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Syria and Iran planning for an Eventual Jihad from the North!

March 11, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

While Syria keeps speaking of peace they keep preparing for Jihad with Iran. At the same time that Iran and Syria sent representatives to the Baghdad Conference to bring peace to Iraq, they sent representatives to Syria to plan war. Americans in general keep hoping all this Middle East Mess will just go away if they withdraw from it and adopt policies of non-involvement. Quite frankly, according to Scripture, it will not go away no matter what policies we adapt – there is going to be a great war in the Middle East, which will culminate with the battle of Armageddon, no matter what we do.

So what should individuals do? Since believers know what is coming, they should “Watch” by making an effort “to keep their garments” as indicated in Revelation 16:15. Unbelievers are supposed to exercise Acts 20:21.

The three articles, which follow the Scriptures, are indicative of

the war for which preparations are now being made by Syria and Iran.

Zechariah 13:8 – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Revelation 16:15,16 – Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watc

heth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. [16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

Acts 20:20,21 – And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, [21] Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

No one knows the exact time the final war of wars will begin, but the Scriptures do indicate that believers are not the children of darkness, and we should know when the time is drawing near for the end of this age of the Gentiles.

I Thessalonians 5:3,4 – For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

[4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

My guesstimate is that the attack is likely to occur at some point in time between 2008 and 2012, but it is a guess, no more and no less!

Begin Article 1 Excerpt from Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

Israel: Syria Deploying Thousands of Rockets on Border

Ron Bousso

March 9, 2007

Syria has positioned on its border with Israel

thousands of rockets capable of striking major towns across northern Israel, Israeli military and government sources said.

This deployment, coupled with other recent reports of Syrian troop mobilization, is seen in Israel as an indication that Damascus may be preparing for future “low intensity warfare,” they said. “We have noticed that in recent months Syria has deployed hundreds, possibly thousands, of medium- and long-range rockets along the border,” one military source said.

“Many of the rockets are hidden in underground chambers and in camouflaged silos.”

Syria has built a system of fortified underground tunnels along its border with Israel. According to the sources, such a massive deployment of well-entrenched rockets poses “a real strategic threat” to Israel. (AFP/Yahoo)

Begin Article 2 Excerpt from Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

Syria Arms for War

Aluf Benn

In an interview, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he tends to accept the assessment of Mossad espionage agency head Meir Dagan that Syria is not heading toward peace.

Netanyahu quotes intelligence assessments that the Syrian military acquisitions budget has increased tenfold. (Ha’aretz)

Begin Article 3 from Jerusalem Post

Iranian, Syrian officials hold talks in Damascus

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

March 10, 2007

Defense ministers from Iran and Syria on Saturday discussed strengthening cooperation between the two Middle East allies and their armies, Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported.

SANA said Iran’s Minister of Defense Mostafa Muhammad Najjar, who arrived in Damascus late Friday, also discussed with Gen.

Hassan Turkmany the latest developments in the Middle East.

The agency did not provide more details.

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Three Goals Scored by U.S. at Baghdad Conference by Defection of Iranian General in February!

March 11, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The information gained from the Iranian General by the U.S. revealed weaknesses in the military strength of the Persian demon east of the Tigris River, which gave the U.S. a lever at the Baghdad Conference for present and future diplomatic negotiations.

Next month’s meeting in Istanbul could lead to a temporary lowering of Middle East tensions but, from Iran and Syria’s perspective, such an occurrence would only be a lull to give them additional time to build up their forces for an eventual Middle East major war.

The following release from DEBKAfile Report is well worth reading.

Begin DEBKAfile Report

The Iraq neighbors’ peace conference ends in Baghdad by deciding on a follow-up at foreign ministers’ level next month in Istanbul

March 10, 2007, 9:32 PM (GMT+02:00)

At least 35 Iraqis were killed in Baghdad Sat. March 10 as Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki appealed to Iraq’s neighbors for support in fighting terrorism and to stop using Iraq as a battlefield for their proxy war. Three mortar blasts shook the conference venue where US diplomats joined Iranian and Syrian delegations

for the first time.

