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EU investigators want to question Iran's new president on killing of dissidents LONDON Iran's new president has been identified as a suspect in a series of killings of Kurdish dissidents in Western Europe. Western intelligence sources said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, elected president on June 24, was a commander in the intelligence and sabotage arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Ahmadinejad helped monitor and target Iranian dissidents at home and abroad and arranged for assistance to Islamic insurgency allies of Teheran, the sources said. Ahmadinejad is not named in any indictment but has been identified by Western intelligence sources as a suspected planner in the killing of four Kurdish dissidents in Austria and Germany in the late 1980s and early 1990s. "There are investigators in EU [European Union] countries still interested in questioning him," a Western intelligence source said. "It could become a problem." The sources said Ahmadinejad was a senior operative in the IRGC's Al Quds Battalion, which has been responsible for Iranian operations against dissidents abroad, including attacks on Kurdish separatists in Europe. Ahmadinejad was reportedly involved in the ambush of Kurdish leaders in Vienna in 1989. Suspected Iranian operatives assassinated Iranian Kurdish leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou and two of his associates on July 13, 1989. In 1992, Ghassemlou's successor as secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, Sadegh Sharafkandi, was assassinated in Berlin. Germany accused the IRGC of the killing in an operation believed to have included Ahmadinejad. He was never charged. Al Quds also played a major role in providing financing and weapons to the Lebanese-based Hizbullah as well as Palestinian insurgency groups. Al Quds has planned the bombing of the Israel embassy and Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1992 and 1994. The intelligence sources said Ahmadinejad was also a senior commander of the Basij militia. The militia, operated by the IRGC, recruits volunteers to attack reformists and dissidents on the streets and university campuses. In 1995, the Basij, under the command of a major general, was selected as the force to protect the regime. Al Quds, believed to have about 12,000 members, has been responsible for foreign operations and has worked through front companies and organizations. The force has sent shipments of weapons to Palestinian allies in the Gaza Strip during the war with Israel, which began in 2000. This included the Karine-A ship, which contained 50 tons of rockets and weapons. The IRGC battalion has trained Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command as well as underground Shi'ite movements in such countries as Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Training took place at an IRGC facility about 100 kilometers south of Teheran. It was not known whether Ahmadinejad was involved in the IRGC's ballistic and nuclear weapons program. The corps has been designated to guard and supervise the development of the Shihab-3 intermediate- range missile as well as solid-fuel missile variants. -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
