U.S. Attacks Iran Via CIA-Funded Jundullah Terror Group

Bankrolling and arming Al-Qaeda offshoot part of 2007 White House directive to destabilize Iranian government

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
October 19, 2009

The U.S. government effectively attacked Iran yesterday after its proxy terror group Jundullah launched a suicide bomb attack against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard at their headquarters in Pishin, near the border with Pakistan.

Leaders of the Al-Qaeda affiliated Sunni terrorist group Jundullah have claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Iran that killed over 40 people yesterday. The group is funded and trained by the CIA and is being used to destabilize the government of Iran, according to reports out of the London Telegraph and ABC News.

In the aftermath of the attack, which killed at least five commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard along with scores of others, media reports have swung between Iranian accusations of US and British involvement and blanket denials on behalf of the U.S. State Department.

However, the fact that Jundullah, who have since claimed responsibility for the attack and named the bomber as Abdol Vahed Mohammadi Saravani, are openly financed and run by the CIA and Mossad is not up for debate, it has been widely reported for years.

“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 destabilize, and eventually topple, the theocratic rule of the mullahs,” reported the London Telegraph in May 2007.

Part of that destabilization campaign involved the the CIA “Giving arms-length support, supplying money and weapons, to an Iranian militant group, Jundullah, which has conducted raids into Iran from bases in Pakistan,” stated the report.

Jundullah is a Sunni Al-Qaeda offshoot organization that was formerly headed by alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The fact that it is being directly supported by the U.S. government under both Bush and now Obama destroys the whole legitimacy of the “war on terror” in an instant.

The group has been blamed for a number of bombings inside Iran aimed at destabilizing Ahmadinejad’s government and is also active in Pakistan, having been fingered for its involvement in attacks on police stations and car bombings at the Pakistan-US Cultural Center in 2004.

The group also produces propaganda tapes and literature for al-Qaeda’s media wing, As-Sahab, which is in turn closely affiliated with the military-industrial complex front IntelCenter, the group that makes available Al-Qaeda videos to the western media.

In May 2008, ABC News reported on how Pakistan was threatening to turn over six members of Jundullah to Iran after they were taken into custody by Pakistani authorities.

“U.S. officials tell ABC News U.S. intelligence officers frequently meet and advise Jundullah leaders, and current and former intelligence officers are working to prevent the men from being sent to Iran,” reported ABC news, highlighting again the close relationship between the terror group and the CIA.

In July 2009, a Jundullah member admitted before a court in Zahedan Iran that the group was a proxy for the U.S. and Israel.

Abdolhamid Rigi, a senior member of the group and the brother of the group’s leader Abdolmalek Rigi, who was one of the six members of the organization extradited by Pakistan, told the court that Jundullah was being trained and financed by “the US and Zionists”. He also said that the group had been ordered by America and Israel to step up their attacks in Iran.

Jundullah is not the only anti-Iranian terror group that US government has been accused of funding in an attempt to pressure the Iranian government.

Multiple credible individuals including US intelligence whistleblowers and former military personnel have asserted that the U.S. is conducting covert military operations inside Iran using guerilla groups to carry out attacks on Iranian Revolution Guard units.

It is widely suspected that the well known right-wing terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), once run by Saddam Hussein’s dreaded intelligence services, is now working exclusively for the CIA’s Directorate of Operations and carrying out remote bombings in Iran.

After a bombing inside Iran in March 2007, the London Telegraph also reported on how a high ranking CIA official has blown the whistle on the fact that America is secretly funding terrorist groups in Iran in an attempt to pile pressure on the Islamic regime to give up its nuclear program.

A story entitled, US funds terror groups to sow chaos in Iran, reveals how funding for the attacks carried out by the terrorist groups “comes directly from the CIA’s classified budget,” a fact that is now “no great secret”, according to a former high-ranking CIA official in Washington who spoke anonymously to The Sunday Telegraph.

