baloney_detector

Iran Against the US: ''It's Wake-Up Time''

Miki Segal (7/16/2007)

For the first time since the war in Iraq began, US spokesmen are directly accusing (July 2) the Iranian regime of involvement in terror activities in Iraq in which American soldiers were killed. In a briefing by a senior American military spokesman details were revealed from the interrogation of prisoners captured in a raid staged by coalition forces in Basra during March. According to this information the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, through a senior member of the Lebanese Hezbollah, operated and trained according to the Hezbollah model secret local Shiite terrorist cells, which perpetrated a terrorist attack in the city of Karbala against the provincial joint coordination center (January 2007). Five US soldiers were killed in the attack (one during the course of the attack and four were kidnapped and subsequently shot). It further emerged from the interrogation that Iranian financing of extreme Shiite groups runs between $750,000 and $3 million generally transferred through Muqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mahdi militia.

The information regarding Iranian involvement corroborates previous reports of joint activity by the Lebanese Hezbollah and Quds Force in training extreme Shiite Iraqi forces in Iran and even in Lebanon, but this is the very first time such cooperation has been been proven definitively. US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack was unequivocal on the matter, calling the revelation "another data point in what is a troubling picture of negative Iranian involvement in Iraq," and the disclosure that the Revolutionary Guards used the Lebanese Hezbollah is a source of grave concern.

Irrefutable Testimony

This was the first time the United States has asserted Iranians helped plan the terrorist attacks against American soldiers in Iraq and knew in advance about the actual planned terror attack which resulted in the slaying of American soldiers. The military spokesperson refrained from addressing the political repercussions implicit in the new revelations, particularly as it concerns American administration policy towards Iran, but said, "Our intelligence reveals that the senior leadership in Iran is aware of this activity," adding "it would be hard to imagine" that the Supreme Leader Khamenei was unaware of this activity.

Previously there were American diplomats, primarily those who oppose the new strategy in Iraq and those who oppose military action against Iran, who argued there is no clear-cut information regarding the involvement and awareness of the Iranian regime in Revolutionary Guards' activity against coalition forces in Iraq or Afghanistan. In the past, American spokespersons relied on a technical analysis of the arms captured in Iraq and its identification as Iranian with an emphasis on explosively formed penetrators (EFP) to point the blame toward Iran.

But this time the US has unequivocal information the administration will find hard to ignore. In the US political context the revelation strengthens the hawkish side of the spectrum pressing for action against Iran. Nonetheless, despite the intelligence coup implicit in disclosing the involvement of Hezbollah and Iran in terror in Iraq, the shadow of the faulty intelligence which led to the war in Iraq will continue to haunt and influence decision-makers and US public opinion. It seems that a critical mass of evidence both regarding Iranian involvement in terror and its activity in the nuclear field is gathering.

A Wake-Up Call

While the Democrats support continued negotiations with Iran (despite the previous failed round of talks) and even conducting direct negotiations, Iran is intensifying its subversive activity in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, either directly or by proxy, in order to further undermine the US' status and its political strategy.

Joe Lieberman, the independent senator from Connecticut, continues to call for a hard and uncompromising line against Iran. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (July 6) Lieberman emphasizes that the disclosure of direct Iranian involvement in Iraq should serve as a "painful wake-up call for the Americans and Congress." In his opinion, no responsible leader in Washington wants to grapple with Iran, but at the same time, he has a responsibility to recognize the facts that America's military commanders are laying before the American people: through its deeds the government of Iran is doing everything aside from actually declaring war on the United States and its allies in the Middle East. Lieberman calls for closing ranks in Congress and sending a stiff message to Iran to desist from activities that lead to the killing of US soldiers. He concludes that diplomacy will work only if it is backed by a credible threat to use military force. The objective, in his opinion, is to restore deterrence and to instill a doubt in the decision-making and risk management of the Iranian regime.

Exact Planning

The terrorist attack in Karbala (January 2007) was punctiliously planned and already then aroused suspicion that a political force stood behind it: the attackers carried false ID, spoke English, wore American uniforms and traveled in vehicles used by coalition forces. They managed to fool the guards who allowed them entry into the area of the liaison staff in Karbala.

Iranian involvement in the attack began to be uncovered after a raid by coalition forces on the city of Basra, in the course of which those involved in the attack on Karbala were captured (March 2007). Among the prisoners a Hezbollah operative stood out who at first was given the nickname "Hamid the dumb" after he contended, in order to conceal his Lebanese accent, that he was a deaf-mute. Later he began to cooperate with his interrogators. Identified as Ali Mussa Daqduq he provided details regarding the degree of Iranian involvement. Daqduq joined Hezbollah in 1983, serving as the commander of the organization's Special Forces. He was responsible for providing security for Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The Daqduq family comes from the Hizbullah bastion of Ait al-Shaab in the region of Bint Jbeil in South Lebanon. The town was hit during the course of the Second Lebanon War, during which Hassan Faiz Daqduq was taken in for questioning by the IDF and released a short time later. Another family member, Abd al-Karim Mustafa Daqduq, a Hezbollah man, was killed in battle with the IDF in August 1999. A Hezbollah cell, Ibrahim Daqduq, which was involved in terrorist attacks in South Lebanon, is named after him. Husayn Fahd Daqduq was released from an Israeli prison in the year 2000.

Continued...

Omedia : The Iranian Threat- Iran Against the US: ''It's Wake-Up Time''