Syria Brings In Iran's Qods Force Leader To Advise On How To Best Kill Syrian Civilians

We knew it would only be a matter of time before the Iranians got more directly involved in the situation in Syria and as Assad has seen more than a few weeks of tough sledding trying to corral his people, the head of Iran's Qods Force is now in Syria to advise Assad and his government. Make no bones about it, the Qods Force is about military operations designed to kill as many people as possible - that is what the Qods Forces does...they aren't into crowd control, they aren't into gaining power in certain areas, they are about devising operations that defeat enemies by killing as many as possible. So, if you think "100 Killed in Syria" and "80 More Killed in Homs Attacks" are shocking headlines, you haven't seen anything yet when you see firsthand the kind of maniacal strategy that Qassem Suleimani is doing the advising.

The story comes from The Telegraph.

Syria: Iran's elite Quds force 'advising Assad regime'


The head of Iran's elite Quds force is reportedly visiting Syria to advise the regime on repressing protests and the armed resistance, as consternation grew in Western capitals on Thursday about Iranian and Russian meddling in the crisis.

Members of the opposition Syrian National Council said they had reliable intelligence that Qassem Suleimani was intimately involved with President Bashar al-Assad and his ruling coterie.

"It is his second visit at least," said Radwan Ziahdeh, an executive member of the council. "The Quds force is working mainly with training, helping militias and snipers."

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, meanwhile told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov of his grave concern that Russia continues to sell arms to the government.

In a testy phone call that followed Mr Lavrov's inconclusive diplomatic mission to Syria earlier this week, the Russian replied simply that there was "nothing illegal" about the sales.

The Quds, or Jerusalem, brigade, is a special unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responsible for external relations that reports directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Western and Arab experts and diplomats estimate that the number of troops and advisers from the Quds force in Syria to be in the high hundreds or low thousands. They have set up at least one base in Zabadani near the capital Damascus.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are deeply concerned by credible information that Iran is providing equipment and technical advice to help the Syrian regime quash protests in Syria. Such support is unacceptable."

Help includes riot control equipment and technical advice on "how to quash dissent and how to flood areas with security forces".

Iran is also said to be providing support to improve the regime's intelligence gathering and monitoring of protesters' use of the internet and mobile phone network, including text messaging.

Opposition fighters of the Free Syrian Army claim to have captured 29 Iranians during the uprising and last week posted a video of five captives with their passports.

Reports in the Arab media have claimed that snipers from Iranian-backed Hizbollah forces have been brought in from Lebanon to support government forces fighting the FSA.

The rebels yesterday appealed for the United States to supply weapons, rocket launchers, body armour, night vision goggles and other equipment, but not boots on the ground.

Identifying himself only as Mohammed, he spoke via the internet to experts and journalists at a Washington think tank.

"The major point is logistical material support. We can do this ourselves, we're not asking for any troops," he said.

Faced with Russian and Chinese obstruction of a United Nations resolution on Syria, the international community has injected new urgency into its efforts to force the regime to stop the killing.

A State Department official has said that time was running out before the international community would have to "militarise" the situation, which would involve arming rebels or military protection for humanitarian aid.

Pentagon officials have meanwhile said contingency planning for US military involvement in Syria had begun.

Leaders in the US, Britain and France have supported the creation of a "Friends of Syria" group that would coordinate applying diplomatic and economic pressure on Bashar al-Assad's regimes outside the confines of the UN. Turkey, the most vocal regional critic of its neighbour, has proposed hosting a conference to build an "international platform" against Syria.

Britain and several other European states have temporarily withdrawn their ambassadors to Syria, while Germany yesterday expelled four members of the Syrian embassy in Berlin for spying on regime opponents.

Libya expelled Syria's top envoy and his staff from the country to protest Damascus' crackdown on dissent.

China yesterday suggested that it was not blind to international condemnation of its veto when it revealed it had entertained members of a Syrian opposition group in Beijing.

U.S. Turns Over Last Prisoner To Iraqis - Will the Iraqis Release the Hezbollah Commander Who Helped Kill Five U.S. Troops At Iran's Direction?