Former US state department counter-terrorism agent Fred Burton backed the claim, telling the newspaper, “The latest attacks inside Iran fall in line with US efforts to supply and train Iran’s ethnic minorities to destabilise the Iranian regime.”

John Pike, the head of the influential Global Security think tank in Washington, said: “The activities of the ethnic groups have hotted up over the last two years and it would be a scandal if that was not at least in part the result of CIA activity.”

The timing of the bombing that targeted Iranian Revolutionary Guard members yesterday was clearly orchestrated to coincide with talks between representatives from Iran, Russia, France, the U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna today concerning Iran’s nuclear intentions.

Berlusconi's TV company filmed bribery case judge

The Telegraph
October 18, 2009

Days after Judge Raimondo Mesiano ordered the Italian prime minister's holding company to pay 750 million euros (£680 million) in damages to a rival, the media mogul's Canale 5 channel aired footage of the judge taking a walk, smoking and having a shave at the barber.

Dubbing the judge's behaviour "eccentric", a narrator pointed to him smoking his "umpteenth" cigarette, called his turquoise socks "strange" and said: "He's impatient ... he can only relax at the barber's."

The incident has further raised tensions between the Italian government and the judiciary, after Mr Berlusconi accused the constitutional court of being packed with Leftists when it stripped him of immunity from prosecution.

The court's action means that cases for alleged fraud and corruption linked to Mr Berlusconi's Mediaset business empire can proceed.

Furious that the judge was shadowed during his leisure time without his knowledge, the National Association of Magistrates asked the privacy authorities to intervene. The authorities said they were evaluating the matter.

"We don't think there are similar precedents in Italy, of denigrating a person and delegitimising an essential and delicate function," the association said in a statement.

Coupled with anger over Mr Berlusconi's remark on Friday that he wanted to modify the constitution on judicial issues, the magistrates' union on Saturday declared a "state of protest".

It also denounced a "climate of constant tension" that it said risked altering the balance among the powers of the state.

Mediaset, which owns Canale 5, responded angrily, saying it would not accept reprimands and that the clip showed a magistrate who "objectively has acquired national and international notoriety".

Some magistrates are debating a "turquoise socks" protest, while others have been collecting signatures for a letter of support for their colleague, Italian media reported.

Some Italian commentators and the centre-Left opposition were also outraged, with one Democratic Party senator likening the incident to a "horrible television movie".

Olive Harvest: notes from the field

Palestine Monitor

17 October 2009

Farming in the villages around Nablus has become a perilous task of late. Each year vandals from nearby Israeli settlements plague the olive farmers, destroying their trees and attacking workers. In the village of Burin, we saw evidence of a more sinister trend

Issam Shedahah with the remains of his car

Photo by Lazar Simeonov

Issam Shedahah, 39, is a long time resident of Burin and it has cost him dear. We are looking at the burnt out husk of his car, torched the previous night by the settlers of Itzhar. “This is the fourth time they have burnt my car”, he tells us, “now it is very common that they come into the village at night”. Neither does Issam’s suffering end with material damage. Another recent settler invasion resulted in the murder of his brother. “He was sitting on the roof one evening, not doing anything. They shot him in the head.”

He indicates the roof of the shop/apartment the family own. It is directly across the street from the remains of his car. “Last night I woke up at 3am and I heard voices. I looked out the window and I saw them breaking the windows and throwing Benzene all over the seats, then they set fire to it and walked away.” Issam explains that the people of Burin are used to having their farms attacked, he points up to ‘black mountain’, where all the once-green trees have been reduced to charcoal. But the recent tendency of settlers to enter the village, with full knowledge of Israeli Army soldiers, is making life unbearable. “All the time we are attacked by settlers. They have taken my grandfather’s land; they want to steal all of our land. All the time we are suffering”.

