Posted on 04/21/2003 6:33:00 AM PDT by knighthawk
WASHINGTON, April 20 (AFP) - US intelligence officials have tracked around 12 Iranian agents moving from Tehran to Al Kut in southeastern Iraq over the past month, according to latest edition of Newsweek out Monday.
"We are absolutely 100 percent positive that there are Iranian operatives in town," a senior US military intelligence official told Newsweek, adding that several of them were known members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.
US officials believe that the Iranians in Al Kut, 160 kilometersmiles) southeast of Baghdad are primarily intelligence officers gathering information and possibly spreading propaganda.
There are concerned though that Iran appears to have planned in advance for their deployment as soon as Saddam Hussein fell, Newsweek reported, adding that the Iranian Shiite leader and self-proclaimed friend of Washington Abdulaziz Hakim had spent decades fighting the former Iraqi president.
With a rising tide of anti-American sentiment in southern Iraq, US officials fear that Hakim may aspire to a Iranian-style Islamic republic for the region.
Hakim commands the 10,000-strong military wing of the Iranian-backed Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI).
The organisation, which is led by Hakim's older brother, boycotted last week's US-organised gathering of Iraqi opposition leaders in An Nasiriyah which aimed to take the first steps towards establishing an interim government in Baghdad.
Middle East list
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Schmucks.
They looked like they had a chip on their shoulder and even though their 'beef' was with Sadaam they gave the appearance of spoiling for a fight with anyone that got in their way.
They have fantasies of a post-Shah/Iran-scenario where Khomeini got off the plane and the Iranian revolution started. This guy returns to Iraq THIS WEEK and I'm sure the Iranian agents were an advance-guard hoping to set up the same situation.
03/28/2003
Rumsfeld Warns Syria, Iranian Badr Corps Not to Interfere in Iraq (Says Iraqis should memorize names, faces of "death squad" members)
By Jacquelyn S. Porth Washington File Security Affairs Correspondent
Washington -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent a warning March 28 to two of Iraq's neighbors -- Syria and Iran -- not to interfere in coalition efforts to topple Saddam Hussein's regime.
He told reporters at the Pentagon that military supplies, including night vision equipment, are being sent into Iraq from Syria and "we would like it to stop" because any such assistance could result in the loss of lives and the prolongation of conflict. He also warned the Iranian-sponsored Badr Corps not to interfere with coalition military operations inside Iraq lest its members be considered "as combatants."
"We have information that shipments of military supplies are crossing the border from Syria into Iraq, including night vision goggles," said Rumsfeld, who described the transfers as "trafficking." Such deliveries "pose a direct threat to the lives of coalition forces," he added.
The United States considers this kind of trafficking to be "hostile acts," Rumsfeld said, "and will hold the government of Syria accountable for such shipments." The movement of military materiel and equipment between Syria and Iraq "vastly complicates our situation," he added.
Asked more about the Badr Corps, Rumsfeld said there are reports of numbers in the hundreds operating in Iraq and more on the other side of the border. He described the corps as "the military wing of the Supreme Council on Islamic Revolution in Iraq" and said it is "trained, equipped and directed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard." As yet, he said, the corps has not done anything that would be perceived by the coalition as hostile. But "the entrance into Iraq by military forces, intelligence personnel or proxies not under the direct operational control of [U.S. Central Command Commander] General [Tommy] Franks will be taken as a potential threat to coalition forces," he said.
Rumsfeld said the coalition would hold the Iranian government responsible for the corps' actions, and armed Badr corps members found in Iraq "will have to be treated as combatants."
[snip]
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
And the Iranian mullahs (as well as Bin Laden/al Qaeda), I'm sure, are entertaining this fantasy of a pan-Islamic state, running from Iran through Iraq, to Syria and Lebanon. And we'd better insure that that doesn't happen.
Yup. Just what that neck of the woods needs--more violence, gullibilty and forced-spirituality that comes with severe penalities like lashings and even death if a Muslim does not do what the religious Muslims in charge think is right and proper. (As for the infidels, well, they're in even bigger trouble.) Nothin like a power-hungry, fanatical Imam backed by a virulent anti-American Iran (whose own people are getting tired of the Ayattolla-led reign) to fashion Iraq into another Taliban-style country. How enlightened--NOT.
IRANIAN AGENTS 'COVERTLY PROMOTING ISLAMIC RULE IN IRAQ'...
I suppose the Military is supposed to think of everything?
What about the State Department? Aren't they supposed to be contributing to this?
Oh yea....................people over on the other Thread are having to much fun shooting the messenger (Newt) rather than listening to the message.
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