The Secret War Against Iran

[Tubal-Cain]

The Secret War Against Iran

A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News.

The group, called Jundullah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran.

It has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials.

U.S. officials say the U.S. relationship with Jundullah is arranged so that the U.S. provides no funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or "finding" as well as congressional oversight.

Tribal sources tell ABC News that money for Jundullah is funneled to its youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi, through Iranian exiles who have connections with European and Gulf states.

Jundullah has produced its own videos showing Iranian soldiers and border guards it says it has captured and brought back to Pakistan.

The leader, Regi, claims to have personally executed some of the Iranians.

"He used to fight with the Taliban. He's part drug smuggler, part Taliban, part Sunni activist," said Alexis Debat, a senior fellow on counterterrorism at the Nixon Center and an ABC News consultant who recently met with Pakistani officials and tribal members.

"Regi is essentially commanding a force of several hundred guerrilla fighters that stage attacks across the border into Iran on Iranian military officers, Iranian intelligence officers, kidnapping them, executing them on camera," Debat said.

Most recently, Jundullah took credit for an attack in February that killed at least 11 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard riding on a bus in the Iranian city of Zahedan.

Last month, Iranian state television broadcast what it said were confessions by those responsible for the bus attack.

They reportedly admitted to being members of Jundullah and said they had been trained for the mission at a secret location in Pakistan.

The Iranian TV broadcast is interspersed with the logo of the CIA, which the broadcast blamed for the plot.

A CIA spokesperson said "the account of alleged CIA action is false" and reiterated that the U.S. provides no funding of the Jundullah group.

Pakistani government sources say the secret campaign against Iran by Jundullah was on the agenda when Vice President Dick Cheney met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in February.

A senior U.S. government official said groups such as Jundullah have been helpful in tracking al Qaeda figures and that it was appropriate for the U.S. to deal with such groups in that context.

Some former CIA officers say the arrangement is reminiscent of how the U.S. government used proxy armies, funded by other countries including Saudi Arabia, to destabilize the government of Nicaragua in the 1980s.

[Leonard]

Well, I hope our government has the good sense to do this! However, given the level of ineptitude it has displayed in almost EVERYTHING; I doubt the Bush administration is actually doing something this worthwhile and intelligent.

[refugepsa91]

Last month, Iranian state television broadcast what it said were confessions by those responsible for the bus attack.

They reportedly admitted to being members of Jundullah and said they had been trained for the mission at a secret location in Pakistan

Of course they confessed...they were in iranian custody.

Love and Blessings,

Angel

[Guest yod]

The naivety of Bush-haters is astounding...

[Oh Hamburgers!]

I hope this isn't real...

[Guest yod]

I hope this isn't real...

I hope there is a concerted effort for more things like this to overthrow the current Iranian administration.

[Oh Hamburgers!]

I hope this isn't real...

I hope there is a concerted effort for more things like this to overthrow the current Iranian administration.

What, fund and support radicals and state enemies for our own political purposes, and then turn around and condemn those same people which we used?

I'm getting deja vu.

[Tubal-Cain]

Don't worry Hamburgers, these types of operations never backfire

[nebula]

I think if it were possible to review history and be able to know all the underhanded, behind-the-curtain, secret maneuvers of all the governments throughout all time, I do believe we would be quite stunned.

[Oh Hamburgers!]

I think if it were possible to review history and be able to know all the underhanded, behind-the-curtain, secret maneuvers of all the governments throughout all time, I do believe we would be quite stunned.

I agree. The funny part is, the ones we do know about have usually led us to conflict in the future. Allies don't stay allies forever.