-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: January 13, 2007 12:24:05 PM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: BUSH ISSUED THE ORDER to Attack Iranian Consulate Inside Iraq
Bush Approved Raids on Iranians in Iraq
from The Associated Press
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6668105
WASHINGTON January 13, 2007, 2:09 a.m. ET ·- An order from
President Bush authorized a series of U.S. raids against Iranians
in Iraq as part of a broad military offensive, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said Friday.
Bush issued the order several months ago, Rice told The New York
Times as she prepared to visit the Middle East. She said the
president acted "after a period of time in which we saw increasing
activity" among Iranians in Iraq "and increasing lethality in what
they were producing."
Five Iranians were detained by U.S.-led forces this week after a
raid on an Iranian government liaison office in northern Iraq, a
move that has frayed even further the relations between the two
countries. The United States accuses Iran of helping provide
roadside bombs that have killed American troops in Iraq, and a
bitter standoff already exists over Tehran's nuclear program.
Rice, according to a story for the Saturday print editions of the
Times, described the military effort against Iranians in Iraq as a
defensive "force protection mission." Concerns that Iran was trying
to further destabilize the country also motivated the raids, she
told the newspaper.
"We think they are providing help to the militias as well, and
maybe even the more violent element of these militias," she said.
The State Department said Friday that U.S.-led forces entered an
Iranian building in Kurdish-controlled Irbil because information
linked it to Revolutionary Guards and other Iranian elements
engaging in violent activities in Iraq. There was no truth to
reports that Iran was carrying out legitimate diplomatic activity
at the site, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
However, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, contended
that the Iranians were working in a liaison office that had
government approval and was in the process of being approved as a
consulate. In Iran, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the
U.S. raid constituted an intervention in Iranian-Iraqi affairs.
On Friday, U.S. officials said there was no immediate plan to
strike targets in Iran, but they also wouldn't rule out military
action. Their comments came after Bush vowed in a prime-time
address to the nation to go after Iranian terrorist networks
feeding the insurgency in Iraq.
Bush's remarks Wednesday in a speech announcing his plan to boost
U.S. forces in Iraq prompted questions from members of Congress
about whether the U.S. is considering attacks on Iranian territory.
Administration officials have long refused to rule out any options
against Iran but said military action would be a last resort.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Friday told the Senate Armed Services
Committee that while U.S. forces are trying to prevent Iran and
Syria from disrupting U.S. forces in Iraq, there were no immediate
plans for an attack.
"We believe that we can interrupt these networks that are providing
support through actions inside the territory of Iraq, that there is
no need to attack targets in Iran itself," Gates told the panel,
adding that he continues to believe that "any kind of military
action inside Iran itself, that would be a very last resort."
Pace said special operations forces are continually battling
insurgents who are getting aid from Iran.
"I think one of the reasons you keep hearing about Iran is because
we keep finding their stuff in Iraq," Pace said.
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, wrote to Bush on Thursday asking for clarifications on
the administration's stance toward attacking Iran. Sens. John
Warner, R-Va., and Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., raised the issue at a
hearing Friday.
"The president seems to have placed diplomacy on the back-burner
again," Byrd said.
In his speech Wednesday, Bush chastised Iran and Syria for not
blocking terrorists at their borders with Iraq. He specifically
blamed Iran for providing material support for attacks on American
troops.
"We will disrupt the attacks on our forces," Bush said. "We will
interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek
out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and
training to our enemies in Iraq."
On Friday, White House spokesman Tony Snow called the suggestion
that war plans were under way an "urban legend."
"What the president was talking about is defending American forces
within Iraq, and also doing what we can to disrupt networks that
might be trying to convey weapons or fighters into battle theaters
within Iraq to kill Americans and Iraqis," Snow said.
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