Neighbours inform us that several more cars have been burnt recently. We can see that nearby houses also bear the scars of settler attacks. Huwara Mayor Samer Odeh has condemned what he called “continuous settler attacks”, while Union leaders tell us that 5,000 PA security troops have been assigned to protect the farmers. For Issam Shedaheh and the people of Burin, no protection exists. Just the daily horrors of a life under siege.

Israel kidnaps Palestinian journalist in Al-Khalil

Palestinian Information Center
October 19, 2009

AL-KHALIL, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped Palestinian journalist Iyad Sorour from Al-Khalil city, in the south of the West Bank on Sunday, only one month after his release from the Palestinian Authority’s jails.

The forum of Palestinian journalists said in a press release that a large number of IOF troops stormed the house of Sorour in the city and took him to an unknown destination.

The forum affirmed that Sorour spent 10 months in the PA intelligence’s jail and was released a month ago, adding that he was detained for 14 months in Israeli jails in 2002.

The forum appealed to the international federation of journalists, the organization of reporters without borders and the union of Arab journalists to intervene and pressure Israel to immediately release all journalists in its jails.

It also called on Mahmoud Abbas to instruct his militias in the West Bank to release journalists detained in his jails and end restrictions imposed on their freedom.

Nine other Palestinian citizens have also been kidnapped at dawn Monday during raids carried out by IOF troops on homes in different West Bank areas.

The lawyer of the Palestinian prisoners' society also reported Sunday that the Ofer prison administration imposed a number of punitive measures on Palestinian prisoners in section nine under the pretext of tampering with the section’s door lock, the allegation was denied by prisoners.

The lawyer added that the prison administration deprived prisoners of visits and the canteen for one month and a half as of 18 October.

He also said that the prisoners complained about the Red Cross’s neglect of their needs, saying that they did not receive yet what they asked the Red Cross representatives to bring with them, including books and clothes, because they had not visited the prison for four months.

Source

U.K. Professors Warn Government Not to Subsidize Nuclear Power

By Catherine Airlie

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. professors from Imperial College, Sussex University and University of Greenwich will advise the government against subsidizing or fixing prices for new sources of nuclear power.

“If the government caves in to nuclear industry demands for subsidies and guarantees, it will be electricity consumers and taxpayers that will pay huge additional costs,” Steve Thomas, professor of energy policy at the University of Greenwich, said today in an e-mailed statement.

The academics are scheduled to present their views before U.K. lawmakers, policy advisers and nuclear industry executives today. Any subsidies for new nuclear power stations could lead to legal challenges under European Union competition law, the professors said.

UN: Israeli Spy Devices Responsible for Lebanon Blasts

Israel Says Explosions Prove Hezbollah Violating Ceasefire

by Jason Ditz, October 18, 2009

A string of explosions in Lebanese territory near the Israeli border this weekend have been investigated by the United Nations, and found to have been caused by the detonation of spying devices planted by the Israeli military following the 2006 war.

Planting such devices would be a flagrant violation of the resolution 1701 ceasefire agreement which ended the conflict, but while Israel declined to comment on the nature of the devices they said their discovery proved that Hezbollah was actually violating the deal. They also claimed that the UN report was part of a Hezbollah plot to distract attention from their violation.

The devices were reportedly discovered by the Lebanese military, and were detonated, apparently remotely. No one appears to have been injured in the blasts.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Saniora slammed the devices as a violation of the ceasefire, but they weren’t even the only Israeli violation that day. The UN peacekeepers reported Israeli drones entered Lebanese airspace, and there were reports that the Lebanese military fired on the drones as they overflew a garrison.

Source

Israel negotiates to import water from Turkey

Press TV - October 19, 2009 11:26:36 GMT

Israel has recently launched a new round of talks with Ankara
to import water from Turkey, amid worries over its dwindling local reserves.

Israel's Foreign Ministry, which is tasked with conducting the negotiations, had held talks with Ankara on the subject in 2000-2006 but finally abandoned the idea because of high costs as well as technical problems, Jerusalem Post reported Monday.

