CHABAHAR, IRAN – Just because you are part of the ‘axis of evil’ does not mean you aren’t also beset by evil.
There are few times in a career in intelligence where you occasion to actually laugh out loud. After all, this is a very serious business in which you are chasing after very bad actors who want, in some cases, to kill you. Not much of a jovial atmosphere, is it?
And yet I do recall one such time just after 9/11. In the wake of that horrible event then US President George W. Bush delivered a speech in which he used the term ‘Axis of Evil‘. The ‘axis‘ of nations apparently bursting at the seams of no-goodness consisted of North Korea, Iran and Iraq. The inclusion of the latter led to the 2003 Gulf War and we all know how THAT ensued.
As a Canadian I found the use of the word ‘evil‘ odd. I do not think I can imagine a Canadian politician uttering such a phrase. I know my American cousins are different, but still…
Does Iran qualify? Maybe. I am not saying that Iran is faultless: far from it. It meddles in the affairs of others a lot and many of its alliances are inimical to the West. At the same time, however, it too suffers from ‘evil‘ (NB I do not like this term but I am trying to go with a theme here). Read on.
On this day in 2018
Four policemen were killed and 42 other people were wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on a police headquarters in Iran’s southeast city of Chabahar. The Sunni terrorist group Ansar al-Furqan claimed responsibility for the attack.
Police stopped the explosive-laden car and started firing at the driver … who then set off the explosion near the police headquarters in Chabahar.
Rahmdel Bameri, governor of Sistan-Baluchestan province
Chabahar is in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, up against the Pakistani border. Pakistan too has suffered many attacks from Balochi separatists. It looks as if there is more than enough evil to go around in that part of central Asia.
Read More Today in Terrorism
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