Iran Fans Out 40,000 Agents in South America

Iran has expanded its terror network and now has tens of thousands of agents in Latin America, according to a former Iranian official who has witnessed the regime's crimes against humanity inside Iran and has knowledge of its terror network targeting the West.

In interviews with the opposition outside Iran, the official revealed that more than 40,000 of the regime's security, intelligence and propaganda forces successfully have been placed over time in Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Venezuela.

These forces consist mostly of former interrogators, torturers and security forces along with the members of the Quds Forces.

Many of them, according to the source, are other nationalities, such as Afghans, Lebanese, Iraqis and Somalis.

Hassan Rahim Pour Azghodi, a member of The Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution in Iran and a noted ideologist and theorist of the Islamic regime who visited Ecuador, Venezuela and several other Latin American countries last year, is a former interrogator and a torturer who is now a close adviser of Ghassem Soliemani, the chief commander of the Quds Forces, the source said.

Azghodi, in a lecture last September aired on Iranian state-owned television, stated, "We must get ready for global operation. … Our fellow fighters are present in all five continents of the world. … An international jihad must be provoked; we must fear no one."

According to the source, many of these forces have flown directly from Tehran to Caracas, Venezuela, whose president, Hugo Chavez, is an ally of Tehran. Many also have been placed in Bolivia. Their duties are to expand the regime's ideology, gather intelligence and be ready for operations against the West.

"We have Imam Ali Mosques in Bolivia, in Venezuela Imam Ali centers, as well as in Brazil and other countries of the region," the source said. "Many of the forces are a front involved in projects to help the host country such as building homes, roads and others. These forces always get together and share information in the mosques."

As reported in May through a source who served in Iranian intelligence and had recently defected to a country in Europe, the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence division runs operations out of mosques.

Those operations include recruitment, reconnaissance and transfer of arms and cash.

This source also verified then that all Imam Ali Mosques are controlled by regime intelligence operatives and that the cells are well placed in Europe and America for terrorist acts.

"The Quds Force has established a command and control center in both Bolivia and Venezuela. Though it has presence in Europe and other parts of the world, it has focused on Latin America," the former official said. "They have forces in Guatemala but mostly for training on torture methods – though not modern but very effective – as Guatemala is one of the best in the world and training for torture is one of its resources for income."

Many of the forces are also trained in Iran for suicide bombings. They are brainwashed and go through a ritual in which they are naked but for their shorts and are washed on a stone where verses of the Quran are read to them. Then they are taken to the supreme leader for final approval.

According to the source, members also include Palestinians and Iraqis, and many were behind suicide bombings against American forces in Iraq. Should war break out, these forces are to conduct terrorist acts in Europe and America.

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and author of the award-winning book, A Time to Betray. He is a senior fellow with EMPact America, a member of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, an advisory board member of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran and teaches at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA).

This article appeared originally on Family SecurityMatters.org