"U.S. Trains Jundullah Members"

'US trains Jundullah members'

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=99567&sectionid=351020101

7/1/2009

A senior member of the Jundullah terrorist group says that the group has been trained and financed by "the US and Zionists".

Abdolhamid Rigi, the brother of Jundullah leader Abdolmalek Rigi made the remarks in a court session held in the southeastern city of Zahedan on Wednesday.

Abdolhamid Rigi was among the thirteen members of the Jundullah who were accused of terrorist activities, Fars news agency reported.

Pakistani security forces arrested Abdolhamid last year and extradited him to Iran.

The defendants told the court that foreign spy agencies support Jundullah.

Citing the defendant's confessions, the court's judge said that after the extradition of Abdolhamid, foreign intelligence agencies had incited Jundullah members to step up their terrorist attacks in Iran including hostage takings to put pressure on Iran to release Abdolhamid.

Rigi’s brother exposes U.S. ties with Jundullah

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Index_view.asp?code=196377

7/1/2009

TEHRAN (Press TV) - Revelations by the brother of Jundullah leader Abdolmalek Rigi confirm reports that the U.S. helped the armed separatist ring carry out terror activities in Iran.

In a recent interview conducted prior to his execution, Abdulhamid Rigi told Press TV that since 2005, his brother had repeatedly met with U.S. agents in Islamabad and Karachi and communicated with them through a common link.

“In Pakistan, Malek (Abdolmalek Rigi) contacted an individual that resided in the U.S. who then put him through to the FBI. So, Malek said that he would go to Islamabad and meet with the Americans,” he explained.

“A few days after he returned from his first meeting, we asked him about it. God knows what really passed, but according to what he told us, he said he met with the Americans. As Malik was involved with al-Qaeda and the Americans knew about it, they had questioned him about it,” he added.

“Malik had told them that since 2002 he had no links with al-Qaeda any more. He said he had told them that he is only against Iran and only fights against Iran. He said that he had asked the American for financial support and they had replied by asking him to meet with them again.”

Abdulhamid, who blames his brother for his eventual arrest, then went on to talk about his brother’s second meeting with U.S. agents. He said that Abdolmalek had gone to the meeting alone.

He added that the militant leader did not meet again with the Americans till 2006, when he contacted them through a link in New Jersey, who went by the name of Amanollah.

Abdulhamid Rigi said that in 2005 he himself had met with the Americans once in Islamabad, where they had asked about the activities Jundullah was carrying out in Iran, their numbers, their positions and their requests.

After the meeting, he added, Malek had called the Americans to only contact him not any other ring members.

Abdulhamid said that from 2005 onwards Malik had held several “confidential” meeting with FBI and CIA agents in Karachi and Islamabad.

He added that during one of the meetings in the Pakistani capital, two female U.S. agents had offered weapons, safe bases in Afghanistan, and professional trainers, while inquiring about how many people the group could gather for military training.

“We said we could bring two to three thousand, but we can’t fund them,” said Abdulhamid Rigi, adding that they had finally accepted the U.S. proposal.

Abdolhamid Rigi, who was arrested and handed over to Iranian officials last year along with three other Jundullah members, was executed on Saturday for his key role in a series of terrorist attacks against civilians.

Jundullah is a Pakistan-based terror group closely affiliated with the notorious al-Qaeda organization and made up of disgruntled members of the Baluch ethnic minority.

A 2007 Sunday Telegraph report revealed that Jundullah was a CIA creation designed to achieve “regime change in Iran”. The report said it was the CIA that had tried to destabilize Iran by “supplying arms-length support, supplying money and weapons” to Jundullah.

An ABC report also indicted that officials in Washington had ordered Jundullah terrorists to “stage deadly guerrilla raids inside the Islamic Republic, kidnap Iranian officials and execute them on camera” all as part of a “programmatic objective to overthrow the Iranian government.”

Jundullah has orchestrated a chain of deadly bombings and violent attacks in Iran. So far, it has accepted responsibility for killing at least 16 Iranian police officers in a 2008 attack, nine Iranian security guards in 2005, and another 11 in a 2007 bombing.

The militants group also claimed responsibility for a recent mosque bombing that left at least 25 Iranians dead in the southeastern city of Zahedan.

Rigi tells all about Jundullah

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=97450

7/1/2009

Abdolhamid Rigi confesses in an exclusive Press TV interview that he was involved in terrorism at the behest of his brother, Jundullah ringleader Abdolmalek Rigi.