Over the weekend, DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal American air contingents from the United States and Europe continued to land at US Persian Gulf air bases. Ir an responded by pl

acing it s air defen

se units on a war footing and deploying Revolutionary Guards special forces

units around its nuclear installations.

Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki‘ s appeal wa

s addressed primarily to the latter two.

Outgoing US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad again charged Syrian of allowing foreign jihadists and Sunni insurgents to cross into Iraq and weapons shipments from Iran reach Shiite militias.

DEBKAfile adds: Quite apart from the upbeat symbolism, not much substance was expected from the encounter of more than 100 diplomats, many of them adversaries, beyond a follow-up at foreign ministers’ level. David Satterfield, senior state department adviser on Iraq and ambassador Khalilzad led the US delegation. They faced Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Aragchi.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly reported last week that the Americans would be coming to Baghdad with three goals scored against Iran in their covert war which continues unabated:

1. The defection of Iranian General Ali Reza Asgari, whose debriefing by US intelligence is underway. It is revealed here that the general flew out of Istanbul on Feb. 7 shortly after arriving from Damascus.

He landed in Turkey under one identity and left with another.

Involved in his secret flight were the CIA, Turkish military intelligence, the Israeli Mossad and one European intelligence service.

For a promise of immunity and asylum for life for him and his family, the Iranian general, a former deputy defense minister, agreed to spill everything he knew about Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, the internal situation in the Islamic leadership, the clandestine Iranian networks in Iraq, the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, as well as Tehran-Damascus ties, Hizballah, the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami and how far they are controlled from Tehran.

The Americans procured enough material – not just for an edge at the Baghdad meeting, but for an awareness of the weak links in Iran’s armor and Tehran’s probable modes of retaliation for Washington’s coup.

2. With Saudi help, the United States has finally played off Iran against Syria, breaking up the Tehran-Damascus alliance in Lebanon and removing Hizballah from Syrian control.

3. Wednesday, March 7, the Pentagon announced the deployment of an extra 2,100 military police to Baghdad on top of the 24,000 consigned to the Iraqi capital earlier. The US defense department did not release for publication word of the US squadrons airlifted during the week from the States and Europe to US Air Force bases at Udeid, Qatar, and Naama, Bahrain.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military sources report that Iran responded to these American military movements by three steps.

Tuesday, March 6, Tehran announced a nationwide air defense drill. This was camouflage for the mobilization of the air defense brigades’ reserve units and their deployment around Tehran and other main towns and national strategic installations, including nuclear and oil facilities.

This step placed all of Iran’s air defenses on full war footing.

The Revolutionary Guards additionally encircled all nuclear facilities with the commando units they had formed as protection against possible raids by American or Israeli special forces.

Finally, Tehran stepped up the volume of arms sent to pro-Iranian forces in Iraq.

Iran has by and large responded passively thus far to the whipping inflicted by Washington. However, no one responsible there or in Jerusalem expects the Iranians to turn the other cheek for long.

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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more detailed information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. You may use material originated by this site. However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.

For Better or for Worse, the Baghdad Conference Begins!

March 10, 2007

http://www.tribuilationperiod.com/

The Baghdad Conference of representatives of 16 nations has begun.

The closed sessions will produce both negative and positive results, but the individual meetings and discussions in private rooms will be where the really important decisions, as to the future pattern of Middle East events, are determined. The following paragraph, extracted from the New York Times article by Alissa J.

Rubin, which follows, describes the general format of the meeting

“[Mr. Zebari said there would be rooms off the main meeting room where representatives of the two countries could talk privately. The framework of the meeting will be an opening speech by Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, and then a closed session in which each country will have an opportunity to comment. Lunch will be followed by another closed meeting of the entire group.

