Ray McGovern weighs in on the recent capture of Abdolmalek Rigi…

“In a July 7, 2008, article for The New Yorker magazine, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh quoted Robert Baer, a former CIA clandestine officer who worked in South Asia and the Middle East for nearly two decades, as saying that Jundullah was one of the militant groups in Iran benefiting from U.S. support.

Hersh also reported that President George W. Bush signed an intelligence finding in late 2007 that allocated up to $400 million for covert operations intended to destabilize Iran’s government, in part, by supporting militant organizations.

Hersh identified another one of the militant groups with “long-standing ties” to the CIA and the U.S. Special Operations communities as the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or MEK, which has been put on the State Department’s list of terrorist groups.

But Jundullah has been spared that designation, a possible indication that the U.S. government views it as a valuable asset in the face-off against Iran, or in the parlance of the “war on terror,” as one of the “good guys.”

[…]

“The unwelcome spotlight on Rigi and Jundullah threatens to bring out of the shadows a broader U.S. and Israeli strategy for regime change in Tehran, a goal that dates back at least to President Bush’s “axis of evil” speech in 2002.

According to this analysis, the fear about Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon in a few years – if it decides to restart the weapons part of its nuclear development program – is largely a synthetic rationale for ratcheting up tensions, much as Bush’s claims about Iraq’s non-existent WMD were a pretext for regime change in Baghdad.

Under such a scenario, “good guy” terrorists like Jundullah could be enlisted for purposes other than simple violence and disruption. For example, they could be used to sabotage any favorable Iranian response to President Barack Obama’s efforts toward engagement.”

Ray McGovern is a retired CIA officer that served seven Presidents over a period of 27 years, during which time he delivered the President’s daily brief (PDB) to many of them.

February 27, 2010

Were an American radical taken into custody while traveling between Dubai and Kyrgyzstan with an Iranian passport on their person few would bat an eye regarding the details. If they were wanted in conjunction with numerous attacks that had taken US lives, almost no one would.

Ironically, in the case of Abdulmalek Rigi, little will be made of his recent arrest while in transit between Dubai and Kyrgyzstan. The reason? Because Rigi is wanted by the Iranian government in conjunction with several attacks on Iranian targets that took Iranian lives. The fact that the Iranians are reporting that he had a US passport on him at the time of his capture will also be scoffed at. After all, you can’t trust the Iranians.

That said, who is Abdulmalek Rigi?

Rigi is the leader, and founder, of the Jundallah militant group, a Baloch separatist movement that has been linked to numerous attacks within Iran. Also of import is the fact that the United States has been covertly funding the group for at least the last five years. During that time, the group has undertaken operations in both Iran and Pakistan, having been granted safe haven within Afghanistan from which to operate.

Last year, Rigi’s younger brother, Abdulhamid, was captured by Iranian authorities and reportedly admitted that the US has not only been directly involved in funding the group’s operations, but that US officials had even gone so far as to push for the group to increase its terrorist activities within Iran.

Before I continue, let’s pause a moment to ponder a variable.

Obviously, Abdulhamid Rigi was most likely interrogated. Depending on the methods used, he probably said whatever the Iranians wanted to hear. Then again, the United States is just as guilty of relying on information gleaned through interrogation – “actionable intelligence” that has led to the unlawful detention, rendition, and even deaths of innocents.

That said, let’s examine a report by ABC News from April of 2007…

“A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News.

The group, called Jundullah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran.

It has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials.”

Of course, for the US to directly fun the group a Presidential finding that must then be made available to a Congressional oversight committee has to be produced. But being that a method of circumventing that process has long been employed by various administrations, funding such groups is, in truth, a rather simple matter.

“Tribal sources tell ABC News that money for Jundullah is funneled to its youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi, through Iranian exiles who have connections with European and Gulf states.”

The CIA has, of course, denied this – which is a given being that plausible deniability is their stock in trade. That said, using third party conduits to move money around is also their stock in trade. After all, who do you think the likes of Osama Bin Laden learned it from?

