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Ex-CIA Spy Explains Iran's Quest for Nuclear Weapons
(Christian Science Monitor) Reza Kahlili - In the mid-1980s, Mohsen Rezaei, then chief commander of the Revolutionary Guards, got Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's permission to develop nuclear bombs. As a CIA agent in the Revolutionary Guards then, I learned of this nascent effort and reported it to my handlers. For Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, one Koranic tenet is that you should deceive your enemies until you are strong enough to destroy them. Khamenei is employing this when he makes his declarations to the West. Within Iran, radical Islamists have grown in power since Ayatollah Khomeini's death in 1989. They belong to a secret society called the Hojjatieh, a cult devoted to the reappearance of the 12th imam, Mahdi, and Islam's conquest of the world. To achieve that end, the radicals believe they must foment chaos, famine, and lawlessness, that they must destroy Israel, and that world order must come to an abrupt halt. The Hojjatieh see any movement toward peace and democracy as delaying Mahdi's reappearance. It is difficult for the West to understand this ideology, but we can't afford the luxury of confusion. Iran is almost certainly developing nuclear weapons, and an Islamic Republic of Iran with atomic bombs would strongly destabilize the world. We can either rise up to our principles and defend the aspirations of the Iranian people for a free and democratic government, or we can allow Iran to become a nuclear-armed state. Instead of counting on watered-down UN sanctions, the West should cut off all diplomatic ties with Iran, close down all airspace and seaports going to or from Iran, sanction all companies doing business with Iran, and cut off its gasoline supply. We should then demand an immediate halt to all Iranian nuclear and missile delivery activities and the right to peaceful demonstration and freedom of speech for all Iranians. And if that fails, a military action should be in the cards. Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym.