Iran's Revolutionary Guard branches out

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-guards26aug26,0,4717796.story?coll=la-home-center



LONDON -- Iran's Revolutionary Guard quietly has become one of the most significant political and economic powers in the Islamic Republic, with ties to well more than 100 companies that by some estimates control upward of $12 billion in business and construction, economists and Iranian political analysts say. From its primary role as a military and intelligence force charged with protecting the ideals of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, the 125,000-strong Guard has used the massive military engineering capability it developed rebuilding the country after the 1980s Iran-Iraq war to take over the strategic highlands of the Iranian economy.

The legendary people's army now has its hand in a broad and diverse range of the economy, from dentistry to travel, and has become the dominant player in public construction projects across the country, say businessmen and economists in Tehran, the Iranian capital , and analysts abroad.

Under the leadership of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, himself a former Revolutionary Guard commander, the force has extended its reach in the Cabinet: Fourteen of its 21 members are former Guard commanders. Former Guard commanders also claim 80 of the 290 seats in P arliament and a host of local mayorships and council seats. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, is a former Guardsman.

The dramatic economic rise of the Revolutionary Guard helps explain why the Bush administration reportedly has contemplated designating it a terrorist organization: More important than the label itself, the organization's broad financial footprint could open the door to sanctions under the law limiting supplies, credit and investment to a broad spectrum of the Iranian economy.

[Kagemusha]

1. Sounds a lot like Pakistan's army.

Seriously. It's a dead ringer for what I've heard the Pakistani army has been doing. ....Which is a lot like what the Chinese military has been doing for years and years.

'Tis a trend.

[seemslikeadream]

2. Is Judith Miller working for the L A Times now?

:shrug:

[Purveyor]

3. The "tripe reporting" is so like the pre-iraq invasion they must think we are stupid. Are we? n/t

[Kagemusha]

5. Uh enlighten me, what's tripe about this?

The four paragraphs I see above represent what clearly appears to be the consensus view of well informed people. Military's big business. The US just emphasizes privatizing the profits. There's some Rolling Stone article that really pounds on that right now.

[seemslikeadream]

6. You do know they're doing this to make us realize how BAD Iran is?

[Kagemusha]

7. ...Iran isn't all hugs and cuddles, you know. I want the truth.

That's you know, what reporting is supposed to be about. If it's the truth, I don't want it censored or hidden. I want the truth.

And since there's nothing I'm hearing that makes what I see above look like anything but the truth, I'm not going to go wring my hands at the thought that "they're doing this" for some nefarious reason. Iran can be not hugs and cuddles, and we are free to not agree that going to war with it is a good idea.

Like I said above. Pakistan and China have lots and lots of military investment in the economy too.

[seemslikeadream]

8. Well is it not a convenient coincidence that this story came out

just a couple of days after georgie tells us how bad they are? If they were such GOOD reporters maybe they could have run this story awhile ago

[Kagemusha]

10. The editors would've told them it wasn't news then, but Bush made it news.

Made it news by declaring the Republican Guards to be a terrorist organization. So who are they? Why the attention and focus? Give me something I can publish.

That's what editors do.

[seemslikeadream]

12. Is it a coincidence that the following have occurred in recent weeks?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1652222

Blackhatjack

Is it a coincidence that the following have occurred in recent weeks?

Bush Administration announces it will list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as terrorists.

The 'War Czar' announces that we should take a look at the draft, and it has always been on the table.

Bush says Iraq is like Vietnam, and we should not leave.

The White House will be writing Gen Petraeus' report on the progress of 'the surge.'

Bolton says he hopes we attack Iran in the next six months.

Pro-war tv ads are running on television.

Generals actually speak to the press and say we cannot sustain the present operations past early Spring, we don't have the troops to send.

Rove resigns from office and Cheney does not.

And Repub Pres Candidate Guiliani makes even more threatening gestures about America's use of force in the world than Bush.

Bombings in Iraq are killing Iraqis at all time highs.


What can we deduce from these events? Are they related?



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2954028
U.S. to Designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard as Terrorists

Source: WaPo

U.S. to Designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard as Terrorists
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 14, 2007; 9:14 PM

The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances.

The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials describe as the group's growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran's nuclear program, officials said.

The designation of the Revolutionary Guards will be made under Executive Order 13224, which President Bush signed two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to obstruct terrorist funding. It identifies individuals, businesses, charities and many extremist groups engaged in terrorist activities. The Revolutionary Guards would be the first national military branch included on the list, U.S. officials said -- a highly unusual move because it is part of a government, rather than a typical non-state terrorist organization.