This story absolutely infuriates me - it's a bit detailed so I'll excerpt some of that below here but bottom line is that with the U.S. withdrawing from Iraq, the last prisoner that we held because he is that sinister, Ali Mussa Daqduq, is being turned over to the Iraqis and the great fear is that the Iranians will pressure the Iraqis to release this animal and if he does, I'm not sure I will be able to handle it. First off, Daqduq is a pig Hezbollah from Lebanon, secondly, he has been trained by the Qods Forces out of Iran, and thirdly, he has the blood of five U.S. soldiers on his hands and probably a lot more when you consider all of the training he did to enable Iraqi Shias aligned with Iran to kill Americans in the Iraq War.

Here's some of the details from The Long War Journal on this evil minion who we simply should have shipped to Gitmo:

Daqduq is perhaps the most dangerous of the Shia terror commanders captured by US forces in Iraq since 2003. He has a pedigree with Lebanese Hezbollah, Iran's proxy militia and terror group that is based in Lebanon. At the time of his capture in March 2007, he was a 24-year veteran of Hezbollah. He has commanded both a Hezbollah special operations unit and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's security detail

In May 2006, Daqduq traveled with Yussef Hashim, the chief of Lebanese Hezbollah's operations in Iraq, to Tehran to meet with the commander and the deputy commander of the Iranian Qods Force Special External Operations branch. Daqduq made four trips into Iraq in 2006, where he personally observed Special Groups operations.

Upon his return to Iran, Daqduq was tasked to organize the Special Groups "in ways that mirrored how Hezbollah was organized in Lebanon," Brigadier General Keven Bergner said in the July 2007 briefing. Daqduq began to train Iraqis inside Iran to carry out terror attacks in their home country. Groups of 20 to 60 recruits were trained in the use of Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFPs), mortars, rockets, and sniper rifles, and instructed on how to conduct intelligence and kidnapping operations.

Daqduq was captured in March 2007 along with two brothers, Qais and Laith Qazali. Qais was the leader of the Asaib al Haq, or the League of the Righteous, which is considered the most dangerous of the Shia terror groups, while Laith was a commander in the group. Qais was responsible for the January 2007 attack on the Karbala Joint Provincial Coordination Center. Five US soldiers were captured during the operation and were executed by Qazali's men as Iraqi police and troops closed in on the snatch team.

First off, in my view, Daqduq along with Qais and Qazali should have immediately been sent to Gitmo in order to further interrogate and get every single name and details of the Iranian Qod Forces involved in the Iraq War operation. At the same time, Daqduq should have been put in front of a military tribunal and sentenced to death by firing squad for his operations.

So now, we will see the Iranians start with the subtle pressure on the Iraqis...they will find some old feeble Iraqi that they've had in their jails for decades and propose a swap and that will be it. This animal will be let loose and you'll see yours truly have the meltdown of the century.

US transfers dangerous Hezbollah leader involved in murder of 5 US soldiers to Iraqi custody


Musa Ali Daqduq, the senior Hezbollah commander who was tasked by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to establish Shia terror groups into a Hezbollah-like entity, was transferred to Iraqi custody today, White House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told Reuters. Daqduq was the last prisoner in Iraq who was in US custody. Vietor told Reuters that Iraq assured the US that it would prosecute Daqduq.

US officials fear that the Iraqi government will be pressured by Iran and Shia political parties to release Daqduq.

The US Department of Justice had planned to prosecute Daqduq in a US court, but Republican Senators opposed the transfer of the terrorist to US soil for prosecution. Some wanted Daqduq to be tried by a military court at Guantanamo Bay.

Background on Musa Ali Daqduq

Daqduq is perhaps the most dangerous of the Shia terror commanders captured by US forces in Iraq since 2003. He has a pedigree with Lebanese Hezbollah, Iran's proxy militia and terror group that is based in Lebanon. At the time of his capture in March 2007, he was a 24-year veteran of Hezbollah. He has commanded both a Hezbollah special operations unit and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's security detail.

In 2005, Hezbollah's leadership directed Daqduq to travel to Iran and partner with Qods Force, Iran's elite special operations group tasked with spreading the Iranian theocracy to neighboring countries, to train Iraqi Shia terror groups, the US military said in a briefing in July 2007 after Daqduq's capture. The US seized documents that outlined Daqduq's role in supporting the Shia terror groups, which are collectively called the Special Groups by the US military. The Special Groups include the Mahdi Army, the League of the Righteous (Asaib al Haq, a Mahdi Army faction), and the Hezbollah Brigades.

