Excerpts of a Document Linking President-Elect, Khatami to Plots of Terrorism Abroad
Top Secret
Subject : Creation of An Independent Brigade for Carrying Out Irregular Warfare in Enemy Territory
In the process of obeying the orders of his Eminence ... Imam Khomeini..., the great leader ... which were given in handwriting, I would be pleased if you attend a meeting at the building of the Ministry of Islamic Guidance on 5/3/1363 (26 May, 1984) at 1600 hours. Should Your Excellencies presence for some reason not be possible, then one of your senior responsible staff with full powers of authority on your behalf should attend the meeting, and his name, qualifications and title should be relayed 48 hours before the meeting.
Signed on behalf of the Minister of National Guidance
Seyed Mohammad Khatami
List of recipients of the memorandum
- Commander of the Joint Chiefs of staff of the Islamic Republic Armed Forces
- Representative of the Imam in the Supreme Defence Council
- Commander of the Revolutionary Guards of the Islamic Republic
- Commander of the Ground Forces of the Islamic Republic
- Commander of the Air Force of the Islamic Republic
- Commander of the Navy of the Islamic Republic
- Chief of the G2 Section of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
- Chiefs of the Political-Ideological Offices of the various forces
- Chiefs of the Islamic Committees
- The Representative of the Imam in Haj
- Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic
Top Secret
Official proceedings concerning the creation of an independent brigade for carrying out irregular warfare in enemy territory
The meeting commenced with the speech of His Eminence, Ayatollah Khatami, the Minister of the Islamic Guidance, who said the following :
"In the name of God, The Merciful, the Compassionate."
Dear brothers, I wish to welcome you on behalf of the International Islamic Movements Organisation, and
to explain in brief why this meeting has been called. On 24th of 'Oribehesht' - (14 May, 1984), I , accompanied by the Head of this movement were received by our beloved leader to whom we presented our progress report. Th Imam, expressed his satisfaction with the behaviour of the leaders of the sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf and of the Saudi regime. Of Course, he was not pleased either with others who pretend to be leaders of the Islamic nations. After moments of silence which were evidence of his deepfelt anxiety and dissatisfaction, His Eminence in his usual style of firmness concerninig all living matters made certain comments which are as follows :
'From the beginning of our revolution, we have had many enemies, but our expectations from Muslims was
something else...'
based on a plan that has been prepared in almost 200 pages and on which you will be subsequently informed, 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. This force, for security reasons, and for the purposes of making sure that legal impediments do not delay its formation, will be formed under the aegis of either the Revolutionary Guards or the Armed Forces. Of course, the decision in this respect will rest with His Eminence, the Leader. At this time, we are concerned with its creation. This force will act independently and will present all its reports directly to the Commander in Chief. Because the carrying out of this plan required the assistance of all revolutinary organs, the matter was presented to His Eminence in that initial meeting, and he accepted
the proposal. What has been said has been a brief introduction, and now we will enter the main substance and I shall pass the platform to Brother "Mirhashem", who is responsible for this organisation. ....
Brother Mirhashem :
"From what was said at the beginning, there was some reference made to the creation of a brigade. For the information of all present, I must say 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 have already performed certain actions. But since regional reactionary forces out of fear from the Islamic Revolution and the hard blows of the fighters of Islam, with each passing day under different pretexts are preparing themselves more and more, and this in itself is a big threat for the continuation of the revolution, these groups that we have are by themselves inadequate. Also, the personnel in these groups are committed only because of their beliefs for which they are ready to do anything, but they lack warfare experience. Therefore, the personnel of this brigade must from the point of view of military combat experience be of a very high echelon. If we wished to commence this task from the beginning, that is from the training stages, by the time that we can prepare such people for utilisation at least one year will have elapsed, and this is something that will create an interlude in our activities and will award our enemies more time. Therefore, it has been decided to select dedicated religious and fully committed candidates from all combat 'nahad' organisations so as to prevent any interlude in the continuation of our operational activities. .....