DENIS ROGATYUK: The fight to bring Julian home has been a monumental challenge since his unjust conviction. But it has certainly become much more difficult since his expulsion from the Ecuadorian embassy in March 2019. What have been the primary actions that you and the campaign have undertaken since then?

JOHN SHIPTON: Well we fight against the United Kingdom, Sweden, the United States, and to a certain extent Australia. They have marshaled all of their forces and broken every law in human rights and due process in order to send Julian to the United States and destroy him.

Before our eyes, we have watched the gradual murder of Julian through psychological torture, through ceaseless breaking of procedures and due process. So that is what we fight against.

During the latest hearing, the judge Barrett asked Julian to prove that he was unwell, that he didnt come onto the video. So again, we see a process that we witness over and over again, blaming the victim.

In the case of Australia, the Australians say that theyve offered consular assistance. When I say the Australians, DFAT (the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), and the prime minister, and the foreign minister, Marise Payne, say that they have consular assistance over and over again. Their consular assistance consists offering last weeks newspaper and to see if hes still alive. Thats about the extent of it.

So consular assistance, I think they maintain, DFAT maintains that theyve made 100 offers. Well this is a profound testimony to failure.

Its now 11 years; Julian has been arbitrarily detained 11 years. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that Julian was arbitrarily detained, and should be compensated and freed straightaway.

The latest of their reports was February 2018. It is now 2020 and Julian is still in maximum security Belmarsh prison under lockdown 23 hours a day.

DENIS ROGATYUK: And how would you describe the relationship between the current campaign for his release and the Wikileaks organisation?

JOHN SHIPTON: Well WikiLeaks continues its work and continues to hold the most extraordinary library of the American, United States diplomacy since 1970. Its an extraordinary artifact that any journalist or any historian, any of us can look up the names of those who have been involved in diplomacy with the United States, in their own countries or with the United States. This is a great resource. It continues to be maintained.

Just the week before last, WikiLeaks released another set of files, so WikiLeaks continues its work.

The people who defend Julian include Wikileaks, but include 100,000 people all around the world who are working constantly to bring about Julians freedom and stop this oppression of the free press, of publication, of publishers, and of journalists. We work constantly to do that.

There are about 80 websites around the world that publish and agitate for Julians freedom. And about 86 Facebook pages devoted to Julian. So there are many of us. And the upswelling of support continues, despite Covid. Covid slowed us down a little bit. Now that Covid-19 is withdrawing, the upswelling continues.

And it will do so until the Australian Government and the United Kingdom recognise that this is the crime, the oppression of Julian, is the great crime of the 21st century.

DENIS ROGATYUK: The latest superseding indictment of Julian regarding the alleged conspiracy with unnamed anonymous hackers appears to be another attempt to fast-track his extradition. Do you believe this is a symptom of desperation on the part of the Department of Justice of the United States?

JOHN SHIPTON: No I dont. The people who work in the Department of Justice get paid, whether this succeeds or not. Whether Julian is extradited they get paid; if hes not extradited they still get paid. They still go home, and have a glass of wine, take the kids to the movies, and then come to work the next day, and think up another instrument of torture for Julian. This is their job.

So I dont know why, but I could speculate or guess, if you like, that the Department of Justice would like to see the trial delayed, the hearing delayed, until after the American election (in November 2020). So there will be appeals by the lawyers in court that they havent had time to accommodate and that the judge, they asked the judge to move the hearing date. Thats what I imagine.

But I dont think its an act of desperation at all. If anything it is giving us who defend Julian more things to worry about, so that our energies are not focused singularly upon getting Julian out. So the conversation drifts over to this further indictment and about who is included in it.

It is Siggi and Sabu, both of whom are not credible witnesses. Siggi (Sigurdur Thordarson, or Siggi hakkari) is a convicted sex offender, a con man, who stole $50,000 from Wikileaks and so on. There are not credible witnesses (to these allegations). I guess that it is either to delay the hearing and or to cause the conversation to drift away from what is important.

DENIS ROGATYUK: I wish to move to the second part of our interview now, exploring Julians life.

