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Iran's Wartime Preparations include Terrorist Attacks and Assassinations
(Yahoo News) Zach Dorfman - In July 2017, FBI agents surveilled Ahmadreza Doostdar, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen, snapping photos of two Jewish centers in Chicago with his phone camera, appearing to pay particular attention to entrances and exits. He then traveled to Los Angeles where, according to U.S. prosecutors, he met with an Iranian man and tasked him with collecting information on U.S.-based members of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, an Iranian opposition group. The details of Doostdar's activities were revealed in August 2018 when the Justice Department unsealed an indictment against him, claiming he was acting as an Iranian intelligence operative. The charges against Doostdar and others highlight what the U.S. intelligence community sees as an increasingly worrying part of Tehran's covert strategy. Iranian operatives are compiling "target packages" to undertake prospective future assassinations and terrorist attacks, according to former U.S. intelligence officials. Iran's relative military weakness has led it to focus on preparations to attack "softer" targets, such as U.S. government facilities and personnel, and even civilian institutions like synagogues. The Pentagon is, in fact, worried less about Iran's conventional forces than about its ability to conduct terrorist attacks.