Category Archives: UN United Nations Fraud Corruption

When Russia Helps N Korea Cheat on Sanctions, What to Do

Posted on by

Primer: Do you wonder what Russia’s votes on the UNSC really do to help North Korea? Do you wonder about the 40,000+ North Korean slave laborers in Russia add to the North Korean economy each year? About $200 million. How about the Russian oil pipeline that goes through North Korea? What about the rail system between the two countries and how that helps North Korea skirt sanctions with illicit goods transportation? Then there is the alleged legitimate navy and fishing fleets between Russia and North Korea. Money? Or the weekly air flight service from Vladivostok to Pyongyang. Or how Russia provides internet service to North Korea in addition to China, known as SatGate and the fiber optic lines that run along the rail system. Check front companies in China, Singapore and the banking system known as Dalcombank or just flying cash twice a week.

Rajin, North Korea Image result for rajin north korea  Image result for rajin north korea

FDD: The Treasury Department on Monday sanctioned a North Korean trading company official for helping Pyongyang evade U.S. and UN sanctions through illicit activity in Vietnam. The designation, which arrived in the brief interval between two North Korean missile tests in less than a week, suggests that Washington understands the importance of investigating and disrupting North Korea’s extensive overseas illicit networks.

Treasury’s latest target is Kim Su Il, who works for a Vietnam-based trading company on behalf of North Korea’s Munitions Industry Department, which the U.S. and UN have both sanctioned. According to Treasury, Kim helped export UN-sanctioned goods such as anthracite coal, titanium ore concentrate, and other raw materials from North Korea to Vietnam. Both anthracite coal and titanium ore are among the top exports that fund the regime’s illicit activities. Treasury also found that Kim Su Il helped charter ships and export Vietnamese products to North Korea, as well as to China and other undisclosed countries.

Kim Su Il’s designation is a reminder that North Korea’s overseas networks continue to thrive despite sanctions. In January, The Wall Street Journalreported that up to six Chinese-owned vessels transported North Korean coal between North Korea and Vietnam throughout 2018. In March 2018, the UN Panel of Experts also found that North Korean coal shipments to Vietnam go as far back as January 2017 – eight months before the UN Security Council’s comprehensive coal ban on North Korea went into effect. This persistent trade affirms Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Marshall Billingslea’s assessment in 2017 that coal “has been the center of North Korea’s revenue generation” for many years.

In March 2019, the same UN Panel of Experts exposed North Korea’s numerous overseas illicit money-making schemes, which employ networks of front companies, North Korean government workers, and local banks. For example, in Malaysia, North Korea’s intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, operated two companies that provided revenue to Pyongyang: the Malaysia-Korea Partners Group and Global Communications.

The UN Panel also found that foreign governments were applying “insufficient scrutiny” on the activities of North Korea’s overseas banking and government representatives, thereby enabling these company networks to thrive. The lax monitoring has ultimately allowed Pyongyang’s representatives to conduct financial transactions across numerous borders. Chinese banks in particular have been key enablers of North Korea’s actions.

Treasury provided robust evidence of this lax oversight last month when it sanctioned the Russian Financial Society (RFS) for helping North Korea evade sanctions. This designation revealed how a U.S.-sanctioned North Korean banking representative in Moscow exploited local financial service providers, specifically RFS, to conduct business for sanctioned North Korean companies. The incident showed that designating only the North Korean nationals working abroad is not enough. Rather, Washington also should target the banks and financial institutions that allow North Korean government officials based overseas to thrive.

Treasury’s next steps therefore should focus on investigating Kim Su Il’s local network of companies, individuals, and banks. Closing these gaps in enforcement is an indispensable step for maximizing the impact of U.S. sanctions on North Korea.

How About the Katyn Trials for Starters?