The order allows the United States to block the assets of terrorists and to disrupt operations by foreign businesses that "provide support, services or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, terrorists."

<SNIP>

The administration's move could hurt diplomatic efforts, some analysts said. "It would greatly complicate our efforts to solve the nuclear issue," said Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear proliferation expert at the Center for American Progress. "It would tie an end to Iran's nuclear program to an end to its support of allies in Hezbollah and Hamas. The only way you could get a nuclear deal is as part of a grand bargain, which at this point is completely out of reach."

[Kagemusha]

14. Yes, they're related. When new things happen, reporters report on them.

That's why it's called the news business.

It's done badly enough, enough of the time, that when reporters actually dig a little deeper so that the public can understand more about the context about an otherwise mystifying foreign policy decision, we should be somewhat relieved that the media actually reports legitimate news some of the time.

[seemslikeadream]

16. brand entire Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a specially designated global terrorist organisation

[sanskritwarrior]

9. Why do you bother my friend?

The head in the sand contingent of DU never analyzes new information to sift truth from myth.......You're a stronger man than I am, I gave up trying to show people that "yes virginia there really are threats to this country, and some of them are even muslim"

[Kagemusha]

11. I have a little free time to do it, that's all.

And I too complain about the moves made against Iran so I feel some small moral obligation to explain that this isn't because I think the Iranians are our friends. They aren't.

If I could manage to do this every day, I'd make a claim to being stronger in that case but... no, I'm just making a point that there's a good opportunity to make. It's better than encouraging ignorance.

[sanskritwarrior]

15. Agreed

there is definitely some behind the scenes public opinion manipulating going on, but it ain't like the Iranians are the Care Bears...........and that is where you and I agree totally..........

[lovuian]

4. Yes Judy and Mary this is getting ready for the Iran War

More and more pieces on the evil empire to come

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BLMQOu0o6TA

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Iaz1HxT-PoY

and you know what Iran is not a nice country and infact scary but we have lost all credibility from Iraq

[seemslikeadream]

13. The Time of the Assassins: Bushists Stirring Iraq, Iran Into a Bloody Stew

http://www.chris-floyd.com/

The Time of the Assassins: Bushists Stirring Iraq, Iran Into a Bloody Stew
Written by Chris Floyd
Monday, 20 August 2007
This weekend, as an assassination campaign continued to kill off the leaders of Iran's closest ally in Iraq, American officials ratcheted up their casus belli accusations against Tehran, now claiming that forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) -- which the Bush Administration is preparing to designate as a "global terrorist group" -- are actually on Iraqi soil, directly helping insurgents to kill American troops. The conjunction of these events -- the assassinations and the accusations -- reveals both the deadly murk surrounding the occupation and the transparent falsehood of the Bush Administration's increasingly frantic push toward a new war.

Yesterday, the governor of Iraq's Muthana province, Mohammed Ali al-Hasani, was killed by a roadside bomb. Just a few days before, the governor of Iraq's Diwaniya province, Khalil Jalil Hamza, was killed by a roadside bomb. Both governors were prominent members of the largest Shiite party in Iraq, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC). The SIIC is also the party in Iraq most closely aligned with Iran. Obviously, some entity with the power and connections to penetrate the heavy security surrounding Iraqi government officials is conducting a systematic campaign to decapitate the party's leadership.

Most reports on the killings note that SIIC's vast armed wing, the Badr Corps, frequently clashes with the Mahdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in turf battles over control of Shiite areas. If the Mahdi Army is indeed behind the assassination campaign, then it is eliminating Iran's staunchest allies in Iraq. Yet the Bush Administration insists that Iran is "actively supplying Shiite insurgents -- specifically, the Mahdi Army -- with deadly weapons that have killed dozens of U.S. soldiers," as McClatchy Newspapers reports.

So the Iranians are helping the Mahdi Army assassinate Tehran's best friends in Iraq -- this is the American claim. It is arrant nonsense, but it has a purpose: to further obscure from the American people the reality of what is being done in their name in Iraq. As Juan Cole points out, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council is not only Tehran's best friend in Iraq -- it is Washington's best friend too. Its leaders -- violent extremist sectarians -- have been to the White House for cozy chats and cheesy grip-and-grins with the president. Bush is dependent on SIIC and other Shiite extremists allied with Iran to maintain control of Iraq's government.

But the American people are not to know this. They are to know only that the "democratic forces" of Iraq's government are being "attacked and destabilized" by the Iranians. They are to see only a cartoon portrait of "good guys" and "bad guys," and not the reality that Bush has wrought in Iraq: a savage, multi-sided conflict between armed gangs of thieves and zealots fighting it out for loot and power.