At War with Iran

Iran has promised to send waves of suicide bombers against Europe, America, and Israel if America goes to war with Iran.

So if we are going to war with Iran the first thing that needs to be done is preping the battlefield. You want to weaken the enemy position before attacking it. The easiest way to do that is with a spoiling attack. Such an attack is implimented against enemy formations that are massed for an attack. This disrupts the enemy while he is in the prepratory stage and as a result disorganizes or prevents anticipated attacks.

So far our spoiling attacks have been mainly focused on disrupting Iran's bank accounts and ability to disburse funds. They have been forced to work on a cash basis because their ability to use western banks to move their funds has been impeded.

I think Iran made a big mistake when it figured that America would limit itself to politics and military action, because Iran held the upper hand in the economic sphere due to its contribution to the world oil market.

And a second front in the Cash Flow Jihad is gaining as well. Law suits against terrorists. Especially terrorists supported by Iran.

...10 years after Vicki and Leonard Eisenfeld's son Matt, 25, a Yale graduate and rabbinical student, was murdered along with his fiancee Sara Duker in a No. 18 bus on Jerusalem's Jaffa Road, their dogged struggle against the Hamas terror group that killed him, and against the Iranian government that trained and financed those behind this and so many bombings, doesn't look quite so foolhardy anymore. There are even those who wonder whether it might help expedite regime change in Teheran.

"We had the choice of doing nothing or doing something," says Leonard simply, sitting alongside his wife on the sofa of their home in West Hartford, Connecticut. And that was no choice at all. So they set out to create what Leonard calls "a financial deterrent to terrorism."

It appears that Hamas has been funded and trained by Iran.

In a way this is a lot like Flight 93. Americans taking the initiative before government can get its act together. In fact it seems that at least one part of the executive branch is getting in the way. Here is a bit on a group of families having trouble with our State Department:

They've used some of that payment for charitable contributions and to fund various scholarship programs. But the three families' efforts to obtain what may now total up to $900 million in outstanding damages has been hampered in the US, again ironically, by the State Department.

Speaking by phone from Washington, Perles recounts that the legal team identified a US real-estate development firm with considerable assets that turned out to be wholly owned by the Iranian government. But the bid to seize its funds was stymied by a State Department contention that the company in question could not be held liable "since it was not managed on a daily basis by the government in Teheran," says Perles exasperatedly.

So they have taken the case to our European friends with better results:

RATHER THAN wait for the completion of the tortuous process, however, the lawyers have looked further afield of late, with remarkable success. To Europe, in fact, where Perles says the Iranian government has an estimated $50 to $80 billion in assets.

A few months back, they managed to get the Italian courts to "domesticate" the US court ruling in the case - "a procedure," says Perles, "under which the Italian court essentially adopted the judgment as its own."

Why would the Italians do that? "Because," says Perles, "they sometimes have cases of their own that need to be domesticated in the US."

Which might explain why Iran has withdrawn 700 tons of gold and $3o bn in cash from European banks. However, that is not all that is going on in the cash flow front.

And there is, appallingly, no shortage of other such potential cases. "Lots of US nationals have been killed by Iranian-backed terror," he notes grimly. "Iran is the epicenter of state terror."

In fact, he goes on, "We have a case that's been running for three or four years on behalf of 200 families of US marines killed in the 1983 Beirut bombings. We've had 800 witnesses testify to date. Iran has already lost in the battle over its liability. And we're talking seriously big numbers" in potential damages.

If the military families prevail against Iran that is going to seriously hurt Iran.

In any case I think what this is about is preliminary weaking of Iran and their proxies - either to make them say uncle or to weaken them preliminary to an attack.

The situation for Hamas re: cash is dire. Even money Iran has promised - and it is only $50 million, enough for 10 or 15 days of operation - can not be delivered due to the unwillingness of banks to handle Hamas money for fear of US action.

At some point the proxies may have to attack before their resources run out - opening themselves up to defeat in detail and thus being unable to mount spoiling attacks or counter attacks when we move on Iran.

Also see: Hamas has a banking crisis and The Gold War.

Technorati:
Follow the Money, Iran, Cash Flow Jihad, Iran War, Palestine, Hamas, Terrorism, Israel, Iranian Economy

HT: Charles and the LGF Readers and ploome hineni