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Jewish World Review March 13, 2003 / 9 Adar II, 5763
Michael Ledeen
Iran: Nuclear suicide bombers?
Much of this information has been in the hands of the
United States government, including some that has not been
made public - including reports of a clandestine heavy
water project, and the identities of numerous nuclear
physicists and technicians from the former Soviet empire,
above all Ukraine.
Just a few weeks ago, Georgia's President Eduard
Shevardnadze warned the world that top Georgian atomic
experts had gone to Iran to work, and he was greatly
alarmed at the discovery.
As we contemplate the significance of this "breaking news,"
keep two main points in mind.
1) The relationship between Iran and North Korea is
still underappreciated. Many people laughed at President
Bush when he included North Korea in the Axis of Evil.
They are not laughing today, but they still have not
understood the intimacy of the relationship between
Pyongyang and Tehran.
Iran has had many teams working with the North Koreans
for years now. Iran has tested North Korean missiles, while
North Koreans have dug a tunnel network around the west
and north of Tehran, so that the Iranians can conduct
activities safe from the prying eyes of our spy satellites.
And the North Koreans have helped the Iranians with their
nuclear program as well, which is one of the reasons Iran
has advanced so rapidly.
Moreover, the Iranians have fully appreciated the effect of
"going nuclear." They think the North Koreans have
buffaloed the United States, and they believe Iran will only
be able to stand up to American power if they possess
nuclear weapons.
2) The mullahs are determined to obliterate Israel.
Former President (and actual strongman) Hashemi
Rafsanjani gave a speech many months ago in which he
said that the moment Iran obtained nuclear bombs, they
would be used to destroy Israel. He added that even if
Israel responded in kind, and wiped out Iran in its entirety,
it would still be an enormous net gain for Islam: Nearly half
the Jews in the world would be killed, but only a small
percentage of the world's Muslims would die in a nuclear
exchange.
Many will say that this is sheer bravado, but not so long
ago suicide terrorism was inconceivable to most of the
experts. Remember that international airline security was
based on the premise that nobody would get on an airplane
if they knew it was sabotaged. Thus, the key to security
was insuring that every suitcase on the plane was
accompanied by its owner.
That guaranteed safety - unless a new kind of terrorist
emerged, a killer prepared to sacrifice his or her own life in
order to kill large numbers of infidels.
Suicide terrorism was not invented in Iran (I believe it was
first used in India and Bangladesh), but the Iranians took it
to a new level of effectiveness when they sent trucks into
the American Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut,
Lebanon in the mid 1980s. The cult of suicidal "martyrdom"
was openly embraced by the Ayatollah Khomeni's regime,
and as recently as last autumn, government-sponsored
rallies in Tehran had sign-up tables for suicidal volunteers.
All of this brings us back to the fundamental, unanswered
questions about our war against terrorism: Why are we
doing nothing to support the Iranian people's efforts to rid
themselves of their monstrous regime? How can it be that
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage publicly
claims that Iran is a "democracy"? Why are we making
deals with Iranian-sponsored Shi'ites regarding the future
government of Iraq?
The true nature of the Iranian regime is obvious to anyone
with a minimum of curiosity: It tops the State Department's
list of countries that sponsor terrorism. It is now public
knowledge that the mullahs are literally hell-bent on
producing nuclear weapons.
Will we finally move against all the components of the Axis
of Evil, or must we wait until President Bush's analysis is
confirmed by a new act of horror?
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