Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

320 • ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS CORPSthat Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, this findingwas faulted by many independent analysts, including those ofboth the Brookings Institution and Stratfor, a leading private geopoliticalintelligence consulting firm, for having relied on the uncorroboratedtestimony of an Iranian defector, for its failure to cite theinvolvement of the IRGC in the nuclear weapons program, and forits omission of other evidence of ongoing research and developmentof a nuclear capability. In addition, Stratfor cited the testimony ofJafarzadeh, who stated that the IRGC “holds the keys” to the Iraniannuclear weapons program.Since the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, U.S. forceshave captured IRGC operatives on several occasions. On 21 December2006 U.S. forces captured several IRGC members in Baghdadon arms-smuggling charges who were released a week later.On 11 January 2007 U.S. troops raided an Iranian diplomatic officein Arbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government, arrestingfive IRGC members and seizing materials indicating IRGCsupport of anti-U.S. insurgents. This raid led to official protestsby Iran and Iraq and also by Massoud Barzani, president of theregional government, as the U.S. military regarded the five menas special security risks and refused to release them. In what someinterpreted to be a retaliatory move, on 23 March 2007 IRGC navyforces captured 15 British sailors and marines on patrol duty in thePersian Gulf, claiming they had violated Iran’s territorial waters,but the British captives were released on 4 April 2007. Other observersbelieved the IRGC action was actually to protect its ownsmuggling operations related to profiteering, which has become anextralegal source of revenue for the IRGC not subject to the powerof the purse of any Iranian civilian political authority. On 2 July2007 the U.S. military claimed the IRGC Quds Force was usingLebanese Hezbollah members for operations in Iraq against U.S.and Iraqi forces. In response to Iran’s role in supporting anti-U.S.insurgents in Iraq, the U.S. House of Representatives on 25 September2007 passed a bill sponsored by California Democrat TomLantos to put the IRGC on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizationsand to increase economic sanctions on Iran, which passed397 in favor to 16 against.On 22 March 2008, U.S. forces in Iraq captured Qais Khazali,a senior Quds Force officer, along with a senior Hezbollah com-