Posted by
on Sunday, January 14, 2007 11:37:51 AM
Naturally, the Iranians are denying that they had operatives in Iraq providing funds, weapons, improvised explosive device technology and training to extremist groups. But the military and the administration know different, and it's starting to come out: (link to story courtesy of Dafydd ab Hugh, guest-blogging at Michelle Malkin's site while she is in Iraq.)
Five Iranians arrested in northern Iraq last week were connected to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard faction that funds and arms insurgents in Iraq, the U.S. military said Sunday.
The five were detained by U.S.-led forces Thursday in a raid on an Iranian government liaison office in Irbil, a city in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq 217 miles north of Baghdad.
"Preliminary results revealed the five detainees are connected to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Qods Force (IRGC-QF), an organization known for providing funds, weapons, improvised explosive device technology and training to extremist groups attempting to destabilize the government of Iraq and attack coalition forces," the U.S. military said in a statement.
"Qods" is the Arabic name for Jerusalem, and a frequent name for political or military factions across the Muslim world.
Tehran denied the five detained Iranians had been involved in financing and arming insurgents in Iraq.
"Their job was basically consular, official and in the framework of regulations," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Sunday during his weekly media briefing. "What Americans express was incorrect and hyperbole against Iran in order to justify their acts."
Hosseini said the Iranian representative office where the five men worked was established in Irbil in 1992 to facilitate the visit of Kurdish businessmen and medical patients from Iraq to Iran.
"Then, both countries agreed to promote it to consular level," he said. "Agreement for formation of the Iranian consulate section was exchanged in the current (Iranian) year."
The United States accuses Iran of helping to provide roadside bombs that have killed American troops in Iraq, and a bitter standoff already exists between the two countries over Iran's nuclear program. Iran has rejected the allegations.
Hosseini accused the United States of resorting to "hostility and conflict toward neighbors of Iraq" because he said the country did not want to acknowledge it had failed to bring stability to Iraq.
"The United States should release all the five persons, prevent possible similar acts and compensate damages," Hosseini said.
And Iran shouldn't be sending their people into Iraq, period. The military has the Qods information which shows that they've been coordinating with terrorists and insurgents in Iraq; possibly even collaborating with Moqtada al-Sadr's militia. Not hard to believe if we remember that Hezbollah from Syria and Iran has been training his militia. As for the release of the Iranians, that's not going to happen. At least not until our investigations are done.
The president was deadly serious about finishing the job in Iraq, and isolating nations like Syria and Iran from their continued intrusions into a conflict that doesn't concern them. The only reason they're even sticking their noses in Iraq is because they know what a successful Iraq spells out in their futures--R-E-V-O-L-T by their own populace that really isn't too fond of them right now. So it stands to reason that they're going to meddle in Iraq's affairs to prevent it from ever having a chance at stability.
I'd like to say that we should be presenting the information we uncovered to the UN, maybe in the hope that they'll actually do something about Iran other than twiddle their thumbs. But the UN's so irrelevant right now. They don't care what Iran does. The effete sanctions slapped on Iran late in 2006 were laughable. There's no teeth behind them to force Iran's hand whatsoever, and we can see what happens with issues like this in the UN.
They'll never take a solid stand against Iran. There's too much bureaucracy involved there. Nations cover each other's backsides like only politicos can. So, we're going to go this route and force Iran into the open. Maybe if we shine a light on this fiasco, the world will finally wake up and realize that Iran's lying through it's teeth. We're already on a collision course with the Islamic regime, and there's no turning back now. We have to take them out of the Iraq equation, and this is just the first step in doing so.
Sabrina McKinney