In May 2006, Daqduq traveled with Yussef Hashim, the chief of Lebanese Hezbollah's operations in Iraq, to Tehran to meet with the commander and the deputy commander of the Iranian Qods Force Special External Operations branch. Daqduq made four trips into Iraq in 2006, where he personally observed Special Groups operations.

Upon his return to Iran, Daqduq was tasked to organize the Special Groups "in ways that mirrored how Hezbollah was organized in Lebanon," Brigadier General Keven Bergner said in the July 2007 briefing. Daqduq began to train Iraqis inside Iran to carry out terror attacks in their home country. Groups of 20 to 60 recruits were trained in the use of Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFPs), mortars, rockets, and sniper rifles, and instructed on how to conduct intelligence and kidnapping operations.

"These Special Groups are militia extremists, funded, trained and armed by external sources, specifically by Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Qods Force operatives," said Bergner. "In addition to training, the Qods force also supplies the Special Groups with weapons and funding of 750,000 to three million U.S. dollars a month. Without this support, these Special Groups would be hard pressed to conduct their operations in Iraq."

Daqduq was captured in March 2007 along with two brothers, Qais and Laith Qazali. Qais was the leader of the Asaib al Haq, or the League of the Righteous, which is considered the most dangerous of the Shia terror groups, while Laith was a commander in the group. Qais was responsible for the January 2007 attack on the Karbala Joint Provincial Coordination Center. Five US soldiers were captured during the operation and were executed by Qazali's men as Iraqi police and troops closed in on the snatch team.

Despite the roles played by Qais and his brother Laith in killing US troops and working with Iran's Qods Force, the US military released the two brothers and hundreds of their followers to the Iraqi government between July and December of 2009. The Shia terrorists were freed in exchange for a British hostage and the bodies of four other Brits who had been executed by the League of the Righteous while in custody.

The US military officially denied that the release of Qais and Laith was part of a hostage exchange, and instead insisted it was part of "reconciliation." But US military and intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal privately said that the brothers had indeed been freed as part of a hostage exchange.

The League of the Righteous returned to terror activities shortly after the hostage exchange. In January of 2010, less than a month after Qais was finally freed, the terror group kidnapped Issa T. Salomi, a US civilian contractor, in Baghdad.

First In Afghanistan War: Iranian Qods Officer Captured In Kandahar

Oh boy, here we go...all over again. As we saw in the Iraq War, Iranian elements have been found fighting alongside America's enemy - this time, an Iranian Qods officer was captured in Kandahar in full discharge of Taliban fighters.

From the report at The Long War Journal:

Coalition and Afghan special operations teams captured a Taliban commander who doubles as an Iranian Qods Force operative and helped ship weapons from Iran into Afghanistan.

The Taliban/Qods Force operative, who was not named, was detained during a Dec. 18 raid in the Zhari district in Kandahar province, the International Security Assistance Force reported in a press release. ISAF and Afghan forces are currently working to secure Zhari and the neighboring districts of Panjwai and Arghandab from the Taliban.

"The joint security team specifically targeted the individual for facilitating the movement of weapons between Iran and Kandahar through Nimroz province," ISAF stated. "The now-detained man was considered a Kandahar-based weapons facilitator with direct ties to other Taliban leaders in the province."

In the initial press release, ISAF did not identify the Taliban commander as a Qods Force operative. But, in response to an inquiry by The Long War Journal, ISAF confirmed that the target of the raid was indeed a member of the Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

"According to intelligence reports, the targeted insurgent is a member of the Qods Force," a public affairs official at the ISAF Joint Command press desk told The Long War Journal.

This is the first recorded instance of the capture of Qods Force operative in Afghanistan. US forces in Iraq captured several senior Qods Force commanders and operatives during operations from 2006 to 2008.

Not only was this officer in the Qods Force commanding a Taliban unit but he was involved in the importation of Iranian weapons and munitions into Afghanistan.

Now, during the Iraq War, when U.S. forces captured Qods operatives inside of Iraq, I called for an immediate strike into Iraq - and this was AFTER we had seen the new Iranian EFD technology being used in southwest Iraq. I made the case that Qods Force commanders in Iraq, working with mostly Mahdi militia members, was a declaration of war by the nation of Iran and they needed to be attacked in retaliation. Nothing happened. In fact, we let most of the Qods Force personnel go.

