EDITORIAL
Terrorism against Iran
Published Oct 29, 2009 8:33 PM
What was Washington’s role in the Oct. 18 bombing in Iran that killed 29
people? Among the dead were a top officer and four other senior officers of the
Republican Guard who were meeting with Sunni and Shiite leaders in Sarbaz, a
city in the province of Sistan and Baluchestan near Iran’s southeastern
border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
An anti-government group named Jundallah, based over the Pakistan border,
claimed responsibility. When Iranian officials blamed the attack on the U.S.
and Britain for backing groups like Jundallah, spokespeople for these
imperialist governments denied any involvement. The bulk of the imperialist
media treated the Iranian claims with their usual disdain.
But a look at the record shows that Iran’s accusations are perfectly
reasonable.
As 2007 was ending, the U.S. Congress approved and funded a Bush administration
plan to support, with logistics and money, organizations inside Iran—and
those operating in border areas—that take direct action against the
Iranian government. In other words, the U.S.—and one can assume the
British, too—bankroll anti-Iran groups that the U.S. itself lists as
“terrorists” in order to destabilize Iran.
A Seymour Hersh article in the June 8, 2008, issue of the New Yorker magazine
cited a conversation with former CIA clandestine officer Robert Baer that made
it specific: “According to Baer and to press reports, the Jundallah is
among the groups in Iran that are benefiting from U.S. support.” Other
armed groups were also getting U.S. aid, and there is nothing to show that the
aid has stopped under the new U.S. administration. Hersh’s sources were
not the only experts to have exposed U.S. contacts with such terrorist
groups.
Following the Iranian election last June, the U.S. government and corporate
media gave wall-to-wall support to the unsubstantiated charge that the election
was fraudulent. It was another orchestrated attempt to destabilize Iran’s
government. Washington also made sure that Twitter didn’t shut down for
maintenance during the demonstrations in Tehran, as the Internet service was
useful to those organizing protests. But this latest bombing is evidence that
U.S. intervention doesn’t stop at Twitter. It involves a constant threat
of massive bombardment, joint military maneuvers with the Israeli air force,
economic sanctions, continuous anti-Iranian media coverage and the funding of
armed terrorist groups.
Never to be forgotten is the economic motive behind such devious and violent
behavior: The imperialist drive for superprofits that would flow from control
over the vast riches, especially sources of energy, in the Middle East and
Central Asia. And every dollar the multibillionaire class gains abroad is used
to increase their domination over the workers at home, who are forced to pay
for these imperialist adventures and reap nothing but more layoffs,
foreclosures and budget cuts.
That’s why we say: U.S. imperialism, hands off Iran!
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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