New from me: a profile of Brigadier General Ahmed Foruzandeh, Qods Force general who was in charge of running Iranian operations in Iraq for a time during the U.S. occupation. Based in part on declassified FOIA docs DIA took four years to cough up thedailybeast.com/meet-the-gener…
Foruzandeh was deputy commander and then commander of the Qods Force's Ramazan Corps, an IRGC unit tasked with irregular warfare operations in Iraq dating back to the Iran-Iraq war. Part of their purview: assassination of Iraqis viewed as impediments to Iranian influence in Iraq 
Assassinating Iraqis working with the U.S.-led coalition was also part of Ramazan's work. Unit divided operations between bases along the Iran-Iraq border. Foruzandeh started his career in the Fajr command, which ran ops with Shia groups in southern Iraq. Here's one Fajr op.
Documents I got through FOIA are not finished intelligence, but information reports from human sources, meaning the US gov does not necessarily vouch for their contents. But the accounts largely track with what’s known about Foruzandeh’s work
As you can see from the Treasury designation of him in 2008, Hajj Ahmed is a hands-on officer. "Previously, in August 2004, Foruzandeh drove explosives and associated materials into Iraq from Iran for use in suicide bombings."
In one of the few interviews he's done with Iranian media, Foruzandeh claimed to have retired in 2008, the same year the Bush admin designated him a terrorist. But FOIA docs suggest that as of 2013 he was still consulting for the Qods Force.
Intriguing bit is where he was allegedly consulting: Khorasan province, on Iran's eastern border with Afghanistan. Doc is dated 2013 and by that time the Obama admin had been accusing Iran of working with the Taliban and stirring up trouble there.
Foruzandeh was very close to another Qods Force general, Hamid Taghavi. Both were Ramazan Corps vets who fought together in the Iran-Iraq war. Grew up in the same general area. Taghavi was killed in 2014 in Iraq during the Qods Force's ISIS fight.
They were really close and Foruzandeh would sometimes break down crying in interviews about Taghavi. He also seemed to suggest at one point that he'd been at least informally consulting with him on the Qods Force effort to stand up pro-Iranian militias in Iraq.
Think my favorite part of this is where they politely b6'ed Soleimani's name for privacy reasons.
As the piece mentions, found pictures of a visit he made to visit with Iraqi officials in 2016 on Facebook. Found a few other pics of him as well strewn across the internet
Today, he looks like a grayer, grumpier Burl Ives. Here he is helping to direct mourning/memorial services for Taghavi (on the right with the glasses and black suit)
Anyway, point of this was in part to try to let the air out of the Soleimani hagiography stuff by demystifying Qods Force operations in Iraq. We like to make our adversaries 10 feet tall but nuance is tough.
Foruzandeh fought a similar effort against Saddam from 1980-88 and during the Shia uprising in 1991, when Ramazan's Fajr command tried to assist. Both failed. 2003+ effort was more successful. Why?
Well, in part because the folks he was working with as insurgents run against Saddam 1980+ became important parts of Iraqi government and security apparatus 2003+. I know we love our Great Man Theory a lot but that rather helps a bit.
Also, Ahmed, don't be a stranger. Drop a line adam.rawnsley@gmail.com
