Mehdi Marizad / Fars via AP file
A car that was bombed by two assailants on a motorcycle in Tehran on Jan. 11, killing Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahamdi Roshan, is removed by a mobile crane. The photo was distributed by the semi-official Iranian photo agency Fars.
By Richard Engel and Robert Windrem
NBC News
Updated: 11:14 a.m. ET -- Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders.
The group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s and supporting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran before breaking with the Iranian mullahs in 1980.
The attacks, which have killed five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007 and may have destroyed a missile research and development site, have been carried out in dramatic fashion, with motorcycle-borne assailants often attaching small magnetic bombs to the exterior of the victims’ cars.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement.
The Iranians have no doubt who is responsible – Israel and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, known by various acronyms, including MEK, MKO and PMI.
“The relation is very intricate and close,” said Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, speaking of the MEK and Israel. “They (Israelis) are paying … the Mujahedin. Some of their (MEK) agents … (are) providing Israel with information. And they recruit and also manage logistical support.”
Moreover, he said, the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, is training MEK members in Israel on the use of motorcycles and small bombs. In one case, he said, Mossad agents built a replica of the home of an Iranian nuclear scientist so that the assassins could familiarize themselves with the layout prior to the attack.
Much of what the Iranian government knows of the attacks and the links between Israel and MEK comes from interrogation of an assassin who failed to carry out an attack in late 2010 and the materials found on him, Larijani said. (Click here to see a video report of the interrogation shown on Iranian televsion.)
The U.S.-educated Larijani, whose two younger brothers run the legislative and judicial branches of the Iranian government, said the Israelis’ rationale is simple. “Israel does not have direct access to our society. Mujahedin, being Iranian and being part of Iranian society, they have … a good number of … places to get into the touch with people. So I think they are working hand-to-hand very close. And we do have very concrete documents.”
Two senior U.S. officials confirmed for NBC News the MEK’s role in the assassinations, with one senior official saying, “All your inclinations are correct.” A third official would not confirm or deny the relationship, saying only, “It hasn’t been clearly confirmed yet.” All the officials denied any U.S. involvement in the assassinations.
As it has in the past, Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined comment. Said a spokesman, "As long as we can't see all the evidence being claimed by NBC, the Foreign Ministry won't react to every gossip and report being published worldwide."
For its part, the MEK pointed to a statement calling the allegations “absolutely false.”
Response to article from the National Council of Resistance of Iran
Ali Safavi, a long-time representative of the MEK, underscored the denial after publication of this article,
"There has never been and there is no MEK member in Israel, period," he said. "The MEK has categorically denied any involvement. The idea that Israel is training MEK members on its soil borders on perversity. It is absolutely and completely false."
The sophistication of the attacks supports the Iranian claims that an experienced intelligence service is involved, experts say.
In the most recent attack, on Jan. 11, 2012, Mostafa Ahamdi Roshan died in a blast in Tehran moments after two assailants on a motorcycle placed a small magnetic bomb on his vehicle. Roshan was a deputy director at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and was reportedly involved in procurement for the nuclear program, which Iran insists is not a weapons program.
Previous attacks include the assassination of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, killed by a bomb outside his Tehran home in January 2010, and an explosion in November of that year that took the life of Majid Shahriari and wounded Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, who is now the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.
In the case of Roshan, the bomb appears to have been a shaped charge that directed all the explosive power inside the vehicle, killing him and his bodyguard driver but leaving nearby traffic unaffected.
Although Roshan was directly involved in the nuclear program, working at the huge centrifuge facility between Tehran and Qom, Iran’s religious center, at least one other scientist who was killed wasn’t linked to the Iranian nuclear program, according to Larijani.
Speaking of bombing victim Ali-Mohammadi, whom he described as a friend, Larijani told NBC News, “In fact this guy who was assassinated was not involved in the nitty-gritty of the situation. He was a scientist, a physicist, working on the theoretically parts of nuclear energy, which you can teach it in every university. You can find it in every text.”