Posted on by

Since revisionist history is commonplace, few either know about the Nuremberg trials or remember the details. A book published years ago and finally translated in English titled ‘ Judgment in Moscow’ written by Vladimir Bukovsky asks the very question of why no Nuremberg type trials for the Soviets or Russians. In full disclosure, only recently I interviewed Mr. Bukovsky who has been living in England.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Mr. Bukovsky returned to Russia and traced documents proving the horrific crimes of the Soviets. In a prisoner swap, Mr. Bukovsky was later released from a Soviet prison. He knows full well the human rights atrocities of the Soviet Union and modern day Russia. Included are concentration camps, torture and genocide but outright murder cannot go unpunished. Someone please tell the New York Times to quit being so sympathetic with Moscow…anyway…..how about the Katyn massacre for starters?

This massacre happened in 1939 during the Soviet invasion of Poland when the Soviets massacred 8000 Polish military officers and an estimated 6000 police officers and hundreds of regular citizens. There are at least 8 mass graves in the Katyn forest holding the remains of Polish nationals killed by the NKVD, otherwise known as the Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs. A great case for real reparations for sure.

It’s been 5 years since MH17 was shot down, killing 298 people.

Why no arrests, trial or prosecutions?

In May 2018, the international team of investigators concluded that a Russian military missile was responsible for bringing down the plane, and showed photo and video evidence.

Australia and the Netherlands then formally blamed Russia for the crash, concluding that it was likely the missile system was brought to the region to support the separatists.

mh17 suspects  International investigators have accused Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy, Oleg Pulatov, and Leonid Kharchenko of the missile attack on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. Dutch national police/YouTube

The three Russians formally worked for Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, investigators said. The JIT intends to try the four suspects in The Netherlands in March 2020 on murder charges — though the men have not yet been apprehended. Russia maintains that the investigation is baseless and that the accusations “discredit Russia in the eyes of the international community.”

Credit video

Why are the dozens of Russian deaths committed in Britain, Ukraine, United States and in Russia all forgotten?

How about a few names you ask?

Vitaly Churkin

Petr Polshikov

Alexander Litvinenko

Oleg Erovinkin

Alex Oronov

Matthew Puncher

Mikhail Lesin

Anna Politkovskaya

Natalia Estemirova

Boris Nemtsov

Boris Berezovsky

Paul Klebnikov

Sergei Yushenkov

Nikolai Glushkov

There is an unresolved case that dealt with a nerve agent called novichok where at least two former Russian spies were poisoned.

Seems no world leaders including the United States has the will to host any kind of trial. What is the fear? Well for more context and perspective, read here.

Russia has veto power at the United Nations, so is this the reason the UNHRC, the Human Rights Council at the UN just ignores it all too? Shame on world leaders.

 

 

UN Report of Killing Squads and Deaths in Venezuela

Posted on by

Primer:

Venezuelan security forces have been sending death squads to commit extrajudicial killings of young men, according to a United Nations report released on Thursday. The crime scenes are then staged to make it look like the victims were resisting arrest.

Caracas has said that about 5,287 people died last year when they refused to be detained by officers, and that this has been the case for a further 1,569 through the middle of May this year. However, the UN report suggests that many of these deaths were actually extrajudicial executions.

The report relays the accounts of 20 families, who say that masked men dressed in black from the Special Actions Forces (FAES) arrived at their homes in black vehicles without license plates. They then broke into their houses, assaulted the women and girls and stole belongings.

“They would separate young men from other family members before shooting them,” the report said.

“In every case, witnesses reported how FAES manipulated the crime scene and evidence. They would plant arms and drugs and fire their weapons against the walls or in the air to suggest a confrontation and to show the victim had ‘resisted authority.'” Read more here.

Venezuelan Authorities Seize US-Made Weapons Shipment ... photo

Enhanced interactive dialogue on the situation of human rights in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

41st session of the Human Rights Council

Statement by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet

5 July 2019

Mr President,
Members of the Human Rights Council,
Excellencies,

As requested by Council resolution 39/1, the Office has submitted a report on the human rights crisis in Venezuela.

In March, my staff conducted a technical visit to the country. Human rights officers also made nine visits to interview Venezuelan refugees and migrants in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Spain.

Additionally, I was able to visit Caracas two weeks ago – the first official mission by a High Commissioner for Human Rights.  I met with President Nicolás Maduro and several Government ministers and officials. I also met the president of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General and the Ombudsman. I held discussions with the President of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as well as Members of Parliament, and the President of the National Constituent Assembly.

