The Empire of Terror Podcast

Welcome to the final excerpt of Empire of Terror, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, written by Mark Silinsky and published by Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press. This is presented by Kensington Security Consulting, which brings education to national security. This excerpt comes from chapter eight and concludes Empire of Terror. The Mullahs’ Enemies at Home As of...

The Storm Petrels: Free Thinkers and Artists Storm petrels are seabirds that are said to warn of an impending storm. Ancient seamen took note when storm petrels circled, squawked, and then flew away. According to lore, the flight of petrels portended a ferocious storm. Iranian free spirits were the first to flee revolutionary Iran, if they could. Like petrels, Iranian free thinkers fled and, if th...

Leaders As of late 2020, Ayatollah Khamenei remains committed to his vision of Iran’s “new civilization,” regularly inveighing against alleged American-Jewish conspiracies. In September 2020, the aged ayatollah tweeted to the world that Arab states seeking peace with Israel are doing so under the pressure of “Israelis & filthy Zionist agents of the U.S.—such as the Jewish member of Trump’s fam...

Bonyads: Black Holes and Persian Empires Large parts of the Iranian economy are dominated by bloated quasi-state enterprises known as bonyads. They existed for many years before the revolution and became wealthy when Ayatollah Khomeini seized the royal family's fortune. He required that these assets be kept separate from state properties. After the revolution, the enormous assets of the shah and h...

Welcome to an excerpt from Empire of Terror, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, written by Mark Silinsky and published by Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press. This is presented by Kensington Security Consulting, which brings education to national security. This excerpt comes from chapter seven and discusses corrupt elements in the IRGC. Persian Mafia   The U.S. Int...

The Poor, the Rich, and the Guards Legions of beggars roam the streets of Iran. Drug-addicted, destitute, and homeless Iranians live under bridges and in the fields. A December 2017 photo series of indigents and drug addicts subsisting in a graveyard near Tehran shocked the consciences of Iranians and highlighted the gap in national wealth. Some people live in open graves and fight over blankets,...

“Evergreen, gardened, cypressed, cinema’d, oil-tanked, boulevarded, incense-and-armpit cradle of Persian culture.” —DylanThomas observing Iran, circa 1951 Iran’s economy is dominated by government elites, a practice common in the Middle East. In Egypt and Pakistan, military leaders control large, national-level economic enterprises. In Iran, the Guards are the key players. The poor health of Iran’...

Disinformation: Fake News Active measures also include falsifying facts or disseminating fake news. This is more than polishing a country’s image; it is weaponizing falsehoods for political purposes. According to veteran intelligence analyst John Barron, disinformation often involves clandestine activity. World War II began with a staged attack. German SS operatives transported concentration camp...

Active Measures Unlike classic espionage, which targets agents to obtain secrets, active measures involve influence operations, forgeries, front groups, friendship associations, and propaganda. The Guards engage in these measures as a form of political warfare. Propaganda is disseminated through television, film, newspapers, posters, murals, political actions, rallies, protests, and other activiti...

“The IRGC is not a person; it is a movement.” Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 2017 The Guards have both conventional and unconventional military capabilities. According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (Artesh) now totals approximately 398,000, while the Guards have an estimated personnel strength of 125,000. The o...

            Iranian-Supported Iraqi Militia Iran created the Badr Corps from Iraqi refugees and prisoners of war in the early 1980s. Analysts have compared the Badr Organization in Iraq to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Badr conducted covert paramilitary operations in Iraq during the 1980s and 1990s under orders from the Qods Force. Many Badr Corps fighters have either dual Iraqi-Iranian citizenship or wer...

            The International Divisions of the sla In several significant wars of the twentieth century, armies used foreign nationals to augment their ranks. Foreign nationals sometimes fought as independent but affiliated units. Sometimes they were inducted directly into the host armed forces. At other times, foreign nationals fought in international divisions. The subject of novels and folklore...

Iran’s Three-Phased Plan Iran has a flexible, grand strategic plan to expand its global influence. These tactics include cultural, economic, military, and diplomatic elements. In some parts of the world, the Qods Force uses nonmilitary tactics, techniques, and procedures to build influence. National security analyst Joseph M. Humire, testifying before the U.S. Congress on the Guards’ penetration i...

