Iran Manufacturing IED’s used in Iraq; factories located

Breaking: IED”s and explosives used to incite sectarian violence in Iraq are being manufactured in Tehran. Potentially some of the Hezzbollah anti-tank mines come from these same factories.

Updated: IED”s and explosives used to incite sectarian violence in Iraq are being manufactured in Tehran. It’s also a potential that the Hezbollah anti-tank mines used in Lebanon came from the same factories.

On July 25 during a visit to the White House by Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, the Iran Policy Committee (IPC) held a press conference to discuss the Iranian regime’s brazen efforts to fuel the insurgency and exacerbate sectarian violence in Iraq. The IPC revealed newly acquired intelligence identifying the exact location of a roadside bomb factory in Tehran that manufactures improvised explosive devices (IEDs) for shipment to Iraq.

Georgetown professor and former senior member of the National Security Council staff Raymond Tanter stated: “The Ordnance Factories Complex is located in the Lavizan neighborhood in northern Tehran and consists of three separate and independent industrial sections called Sattari, Sayad Shirazi, and Shiroodi, each with its own products. The Sattari Industry specializes in making various types of anti-tank mines and bombs. The industry works on turning mines and bombs into improvised explosive devices.”

Professor Tanter went on to say: “Intelligence reports received from reliable sources inside Iran indicate that powerful explosively formed projectiles (EFPs), or shaped charges, used against the multinational force in Iraq are built under a confidential order by the Qods (Jerusalem) Force, in Iran. Explosively formed projectiles are advanced improvised explosive devices that are harder to detect, can penetrate thicker armor, and are more lethal than traditional IEDs. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Qods Force has active relations with the Ordnance Factories Complex and places its orders with the group.”

In an update, the EU-US Iran Policy Committee met today, see the article from Newswire below:

WASHINGTON, July 27 /U.S. Newswire/ — On July 27, following a visit to Washington by Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, the Iran Policy Committee (IPC) participated in an EU-USA inter- parliamentary briefing. Panelists discussed the dangers Iran poses from sponsoring insurgents in Iraq, Hezbollah, and Hamas. To counter these threats and bring Tehran into serious negotiations over its nuclear weapons program, the panel urged that the United States adopt a policy of political pressure on the Iranian regime by removing restrictions on Iranian opposition groups.

Georgetown professor and former senior member of the National Security Council staff Raymond Tanter stated: “The way Prime Minister Maliki and his cabinet treat the Iranian opposition in Iraq is a bellwether of Baghdad’s independence from Tehran. If Iran sees Baghdad bending, Iraq is likely to become pliable on a whole range of issues, and the Iranian regime will become even more intransigent vis-à-vis the international community.”

Professor Tanter went on to say: “When President Bush states that all options are on the table, the press generally infers that if diplomacy fails to curb Tehran’s nuclear weapons appetite, then a military strike option is on the table. Delisting of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq provides the president with a political option in addition to diplomatic and military alternatives.”

Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) led off the discussion by highlighting the dangers Iran poses to Iraq and in Lebanon. “Even today, Iran’s activities are evident in the fighting in Lebanon. These activities make the need for a successful Iranian opposition critical.”

Struan Stevenson, a Scottish member of the European Parliament added: “Iran is surely the most important issue facing the world today; the mullahs are playing a game with the West, they are not serious about the nuclear negotiations.” Member of British Parliament Brian Binley highlighted the danger of Iran’s ideology: “The same people who support suicide bombers and tell them they have a ticket to paradise are in control of Iran’s nuclear program. If that isn’t scary, I don’t know what is.”

Clare Lopez, a former undercover operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, said: “The hydra head we are witnessing in Lebanon is only one branch of Iran’s Islamic revolution; the one that operates in Iraq is another. A totalitarian regime like Tehran’s often tries to salvage its image and distract its people by stirring up trouble abroad.”

Bruce McColm, former executive director of Freedom House and former president of the International Republican Institute, stated, “Iran’s attempts to bulldoze and beguile Baghdad into evicting the Iranian resistance, the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, from its territory must be resisted by Washington. Not only are MEK members protected by the Geneva Conventions, but they are the primary hope for preventing the clerics in Tehran from dominating Iraq.”

The Iran Policy committee Biographies can be found here. Why the regular press hasn’t picked this up is because they are worried that the intel might be coming from MEK, an anti-Iranian Marxist group that split with the Revolutionary guards in a schism. Other members of the press will point out that some members of the Iran Policy Committee are affiliated with AIPAC. I linked to Wiki in the last link, and the AIPAC article seems less neutral than most of their work, with many more negatives than positives. (Unless of course you think that any enemy of Cynthia McKinney’s must be a friend.)

If that’s really part of their reasoning, then this is suspect of the press since the same reporters not carrying this swallow DNC and ANSWER talking points whole and regurgitate them regularly. (note that the first several paras’ of the USA today article I link to below are also framing, and Iranian agitprop)

MEK was sponsored for awhile by Sadaam Hussein after ouster from Iran and they committed acts that would be considered terroristic if they were commited against a democratic, free, people. (assassinations of officials inside Iran,) and Our State Department has them designated as Terrorists.

The press doesn’t want another Chalabi problem, however if everyone goes back and reviews base facts they will find that the facts in the intelligence provided by Chalabi groups pre-invasion of Iraq were later mostly substantiated. What was off was the coloring, or framing of those facts – something the press itself is regularly guilty of. (e.g.  There really were WMD, etc.)

Other intelligence from MEK has proven true, MEK is where we found out about the Iranian Nuclear weapons program, and that has since been highly substantiated, from a USA today article:

But the group gained publicity three years ago by exposing a secret Iranian nuclear program, alerting the public to the extent of Iran’s apparent efforts to build a bomb. President Bush alluded to this in a March 16 news conference, when he said that the nuclear program had been revealed by a “dissident” group.

Meanwhile, nearly 4,000 members of the group are in a military camp in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, 60 miles north of Baghdad. The regime of Saddam Hussein gave them refuge before the war. Since Saddam’s ouster, U.S. forces have prevented MEK members from attacking Iran but do not know what to do with them.

MEK has killed 7 Americans, and was a force that helped to oust the Shah as an ally with the current party rulling Iran. The Iranian government has a bounty out for MEK members, and the US has them corralled in a camp in Iraq, and maintains ambivalent attitude towards them. I find that healthy, since you can never trust a Marxist terrorist, and these are Islamists, they just put Marx ahead of Mohammed in the dangerous ideologies they follow.