Ex-CIA agent affirms US ties with Jundullah

Source: Hizbollah Site Staff, 24-10-2009

A former Central Intelligence Agency officer has proved US relations with the terrorist group Jundullah, regardless of the CIA knowing that the group has close contacts with the al-Qaeda.
"American intelligence has also had contact with Jundullah. But that contact, as Iran almost certainly knows, was limited to intelligence-gathering on the country," Robert Baer, a former Middle East CIA field officer wrote on the Time.com, IRNA reported early on Saturday.

However, he pointed out that the US-Jundullah relationship "was never formalized, and contact was periodic."

US denied any involvement in a recent terrorist attack in Sistan-Baluchestan province in southeastern Iran, which Jundullah claimed responsibility for.

"I've been told that the Bush Administration at one point viewed Jundullah as a piece in a covert-action campaign against Iran, but the idea was quickly dropped because Jundullah was judged uncontrollable and too close to al-Qaeda. There was no way to be certain that Jundullah would not throw the bombs we paid for back at us," said the former CIA agent who is a columnist in the weekly, and very probably an advisor in the Middle East.

Baer also noted that Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has had relations with the Jundullah leader, Abdelmalek Rigi.

"Pakistani intelligence has indeed had contact with Jundullah over the years, but there's no good evidence that Pakistan created Jundullah from scratch. And there's certainly no evidence that Pakistan ordered the attack," Baer said in reference to the latest terrorist attack that took place in Iran.

"In fact, Pakistani intelligence over the past few years has been arresting Jundullah members and turning them over to Iran," he argued.

In a related development on Sunday, Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi promised to do everything in his power to hunt down the Jundullah terrorists and bring them to justice.

"This very incident unveiled the true nature of those who call themselves the leaders in 'war on terrorism'," he said in reference to the United States.

Accordingly, a number of top newspapers in the West, such as The Sunday Telegraph, have also stated Jundullah to be a CIA invention engineered to achieve the longstanding US aim of "regime change in Iran."

Iran's Interior Minister, Mustafa Mohammad Najjar, is currently in Islamabad to ask Pakistani officials to give up Abdolmalek Rigi and aid Iran on hunting his terrorist group.

The attack took place when a Suicide bomber blew himself up at a meeting of the elite Revolutionary Guards in south-eastern Iran Sunday, October 18th, killing at least 30 people including six of the top Islamic Revolution Guards Corps commanders and tribal leaders. The attack took place in the city of Pisheen near the border with Pakistan in restive Sistan-Baluchestan province.