Crouching Terrorists, Hidden Danger...

Iranian defector reveals sleeper-cell threat:

Intelligence debriefing tells of vast jihadist network ready to be unleashed
Publishing Date: 06.03.07 17:44

Britain's MI6 intelligence HQLONDON - In an intelligence coup, officers of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, have debriefed a senior member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Intelligence Department, which reports directly to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The defector earlier this year brought with him stunning confirmation that, in addition to pressing ahead with his nuclear program, the hard-line Ahmadinejad a year ago ordered the creation of a vast network of sleeper cells ready to be unleashed at the first sign of any attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

The cells are not only entrenched in the Middle East, but extend into Europe and Britain.

Western intelligence chiefs, who have been given a transcript of the debriefing, regard the revelations as, in the words of one, "containing significant details which until now we were not aware of."

The importance of the defector - identified only as "N" in the transcript - was confirmed by Meir Dagan, director of Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, who was in London last weekend. With him was the head of Israel's Iran Command, Elyezer Shkedy. They met with MI6 chief John Scarlett to discuss the information the Iranian defector had provided. Dagan is widely respected within MI6 for his insights into the threat Iran poses. Already six years into his post, Dagan has agreed to extend his stay as Mossad chief until "at least the end of 2008." Shkedy is a former F-16 fighter pilot who is head of the Israeli Air Force. He created Iran Command last year and it is staffed with the finest pilots in Israel's air force. In his war of words, Ahmadinejad last weekend likened Iran's harnessing of nuclear technology as "a train which has no brake and no reverse gear." But the defector's report revealed the full extent of Tehran's ability to launch its sleeper agents if Iran Command were to launch a strike to defend Israel against an attack by Tehran's Shabtai-3 missiles. The MI6 document claims there is "now an estimated 500,000 Iranians living outside the country who have had training in intelligence skills." The majority are Shia members of politically disenfranchised communities where Sunni rulers discreetly support American efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program. They include the United Arab Emirates. "Although most of the Gulf States oppose any Israeli/US attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, they privately fear that with nuclear weapons Iran would dominate the entire Middle East," states the report. Yet Ahmadinejad's very intransigence has made the possibility of an attack by Israel or America that much more likely. But such a pre-emptive attack would be harder with the arrival in Tehran of the Russian-made Tor MI anti-aircraft missile system as part of an arms deal signed between Moscow and Tehran last year. Before Dagan left London after dinner at the Traveller's Club - long a haunt for MI6 spooks - he told his hosts: "Alas, this is the age of pre-emption. The Jewish people have not forgotten the last time the world watched and did nothing. That led to the Holocaust. Doing nothing again is not an option for us."

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Gordon Thomas, a regular contributor to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, is the author of "Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad," the new edition of which was published in January 2007. He specializes in international intelligence matters.