The current round of talks comes at a time when Israel's national carrier ElAl has declared that his employee association and those of several other major Israeli businesses plan to stop subsidizing vacations for their workers to Turkey.

A large Israeli cafe chain has also decided to stop selling Turkish coffee.

Ties between Israel and Turkey began to sour in January when Ankara strongly condemned Israel's 22-day offensive on the Gaza Strip, which killed at least 1400 people mostly woman and children.

Relations took another sharp downturn when Turkey excluded Israel from a recent joint air force drill due to the Gaza incident.

ElBaradei: Iran’s Nuclear ‘Threat’ Exaggerated

Greatest Danger Comes From Possible Israeli Attack on Iran

By JASON DITZ - October 18, 2009

In an interview with the German-language Die Presse, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei cautioned that the threat of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon was dramatically over-stated.

Mohamed ElBaradei

The greater threat to the region, ElBaradei insisted, was the possibility that Israel might some day make good on its long-standing threats and launch an attack on Iran. This, he said “would turn the entire region into a fireball.”

ElBaradei finished the interview with another appeal to turn the Middle East into a nuclear free zone, and insisted that Israel’s status as a non-signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty was the source of the regional imbalance.

Israel and the United States have insisted that Iran is attempting to create nuclear weapons, despite ample evidence to the contrary. The IAEA has continued to certify that none of its nuclear material has been diverted to any non-civilian purpose.

Source

Dignified beyond losses

*Mahmoud Musleh: “I’ve had three main things destroyed by Israeli forces: a tile factory on Sikka street (northern Beit Hanoun), another tile factory on Salah el Din street (Beit Hanoun), and the water well on my land. My olive trees have been bulldozed many times by Israeli forces. I’m 70 years old and now I have nothing, like when I was 16.”

*Mohammed Zaneen [eastern Beit Hanoun]: “I had 11 dunams of olive trees, bulldozed by the Israeli army. I used to earn well over US$11,000 from the olives. Now my oldest trees are just 4 years old and produce only a meagre amount. We also have bees. When there were many olive, lemon and orange trees, the bees produced quality honey twice per year. Now, we have to supplement the bees’ diet with sugar; they produce honey just once per year.”

*Abdullah Abu Shar, Waddi Salqa (central eastern Gaza): “During the Israeli war on Gaza, my house and 50 other homes from our extended family were destroyed by the Israeli army. My son Mahmoud (25) and his wife Fida (18) were killed with their son Tamer (10 months) by two Israeli drone missile attacks on their home.” [He later adds, "we have 4 martyrs in our family, bas (only)." "That's too many," I say. His stoic face crumbles and he sobs silently for a moment.]

*the water tank and pump, sending water to 150,000 residents, was destroyed in the Israeli attacks. It was out of use for 2 months. It has been re-built 4 times over the last 10 years.

*Masiouna Abu Shar: “I lived here for 50 years. This was my grandfather’s land. The Israelis destroyed everything. Not a single house was left. All the land destroyed. All of us now have to rent homes in Deir el Balah. $150 per month. The land is so torn up you can’t farm it any longer. What can we do with this land?”

“This was our house. Nothing is left. We had 50 trees, too: olives, figs, guava… all destroyed. See those houses over there? Destroyed, everything gone, all from our family.”

*Abdul-Raziq Abu Shar: “Three times the Israelis have bulldozed my olive trees in the last 7 years: in 2002, 2004, and 2005. I had 120 olive trees, and another 100 date trees. 15 of which were over 30 years old.”

“Thank you very much, thank you for listening.”

*Nayfa Abu Shar: “My house was destroyed, along with all my trees.”

*Ghrelli Abu Shar: “I lived with my son and his 4 children. Our house was destroyed. So were our 80 trees: we had figs, olives, lemons and dates.”

“We’ve made a small two room shelter with some of the stones we retrieved, but it’s not complete. When I come here during the day, I use this tent for shade, make food over a fire. I’m afraid to stay past sunset; the Israeli soldiers are always shooting at us here.”