I also had meetings with representatives of the Catholic Church, the business sector, academia, trade unions, human rights organisations, the diplomatic community, the United Nations country team, and approximately 200 victims.

Let me begin this update on a positive note. I am hopeful that the access which I was granted – together with the authorities’ subsequent acceptance of a continuing presence of two human rights officers to conduct monitoring, and commence providing technical assistance and advice – signify the beginning of positive engagement on the country’s many human rights issues.

However, as our report makes clear, essential institutions and the rule of law in Venezuela have been profoundly eroded. The exercise of freedom of opinion, expression, association and assembly, and the right to participate in public life, entail a risk of reprisals and repression. Our report notes attacks against actual or perceived opponents and human rights defenders, ranging from threats and smear campaigns to arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, sexual violence, and killings and enforced disappearance.

Excessive and lethal force has repeatedly been used against protestors. My Office has also documented excessive use of force in the context of security operations by the Special Action Forces, with multiple killings, mainly of young men. Many may constitute extrajudicial killings, and should be fully investigated, with accountability of perpetrators, and guarantees of non-recurrence.

The death in custody six days ago of a retired Navy captain – allegedly after torture – is deeply regrettable. I note the opening of an investigation and the arrest of two military counter-intelligence officers in this context. However, there is a pattern of torture reports in Venezuela in the context of arbitrary detention. The authorities must ensure full investigation in accordance with international standards, as well as accountability and, where relevant, remedy for all cases of alleged torture.

Mr President,

The Venezuelan people are enduring an economic breakdown. Since 2013, the cumulative contraction of GDP has been 44.3%, and cumulative inflation since 2013 reached a dramatic 2,866,670% at the end of January 2019 – 2.8 million percent. Over the past two years, public revenue has dropped with the drastic reduction of oil exports. Figures published by the Central Bank of Venezuela on 28 May 2019 show that key economic indicators began to decline well before August 2017. Regardless, the latest economic sanctions are further exacerbating this situation, given that most of the country’s foreign exchange earnings derive from oil exports, many of which are linked to the US market. In addition, the effects of these sanctions appear to be affecting  the State’s ability to provide basic health service to the population.

Humanitarian assistance from the United Nations and other actors has been gradually accepted by the Government. However, the scale of the crisis is such that it is difficult to fully respond to the needs of the people.

The situation has had a negative impact on people’s livelihoods – and indeed, their lifespan, particularly of those most vulnerable. In the course of my visit I met many people who are suffering. The minimum wage – which is estimated at around $7 USD per month  cannot cover even 5% of the basic food basket for a family of five people. Deaths from malnutrition have been reported, although data on this, as many other, topics has not been released.

Venezuela is a country with many valuable resources, including formidable oil and gold reserves, a young and vibrant population, key location and systems which for many years provided free universal healthcare, education and other public services. The current and dramatic crisis has dramatic impact on economic, social and cultural rights as well as political and civil rights.

Many public services have all but collapsed, including transportation, electricity and water. The healthcare sector is in critical condition. The non-availability of basic medication and equipment is causing preventable deaths, while non-availability of contraception forces many women to bear children they will not be able to adequately care for. An assessment of humanitarian needs conducted by OCHA in March found that an estimated seven million people in Venezuela need humanitarian assistance: one quarter of the population.

Hunger and deprivation have led many to become migrants or refugees. Many are forced to leave in ill-health, without economic resources of any kind, and their human rights protection must be considered a matter of urgency.

I am also concerned about the situation of indigenous peoples in Venezuela. In particular, I note loss of control over their traditional lands, territories, and resources; militarization; violence; lack of access to adequate food and water; and the effects of mining.

Members of indigenous communities are reportedly being exploited in conditions of slavery for the illegal extraction of gold.  There has been violence against some indigenous authorities and leaders, and statements by various officials have been reported, suggesting an intention to eliminate members of the Pemón community who oppose the Government.

As I said in Caracas, to all political leaders, the only way out of this crisis is to come together, in dialogue. I encourage the Government to view the opposition and human rights defenders as partners in the common cause of human rights and justice, and to plant the seeds for a durable political agreement that leads to reconciliation.

