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Is it high time for a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities? A distinguished panel has joined us today to discuss this issue. Our guests are:Michael A. Ledeen, a resident scholar at the American Enterprises Institute and a contributor to The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of Machiavelli on Modern Leadership and Tocqueville on American Character. His new book is The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots' Quest for Destruction.
Rohan Gunaratna, the author of Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror. He is Head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore.
Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney, the co-author with Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely of Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror. He is a retired Air Force Fighter Pilot who has been a Fox News Military Analyst for the last four and a half years and continues to appear regularly on Fox.Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest ranking intelligence official ever to have defected from the Soviet bloc. In 1989, Romania's president Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were executed at the end of a trial where most of the accusations had come word-for-word out of Pacepa's book, Red Horizons, republished in 27 countries. Pacepa's newest book is Programmed to Kill: Lee Harvey Oswald, the Soviet KGB, and the Kennedy Assassination.
Steve Schippert, co-founder of the Center for Threat Awareness and managing editor for ThreatsWatch.org.
and
Thomas Joscelyn, an expert on the international terrorist network. He has written extensively on al Qaeda and its allies, including Iran. He is the author, most recently, of Iran’s Proxy War Against America, a booklet published by the Claremont Institute and available for download at its web site. (Click here to download the booklet.)
FP: Steve Schippert, Thomas Joscelyn, Michael A. Ledeen, Rohan Gunaratna, Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney and Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, welcome to Frontpage Symposium.
Rohan Gunaratna, let’s begin with you. The evidence suggests that negotiations with Tehran have failed and that there is no alternative but for the U.S. to launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.Do you concur?
Gunaratna: Attacking Iran will be much more devastating for the United States than attacking Iraq.
Iran will retaliate with strikes against US targets both in the US mainland and overseas. Furthermore, Iran is next door to Afghanistan and to Iraq, the two most important theatres of conflict for the US and the West.
Iran is holding over 100 Al Qaeda leaders, members and their families in detention. This includes Saif al Adel, head of security and intelligence, Abu Hafs al Mauritani, head of the fatwa committee, Abdel Aziz al Masri, head of WMD committee, and Abu Mohamed al Masri, the head of the training committee and other prominent and capable leaders. This includes Saad bin Laden, the son of Osama and two of his wives and other significant figures very close to the Al Qaeda leader such as Abu Khyer al Masri, Al Qaeda's key negotiator with Iran. The quality of Al Qaeda members in detention in Iran is much higher than those operating in FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas that run along the Pakistan-Afghan border). Iran is likely to release these leaders, members and family members with arms, explosives and finances to strike the US and its Allies.
The US must refrain from over-reacting. There are many methods to subdue an adversary without attacking him.
FP: Thank you Dr. Gunaratna. I just want to follow up with you for a moment and hopefully you can crystallize a few things.
Thomas Joscelyn, an expert on the international terrorist network. He has written extensively on al Qaeda and its allies, including Iran. He is the author, most recently, of Iran’s Proxy War Against America, a booklet published by the Claremont Institute and available for download at its web site. (Click here to download the booklet.)
FP: Steve Schippert, Thomas Joscelyn, Michael A. Ledeen, Rohan Gunaratna, Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney and Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, welcome to Frontpage Symposium.
Rohan Gunaratna, let’s begin with you. The evidence suggests that negotiations with Tehran have failed and that there is no alternative but for the U.S. to launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.Do you concur?
Gunaratna: Attacking Iran will be much more devastating for the United States than attacking Iraq.
Iran will retaliate with strikes against US targets both in the US mainland and overseas. Furthermore, Iran is next door to Afghanistan and to Iraq, the two most important theatres of conflict for the US and the West.
Iran is holding over 100 Al Qaeda leaders, members and their families in detention. This includes Saif al Adel, head of security and intelligence, Abu Hafs al Mauritani, head of the fatwa committee, Abdel Aziz al Masri, head of WMD committee, and Abu Mohamed al Masri, the head of the training committee and other prominent and capable leaders. This includes Saad bin Laden, the son of Osama and two of his wives and other significant figures very close to the Al Qaeda leader such as Abu Khyer al Masri, Al Qaeda's key negotiator with Iran. The quality of Al Qaeda members in detention in Iran is much higher than those operating in FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas that run along the Pakistan-Afghan border). Iran is likely to release these leaders, members and family members with arms, explosives and finances to strike the US and its Allies.
The US must refrain from over-reacting. There are many methods to subdue an adversary without attacking him.
FP: Thank you Dr. Gunaratna. I just want to follow up with you for a moment and hopefully you can crystallize a few things.
Scholars such as Thomas Joscelyn have documented that Iran has been waging war on us for a long time and part of this war has involved Iran’s cooperation with Al Qaeda. Why is Iran holding Al Qaeda leaders in detention when Al Qaeda serves the interests of Iran in terms of doing damage to the “Great Satan”? And if Iran could hurt the U.S. by exploiting these leaders and releasing them etc., surely it would have already done so, no? If not, why hasn't it done so?
More than anything else, what sense does it make for us not to provoke a country that has long ago declared war on us and that is hurting us, and is also planning to hurt us more – and God knows in what horrible way?
Gunaratna: Yes, Iran has been working against the U.S.
However, since the rise of the Taliban in 1996, Iran has not sponsored Al Qaeda and its associated groups. Iran has sponsored Shia groups - Lebanese Hezbollah globally and Jaysh-e- Madhi in Iraq - and the Sunni Palestianian groups - Hamas, PIJ, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.
Iranian intelligence services - MOIS and IRGC - are anti-US.
We have seen no evidence of direct Iranian sponsorship of Al Qaeda or its associated groups. Iran is fully aware of the dangers of supporting Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in Iraq. Both these groups may one day attack Iran and its interests.
More than anything else, what sense does it make for us not to provoke a country that has long ago declared war on us and that is hurting us, and is also planning to hurt us more – and God knows in what horrible way?
Gunaratna: Yes, Iran has been working against the U.S.
However, since the rise of the Taliban in 1996, Iran has not sponsored Al Qaeda and its associated groups. Iran has sponsored Shia groups - Lebanese Hezbollah globally and Jaysh-e- Madhi in Iraq - and the Sunni Palestianian groups - Hamas, PIJ, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.
Iranian intelligence services - MOIS and IRGC - are anti-US.
We have seen no evidence of direct Iranian sponsorship of Al Qaeda or its associated groups. Iran is fully aware of the dangers of supporting Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in Iraq. Both these groups may one day attack Iran and its interests.
By Jamie Glazov
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