Iran
Strikes Again
by Alex Traiman
At least
seven are dead and dozens are injured as a suicide bomber targeted a bus
carrying Israelis on vacation in Bulgaria near the Black Sea. Immediate
links are already being drawn to Iran.
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused
Iran and their terror proxy Hezbollah of being behind yesterday's
attacks, but he is not the only one who has identified the link.
While
Iranian State Television called
the accusations, "ridiculous" and "sensational,"
others with alleged
ties to the Iranian government are not
as quick to deny the connections.
"The
government in Tehran is a very likely suspect," said Trita Parsi, regime
supporter and founder and president of the National Iranian American
Council. "It appears that Tehran has shifted its focus to softer
targets." Noting the logic of such a strategy, Parsi added that,
"Targeting unwitting tourists is much easier than security-conscious
officials."
The
murderous attack came 18 years to the day after the horrific bombing of the
Argentine
Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) that killed 85 and injured hundreds on
July 18, 1994 in Buenos Aires. It was the deadliest bombing in Argentina's
history.
After an
extensive investigation, Argentina's Chief Prosecutor, Alberto Nisman
formally charged Iran and Hezbollah for the bombing stating, "We deem
it proven that the decision to carry out an attack July 18, 1994 on the
AMIA was made by the highest authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran
which directed Hezbollah to carry out the attack."
Just two
years earlier, the Iranian sponsored Islamic Jihad Organization and
Hezbollah took credit for bombing the Israeli
Embassy in Buenos Aires. That attack killed 29 and injured 242.
Following
the 1994 attack, prosecutors in Argentina called for the arrest of several
Iranian officials, including Iran's President at the time, Ali Rafsanjani -
also commonly credited as the father
of Iran's nuclear weapon's program.
Like the
previous attacks, yesterday's strike in Bulgaria was not an isolated
incident. Iran has continued a decades-long pattern of attacking its
enemies beyond its own borders. Not all the attacks have been successful.
Parsi
notes that Iran has been behind several less sophisticated attacks during
the past year. "Amateurish attacks did occur in Thailand, and Indian
police have accused Iran of being behind a failed assassination
attempt of the Israeli ambassador's wife in New Delhi. Iranian agents have
also been arrested in Kenya."
Iran has
not limited its terror activities solely to Jewish and Israeli targets.
In October, 2011, a plot to assassinate a Saudi Diplomat at a restaurant in
Washington, DC was foiled by law enforcement. The plot included plans to
strike at two embassies in America's capital city. Iran denied any
connections to the plot, but Attorney General Eric Holder called
the attempt a "flagrant violation of U.S. and international
law," and stated that, "The United States is committed to holding
Iran accountable for its actions."
Yet Iran
is barely being held accountable.
For
nearly two decades, Iran has sat atop the U.S. State Department's short
list of "State
Sponsors of Terrorism." Iran is joined on the list by noted actors
Cuba, Sudan and Syria. Of those state terror sponsors, Iran has been
continuously been designated
as the most active.
Iran is
on the list with good reason. Many remember some of Iran's most devastating
terror attacks against Americans.
On October
23, 1983, two truck bombs targeting American and French military
installations in Beirut Lebanon killed 299, including 241 Americans. At the
time, it was the single deadliest attack on US interests since World War
II. The attack was carried out by Hezbollah, a terror organization that was
conceived and continues to be funded by Tehran.
In the
1990's, Iran continued its terror assault. On June
25, 1996, a truck bomb killed 19 Americans when it exploded at the
Khobar Towers military housing complex in Saudi Arabia. After a three-year
investigation, the FBI concluded that Iran was behind the attack.
In
addition to these isolated attacks, Iran was a primary force behind
the insurgencies against
US forces in Iraq. According to the State Department, Iran provided
"lethal support, including weapons, training, funding, and guidance,
to Iraqi Shia militant groups that target U.S. and Iraqi forces," and
supplied militants with "Iranian-produced advanced rockets, sniper
rifles, automatic weapons, and mortars that have killed Iraqi and Coalition
Forces, as well as civilians," and provided militants with "the
capability to assemble explosives designed to defeat armored
vehicles."
As Michael
Ledeen, featured in the award-winning documentary Iranium
noted in an interview
for the film, "Iran has been at war with America for over thirty
years."
When you begin to consider the scope of Iran's violent attacks against
Western interests, coupled with statements such as, "Israel
is a cancerous tumor" that needs to be removed, and "the
countdown to the demise of America's demonic power has begun," you
begin to understand that the Iranian regime would use whatever tools it has
at its disposal to strike its self-stated enemies.
This is
what makes Iran's development of nuclear weapons so dangerous. Notwithstanding
the fact that Iran's clandestine nuclear program is completely illegal,
nuclear weapons in the hands of the world's greatest terror sponsors could
have cataclysmic consequences.
There is
little reason to assume that Iran - a country that strikes Western
interests whenever and wherever they can find them; has killed thousands of
Americans and Israelis; and openly calls for the destruction of two nations
- would not use nuclear weapons if it came to acquire them.
And the
possible methods to deliver such a blast, including infiltrations by
terrorists wherever they may be are too numerous to protect against. Today,
Iranian terror proxies can be found across Asia, Africa, Europe, South
America, Mexico and even inside the United States.
Yet the
punishments America has inflicted in response to Iran's illegal and violent
actions have simply not fit the crimes they continue to commit.
Sanctions
legislation, while improving, has yet to formally cripple
the Iranian economy or get Iran to give up its nuclear pursuits. And
leading nations of the world, including the United States - that should be
thoroughly fed up with Iran's belligerence - continue to search for ways to
reach common ground and negotiate with Iran, in the vain and misguided hope
of convincing this rogue regime to give up it's nuclear program.
The
documentary Iranium
covers in-depth the history of the Iranian regime, ideology, sponsorship of
terror, nuclear development, and western incompetence in identifying and
dealing with the threats.
Today, as
we mourn the deaths of innocent civilians, the film remains as important as
ever. And while millions across the world have seen the film, millions more
have not. Iranium is a comprehensive and emotive tool that enables
Americans to fully understand the nature and scope of the threats that Iran
continues to pose.
The film
struck a chord with officials within the Iranian regime who went out of
their way to block
it's screening, and repeatedly denounced
the documentary during foreign ministry press conferences in Tehran.
If you
have not yet watched the film, please do so by clicking on the player
below. If you have watched the film, please pass it along to others. It is
only through understanding the nature of the threats we face that will
enable us to defeat them.
Alex
Traiman is the Director of the award-winning documentary IRANIUM. The
documentary is now available for free viewing on YouTube.
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