US State Dept.: Iran does not support terrorist cells in Western Hemisphere
Iran is not supporting active terrorist cells in the Western
Hemisphere, according to a State Department report that is likely
to ignite a major battle with Capitol Hill, The Washington Post
reported.
Although the number of Iranian officials operating in Latin America
has increased in recent years, Tehran has far less influence and
activities than some congressional Republicans have suggested,
sources familiar with the report said.
The analysis found no reliable information pointing to imminent
Iranian-backed terrorist plots in the Western Hemisphere, said
sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the
secretive nature of the report and because it had not yet been sent
to Congress.
The State Department declined to comment on the document.
The findings are likely to baffle lawmakers who pushed legislation
that mandated the State Department to produce the report, along
with a strategy for countering "Iran's growing hostile presence and
activity in the Western Hemisphere."
Support for the legislation rose after the Justice Department
claimed in 2011 that Iran attempted to hire a Mexican drug cartel
to assassinate a Saudi diplomat by bombing a Washington restaurant.
An Iranian-American was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison
after pleading guilty to conspiring in the plot with the Iranian
military.
Although Congress cited that case as a reason for the State
Department to more closely scrutinize Iran's presence in the
hemisphere, the Hollywood-like and far-fetched quality of the case
also spawned skepticism among foreign policy insiders.
"I don't believe the State Department ever wanted to do this
report. We sort of forced them into this position," Rep. Jeff
Duncan, South Carolina Republican, said Friday.
Mr. Duncan, who worked with Rep. Brian Higgins, New York Democrat,
in pushing legislation that mandated the report, said State
Department officials have privately "played down" the Latin
American activities of Iran and Hezbollah.
He explained that, during a congressional visit to Paraguay in
August, he was briefed by a senior member of the South American
nation's police forces.
"It was very clear to him that the Iranians and their proxy are
very active in that region," Mr. Duncan said. "But that was
different from a watered-down assessment we got from State
Department officials there at the U.S. Embassy in Paraguay," he
said. "They really played down the Hezbollah and Iranian
activity."
One source, outside the government but close to the Obama
administration, said the State Department report will conclude that
"yes, there are a lot more Iranian agents in the region and that
tabs are being kept on them."
Although U.S. officials are "not foreclosing the possibility that
networks could be activated, there is no hard evidence of any
plots," the source said.
Such comments suggest that the report drew from the same well of
intelligence that resulted in the carefully worded analysis of Iran
in the State Department's annual Country Reports on Terrorism last
month.
The words "Western Hemisphere" and "Latin America" were notably
absent from the assertion that "Iran and Hizballah's terrorist
activity has reached a tempo unseen since the 1990s, with attacks
plotted in Southeast Asia, Europe, and Africa."
Although the analysis found that Iran has "continued to try to
expand its presence and bilateral relationships" in Latin America
and that sympathizers in the region "provide financial and
ideological support" to al Qaeda and Hezbollah, the outright
conclusion was that "there were no known operational cells of
either al-Qa'ida or Hizballah in the hemisphere."
Such findings have prompted some analysts to praise the State
Department and the Obama administration for standing up to attempts
by some in Congress to hype the Iranian threat.
"Most of the evidence that's been cited publicly by these people
who are claiming Iran is using Latin America as a base to launch
attacks has either been disproven or remains questionable," said
Christopher Sabatini, the head of policy at the Council of the
Americas in New York.