Summary
The Bush administration's decision to designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite military arm of the radical Islamist regime in Tehran, as a "specially designated global terrorist" (SDGT) organization strikes a huge blow against one of the world's most deadly jihadist groups. The IRGC, through its longstanding relationship with Hezbollah, has the blood of hundreds of Americans on its hands - among them the 241 American servicemen who were killed in the Oct. 23, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. In essence, SDGT designation will treat the Revolutionary Guards, who are heavily involved in obtaining nuclear weapons technology and supporting terrorist organizations, much the same as the Cali and Medellin drug cartels, making it possible to move relatively quickly to seize the organization's business assets - which are substantial. Federal officials said that the IRGC would become the first military branch of a national government to be included on the terrorism list - which generally consists of non-state actors.
Earlier this year, Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (a former deputy assistant secretary of the treasury specializing in terrorism-finance issues) wrote in The Washington Times that "applying targeted financial measures against the IRGC represents the kind of regime-hostile, people-friendly sanction that punishes those engaged in offensive behavior without harming the average Iranian citizen.. Moreover, the IRGC controls vast financial assets and economic resources While most of the actual funds and assets are in Iran and beyond seizure, the IRGC's business and industrial activities - especially those connected to the oil and gas industries - are heavily dependent on the international financial system." In other words, these are precisely the kind of projects where Iranian regime elites are vulnerable to American and international economic pressure. These Revolutionary Guards projects include a contract worth $1.3 billion to build parts of a pipeline and another worth more than $2 billion to develop part of the South Pars natural-gas field.See the full content of this document
Extract
Serial Killers of Americans
The IRGC - which reports directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - operates its own navy and special-force...
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