World Conquest or Defeat Khomeini viewed the Third World as an arena for confronting Western influence. Before the revolution, Iranian activists, namely Ali Shariati and Mustapha Chamran, advocated for their theories of universal social justice. Today, the Guards try to outflank American, European, and Israeli diplomatic and economic efforts in the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Latin Am...

There is no greater source of pride in this world than martyrdom. —The late Haj Qassam Soleimani, 2014. P olitical and religious rulers in Tehran insist that Iran is the real Mecca, or center of the Muslim world. Iran’s leaders feel morally compelled to spread Iran’s revolution around the globe, as Khamenei promised. Some observers trace the Qods Force’s origins to Operation Ajax in 1953, when rev...

 Pupil and Student Basij: The “Liar Generation” The Pupil Basij are students ages twelve to eighteen who participate in religiously directed after-school activities and specialized summer camps. The Pupil Basij organization plays a role similar to that of the Young Pioneers in the Soviet Union or the Hitler Youth in Nazi Germany; it straightjackets impressionable minds and discourages free thinkin...

 Pupil and Student Basij: The “Liar Generation” The Pupil Basij comprise students aged 12 to 18 who participate in religiously directed after-school activities and specialized summer camps. The Pupil Basij organization plays a role similar to that of the Young Pioneers in the Soviet Union or the Hitler Youth in Nazi Germany; it straightjackets impressionable minds and discourages free thinking. As...

Callow Youth with Whips Since the end of the war with Iraq, recruits have been drawn to the Guards for several reasons. Many are devoted to the Islamic Revolution and want to defend it. Others need the food and housing that the service provides. Still others, who are not competitive in other occupations, can find employment there, even in menial roles. The less able might monitor roads and traffic...

The Shifting Image and Role of the Guards The war fostered camaraderie among the men and boys who fought on the front. Those who survived the trials of battle could rise rapidly through the ranks. Enlisted soldiers could become company, battalion, or, at times, brigade commanders. Talented soldiers were promoted quickly. Eager college students clamoring for leadership were often ordered to the fro...

The idea of creating the Basij was a divine prophecy [delivered] to the Imam [Khomeini] and can be seen as a wondrous miracle. —Guards deputy commander Hossein Salami, November 2016 On November 25, 1979, Khomeini called for the creation of, in his words, a “twenty-million-man army.” In response, the People’s Militia, later known as the Basij, was established in April 1980. Initially a separate ser...

            Luring Opponents to Return: “Clever, Multidimensional and Innovative Tricks” Early Soviet and Nazi leaders sometimes pressured leading dissidents to return from abroad. One of the most successful early Soviet operations was the Trust, designed to disrupt the anti-Bolshevik White émigré community. By creating a false active opposition on Soviet territory, the Trust lured several promine...

            Deception and Prisons For the Soviets and the Germans, concentration camps were instruments of terror and venues for slave labor. The camp's very existence fostered a paralyzing fear among citizens who might deviate from the state's agenda. Yet some macabre elements were concealed from the outside world. This is also true of Iran. The Germans sought to disguise extermination centers, p...

Welcome to an excerpt from Empire of Terror, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, by Mark Silinsky, published by Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press. This is presented by Kensington Security Consulting, which brings education to national security. This excerpt comes from chapter three and discusses prisons. Imprisonment and Prisons Iconic prisons are engines of grues...

Show Trials Just as in Nazi Germany and in the Soviet Union of the 1930s, there is a culture of ambient fear of arrest within all Iranian social strata today. It is hard to predict who will be arrested or killed or what the charges will be. In Germany, a passing comment could be classified as Wehrkraftzersetzung, or “subversion” or “undermining the war effort,” which was punishable by death. A gen...

            Martyrdom  Like the Nazis and the Soviets before them, Iranian leaders have made martyrs of children and young leaders. The Germans hailed twenty-two-year-old Horst Wessel, who was killed by a communist, and immortalized him in ceremony and song as a major Nazi propaganda symbol. For the Soviets, the young hero was thirteen-year-old Pavlik Morozov, who denounced his father as an enemy...