“This is an Israeli plot. A dirty plot,” Larijani added angrily. He also claimed the assassinations are not having an effect on the program and have only made scientists more resolute in carrying out their mission.
Not so, said Ronen Bergman, an Israeli commentator and author of “Israel’s Secret War with Iran” and an upcoming book tentatively titled, “Mossad and the Art of Assassination.”
Bergman said the attacks have three purposes, the most obvious being the removal of high-ranking scientists and their knowledge. The others: forcing Iran to increase security for its scientists and facilities and to spur “white defections.”
He explained the latter this way: “Scientists leaving the project, afraid that they are going to be next on the assassination list, and say, ‘We don't want this. Indeed, we get good money, we are promoted, we are honored by everybody, but we might get killed. It isn't worth it. Maybe we should go back to teach … in a university.’”
There are unconfirmed reports in the Israeli press and elsewhere that Israel and the MEK were involved in a Nov. 12 explosion that destroyed the Iranian missile research and development site at Bin Kaneh, 30 miles outside Tehran. Among those killed was Maj. Gen. Hassan Moghaddam, director of missile development for the Revolutionary Guard, and a dozen other researchers. So important was Moghaddam that Ayatollah Khamenei attended his funeral.
Unlike the assassinations, Iran claims the missile site explosion was an accident; the MEK, meanwhile, trumpeted it but denied any involvement.
Indeed, there may be other covert operations carried out either by Israel acting alone or in concert with others, according to Bergman.
“Two labs caught fire,” said Bergman, enumerating the attacks. “Scientists got blown up or disappeared. A missile base and the R&D base of the Revolutionary Guard exploded some time ago, with the director of the R&D division of the Revolutionary Guard being killed along with … his soldiers.”
Bergman added, “So, a long series of … something that was termed by an Israeli (Cabinet) minister … as ‘mysterious mishaps’ happening and rehappening to the project. Then the Iranians claim, ‘This is Israeli Mossad trying to sabotage our attempts to be a nuclear superpower.’”
Dr. Uzi Rabi, director of the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, said the supposed accidents could all be part of “psychological warfare” conducted against Iran. “It seems logical. It makes sense,” he said of possible MEK involvement, “and it’s been done before.”
Rabi, who regularly briefs Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Iran also said the ultimate goal of the range of covert operations being carried out by Israel is “to damage the politics of survivability … to send a message that could strike fear into the rulers of Iran.”
For the United States, the alleged role of the MEK is particularly troublesome. In 1997, the State Department designated it a terrorist group, justifying it with an unclassified 40-page summary of the organization’s activities going back more than 25 years. The paper, sent to Congress in 1994, was written by Wendy Sherman, now undersecretary of state for political affairs and then an aide to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
The report, which was obtained by NBC News, was unsparing in its assessment. “The Mujahedin (MEK) collaborated with Ayatollah Khomeini to overthrow the former shah of Iran,” it said. “As part of that struggle, they assassinated at least six American citizens, supported the takeover of the U.S. embassy, and opposed the release of the American hostages.” In each case, the paper noted, “Bombs were the Mujahedin's weapon of choice, which they frequently employed against American targets.”
“In the post-revolutionary political chaos, however, the Mujahedin lost political power to Iran's Islamic clergy. They then applied their dedication to armed struggle and the use of propaganda against the new Iranian government, launching a violent and polemical cycle of attack and reprisal."
Sean Gallup / Getty Images file
Maryam Rajavi, president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, greets several hundred Iranian expatriates who had gathered to welcome her at Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany, on March 22, 2010.
U.S. officials have said publicly that the information contained in the report was limited to unclassified material, but that it also drew on classified material in making its determination to add the MEK to the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.
The MEK and its sister organizations have since the beginning been run by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, a husband-wife team who have maintained tight control despite assassination threats and internal dissent. Massoud Rajavi, 63, founded the MEK, but since the U.S. invasion of Iraq has taken a backseat to his wife.
The State Department report describes the Rajavis as “fundamentally undemocratic” and “not a viable alternative to the current government of Iran.”
