A look inside the Iranian sponsored terrorism machine.

• Author: Moniquet, Claude
• Position: Worldview

IF A MILITARY OPERATION is enacted to solve the problem of the Iranian nuclear program, is there any real threat of a wave of terrorist attacks in the U.S. and Europe? The answer is yes. Of course, it is extremely difficult to assess terrorist activities which, by their nature, are extremely secretive. Yet, there are a few signs that "something" likely will occur if things turn badly.

As a risk and strategic assessment center, we work daily with intelligence and security agencies in Europe as well as other parts of the globe, including the Arab world. This opportunity provides us an access to some classified intelligence. Obviously, I cannot be extremely precise in these elements. Nevertheless, I can state that the intelligence community in Europe has, at least in some countries belonging to the EU, some clear indications that, in the last 12 months or so, the Iranian secret service and the Pasdaran--I will explain later how those two organizations work--have deployed new human resources in Europe, both in the Iranian embassies and outside those embassies. We assess that they have doubled or tripled their intelligence capacities in some embassies.

We also know that, in some European countries, they have increased the recruitments of sympathizers while trying to penetrate some mosques that are well known to shelter extremist activities. It is interesting to note that those efforts are not focused on the Shia minority, which is extremely weak in Europe, but on the Sunni community, which forms the vast majority of the Muslims in Europe. Actually, this is reminiscent of a situation we faced more than 25 years ago. Just after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran was considered as the beacon of radical Islam in the world, and the Iranian envoys converted a lot of Sunni from Maghreb descent to the Chrism in some countries in Europe. At the time, they specifically targeted the Moroccan communities in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. Today, they still conduct most of their intelligence and recruiting operations in Northern Europe, but also in Italy. However, it is quite impossible to assess how successful those operations are. but we know that the Iranians are working in some mosques in Europe and we know they try to recruit new activists.

We also know they conducted some reconnaissance missions on possible flash points in various European countries in recent months. Those possible targets include industrial facilities, "critical infrastructure," and nuclear power stations. It is clear that, if the...