US Intelligence and the Dilemma of Iran

Erfan Fard
February 26, 2021
Paper No. 1944

The rogue regime in Tehran is the primary source of turmoil and instability in the Middle East. The regime thirsts for ever more dominance across the region and beyond and employs a terrorist network to achieve that goal, even as it continues to move aggressively in its pursuit of nuclear weapons. The threat of Iran, combined with the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and Syria, has prompted the creation of an anti-Iran coalition. It is now up to the Biden administration, which has no desire to become involved in a military conflict with Iran, to determine the best course of action in dealing with a regime that persistently challenges all accepted norms of behavior.

Erdoğan’s Turkey Cannot Modernize Via Constitutional Reform

Turks have been seeking to modernize their democratic culture for a century and a half. Recently, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pledged to reform the constitution. Beware of an Erdoğan bearing democratic gifts.

Saudi Moderation Is Put to the Test

Saudi Arabia’s combustible mix of religion, nationalism, and tradition as well as contradictions in the kingdom’s projection of itself as a driver of moderate Islam and a major voice in combating discrimination and racism has sparked a heated debate on social media. How the mix plays out will ultimately spotlight the outcome of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman’s efforts to inject a significant dose of nationalism in a Saudi identity that historically has been shaped heavily by religion.

“Human Rights” Organizations for Palestinian Rights, or Lawfare Against Israel?

A spate of attacks on Arab Christians in and around Bethlehem should have merited investigation by the many “human rights” organizations in the area, but they weren’t interested. This is not surprising, as their focus is almost entirely on promoting lawfare against Israel, not exposing human rights violations committed by Palestinians against other Palestinians.

The US Brings Israel into CENTCOM

The Pentagon’s decision last month to relocate Israel to the area of responsibility of the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) is a milestone development. It reflects a growing need to coordinate operational military activities among Israel, the US, and pragmatic Gulf States in the face of the common threat posed by the Iranian axis.

Why the Israeli Left’s Leadership Capacity Is Fading

The early Zionist labor movement was keenly aware that “The Jewish religion is a national religion that has assimilated all the historical phenomena of the people of Israel from its beginnings up to the present” (to use David Ben-Gurion’s words). The left’s disavowal of this link is the main reason for its loss of a path to national leadership.

Hezbollah’s Advanced Missile Targets Israeli Drone as Israel Rethinks Purpose of Future War

Hezbollah’s firing of an advanced surface-to-air missile at an Israeli intelligence-gathering drone over Lebanon on February 3 is an acute reminder of the high-stakes cat-and-mouse game being conducted daily between a democratic state and a terror organization that has morphed into a terror army.t

Signs that Iran Might Be Continuing Its Nuclear Weapons Program

Samples recently collected by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors at two Iranian sites showed traces of radioactivity. Tehran had not reported any nuclear activity at these sites and denied IAEA inspectors access to them until just a few months ago. The findings suggest that Iran, in violation of the JCPOA nuclear agreement it signed in July 2015, has continued to conduct activities related to nuclear military development.

IBM and the Holocaust

Twenty years ago this week, my book, IBM and the Holocaust, exposed—backed up by a tower of documentation— that IBM knowingly organized all six phases of the Holocaust: identification, exclusion, confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, and even extermination. All of this occurred under the micromanagement of IBM’s celebrated CEO, Thomas Watson, Sr., operating from his New York office on Madison Avenue, and later through European subsidiaries. In view of what IBM was able to accomplish on behalf of the Nazis prior to the era of the computer, the thought of what big tech can now do to surveil, censor, and control human lives is sobering indeed.

Iran Is Using Violence to Put Pressure on Biden

Multiple missiles were fired at Erbil on February 15, killing at least one civil contractor and injuring at least one American national. It is likely that the attack was conducted by an Iranian proxy in order to put pressure on President Biden to lift the sanctions against the country and return to the 2015 nuclear deal.

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