For Iraqi terrorists in Iran, membership has its privileges.
The leaders of many of the Sunni jihadist groups that are harbored there are issued a special political refugee card. With the laminated photo identification card, described this week in an interview by a former Kurdish spy for Iranian intelligence, the terrorists can sail through checkpoints and border checks.
| "Don't leave home without it!" |
If ever a jihadist were to encounter a problem with the local police, flashing the card would make his problems disappear, in part because the all-powerful intelligence ministry, known as Ettelaat, and Revolutionary Guard are the only people allowed to issue them. As such, these ministries have files with photographs and biographical information on most of the Iraqi terrorists in Iran.
| There's a target worth going after. Wonder if Bill Casey could help us out? |
The status of the Al Qaeda affiliated jihadists in Iran was recounted Tuesday in an interview with Osman Ali Mustapha, a former Kurdish police officer who was recruited as a spy for the Iranians. In his first interview with the press, and his second conversation with any American, the former spy for Iran said of the terrorists who operate across the Iranian border from Iraqi Kurdistan: "Each one of them filled out a form at Ettelaat. They bring them to Ettelaat. It is a green card for political refugees. When you want to go through a checkpoint, the green card will let you go." Later, he said these cards "are not issued to non-Islamists. Normal refugees do not get this."
Mr. Mustapha added, "If you have this card you are treated better than a Kurd. When the Kurds want to go somewhere, the authorities have a suspicion about relations with Kurdish parties. When you have this card, it means you are working for them."
Mr. Mustapha is in a position to know Iran's relationship to Al Qaeda. He was recruited in 2004 to the Ettelaat by a senior leader of what was then Ansar al-Islam, the Sunni jihadist group that linked up with Al Qaeda's Iraqi chief, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. |