Among other points, the Government has agreed to allow us to carry out an evaluation of the National Commission for the Prevention of Torture, including a commitment to full access to all centres of detention. I look forward to the honouring of this and other commitments.

We will also conduct an assessment of major obstacles to access to justice. Furthermore, the authorities have stated they will engage more substantively with international human rights bodies. In particular, they have agreed to accept ten visits from the Council’s Special Procedures experts over the next two years.

We have also been consistently advocating for the release of all those who are currently in detention for acts of non-violent dissent. Prior to my visit, three detainees were released. Subsequently, 59 Colombian nationals, including one woman, who had been arbitrarily detained since 2016 were also released. And just yesterday, 22 detainees were also released. We welcome these releases and encourage the authorities to release others detained for the exercise of their human rights.

Above all, as I expressed in my meetings with victims and their families, all Venezuelans have fundamental human rights. They deserve to enjoy those rights. I sincerely hope that the Office will be able to assist in improving the human rights situation in Venezuela.

The situation is complex, but the report contains clear, concrete recommendations for the way forward. I sincerely hope the authorities will take these recommendations in the constructive spirit in which they are made.

As I said in Caracas, the fate of more than 30 million Venezuelans rests on the leadership’s willingness and ability to put the human rights of the people ahead of any personal, ideological or political ambitions. It is for this Council and the international community to support them in this shared endeavour. We should all be able to agree that all Venezuelans deserve a better life, free from fear, and with access to adequate food, water, health-care, housing and all other basic human needs. For my part, I stand ready to accompany the people of Venezuela.

Thank you Mr President.

 

Where is that 8.5 Tons of Uranium from Iran to Russia?

Posted on by

Remember? During the Christmas holiday in 2015, so you easily could have missed the news or just forgotten it due to spiked eggnog.

Washington (AFP) – Iran sent a major shipment of low-enriched uranium materials to Russia on Monday, a key step in Tehran’s implementation of this year’s historic nuclear accord with world powers.

The United States hailed the move, which Secretary of State John Kerry said marked “significant progress” in Tehran’s fulfillment of a deal to stop it developing nuclear weapons.

The Russian foreign ministry confirmed the report after Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, told the ISNA news agency: “The fuel exchange process has taken place.”

According to ISNA’s report, Iran had sent 8.5 tons of low-enriched nuclear material to Russia and received “around 140 tons of natural uranium in return.”

State Department spokesman Mark Toner described the cargo as a 25,000-pound “combination of forms of low-enriched uranium materials” including five and 20 percent enriched uranium, scrap metal and unfinished fuel plates. More here.

Kerry said that Iran’s shipment to Russia had already tripled the amount of time it would take to produce enough fuel for a bomb from two or three months up to six or nine.

And he dubbed it “a significant step toward Iran meeting its commitment to have no more than 300 kilograms of low-enriched uranium by Implementation Day.”

Now the question is, where is it now? Was this transaction for real in the first place? Any congressional investigation? Ambassador Stephen Mull before Congress stated the following:

Iran shipped out almost all of its enriched uranium stockpile. Pre-JCPOA, Iran had approximately 12,000 kilograms of enriched uranium. Now, Iran can have no more than 300 kilograms of up to 3.67% enriched uranium for the next 15 years. This, combined with Iran’s dismantlement of two-thirds of its centrifuges, has effectively cut off Iran’s uranium pathway to a nuclear weapon.

Iran removed the core of its Arak reactor and rendered it inoperable by filling it with concrete. This cut off the path by which Iran could have produced significant amounts of weapons grade plutonium. Now, the Arak reactor will be redesigned, in cooperation with a working group established under the JCPOA, ensuring that the reactor is used solely for peaceful purposes going forward. Read more here to see how the Obama administration punked the whole story and then read below. Has anyone asked Norway? They assisted.

The U.S. Has No Clue Where Iran’s 8.5 Tons Of Enriched Uranium Are

At a February 11, 2016 hearing before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Amb. Mull acknowledged that Washington had lost track of the enriched uranium, which, he said, was now “on a Russian ship, in Russian custody, under Russian control” – that is, no longer under IAEA oversight.

