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Controversies surrounding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

January 01, 1970

Since the establishment of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (also known as Sepah or Pasdaran in Iran) the organization has been involved in economic and military activities, some of them controversial.

Human rights abuses edit

The IRGC has been known to regularly practice torture and various other human rights abuses in order to suppress internal dissent. In 1993, Ayatollah Khamenei appointed Naghdi as deputy director of intelligence of the Quds Force, a branch of the IRGC responsible for international operations. Naghdi and his team allegedly committed numerous acts of torture and abuse.[1][2]

Corruption edit

See also: Smuggling in Iran, Iranian Economic Reform Plan, Prostitution in Iran, and Corruption in Iran

In 2005, the IRGC was discovered to be running an illegal airport near Karaj, close to Tehran, where they imported and exported goods with no oversight.[3] In 2004, the Pasdaran stormed the newly-built Imam Khomeini International Airport just after it had been officially opened and shut it down, ostensively for security reasons. According to their critics, however, it was shut because the company hired to operate the airport was a "Turkish competitor of a Pasdaran owned business".[4]

One Majlis member stated that IRGC black-market activities might account for $12 billion per year.[5] Yet at the same time, IRGC and Basij forces have been commended for their positive role in fighting illegal smuggling—a further illustration of the institution’s multidimensional and frequently contradictory nature.

Involvement with Hezbollah edit

The IRGC's logo was inspiration for the logo of Hezbollah. The IRGC provided military training to Hezbollah fighters in the Bekaa Valley during the early eighties.[6]

According to Jane's Information Group:

Any Hezbollah member receiving military training is likely to do so at the hands of IRGC [the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps], either in southern Lebanon or in camps in Iran. The increasingly sophisticated methods used by IRGC members indicates that they are trained using Israeli and US military manuals; the emphasis of this training is on the tactics of attrition, mobility, intelligence gathering and night-time manoeuvres.[7]

Involvement with Hamas edit

According to the New York Times, Hamas fighters are possibly being trained in urban assault tactics by the IRGC.[8]

Alleged involvement in the Iraq War edit

Main article: US raid on Iranian liaison office in Arbil

The United States Department of Defense has repeatedly asserted IRG involvement in the Iraq War against Iranian denials, though the U.S. has stopped short of saying the central government of Iran is responsible for the actions.[9] In May 2008, Iraq said it had no evidence that Iran was supporting militants on Iraqi soil.[10] According to a database compiled by the Multi-National Task Force's Iraq Task Force Troy, Iranian-made weapons accounted for only a negligible percentage of weapon caches found in Iraq.[11] The U.S. charges come as Iran and Turkey have complained that U.S.-supplied guns are flowing from Iraq to anti-government militants on their soil.[12][13]

The Department has reported that it has intelligence reports of heavy Islamic Revolutionary Guard involvement in Iraq in which the force is supplying Iraqi insurgents.[14] It is further claimed that US soldiers have been killed by Iranian-made or designed explosive devices. This claim is disputed by Iran, saying that the bulk of American military deaths in Iraq are due to a Sunni insurgency and not a Shiite one. Two different studies have maintained that approximately half of all foreign insurgents entering Iraq come from Saudi Arabia.[15][16] Iran further disputes that former Iraqi army personnel, whom, prior to the 2003 invasion, the US and UK claimed were capable of deploying advanced missile systems capable of launching WMDs within 45 minutes,[17][18] would be incapable of designing and producing improvised explosive devices.[citation needed]

The U.S. charges of Iranian support come as Iran and Turkey have complained that U.S.-supplied guns are flowing from Iraq to anti-government militants on their soil.[12][13][19] The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the US Congress, said in a report that the Pentagon cannot account for 190,000 AK-47 rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces.[20] Security analysts with the Center for Defense Information, along with one senior Pentagon official, suggested that some of the weapons have probably made their way in to the hands of Iraqi insurgents.[21] Italian arms investigators also recently stopped Iraqi government officials from illegally shipping more than 100,000 Russian-made automatic weapons into Iraq.[12][13] In November 2008, the U.S. State Department prepared to slap a multimillion-dollar fine on Blackwater (renamed to Academi since 2011) for shipping hundreds of automatic weapons to Iraq without the necessary permits. Some of the weapons were believed to have ended up on the country's black market.[22]

