WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:04.440 Welcome back everyone. Today we're going to be taking a 2 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:08.400 look at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the code's forces. 3 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:12.919 So let's think about something. You're a dissident, you fled 4 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:16.600 Ran years ago. You're living in Berlin or London, you 5 00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:19.640 have a job, maybe a family, You write, you speak, 6 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:22.320 criticize the regime publicly because you believe that is what 7 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:24.960 you're supposed to do when you have the freedom to 8 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:27.920 do it. You're not a spy, you're not a combatant. 9 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:31.480 You're a civilian with a keyboard in an opinion. And 10 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:34.759 there's a man Tehran who has your name on a list, 11 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:40.159 not a metaphorical list, a real tangible list, a list. 12 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:43.280 It moves to a bureaucratic apparatus, gets signed off by 13 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:46.079 people with titles, gets handed down to a unit that 14 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:48.399 has done this before, and results in a team showing 15 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:52.240 up somewhere near you, near where you live, with a 16 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:58.240 plan and a timeline. This isn't hypothetical, folks, This is documented. 17 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:02.920 It's happened in Germany, in France, in the US, in Albania, Lebanon, 18 00:01:03.479 --> 00:01:06.359 you name it. It's happened on every continent where Iran 19 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:09.760 has decided it has enemies, and today we're going to 20 00:01:09.799 --> 00:01:12.599 be talking about the Kutz Force, the external operation arm 21 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:18.480 of the IRGC Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The organization has 22 00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:21.000 been called Iran's tip of the spear, its most lethal 23 00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:23.079 instrument of foreign policy, in the engine behind one of 24 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:27.000 the most sophisticated and persistent shadow war campaigns in modern 25 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:31.120 intelligence history. Let me give you the architecture first, because 26 00:01:31.159 --> 00:01:33.760 you cannot understand what this organization does until you understand 27 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:36.920 what it is. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard was established in 28 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:41.159 nineteen seventy nine in the immediate aftermath of the Islamic Revolution. 29 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:45.319 It was built explicitly to protect the revolution, not just 30 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:50.159 the state, and that distinction matters. A conventional military protects 31 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:53.560 borders and national interests. The IRGC was assigned from the 32 00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:58.239 beginning to protect in ideology. That ideological mandate gave it 33 00:01:58.239 --> 00:02:01.239 a different kind of operational permission and that most military 34 00:02:01.319 --> 00:02:06.120 organizations carry inside the RIGC. Because force is the External 35 00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:10.800 Operations Directorate, Kutz is the Arabic, Arabic and Persian word 36 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:15.879 for Jerusalem. That naming is intentional. The force was built 37 00:02:15.879 --> 00:02:20.080 around a revolutionary objective that extends far beyond Iran's borders. 38 00:02:20.759 --> 00:02:24.800 Its mandate includes supporting, training, equipping, and directing proxy forces 39 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:28.800 throughout Middle East and beyond, conducting intelligence operations in foreign countries, 40 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:33.840 running assassination and kidnapping programs, targeting dissidents and perceived enemies 41 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:38.240 of the Islamic Republic, and projecting Iranian influence in ways 42 00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:43.120 that give Tehran plausible deniability. At its peak, the Kutz 43 00:02:43.159 --> 00:02:45.759 Forces operated with an estimated strength of somewhere between ten 44 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:49.439 thy twenty thousand, thought the actual numbers impossible to verify. 