Iran's global terror network: from Iraq to Afghanistan to South America to the United States, Iran's global terror network is rapidly expanding.(IRAN)

In June 1985, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism, chaired by Sen. Jeremiah Denton (R-Ala.), issued an important report entitled State-Sponsored Terrorism. One of the documents reproduced in that report was an Iranian document that had been stamped "TOP SECRET" by the government of Iran. A photo reproduction of the document in the original Farsi was included, along with an English translation. It was the official memorandum of a meeting held in Tehran in May 1984, presided over by Ayatollah Mohammed Khatami, who was then Iran's Minister of Guidance, but would later become Iran's president. In the words of the document, the purpose of the meeting was for the "creation of an independent brigade for carrying out unconventional warfare in enemy territory."

Ayatollah Khatami explained to the exclusive invitees--which included Iran's top cabinet officials and the chiefs of its military, clergy, and intelligence agencies--that the meeting was being held in obedience "to the orders of His Eminence ... Ayatollah Imam Khomeini ... the great leader of the revolution, and the founder of the Islamic Republic." He further explained that "it has been decided that the strikeforce, which at present is composed of a few groups of 10-20 people each, who are currently serving in the Lebanon, should be increased to the size of a brigade."

Khatami then introduced a "Brother Mirhashem," who explained details of the plan to create a brigade-strength (1,500-2,000 men) terror group to carry out operations throughout the Middle East. Mirhashem told the assembled leaders that "we have at present a number of dedicated groups who are ready for action and who have, to the outside world become known as suicide groups." These groups had already distinguished themselves in Lebanon, most notably in the attack on the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in which 241 military personnel were killed (the largest single-day death toll for the Marine Corps since Iwo Jima). But these small suicide groups were inadequate, said Mirhashem, for the task envisioned.

Since "the personnel of this brigade must from the point of view of military combat experience be of a very high echelon," said Mirhashem, it had been decided "to select dedicated religious and fully committed candidates from all combat 'nahad' organizations." The new brigade launched Iran to a higher level of performance in the terror business, as demonstrated, for instance, in Lebanon.

Exporting the Revolution

In the more than two decades since that meeting, Tehran has been the site for many additional meetings and "summits" for world terrorism. One very important one was held there in June 1996, for the creation of Hezbollah (also HizbAllah) International, to transform Iran's Hezbollah terror units into "the vanguard of the revolution" around the globe and more carefully integrate and coordinate their activities with other terror groups. Attending the summit were senior commanders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Also attending were leaders of openly Marxist-Leninist terror groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Kurdish People's Party, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

Out of this Tehran terror summit came the new HizbAllah International, headed by the Committee of Three. The committee members were Osama bin Laden, Imad Mughaniyah, and Ahmad Salah. But, exercising top power above the Committee of Three was Dr. Mahdi Chamran Savehi, Iran's chief of External Intelligence and supervisor of its global terror operations. The U.S.-educated Dr. Chamran, a nuclear physicist, and his brother Mustafa were both active student radicals in the 1960s in California, ...