And now we see they are in Afghanistan - if we caught one, how many are there? 10? 20? 100? How exactly can the U.S. and NATO countries allow this intervention in the Afghanistan War by Iran without some sort of retaliation? How many damn times can Iran get away with interference in every corner of the globe? What exactly is the downside of a few bombing runs on Tehran in response to this new revelation?

At what point in time is a leader in the United States, whether it be a military leader or Congressman or Cabinet official, going to stand up and lay down the law to Iran - tell the Iranians that they have meddled in our business for the last time and the game is now on?

Exclusive: ISAF captures Qods Force operative in Kandahar


Coalition and Afghan special operations teams captured a Taliban commander who doubles as an Iranian Qods Force operative and helped ship weapons from Iran into Afghanistan.

The Taliban/Qods Force operative, who was not named, was detained during a Dec. 18 raid in the Zhari district in Kandahar province, the International Security Assistance Force reported in a press release. ISAF and Afghan forces are currently working to secure Zhari and the neighboring districts of Panjwai and Arghandab from the Taliban.

"The joint security team specifically targeted the individual for facilitating the movement of weapons between Iran and Kandahar through Nimroz province," ISAF stated. "The now-detained man was considered a Kandahar-based weapons facilitator with direct ties to other Taliban leaders in the province."

In the initial press release, ISAF did not identify the Taliban commander as a Qods Force operative. But, in response to an inquiry by The Long War Journal, ISAF confirmed that the target of the raid was indeed a member of the Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

"According to intelligence reports, the targeted insurgent is a member of the Qods Force," a public affairs official at the ISAF Joint Command press desk told The Long War Journal.

This is the first recorded instance of the capture of Qods Force operative in Afghanistan. US forces in Iraq captured several senior Qods Force commanders and operatives during operations from 2006 to 2008.

Background on Iran's covert support for the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan

The Qods Force has tasked the Ansar Corps, a subcommand, with aiding the Taliban and other terror groups in Afghanistan. Based in Mashad in northeastern Iran, the Ansar Corps operates much like the Ramazan Corps, which supports and directs Shia terror groups in Iraq. [See LWJ report, Iran's Ramazan Corps and the ratlines into Iraq.]

On Aug. 6, 2010, General Hossein Musavi, the commander of the Ansar Corps, was one of two Qods Force commanders added to the US Treasury's list of specially designated global terrorists for directly providing support to the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda is known to facilitate travel for its operatives moving into Afghanistan from Mashad. Al Qaeda additionally uses the eastern cities of Tayyebat and Zahedan to move its operatives into Afghanistan. [See LWJ report, Return to Jihad.]

ISAF and Afghan forces have targeted several Taliban commanders with known links to Iran's Qods Force - Ansar Corps. [See LWJ report, Taliban commander linked to Iran, al Qaeda targeted in western Afghanistan.]

A Qods Force-supported al Qaeda network is currently active in the western province of Farah, according to an investigation by The Long War Journal.

ISAF and Afghan special operations teams have been active in the remote province of Farah since early October. There have been five reported raids in Farah since the beginning of October, and 10 raids total since March 2010. In the course of the 10 raids, ISAF has killed three al Qaeda-linked commanders (Mullah Aktar, Sabayer Sahib, and Mullah Janan), and captured another. All of these commanders have been linked to Iran's Ansar Corps.

ISAF has refused to comment to inquiries about this network. "Due to operation security concerns we are not able to go into further detail at this time," an ISAF public affairs official told The Long War Journal at the end of November.

For years, ISAF has stated that the Qods Force has helped Taliban fighters conduct training inside Iran. As recently as May 30, 2010, former ISAF commander General Stanley McChrystal said that Iran is training Taliban fighters and providing them with weapons.

"The training that we have seen occurs inside Iran with fighters moving inside Iran," McChrystal said at a press conference. "The weapons that we have received come from Iran into Afghanistan."

In March of 2010, General David Petraeus, then the CENTCOM commander and now the ISAF commander, discussed al Qaeda's presence in Iran in written testimony delivered to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Al Qaeda "continues to use Iran as a key facilitation hub, where facilitators connect al Qaeda's senior leadership to regional affiliates," Petraeus explained. "And although Iranian authorities do periodically disrupt this network by detaining select al Qaeda facilitators and operational planners, Tehran's policy in this regard is often unpredictable."