In January 2007 the US army detained five Iranians in northern Iraq, claiming they were Quds operatives of the IRGC, providing military assistance to Shiite militias, without offering any further evidence that lends credibility to such claims. The Iranian and Iraqi governments maintain that they were diplomats working for the Iranian consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan. The "IRGC cadres" were released as a negotiated deal for British sailors under the auspices of General Suleimani.

In December 2009 evidence uncovered during an investigation by The Guardian and Guardian Films linked the Quds force to the kidnappings of 5 Britons from a government ministry building in Baghdad in 2007. Three of the hostages, Jason Creswell, Jason Swindlehurst and Alec Maclachlan, were killed. Alan Mcmenemy's body was never found but Peter Moore was released on 30 December 2009. The investigation uncovered evidence that Moore, 37, a computer expert from Lincoln was targeted because he was installing a system for the Iraqi government that would show how a vast amount of international aid was diverted to Iran's militia groups in Iraq. One of the alleged groups funded by the Quds Force directly is the Righteous League, which emerged in 2006 and has stayed largely in the shadows as a proxy of the al-Quds force. Shia cleric and leading figure of the Righteous League, Qais Khazali, was handed over by the US military for release by the Iraqi government on December 29, 2009 as part of the deal that led to the release of Moore.[23]

Labeling by the United States as a "terrorist organization" edit

Further information: Designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization by the United States

On October 25, 2007, the United States labeled the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) as "terrorist organizations" with the Kyl–Lieberman Amendment.[24] The Iranian Parliament responded by approving a nonbinding resolution labeling the CIA and the U.S. Army "terrorist organizations". The resolution cited U.S. involvement in dropping nuclear bombs in Japan in World War II, using depleted uranium munitions in the Balkans, bombing and killing Iraqi civilians, and torturing terror suspects in prisons, among others.[25][26]

When Voice of America, the official external radio and television broadcasting service of the United States federal government, asked if the IRGC is supplying weapons to the Taliban, the current president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, laughed and said the US did not want Iran to be friends with Afghanistan. "What is the reason they are saying such things?" asked Ahmadinejad.[27]

Financial sanctions edit

See also: Sanctions against Iran

UN Security Council in several sanctions resolutions have voted in favour of freezing the assets of top Revolutionary Guard commanders.[28]

