According to the U.S. State Department's recently released Country Reports on Terrorism 2005, Iran remains the most active state sponsor of terrorism.
The report points out that in 2005, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Intelligence and Security "were directly involved in the planning and support of terrorist acts." The report says Iran "continued to exhort a variety of groups, especially Palestinian groups with leadership cadres in Syria and Lebanese Hezbollah, to use terrorism in pursuit of their goals." Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have praised Palestinian terrorist attacks.
Henry A. Crumpton, the State Department's Special Coordinator for Counterterrorism, says the extremist regime in Tehran encourages "anti-Israeli terrorist activity rhetorically, operationally, and financially." Iran, says Ambassador Crumpton, does not cooperate in the global war against terrorism:
"Tehran has repeatedly refused to bring to justice, publicly identify or share information about detained senior al-Qaida members who murdered Americans and other in the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings."
Ambassador Crumpton says Iran provides improvised explosive devices, or I-E-D's, to insurgents in Iraq:
"Some of the most powerful I-E-D's we're seeing in Iraq today include components that came from Iran."
Ambassador Crumpton says that Iran "is working directly with some of the Iraqi paramilitary forces militia and they provide support, financial and otherwise." Iran, says Ambassador Crumpton, "presents a particular concern given its. . . .sponsorship of terrorism and its continued development of a nuclear program."
The preceding was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government.
