Posted on 06/06/2007 4:47:58 PM PDT by Danae
NATO officials say they have caught Iran red-handed, shipping heavy arms, C4 explosives and advanced roadside bombs to the Taliban for use against NATO forces, in what the officials say is a dramatic escalation of Iran's proxy war against the United States and Great Britain.
"It is inconceivable that it is anyone other than the Iranian government that's doing it," said former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stopped short earlier this week of blaming Iran, saying the U.S. did not have evidence "of the involvement of the Iranian government in support of the Taliban."
But an analysis by a senior coalition official, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, concludes there is clear evidence of Iran's involvement.
"This is part of a considered policy," says the analysis, "rather than the result of low-level corruption and weapons smuggling."
Iran and the Taliban had been fierce enemies when the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan, and their apparent collaboration came as a surprise to some in the intelligence community.
"I think their goal is to make it very clear that Iran has the capability to make life worse for the United States on a variety of fronts," said Seth Jones of the Rand Institute, "even if they have to do some business with a group that has historically been their enemy."
The coalition analysis says munitions recovered in two Iranian convoys, on April 11 and May 3, had "clear indications that they originated in Iran. Some were identical to Iranian supplied goods previously discovered in Iraq."
The April convoy was tracked from Iran into Helmand province and led a fierce firefight that destroyed one vehicle, according to the official analysis. A second vehicle was reportedly found to contain small arms ammunition, mortar rounds and more than 650 pounds of C4 demolition charges.
A second convoy of two vehicles was spotted on May 3 and led to the capture of five occupants and the seizure of RPG-7mm rockets and more than 1,000 pounds of C4, the analysis says.
Also among the munitions are components for the lethal EFPs, or explosive formed projectiles, the roadside bombs that U.S. officials say Iran has provided to Iraqi insurgents with deadly results.
"These clearly have the hallmarks of the Iranian Revolution Guards' Quds force," said Jones.
The coalition diplomatic message says the demolition charges "contained the same fake U.S. markings found on explosives recovered from insurgents operating in the Baghdad area."
"We believe these intercepted munitions are part of a much bigger flow of support from Iran to the Taliban," the message says.
The Taliban receives larger supplies of weapons through profits from opium dealing, officials say, but the Iranian presence could be significant.
"It means the insurgency in Afghanistan is likely to be prolonged," said Jones. "It would be a much more potent force."
Yes, but at least we wrested Asia and Europe from them...and we have the technological advantage to start creating a viable anti-missile shield.
China? We could eliminate China in a few hours.
Russia? I don’t think they have the political capital to do anything to stop us.
I dont think the MSM had anything to do with it, Bush never showed any real courage to do the maximum except when it came to selling out his own country with this amnesty bill which he tried in the months before 9/11 too, remember?
Heck, we even freeped bush in New York City for that in 2001!
“Iran has done nothing to us!” -L. Ron Paul, June 5th, 2007.
And people wonder why I have no respect for the man. Someone on a blog somewhere (I forget) said it best—if we have to put this aging hippie on stage with the Republicans, at the very least we can have Bob Dornan on stage at the next Democrat debate.
A brain? Were you in the Wizard of Oz? Wonder what kind of a brain you were given, like in the Frankenstein movie - A B Normal. It is kind of evident as I have not heard any great ground swell of applause of your alleged intellectual prowess in judging others...
At every freaking turn he is saying things like that... “at this point there is no direct evidence that the Iranian government is behind this”, and if I hear the democrat party quote him about “there is no military solution” in iraq I’m going to puke.
Now I know he actually said “there is not a military ONLY solution” in iraq. And I know he said that there is no direct evidence if the top of the Iranian gov’t is ordering this, or if ‘rouge parts’ of the gov’t are doing it on their own.
I DON’T CARE.
He should freaking realize and KNOW that his mealy mouthed gray area nuanced statements like this are being used against him and the war effort.
He needs to wise the hell up and cut the shit and call it like it is.
Did I mention I miss Rummy....
Carter! I hate that twit!
When we invaded Afghanistan for the attack on the Trade Towers, the high moral ground was ours, our Nato allies joined with us, and western civ presented a somewhat united front to a war on terrorism.
Saddam Hussein did not attack the Trade Towers. Yes, he killed Kurds. Kim Il-Sung killed many more North Koreans, but he’s still in power and in the interim has acquired nukes for real. Hussein may have been faking nuks. I actually think he wasn’t, that the evidence was driven to the Bakaa Valley in a series of tractor-trailers shipments. We were aware of the truck movements and did nothing about it. Chalk up one more mistake.
Those who brandish the presence of Al Quada in Iraq now as justification for the invasion back weren’t using that reason back then.
As to ‘fighting them there so we won’t have to fight them here,’ we could have much more easily been fighting the same people in Afghanistan so we wouldn’t have to fight them here. It would have been easier and, again, Nato supported.
If going after Saddam was such a good idea in 2002, it was an even better one when GHW Bush had ninety percent approval ratings and we were already at the border of Iraq, with UN backing. Think of all the Iraqis who were shredded while be patrolled a no fly zone.
Carter is easily the worst ex-president in history.
I don’t need a lesson thanks.
You posed to me a question loaded with innuendo and assumptions and expected a yes or no answer? If it took a ‘lesson’ to respond adequately, then it took a lesson.
Good Point Mushariff won’t be around forever.
I miss him too. Missed him the instant election results were in.
It is pointless to accumulate evidence that will never be used.
The White House has issued a collective yawn................and a few shoulder shrugs, why, because Mr. President destroyed his support base....and no longer has a shred of power.....
Al Qaeda bugged out of Afghanistan and is in Iraq now so yes ‘fight them there’.
And by the way, Saddam sure as hell did 9-11 and many other attacks on us.
Do you have a cite for that?
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