-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: August 10, 2007 5:51:53 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Bush Position on Iran Antagonizing Leaders in Iraq &
Afganistan HE Put in Power
Cheney urging strikes on Iran
By Warren P. Strobel, John Walcott and Nancy A. Youssef |
McClatchy Newspapers, August 9, 2007
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/18834.html
WASHINGTON — President Bush charged Thursday that Iran continues to
arm and train insurgents who are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and
he threatened action if that continues.
At a news conference Thursday, Bush said Iran had been warned of
unspecified consequences if it continued its alleged support for
anti-American forces in Iraq. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker
had conveyed the warning in meetings with his Iranian counterpart
in Baghdad, the president said.
Bush wasn't specific, and a State Department official refused to
elaborate on the warning.
Behind the scenes, however, the president's top aides have been
engaged in an intensive internal debate over how to respond to
Iran's support for Shiite Muslim groups in Iraq and its nuclear
program. Vice President Dick Cheney has proposed launching
airstrikes at suspected training camps in Iran run by the Quds
force, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps,
according to two U.S. officials who are involved in Iran policy.
The debate has been accompanied by a growing drumbeat of
allegations about Iranian meddling in Iraq from U.S. military
officers, administration officials and administration allies
outside government and in the news media. It isn't clear whether
the media campaign is intended to build support for limited
military action against Iran, to pressure the Iranians to curb
their support for Shiite groups in Iraq or both.
Nor is it clear from the evidence the administration has presented
whether Iran, which has long-standing ties to several Iraqi Shiite
groups, including the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr
and the Badr Organization, which is allied with the U.S.-backed
government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, is a major cause of
the anti-American and sectarian violence in Iraq or merely one of
many. At other times, administration officials have blamed the
Sunni Muslim group al Qaida in Iraq for much of the violence.
For now, however, the president appears to have settled on a policy
of stepped-up military operations in Iraq aimed at the suspected
Iranian networks there, combined with direct American-Iranian talks
in Baghdad to try to persuade Tehran to halt its alleged meddling.
The U.S. military launched one such raid Wednesday in Baghdad's
predominantly Shiite Sadr City district.
But so far that course has failed to halt what American military
officials say is a flow of sophisticated roadside bombs, known as
explosively formed penetrators, into Iraq. Last month they
accounted for a third of the combat deaths among U.S.-led forces,
according to the military.
Cheney, who's long been skeptical of diplomacy with Iran, argued
for military action if hard new evidence emerges of Iran's
complicity in supporting anti-American forces in Iraq; for example,
catching a truckload of fighters or weapons crossing into Iraq from
Iran, one official said.
The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they
weren't authorized to talk publicly about internal government
deliberations.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opposes this idea, the
officials said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has stated publicly
that "we think we can handle this inside the borders of Iraq."
Lea Anne McBride, a Cheney spokeswoman, said only that "the vice
president is right where the president is" on Iran policy.
Bush left no doubt at his news conference that he intended to get
tough with Iran.
"One of the main reasons that I asked Ambassador Crocker to meet
with Iranians inside Iraq was to send the message that there will
be consequences for people transporting, delivering EFPs, highly
sophisticated IEDs (improvised explosive devices), that kill
Americans in Iraq," he said.
He also appeared to call on the Iranian people to change their
government.
"My message to the Iranian people is, you can do better than this
current government," he said. "You don't have to be isolated. You
don't have to be in a position where you can't realize your full
economic potential."
The Bush administration has launched what appears to be a
coordinated campaign to pin more of Iraq's security troubles on Iran.
Last week, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 U.S. military
commander in Iraq, said Shiite militiamen had launched 73 percent
of the attacks that had killed or wounded American troops in July.
U.S. officials think that majority Shiite Iran is providing
militiamen with EFPs, which pierce armored vehicles and explode
once inside.
Last month, Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a multinational force
spokesman, said members of the Quds force had helped plan a January
attack in the holy Shiite city of Karbala, which lead to the deaths
of five American soldiers. Bergner said the military had evidence
that some of the attackers had trained at Quds camps near Tehran.
Bush's efforts to pressure Iran are complicated by the fact that
the leaders of U.S.-supported governments in Iraq and Afghanistan
have a more nuanced view of their neighbor.
Maliki is on a three-day visit to Tehran, during which he was
photographed Wednesday hand in hand with Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
Unconfirmed media reports said Maliki had told Iranian officials
they'd played a constructive role in the region. Asked about that,
Bush said "I don't believe they are constructive."
Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai differed on Iran's role when
they met last weekend, with Karzai saying in a TV interview that
Iran was "a helper" and Bush challenging that view.
The toughening U.S. position on Iran puts Karzai and Maliki in a
difficult spot between Iran, their longtime ally, and the U.S.,
which is spending lives and treasure to secure their newly formed
government.
A senior Iraqi official in Baghdad said the Iraqi government
received regular intelligence briefings from the United States
about suspected Iranian activities. He refused to discuss details,
but said the American position worried him. The United States is
"becoming more focused on Iranian influence inside Iraq," said the
official, who requested anonymity to discuss private talks with the
Americans. "And we don't want Iraq to become a zone of conflict
between Iran and the U.S."
Proposals to use force against Iran over its actions in Iraq mark a
new phase in the Bush administration's long internal war over Iran
policy.
Until now, some hawks within the administration — including Cheney
— are said to have favored military strikes to stop Iran from
furthering its suspected ambitions for nuclear weapons.
Rice has championed a diplomatic strategy, but that, too, has
failed to deter Iran so far.
Patrick Clawson, an Iran specialist at the Washington Institute for
Near East Policy, said a strike on the Quds camps in Iran could
make the nuclear diplomacy more difficult.
Before launching such a strike, "We better be prepared to go public
with very detailed and very convincing intelligence," Clawson said.
McClatchy Newspapers 2007
Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL.com.
www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/
<A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om