تسخیر لانه جاسوسی امریکا is the movie Argo on steroids!

In Persian: تسخیر لانه جاسوسی امریکا‎, literally the "Conquest of the American Spy Den," but usually translated as the "Occupation of the American Embassy" was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States in which 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian Revolution.  President Carter called the hostages "victims of terrorism and anarchy," adding that the "United States will not yield to blackmail."  This sure sounds like a line in a script for a 2013 Oscar Best Picture winner!

Ever heard of the Wahabi Islamic Religion? I have and remember when I first heard about it in November, 1979.  Jimmy Carter was in office and it was day three of the Iranian hostage crisis when all Hell broke loose behind the scenes in another country.  It foretold our huge Islamic terror mess we are in today!  ...Oh really?

What some call regular mainstream "Moderate Muslims" as if that modifier means being anything different than "Radical Muslims" then that really would be significant since they would be standing up to protest instead of quietly standing by and watching their Radical Muslim brothers do harm and create tumult in general, but read on.

We hear a lot of qualifying statements about “moderate Muslims” when “radical Islam” is mentioned. Now, certainly, one can imagine that the majority of Muslims, are most likely people who just want to get on with their lives and that in western countries in particular, many keep a low profile and just live their lives with a low current of religiosity. Like people everywhere, they are trying to get through the day, and not start a revolution or ignite a war. Even so, some are sympathetic to radical concerns or issues, even if they are not entirely seized with passion for the cause. That moderate passive attitude feeds the passions of radical Islamics which just encourages them further. 

Other Muslims are completely against radicalism, but stay on the down low and don’t make waves. Then, there are the Muslims who become leaders and actually attempt to impress some kind of moderate change on the current situation within Islam. Many of these high-profile moderates or liberal Muslims don’t get as much press as the radicals, but they do exist, and often they live their lives under threat of death from their co-religionists.

So, ever heard about the origins of Wahabi Islam from Saudi Arabia spreading to the rest of the world?  Apparently, the Saudi royal family has been exporting Wahabi for some time into Europe, Canada and the USA — partially to free themselves from an imminent threat to their own power.

This began with the 1979 siege on Mecca and the royal family by Wahabists and a deal actually forged with the royal Saudi Arabian family. I knew about Wahabi, but I certainly have since learned more about its spread worldwide and the influence of so many radical Imams, even in places like Phoenix, Arizona or San Diego, CA!


You think the Oscar's Best Picture Award for Argo was exciting? Well, they left out a powerfully interesting parallel storyline - read about it below in the book review!

The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine and the Birth of al-Qaeda

by Yaroslav Trofimov

On November 20, 1979, worldwide attention was focused on Tehran, where the Iranian hostage crisis was entering its third week. The same morning—the first of a new Muslim century—hundreds of gunmen stunned the world by seizing Islam’s holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Armed with rifles that they had smuggled inside coffins, these men came from more than a dozen countries, launching the first operation of global jihad in modern times.

Led by a Saudi preacher named Juhayman al Uteybi, they believed that the Saudi royal family had become a craven servant of American infidels, and sought a return to the glory of uncompromising Islam. With nearly 100,000 worshippers trapped inside the holy compound, Mecca’s bloody siege lasted two weeks, inflaming Muslim rage against the United States and causing hundreds of deaths.

Despite U.S. assistance, the Saudi royal family proved haplessly incapable of dislodging the occupier, whose ranks included American converts to Islam. In Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini blamed the Great Satan—the United States —for defiling the shrine, prompting mobs to storm and torch American embassies in Pakistan and Libya. The desperate Saudis finally enlisted the help of French commandos led by tough-as-nails Captain Paul Barril, who prepared the final assault and supplied poison gas that knocked out the insurgents.

Though most captured gunmen were quickly beheaded, the Saudi royal family responded to this unprecedented challenge by compromising with the rebels’ supporters among the kingdom’s most senior clerics.  The Saudi royal family was helping them nurture and export Juhayman’s violent brand of Islam around the world - Wahabi Islam.

This dramatic and immensely consequential story was barely covered in the press in the pre-CNN, pre–Al Jazeera days, as Saudi Arabia imposed an information blackout and kept foreign correspondents away. Yaroslav Trofimov now penetrates this veil of silence, interviewing for the first time scores of direct participants in the siege, including former terrorists, and drawing on hundreds of documents that had been declassified on his request.

Written with the pacing, detail, and suspense of a real-life thriller, The Siege of Mecca reveals how Saudi reaction to the uprising in Mecca set free the forces that produced the attacks of 9/11, and the harrowing circumstances that surround us today.