A lot has been researched and published about Julians life and early days in the 1990s. I would like to discuss the aspects of his life that have given him the resilience and the strength to withstand the challenges that he faces now.

Julian is incredibly committed to telling the truth in his interviews. He is very articulate and he is very careful about communicating and choosing the exact words to describe things. Is this something that his family taught him or is it something special about Julian?

JOHN SHIPTON: I dont really know, you know, it is sort of a gift that I would like to have myself. So I dont know where it came from. I guess you would have to ask the gods, maybe they know the answer.

The path he has forged is distinct and distinctly his. I admire and am proud of him for his capacity to adapt, and his capacity to continue fighting, despite 11 years of ceaseless psychological torture. That doesnt come without cost. It cost him a lot.

However, we believe that we will prevail. And Julian will be able to come home to Australia, and maybe live in Mullumbimby for a little bit, or in Melbourne; he used to live here down the corner.

Oh actually I dont like the word, if I may withdraw that sentence, I dont like the word hope. Hope sort of makes a really nice breakfast, and a bad dinner. So we will prevail in this fight is what I would say.

DENIS ROGATYUK: Julian displayed incredible physical and mental resilience these past 9 years, particularly nearly 8 years he spent in the Ecuadorian embassy and this past year in the Belmarsh prison. Where do you think this strength is coming from his moral and political convictions or something he developed in his early life in Australia?

JOHN SHIPTON: I think its a gift that he has, that he will continue to fight for what he believes. And if there are elements of truth in what he is fighting for, well then he never surrenders. Its an aspect of character.

I dont mind in fact myself, but I am invigorated by fighting for Julian. And each insult or offence against Julian increases my determination to prevail, and the determination of Julians supporters to prevail. Each insult increases our strength.

And so you can see, when the second a lot of indictments were brought down week before last, supporters around the world raised their voices in disbelief, and began again to raise awareness of Julians situation.

So its really interesting, the Department of Justice might think one thing that it causes us to fracture, but what actually happens is the upswelling of support continues unabated.

DENIS ROGATYUK: John, I wish to ask you a more personal question. How does it feel to be the father of a man like Julian, and to see his son son go through all this hardship and slander, and to keep traveling and fighting for his liberation across the world?

JOHN SHIPTON: Well some of it is hard to believe, what people say about Julian. You know those American politicians are shooting, and you know the UC Global employees in Spain, who were supposed to look after the security of the Ecuadorian embassy, who speculated on how to poison Julian at the behest of CIA and Mossad and Sheldon Adelson, whatever whatever you want to call those bunch of creeps.

Im surprised, but you know I ignore it. For myself I take not the slightest bit of notice. Im surprised that people put their energies into calling Julian names, and theyve never met him, never even set eyes on him, some people, and yet they find the time and energy to write scurrilous things.

I think maybe they dont have anybody to go out with, or theres no friends at home, or something like that, or their their wife cant stand them, so they go down the backyard with their laptops and write scurrilous things about Julian or whatever, or their neighbors dog.

Im very surprised that people put the energy into that sort of thing.

DENIS ROGATYUK: But how does it feel to keep this campaign for a liberation going? Because you have done a lot of travel around the world; you have been advocating for his release everywhere you go. So what has that journey been like for you, personally?

JOHN SHIPTON: Uh Denis, I dont count the costs, not even for a minute. I do what Im here today with you, I do what comes before me, and then I go on to the next thing. But I never, ever count costs.

DENIS ROGATYUK: And for the last part of our interview I wanted to actually discuss your thoughts and your opinions on some of the more important and more prominent issues of our day.

Ever since the extradition hearings began, against Julian, the US government, particularly Trump, Mike Pence, and Mike Pompeo, have been doubling down on their attacks against Julian and WikiLeaks. Pompeo even called it a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.

The US establishment appears to be dead set against them, and both major parties are playing along. So what do you think ought to be the strategy of activists and journalists in the US to challenge this?

