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Iran Focus
 Washington,
DC, Oct. 24 – Agents of Iran’s notorious Ministry of Intelligence
and Security (MOIS) have entered United States soil and are planning to hold
a conference to spread “disinformation” and “sow the seeds
of terrorism within the American homeland”, a leading Iran policy group
announced in a statement on Monday.
The Washington-based Iran Policy Committee (IPC) said that the panel was
“a disinformation ploy mounted by the new president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is mobilizing
Iranian intelligence services in a world-wide series of probes against the United States”.
"Just as Ahmadinejad's intelligence activities came before insurgent
attacks in Iraq, so
Iranian intelligence actions in the United States may signal
terrorist attacks on the American homeland", the group’s executive
director, Clare Lopez, warned.
The IPC introduced Karim Haqi (a.k.a. Karim Haggi Moni) as one such veteran
MOIS agent, who was heading to the U.S.
capital from the Netherlands.
Separately, the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran
(NCRI) issued a statement condemning the “MOIS ploy”, which it
said was organised by intelligence agents posing as former members and
officials of the opposition group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK). The NCRI said that
Haqi had been “used by the regime for espionage and terrorist schemes
as well as disseminating false information against the Iranian opposition in
the past 10 years”.
“Haqi is supported and financed by the MOIS directly from Tehran and is in contact with other MOIS agents in Europe. In order to keep these contacts secret, he met
with MOIS officials in East Asia, including Singapore”, it said, adding
that Haqi had on several occasions been interrogated and warned by Dutch
police for his contacts and collaboration as well as receiving money from the
MOIS.
The IPC introduced two other “MOIS agents” taking part in
Monday’s conference as Amir-Hossein Kord Rostami and Mahrokh (Parvin)
Haji, both from Canada.
Haji, according to the group, “maintains active links with a network of
agents in Canada and Europe. The Pars-Iran association, which is the
organizer of the October 24, 2005 press conference in Washington,
is a front for Iranian intelligence in Canada”.
Rostami, another Iranian intelligence agent in Ottawa,
was officially a member of Iran's
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IGRC) near the Caspian
Sea since 1979, it said.
In the summer of 1981, Rostami took part in search-and-arrest operations
against the MeK and their supporters in the town of Gorgan, northern Iran,
the NCRI said, adding that in 1986, the MOIS assigned him to infiltrate the
ranks of the MeK, though his identity was soon discovered leading to his
expulsion. Rostami was also in charge of the Iranian embassy's “Fatemeh
Cultural Centre” library in Canada for some time.
In its statement, the NCRI urged U.S.
authorities not to allow “the Godfather of terrorism and the most
active state sponsor of terrorism” to turn U.S. territory into a
“centre for its activities against Iranian exiles and
dissidents”.
The IPC said that the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services should block entry of additional Iranian agents onto U.S. soil,
and called on the Department of State to revoke visas and expel the
“three Iranian intelligence agents - Karim Haqi, Mahrukh (Parvin) Haji,
and Amir-Hossein Kord Rostami”.
It also suggested that the FBI assign additional agents to monitor activities
of Iran's
intelligence officials on American soil, with a view towards eliminating
their presence.
Bruce McColm, co-Chair of the IPC stated, "As part of a global campaign,
Ahmadinejad accelerated attacks against Iranian dissidents abroad.
Traditionally, intelligence operations by Iran's Ministry of Intelligence
and Security preceded assassination attempts by its agents”.
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