| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| IranÂ’s Revolutionary Guards get new deputy chief |
| 2006-05-02 |
| Tehran, Iran, Apr. 30 – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed on Sunday a senior military intelligence official as the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Islamic Republic’s ideological armed force. In a statement carried by the official news agency, Khamenei appointed Brigadier General Morteza Rezai for the top post. General Rezai was formerly the head of the IRGC’s Counter-Intelligence Directorate. Rezai replaces Brigadier General Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr who was recently appointed as deputy Interior Minister with overall responsibility for internal security. Zolqadr is a protégé and trusted confidant of Khamenei and has had a key role in the country’s security apparatus for years. He is also a staunch ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The IRGC was founded in the early days of the Islamic revolution in 1979 as an armed force loyal to Iran’s clerical rulers. Its commanders directly report to Supreme Leader Khamenei and their mission is to “protect and propagate the Islamic revolution. Since Ahmadinejad took office as President last year, hundreds of senior officers of the IRGC have been seconded to government ministries and state institutions to |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 unpopular at home? "Attack the Joooos or Great Satan. Consequences? We'll worry about that later" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-05-02 22:22 |
| #4 Also why why the government is relying more on the Baseej. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2006-05-02 20:57 |
| #3 I bet he was sent there to purge any RGs who are "unreliable". The trouble is that many of them are draftees, and are kept in their barracks at all times, with just a few RG units shuttled around the country doing all the thug work. This means that he will try to improve loyalty by arresting a bunch of blatant disloyals and executing them. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-05-02 10:30 |
| #2 February 21, 2003 MEMRI Senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards official Hamid Reza Zakiri On Iran's Collaboration with Iraq, North Korea, Al-Qa'ida, and Hizbullah In the interview, conducted outside Iran, Zakiri said that Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, leader of the Egyptian Jihad organization and Osama bin Laden's deputy, established close ties with current deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Brigadier-General Muhammad Bakr Dhu-Al-Qadr, and with current commanders of the Iranian and Al-Quds Forces, part of the Revolutionary Guards; commanders include Ahmad Vahidi and Hussein Muslih, who was former commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon. Zakiri told of bin Laden's stay in the Sudan, during the period when the Iranian Revolutionary Guards maintained an extensive presence there. According to him, Hizbullah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, under the leadership of Fathi Shiqaqi, had a massive presence in the special training camps supervised by Guards officers such as Dhu-Al-Qadr. ................... On Relations Between Iraqi and Iranian Intelligence Al-Sharq Al-Awsat: "It was mentioned that there are close connections between the [Revolutionary] Guards intelligence and Iraq. Is this true? Weren't the Guards in the first rank of the war against Iraq?" Zakiri: "After the [Gulf] war, the [Revolutionary] Guards, commanded by Morteza Rezai, established commercial companies in order to provide work for the Guards personnel and the Basij [paramilitary units loyal to Khamenei that operate together with the Revolutionary Guards." "These companies have been cooperating with the Babil Company, headed by Qusay, Saddam's son, since the mid-1990s. Along with smuggling Iraqi oil and marketing it, these Iranian companies smuggled Iraqi dates. The cooperation between the intelligence of the Guards and Iraq in smuggling and in trade stopped about a year ago. But the Guards intelligence still maintains relations with Uday Saddam's other son and with the Iraqi intelligence, and coordination between the parties on matters such as the siege on the Kurds and confronting the U.S. continues. For example, the Ansar Al-Islam organization in Iraqi Kurdistan won the support and protection of the Guards intelligence and of the intelligence apparatuses of the Iraqi regime." Al-Sharq Al-Awsat: "There are many more questions concerning activities and secrets that you have not so far revealed." Zakiri: "I ask to put off these questions for a while. After I arrange my situation and that of my family, and set myself up in a safe place, I will be willing to answer all your questions." The Iranian Foreign Ministry Responds A source in the Security and Intelligence Ministry in Tehran denied Zakiri's claims regarding the Iranian intelligence apparatuses' relations with Al-Qa'ida and with Osama bin Laden's deputy Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri. The source, who according to the paper wished to remain anonymous, confirmed that Zakiri "was expelled from the ministry because of his behavior, his dubious connections, and his activity in other centers without the knowledge of the Security and Intelligence Ministry." In an attempt to verify Zakiri's identity and statements, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat called Khamenei's office, but an official there refused to discuss the matter, stating that it was an internal office matter. The official also accused Zakiri of "spying, conspiring against Islam and the Islamic Revolution, and collaborating with Zionism and world arrogance [i.e. the U.S.]" The Iranian Foreign Ministry denied that Zakiri was a member of the Iranian security apparatuses, and said that it knew nothing of the recent defection of any top Iranian security official.[6] More News Reports of Other Top-Ranking Defectors Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported further that the Iranian reformist daily E'temad posted on the website Yek Khabar, established by 'Ali Ara Muhammadi, former top security official and deputy director of the Iranian broadcasting authority, an item according to which three top Iranian security system officials had defected recently and taken with them many documents, including video recordings with protocols of investigations of security officials knowledgeable of the assassinations. .........more |
| Posted by: RD 2006-05-02 03:19 |
| #1 Zolqadr's deputy interior minister now? The Tanzanian? Interestingly, if you look at all the IRGC occupying high offices in Iran these days, it looks far more like a traditional junta than it does a theocracy. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-05-02 00:08 |