Jundullah" on google news, and this was returned...

http://home.comcast.net/~gold9472/jundullah.jpg