One reason for that is the MEK’s close relationship with Saddam Hussein, as demonstrated by this 1986 video showing the late Iraqi dictator meeting with Massoud Rajavi. Saddam recruited the MEK in much the same way the Israelis allegedly have, using them to fight Iranian forces during the Iran-Iraq War, a role they took on proudly. So proudly, they invited NBC News to one of their military camps outside Baghdad in 1991.
“The National Liberation Army (MLA), the military wing of the Mujahedin, conducted raids into Iran during the latter years of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War,” according to the State Department report. The NLA's last major offensive reportedly was conducted against Iraqi Kurds in 1991, when it joined Saddam Hussein's brutal repression of the Kurdish rebellion. In addition to occasional acts of sabotage, the Mujahedin are responsible for violent attacks in Iran that victimize civilians.”
“Internally, the Mujahedin run their organization autocratically, suppressing dissent and eschewing tolerance of differing viewpoints,” it said. “Rajavi, who heads the Mojahedin’s political and military wings, has fostered a cult of personality around himself.”
The U.S. suspicion of the MEK doesn’t end there. Law enforcement officials have told NBC News that in 1994, the MEK made a pact with terrorist Ramzi Yousef a year after he masterminded the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. According to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Yousef built an 11-pound bomb that MEK agents placed inside one of Shia Islam’s greatest shrines in Mashad, Iran, on June 20, 1994. At least 26 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 200 wounded in the attack.
That connection between Yousef, nephew of 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, and the MEK was first reported in a book, “The New Jackals,” by Simon Reeve. NBC News confirmed that Yousef told U.S. law enforcement that he had worked with the MEK on the bombing.
In recent years, the MEK has said it has renounced violence, but Iranian officials say that is not true, that killings of Iranians continue. Still, through some deft lobbying, the group has been able to get the United Kingdom and the European Union to remove it from their lists of terrorist groups.
The alleged involvement of the MEK in the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists provides the U.S. with a cloak of deniability regarding the clandestine killings. Because the U.S. has designated the MEK as a terrorist organization, neither military nor intelligence units of the U.S. government, can work with them. “We cannot deal with them, “ said one senior U.S. official. “We would not deal with them because of the designation.”
Iranian officials initially accused the Israelis and MEK of being behind the attacks, but they have since added the CIA to the list. Three days after the Jan. 11, 2012, bombing in Tehran that killed Roshan, the state news agency IRNA reported that Iran’s Foreign Ministry had sent a diplomatic letter to the U.S. claiming to have “evidence and reliable information” that the CIA provided “guidance, support and planning” to assassins directly involved in the attack.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton immediately denied any connection to the killings. “I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran,” Clinton told reporters on the day of the attack.
But at least two GOP presidential candidates have no problem with the targeting of nuclear scientists. In a November debate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich endorsed “taking out their scientists,” and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum called it, ”a wonderful thing.”
The MEK’s opposition to the Iranian government also has recently earned it both plaudits and support from an odd mix of political bedfellows.
A group of former Cabinet-level officials have joined together to support the MEK’s removal from the official U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization list, even taking out a full-page ad last year in the New York Times calling for the removal of the MEK from the U.S. terrorist list. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton; former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, former FBI Director Louis Freeh and former Rep. Patrick Kennedy were among those whose signatures were on the ad.
“There’s an extraordinary group of bipartisan or even apolitical leaders, military leaders, diplomats, the United States … the United Kingdom, the European Union, even a U.S. District Court in Washington, said that this group that was put on the foreign terrorist organization watch list in 1997 doesn’t deserve to be there,” Ridge said in November on “The Andrea Mitchell Show” on MSNBC TV.
U.S. politicians also have been pushing the U.S. government to protect the 3,400 MEK members and their families at Camp Ashraf in Iraq, about 35 miles north of Baghdad. With the departure of U.S. troops, the MEK feared that Iraqi forces, with encouragement from Iran, would attack the camp, leading to a bloodbath. At the last minute, however, agreement was brokered with the United Nations that would permit the MEK members’ departure for resettlement in unspecified democratic countries. As of this week, there’s been little movement on the planned resettlement.
