Rushdie, Bolton, and Iran's Revolutionary Guard, explained

Joel Mathis, Contributing Writer

Salman Rushdie and John Bolton are both still alive today — but that's possibly no thanks to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

Intelligence officials say that the man accused of stabbing novelist Salman Rushdie on Friday in New York was "in direct contact with members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on social media," Mitchell Prothero reports for Vice News. While "there's no evidence Iranian officials were involved in organizing or orchestrating the attack" on Rushdie, one official said the stabbing appeared to be a "guided attack," in which an intelligence service "talks a supporter into action, without direct support or involvement in the attack itself."

The assault on Rushdie came two days after federal prosecutors charged Shahram Poursafi, a member of the corps, with plotting to assassinate John Bolton, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump who is well-known for his hardline views on Iran. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also reportedly a target of the scheme. "While much cannot be said publicly right now, one point is indisputable: Iran's rulers are liars, terrorists, and enemies of the United States," Bolton said.

Why would the Revolutionary Guard be targeting these men? Here's everything you need to know:

What is the Revolutionary Guard?

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — which includes the clandestine Quds Force — is "one of the most powerful paramilitary organizations in the Middle East," the Council on Foreign Relations says in a 2019 explainer. After the 1979 revolution that overthrew the shah and installed an Islamic government, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini set up the IRGC "to protect the new regime from a coup d'état, such as the one in 1953 that ousted the democratically elected government of Mohammed Mossadeq and restored the shah to power." The organization is charged with protecting Iran's Islamic government against all threats, and operates "beyond the bounds of the law and the judiciary." The corps commands at least 125,000 troops — estimates vary — outside the formal Iranian military structure, and includes naval, air force, and cyber command resources. It also runs the Basij Resistance Force, whose main function has been to crack down, sometimes brutally, on the regime's domestic opponents.