Rigi: If I start talking about the things we used to do in our group, others will say that he's been brainwashed in Iran and he is only saying these because he is held in their custody. But what I am going to say is that this life is not worth a thing and death only comes once not a hundred times. What happens to you after death is permanent and you can't repent your sins.

Press TV: Abdolmalek Rigi in his website claims that you have been tortured and due to the severity of the measures you have been paralyzed. Have you really been treated like that? Are you saying all the things you've been saying under pressure and torture?

Rigi: Nothing of the sort has happened. It is part of a propaganda campaign that they claim anyone who comes to Iran will be paralyzed or tortured.

Press TV: Can you elaborate specifically on how you have been treated?

Rigi: I was first taken to Tehran from Islamabad and was kept in Tehran for a while. Then I was moved to Zahedan from there. I was not mistreated [by Iranian officials]. Any explanation that I have provided or any confession I have made has been done by me and I was not forced into saying them.

Press TV: After you were arrested your brother tried killing many others under the pretext of your arrest. How do you feel when you realize that your brother might have killed many people because of you?

Rigi: If I have ended up here it's because of my brother. When we were arrested, it was his people who sold me out. When he was the cause of my arrest, he can't claim that he's killing people because of me.

We had a little internal disagreement and they told in on us and they blocked the way…1,200 Pakistani police blocked our way and one of us was killed there and we were arrested.

The members of our group were the only ones who knew about our itinerary. He sent me here…but I see it as a good thing for me…I could've ended up doing so many other wrong things. God is compassionate and merciful.

Press TV: We know about many things that your brother has done. Can you tell us about the things you have done personally?

Rigi: As a soldier on duty I have taken many orders and gone many places, I don't remember how many though…we just obeyed him and his orders. It was like if we didn't obey his orders it felt like we were committing a sin and we would become a monafiq (hypocrite).

Only recently because of our disagreements he issued a statement -- and you can find it on the internet -- saying Hamid has become a monafiq and had ordered people to shoot me…just because I once said I won't support you anymore.

Since 1382 (2003), Jundullah members have been involved in fifty to sixty terrorist operations, including mass murder, hostage takings, bombings, raids, car thefts, and other acts of sabotage against civilians and the government.

I took part in many of them like in Mr. Tassooki's mission, Pirsoran and Darzin in Shahbakhsh where I was Malek's representative and the hostage taking in Chabahar in 86; the operation was carried out by another group.

The Yasser group which was responsible for taking hostages. In Zahedan, the Aamer group, which was part of the Jundullah group, was tasked with taking hostages in the city.

I participated in crossing two or three of the hostages (into Pakistan). In a clash in Kouh-e Sefid, Malik was the commander. I also accompanied him in the clash.

Press TV: Tell us about the TV policy.

Rigi: He told us if there is a television set in our houses, our prayers will not be accepted. But watching news and following news was accepted.

Press TV: How many people did you kill?

Rigi: In Darzin, I shot 3 or 4 people.

Press TV: Were they innocent?

Rigi: Yes. But it was his order. He told us to kill 20 to 30 people but we managed to kill 12 or 13. I shot 3 or 4 people myself.

I went to Islamabad with the Americans that made him angry. And the case of my wife; I saw my children and then I realized that his view was different from mine. They wanted to push for their cause.

He did not pay much cash to the operatives. He would only pay for their rent. He would say the money should be spent for the operations not on people.

When I left the group, he was scared. He knew I could damage him. Before I left, if anything happened, no one could stand up to him but me. He did not like that. He always wanted to throw me under the bus. He even kidnapped my son.

Then he issued an order to kill me. He told the thugs that I should be killed. He accused me of cooperating with Iran…

The Pakistani government cooperates with anyone who has money. There are no guarantees though. Everyone works for itself there. If you have a pricey car, put tens of weapons in it and go all the way to Karachi, no one will stop you.

Rigi confesses to numerous act of sabotage

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=97427&sectionid=351020101

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:11:31 GMT

Abdolhamid Rigi confesses in an exclusive interview that he was involved in terrorism at the behest of his brother, Jundullah ringleader Abdolmalek Rigi.

“Since 2003, Jundullah members have masterminded fifty to sixty terrorist operations, including mass murder, hostage takings, bombings, raids, car thefts, and other acts of sabotage against civilians and the government,” said Abdolhami in an exclusive interview with Press TV.

“I was under strict orders to take part in most of these missions,” he explained, while adding that he killed at least four innocent civilians with his own hands in one particular raid.