References edit

  1. ^ Abdo, Geneive (7 October 2009). "The Rise of the Iranian Dictatorship".
  2. ^ "Newsweek Reporter Tortured". Newsweek.
  3. ^ Erlich, Reese W. (15 July 2017). The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis. PoliPointPress. ISBN 9780977825356. Retrieved 15 July 2017 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Roy, Olivier, The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East, Columbia University Press, 2008, p.133, 130
  5. ^ "The Rise of the Pasdaran" (PDF). rand.org. 2008. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
  6. ^ (Baer, R, See No Evil, 2002, Three Rivers Press, page 250)
  7. ^ Group Profile: Hezbollah. Jane's Information Group. 26 July 2006. Accessed 8 September 2006
  8. ^ Mark Mazzetti, "Striking Deep Into Israel, Hamas Employs an Upgraded Rocket Arsenal," New York Times, January 1, 2009.
  9. ^ "Iran's Revolutionary Guards patrol Persian Gulf, U.S. says". CNN. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  10. ^ "'No evidence' Iran backs militias - Baghdad". Daily Star. 5 May 2008. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  11. ^ "Iraq, US differ on Iran's role in military pact". Daily Star. 19 November 2008. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  12. ^ a b c "Italian arms investigators see Iraqi ties". USA Today. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  13. ^ a b c "Pentagon probes if US arms for Iraq diverted to Turkey". AFP. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  14. ^ Tisdall, Simon (2007-05-22). "Iran's secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
  15. ^ Henry Schuster (Mar 17, 2005). "The battle for Saudi hearts and minds". CNN. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  16. ^ "Page Not Found - Los Angeles Times". Retrieved 15 July 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  17. ^ "British Intelligence Dossier on Iraq's WMD" (PDF). Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  18. ^ "Iraq WMD claims 'seriously flawed'". CNN. Jul 14, 2004. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  19. ^ "Weapons for Iraq sent astray". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  20. ^ Kessler, Glenn (6 August 2007). "Weapons Given to Iraq Are Missing". The Washington Post. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  21. ^ "Business Day". Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  22. ^ Boston Herald: Blackwater faces fine for illegally shipping arms to Iraq 2008-12-08 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ Grandjean, Guy (2009-12-30). "Revealed: hand of Iran behind Britons' Baghdad kidnapping". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
  24. ^ . Archived from the original on May 27, 2010.
  25. ^ "Iran's parliament votes to label CIA, U.S. Army 'terrorist' groups". CNN. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  26. ^ . CNN. 2007-10-14. Archived from the original on 2007-10-14. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  27. ^ "Ahmadinejad Makes First Visit to Afghanistan". Fox News. 14 August 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  28. ^ . Security Council:Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York. 2008-03-03. Archived from the original on 2008-12-14. Retrieved 2008-12-27.

Further reading edit

  • Wise, Harold Lee (2007). Inside the Danger Zone: The U.S. Military in the Persian Gulf 1987-88. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-970-5. (discusses U.S. military clashes with Iranian Revolutionary Guard during the Iran–Iraq War)

