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United States Policy toward Iran: Next Steps

(American Enterprise Institute) Michael A. Ledeen - Iran is atop the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi created a European-wide terrorist network from a stronghold in Tehran. We know this from copious documentation presented by the German and Italian governments in public trials against terrorists arrested in their countries, including intercepts of phone conversations between terrorists in Europe and Zarqawi in Tehran. We know from the regime's own public opinion surveys that 73% of the people would like a freer society and a more democratic government. In response to recent demonstrations in Khuzestan, the oil-producing region in the south, the regime sent in members of the Badr Brigade (the Iranian-trained militia in Iraq) and of (Lebanese) Hizballah. This suggests a lack of confidence in the more traditional security organizations: the regular Army, the Revolutionary Guards, and the thuggish Basij, who are fanatically loyal to the Islamic ideals of the mullahcracy.
2006-03-09 00:00:00
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