What
we know, and what we dont do.
The
State Department has once again awarded the blue ribbon to the mullahs of
Tehran
:
Iran
remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2004. Its Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Intelligence and Security were
involved in the planning and support of terrorist acts and continued to
exhort a variety of groups to use terrorism in pursuit of their goals.
This
is no small accomplishment, even for the leaders of the Islamic republic.
As recent events in
Iraq
make all too clear, there are still lots of terrorists with an insatiable
appetite for the blood of their friends and neighbors, even if it has
gotten much harder for them to slaughter crusaders and infidels. As
Coalition fighters repeatedly report,
Iran
's claw marks often side by side with the Syrians' and the Saudis'
are all over innumerable terrorist strikes, from Fallujah and Hilla to
Baghdad
and
Mosul
in
Iraq
, and, with the melting snows, across
Afghanistan
as well. It is not hard to get this story; I have abundant first-hand
testimony to these facts from military and civilian sources in both
countries. Any serious news organization could get it, but none seems to
want it.
The
State Department knows it, and says so in its own peculiar convoluted way:
Iran
pursued a variety of policies in
Iraq
during 2004, some of which appeared to be inconsistent with
Iran
's stated objectives regarding stability in
Iraq
... Senior (Iraqi) officials have publicly expressed concern over Iranian
interference in
Iraq
, and there were reports that
Iran
provided funding, safe transit, and arms to insurgent elements...
In
normal English, that would read, "
Iran
says it wants stability in
Iraq
, but it isn't so; the mullahcracy supports the terrorists." Had the
State Department been interested in expanding its context ever so
slightly, it could have added, "and its support for the terrorists is
coordinated with the Syrians." A few months ago, American forces in
Iraq
captured photographs and documents about a meeting in
Syria
between Iraqi terrorists and Syrian and Iranian intelligence officials.
Similar information was found in Fallujah.
If
we cast our gaze elsewhere, we find the Iranians fighting democracy in
Lebanon
. Their Syrian buddies have withdrawn their armed forces while sending
their intelligence officers back into the country in new wardrobes
which leaves the Lebanese to the tender mercies of Hezbollah, the
Iranian-created and mullah-operated organization that is the most
dangerous band of killers on earth. And they have other allies, too,
ranging from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General
Command (Ahmad Gibril's assassins, who have taken over a goodly number of
rocket launchers and T55 tanks that the Syrians thoughtfully left behind
in Damour and in the Bekaa Valley) to the militias of the Syrian Socialist
National Party, the Baath Party, and the Tawhid in Tripoli.
All
this raises some very embarrassing questions for President Bush and his
top strategists. We know this is going on, yet we are fighting a purely
defensive war in
Iraq
alone. The Iranians, Syrians, and Saudis have all heard the president say
he wants an end to tyranny in the
Middle East
, because he understands the passionate embrace between the tyrants and
the terrorists. The Iranian, Syrian and Saudi terror masters know that
those words are aimed at their rule, and they are rightly afraid, afraid
that Bush's vision will inspire their own people to become the
gravediggers of the old regimes.
The
terror masters hoped and expected that they would be able to turn
Iraq
into a replay of
Lebanon
in the 1980s, when they drove American and French armed forces out of the
country. But they have failed. Contrary to their hopes and expectations,
we and the Iraqi people have not been spooked by the wave of
terror, and the Iraqis have demonstrated grit, bravery, and patience far
beyond most expectations. Indeed, as the slaughter of innocent Iraqis
grows, the people are manifestly becoming more resolute; dead national
guardsmen and soldiers are quickly replaced with new volunteers, and the
murder of government officials has not deterred Iraqi citizens from
participating in government. The Iraqis are fighting back.
