Recognizing the enemy

Bret Stephens:

On the morning of July 18, 1994, a suicide bomber drove a van into the seven-story Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, murdering 85 people and seriously injuring 151 others. Last November, Argentine Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral issued international arrest warrants for eight men--seven Iranians and one Lebanese--wanted in connection to the bombing. Among them are former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, and three other men with one important point in common: All were, or are, senior officers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

That's something both Democratic politicians and Bush administration policy makers might consider in their respective internal debates over whether the IRGC should officially be designated as a foreign terrorist organization. For the administration, which has been mulling the issue since at least August, a terrorist designation for the IRGC is one further way to penalize Iran unilaterally as efforts to obtain a third round of international sanctions stall at the U.N. Security Council. But the Russians, Chinese and some of the Europeans are said to fiercely oppose the move, in part because much of their business in Iran runs through IRGC-controlled enterprises.

As for the Democrats, fully half their Senate conference--including Hillary Clinton--voted last month in favor of a symbolic amendment to designate the IRGC a terrorist group, albeit after the original text had been stripped of its prescription to "combat, contain and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence" of Iran and its proxies in Iraq. Sen. Clinton defended her vote as a way "to put some teeth into all this talk about dealing with Iran." But the rest of the Democratic presidential field took exception, with John Edwards insisting that "we cannot give this president an inch, not an inch."

There certainly is plenty to say about what consequences might flow from an adverse finding of fact about the IRGC. But there is also the matter of the facts themselves. Following the '94 bombing--which came just two years after the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires had been bombed, killing 22--the Clinton administration wasted little time fingering what it then believed was the likeliest suspect. "I am very distressed that some of our allies . . . do not recognize the full responsibility of Iran for Hezbollah attacks around the world," said then Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

It also became quickly apparent that the two attacks had been coordinated through Iran's embassy in Argentina. In 1998 an Iranian defector to the U.S. named Ahmad Rezai confirmed that "the attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was planned in Tehran." He added that the decision to attack had been made by Mr. Rafsanjani and his top deputies (reportedly at an Aug. 14, 2003 meeting in the Iranian city of Mashad), and that the bombers had been trained for the mission in Lebanon by IRGC officers.

Mr. Rezai was uniquely positioned to know the facts: His father, Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezai, was the commander of the IRGC at the time, and the younger Rezai had accompanied his father to Lebanon to witness the training. Ahmad Rezai has since reportedly returned to Iran, though whether he did so voluntarily or under duress isn't clear. As for Mohsen Rezai, he is among the eight whose arrest is sought by Judge Corral in connection to the 1994 attack.

The second IRGC officer involved in the 1994 attack is Ahmad Reza Asghari (a k a Moshen Randjbaran, and not to be confused with Ali Reza Asghari, a former IRGC commander who either defected or was kidnapped by a foreign intelligence service from Turkey last year). According to the definitive Argentine report on the bombing, Mr. Asghari--officially the third secretary of the Iranian embassy until his abrupt departure from Argentina on July 1--was present at the Aug. 14, 2003 meeting with Mr. Rafsanjani. Mr. Asghari is described in the report on the bombing as the man "responsible for activating the clandestine networks of Iranians in Argentina."

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That Iran has been at war with the US since 1979 is not arguable. That Iran has also been making acts of war against Jews in Argentina just demonstrates how deranged the regime is. By what measure are Jews in Argentina a threat to Iran?

When John Edwards says he does not want to give an inch with respect to recognizing the evils of Iran, he is demonstrated the moral poverty of some Democrats. He is in the group that thinks ignoring evil will make it go away. Hillary Clinton is little better. He at least recognizes the evil, but wants to make sure that we do nothing beyond talking about. Talking with Iran is worse than talking to a stump. At least the stump is not plotting our destruction during the conversation.