Jassim Mohammed / AP file
Iranian fighters with the National Liberation Army, the military wing of the MEK, clean armored personnel carriers in 1997 after a field exercise near Camp Ashraf in Iraq.
The Iranians see what’s happening as terrorism and hypocrisy by the United States. They have forwarded documents and other evidence to the United Nations – and directly to the United States, they say.
“I think this is very cynical plan. This is unacceptable,” said Larijani. “This is a bad trend in the world. Unprecedented. We should kill scientists … to block a scientific program? I mean this is disaster!”
Daniel Byman, a professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and also a senior fellow with the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said that if the accounts of the Israeli-MEK assassinations are accurate, the operation borders on terrorism.
“In theory, states cannot be terrorist, but if they hire locals to do assassinations, that would be state sponsorship,” said Byman, author of the recent book, “A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism.” “You could argue that they took action not to terrorize the public, the purpose of terrorism, but only the nuclear community. An argument could also be made that degrading the program means that you don’t have to take military action and thus, this is a lower level of violence and that really these are military targets, where normally terrorist targets are civilians.”
But ultimately, Byman said, there is a “spectrum of responsibility” and that Israel is ultimately responsible.
Ronen Bergman, while not speaking on behalf of the Israeli government, suggests that there is a justification, citing an oft-repeated but disputed quote in which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s said that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth.
“Meir Degan, the chief of Mossad, when he was in office, hung a photograph behind him, behind the chair of the chief of Mossad,” notes the Israeli commentator. “And in that photograph you see -- an ultra-orthodox Jew -- long beard, standing on his knees with his-- hands up in the air, and two Gestapo soldiers standing -- beside him with guns pointed at him. One of -- one of them is smiling.
“And Degan used to say to his people and the people coming to visit him from CIA, NSA, et cetera, ‘Look at this guy in the picture. This is my grandfather just seconds before he was killed by the SS,’” Bergman said. “’… We are here to prevent this from happening again.’"
Richard Engel is NBC News' chief foreign correspondent; Robert Windrem is a senior investigative producer.
Leave a Comment:
Aw jeeze, this is just what we need. Israel has given that fruitbat Ahmadnejad all the excuse he needs to do something stupid.
He's never needed an excuse before. Extremists never do.
There's no proof Israel had anything to do with it. All we have are the ramblings of a madman already bent on trying to destroy Israel and the Western World who will use whatever propaganda he can find to stir up support for his cause. ...And he's getting it from a supportive media.
It looks like Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is losing control and the support of his people who see him for what he and his boy-toy A-jad are all about and they (the people) want no part of it. Evident from the mass protests last year (which our administration ignored and failed to support out of cowardess) where protesters were murdered by the thousands.
These idiots are on the verge of starting a nuclear war while the rest of the world, particularly the leftist, bury their heads in the sand hoping everything will be ok and putting all their hopes in worthless organizations such as the United Nations and a Liberal Government to continue looking the part of ignorant, inept fools mocked by the Iranians as having no back bone who continue 'asking' them to play nice and who accept their lies as truth.
If Israel does have something to do with it, it's with the help of a supportive faction bent on trying to stop an impending war. I support Israel %100 if that is the case.
The rest of you can go back to sippin' on your mochas in starbucks discussing important matters like, American Idol or global warming, or whatever other insignificant subject it is you people concern yourselves with claiming to be the educated, sophisticated crowd. Or, better yet figure out a way to reorganize that successful occupy thing that worked out so well and leave it to the real warriors save the world.
God Bless Israel and the United States of America.
It's mind boggling that we now have such a disgusting anti American, leftist media that they are doing puff pieces in defense of America's enemies and thinking it's no big deal. You people at MSNBC are as repugnant as anything in today's journalism. This is far worse than your biased reporting towards one political party. Now you are defending America's enemies? I guess your general trend is just to be on the wrong side of EVERY debate/battle.
Truth is the friend of freedom. Journalism is the servant of truth. If Israel, or anybody else, does not want bad things to be reported about them, they should simply stop doing bad things. The evil here is on the part of Israel, not those who report the truth.
because obviously, Iran has never did anything wrong.
