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Tuesday, May 23, 2006
SS Officers for Iran's IRGC
Rooz Online reports that a new line of activities have taken place in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that aims to organize those who have similar political views and ideologies.
Those who have similar views will become "Political Guides" whose main tasks are to boss the commanders of each unit.
It's very important to mention that the post-revolution armed forces of Iran are tightly monitored by the office of the supreme leader, Khamenei, through offices called "Idealogical & Political Bureaus" which are run by an Islamic cleric as well. Therefore commanders of each unit has some body to supervise him from the supreme leader's office. These clerics/agents have ultimate say in decision making of the Iranian military (Regular or Revolutionary). This sort of clerical supervision was put in place after the failed military coup, by the Iranian Air Force in July of 1980 against the regime, to prevent further disobedience or uprising within the armed services.
The purpose of this initiative, which is undertaken by the political bureau and particularly the “Political Guidance” office of the Passdaran is to coordinate and organize all other individuals at the senior levels of the Guards and provide them with ideological input.
These so-called political guides will act like SS Officers of the Nazi Germany and will supervise the entire armed forces for any possible uprising in time of any strike or conflict and also give feedbacks to the commanders of the armed forces.
That also means the regime is trying to find more LOYAL military personnel in its armed force branches and is also tightening its grip over the military for a day when it is engaged in a military conflict with either US or Israelis.
Cross-posted @ The Spirit of Man
Posted by Winston on May 23, 2006 in International Affairs | Permalink
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Comments
While the SS of the Third Reich acted as a sort of Praetorian Guard for the leadership, they actually had their own Shock units and PanzerKorps. They did not oversee the Heer or Werhmacht. I don't know of any instances when they assumed control of regular German Army, Navy, or Luftwaffe units. The K forces(special forces groups) were under some SS control. Specifically Otto Skorzeny.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Skorzeny
The Soviet KGB is a more accurate analogy.
Posted by: Speller | 2006-05-24 12:33:01 AM
IRGC is the elite military unit of the regime which helps secure the regime and supervise all type of military activities.
These guys will act like SS officers, to my opinion.
Posted by: Winston | 2006-05-24 1:41:26 AM
This is very informative!
Whether they are SS, politruk, zampolit, etc. is besides the point.
The structure of the IRGC and regular military forces internally is new information to most people.
Thanks!
Posted by: C.H. | 2006-05-24 5:56:14 AM
Sounds typically facist to me. That is a good reason to take that regime down.
Posted by: Rémi Houle | 2006-05-24 8:33:59 AM
The better analogy is how the Soviet Union had political officers in all military unit to ensure that the political aims of the party were being properly carried out by the armed forces. Speller's post is on the mark.
Posted by: Mitch | 2006-05-24 11:59:08 AM
Sounds more like commisars to me. even the nkvd were separate from the army, but the commisars were in every unit to ensure correct political behavior (they were disbanded mid way through the war, but made a comeback later)
Posted by: stuckInVancouver | 2006-05-24 12:17:09 PM
As some one who served in Iran's regular army, I can tell you that these guys act like Political commissars and SS officers.
They do the same stuff!
Posted by: Winston | 2006-05-24 12:22:20 PM
Winston, the SS didn't have to 'firm up' political support in the German armed forces. Those forces were loyal to the regime because they were nationalist, patriotic, and Hitler was seen as the epitome of German manhood.
The NKVD, later named KGB, had to be part of Soviet units because the rank and file didn't like international communism and weren't loyal to these unpatriotic ideas.
Now, Winston, nobody is questioning your knowledge of Iranian forces.
You just don't know shit about the SS.
Posted by: Speller | 2006-05-24 2:04:50 PM
"Hitler was seen as the epitome of German manhood."
Well no wonder they lost!
Posted by: Scott | 2006-05-24 3:48:36 PM
Geez Winston, next you'll be telling us that the Iranian leadership will force Jews, Christians and Zorastrians to wear coloured patches of cloth as an identifier.
Whoops, looks like the National Post beat you to it.
Or how about a picture of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps wearing Sig Runes?
Now there's a winner.
Posted by: DJ | 2006-05-24 10:39:26 PM
Substraction?
You're quite the little idiot when you don't cut and paste KK troll.
Twirp.
Posted by: Speller | 2006-05-25 5:31:46 AM
I have heard of Cheka.
Lavrenti Beria make your little Felix look like small perogy. Nyet?
I have read the Gulag Archapelago by Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn.
People really interested in the truth of the era should read- Inside the Aquarium: The Making of a Top Soviet Spy- by Viktor Suvorov.
Very readable account by Suvorov who now lives in England after defecting as an elite GRU agent.
Other excellant titles listed below by Suvorov about the life he actually lived, from being a Ukrainian peasant to entering the elite Kiev Tank School to the Tank Guards from which he was recruited to Spetsnaz and then to the GRU.
The liberators
by Viktor Suvorov
His life as a Ukrainian peasant to basic training at Kiev to a command in the Tank Guards to the Soviet 'liberation' of Hungary.
Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of the Soviet Special Forces
by Viktor Suvorov
His life in the Soviet Special Forces after recruitment from the Tank Guards
Inside Soviet Military Intelligence
by Viktor Suvorov
Operational structure, history, and methods of the NKVD/KGB and GRU including their deadly rivalries with each other.
Aquarium: The career and defection of a Soviet military spy
by Viktor Suvorov
His life as a GRU operative.
True stories, very easy reading, quite entertaining as well as informative. Some of it is hilarious. The spy parts cover the importance of recruiting MSM personalities as 'agents of influence' for the Soviet Union.
I borrowed all these books from the Calgary Public Library, good reading.
Posted by: Speller | Friday, October 28, 2005 at 12:31 PM
What's with the fractured English troll?
Maybe you might want to address the topic?
Posted by: Speller | 2006-05-25 9:42:25 PM
I spent the day in Canmore getting knee surgery.
Posted by: Speller | 2006-05-26 9:03:37 AM
Speller:
Speedy recovery!
Will be in Canmore on the Labour Day weekend driving the getaway car for my wife, who's in a bagpipe band.
It's a good pissup, if nothing else ... even though we freeze our asses off every year.
Posted by: Set you free | 2006-05-26 10:10:17 AM
Thank you Set you free.
Like you, KK, I do annoy people.
By the way, because I care about the subject, I read all those books in the 1980s. Gulag Archapelago was written by a man who spent 8 years in the Gulag and had the history of it and it's victims, tattooed on the bodies of other inmates he had met and committed to memory.
Solzhenitsyn only survived by convincing the Soviets that, because he was an engineer, he could contribute to the development of their A-bomb.
That got him out of the camps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Day_in_the_Life_of_Ivan_Denisovich
http://almaz.com/nobel/literature/Solzhenitsyn.html
Posted by: Speller | 2006-05-26 12:35:59 PM
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