45 00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:53.080 It ran operations through a network of embassies, front companies, 46 00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:58.199 cultural organizations, and proxy militias spanning Lebanon, in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Gaza, 47 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:03.319 Latin America, and for roughly two decades from approximately nineteen 48 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:05.400 ninety eight until twenty twenty, all of it ran through 49 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:09.560 one man, Solomone. If you have not read everything available 50 00:03:09.560 --> 00:03:12.960 in Solomoni, stop after this episode and do that, because 51 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:15.639 he's one of the most consequential intelligence and military figures 52 00:03:15.639 --> 00:03:18.639 of the post Cold War era, and he operated almost 53 00:03:18.759 --> 00:03:22.800 entirely in the shadows until he didn't. Solomani joined the 54 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:27.319 IRGC in the late seventies, fought in the Iran Iraq War, 55 00:03:27.800 --> 00:03:29.840 and by the late nineteen nineties had taken command of 56 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:32.599 the Kuds Force, where he built over the following two decades. 57 00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:36.479 Was not just a military organization, it was a relationship network. 58 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:40.919 Solomonia understood a fundamental level the power projection at the 59 00:03:40.919 --> 00:03:43.719 scale he was attempting require personal trust between him self 60 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:47.400 and the leaders of every proxy organization he supported. He 61 00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:53.080 met with Hassan Nozraala of Hezbola personally and repeatedly. He 62 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:55.560 was embedded with Shia militia commanders, and he rocked during 63 00:03:55.560 --> 00:03:58.479 the fight against License. He traveled constantly in and out 64 00:03:58.520 --> 00:04:00.479 of conflict zones, off in a way that should have 65 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:02.840 gotten him killed. Because his physical presence was how he 66 00:04:02.919 --> 00:04:07.680 maintained the web. American intelligence tracked him for years. There 67 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:10.960 were reportedly multiple instances where the decision was made not 68 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:14.159 to act against them because of concerns about escalation on 69 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:18.680 the downstream consequences for regional stability. That calculus held into 70 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:23.000 January twenty twenty, when a Reaper drone strike Baghdad International 71 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:26.920 Airport killed Solomoni along with Abu Mahdi al Muhandas, the 72 00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:31.519 deputy commander of the Iranian backed popular mobilization forces. The 73 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:34.279 question of whether that strike was strategically correct, is legitimately 74 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:38.439 contested is not contested, is what Solomoni had spent two 75 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:41.959 decades building. Let me walk you through some of the 76 00:04:41.959 --> 00:04:44.720 documented operations, because the scope of what the Cuds Force 77 00:04:44.759 --> 00:04:47.000 and his proxies have carried out is not fully understood 78 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:52.120 by most. The nineteen ninety four bombing of the Amia 79 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:55.560 Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires killed eighty five people 80 00:04:55.600 --> 00:05:00.079 in wounded hundreds. Argentine investigators and prosecutors spent decades building 81 00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:03.680 a case that pointed to kods Force involvement in planning 82 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:06.639 and support with his Bull's operational unit executing the attack. 83 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:11.199 Iranian officials, including a former president and former intelligence minister, 84 00:05:11.240 --> 00:05:15.600 were ultimately names of suspects in Argentine indictments. That operation 85 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:18.600 was not a military strike against the military target. It 86 00:05:18.680 --> 00:05:21.639 was a mass casualty attack against civilians. In South America. 87 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:27.160 In twenty eleven, the US law enforcement disrupted an alleged 88 00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:30.199 Coots Force plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the 89 00:05:30.279 --> 00:05:34.160 United States on American soil. The plan reportedly involved hiring 90 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:36.240 a member of a the Mexican drug cartel to carry 91 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:39.639 out the killing. The sophistication of the plan was debated 92 00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:44.040 by analysts, but the intent was not because Force officer 93 00:05:44.079 --> 00:05:47.240 had made direct contact with an individual he was believed 94 00:05:47.639 --> 00:05:49.519 was a cartel operative and was willing to pay for 95 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:55.160 a political assassination inside d C. Germany expelled the Iranian 96 00:05:55.199 --> 00:05:59.240 intelligence officers and documented the Iranian surveillance operations against Jewish 97 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:04.079 community organizations and Israeli diplomatic facilities in German soil. Multiple 98 00:06:04.079 --> 00:06:07.480 European countries have intercepted CUTS Force linked operatives and disrupted 99 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:13.240 assassination plots against Iranian dissidents living in exile. In Albania, 100 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:17.399 the Albanian government expelled the Iranian ambassador and another diplomat 101 00:06:17.480 --> 00:06:20.639 following intelligence that CUTS Force assets were planning attacks against 102 00:06:20.680 --> 00:06:26.319 Israeli in Jewish targets during passover. Albania, a Muslim majority 103 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:29.560 NATO member with historically warm relations with Israel, made a 104 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:33.279 significant diplomatic decision based on what it's intelligence service uncovered. 