MI5

July 23, 2023 | Reuel Marc Gerecht |

Cloak and Swagger

REVIEW: ‘Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West’ by Calder Walton

March 28, 2023 | |

Activist’s Hunger Strike Persists as UK Fails to Designate IRGC as Terrorist Group

Latest Developments An Iranian-British citizen’s hunger strike outside the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office entered its 34th day today as London continues its refusal to designate Iran’s Islamic...

February 21, 2023 | |

EU, UK Impose New Sanctions on Iran as Protests Surge

The European Union and the United Kingdom on Monday imposed new sanctions to address Tehran’s brutal suppression of protests. The sanctions, which come in the wake of a fresh surge of demonstrations in Iran, target Iranian judges, lawmakers, and commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), among others. The sanctions also follow an announcement on Saturday by Iran International, a Farsi-language news channel, that it would relocate from London to Washington due to threats against its staff by Iranian agents. Nevertheless, the EU and the UK have stopped short of designating the IRGC itself as a terrorist organization, defying demands by the European Parliament and Iranian dissidents.

January 26, 2023 | |

EU and UK Impose Human Rights Sanction on Iran, but Not on Its President and Supreme Leader

Latest Developments  The European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States rolled out coordinated sanctions against elements of the Islamic Republic’s security apparatus on Monday, citing the...

January 19, 2023 | |

Calls to Designate IRGC as Terrorist Organization Grow in the UK 

Calls to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization grew in the United Kingdom this week after Iran executed a prominent dual British-Iranian citizen on Saturday morning. According to Iranian news sources, Iran hanged former deputy defense minister, Alireza Akbari, 61, after accusing him of spying for the UK’s MI6 — the British equivalent to the CIA. According to the BBC, Akbari’s execution came after he was tortured and forced to confess on camera, though he later recanted. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed outrage over the execution, while the UK Foreign Office “summoned” Iran’s chargé d’affaires in London — a formality that entails a meeting with host nation officials to hear complaints.  

January 6, 2023 | |

UK Preparing to Designate IRGC as a Terrorist Organization

The United Kingdom is preparing to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group, according to media reports this week. The decision, which London will likely announce within weeks, apparently stems in part from Tehran’s efforts to kidnap or kill dissidents on British soil. Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, said in November that Tehran had plotted to kill at least 10 British residents over the past year. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Tehran has deployed assassins as a regular tool of statecraft, regarding assassinations as a key method to ensure the regime’s survival, punish foes, and deter dissent.

July 13, 2022 | Clifford D. May |

What China’s rulers want

The FBI director understands; many business leaders do not

May 13, 2021 | Benjamin Weinthal |

European intelligence agencies reveal Iran sought nuclear weapons technology in Europe

Four agencies publish reports into Iranian attempts

October 16, 2015 | Reuel Marc Gerecht |

Victory Without Soldiers?

With the war in Syria becoming ever more complex and murderous, it’s worthwhile to revisit a guiding principle of Barack Obama: The use of American military power is likely to do more harm...

January 8, 2015 | Reuel Marc Gerecht The Wall Street Journal

France and the New Charismatic Jihad

Worries about autonomous jihadist cells appear to have been realized in Paris.

June 14, 2013 | Reuel Marc Gerecht

The Costs and Benefits of the NSA

Should Americans fear the possible abuse of the intercept power of the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland? Absolutely. In the midst of the unfolding scandal at the IRS, we understan...

July 23, 2012 | Reuel Marc Gerecht

Interrogating Terror

How tough justice keeps us free.

January 30, 2012 | Reuel Marc Gerecht |

Drones Are Not Enough

Getting counterterrorism policy wrong.

September 27, 2011 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

UK Terror Sweep Uncovers Suicide Bomb Plot

Co-authored by Wes Bruer Six British men who were detained during raids in Birmingham last week have been linked to an al Qaeda cell in Pakistan, and were planning to carry out...

September 8, 2011 | Clifford D. May |

Disoriented

The state of too many Western leaders ten years after 9/11/01.

June 15, 2011 | Weekly Standard

Are We Safer?

Yes, George W. Bush has made America more secure since 9/11.

November 5, 2010 |

Is Yemen the New Pakistan?

Is Yemen the new Pakistan, which was the new Afghanistan, which was the new Saudi Arabia, which was the new Egypt for jihadists seeking to strike the West? The recent attempted cargo-plane bombin...

September 18, 2009 |

Pashtuns and Pakistanis

The war in Afghanistan obviously isn't going well. Depressing critiques from all quarters underscore Afghanistan's appalling poverty, warlordism, religious conservatism, corruption, pop...

September 21, 2006 | World Defense Review

Financing Somalia’s Islamist Warlords

Since the fall of the sometime Somali capital of Mogadishu to the armed radicals of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in early June, United States policymakers and analysts have debated not only the...

January 2, 2006 | Open Republic Institute

Kim Philby Was Here

Richard Carlson is Vice Chairman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism. He has experience in journalism and diplomacy and is a former United State...