Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Former CIA spy advocates overthrow of Iranian regime


Now, a former CIA spy confirms what Ms. Gabriel (Act! For America) has been saying. See the chilling details in the Los Angeles Times story below (highlights added).



Former CIA spy advocates overthrow of Iranian regime

Reza Kahlili, living in the shadows with a fake name and disguise, worked from inside the Revolutionary Guard. He warns of terrorist sleeper cells in the U.S. and a plot to destroy Israel.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-na-iran-spy-20120707,0,3089447,full.story


Former CIA spy Reza Kahlili lived a double life until the mid-1990s, passing along Iran’s secrets to the CIA and recruiting Revolutionary Guards for the agency. In a sense, he resumed his double identity after publishing his 2010 memoir. (Reza Kahlili / July 7, 2012)

By David Zucchino

Los Angeles Times


ARLINGTON, Va. — His disguise consists of a blue surgeon's mask, sunglasses and a baseball cap that reads "Free Iran." A small modulator distorts his voice. He uses a pseudonym, Reza Kahlili.

He lives in fear, he says, because his years as a paid spy for the CIA inside Iran have made him an assassination target of Iran's government. He worries about his wife and children, who live with him in California.

At the same time, implausibly, he has become one of the most influential and outspoken voices in the U.S. advocating the overthrow of the Iranian government.

For the last two years, Kahlili has gone semipublic with a memoir, a blog, op-ed pieces and invitation-only speeches at think tanks. He warns that Iran operates terrorist sleeper cells inside the United States and is determined to build nuclear weapons to destroy Israel. The U.S. should respond, he argues, by supporting the opposition inside Iran.

He travels furtively between appearances, working as a Pentagon consultant and as a member of a domestic security task force.

"There's probably nobody better on our side in explaining the mind-set of those in power in Iran," said Peter Vincent Pry, a former CIA military analyst who directs the Task Force on National and Homeland Security. "He understands the ideological sources of Iran's nuclear program."

U.S. Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Kahlili has convinced him of the importance of supporting the opposition and hardening sanctions against Iran.


"I thought I knew a lot about Iran until meeting with him," King said on a New York political radio program in January. At the time, Kahlili was a guest and King was a guest-host, but the two had previously met in the congressman's office.

"If you're going to take this issue seriously, the one person you have to consult with and read his writings is Reza Kahlili," King said.

In a quiet hotel lounge in Arlington, Kahlili is not wearing his disguise or using his voice modulator for a meeting with a reporter.

"You'd be shocked by how easily agents from the Revolutionary Guard come and go inside the United States every day," Kahlili says in a near-whisper, bent over a table in a dark corner.

A soft-spoken man in his mid-50s, Kahlili is wearing jeans, a sports shirt and a black coat. He's of average height and weight, with a smattering of facial hair.

He made certain he wasn't followed, he says, and performed a quick security check of the hotel.

"They'd kill me if they could find me," he says of Iranian agents.

Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer in Washington, D.C., said he had confirmed that Kahlili was a longtime operative of a U.S. intelligence agency, adding: "He has insights on Iran most people in the U.S. intelligence community don't have."

For covert operatives, clearance agreements with the CIA often prohibit public acknowledgment of the agreement itself or of the CIA. A CIA spokesman, Todd D. Ebitz, said the agency had no comment on Kahlili.

Brian Weidner, program coordinator for Iran instruction at the Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy, confirmed that Kahlili is a paid lecturer for the Pentagon agency. Other instructors are videotaped, Kahlili says, but his lectures are audio-only to protect his identity.

***

Kahlili says he lived a double life until the mid-1990s, passing along secrets to the CIA and recruiting Revolutionary Guards for the agency. In a sense, he resumed his double identity after publishing his 2010 memoir; he was now a former covert agent who had thrust himself into the public eye.

He rarely leaves home — "my bunker," he jokes — and shuns social situations.

For years, his mother in Iran berated him for working for a regime she despised; she died never knowing about his CIA spy work, he says. His children know nothing of his background. His Iranian wife was unaware of his spying for years, and was hurt, angry and terrified when he finally told her.

"It took a long time for that to heal, and for her to understand why I did it," Kahlili says. Though his wife is pleased that he has publicized Iran's human rights abuses, he says, she has begged him to go back into hiding.

He is pained by regrets. "I put my family in danger without giving it much thought," he says. "They didn't know what I'd done, but they were in as much danger as I was."

The spy story Kahlili tells in his book, and in several interviews with The Times, features coded messages, disinformation, clandestine meetings and international intrigue.

After graduating from USC, Kahlili returned to Iran just before the 1979 revolution toppled the Shah. A childhood friend recruited him into the Revolutionary Guard, where he gained an insider's access to the new Islamic government — and where he was to turn against the regime.

The Guard executed teenage girls for associating with opposition groups, but first raped them to deny them the heavenly paradise guaranteed to virgins. One of Kahlili's best friends and the man's two siblings were tortured and executed.

Eventually, he persuaded his superiors to let him fly to Los Angeles, telling them that his aunt there was ill. He looked up the FBI in the phone book and persuaded two agents to meet with him. They sent him to a CIA handler in London. He passed polygraph exams and returned to Iran as Wally, a secret agent who communicated via coded letters and radio messages.

