Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
15 February LA Times - Iran's Elite and Mysterious Fighters by Borzou Daragahi and Peter Spiegel.
Quote:
Among the myriad military and intelligence agencies that make up Iran's security forces, none has the skill and reach of the Quds Force, an elite unit nominally within the command structure of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Like the Revolutionary Guard, the Quds Force and its predecessors were among the semiofficial militias, charities and centers of clerical power born of the paranoia and zeal of the tumultuous years after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, which brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power...
The Revolutionary Guard was entrusted to protect Khomeini's theocracy. But the revolutionaries also were inspired to spread their vision abroad.
The Quds Force and its predecessors consisted of the Guard's most skilled warriors. Experts said they were highly secretive commando units sent abroad to help Shiites usurp monarchies in the Persian Gulf, gun down enemies and battle Israeli forces in southern Lebanon. They also reportedly have run operations in Sudan, South Asia and Western Europe...
The Quds Force also has been involved in Iraq. It assisted Kurdish rebels fighting Saddam Hussein in the 1980s and Shiites battling his regime in the 1990s. Even Ahmad Chalabi's expatriate Iraqi National Congress had Quds Force help, experts say.
At most, the force numbers 2,000, said Mahan Abedin, director of research at the Center for the Study of Terrorism, a London think tank...
The extent to which the Quds Force is controlled by the government has been hotly debated in U.S. foreign policy circles...
Elite Iranian Corps Enmeshed in Iraq
15 February AP - Elite Iranian Corps Enmeshed in Iraq by Lee Keath.
Quote:
Iran's secretive Quds Force, accused by the United States of arming Iraqi militants with deadly bomb-making material, has built up an extensive network in the war-torn country, recruiting Iraqis and supporting not only Shiite militias but also Shiites allied with Washington.
Still unclear, however, is how closely Iran's top leadership is directing the Quds Force's operations -- and whether Iran has intended for its help to Shiite militias to be turned against U.S. forces.
Iran likely does not want a direct confrontation with American troops in Iraq but is backing militiamen to ensure Shiites win any future civil war with Iraqi Sunnis after the Americans leave, several experts said Thursday.
The Quds Force's role underlines how deeply enmeshed Iran is in its neighbor -- and how the U.S. could face resistance even from its allies in Iraq if it tries to uproot Iran's influence in the country.
The Quds (pronounced "KOHds") Force -- the name means "Jerusalem" in Farsi and Arabic -- is the most elite and covert of Iran's military branches. Over the past two decades, the corps is believed to have helped arm and train the Hezbollah guerrilla group in Lebanon, Islamic fighters in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and even Sudanese troops fighting in south Sudan...
Secretive Force Pivotal in Iraq
19 February Washington Times - Secretive Force Pivotal in Iraq by David Sands.
Quote:
A shadowy Iranian paramilitary unit smaller than some U.S. Army battalions is at the center of a standoff between Washington and Tehran over the war in Iraq.
President Bush voiced growing concern about the secretive Quds Force at a press conference Wednesday. The capture of a senior Quds operative during a raid last month in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil underscores the U.S. charge that Iranian leaders are funding and arming Iraqi Shi'ite militias that kill American troops.
"Let me put it this way: There's not a whole lot of freelancing in the Iranian government, especially when it comes to something like that," White House spokesman Tony Snow said last week.
But Iranian scholars and military specialists say the case in not so clear-cut. The Islamic Republic of Iran, they say, was designed to create multiple, often competing power centers, with blurry, shifting lines of authority reaching eventually to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei...
Article side stepped the charge
SWJED and Jed, thanks for the articles, it shows how little the open source community knows about this issue, and we're starting to see the counter spin from Iran in the article Jed posted (perhaps). Jed, unless I missed it, the article you posted side stepped the main issue, which is we're claiming (we know) that someone from Iran is providing material support in the form of weapons (EFPs to start with) to various actors in Iraq. The article stated the Quds were not attacking Americans. That is two separate issues. I didn't see one question about the Quds providing material support? It almost appears to be a deliberate side step, what's your take?
This is one area where we're going to have to trust the intelligence community. Regardless of whether or not the arms is coming from lower level mugs conducting illicit arms smuggling (in this case it appears doubtful) or from the government, someone on the Iranian side of the border should be losing sleep tonight for what we may do to them tomorrow.