CNN Fact Check: Iran's Revolutionary Guard

By Jim Dexter, CNN

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a former Revolutionary Guard member, the RAND Corporation says.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Hillary Clinton: Revolutionary Guard "in effect supplanting the government of Iran"
Think tank: "Guard has evolved into a socio-military-political-economic force"
Revolutionary Guard has "expanded far beyond its original mandate," think tank says

RELATED TOPICS

(CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared Monday that Iran's Revolutionary Guard is "in effect supplanting the government of Iran," and she warned that the result could be a military dictatorship.

Clinton, who has been visiting U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf, made the statement during a question-and-answer session with university students in Qatar.

Fact Check: How powerful is Iran's Revolutionary Guard?

-- Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was founded after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend the regime against all threats, "but has since expanded far beyond its original mandate," according to the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think tank devoted to helping people "better understand the world."

-- The IRGC's role includes ideological education, according to the RAND Corporation, "the original nonprofit think tank," and it has its own media outlets and affiliate universities. The Council on Foreign Relations calls the IRGC one of Iran's "most influential domestic institutions."

-- The U.S. State Department says the IRGC has control over "broad swaths of the Iranian economy," and the earnings fund IRGC operations, including support for terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

-- The Council on Foreign Relations says IRGC has about 125,000 fighters; has navy, army and ground components; controls Iran's strategic missile forces; and engages in foreign and domestic intelligence operations.

-- The Council on Foreign Relations says IRGC also controls Iran's Basij Resistance Force, a volunteer militia accused of beating and killing opposition supporters after the disputed 2009 election. According to the Washington Institute, the Basij has had a growing role in Iran since 2003.

-- According to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, Iranian law prohibits the IRGC from political activity. Despite that, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, much of his cabinet, many members of parliament and a range of other provincial and local administrators are former IRGC members, according to the RAND Corporation.

"Today the guard has evolved into a socio-military-political-economic force with influence reaching deep into Iran's power structure," the Council on Foreign Relations said.

Bottom Line:

While the possibility of a military dictatorship remains a matter of conjecture, Iran's Revolutionary Guard already holds growing military, ideological, political and economic influence in Iran.

CNN's Samira J. Simone contributed to this report.