US Offered Rigi Unlimited Military Aid for Iran Attacks

The captured ringleader of the Jundallah terrorist group, Abdolmalek Rigi, has confessed that the US administration had assured him of unlimited military aid and funding for waging an insurgency against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In a televised statement broadcasted on Press TV on Thursday, Rigi confirmed that the US administration had promised to provide him with unlimited military aid and funding for his terrorist activities against the Iranian government.

"After Obama was elected, the Americans contacted us and they met me in Pakistan.
They said they would cooperate with us and will give me military equipment, arms and machine guns. They also promised to give us a base along the border with Afghanistan next to Iran," said the 31-year-old terror leader.

"They [were] prepared to give [us] training and/or any assistance that [we] would require, in terms of telecommunications security and procedures as well as other support, the Americans said they would be willing to provide it at an extensive level," he added.

Meanwhile, and despite Rigi's detailed confession and a photo taken by Iranian security officials, who clearly showed the terrorist leader entering a US base in Afghanistan a day before his arrest, the Pentagon has chosen to reject the claims. The Pentagon has denied offering political and financial support to the Jundallah terrorist group as part of efforts to weaken the Tehran government.

"Iranian claims that Abdolmalek Rigi was at a US military installation prior to being apprehended are absolutely false," said Pentagon press secretary, Geoff Morrell. He added that these accusations are nothing but "fabrications" and "propaganda" emanating from Iranian officials.

Yet, facts revealed from different sources show these are unlikely to be fabrications of Iranian officials.

An ABC News piece reported in 2007 that Jundullah cell 'has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials' to destabilize the government in Iran.

In another report in July, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that US Congressional leaders secretly agreed to George W. Bush's $400-million funding request last year for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran.

But the latest of the revelations came from Robert Baer, a former Middle East CIA field officer, who disclosed in October 2009 that Washington had formed relations with the Jundallah group. "American intelligence has also had contact with Jundallah. But that contact, as Iran almost certainly knows, was confined to intelligence-gathering on the country," Baer wrote on the Time.com.

Baer said the close relations between the US and the terror group was to such extent that Jundallah had once been considered "as a piece in a covert-action campaign against Iran."

Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of the Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist organization, was tracked down by Iranian security officials after five months of efforts, while Rigi was onboard a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday.

Iran's Intelligence Minister Haydar Moslehi said Rigi was at a US base in Afghanistan 24 hours before his arrest and was carrying a forged Afghan passport issued by the US at the time of his capture.

Jundallah terrorists, who are said to be closely affiliated with the notorious al-Qaeda organization, have claimed responsibility for dozens of bombings, assassination attempts, and terrorist attacks in Iran, one of which killed at least 40 people in the southeastern city of Pishin in October.