Iran plots Ramadan infiltration in Iraq
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PARIS — A top
Iranian dissident living in Paris says up to 800 clerics and theology students
from Iran are in the process of infiltrating cities in neighboring Iraq in time
for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins Friday.
Ayatollah Jalal Ganje'i, a prominent critic of the Iranian regime, said in
an interview with The Washington Times that the influx is part of continuing
efforts by Tehran's power brokers to exploit the crisis in Iraq in order to set
up a sister fundamentalist Islamic republic.
The religious
leaders, dispatched by the Islamic Propaganda Organization, plan to use the holy
month to propagate militant Islamic views, he said, with the goal of
strengthening Iraqi political groups whose philosophy and aims coincide with
those of Iran's theocratic regime.
The cleric said the religious leaders will take their message into Kut,
Nasariyah, Amarra, Najaf, Basra and Baghdad, joining a massive network of other
Iranian agents already in Iraq, many in armed underground cells.
"I expect the violence to increase, and this will also set the stage for
further meddling in upcoming Iraqi elections," said Ayatollah Ganje'i, who is
affiliated with the National Council of Resistance, a State
Department-designated terrorist group.
Also known as the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran, the group was
the first to reveal details of Iran's nuclear activities.
"Iran is hoping to use the January elections to bring its own Islamic
fundamentalists to power," the cleric said. He did not specify which leaders
Tehran was working with in Iraq.
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York last week, Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld similarly said there has been "a lot of meddling"
by Iranians in Iraq.
"They clearly want to affect the outcome of the election, and they are
aggressively trying to do that," he said. "They're sending money in, they're
sending weapons in, and they're notably unhelpful."
Mr. Rumsfeld said millions of refugees and pilgrims regularly travel between
the porous border separating Iran and Iraq, adding, "There's no way we could
stop the flow of these pilgrims."
An official at the Iranian Interests Section in Washington referred a
request for comment to a telephone number in New York, which was out of service.
Ayatollah Ganje'i is a former student of Iran's revolutionary leader
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who fled the country in 1982 after being sentenced
to death for his anti-fundamentalist views. He cited his network of contacts
among Iran's clergy as the source of his information.
He said four Iranian institutions — the Revolutionary Guards, the Ministry
of Intelligence and Security, the state radio and television and the clergy —
are coordinating the activities in Iraq. He also charged that Tehran has spent
$70 million sending weapons and manpower, including suicide bombers, into Iraq.
Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, thousands of Iranian
clerics have crossed into Iraq, bringing books, compact discs and audiotapes
promoting their version of Islam.
Ayatollah Ganje'i said they had devised a two-pronged strategy to take over
the country: first, by opening charities, clinics and health care centers to win
the hearts of the local people, and second, by spreading armed underground cells
that would conduct strikes against coalition forces.
In an interview with the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat in July, Iraqi
Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan declared that the Iranian intrusion had been
"vast and unprecedented since the establishment of the new Iraqi state." He said
Iranians had "penetrated the country's sensitive centers and set up many
intelligence and security centers."
"In the last year and a half, there has been a concerted effort to intervene
in Iraqi affairs. This is something that has been widely underestimated by the
West," Ayatollah Ganje'i said.
•Sharon Behn contributed to this report in Washington.