Well, real journalism is. We haven't had that in this country for decades.
What I see is that it's usually the right-wing who is pushing war. In general the left is more for diplomatic solutions. But then your hatred is so blind you simply can't see anything. I'm quite sure that if world peace broke out tomorrow your kind would call it a 'left-wing' conspiracy and deny its validity.
there diplomacy is just pay them off with OWEBUMMER funny money
Israel = Satan land.
@starter19 you are comepletly wrong. All the countries around Isreal=satans land and while we are on that subject so is the vatican
Mr. Williams. I just watched a segment where Matt Lauer and three "professionals" including Starr Jones explained away the ad by Clint Eastwood - and how it quite possibly and likely is beneficial to Barack Obama - our "American hero" that saved the car industry from failing...(cough). Each of these persons that hold a certain amount of celebrity and influence described their unfettered loyalty to this man - so we already know NBC is demonstrably biased in its news reporting for Islam and its friends.
For the record.
Exactly what is Starr Jones a professional at?
Wow, talk about a circular route to get from A to B. But then I guess if there is nothing else to gripe about its easier to make things up rather than to think for yourself.
Btw, Eastwood is a Republican
When in doubt....or not in doubt...blame Israel and the Jews I guess is the motto of the disgusting people at msdnc.
I have very strong doubts that an Islamicist terror organization would turn to Israel for assistance and training. I could see sectarian sunni versus shiite connections but not a Mujahadin Jewish collaberation. Of course the Iranians will blame everything on Israel. I wouldn't rule out Mossad, but I would rule out a Muhadin+Israeli collaberation.
The war has started. I hope the USA is not a major player.
I have read 3 ridiculous articles from MSNBC this morning...no wonder I avoid it.
I would brush up on my avoidance tactics.
How would Israel or the United States feel if Iran was using terrorist groups to kill Israeli or American Scientists? The Jewish Terrorist State's Assasination Campain is WRONG and it should be punished by the International Community to force the Jewish Terrorist State to IMMEDIATELY stop it!!!!
wait! you mean Iran hasn't been killing our people in Iraq and afgahn?
man, Fox News really had me duped.
They have? Ever heard of Hezbollah?
Really? Please refer to my earlier post concerning liberals with their heads planted firmly in the sand, secluded within that safety bubble of denial they live in.
God Bless Israel and the United States of America!
I hope this article is truthful.For years we have getting the twisted reports out of israel,biased media,and we went along with it.We dont need another war.The U.S. should get out of there,let them fight their own wars,its their problem.LET US STAY NEUTRAL,NOT STUPID.We dont have any friends over there,WE ARE BEING USED.I am not pro for anyone,but my country AMERICA.GO AMERICA,WISE UP.
So while Obama is shutting down oil production here and we abandon the Middle East oil prices will skyrocket driving up the cost of EVERYTHING we consume. I am sure you will be bitching then wondering why we arent using our forces to provide stability over there.
Thom is another FoxBot. Oil production in the US is UP, and imports are down. Most of this has happened in the past 2 years, though the trend has been building since 2005. Obama has NOT harmed American oil production, but for a short period after the BP Disaster.
Seehttp://www.eia.gov/energy_in_brief/foreign_oil_dependence.cfm And drop the "See:"
Why is the U.S. throwing Israel our allie under the bus for Iran who threatens to attack our Navy will we rescue their people from sea?
Because Obama loves Muslims. While he attacks Christianity here he supports the Muslim uprisings... which are bringing Islamists into power. Once a Muslim always a Muslim.
Obama Americas Arafat.
Those are acts of war by Israel. I don't blame the government and people of Iran for seeking to defend themselves. In fact something would be terribly wrong if they didn't. Having a right-wing, fascist government in Iran is a bad thing; having a right-wing, fascist government in Israel is a bad thing; having an active and fascist right-wing in the USA is a bad thing.
