Iran Watch: United States LINKS Five Iranians Detained in Iraq to al-Qods Force
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Washington Post: U.S. Links Five Iranians Detained in Iraq to Militants
The U.S. military said today that the five Iranian nationals detained on Thursday are connected to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s al-Qods Force, an organization that is active in arming, training, and funding Middle East militant groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The organization is “attempting to destabilize the government of Iraq and attack Coalition forces,” the U.S. military said in a statement.
Iraqi Shiite cleric Abdel Aziz al-Hakim speaks during a conference in the holy city of Najaf. Iran has condemned as “provocative†a raid by US troops on the Iranian consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil during which five employees were arrested.
What a SURPRISE – NOT!
The military statement came as administration officials in Washington stressed that they are concerned about meddling by Iran in the Iraq conflict and are determined to end such efforts by Tehran.
Vice President Cheney, speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” said, “I think it’s pretty well known that Iran is fishing in troubled waters, if you will, inside Iraq. . . . I think the message that the president sent clearly is that we do not want them doing what they can to try to destabilize the situation inside Iraq. We think it’s very important that they keep their folks at home.”
President Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, was more explicit and said U.S. officials know that Iran is supplying militants who are attacking U.S. and Iraqi government forces.
“We will interdict their operations,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We will disrupt their supply lines. We will disrupt these attacks. And you have seen in the last couple of weeks that Iranians found doing things in Iraq have been picked up by coalition forces. And I think you’re going to see more of that.”
Hell, where has the Bush Administration and the American military been?
If Iran is supplying specialized IED’s and/or other supplies to Iraqis who are killing United States troops, then interdict the supplies and take out the Iranian factories that are making these devices and material. How about a blockade of the Iran-Iraq border?
Flap cannot believe that you need a Presidential pronouncement to go after Iran. Everyone in the world knows they are fomenting violence and killing Americans in Iraq.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini speaks to journalists during a news conference in Tehran October 8, 2006. On Sunday Hosseini demanded the immediate release of the five arrested Iranians, saying that the five were diplomats involved in ‘consulate affairs.’
In Baghdad, the military denied reports that the office where the Iranians were arrested, located in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, “had the diplomatic status of a consulate.” Iraqi officials have described the office as a “liaison office” that was in the process of getting consular authority. Several Kurdish officials said that the office represented the Iranian government and the Kurdish regional government was aware of its presence.
“The Multi-National Force, in keeping with U.S. policy, will continue to disrupt logistical support to extremists that originate from outside Iraq. These initiatives are part of a broader plan including diplomatic efforts designed to support the Iraqi government, protect the Iraqi people, and seek assistance from neighboring nations, according to coalition officials,” the military statement said.
The United States and Iraq governments need to “SWEAT” these guys for information (how do you spell Guantanamo) and intensify efforts to close down the Iraq-Iran border.
Are Black Op missions into Iran too far away?
How about just bombing or lobbing a few cruise missiles into the Iranian IED factories OVERTLY?
Stay tuned…….
A video grab shows the building of the Iranian consulate in Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdish region. Iran has protested that five nationals arrested by US forces in Iraq were merely consular staff doing their job, amid intensifying American warnings over Tehran’s role in its war-torn neighbour.
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