JOHN SHIPTON: Well first of all, Mike Pompeo, dear oh dear, I mean a failed secretary of state and a failed CIA director, declares war on WikiLeaks in order to get the CIA support for his future ambitions to run for president. And he moves now from secretary of state to the Senate for Kansas.

The secretary of state is an important position. However Mike Pompeo doesnt strike me as being a historically significant personality.

The US establishment must fall in line with what the CIA wants and thinks. So Pompeo in that address on the (13th) of April 2017 that you just quoted, he just wants to get all of his workers to support him in his bid for presidency.

And also to oppress and intimidate journalists all over the world, and publishers and publications his sole aim is to ruin your capacity to bring to the public ideas and information, and our capacity as members of the public to talk amongst ourselves and sort out things through conversation with each other, on what we ought to do and how we ought to go about life.

They just want to have it all their own way, declare war on whomever, murder another million people, destroy Yemen, destroy Libya, destroy Iraq, destroy Afghanistan, the list goes on destroy Syria, millions of people refugees, flooding the world, and moving into Europe; the Maghreb in turmoil, the Levant in turmoil, Palestinians murdered this is their aim.

And so for us, we depend upon you to bring us truthful information, so that we can have fair opinions of how the world is moving around us.

What Pompeo wants is for what he says to be believed. Well you can see his history. They say it may be up to 5 million people since 1991 died as a result of the United States and its allies moving on Iraq in an illegal war.

You can watch Collateral Murder and you can see a good samaritan dragging a wounded man into his car to take him to the hospital, taking his children on the way to school, murdered before your eyes. The pilots of the helicopter begging for instructions to be able to shoot a wounded man, two kids, and two good samaritans, begging for instructions from their controller.

So they dont want us to see that. However we depend upon you journalists, publishers, publications to bring to us the crimes that governments commit so that we are energized, so that we place our shoulders to preventing these murders with all of the determination and energy we can muster, to prevent the murder and destruction of an entire country.

If I may remind you, in Melbourne, there were a million people marched against the Iraq War. All over the world I think a total of 10 million people. We dont want war. They lie to us in order to have wars, for whatever satisfaction, I cant make out myself.

Who would want to see and hear the lamentation of widows, the cries of children, the groans of men? Who would want that? Its monstrous.

And so we need the information in order to say no.

DENIS ROGATYUK: The new cold war between the United States and the European Union on one side and China and Russia on the other, threatens to pull the ordinary people of the world into another confrontation on behalf of these political and economic elites among these countries.

From your experience of seeking international support for Julian, what are the best ways of forging solidarity across borders in this new conflict that seems to be developing?

JOHN SHIPTON: I think the best way is to talk to your friends and discuss things, gathering friends and discussing things, becoming aware outside of what the mass communication outlets want us to see and hear.

So just face-to-face conversations and then conversations over social media is sufficient. Each day you will see, the last two weeks, Facebook and YouTube and Twitter removing, as platforms of discussion, certain subjects, and certain YouTube channels. They remove them because we are succeeding, not because nobody watches them, nobody goes there. Its because we are succeeding to educate ourselves as to what governments do in our name.

To bring peace between or fair relationships between the members of the European Union and Australia and China and Russia, ordinary people the Sochi World Cup, soccer world cup, was the greatest success, fabulous success. Everybody who went to Russia came back full of admiration for Russia and Russian hospitality.

Well this is what is needed, just ordinary people getting to know each other and discussing matters of importance, not depending upon CNN or any other talking head for how you should feel about this or that subject. Just talk to friends, talk to groups of people, talk amongst each other, exchange ideas, exchange where to get good information, and things will change.

I have an undying belief in the capacity and goodness of general humanity. And I am proved right every time, because 10 million people marched against the Iraq War, but a few hundred manipulated the nations by blowing up railway stations, what they called terrorism, just a few hundred manipulated those nations into destroying Iraq.

Ordinary people dont want war; we want to be able to just talk to our friends, look after our families, thats all.

DENIS ROGATYUK: And one final question, John. The Covid-19 pandemic has not only revealed the inadequacies of the neoliberal economic order, but it has also revealed its increasing instability and desperation to maintain itself.