*Sabri Jendiya (74), Shayjayee, eastern Gaza: “I’ve worked our land since I was a boy. We’re farmers, we put all of our investment into our land. We have 30 dunams (30,000 square metres) about 800m from the border fence.Because of the danger from Israeli soldier shooting, I don’t work my land like I used. Also, all the water sources were destroyed by the Israeli war on Gaza. When it rains, I will plant simple vegetables. There are 30 people in our house and only one of my sons has work.”

*Shabaan Mohammed Mhayssy (83): “I was so happy on my 7.5 dunams of land. I spent 10,000 shekels (~$2,500) to make our water cistern with a pump for watering the land. My olive trees were very old. The cistern and all of my trees have been destroyed by Israeli soldiers. I can’t feed the 30 people in our house.”

*Samir: “My land has been bulldozed 7 times. This area had maybe 100 olive and orange trees. There were 6 wells. All have been destroyed. When farmers were producing their own food, they were able to live self-sufficiently. Now they are run-off their land by Israeli attacks and are dependent on aid.”

*Ramzi Hillis: “I have good land, 20 dunams (20,000 square metres) about 400m from the border fence. All the trees and my 10,000 chickens have been bulldozed and destroyed, from 2004 until now. We still keep bees, though the honey production is very poor these years. I work as a taxi driver now to help support the 13 people in my family.”

*Amar Mhayssy (78): “My wife and I have 9 dunams (9,000 square metres) of land in the buffer zone. We can’t use the land because the Israelis will shoot us. We have 10 dunams of land over 500m from the border fence. Of that, we had 2 dunams of olive trees, over 60 years old. They were all bulldozed by the Israeli army. We will re-plant, and pray to Allah that the trees are not again bulldozed. We’ve got 13 people in our family, with 4 children in university. None of us has employment.”

*Amar Mhayssy and Sena Mhayssy (75): “Every morning the Israeli soldiers shoot at us. It’s a hard life here.”

*Salem As Saede. eastern Beit Hanoun: “I had 4.5 dunams of land, with olive and orange trees; it has all been destroyed by Israeli soldiers in recent years” During the winter Israeli massacre of Gaza, Israeli soldiers finished off his land and once again destroyed his water well. Married twice, Saede has 17 children, non employed. All are dependent on food aid. He cannot even work his land to provide fresh produce. Formerly, Saede was a school teacher.

Source

UK Gov. Spies on ‘Innocent Muslims’

Inayat Bunglawala
Excerpt
October 18, 2009

A British spying program targeting thoughts & beliefs of innocent people

The British newspaper The Guardian carried this weekend a highly disturbing front page story revealing that the British government’s ‘Prevent’ program – which is meant to be aimed at halting Muslims from being lured into the world of violent extremism – is actually being used to gather intelligence on innocent people who are not themselves suspected of involvement in terrorism.

The information being gathered by the UK authorities includes, says The Guardian according to documents it says it has seen, political and religious views, information on mental health, sexual activity and associates, and other sensitive information.

As The Guardian’s editorial observes regarding the collection of this data:

“It hardly needs saying that it would be incredibly dangerous if innocent Muslims were to come to believe that [divide and rule] tricks were now being deployed against them, whether through the recruitment of agents or overt spying operations. Yet when, as we report, the authorities are actively seeking information on sexual activities, this must surely be a risk. What use could such data have apart from blackmail? How is news of its collection to be explained, other than in terms of a desire to dominate?” (1)

Biggest Spying Program Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty, the human rights organization, responded to The Guardian’s revelations by voicing outrage that the government appeared to be engaged in:

"...the biggest domestic spying programme targeting the thoughts and beliefs of the innocent in Britain in modern times. It is information-gathering directed at the innocent and the spying is directed at people because of their religion, and not because of their behaviour." (2)

Sources:

1. Surveillance of Muslims: The lives of the other
2. Government anti-terrorism strategy 'spies' on innocent