January 01, 1970
controversies, surrounding, islamic, revolutionary, guard, corps, since, establishment, islamic, revolutionary, guard, corps, also, known, sepah, pasdaran, iran, organization, been, involved, economic, military, activities, some, them, controversial, contents,. Since the establishment of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also known as Sepah or Pasdaran in Iran the organization has been involved in economic and military activities some of them controversial Contents 1 Human rights abuses 2 Corruption 3 Involvement with Hezbollah 4 Involvement with Hamas 5 Alleged involvement in the Iraq War 6 Labeling by the United States as a terrorist organization 7 Financial sanctions 8 References 9 Further readingHuman rights abuses editThe IRGC has been known to regularly practice torture and various other human rights abuses in order to suppress internal dissent In 1993 Ayatollah Khamenei appointed Naghdi as deputy director of intelligence of the Quds Force a branch of the IRGC responsible for international operations Naghdi and his team allegedly committed numerous acts of torture and abuse 1 2 Corruption editSee also Smuggling in Iran Iranian Economic Reform Plan Prostitution in Iran and Corruption in Iran In 2005 the IRGC was discovered to be running an illegal airport near Karaj close to Tehran where they imported and exported goods with no oversight 3 In 2004 the Pasdaran stormed the newly built Imam Khomeini International Airport just after it had been officially opened and shut it down ostensively for security reasons According to their critics however it was shut because the company hired to operate the airport was a Turkish competitor of a Pasdaran owned business 4 One Majlis member stated that IRGC black market activities might account for 12 billion per year 5 Yet at the same time IRGC and Basij forces have been commended for their positive role in fighting illegal smuggling a further illustration of the institution s multidimensional and frequently contradictory nature Involvement with Hezbollah editThe IRGC s logo was inspiration for the logo of Hezbollah The IRGC provided military training to Hezbollah fighters in the Bekaa Valley during the early eighties 6 According to Jane s Information Group Any Hezbollah member receiving military training is likely to do so at the hands of IRGC the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps either in southern Lebanon or in camps in Iran The increasingly sophisticated methods used by IRGC members indicates that they are trained using Israeli and US military manuals the emphasis of this training is on the tactics of attrition mobility intelligence gathering and night time manoeuvres 7 Involvement with Hamas editAccording to the New York Times Hamas fighters are possibly being trained in urban assault tactics by the IRGC 8 Alleged involvement in the Iraq War editMain article US raid on Iranian liaison office in Arbil The United States Department of Defense has repeatedly asserted IRG involvement in the Iraq War against Iranian denials though the U S has stopped short of saying the central government of Iran is responsible for the actions 9 In May 2008 Iraq said it had no evidence that Iran was supporting militants on Iraqi soil 10 According to a database compiled by the Multi National Task Force s Iraq Task Force Troy Iranian made weapons accounted for only a negligible percentage of weapon caches found in Iraq 11 The U S charges come as Iran and Turkey have complained that U S supplied guns are flowing from Iraq to anti government militants on their soil 12 13 The Department has reported that it has intelligence reports of heavy Islamic Revolutionary Guard involvement in Iraq in which the force is supplying Iraqi insurgents 14 It is further claimed that US soldiers have been killed by Iranian made or designed explosive devices This claim is disputed by Iran saying that the bulk of American military deaths in Iraq are due to a Sunni insurgency and not a Shiite one Two different studies have maintained that approximately half of all foreign insurgents entering Iraq come from Saudi Arabia 15 16 Iran further disputes that former Iraqi army personnel whom prior to the 2003 invasion the US and UK claimed were capable of deploying advanced missile systems capable of launching WMDs within 45 minutes 17 18 would be incapable of designing and producing improvised explosive devices citation needed The U S charges of Iranian support come as Iran and Turkey have complained that U S supplied guns are flowing from Iraq to anti government militants on their soil 12 13 19 The Government Accountability Office GAO the investigative arm of the US Congress said in a report that the Pentagon cannot account for 190 000 AK 47 rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces 20 Security analysts with the Center for Defense Information along with one senior Pentagon official suggested that some of the weapons have probably made their way in to the hands of Iraqi insurgents 21 Italian arms investigators also recently stopped Iraqi government officials from illegally shipping more than 100 000 Russian made automatic weapons into Iraq 12 13 In November 2008 the U S State Department prepared to slap a multimillion dollar fine on Blackwater renamed to Academi since 2011 for shipping hundreds of automatic weapons to Iraq without the necessary permits Some of the weapons were believed to have ended up on the country s black market 22 In January 2007 the US army detained five Iranians in northern Iraq claiming they were Quds operatives of the IRGC providing military assistance to Shiite militias without offering any further evidence that lends credibility to such claims The Iranian and Iraqi governments maintain that they were diplomats working for the Iranian consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan The IRGC cadres were released as a negotiated deal for British sailors under the auspices of General Suleimani In December 2009 evidence uncovered during an investigation by The Guardian and Guardian Films linked the Quds force to the kidnappings of 5 Britons from a government ministry building in Baghdad in 2007 Three of the hostages Jason Creswell Jason Swindlehurst and Alec Maclachlan were killed Alan Mcmenemy s body was never found but Peter Moore was released on 30 December 2009 The investigation uncovered evidence that Moore 37 a computer expert from Lincoln was targeted because he was installing a system for the Iraqi government that would show how a vast amount of international aid was diverted to Iran s militia groups in Iraq One of the alleged groups funded by the Quds Force directly is the Righteous League which emerged in 2006 and has stayed largely in the shadows as a proxy of the al Quds force Shia cleric and leading figure of the Righteous League Qais Khazali was handed over by the US military for release by the Iraqi government on December 29 2009 as part of the deal that led to the release of Moore 23 Labeling by the United States as a terrorist organization editFurther information Designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization by the United States On October 25 2007 the United States labeled the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics MODAFL as terrorist organizations with the Kyl Lieberman Amendment 24 The Iranian Parliament responded by approving a nonbinding resolution labeling the CIA and the U S Army terrorist organizations The resolution cited U S involvement in dropping nuclear bombs in Japan in World War II using depleted uranium munitions in the Balkans bombing and killing Iraqi civilians and torturing terror suspects in prisons among others 25 26 When Voice of America the official external radio and television broadcasting service of the United States federal government asked if the IRGC is supplying weapons to the Taliban the current president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad laughed and said the US did not want Iran to be friends with Afghanistan What is the reason they are saying such things asked Ahmadinejad 27 Financial sanctions editSee also Sanctions against Iran UN Security Council in several sanctions resolutions have voted in favour of freezing the assets of top Revolutionary Guard commanders 28 References edit Abdo Geneive 7 October 2009 The Rise of the Iranian Dictatorship Newsweek Reporter Tortured Newsweek Erlich Reese W 15 July 2017 The Iran Agenda The Real Story of U S Policy and the Middle East Crisis PoliPointPress ISBN 9780977825356 Retrieved 15 July 2017 via Google Books Roy Olivier The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East Columbia University Press 2008 p 133 130 The Rise of the Pasdaran PDF rand org 2008 Retrieved 2021 04 24 Baer R See No Evil 2002 Three Rivers Press page 250 Group Profile Hezbollah Jane s Information Group 26 July 2006 Accessed 8 September 2006 Mark Mazzetti Striking Deep Into Israel Hamas Employs an Upgraded Rocket Arsenal New York Times January 1 2009 Iran s Revolutionary Guards patrol Persian Gulf U S says CNN Retrieved 15 July 2017 No evidence Iran backs militias Baghdad Daily Star 5 May 2008 Retrieved 15 July 2017 Iraq US differ on Iran s role in military pact Daily Star 19 November 2008 Retrieved 15 July 2017 a b c Italian arms investigators see Iraqi ties USA Today Retrieved 15 July 2017 a b c Pentagon probes if US arms for Iraq diverted to Turkey AFP Retrieved 15 July 2017 Tisdall Simon 2007 05 22 Iran s secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq The Guardian London Retrieved 2010 04 30 Henry Schuster Mar 17 2005 The battle for Saudi hearts and minds CNN Retrieved 15 July 2017 Page Not Found Los Angeles Times Retrieved 15 July 2017 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a Cite uses generic title help British Intelligence Dossier on Iraq s WMD PDF Retrieved 15 July 2017 Iraq WMD claims seriously flawed CNN Jul 14 2004 Retrieved 15 July 2017 Weapons for Iraq sent astray Houston Chronicle Retrieved 15 July 2017 Kessler Glenn 6 August 2007 Weapons Given to Iraq Are Missing The Washington Post Retrieved 15 July 2017 Business Day Retrieved 15 July 2017 Boston Herald Blackwater faces fine for illegally shipping arms to Iraq Archived 2008 12 08 at the Wayback Machine Grandjean Guy 2009 12 30 Revealed hand of Iran behind Britons Baghdad kidnapping The Guardian London Retrieved 2010 04 30 Fact Sheet Designation of Iranian Entities and Individuals for Proliferation Activities and Support for Terrorism Archived from the original on May 27 2010 Iran s parliament votes to label CIA U S Army terrorist groups CNN Retrieved 15 July 2017 Iran s parliament votes to label CIA U S Army terrorist groups CNN com CNN 2007 10 14 Archived from the original on 2007 10 14 Retrieved 2019 04 09 Ahmadinejad Makes First Visit to Afghanistan Fox News 14 August 2007 Retrieved 15 July 2017 SECURITY COUNCIL TIGHTENS RESTRICTIONS ON IRAN S PROLIFERATION SENSITIVE NUCLEAR Security Council Department of Public Information News and Media Division New York 2008 03 03 Archived from the original on 2008 12 14 Retrieved 2008 12 27 Further reading editWise Harold Lee 2007 Inside the Danger Zone The U S Military in the Persian Gulf 1987 88 Annapolis Naval Institute Press ISBN 978 1 59114 970 5 discusses U S military clashes with Iranian Revolutionary Guard during the Iran Iraq War Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Controversies surrounding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps amp oldid 1194617140, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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