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Iran's Al-Qaeda: If the Revolutionary Guards Aren't Terrorists, Who Is?

[Wall Street Journal] Bret Stephens - On July 18, 1994, a suicide bomber drove a van into the seven-story Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, murdering 85 people and seriously injuring 151 others. Last November, Argentine Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral issued international arrest warrants for seven Iranians and one Lebanese wanted in connection to the bombing. Among them are former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, and three other men - all senior officers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The '94 bombing came just two years after the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires had been bombed, killing 22. In 1998 an Iranian defector to the U.S. named Ahmad Rezai confirmed that "the attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was planned in Tehran." He added that the decision to attack had been made by Rafsanjani and his top deputies, and that the bombers had been trained for the mission in Lebanon by IRGC officers. Ahmad's father, Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezai, was the commander of the IRGC at the time, and Ahmad had accompanied his father to Lebanon to witness the training. Mohsen Rezai is among those whose arrest is sought by Judge Corral. According to Iran analyst Alireza Jafarzadeh, Ahmad Vahidi founded the IRGC's "Lebanon Corps" in the 1980s, meaning he is responsible for the attack on the U.S. Marine barracks that left 241 American servicemen dead. Today, Vahidi is Iran's deputy defense minister. That is how the Islamic Republic treats its terrorist all-stars.
2007-10-16 01:00:00
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