He asserted that if he refused to conform to his brother's orders he would have been faced with a severe reprimand. “I would be labeled as a traitor and therefore condemned to death.”

When asked whether he knew that his brother killed a large number of innocent people to avenge his arrest, he expressed profound surprise.

“How can that possibly be? My brother paved the way for my arrest in the first place. It was my brother who sold me out and landed me in prison,” he said.

Abdolhamid Rigi and three other members of the Jundullah group were arrested by Pakistani forces and handed over to Iranian officials earlier last year.

Jundullah is a Pakistan-based terror group comprised of some members of the Baluch ethnic minority. The groupm is closely affiliated with the notorious al-Qaeda organization.

The Sunday Telegraph revealed in 2007 that Jundullah is in fact a CIA brainchild designed to achieve the Bush-era goal of “regime change in Iran”.

According to the report, the CIA had attempted to destabilize Iran by “supplying arms-length support, supplying money and weapons” to Jundullah terrorists.

An investigative ABC report has also exposed that political heavyweights in the US had ordered Jundullah terrorists to “stage deadly guerrilla raids inside the Islamic Republic, kidnap Iranian officials and execute them on camera” all as part of a “programmatic objective to overthrow the Iranian government”.

The group has masterminded a slew of bombings and terrorist attacks in the country, one of which left at least 16 Iranian police officers dead last year.

Nine Iranian security guards, who were on a mission to hunt down the insurgents, were slain in 2005, while another 11 were killed in a 2007 bombing incident.

Jundullah militants also claimed responsibility for a mosque bombing, that killed at least 25 Iranians in the southeastern city of Zahedan.

Bush sanctions 'black ops' against Iran

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1552784/Bush-sanctions-black-ops-against-Iran.html

By Tim Shipman in Washington
Published: 12:01AM BST 27 May 2007

President George W Bush has given the CIA approval to launch covert "black" operations to achieve regime change in Iran, intelligence sources have revealed.

Mr Bush has signed an official document endorsing CIA plans for a propaganda and disinformation campaign intended to destabilise, and eventually topple, the theocratic rule of the mullahs.

Under the plan, pressure will be brought to bear on the Iranian economy by manipulating the country's currency and international financial transactions.

Details have also emerged of a covert scheme to sabotage the Iranian nuclear programme, which United Nations nuclear watchdogs said last week could lead to a bomb within three years.

Security officials in Washington have disclosed that Teheran has been sold defective parts on the black market in a bid to delay and disrupt its uranium enrichment programme, the precursor to building a nuclear weapon.

A security source in the US told The Sunday Telegraph that the presidential directive, known as a "non-lethal presidential finding", would give the CIA the right to collect intelligence on home soil, an area that is usually the preserve of the FBI, from the many Iranian exiles and emigrés within the US.

"Iranians in America have links with their families at home, and they are a good two-way source of information," he said.

The CIA will also be allowed to supply communications equipment which would enable opposition groups in Iran to work together and bypass internet censorship by the clerical regime.

The plans, which significantly increase American pressure on Iran, were leaked just days before a meeting in Iraq tomorrow between the US ambassador, Ryan Crocker, and his Iranian counterpart.

Tensions have been raised by Iran's seizure of what the US regards as a series of "hostages" in recent weeks. Three academics who hold dual Iranian-American citizenship are being held, accused of working to undermine the Iranian government or of spying.

An Iranian-American reporter with Radio Free Europe, who was visiting Iran, has had her passport seized. Another Iranian American, businessman Ali Shakeri, was believed to have been detained as he tried to leave Teheran last week.

The US responded with a show of force by the navy, sending nine warships, including two aircraft carriers, into the Persian Gulf.

Authorisation of the new CIA mission, which will not be allowed to use lethal force, appears to suggest that President Bush has, for the time being, ruled out military action against Iran.

Bruce Riedel, until six months ago the senior CIA official who dealt with Iran, said: "Vice-President [Dick] Cheney helped to lead the side favouring a military strike, but I think they have concluded that a military strike has more downsides than upsides."

However, the CIA is giving arms-length support, supplying money and weapons, to an Iranian militant group, Jundullah, which has conducted raids into Iran from bases in Pakistan.

Iranian officials say they captured 10 members of Jundullah last weekend, carrying $500,000 in cash along with "maps of sensitive areas" and "modern spy equipment".

Mark Fitzpatrick, a former senior State Department official now with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said industrial sabotage was the favoured way to combat Iran's nuclear programme "without military action, without fingerprints on the operation."