Worst
of all, from the standpoint of the terror masters, the ultimate threat
freedom is growing stronger, just as the president wishes, and freedom
is spreading even though, despite his constant promises to support
democratic revolution, he is doing virtually nothing to help it. He, along
with Secretaries Rice and Rumsfeld, has not rallied to the side of the
Iranian people, even though the Iranians have abundantly demonstrated
their desire to be rid of the mullahs. Two weeks ago there were massive
demonstrations and
work
stoppages in the oil-rich regions, centering around the city of
Ahwaz
. The demonstrators called for an end to the regime, scores of people were
killed, and hundreds were beaten and arrested. On May Day,
work
ers again demonstrated against the regime, this time in all the major
cities. In
Tehran
, strongman and likely president-in-waiting Hashemi Rafsanjani was hooted
down by the crowd, and pictures of him and Supreme Leader Khamenei were
torn down and trampled. Yet no one in the American Government spoke a word
of support for the demonstrators, and no one has yet endorsed the one
thing that unites the overwhelming majority of Iranians, whatever their
political proclivities: a national referendum on the legitimacy of the
regime itself. If there were a national ballot on the single question
Do you want an Islamic republic? the regime would pass into history
overnight. But there is silence in official
Washington
.
The
anti-Rafsanjani demonstrations are very important, because Rafsanjani will
soon formally declare his candidacy for the presidency. Elections are
scheduled for June, and the regime is desperate to "prove" its
standing with the people. To that end, they will use force and trickery to
produce a huge voter turnout. They will compel all government employees
and all military personnel to go to the polls, and they will spread rumors
(if you don't vote, you'll never get an exit visa; if you don't vote, your
family members will be punished, etc.) to bring the unwilling to vote. The
mullahs know that many millions of Iranians plan to boycott the elections,
in a kind of silent demonstration of contempt.
The
trickery has to do with Rafsanjani's grand return to national politics (he
is an ex-president). He intends to campaign as the anti-establishment
candidate par excellence, and has reportedly connived with Khamenei to
prepare a super-reformist image. Rafsanjani intends to run against the
Supreme Leader, criticizing the regime's performance on everything from
foreign policy (hoping to seduce the West into thinking that he who
has been a key figure in the mullahcracy for decades will produce the
long awaited "opening" to the United States) to the management
of the economy. It is unlikely that many Iranians will fall for this; they
remember Rafsanjani as one of the most brutal leaders of the vicious
crackdown on the student demonstration of the late eighties (a story
recounted in shocking detail in the memoirs of the Grand Ayatollah
Montazeri), and they are aware of the billions that he and his family have
reportedly stashed away in foreign banks and real estate.
All
of this is public information, yet we do not hear it from our leaders, and
the silence in
Washington
must be terribly discouraging to the Iranian people. It will get even
worse if the Rafsanjani ploy or others that will follow are taken
seriously by our diplomats, as they surely will by those Europeans eager
to continue to do business in
Iran
and restrain the
United States
from pursuing regime change there.
It
is long past time for the president to show that he is serious about
winning the war against terror; it can't be done by speeches alone, and it
doesn't require armed invasion. But it does require action: political
action to support and aid the forces of democratic revolution in
Iran
,
Lebanon
,
Syria
, and
Saudi Arabia
.
If
you listen to the hateful speeches of Rafsanjani, Khamenei, and the other
tyrants in
Tehran
, you will hear them warning us that our day of judgment will soon arrive.
They publicly enlist thousands of would-be martyrs, eager to wage jihad
against us wherever they find us, here and overseas. And they are already
here. In early March, Mr. Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, a resident of
Dearborn
,
Michigan
, pled guilty to providing material support to Hezbollah. The Detroit News
carried the story, of which the last three paragraphs deserve our most
careful attention:
Kourani
received training in weaponry, spy craft and counterintelligence in
Lebanon
and
Iran
...Kourani was "a member, fighter, recruiter and fund-raiser for
Hezbollah."
His
brother is Hezbollah's chief of military security in southern
Lebanon
and oversaw Kourani's activities.
Kourani...has
been in custody since May 2003, when federal agents...charged him with
harboring an illegal immigrant. Kourani pleaded guilty, served six months
in a federal prison and was awaiting deportation...when he was indicted in
2004 on the terror charge.
We're
talking about the brother of the chief of Hezbollah's military security in
Lebanon
, a man trained as an agent by the Iranians.
We
dawdle at our peril, and yet we dawdle.
To
continue to say "faster, please" is like spitting into the wind.
We're back at September 10, waiting for our enemies to rouse us from our
contented torpor.
Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the author of
The War Against the Terror Masters. He is resident scholar in the Freedom
Chair at the American Enterprise Institute.