This is also true with regards to prominent right-wing governments the United States, Brazil, and Bolivia seeking to silence journalists and reports regarding their mismanagement of the pandemic.

We are seeing independent journalism under attack around the world, through censorship, intimidation threats, and assassinations.

What do you think should be the best way of fighting back against them?

JOHN SHIPTON: These governments, they cant even look after their own populations, let alone order the world in a decent way. And their ambitions are to order the world, while they cant even look after the people of Seattle.

Its just, if it wasnt so tragic, it would be just amusing, you would read about it just to get a laugh every morning.

Of course they oppress the journalists; of course they oppress publications; of course the warrants that allow you to broadcast on a certain spectrum are removed; platforms are removed. Because we continue to understand and expose their shortcomings.

The shortcomings are criminal. They actually consider the phrase herd immunity to be something scientific. They actually contemplate allowing hundreds of thousands of old people or older people to die. And they use phrases like, Oh well, they had comorbidities. Everybody over 60 has a comorbidity. You dont get older and get weller; you get older and get a little bit sick, or a little bit not so strong.

The actual contemplation of doing away with the steadying part of a society older people steady the young; the young are full of vigor, and the old are full of caution; this is a fair balance in society allowing them to die off, for whatever reason we cant discern. We cannot discern; it doesnt cost any more money to look after a section of society and prevent Covid. You dont lose anything from it; you actually gain access to the experience and judgment of the older section of your society.

So it is incomprehensible, like neoliberalism itself, nobody quite understands why weve got, it but its there.

Denis is a Russian-Australian freelance writer, journalist and researcher. His articles, interviews and analysis have been published in a variety of media sources around the world including Jacobin, Le Vent Se Lve, Sputnik, Green Left Weekly, Links International Journal, Alborada and others.

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Assanges father speaks out, calls oppression of WikiLeaks founder a great crime of 21st century - The Grayzone

Did you know that coins used for criminal activity are also used by WikiLeaks?

Wikileaks.shop, the branch of WikiLeaks that sells merchandise to financially support WikiLeaks, currently accepts BTC, BCH, DASH, ETH, LTC, XMR, and ZEC as payment. Unfortunately, nearly all of these coins have been used by criminals in the past, which puts WikiLeaks, as well as anyone who wishes to pay with one of these currencies at the WikiLeaks.shop, at risk.

Zero transparency is NOT the answer

The problem with a majority of the coins/tokens that WikiLeaks supports is that they allow their users to make transactions off-chain, or are practically 100% anonymous like Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC).

When transactions are not transparent, or the origin of a coin is obfuscated through coin-mixer services, the coin or token becomes attractive to criminals looking to conduct illicit activities.

This places risk on innocent consumers because if they own or receive a privacy coin that has been used for criminal activity, they could, unfortunately, find themselves holding dirty money or stolen property. Sending, receiving, or even owning a privacy coin is like playing a game of hot-potato, if you are caught holding the illicit or dirty coins at the end of the game, theres a good chance you are going to be investigated by a government agency or that you might find yourself in a legal battle over the coins or tokens. Privacy, after all, is not the same as anonymityand in fiats case, cash has serial numbers.

The IRS is aware

The IRS knows that individuals are using privacy coins and off-chain transactions to facilitate crime and launder moneyand they are not happy about it. Recently, the IRS released a request for information on privacy coins and sidechains.

XMR, ZEC, DASH, the BTC Lightning Network, Ethereums Raiden Network, and any coin that has implemented the Schnorr Signature algorithm, such as BCH were all cited in the IRSs request for informationin other words, 6 out of the 7 payment methods that WikiLeaks accepts are on the IRSs radar.

To quote Jon Southurst, who wrote, If its private for you then its just as private for those who would do you harm, including large criminal organizations, powerful-but-corrupt governments and officials, and large corporate bad actors.

