Failed Bombings in Thailand, India Indicate Weaknesses in Iranian Espionage
Posted in 2012 Elections on February 21st, 2012 by admin – Be the first to commentSix people have been named as suspects in an alleged Iranian bomb plot targeting Israeli diplomats in Bangkok, Thailand, last week. Though the suspects mistakenly set off the explosives while inside their house, the homemade, improvised bombs matched those used in twin attacks the day before in New Delhi, India, and Tbilisi, Georgia. The device in New Delhi, planted on a car door, left four people wounded; the device in Georgia was defused. Israel has accused Iran of being behind the attacks, which Tehran denies. But the method used in Thailand, India and Georgia looked a lot like that used to assassinate an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran last month, for which Iran blames Israel. And according to Michael Eisenstadt , director of the Military and Security Studies Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, that strongly suggests Iranian involvement, even though he cautioned that only forensics can tell for sure. “The Iranians place great emphasis on reciprocity in the relationship to the outside world,” said Eisenstadt. “They are always tit for tat.” “These attacks basically send the message: You killed our scientists with these kinds of bombs, we’ll kill your diplomats with these kinds of bombs,” he said. “It’s almost a modus operandi of the way the Iranians work. They very often use the same mode to strike back at their enemies.” Eisenstadt pointed to three Iranian intelligence and paramilitary organizations that could be behind the attacks: the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the primary Iranian intelligence agency; the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the military founded to protect the country’s Islamic system; and the Qods Force, which is nominally a part of the IRGC, but in fact operates independently and covertly beyond the borders of Iran. The IRGC and the Qods force, Eisenstadt explained, often work in coordination with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group regarded by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. Eisenstadt mentioned the collaboration between Hezbollah and the Iranian government in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as an example. That attack killed 85 people and left 300 others wounded.