Indeed, in response to Rep. Chris Smith’s (R-NJ) question at the hearing, “Do we have any on site accountability? Can we go and verify ourselves, or?” Amb. Mull replied: “We cannot.” Rep. Smith said: “We cannot. Who does?” to which Amb. Mull replied: “…Russia is responsible for maintaining access and controls.”

Rep. Smith then asked, “Where has it been put?” and Amb. Mull answered: “It has not been fully, according to our information it has not yet been decided where exactly Russia will put this.”

To Rep. Smith’s question “But where did it go? I mean it has to be somewhere,” Amb. Mull replied: “…I believe, if it has not arrived yet, it will very soon.”

In reply to Rep. Smith’s comment that “we are then trusting the Russians to say that they have it under their purview, that they are watching it? I mean they are so close to Iran, they have doubledealed us and especially the Middle East, the Syrians, I don’t know why we would trust them. Could you tell us where it is going?” Amb. Mull replied: “That is a Russian Government responsibility to decide where it goes. We do not have concerns about Russian custody of this material. What is important in this deal is will it go back to Iran? And I can guarantee there are sufficient controls in place that if one piece of dust of that material goes back into Iran we are going to be aware of it.”

Rep. Smith then asked, “But again, can the IAEA go to that ship and verify that it is there and follow it as it goes to its final resting place?” To this, Amb. Mull responded: “IAEA has different monitoring arrangements with each, each country in the world.” (As noted, Mull had stated that the uranium was now in “Russian custody, under Russian control” – that is, not under IAEA oversight.)

To Rep. Smith’s statement that “… it is not even in a place, it is not in any city that you say. It is not in any, it is not somewhere in Russia that we could say there it is. We don’t even know where it is,” Amb. Mull replied: “The IAEA verified the loading of all of this material…”

In response to Rep. Smith’s pointing out that “loading and where does it end up is very important,” Amb. Mull said, “That is the Russian Government’s responsibility to decide where it goes.”

Rep. Smith concluded, “That is a flaw, in my opinion.”

***

Watching that ship, the Mikhail Dudin….

Norwegian participation

Norway played a key role in the agreement by helping ensure that Iran’s enriched uranium was replaced by natural uranium. Oslo paid some $6 million for transporting 60 tons of natural uranium from Kazakhstan to Iran by plane.

Rune Bjåstad with the press office of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says to the Independent Barents Observer that Norway only had inspectors following the transport of natural uranium to Iran, not the transport of material out.

“Regarding the enriched uranium transported out of Iran, there were no Norwegian representatives present. The control was done by a team of inspectors from the IAEA,” Bjåstad informs.

He says Norwegian representatives were in contact with the inspectors from IAEA who participated in the packing and sealing of the cargo that left Bushehr. The shipment from Iran to St. Petersburg is not paid with Norwegian money.

Voyage route across Scandinavian waters confirmed

Director of Norway’s Radiation Protection Authorities, Ole Harbitz, confirms in an SMS to the Independent Barents Observer that the cargo is en route to St. Petersburg.

It was U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, who in a statement on December 28 confirmed that the shipment takes place on board the vessel “Mikhail Dudin”, The New York Times reported.

Kerry said the cargo includes the uranium that is closest to bomb-grade quality, enriched to 20 percent purity.

The agreement, where Norway played a key role, can in the longer run indirectly open for increased transport of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel along the coast of Norway to the Arctic.

With the deal ensuring no nuclear weapons projects can continue, Iran can again continue to expand its civilian nuclear energy program.

More spent nuclear fuel to sail outside Norway

Simultaneously as Norway in secret assisted with the transportation of natural uranium to Iran, Russia started to construct two more civilian nuclear reactors at existing Russian built Bushehr nuclear power plant. The plant will get uranium fuel from Russia.

That fuel will later have to be shipped back to Russia.

Currently, Murmansk on Russia’s Arctic Barents Sea coast is the port used to take back spent nuclear fuel arriving from other countries. Over the last three years, several shipments of spent nuclear fuel from Soviet built research reactors in Europe have been sailed back to Russia along the coast of Norway to Murmansk. Like in September 2014, when “Mikhail Dudin” secretly transported a load of highly enriched uranium from Poland to the Atomflot base north of Murmansk.