If a coin or token is appealing to you for privacy or security reasons, it is also going to be appealing to criminals looking to do harm. When transactions are not transparent or are nearly impossible to track, criminals see the coin or token as the perfect vehicle to commit crime and cover their tracksor even better, leave no tracks behind. However, governments of the world are now imposing more and more regulation, which is why the Bitcoin SV platform is designed from scratch to work inside this inevitable situationits the only possible outcome so Bitcoin designed itself for it.

New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeeksBitcoin for Beginnerssection, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoinas originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamotoand blockchain.

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WikiLeaks accepts criminal coins and tokens - CoinGeek

Even amid the endless torrent of malevolent incompetence that characterizes the Boss Trump regime, some days stand out. One such was his Friday night commutation of career lowlife Roger Stones 40-month sentence for lying to Congress, obstructing a congressional investigation and witness tampering. The federal judge who handed it down described Stones crimes as covering up for the president.

Specifically, he obstructed the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In the immediate aftermath, Stone bragged to veteran journalist Howard Fineman about why he lied and who he was protecting. He (Trump) knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didnt.

Turn on him, that is, by fully describing his own and Trumps conversations about WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign, when Julian Assange served as a cats paw for Russian intelligence by publishing the Democratic National Committees stolen emails. Trump testified that he has no memory of talking with Stone about it, although two witnesses overheard them. He also swore that his son Donald Jr. never told him about meeting Kremlin operatives promising dirt on Hillary Clinton in Trump Tower.

If you believe that ...

Well, lets move on.

During Attorney General William Barrs Senate confirmation hearing, he was asked, Do you believe a president could lawfully issue a pardon in exchange for the recipients promise to not incriminate him?

No, Barr answered, that would be a crime.

A straight-up mob-style transaction, as the inimitable Charles Pierce describes it, one worthy of the fictional Tony Soprano or the all-too-real John Gotti. Disorganized crime, you might call it; a cynical attack upon the rule of law. Even so, its a good bet that the attorney general has changed his opinion, and would likely quibble that a commuted sentence is not a pardon.

No, but in the Stone case, its actually worse. To accept a pardon, see, a convicted felon must admit guilt. By so doing, he surrenders his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, and can be called in front of, say, a congressional committee, and required to talk under penalty of perjury.

Cant have that, can we? So no prison time for Roger, although there are reasons to suspect he might have enjoyed certain aspects of incarceration. Back in 1996, the veteran political scam artist he has a tattoo of Richard Nixons face on his back claimed that Bill Clinton had made improper advances toward his wife. The National Enquirer turned up evidence that Stone himself had been advertising her charms in a magazine called Local Swing Fever:

Hot, insatiable lady and her handsome body builder husband ... seek similar couples or exceptional muscular well-hung single men. Shes 40DD-24-36; hes 195, trim, blond, muscular ... Prefer military, bodybuilders, jocks.

Thats Roger Stone, voluptuary and fop. He later admitted everything to The New Yorkers Jeffrey Toobin. Im not guilty of hypocrisy, Stone said. Im a libertarian and a libertine.

Some years later, he founded an anti-Hillary organization called Citizens United Not Timid.

In short, he and Trump speak the same language. So its only natural that they would end up allies even though Trump described Stone to Toobin as a stone-cold loser ... He always tries taking credit for things he never did.

But Stone did plenty during the 2016 campaign. A seeker of notoriety rivaling Trump himself, he communicated directly with Guccifer 2, the Russian intelligence operatives that hacked the DNC, even as he predicted WikiLeaks document dumps to any Republican who would listen.

Angered by the Trump commutation, special counsel Robert S. Mueller wrote a Washington Post column objecting that regardless of attempts to portray him as a victim, Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so ...

A jury determined he lied repeatedly to members of Congress. He lied about the identity of his intermediary to WikiLeaks. He lied about the existence of written communications with his intermediary. He lied by denying he had communicated with the Trump campaign about the timing of WikiLeaks releases. He in fact updated senior campaign officials repeatedly about WikiLeaks.

For that matter, Stone was also convicted for threatening to kill a witness named Randy Credico and his beloved dog in a text message. Also like his patron in the White House, the man is infinitely cunning, but not real smart.