]”

Begin Article from New York Times by Allissa J. Rjubin

Neighbors and Others Arrive in Iraq Seeking Peace

By ALISSA J. RUBIN

March 10, 2007

BAGHDAD, March 9 — In a symbolic victory for Iraq, representatives of neighboring countries as well as world powers are gathering here to discuss how they could help stabilize the troubled country.

The meeting, scheduled for Saturday, will be a rare opportunity for Iran and the United States to sit at the same table. Syria, another frequent target of American animosity, will be there too.

But at a practical level the meeting is most important for Iraq, a country teetering on the brink of chaos and in desperate need of help from all its neighbors.

“There is greater recognition now of the dangers of the serious situation in Iraq,” Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said in an interview. Speaking of his country’s neighbors, he said: “If they don’t do more — and so far they’ve been spectators, saying, ‘Let the Americans have it’ — the consequence will be Iraq’s failure. This would mean spillover, chaos, sectarianism, terrorism and drug trafficking.”

“We expect some actions, not words, not a statement of solidarity and support,” Mr. Zebari said.

The willingness of all of Iraq’s neighbors to come to Baghdad, a city undertaking a large-scale military operation with the influx of thousands of American and Iraqi troops, suggests that they have heard Mr.

Zebari’s message. He has been lobbying nonstop for the meeting since last summer, he said.

With representatives of 16 nations and organizations in attendance, it will be the largest meeting of foreign countries in Iraq since a summit meeting of Arab League members in March of 1990, just months before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

“The meeting reflects a recognition on the part of all players that they have no interest in Iraq falling apart, in its partition or in it disintegrating into a failed state,” said Joost Hiltermann, director of the International Crisis Group’s office in Amman, Jordan.

Weapons and fighters flow into the country primarily from Syria and Iran, while Jordan and Syria are bristling about the nearly two million Iraqi refugees who have streamed over their borders. Saudi Arabia and Jordan, countries with overwhelmingly Sunni populations, are distressed about the growing influence of Iran, which is mostly Shiite, in Iraq and the rest of the region.

But the Sunni-majority countries may be partly to blame for that. After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by American-led forces in 2003, they were reluctant to express public support for Baghdad during the occupation that followed. Iran filled that vacuum.

“Iran was the first government to send a delegation to Iraq,” Mr. Zebari said. “It was during the Governing Council days.” The council was the American-backed governing body formed in the early stages of the occupation. He said most representatives were not arriving until later Friday. The Iranians, however, arrived Thursday.

Mr. Zebari and o ther Iraqi officials said

they hoped that the meeting would be a first step in persuading the United States and Iran, the two countries with the most influence in Iraq, to start working with each other. So far they have preferred to trade barbs, each with an eye to reminding the other of its ability to make life unpleasant.

“We hope Americans and Iranians can talk,” said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih.

“Talking is always useful. We do not want our country to be a card for other interests.”

He added, “Iraq’s stability should be the central issue.”

Mr. Zebari said there would be rooms off the main meeting room where representatives of the two countries could talk privately. The framework of the meeting will be an opening speech by Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, and then a closed session in which each country will have an opportunity to comment. Lunch will be followed by ano ther closed meeting of

the entire group.

Officially the meeting is at the level of deputy prime minister, with most countries sending their ambassadors to Iraq to represent them.

But several countries are sending more senior officials as well, and Mr. Zebari said “high-level visitors” from several countries would come.

The United States delegation will include David Satterfield, the senior adviser on Iraq to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and the United States ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad. The deputy foreign minister of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, will attend.

For Baghdad and Washington, a primary goal of the meeting is for Iraq to establish itself as an equal player with its neighbors.

Most recently, Iran has treated it more as a client, and Iraq’s relations with Syria have been frosty. During the 1980s, Iraq and Iran fought an eight-year war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of 1990.