In any event, thankfully Dick Cheney exists to lend credence to the Iranian’s assertions…

“Pakistani government sources say the secret campaign against Iran by Jundullah was on the agenda when Vice President Dick Cheney met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in February.”

To conclude, do the Iranians have a case here? Or are we to dismiss this matter out of hand because the Iranians simply can’t be trusted given their own covert support of various groups, such as Hezbollah or the Houthis in northern Yemen? Ultimately, if they’re to be dismissed out of hand, then one has to rationally question why the United States, which has been responsible for funding a multitude of murderous organizations and governments throughout the world for more than 60 years, can’t be.

February 24, 2010 14 Comments

In a stunning turn of intelligence panache, President Obama’s leading Counter-terrorism advisor has warned that al-Qaeda is planning an attack in the Yemeni capital Sanaa – most likely on the US embassy.

Amazing.

Not ten days after a lapse in national security allowed a man strapped with explosives to get on a plane bound for the US without a passport, US intelligence has suddenly sprung to life, pulled out the crystal ball they keep locked in the basement at Langley, and conveniently come to the conclusion that attacks are imminent in the very same country where a 23-year-old Kenyan engineering student allegedly got his training – which obviously wasn’t that good being that he didn’t succeed.

But wait, there’s more.

General David Petraeus has already met with Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh to assure him that the United States will support his government’s efforts against ‘al-Qaeda’ in Yemen – not to mention the little problem he’s having with the Houthis, a Shia insurgency, in the north.

As mentioned a few days ago, the United States has poured some $70 million dollars into aiding Yemeni counter-insurgency operations, including training and support. Of course, the line share of that went towards funding the Yemeni offensive against the Houthis in Saada province which has been going on since last summer – which is a very important distinction being that the Houthis are Zaydi Shia, not Sunnis, making the likelihood that they’re in business with al-Qaeda as probable as a snowball vacationing in the Bahamas.

But all you need do is read the bold type – US supports Yemeni fight against terrorism. The fine print’s far too distracting, especially the part where you delve into the authoritarian reality of the Yemeni government, the fact that they seize and hold whomever they want without issue, are guilty of employing torture, and so on. You know, just the sort of government that a nation such as the United States routinely claims they are against – unless, of course, they can be us to their advantage. In that case – game on.

January 3, 2010

“President Barack Obama has pledged his administration “will not rest” until all those behind an alleged plot to bomb a US plane are brought to justice.”

That might take some time. And if al-Qaeda’s taking responsibility for the failed attack, doesn’t that suggest that al-Qaeda (World-Wide Inc. TM) has to be brought to justice? That would mean winning the War On Terror, wouldn’t it? But isn’t that what we’ve been trying to do in Afghanistan for the last eight years? Isn’t that why Iraq was invaded and occupied for the last six years? Isn’t that why we helped establish bullshit governments in both of them?

Those, Mr. President, are some big words, especially given the fact that the eternal boogeyman, Osama bin Laden himself, is still out there somewhere.

Better to start small with your own war. I’m sure there are plenty of poor Yemenis that are completely innocent of any crime just waiting to be bombed back to the stone age. We’re already comfortable with the fact that the Pentagon hasn’t the time to count how many of them we’ll kill, so let’s just settle on a collateral damage number now – let’s say 10. I mean, it could turn out to be 20,000, but 10 will make things much easier on Secretary Gates during press conferences.

With the war in Iraq ‘winding down’, or, as some might put it, casually disappearing from view as to make our exit seem more like some pseudo-victoire rather than a devastating paper trail leading back to an unknown pile of corpses, the military surely has some resources at its disposal to commit to a new campaign. And being that we can’t do anything about radicals in Saudi Arabia, Yemen seems the most convenient alternative to assuage the collective anger of the people.

True, UFC ratings might drop a notch, but what’s two guys in a cage compared to an actual war? Come to think of it, if it’s at all possible to set up grandstands along the Saudi and Oman borders you should consider it. The concession revenues alone would end the recession in a week.

December 29, 2009