Posted on 03/13/2002 11:26:07 AM PST by aculeus
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - The U.S. military may be holding an Iranian general at its Kandahar detention center, but further investigation is needed to confirm his identity, an Afghan government spokesman said Wednesday.
The Kandahar police chief, meanwhile, said he expected the Americans to return the detainee to Afghan custody, along with 11 others apprehended in the same operation a week ago. The 11 others are Afghans, the spokesman said.
The 12 men were detained in the western province of Farah on suspicion of trying to buy influence for Iran among local groups, said Yusuf Pashtun, spokesman for the Kandahar provincial government, which exercises regional authority over Farah and four other southwestern provinces.
Afghan and U.S. officials have complained that Iranian agents distributing money, weapons and other supplies among armed groups in western Afghanistan are trying to destabilize Afghanistan's interim central government by fomenting regional dissent.
They are "trying to support some dissident groups, local groups trying to disrupt the loya jirga process," Pashtun said.
The loya jirga, a national assembly, is to establish a transitional government by midyear to rule the Afghanistan emerging from a U.S.-led war that toppled the Taliban regime.
Other detainees said one of them, a man who carried no identification, was actually a general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards named Rezai, Pashtun said. The detainee, however, claimed he was an Afghan.
Pashtun said "some sources" were being contacted to try to establish his identity. He declined to identify them.
The group was carrying "plenty of money," Pashtun said, adding he did not have the specific amount.
An Iranian government spokesman has denied that any Iranians are in U.S. custody. Any U.S. detention of Iranian nationals in a third country, especially a ranking officer, could deepen U.S.-Iranian animosity.
The detentions were originally reported by an Afghan politician, royalist Izzatullah Wasafi, who said he has helped track Iranian activities in western Afghanistan and who claimed that most of those detained were Iranians.
Wasafi said the group was seized on March 5, brought to Kandahar and turned over to the U.S. military late on March 6 when Kandahar authorities learned of the Iranian connection.
Asked why the prisoners were transferred to the Americans, Pashtun said, "Because we found it more or less connected with the security issue, and not an internal situation only." He said the alleged pro-Iranian activities "jeopardized the security of American troops," thousands of whom are still in Kandahar and elsewhere in Afghanistan.
The Kandahar police chief, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Akram Khakrizewal, who earlier had custody of the detainees, said he expected the Americans to return the 12 to his control in three or four days. He said they had been turned over to the Americans for thorough interrogations.
The detention center at the U.S. Army's base at Kandahar airport also holds scores of suspected members of the al-Qaida terrorist organization and the Taliban movement.
They will get them back in their own individual body bags.
So, let's keep him.
Did I miss something here? Is there anyone old enough to remember the U.S. embassy hostage crisis who feels any great love towards the Iranis? Not to mention all the stuff they've had their hand in since then (Hezbullah, etc).
Flashback joke from that era:
Q: What's 3000F, glows, and is flat as a pancake?
A: Teheran, 15 minutes after Ronald Reagan is sworn in as President.
A: Teheran, 15 minutes after Ronald Reagan is sworn in as President.
The notion might have had something to do with the hostages being released just about the time the "Old Cowboy" was sworn in. Ya think?
Notice how newly-bearded Al Gore and this guy have never been seen together at the same time.
God I miss that old cowboy!
Let's get two for the price of one and use a great BIG bomb.
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