St. Petersburg is the port used when other kinds of radioactive material, like the enriched uranium from Iran, are imported back to Russia.

Back to Russia for reprocessing

Iran is not the only country where Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom will built new nuclear reactors. Deals are signed or under negotiations with China, India and Vietnam. From China, spent nuclear fuel in return to Russia can be sent by railway, but all shipments from Iran, India and Vietnam will have to go by sea.

Rosatom is currently building 19 reactors abroad and has increased its foreign contracts by 60 percent over the last two years to $66,5 billion.

Uranium fuel is normally in the reactors for 3-4 years before being replaced. Then, the fuel will have to be cooled for some years in an on-site pool before it can be transported back to Russia for reprocessing.

The reason why Murmansk is used as import harbor for spent nuclear fuel is because of its suitable infrastructure for loading the special designed containers directly from vessels to railway wagons at Atomflot, the repair base for Russia’s fleet of civilian nuclear icebreakers. From Murmansk, the wagons take the uranium fuel to the Mayak plant north of Chelyabinsk in the South Urals where Russia has its reprocessing plant.

Anyone still trusting all of this years later? Anyone?

 

Possible Details on Iran for Trump Briefings

Posted on by

Image result for un arms embargo iran photo/details

For context, here is the background on the UN Arms Embargo on Iran.

1. The rapidly expiring “sunset provisions” – which will lift existing restrictions on Iran’s military, missiles and nuclear programs – were a key factor in President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the flawed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May last year. The first of the sunset provisions, the arms embargo under U.N. Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2231, will expire by October 18, 2020.

In its report, JCPOA Sunset Alert, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) details the hazards once UNSCR 2231’s arms transfers provisions expire. Guns, howitzers, mortars, battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships and missiles or missile systems will proliferate throughout the region.

2. The European Union is skirting the Iran sanction architecture by launching INSTEX. Based in Paris, it is managed by Per Fischer a German banker and the UK is heading the supervisory board.

The channel, set up by Germany, France and the UK, is called INSTEX — short for “Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges.”

“We’re making clear that we didn’t just talk about keeping the nuclear deal with Iran alive, but now we’re creating a possibility to conduct business transactions,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters Thursday after a meeting with European counterparts in Bucharest, Romania.

“This is a precondition for us to meet the obligations we entered into in order to demand from Iran that it doesn’t begin military uranium enrichment,” Maas said.

3. Zarif, Iran’s Foreign Minister has confirmed violations of stockpile limitations as well as uranium enrichment of 300kg. for low-enriched uranium. These two items are violations of the JCPOA and Europe considers this just a distraction.

4. The U.S. has sent an estimated 12 F-22 Raptor stealth fighters to Qatar, based at al Udeid Air Base to bolster defenses Iran threats. There is a B-52 bomber task force in the region. The U.S. has dispatched several army batteries that operate the Patriot Missile launchers. Much of this is due to and in preparation for the asymmetric warfare tactics in use by Iran.

5. Iran is aware they cannot match the United States militarily, so there are two other possibilities and they include attacking Israel and major cyber interruptions.

Speaking at a political conference of ultra-conservatives in Iran’s north, Mashaei said, “If the Zionist regime attacks Iran, the Zionists will have no longer than a week to live.” The semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying that the Islamic Republic would destroy Israel “in less than 10 days”. On the cyber front, Iran has the abilities to disrupt networks associated with power systems in the region as well as those connected to oil production and shipping. U.S. Cybercom has the authorization, by way of the NDAA to conduct what is known as TMA, traditional military activities where cyber operations are included. Last month, the NYT’s reported the U.S. did carry out cyberattacks on Iran.

6. Iran has established terror cells in Western allied countries including the United States as noted by this case reported by the FBI just last month. Additionally, Qassem Suleimani has set up terror sites in Africa prepared to strike oil fields, military installations and embassies. These operations are managed by a specialized department of the Quds Force known as Unit 400.