Iran has recently released several top al Qaeda leaders from protective custody, including Saif al Adel, al Qaeda's top military commander and strategist; Sa'ad bin Laden, Osama's son; and Sulaiman Abu Gaith, a top al Qaeda spokesman. [See LWJ report, Osama bin Laden's spokesman freed by Iran.]

In March 2010, a Taliban commander admitted that Iran has been training teams of Taliban fighters in small unit tactics. "Our religions and our histories are different, but our target is the same - we both want to kill Americans," the commander told The Sunday Times, rebutting the common analysis that Shia Iran and Sunni al Qaeda could not cooperate due to ideological differences.

Busted! Iranian Qods Force Commanders Linked To Taliban in Afghanistan

I hate to throw out a "told you so" but I do need to this time - I've been speaking of this for awhile and in fact, just had a conversation the other night on a radio program with the host about how I have conjectured that Iranian expertise is part of the higher troop deaths of American soldiers in Afghanistan recently. Well, the news is out that the U.S. Treasury department has found that Iranian Qods Force commanders have a direct link to Taliban operations in Afghanistan.

From the story at The Long War Journal:

The US Treasury department has added four Iranian Qods Force commanders to its list of specially designated global terrorists, two of whom are charged with directly providing support for the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

General Hossein Musavi and Colonel Hasan Mortezavi, both senior officers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps - Qods Force, were designated on Aug. 3 as terrorists under Executive Order 13224 for "for their roles in the IRGC-QF's support of terrorism" and for providing "financial and material support to the Taliban."

The Treasury department also designated Hushang Allahdad for aiding Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the Qods Force commander in Lebanon, for acting as a "liaison to Hezbollah and Syrian intelligence services" and well as "guaranteeing weapons shipments" to Hezbollah.

At what point is someone, ANYONE from the Obama administration going to stand up and take an aggressive position against the involvement of Iran in BOTH the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan? Now, understand - I hold George W. Bush responsible as well for the inaction against the Iranians but the fact of the matter is that there is tons of proof of Iranian actions leading to the deaths of our American troops in Iraq, and now, we have proof that the Iranians are now involved in Taliban operations in Afghanistan.

As if the Iranians illegally working undercover to develop nuclear weapons isn't enough for military action against this rogue nation, but the fact that Iran is responsible for American deaths on the battlefield should make them an instant declared enemy in a war. For crying out loud, American Marines and soldiers ARRESTED and DETAINED Qods Force commanders INSIDE OF IRAQ over the past few years!

Add onto all of that the fact that the Iranians were responsible for bringing the EFP technology for IED's into the Iraq War - this technology greatly increased the penetrating ability of IED's to get through the armor on U.S. vehicles and the deaths of our troops soared because of it.

And yet, not a single word from American leadership against Iran. I've fucking had it.

Iranian Qods Force commanders linked to Taliban: US Treasury


The US Treasury department has added four Iranian Qods Force commanders to its list of specially designated global terrorists, two of whom are charged with directly providing support for the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

General Hossein Musavi and Colonel Hasan Mortezavi, both senior officers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps - Qods Force, were designated on Aug. 3 as terrorists under Executive Order 13224 for "for their roles in the IRGC-QF's support of terrorism" and for providing "financial and material support to the Taliban."

The Treasury department also designated Hushang Allahdad for aiding Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the Qods Force commander in Lebanon, for acting as a "liaison to Hezbollah and Syrian intelligence services" and well as "guaranteeing weapons shipments" to Hezbollah.

The IRGC is tasked with defending the Islamic Revolution inside Iran while exporting the radical ideology to neighboring countries and worldwide. Qods Force is the IRGC's external special operations branch.

General Hossein Musavi is the commander Qods Force's Ansar Corps, "whose responsibilities include IRGC-QF activities in Afghanistan," the Treasury stated. "As Ansar Corps Commander, Musavi has provided financial and material support to the Taliban."

Colonel Hasan Mortezavi is described as a senior Qods Force officer who "provides financial and material support to the Taliban."