Let's not let these right-wingers start another war. Enough with the fascist pissing matches. As here in the USA, Israel's right-wing uses fear and war as a means to power and money. Let's support liberals in the USA and in Israel.
Up with democracy; down with fascism.
Spoken like a true liberal Leftist douche bag.
All I know is Israel hasn't aided and abetted in the killing of our soldiers...
Iran has. The guys you are supporting. Who were they defending when they crossed into Iraq????
Your insult has been reported as inflammatory. Learn to have some honor, please. You're in a public space.
When you have something defensible to say people will respond to you favorably. Going to the msnbc "principal" is typical of liberal/progressive/socialist behavior.
Like calling anyone who supports Israel a right wing fascist isn't being inflammatory...
Better. I did the liberal thing and reported you...
Better carefull
Your insults have been reported as inflamatory. Learn to have some honor, please. You're in a public space.
The USA has started two wars on Iran's borders. The war against the people of Iraq had no legal or moral basis, yet the USA invaded, killed, tortured, murdered, and occupied that sovereign nation for years.
Israel is in a covert war with Iran. And still some insist that Iran has no right to defend themselves. Who are those folks who insist this? They are the same people who profit from wars here in the USA and in Israel. They are the same people who insist they can do as they please to other nations and people without consequence and without accountability. They are the same people who use the irrational insistence that foreign nations have no right, or duty, to defend themselves as a rationale for their actions.
The warmongers in Israel and the USA monger their war for political and commercial advantage. They push Iran into a corner, from which Iran must push back. That gives political advantage to Iran's fascists and warmongers, so that they might keep their grip on power, and the money that comes with it.
There is a definite commonality to this rotten political system or dynamic, and it's a warmongering right-wing. The USA must stop making war for oil; Israel must stop the theft of land from, and oppression of, the people of Palestine. And we must stop pushing Iran deeper into a corner, and towards war.
There are consequences for ones actions. The USA is accountable; Israel is accountable. Blaming Iran for the consequences of our actions is only going to make things worse; unfortunately for the entire world, that is exactly the goal or the means both here in the USA and in Israel.
I hope moderates can prevail. I rather doubt we will; there's too much money and power to be had in war.
So because you think the US was wrong and invaded Iraq, which I agree is an arguable debate, that your alright with Iranians crossing the border to kill our soldiers???
Folks, you just can't make this stuff up.
You'll have to provide more proof than your words for that assertion. The USA has a huge spy and surveillance network, which has offered no proof or even assertion aligned with yours. Where do you get that from?
Once again, Iran has more business in the Middle East than the USA does. We are the hostile invaders and occupiers there. What about that don't you get? Are your mental models based upon the false preposition that the USA can invade, kill, and occupy sovereign foreign nations at will, without consequence and without accountability?
That does seem to be a common assertion among our own warmongers; that is how we come to call freedom fighters in Iraq or Afghanistan "insurgents" as if the USA is the morally and legally constituted authority in those nations, and that the citizens of those nations have no right to fight back. Those are necessary assumptions and postures for the warmongers. I am not, happily, one of them. I do not insist that others have no right to self-defense; I do not assert that the world is mine to do with as I please, without accountability, consequence, or responsibility. I have no commercial or political agenda to kill others and take what is theirs. Good for me.
George H.W.Bush, acting as emissary for the Reagan Administration, negotiated illegal arms sales to Iran, a declared enemy nation, the proceeds from which, laundered through (among others) BCCI in Cincinnati, ended up funding the Contras in Nicaragua, also in direct violation of federal law. For this, the normal result would have been a series of trials for treason, and other high crimes. Alas, a national election occurred, with none other than Bush winning the White House. He immediately pardoned the 2 key witnesses against him, and successfully defunded the Walsh investigation, ending the affair known as Iran-Contra.
Today, Iran remains a declared enemy state. Add to that the fact that federal law also names certain groups as "terrorist" and certain nations as "sponsors of terrrorism." A number of American citizens have been tried, convicted and imprisoned for "aiding terrorist organizations" in such places as the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza, as well as Somalia and others. George W. Bush, summing up the official US position on terrorism said "you're either with us or against us." He clearly stated that no quarter would be given to anyone who associated with or aided any terrorist organization.
