Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Now Terrorist Organization

The United States wants to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist." This will allow the US to block assets and disrupt operations of businesses that provide support. (Washington Post)

There's a lot going on in Iran today:

Iran and Iraq sign oil pipeline deal. The 32-inch (81-centimetre) pipeline will bring crude from the southern Iraqi port of Basra to the southwestern Iranian port of Abadan. There will be a separately 16-inch one for oil products.

Under the deal, Iran would buy 100,000 barrels of Iraqi crude to be refined in the southern port of Bandar Abbas, then sell the product back to Iraq. The accord would have no upper limit on quantities. (Fars)

Many Iranians are disgruntled over their government's decision to hand over 25 million dollars in aid to a Hezbollah-linked relief group in Lebanon, an Iranian newspaper has reported.

Representative of the Supreme Leader in the IRGC's regional headquarters in Zanjan, Ali Ma'boudi, told FNA on Sunday that Iranian nation may never bow to enemies, reminding that Iranians have always stood up to the US threats during the last 28 years and passed all tests successfully.

The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran's nuclear program, officials said.

The designation of the Revolutionary Guard will be made under Executive Order 13224, which President Bush signed two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to obstruct terrorist funding. It authorizes the United States to identify individuals, businesses, charities and extremist groups engaged in terrorist activities. The Revolutionary Guard would be the first national military branch included on the list, U.S. officials said -- a highly unusual move because it is part of a government, rather than a typical non-state terrorist organization.

The order allows the United States to block the assets of terrorists and to disrupt operations by foreign businesses that "provide support, services or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, terrorists." (more)

Hitler Of Iran Calls For Sharia Law To Rule The World at Right Wing Rebel, who created the excellent image (click to enlarge):

“There is no truth on earth but monotheism and following tenets of Islam and there is no way for salvation of mankind but rule of Islam over mankind,” said Ahmadinejad in a meeting with Afghan Sunni and Shiite ulama at Iranian Embassy in Kabul.

Civilian Casualties and U.S. Conduct in Iraq" from Burkean Reflections (go read it all):

Colin Kahl, writing in the new International Security (PDF), provides an outstanding examination of the U.S. military's record of minimizing noncombatant casualities in the Iraq war.

Kahl's research shows that while the war has resulted in a heavy loss of civilian life, U.S. forces in Iraq have a better record of limiting noncombatant fatalities than in America's previous wars. Further, a powerful norm of noncombatant immunity has generated tremendous collective expectations for combat behavior that conforms with international human rights standards.

Here's the comparison of the record in Iraq to earlier wars:

The number of documented fatalities attributable to U.S. forces or crossfire in Iraq is much lower than those for many other U.S. military campaigns of the last century where civilians were clearly targeted. During World War II, for example, U.S. and British forces engaged in strategic bombing against German and Japanese cities, killing more than 1 million noncombatants. In a single night of U.S. firebombing over Tokyo in 1945, at least 85,000 people, mostly civilians, were incinerated—nearly 21 times the total number of civilian deaths from U.S. air strikes in Iraq through the end of 2006 (according to IBC data), and 6–10 times the total number of Iraqi civilians killed by all U.S. ground and air forces or crossfire in the first three and one-half years of the war. Although some might argue that improvements in precision-guided munitions account for the majority of this historical difference, many of the noncombatant fatalities from bombing during World War II were the result of attacks aimed at destroying enemy morale, not incidental by-products of crude targeting and guidance technologies.

Other reading and reciprocal pings:

Victory over Japan Day, The Amboy Times

Michael Yon Article on Al Queda Monstrosities in Iraq at Last Best Hope of Earth

Iraq Divided: Religious Minority Bloodshed, Stormwarning's Counterterrorism Blog

Eliminate All Bail for Pedophiles, The Pink Flamingo

Pro-abortion questions must be answered; Gregg, Michael, Rosemary's Thoughts

Watcher of Weasels has up this weeks list of articles. A find group and I suggest you go check them out.

The Cat's Meow - 08/14/07: United Nations, The Conservative Cat

WTW: Americans Are Happy Campers, Pirate's Cove

Fox’s Unable to Pass Credible Bill to Guard the Henhouse, Adam's Blog

Sweet Jeezus They Piss Me Off, StageLeft

The Jena 6 and Two Boys in Oregon, Pursuing Holiness

Cross posting for Layla for a few days at The HILL Chronicles.

Comments

[Debbie]

BillT, time will tell. I think this information was leaked to the press before Washington wanted it to be. Now the IRG has been warned and they can shift their funds before we get a chance to do anything.

Rosemary, don't worry about it. Probably TypePad screwing up again.

[Ortho]

I hope the Bush administration succeeds in labeling Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a "terrorist organization". I hope this action opens the door to label all nation-state military corps as "terrorist organizations".

[Rosemary]

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/582085/20848595 is getting an error msg, "Target doesn't appear to be a valid trackback URL (debug information below)."

I would correct it if I could, but I can't so I won't. lol. Just wanted to let you know about it. :)

[BillT]

The State Department has a complete layout of the implications of this designation. I'm curious to see how far we'll go in enforcing our will on these thugs.