Developments continue on the Iran War front as prospects for peace have been teetering back and forth. A crucial question remains: Will Operation Epic Fury force a change in Iran’s long-standing status as the world’s biggest funder of Islamic extremist terrorism? Scott Thuman reports.
The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.
Right from the beginning, it was one of the key reasons President Trump gave for Operation Epic Fury.
President Trump: In 1983, Iran’s proxies carried out the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel.
Iran’s longstanding use of terrorism to attack its enemies, either directly or through proxy groups like Hezbollah.
It’s been happening since the early 1980s and continues today with a broad range of targets and a wide variety of methods, from cyber attacks to bombings to mass shootings.
Matthew Levitt: Look, you know, the Iranians have been engaging in terrorism as a tool to further their policy interests for decades. They want to exact a cost, even if it’s a small one, for what’s being done against them, but there is a long game because for them, victory is not defeating the United States or Israel. Victory is not being defeated. Victory is surviving.
Dr. Matthew Levitt is an expert on Iran’s terrorism and a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He’s also worked for the US government in intelligence and counter terrorism.
Levitt: Now, Israeli and American authorities, and increasingly European authorities, are warning that the Iranians are pulling out all the stops. And they’re telling people, if you can do something, do something.
Since the start of the US and Israeli strikes against Iran, there have been a number of attacks now being investigated for possible links to Iran.
Including a mass shooting in Texas by an individual wearing a shirt resembling the Iranian flag that left two dead and fourteen wounded.
And a cyber attack against a medical technology company based in Michigan impacting tens of thousands of devices.
Matthew Levitt: The most pressing concern for law enforcement is someone who is inspired to do something either on behalf of Iran in support of Iran, or just seeing the war against Iran as being a war against Muslims, seeing the assassination of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as being an attack on a religious leader, and he was the religious leader for some people, and deciding to act on their own. That may have been what happened in Texas with the individual who was wearing attire that suggests that it was somehow affiliated with the cause of Iran.
Scott: So you’ve alluded to it and not describing it necessarily as sleeper cells, but at the same time, was there a category of people who, if this war broke out as it did, were just ready for the opportunity to strike back either on American soil or European targets?
Matthew Levitt: Look, we have to assume that there were people who were prepared to act in the event that a war like the one we’re seeing now transpired. We’re a big and open society, but our law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels are really quite good. And so far, we’ve seen more threats and thwarted threats in the Gulf. We’ve seen a plot in Qatar, we’ve seen two plots in the UAE. We’ve seen three different Iranian and Hezbollah plots now thwarted in Kuwait. Those plots in the Gulf and these shootings and fire bombings of Jewish targets in Europe, those are the two main terrorist plot lines we’ve seen kind of publicly.
Levitt says Iran calculates that if it can inflict harm and incite fear, that might translate into political pressure on the white house
Matthew Levitt: It wants to demonstrate that it’s down but not out. It wants to raise the cost to the United States and to Israel of prosecuting this war in an effort to try and get them to stop. I think the Iranians calculate that if there were some small scale attacks here in the United States, frankly, even if they’re all thwarted, but they all get reported in the media, that the public will be concerned about that, much as they’re concerned about the price of oil at the gas pump, and that there will be pressure on the administration, political pressure within a democracy, to consider the costs.
Scott: What is happening that’s preventing them from conducting even more attacks here in the US?
Matthew Levitt: The Israelis in particular have been taking out the head of the IRGC and the head of the Qutz Force, the head of the IRGC’s intelligence organization, and the head of Iran’s main intelligence entity, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and then the person who comes in, then that person’s taken out. There’s a significant level of command and control disruption.
As for what happens next, Levitt says the conflict in the Gulf isn’t going to change how Iran operates as long as the regime survives.
Scott: Iran has long been considered the greatest state sponsor of terrorism. Will Operation Epic Fury change that?
Matthew Levitt: No. I think Iranian leadership is likely to see asymmetric warfare, including but not limited to terrorism as being a very legitimate response to the overwhelming military force that was brought to bear against it. And therefore, I think we need to be cognizant of the fact that the terrorist threat from Iran is likely to be higher. Again, especially in terms of intent, what remains to be seen is in terms of capability. Both their capabilities to do things offensively and our capabilities to disrupt them.
Setting the stage for potentially more acts of terrorism, either directly by Iran or through proxy groups, long after America’s bombing campaign has ended.
For Full Measure, I’m Scott Thuman.
Watch the video here.