105 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:37.439 The pattern is consistent across geography and across time. The 106 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:41.839 CUTS Force operates wherever Tehran perceives threats or opportunities, does 107 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:43.879 not stop at borders. It does not recognize as a 108 00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:47.920 civilian or diplomatic startists status of targets. I want you 109 00:06:47.959 --> 00:06:51.800 to understand something about this organization because this is where 110 00:06:51.800 --> 00:06:55.240 the intelligence trade craft gets fascinating and disturbing. The cuts 111 00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:58.639 Force does not only US Iranian nationals. In fact, using 112 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:03.120 Iranian nationals for sensitive operations in Western countries is exactly 113 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:06.079 what because people caught and they know that. The more 114 00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:10.040 sophisticated approach involves recruiting from diaspora communities, from criminal networks 115 00:07:10.040 --> 00:07:13.560 with no ideological connection to Iran who simply want money, 116 00:07:13.759 --> 00:07:16.959 from foreign nationals who can be converced through family members 117 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:20.839 still inside Iran, and through front organizations that give operatives 118 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:25.399 legitimate cover. The use of criminal proxies is particularly significant. 119 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:29.439 When you outsource an assassination of someone with no Iranian passport, 120 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:33.800 no known connection to the IRGC, and no ideological profile 121 00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:36.399 that would draw intelligence. You create a layer of deniability 122 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:38.879 that can hold up into public scrutiny even when the 123 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:43.600 intelligence community knows the truth. The gap between what intelligence 124 00:07:43.639 --> 00:07:47.079 services know and what can be proven in open court 125 00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:51.600 or acknowledge and diplomatic towns is exactly the space that 126 00:07:51.639 --> 00:07:56.240 shadow war operators exploit. Defector accounts have described the Cuts 127 00:07:56.279 --> 00:08:00.639 Force operational culture that is highly compartmented, deep patient, and 128 00:08:00.680 --> 00:08:03.879 willing to run operations on timelines that stretch years. Similar 129 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:07.720 to the Russians, an asset may be cultivated, placed in 130 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:11.800 left dormant for a long time before being activated. The 131 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:14.839 Western intelligence community, which often operates in budget cycles and 132 00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:19.600 shifting political priorities, forces a structural disadvantage against an organizations 133 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:27.160 playing a generational game. Solomonia is gone, what is Mael Khani, 134 00:08:27.240 --> 00:08:30.199 who replaced them as Cuts Force commander, has continued the 135 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:34.679 operational posture. Iran has made explicit threats against former American officials, 136 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:38.039 including individuals who are involved in decision to authorize as 137 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:43.360 Solomoni strike. The Justice Department has publicly indicted Iranian nationals 138 00:08:43.399 --> 00:08:48.559 for plots against Americans soil or disrupted up to twenty twenty. 139 00:08:48.919 --> 00:08:51.399 What does all this mean? It means that Iran has 140 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:57.039 made a calculated decision sustained across multiple administrations multiple Supreme leaders, 141 00:08:57.039 --> 00:08:59.639 at the cost of projecting power through covert and proxy 142 00:08:59.720 --> 00:09:02.240 means is lower than the benefit. It means that the 143 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:08.039 international norms around assassination and extraterretorial territorial operations and have 144 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:11.159 not functioned as a sufficient deterrent, and it means that 145 00:09:11.240 --> 00:09:14.120 for the dissonance on those lists, for the intelligence officers 146 00:09:14.120 --> 00:09:16.720 who've been targeted, for the civilians who happened to be 147 00:09:16.759 --> 00:09:19.879 near a target. The shadow war is not abstract. It 148 00:09:19.960 --> 00:09:23.720 is very real. Understanding how this machine works. Who's not 149 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:27.159 optional if you want to understand the Middle East American 150 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:30.360 foreign policy. The Cuz Force is not a French story. 151 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:33.600 It is one of the defining co writ programs of 152 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:34.039 our era.