As for being a felon, far from being ashamed, Stone couldnt be prouder. To him, its a badge of honor. Hes a made man in Boss Trumps political mob.

It has been reported that what Sen. Mitt Romney called an act of unprecedented, historic corruption was vigorously opposed by William Barr. If so, the attorney general has resources. The Justice Department can empanel a grand jury, grant immunity to Roger Stone for previous acts and compel his testimony.

I am not holding my breath.

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

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Lyons: Stone proud to be in Trumps political mob - Muskogee Daily Phoenix

During the uprising following the brutal filmed murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Trump called some of the rioters thugs and tweeted that when the looting starts the shooting starts.

Yes, those pikers broke some windows and stole some diapers, some got detergent; one man had a carton of eggs and a young man stole a backpack. These rioters were very disorganized criminals.

Meanwhile, organized crime carried on as usual, figuring out how to use punked legislators to enrich the wealthy even more at the direct expense of everyone who pays taxes.

The coronavirus bailout funds went in dribs and drabs to some average Americans. I was lucky enough to get $800, and many people I know have gotten nothing. Meanwhile, Trumps family businesses and his close associates received more than $21 million, and many other wealthy people got huge checks from the CARES Act.

This is organized crime.

Part of the reason Trump was elected in the first place was a scam by Trump crony Roger Stone and Wikileaks and the Russian intelligence operations to steal and make a big Lock her up! deal about Hillary Clintons emails. Of course, that was ultimately a series of false claims, a nothingburger that continues to be quashed in courts when it reappears in rightwing zombie acts of endless harassment.

As a result of his actions, Stone was convicted in court of seven felonies, all of which related to helping Trump steal the 2016 election.

Stealing the U.S. presidency? Now that is organized crime.

Getting a big assist from the real crime lords at the Russian GRU intelligence agency, and getting the cooperation of the sloppy data thieves at Wikileaks, now that is a planned master criminal enterprise.

With the mob boss in the White House wielding a pardon pen, the circle is complete as Trump commutes the Stone sentences and pardons Flynn. Sorry, mafia, you guys are amateurs compared to Trump, Stone, Flynn, Mitch McConnell, and the crew at the top. Gangsters and thieves everywhere should be taking notes.

During the workup to the Republican tax cut bill back when Trump had all branches of government doing his bidding, we heard lots of empty promises about lowered taxes, no impact on the deficit, and increased investment in U.S. manufacturing.

The House Budget Committee assessed the losses to the American workers and middle class alongside the massive gains for the wealthy as the tax law went into effect, and really, that is seriously organized crime, looting from the taxes collected from working Americans at stunning levels.

Is this what America wants? Thugs in the White House and Senate? Because that is who is in those places now. A catalog of crimes committed by Trump and associates is thick and growing by the day. Its governance by gaslighting and ruling by lawlessness.

I hope we can get just and correctional about all this in November. Instead of when the looting starts, the shooting starts, I hope we can vote in much better. When the stealing ends, the healing mends feels like a better model.

Breaking windows and ripping off cleaning products is beyond stupid but, after all, we only see such riots every 40 or 50 years, while the real looters, the ones in charge, are ripping you off every d**ned day.

Dr. Tom H. Hastings is the director for PeaceVoice and on occasion an expert witness for the defense in court.

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The real looters and thugs are in the White House and Senate - MSR News Online

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shakes hands with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 25, 2019. Photo: SANA / Handout via Reuters.

JNS.org A new report that maps out the ways in which Irans overseas elite unit, the Quds Force, operates in Syria under various guises, is calling on the United States to designate three organizations tied to the notorious unit as terror organizations.

The Quds Force of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) promotes terrorism and violent subversive activities in order to expand Irans influence across the Middle East. It was commanded by Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani until January 3, when he was assassinated in a US drone strike in Baghdad, and is now under the command of Esmail Ghaani. The unit funds, trains, and arms a host of non-state radical actors, including Hezbollah, Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen. It also maintains an extensive weapons trafficking network.

Yossi Mansharof, an Iran and Shite political Islam analyst at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) and at the Alma Center, authored the report. He said that a gap in publicly available knowledge exists about the various ways in which the Quds Force is active in states outside of Iran.