Kahlili says Iranian terrorist cells inside the U.S. have weapons, explosives, money and safe houses; they use contacts with Mexican and Latin American drug cartels to smuggle explosives and weapons into the U.S.

"They have very detailed information about sensitive sites such as bridges, railroads, airports, military bases, power plants, nuclear sites, water plants, railway stations," he says.

If the U.S. or Israel attacked Iran, he says, sleeper cells inside the U.S. would launch suicide bombings and sabotage. Iran would attack Israel, and U.S. bases in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, he warns.

Kahlili says Iran has intelligence agents inside American universities, Islamic cultural centers and charitable institutions, posing as academics, policy experts and officers of nonprofits. They try to influence policymakers to encourage negotiations in order to give Iran time to develop nuclear weapons.

Kahlili says the Iranian leadership is motivated by Mahdism, the messianic belief that the 12th imam of Shiism, the Mahdi, will one day reappear to establish universal Islam. The trigger is the destruction of Israel.


Sanctions against Iran won't work, Kahlili argues. "It's not about the economy. It's about ideology," he says.

***

Inside the hotel lounge, Kahlili appears worn and weary. He glances around. He says Iranian agents are trying to find him and his family.

"I have a lot of anxiety — I feel a lot of pressure," he says. "I feel sick sometimes and I can't sleep."

There is only so much he can do to protect his family, he says. "If [Iran] found out about me, we'd be sitting ducks," he said.

He smiles wanly. "Sometimes I think I should stop," he says. "I think I must be crazy."

But in the same breath, he also says the American public must be told about what is happening in Iran and what could happen in the United States. Iran's regime must fall, he says.

And then he is gone, out the busy hotel lobby and into the night, a man with an assumed name living a life on the margins, running to and from his past.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bullshit the C.I.A. is the enemy to all of humanity.

Anonymous said...

Here here!!! I totally agree. They lie, they cheat, they steal, and they murder! All in the name of national security and their own agenda. I say lies lies lies, these folks are experts at lying, so I believe none of this crap.

Anonymous said...

this is disinfo. the cia is what we should all be afraid of. remember 9/11. what kind of a site is this???

IcemanSC said...

This is complete Bu11 sh1t. Fearmongering propaganda.

Anonymous said...

how many countries did iranians invade?How many countries usa invade?Think about it and give an answer then ponder again...

Anonymous said...

More fearmongering. John is trying to test us. ;) Its pretty obvious that this is disinformation.

John MacHaffie said...

Geee --- you are catching on FAST! You all passed --- u are becoming aware!

No more tests I hope.

Anonymous said...

Sorry! Here is one dissenter! A BIG DISSENTER, TOO! Call me a fool if you like, but I have seen too much and learned too much.

I also live along the border and know that Mexicans are not the only illegals crossing into our country on a daily basis. One agent I know apprehended three from Iran with mega money taped to their bodies under their shirts. I don't think they came here to play poker! Open your eyes and onnect the dots, gentlemen. Here are starters: a Muslim in the WH; several in Congress; many in our courts; two devout Muslims in Homeland Security at administrative levels; many, many in the military, our courts and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Go to Wikipedia and check on how many terrorist attacks by Muslims have been made on the US over the last few years! You will be surprised! Theirs is not a religion, it is a theocracy...a religious, political, financial, judicial and legislative system all entwined.

Iran's leader has even admitted to wanting to hasten the return of the Mahdi (their saviour, our Anti-Christ) by bringing on WWIII. Unfortunately for us, what he says ties in with the Christian books of the old prophets, especially Revelation and Daniel. Only Mid. East countries are mentioned in the endtime prophecies: Persia,(Hey! Guess what? That's Iran's old name!)Syria, Libya, Egypt, etc... You guys haven't done your homework!

And, you didn't learn your history lesson, either, because you apparently don't remember that nasty little sneaky attack the Japanese made on Pearl Harbor. Shame on you! Do ya suppose something like that might ever happen again? I guess not...

P.S. Don't forget, Russia is a big ally of Iran. Haven't they been helping Iran with their nuclear power? And aren't they meddling in Syria?

P.P.S. Haven't they practiced war games here recently? Like around Denver in June? Oh, yes! There is another little exercise coming up soon...maybe Alaska. But then, Russia would never assist Iran. Maybe you guys know all this since you are so well informed.

Love to you all! Ta Ta!

Anonymous said...

I appreciate people's ability to see past the duality false us/them paradigm in politics; can we move to religion next? For every radical Muslim there is a radical Christian looking to take out an abortion clinic. The key word is radical. If you look at who has orchestrated most of the perceived threats to the "homeland" I think you would be surprised how much the eff-bee-eyes fingerprints are all over them (look for judge napolitano false flag on youtube). They give you boogie men to keep you in conflict, to drain your energy, and to justify taking your rights away. Please don't allow yourself to be manipulated to fight their fights for them.

Anonymous said...

Re: ANON: 1:01 A.M.
Yes there are so many Iranians doing acts of terror that the F.B.I. has to pay people to pretend to be terrorist. Supply them with bombs,and falsely accuse others. And spread that bullshit all over M.S.M. The terrorist are in D.C. [ more propaganda BULLSHIT].