Baghdad has had difficult relations with Turkey over the presence of anti-Turkish Kurdish militants in Iraq’s north, and its relations with Jordan have not been entirely friendly in recent years, despite considerable trade between the countries.

Western diplomats say the hope is that the meeting will result in the formation of three groups that can focus on the three highest-profile problems that Iraq faces with its neighbors: border security, fuel imports and refugees.

Diplomats said they would be watching body language closely, since little concrete was likely to be accomplished in the few hours allotted for the meeting.

“I’m hoping the discussion stays at the strategic level,” said a Western diplomat in Baghdad. “It could easily descend into bickering.”

If so, it will not be the first time. At the 1990 Arab summit meeting here, the discussion degenerated into a food fight between Kuwaiti sheiks and angry Iraqi officials.

Most worrisome for everyone is the real possibility that despite diplomatic and military efforts, Iraq will sink further into violence.

Begin DEBKAfile Aticle

At least 35 Iraqis killed in Baghdad after Maliki appealed to Iraq’s neighbors for support in fighting terrorism

March 10, 2007, 5:17 PM (GMT+02:00)

Three mortar blasts shook the chamber where the Iraqi neighbors’ peace conference Saturday March 10 brought together for the first time the US, Iran and Syria. Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki‘s appeal was addressed primarily to the latter two.

He said the powers must stop using Iraq as their battleground.

DEBKAfile reports: Quite apart from the upbeat symbolism, not much substance was expected from the encounter of more than 100 diplomats, many of them adversaries – unless it brings key foreign ministers together for a follow-up.

Also present were the other four UN Security Council permanent members, the Arab League, Gulf Cooperation Council and Iraq’s other neighbors.

The US delegation was led by David Satterfield, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s senior adviser on Iraq and outgoing US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. Their opposite number was Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Aragchi.

Syria’s Bashar Assad asked to send his foreign minister Walid Mualem to the meeting Saturday, but Washington, Riyadh and Tehran put their respective feet down.

The event is expected to lead to the issues coming before the foreign ministers of the governments concerned, i.e. Rice and Saudi foreign minister Saud al Faisal opposite Iran’s foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki and national security adviser Ali Larijani and possibly Syria’s Walid Mualem.

Before that happens, nothing much will change in Iraq’s security situation. The question still to be answered is how long will it take for the foreign ministers to get together. The US secretary of state is working for a date in April.

The timeline depends very much on the rate of progress on the US-Saudi-Iranian diplomatic track for stabilizing Iraq in the interim plus the success achieved by the US-Iraqi security offensive in reducing the level of violence in Baghdad.

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A Very Important Meeting Today (Saturday) in Baghdad!

March 10, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

It will be very interesting to see what comes out of today’s multi-nation Baghdad meeting, particularly since American intelligence has had the opportunity to interrogate the Iranian General who defected in Turkey on February 7.

Since both Iran, Syria, and three different terrorist groups operating in Iraq,

all want to see Western forces withdrawn from Iraq as quickly as possible, and the governments of the Western forces want a withdrawal with as few casualties as possible, it is possible that something might be eventually worked out to satisfy both their objectives. If so, a lot of the agreements might be worked out behind the scenes to allow both sides not to appear to be weakening toward their enemies.

Begin Article Extracted from Khaleej Times Online by Reuters

Iran looks to ease US tensions with Baghdad meet

(Reuters)

March 8, 2007

TEHERAN – Iran’s decision to attend a regional meeting in Iraq with US officials reflects a more conciliatory approach in its foreign policy and Teheran’s hope it might ease tensions in nuclear and other issues.

But analysts say Iran remains wary US officials could use the gathering to berate Iran for what Washington calls its meddling in Iraq. If so, they say this would strengthen the hand of radical voices at home opposed to any rapprochement.

The meeting in Baghdad of Iraq’s neighbours starting on Saturday will provide a rare opportunity for officials from Washington and Teheran, which have not had diplomatic ties for more than a quarter of a century, to sit down at the same table.

