The Persians just can't seem to hold on to their spies, as yet another Revolutionary Guards general has apparently defected. (I wrote about other recent defections/captures in these articles.) This time, it's a General Soltani, who heads (or "headed," really) the Persian Gulf bureau of the Revolutionary Guards intelligence arm. He apparently vanished on an inspection trip to Bandar Abbas, Iran's major port. Once again, his family went missing, too. Given his position, he can be expected to know a lot about Iranian intelligence operations in the Gulf States, including terrorist operations planned in the event of war with the US.
This latest defection, if true, leads to two observations: 1) It looks like the West has pretty thoroughly penetrated the Iranian security services. Not only does this create a nightmare for damage control, but there have been so many that the Persians have to wonder if they can even trust the people put in charge of the damage control effort. Second, the regime looks to be showing serious cracks: the economy continues to crumble under sanctions and Ahmadinejad's poor management, anti-regime demonstrations and terrorism are becoming regular events, and the defection of so many key officers has to make the rulers wonder just who would stay loyal in the event of a crisis.
I wonder what the Farsi for "Pass the Pepto" is?
More seriously, mouthpiece newspapers with highly placed connections are threatening revenge against European and American targets:
“We’ve got the ability to capture a nice bunch of blue-eyed blond-haired officers and feed them to our fighting cocks,” he said. “Iran has enough people who can reach the heart of Europe and kidnap Americans and Israelis.”
This is a threat that can't be dismissed lightly, since the "Mullah mafia" has shown time and again that it takes revenge seriously. The kidnapping and murder of four American officers in Karbala, Iraq, was likely in retaliation for our earlier capture of Quds Force officers in Irbil.
The "shadow war" looks to get quite a bit hotter.
(hat tip: Hot Air)
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