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The Islamic Republic has launched a major effort to establish newnetworks of agents and sympathizers in the United States, to gatherstrategic intelligence, penetrate opposition organizations, andeventually to provide logistics for possible terrorist attacks,according to a top Iranian intelligence officer who defected to theUnited States in 1994 and other sources.
The Iranian government is using the current campaign by PresidentMohammad Khatami to develop cultural ties with the United States as acover to establish new intelligence networks in the United States,Manoucher Moatamer told The Iran Brief in a recent interview.
Moatamer claims he was a top aide to intelligence minister AliReza Fallahian from 1985 until March 1994. He fled Iran in March1994, and defected in Latin America shortly after the July 18 1994bombing of the AMIA Jewish Center in Buenos Aires. To prove his bonafides, he carried with him microfilms containing the minutes ofmeetings in Tehran relating to the bombings in Argentina, a bombingin London that had not yet taken place, and of an impending terrorcampaign against the Saudi royal family - a campaign which began inNovember 1995 with the bombing of a National Guard headquarters inRiyadh. Moatamer's information so convinced the Argentineans of hisbona fides that they immediately ordered the expulsion of Iran'sambassador and other Iranian embassy officials implicated in the AMIAbombing [Cf. "Iran defector implicates regime in terroristattacks," TIB Jan. 5, 1995].
Moatamer told The Iran Brief he had recently received informationfrom sources inside Iran of ongoing Iranian government plans todevelop agents of influence and build intelligence-gathering networksin the United States.
"The regime has a new approach," Moatamer said. "They are usingseminars, held on [President] Khatami's direct orders, undercover of his program of rapprochement with the US. Seminars of thistype were held by Khatami in New York during his UN trip, and [byothers] in other cities. Under this cover, the Islamic Republicis approaching Iranian-Americans, trying to recruit them and use themfor intelligence and terrorist purposes, though not actually to carryout specific terrorist acts."
In Los Angeles, seminars in guise of rapprochement have beenorganized by Massoud Khojasteh, Moatamer said, who works for AFTABtelevision, an Iranian-government sponsored broadcasting network inthe United States. " He and others like him are arranging interviewsand seminars, but their main activity is to recruit people and toorganize them, to penetrate the Iranian-American community."
Warning on Dhahran: Asked about Iran's involvement in known actsof terrorism, Moatamer said he had warned the United States two weeksbefore the June 1996 bombing of a U.S. military barracks in Dhahran,Saudi Arabia of an Iranian government campaign against the Saudiroyal family, and gave specific information relating to the attack onthe Khobar Towers barracks. Iran was also seeking to push the U.S. towithdraw its military presence from the Persian Gulf
In September, Judge Juan Jose Galeano, the Buenos Aires judge incharge of the AMIA investigation, traveled to Los Angeles and spentseveral days meeting with Moatamer, who said he had fresh informationon Iran's involvement in the Argentina bombings. "I warned that itwas still possible to have more bombings there, since there are manySyrians in Buenos Aires who are on the payroll of the MOIS, and lotsof Iranian cab drivers" who have been used by MOIS in supportterrorist operations in the past, he said.
New attacks: Independently of Moatamer, opposition leaderManoucher Gandji said he has received recent reports of increasedIranian government preparations for terrorist attacks in the UnitedStates and in Latin America. "We've been hearing that the IslamicRepublic has been moving terrorists into Paraguay and Brazil," Gandjisaid, "and has a plan to blow up the Israeli embassy inParaguay."
Gandji added that sources in Iran had informed him of increasedactivity on the part of MOIS in the United States. "They have beenenticing green-card holders to return to Iran to receive training andmoney, then have sent them back to the United States to carry outsurveillance and prepare operations. This regime hasn't changed.Everybody is going to be surprised when the terrorist acts startagain. They were involved in Kenya and Tanzania, and everyone kept itquiet. They were involved in Dhahran, and everyone has been keepingit quiet. The economy inside Iran is being hard hit, and the regimeis moving closer to the Iraqis. It's at times like this that theystep up terrorist activities," Gandji said.
Sunni extremists: Moatamer said he has long warned about thecross-overs between the Islamic Republic intelligence agencies andSunni extremists groups involved in terrorism. "Look at Afghanistan,or at Lebanon," he said. "There is a strong link between radicalSunni groups and the Islamic Republic for two reasons: Iran wants toget a foothold in Afghanistan, and in Lebanon. The son of Imam MoussaSadr is currently in Tehran, and he coordinates and organizes theselinks with the Sunni groups."
The most notorious of the Sunni groups active today are thefollowers of renegade Saudi financier, Ossama Bin Ladin. "Since the1987 massacre of Iranian pilgrims in Mecca," Moatamer said, "theIranians have asked Bin Ladin not to come to Iran. But they keep incontact with him through the Iranian embassy in London.... Bin Ladinis one of the very few people who can pick up the phone and speakerdirectly with the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamene'i, inTehran."
TWA 800: As we have reported previously, new information uncoveredby a former U.S. Navy commander, William Donaldson, has cast doubt onthe official version of the TWA 800 disaster [Cf. "New evidencesuggests Iranian involvement in TWA 800," TIB 8/3/98]. Comdr.Donaldson alleges that TWA 800 was downed by two large anti-aircraftmissiles, launched for boats near the site of the disaster.
Moatamer offered a different version, but agreed with Donaldsonthat the plane had been downed by a terrorist act. "I alerted the CIAin June 1996 that there was a plane coming to the United States fromGreece with a bomb on board," Moatamer says. (TWA 800 flew into NewYork from Athens, before refueling for its fateful trip to Paris)."According to my information, an Iranian agent placed high-pressurecapsules on board the plane in Athens. That is what brought it down.The crash was the result of sabotage."