Qods Forces' Ansar Corps is the command that is assigned to direct operations in Afghanistan. The Ansar Corps is based in Mashad in northeastern Iran. Ansar Corps operates much like the Ramazan Corps, which supports and directs Shia terror groups in Iraq. [See LWJ report, Iran's Ramazan Corps and the ratlines into Iraq]

Al Qaeda is also known to facilitate travel for its operatives moving into Afghanistan from Mashad. Al Qaeda also uses the eastern cities of Tayyebat and Zahedan to move its operatives into Afghansitan. [See LWJ report, Return to Jihad]

Background on Iran's covert support for the Taliban

For years, ISAF has stated that Taliban fighters have conducted training inside Iran, with the aid of the Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. As recently as May 30, 2010, former ISAF commander General Stanley McChrystal said that Iran is training Taliban fighters and providing them with weapons.

"The training that we have seen occurs inside Iran with fighters moving inside Iran," McChrystal said at a press conference. "The weapons that we have received come from Iran into Afghanistan."

In March 2010, a Taliban commander admitted that Iran has been training teams of Taliban fighters in small unit tactics. "Our religions and our histories are different, but our target is the same — we both want to kill Americans," the commander told The Sunday Times, rebutting the common analysis that Shia Iran and Sunni al Qaeda could not cooperate due to ideological differences.

Background on known Taliban commanders who work with Iran's Qods Force

In recent years, the US military has targeted several Taliban commanders in western Afghanistan who are known to receive support from Qods Force.

On July 16, US and Afghan forces killed Mullah Akhtar, a Taliban commander in Farah province, and several of his fighters, during a raid on a training camp used by foreign fighters. Akhtar "had close ties with Taliban and al Qaeda senior leaders." ISAF stated in a press release. He "was responsible for arranging training for foreign fighters from Iran and helped resolve disputes between militant networks." Intelligence officials also told The Long War Journal that Akhtar was closely tied to Qods Force.

Mullah Mustafa is another Iranian-linked Taliban commander who operates in Ghor province. The US military said Mustafa commands more than 100 fighters and receives support from Iran's Qods Force. ISAF thought it killed Mustafa in a June 9, 2009, airstrike in a rural area in Ghor. Mustafa later spoke to the media and denied reports of his death.

Another Taliban commander who has worked closely with the Qods Force is Ghulam Yahya Akbari, a commander in Herat province. Akbari, who was known as the "Tajik Taliban," claimed to operate more than 20 bases in Herat and boasted of having more than 600 fighters under his command. He facilitated the movement of foreign fighters, or al Qaeda, from Iran into Afghanistan, and helped them transit to the battlefields in Helmand and Kandahar.

Akbari was killed in a special operations raid in Herat in October 2009. Samihullah, Akbari's replacement, has even closer ties to al Qaeda and continues to facilitate the movement of al Qaeda fighters from Iran to Afghanistan.

Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa, the former Taliban governor of Herat province who is currently in US custody at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, served as the Taliban's liaison to Iran prior to the fall of Mullah Omar's regime in late 2001.

Khairkhwa "was present at a clandestine meeting in October of 2001 between Taliban and Iranian officials in which Iran pledged to assist the Taliban in their war with the United States," according to documents from the US government’s unclassified files on Gitmo detainees. According to one document, he met with Hizb-i-Islami-Gulbuddin leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ayman al Zawahiri.

Hekmatyar, who runs one of the three largest Taliban-linked insurgent groups in Afghanistan, is closely linked to Iran. He was backed by the Iranians during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s, and sheltered inside Iran from 1996 to 2002, under the care of the IRGC.

The "Rat" Is Out of the Bag - One of the Released Iranian Qods Forces Was A Top Commander

First off, I blogged about this nightmare of a release to begin with but now, the word has leaked out that the whole release of the five Iranian Qods Force personnel from Iraq back to Iran earlier this month was a slight of hand, with an extremely high level Qods Force commander as part of the deal. From the article at The Long War Journal, look at this hair raising excerpt:

Reports initially indicated that five Iranians who were captured by the US in Irbil in northern Iraq in January 2007 were released from custody. But US military intelligence officials told The Long War Journal that Farhadi was disguised as one of the Irbil Five to soften the blow of the release.

Get that? This was literally a deception so that one of the most wanted men that was in custody could be returned to Iran to appease the mullahs. Look at the set up part of this from the article:

A senior Qods Force officer who led one of the three commands in Iraq assigned to attack US and Iraqi forces was one of five Iranians released by the US military on July 9.
Mahmud Farhadi, the leader of the Zafr Command, one of three units subordinate to the Qods Force's Ramazan Corps, was among five Iranians turned over to the Iraqi government and then subsequently turned over to the Iranians.

