“The Martyrs’ Shop”
Thomas Joscelyn reports on what has become of the former American Embassy in Teheran:
Recently, the Italian daily newspaper Il Giornale carried a fascinating account of Iran’s drive to recruit suicide bombers. Gian Micalessin, an Il Giornale journalist, paid a visit to the martyrs’ shop,” which is “located inside the old embassy of the Great Satan (former US Embassy in Tehran) itself.” The account includes startling details about Iran’s role in promulgating what I will call “the suicide bomber cult.” Because this account is not widely available here in the U.S., I will share portions of a government translation I came across.
The most interesting part of Micalessin’s account is his interview with Mohammad Samadi, “the brains behind Iran’s militant suicide bombers and their spokesman.” Samadi is the founder of Iran’s “Department for the Commemoration of World Martyrs” and he freely admits that the martyrs have been targeting American forces in Iraq. In particular, he discusses recruiting martyrs to strike Americans in Karbala and al-Najaf, two Shiite cities about 100 to 160 km south of Baghdad and just to the west of the Euphrates:
“Two years ago when we were gathering the first signatures of youngsters ready for martyrdom to hound the Americans out of the holy places of Karbala and of al-Najaf, the initiative was merely symbolic. But there were really very many volunteers and so we set up a full fledged organization to gather together and offer serious professional training to all those who want to sacrifice their lives on the Palestinian front, on the Iraqi front, or even to take part in the killing of author Salman Rushdie. But in the event of US (military) intervention (in Iran), we will swing into action here too.”
At some point soon, it will be necessary for the Bush Administration to set in motion the machinery that takes our confrontation with Iran to the next level.
I do not wish to see a military campaign against Iran, but I don’t see how the issue can be avoided. It certainly can’t be deferred by the same timetable that Saddamite Iraq was.