Mansharofs report was published at the Alma Research and Education Center, an Israeli organization that conducts in-depth geopolitical research, and which is headed by Lt. Col. (res.) Sarit Zehavi, a former military intelligence officer.

July 17, 2020 1:26 pm

It is important that the US administration designates the three organizations analyzed in this study as terror organizations, stated Mansharof, naming the Iranian Red Crescent, the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation, and the Reconstruction Organization of the Holy Shrines.

In the report, Mansharof noted that Syria is one of the main destinations Quds Forces are active in today. This is based on the Iranian strategy, which strives to exploit the war in the country and Assads dependence on Iranian support (alongside Russia), in order to turn Syria into a front base against Israel, equipped with factories to manufacture advanced weapons, and to maintain and strengthen Hezbollahs supply route into Lebanon and the access to the Mediterranean Sea.

Regarding the three associations used by the Quds Forces to operate throughout Syria, Mansharof wrote in his report that the Iranian Red Crescent serves as a cover for Quds Forces and the Iranian Intelligence Office (MOIS), making extensive use to advance Iranian subversion in various countries including Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen, and Iraq.

Based on WikiLeaks documents, Mansharof stated that during the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, the Quds Force used the Iranian Red Crescent as a cover to smuggle military equipment and weapon supplies from Iran to Lebanon.

In light of the extensive history the association accumulated in the European and Middle East arenas, it is likely that it serves as a cover for Quds Forces missions in Syria as well, the report added.

The Imam Khomeini Relief Foundations has a stated purpose to eradicate poverty and provide regime support to the disadvantaged. Khamenei directly appoints the chairperson of the foundation, said the report.

However, the foundation serves as one of the key channels of the Quds Force worldwide and so for example, according to WikiLeaks documents, was one of the channels through [which] Quds Forces delivered weapons to the various pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Iraq during the war against US-led coalition forces (2003-2011).

Mansharofs report assessed that it is likely that the Reconstruction Organization of the Holy Shrines appear to be part of the alleged civilian organizations intended to assist Irans establishment efforts in Syria, financing and arming the Shiite militias operating there and may even be transferring financial assistance to the Assad regime.

The foundations official role is to renovate and look after holy Shiite sites in Syria, such as Zaynabs tomb in Damascus.

In March 2020, the US Treasury Department sanctioned the Iraqi branch of the organization after concluding that it is ruled by the IRGC and had served the Quds Forces in order to send weaponry shipments to Iraq via an Iraqi corporation, the Kosar Company, also controlled by Quds Forces as well to collect intelligence in Iraq and to transfer funds to Hezbollah. However, the organizations operations in Syria remain legal.

Mansharof interviewed senior former officials from the Persian Gulf as part of his doctoral thesis, which analyzed relations between Iran and Shiite communities in the Gulf region. In conducting his current research, he fused information from WikiLeaks documents with the Arab and Iranian media. He also scanned Iranian opposition sources.

When I took this information and connected it with my research from the Iranian media, I saw that I could really complete the puzzle. The Iranian regime does not want this information to be public. Iranian protesters who are calling on the regime to forget about Syria and look after their basic needs want their government to spend billions of dollars on Iranian civilians. Yet we know about the huge sums that Iran sends to Assad. And we know that Iran is in competition with Russia over Syria. So the Iranian regime is very deeply invested in the Syrian story to the point where it is difficult to believe they would reverse out of Syria, said Mansharof.

Iran is making sophisticated and cynical use of associations, charities and humanitarian organizations to export the Islamic revolution, he added. It has two objectives: to make strategic regions across Syria as Shiite as possible, and to turn Syria into a forward base for [attacks against] Israel, which would provide access for Hezbollah and meet Irans aspiration to reach the Mediterranean coast.

Yaakov Lappin is a research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. He specializes in Israels defense establishment, military affairs, and the Middle Eastern strategic environment.

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Iran Is Using Charities and Humanitarian Groups to Export Its Revolution - Algemeiner