Iran's Revolutionary Guard: The Threat That Grows While America Sleeps

Since the Iranian Revolution more than thirty years ago, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also known as the Revolutionary Guard, has conducted covert and overt military operations, built an economic empire, and trained, financed, and guided terrorists to pursue one goal—the preservation and expansion of the Islamic revolution. Inside Iran the IRGC influences the country's politics, economy, and foreign policy, and controls its nuclear program. Outside Iran the operations of the IRGC and its proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Shiite militias in Iraq, have left a trail of death—from the 1983 truck bombings in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. peacekeepers and 58 French paratroopers to numerous attacks on U.S. (and allied) troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, no longer content to strike in Iraq and Afghanistan or at targets in the Middle East and south Asia, the IRGC and Hezbollah operate throughout North and South America, developing the capability to strike the continental United States and deliver a blow to America's economy far worse than today's financial crisis. In Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Steven O'Hern reveals new information about the IRGC and Hezbollah operations inside America based on interviews with former and active members of the FBI, CIA, local law enforcement, military intelligence, and even one former Revolutionary Guard officer. The author details how the IRGC has grown into such a dangerous foe and explains how its members' activities have put the American economy and American lives at risk. His research suggests that the IRGC may be planning to explode, high above a Midwestern city, a nuclear weapon that would emit an electromagnetic pulse strong enough to render anything with a computer chip useless, including the hundreds of transformers that control the country's electrical grid. One thing is certain, according to O'Hern: the Revolutionary Guard is a serious threat to the well-being of all U.S. citizens.

About the Author :
STEVEN O’HERN is a retired military counterintelligence officer, an Iraq War veteran, and an attorney. While serving in Iraq, Colonel O’Hern directed intelligence operations against the IRGC; that experience informed his first book, The Intelligence Wars: Lessons from Baghdad (Prometheus Books, 2008). He has taught at the Counter Threat Institute International, a California-based company that provides counterterrorism training to military personnel and law enforcement officers. He lives in Overland Park, Kansas.

Review :
“Steven O’Hern’s definitive history of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard lays out in chilling detail the blatant acts of terrorism perpetrated with impunity by this group worldwide over three decades. This book is especially timely considering Iran is on the cusp of attaining nuclear weapons and because the ideology-driven IRGC will be the organization to use them. It is an impressive work that highlights the need for America to wake up before it’s too late.”-Col. Timothy J. Geraghty, USMC (Ret.), author of Peacekeepers at War: Beirut 1983-The Marine Commander Tells His Story “Steven O’Hern has crafted an essential primer for policymakers on the grave and growing threat posed by Iran’s push into Latin America. Even in a post-9/11 world, our national security establishment has underestimated the asymmetrical threat thrust into our neighborhood by Iran’s dangerous alliances with hostile regimes. O’Hern provides operational details on the unconventional offensive launched in the Americas by Iran’s most radical security force and terrorist proxy. This book sounds a call for action. If our intelligence and security agencies study O’Hern’s work, we might be spared the terrible cost of years of neglect.”-Amb. Roger Noriega, visiting fellow, American Enterprise Institute; former assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs; and former U.S. Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States “The study of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard could hardly be a more urgent priority for policymakers, students of foreign affairs, and those with an interest in the Middle East. This essential account explores the key role played by the Guard in Iranian society, the economy, and national politics as well as its military value.”-Mark Urban, military historian and author of Task Force Black: The Explosive True Story of the SAS and the Secret War in Iraq