Now, enter Israel. Have the rules (federal laws) changed recently? Is association with, or in the words of our Constitution "providing aid or comfort" to terrorist organizations now OK? Here, we have a seriously soiled pair of underwear, where on one hand there is a declared enemy state, and on the other, a friend in bed with a terrorist organization!
And the mind-blowing part is, we have (apparently) nothing to do with the arrangement. This can be viewed as a true dilemma - where is King Solomon when he's needed? And WHOSE baby's gonna get cut in half over this one??
thom-661865, you're suspended for a week for violating #1 of the Code of Honor. You know the rules.
And Iran has been funding and providing the training for the insurgents in IRaq. This has been known for years all while our troops are being killed... yet we do nothing about it. Good for Israel. They are pulling tricks out of our playbook... which you can bet we are using at this very moment.
Is this really a surprise to any one? I feel we are being blackmailed...either we continue to pay obscene amounts to Israel every year or Israel will go it's own way in Iran and force us to go along with what can only be a global disaster...Once again we have painted ourselves into a corner.
'Twas ever thus in espionage. In WWII, I believe our OSS worked with the Cosa Nostra in Italy against Mussolini. In WWI Germany assisted Lenin to return to Russia to strike the match on the Russian Revolution. My only question is why the Obama administration would provide an on-the-record confirmation. I guess there's a reason why support for President Obama among American Jews is falling.
So, what comes around, goes around? Terrorists? Do they blow up a shopping market? A random police station? Take hostages or kidnap any civilians, and hold them for ransom? Iran arms, supplies, and feeds real terrorist cells across this Blue Earth. And the worst thing is that they get USA foreign aid money which funds them. The monies given to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Somalia, Jordan ... etc. ... are divided by into percentages, 10% in the politicians pocket , 90% for Iran. Iran uses vehicle/human/roadside bombs to create chaos, confusion, death, and destruction. The Iranian zealots don't care about who they kill!!!! Anything, anybody, anywhere.
Iran tells the Pres. that Israel did it, so, it must be true right? I mean, it's not like the Iranians would lie would they? Nawwwww say it aint so!
isreal is our friend we need to help then or iran will own the middle east.
Are the jews censoring this column.
Yes, they're suppressing the use of question marks.
What?, now the MSNBC has become a Tabloid news source.
I love how some people here are blaming Obama for just about anything and thinking he's a Jew hating Muslim because they are uneducated and can't read parts in the story that say, "Much of what the Iranian government knows of the attacks and the links between Israel and MEK comes from interrogation of an assassin who failed to carry out an attack in late 2010 and the materials found on him" And furthermore don't understand the intricacies of global politics, let alone understand what that that phrase means.
Iran sends a hit team to the US to kill the Saudi Ambassador and that is "nothing personal, its just business" (Don Coreleone...the Godfather). But that is OK. Israel sends a hit team of Iranians to take out their Nuclear scientists to prevent the Iranians from sending a nuclear missile to kill millions and they consider that a terrorist attack. potato.....patatto....what is the difference? (except the spelling)
Go Israel! Good job!
That's really terrible. Shame on Israel. It's not like Iran would do anything like....Oh wait, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Islamic Brotherhood, etc.. Yeah, guess Iran would use, finance and train embedded terrorist groups and in fact started it all. Good for you Israel. Keep up the good work. Let Iran find out exactly what happens when you vow the destruction of a nation and the extermination of a race.
Israel is a peace loving nation that has never sought nor started a war, but has consistently kicked ass on those who have attacked it. The should never give up one inch of the West Bank. The should have continued through Lebanon and wiped out Hezbollah, and they should destroy Iran with no mercy and take that land as their own.
If Iran was a peaceful and not ruled by a bunch of NUTS it wouldn't have this happen to them. They plan on using a nuclear device if they can build and they brag they'll wipe Isreal off the map. Yet NBC makes it sound like Isreal is terroist nation because it seeks to avert a future threat. NBC wise up. We are on to you !