He added: "One way to sabotage a programme is to make minor modifications in some of the components Iran obtains on the black market."

Components and blueprints obtained by Iranian intelligence agents in Europe, and shipped home using the diplomatic bag from the Iranian consulate in Frankfurt, have been blamed for an explosion that destroyed 50 nuclear centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear plant last year.

The White House National Security Council and CIA refused to comment on intelligence matters.

Top Sunni rebel on Iran death row says US ordered attacks

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect...bel on iran death row says us ordered attacks

Tuesday, 25 Aug, 2009 | 09:34 PM PST |

ZAHEDAN: A top Sunni rebel who is awaiting execution in Iran said on Tuesday that his militant group received orders from the United States to launch terror attacks in the Islamic republic.

Abdolhamid Rigi, brother of shadowy Jundallah (Soldiers of God) group leader Abdolmalek Rigi, told reporters his brother was an Al-Qaeda point man in Iran six years ago but that later the group broke off ties with him.

'The United States created and supported Jundallah and we received orders from them,' Rigi said in Iran's restive southeastern city of Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan.

'They (US officials) told us whom to shoot and whom not to. All orders came from them. They told us that they would provide us with everything we need like money and equipment.'

Wearing normal clothing, and not a prison uniform, Rigi addressed reporters in a government building in Zahedan, amid relatively light security.

Iran has accused Jundallah of launching several attacks inside the country, mainly in Sistan-Baluchestan.

The group also claimed a May 28 bomb attack on the Shia Amir al-Momenin mosque in Zahedan in which more than 20 people were killed and 50 wounded.

That attack came just weeks before Iran's June 12 presidential election which returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

Iran has in the past blamed US and British agents based in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan for launching attacks on border provinces with significant ethnic minority populations.

The day after the mosque bombing, officials accused the United States of 'hiring' those behind the attack, linking it to the presidential election. Washington rejected the accusation.

'We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms,' State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. We do not sponsor any form of terrorism in Iran.'

Before Tuesday's news conference began, reporters saw a group of people who reportedly had relatives killed in attacks launched by Jundallah.

An AFP correspondent said that as Rigi sat down to address reporters, some of the victims' relatives called out, denouncing him as a murderer.

Video footage of the aftermath of attacks allegedly launched by Jundallah was also shown at the news conference.

The images included gory executions of several handcuffed and blindfolded people, scenes which provincial officials told reporters had been filmed by Rigi himself.

The officials said some of those shown being killed, who were not identified, had been captured by Jundullah in 2006 and later executed.

Sistan-Baluchestan has a large ethnic Sunni Baluch minority, and also lies on a major narcotics-smuggling route from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Iranian officials have said Abdolhamid will be executed for his role in several attacks in the country. -AFP

Jundallah leader Rigi executed in Iran

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=131168&sectionid=351020101

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 02:34:14 GMT

Iran says it has executed ringleader of the Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist group Abdolmalek Rigi arrested while preparing to launch a new round of attacks on the country.

Rigi was hanged on Sunday morning in Tehran's Evin prison upon a ruling issued by the country's Islamic Revolution Court, Fars news agency reported.

The Jundallah ringleader was charged with 79 counts of various crimes including armed robbery, bombing operations in public places, armed attacks on the army, police personnel, and ordinary civilians, assassination attempts, disrupting regional stability, kidnapping and murder.

Rigi's execution comes as Iranian security forces arrested him on February 23 in eastern Iran while he was on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan.

Following his arrest, Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said that Rigi was at an American base 24 hours before his capture, and that the United States had forged an Afghan passport for him.

Rigi, accompanied by his lawyer, appeared in court for the first time on May 27 in the presence of the families of the victims killed by his terrorist group.

In the court session, Iranian prosecutors demanded the death penalty for him.

Following the demand, Rigi claimed responsibility for the crimes committed by his terrorist group, acknowledging that his acts were in violation of the Islamic and human regulations.

After pleading guilty to all charges against him, the Jundallah ringleader went on to ask for forgiveness and made an appeal against the decision for his execution.

Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, however, rejected the appeal and ordered his execution.

The terrorist leader had earlier confessed to having links with NATO officials in Afghanistan and foreign spy agencies like the CIA and Mossad.

Jundallah, which is based in Pakistan, has carried out numerous bombings, assassination attempts, and terrorist attacks in Iran. One of the cited attacks left 40 people dead, including several senior commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, in Iran's southeastern city of Pishin.