Washington has left the door open for bilateral talks.

The meeting comes amid a debate among Iran’s political elite over whether Teheran should use what it sees as bargaining chips in Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Iraq to engage with its arch-foe.

If the result of this meeting in Baghdad was good, maybe it will be the first step and a good start for negotiations in the future,” said Amir Mohebian, the political editor of the conservative Resalat newspaper.

“If the result of this cooperation is a bad reaction from the United States, it will be a signal for any radical in Iran to say that cooperation with the United States has no result.”

“The ball is actually in the (court) of the United States.”

Iran has reason to be cautious, analysts say. Teheran joined multilateral talks with Washington in the wake of the 2001 war in Afghanistan when Iran felt it had been supportive in overthrowing the Taliban, who Washington and Teheran destested.

Shortly after, President George W. Bush branded Iran part of the “axis of evil”, a statement pounced on by Iran’s hardliners as justification for opposing rapprochement.

There are those who fear Washington may use similar tactics in Baghdad.

“Now that we have accepted to take part in the meeting, we should end our presence if we see conspiracies,” wrote Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of Iran’s hardline Kayhan daily which regularly launches broadsides against the United States.

Mohebian said he was “not very optimistic”.

Nuclear issue

But analysts and diplomats say Iran, in the lead up to the Baghdad talks, has toned down its rhetoric on regional issues, a move that could help build US confidence and ease Arab suspicions about Iran’s bigger regional role.

“They are shaping their policy to be more constructive,” said a senior Arab diplomat working in the region.

A sworn enemy of Israel and financer of the Islamist Hamas group, Iran has nevertheless welcomed a Saudi-brokered deal for a Palestinian unity government.

It has also talked to Riyadh about ways to ease Lebanon’s political crisis between that country’s US-backed government and an opposition that includes the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

And it has agreed to go to the meeting in Iraq where Teheran has close ties with its co-religionists, Iraq’s majority Shi’ite Muslims. One Iranian analyst said Iran hoped the meeting in Iraq could “expand to other issues, like the nuclear issue”.

The United States is leading a push for tougher sanctions against Iran after it ignored a Feb. 21 UN deadline to suspend sensitive atomic work, which Washington says is being used to build nuclear warheads. Iran says its plans are purely civilian.

Iran has shown no signs of reining in its nuclear work.

The analyst, who asked not to be identified, said Iranian foreign policy rhetoric became more radical after the 2005 election of anti-Western President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but said the president’s comments had toned down amid growing worries among the ruling elite that he was exacerbating Iran’s problems.

But he said any milder tone did not mean Iran would abandon its “proxy forces” in the region that Teheran viewed as “leverage … in terms of getting concessions”.

Ultimately, foreign policy is determined not by the president but Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority who analysts say takes decision not in isolation but by drawing on views of several factions among the elite.

Increasingly, as Ahmadinejad has come under pressure over the economy and at the ballot box in December council polls, more moderate voices have called for less confrontation.

Teheran mayor Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, a prominent moderate conservative who lost to Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential race, told a meeting of academics and diplomats this month:

“No longer does the Islamic Republic need to be confrontational because it has all the power ingredients and the necessary confidence to deal with its neighbours and compete with regional and international actors.

Petraeus says U.S. will have to negotiate with Iraqi militants

By Kenneth R. Bazinet

New York Daily News

(MCT)

WASHINGTON – The general leading the troop surge in Iraq admitted Thursday the new offensive won’t defeat the insurgents and said the U.S. will have to negotiate with militants.

The comments by Gen.

David Petraeus came on the eve of a rare security summit in which the U.S. will sit down with Syria and Iran.

The White House, however, made clear Thursday it won’t necessarily be a friendly chat with the Iranians: U.S. negotiators plan to warn Iran to stop funding, supplying and training Iraqi militants.