I just do not understand this, folks. We have an officer of the Qods Force INSIDE of Iraq directing lethal attacks on American troops during the Iraq War and this piece of shit is released back to Iran and I hear no one, NO ONE screaming about this. Well ....I'M SCREAMING ABOUT IT! This sack of shit should have been in a water boarding room instead of back home in Iran being the center of parades. Somebody tell me what we, the U.S., got out of this release? What was the bargaining? This scumbag was released 3 weeks ago and in the meantime, Iranian made rockets were used to kill three Minnesota National Guard troops in Basra....the time to document Iranian-aided deaths of American troops is over...it's a fact, it's out there for all to see. I've said it again, instead of releasing these Qods Force infiltrators back to Iran, there should have been a mission INTO Iran to have taken out several of the Qods Force units as well as more commanders over there.

Here's the message to Iran: "Send your Qods Forces into a war that the U.S. is involved in, kill American troops and you will still get back your forces if they are captured." And we expect them to stop making nuclear weapons?

US released senior Iranian Qods Force commander

A senior Qods Force officer who led one of the three commands in Iraq assigned to attack US and Iraqi forces was one of five Iranians released by the US military on July 9.
Mahmud Farhadi, the leader of the Zafr Command, one of three units subordinate to the Qods Force's Ramazan Corps, was among five Iranians turned over to the Iraqi government and then subsequently turned over to the Iranians.
A spokesman from the Iranian foreign ministry identified Farhadi as one of the five men released on July 9, according to a report on Iranian state-run television.
Reports initially indicated that five Iranians who were captured by the US in Irbil in northern Iraq in January 2007 were released from custody. But US military intelligence officials told The Long War Journal that Farhadi was disguised as one of the Irbil Five to soften the blow of the release.
The US had previously released two members of the Irbil Five in November 2007, according to The Associated Press, but the report received little attention. This "left room for Farhadi to be pawned off as one of the Irbil Five and snuck out the back door," one official told The Long War Journal.
The US captured Farhadi during a raid in the northern Kurdish province of Sulimaniyah on Sept. 20, 2007 [see LWJ report, Captured Iranian Qods Force officer a regional commander in Iraq].
Farhadi's detention caused a row between Iran and Iraq. Iran closed the border after claiming Farhadi was an Iranian trade delegation representative named Agha Farhadi who was visiting Iraq on a sanctioned business trip.
Farhadi is considered one of the three most dangerous Iranian operatives to have been captured in Iraqi since the US began targeting the Iranian-backed Shia terror networks. His role as one of the three theater commanders in the Ramazan Corps means he is directly responsible for planning, coordinating, and executing attacks against US forces.
The Ramazan Corps is responsible for the death of hundreds of US soldiers in Iraq and backed the various uprising by Shia extremist groups. Ten percent of US deaths in Iraq are estimated to have been caused by the Iranian-supplied, armor-piercing explosively-formed projectiles, or EFPs.
US handover of Iranian agents to continue
The US military is slowly and quietly turning over some of the most dangerous Iranian operatives and officers as it draws down in Iraq. The release of Farhadi and the other four Iran operatives was preceded by the release last month of Laith Qazali, the brother of Qais Qazali.
Qais Qazali was the commander of the Qazali network, which is better known as the Asaib al Haq, or the League of the Righteous. Qais' network was behind the January 2007 attack on the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala, as well as other high-profile terror attacks in Iraq. Five US soldiers were killed during the Karbala attack and subsequent kidnapping attempt. After US and Iraqi security forces closed in on the assault team, the terrorists executed the five US soldiers.
Laith was released as part of negotiations to free five British contractors taken captive by Qais' group. The Brits were kidnapped in early 2007 shortly after Qais was detained by US forces.
The League of the Righteous responded to Laith's release by turning over the bodies of two of the hostages and demanding the return of all of the group's leadership before releasing any other captives. The two hostages were murdered months before their bodies were turned over to the British.
US intelligence officials who directly deal with the Iranian threat in Iraq are dismayed by the release of the Qods Force agents, who they believe will quickly return to initiate attacks on US and Iraqi forces.
The US will continue to release more of these dangerous Iranian agents as time goes by, intelligence officials say.
"If you didn't like the release of Laith and the Irbil Five, you'd better get used to it," one official told The Long War Journal on July 11.