“It is time for them to knock this off and play a constructive role,” national security adviser Steve Hadley said en route to Latin America with President Bush.

“This is not about engaging Iran and Syria. It is about getting the countries of the region and the broader international community to support Iraq,” he said.

Petraeus, meanwhile, held his first press conference since taking command as delegates prepared for the gathering in Baghdad to try to find a way to halt violence between Sunnis and Shiites.

“Military action is necessary to help improve security . . . but it is not sufficient,” Petraeus said.

The general said political talks must eventually include some militant groups now opposing the U.S.-backed government.

“That is what will determine in the long run the success of this effort,” Petraeus said.

Top diplomats, meanwhile, hope the presence of Iranian and Syrian delegates at the security summit will create a de facto truce in the world’s most dangerous capital. A massive troop presence is routine in Baghdad, but that has been unable to halt the daily suicide bombers, car bombs and snipers that have turned much of Baghdad into a no man’s land.

“It will be the safest place in Baghdad, we have no doubt,” said a European diplomat, who hoped for an unofficial ceasefire while talks are under way.

Syria, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, the five permanent Security Council members – U.S., Britain, China, France and Russia – the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference have been invited.

The envoys are expected to meet in the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the Iraqi government and U.S. leaders are headquartered.

But a U.S. counterterrorism official said there’s no way to be 100 percent safe even in that secure area.

“As any New Yorker knows, you’re not safe anywhere, but you still have to go to the meeting,” the official said.

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All’ s Well that End

s Well with Ole Black Dog Saga!

March 9, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The information obtained from the Ole Black Dog, Irani

an General Ali Resa Asgari, will be invaluable in the discussions on tomorrow’s very important conferences on the future of Iraq in Baghad, which will bring America and

the West face to face with Syrian and Iranian officials.

In our very first episode of the “Ole Black Dog Saga” we included the following two paragraphs:

“[Wherever Iranian Revolutionary Guards General Asquari is today, I hope he is alive and in American hands. His first hand knowledge of the most secret workings of the inner Iranian military mechanism would be a fantastic intelligence

coup by the United States.

I am also hopeful he defected to the West because he feared reprisals by his Iranian superiors for

his part in the recent failure to smuggle five kidnapped U.S. officers into Iran.

A defector will, of course, normally give more information than a kidnapped one.]”

It appears my hopes have been realized, as indicated by the following two articles extracted from two UK sources by the Jerusalem Center for Public Information Daily Alert, March 9, 2007.

Begin Article 1 from Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Daily Alert

Iranian General Defects with Hizbullah’s Arms Secrets

Richard Beeston and Michael Theodoulou (Times-UK)

Ali Resa Asgari, 63, a general in the elite Revolutionary Guards and former deputy defense minister, appears to have defected to the U.S., taking with him a treasure trove of his country’s most closely guarded secrets.

Several sources confirmed reports that Asgari had fled to the West, the first senior Iran official to defect since the revolution 27 years ago.

“It means for the first time, Hizbullah’s adversaries may have accurate estimates of stockpiles, weapons types, even perhaps placement and tactics,” said Nicholas Noe, the author of a forthcoming book on Hizbullah.

Begin Article 2 from Jerusalem Center for Public Afairs Daily Alert

A Coup for Foreign Intelligence

Tim Butcher (Telegraph-UK)

Asgari was the main Iranian point man in Lebanon in the 1980s and 1990s when Iran help found, fund and run Hizbullah and there can be few better sources on how it receives weapons and support from Iran.

He could also provide crucial information about a Hizbullah attack on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983 in which eight of the CIA’s top regional specialists, including the CIA’s Near East director Robert Ames, were among those who died, something that explains America’s continued reluctance to downgrade its listing of Hizbullah as anything but a terrorist group.

In spite of Iran’s efforts to play down his significance, Asgari’s defection represents a genuine coup for foreign intelligence.

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