Gates: U.S. can prove Iran's Iraq role

[Edi]

It's with some amusement that I note the deafening silence about aid flowing from Saudi Arabia to the Sunnis...

Edi

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

CNN: Bush-Backed Shiite Group Receiving Weapons Shipments From Iran

U.S. intelligence and military officials have stated that Iranian weapons shipments “are going to Shiite militias that include rogue elements of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi army militia.” But U.S. officials have not been as vocal about possible Iranian support for a separate Shiite militia, the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution In Iraq (SCIRI). The Mehdi Army and SCIRI are rivals, and both have armed wings.

Yesterday, Kevin Drum speculated that Iran might be providing the SCIRI militia with weaponry. Drum wrote, “In other words, if we had to guess where the bombs were going, we might guess that SCIRI’s militia is getting a share of the action too.” There’s no need to guess any longer. CNN’s Michael Ware has confirmed that Iranians have been supplying weapons to SCIRI. Watch it (clip is a flash video; I can't link it):

In Dec. 2006, Bush met with the head of SCIRI — Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim — for the second time and applauded his “commitment to a unity government” and his “strong position against the murder of innocent life.”



Transcript:

WARE: But the newest thing, the most interesting thing, out of this briefing is an American senior defense official said that the Iraqi government confirmed that Iranian armed forces gave weapons to an Iraqi political faction. And these included mortars and sniper rifles, weapons that the government said, well, this political faction needs for protection. But the U.S. said these are not protective weapons; these are weapons for attacking — Wolf.

BLITZER: Were they specific which faction received these Iranian weapons? Were they the Mehdi army, for example, loyal to the anti-American radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who, as you know, his political forces are aligned with the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki?

WARE: That’s right. Muqtada’s forces are aligned with Maliki’s government. In fact, Muqtada and his militia put Maliki in power. And these defense officials today spoke openly about the provision of weapons to Muqtada’s Mehdi militia.

However, in this particular case, what they are talking about is this confirmation, by the government of Iraq, of the supply of weapons not to Muqtada’s faction, but to, arguably, the most powerful political faction within this government. That is the SCIRI political party.

-+{MILKNOSE!!}+-

[The Spartan]

And Gen. Pace speaks up.

U.S. general: No evidence Iran is arming Iraqis
Pace contradicts claims by other U.S. military, administration officials
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:27 a.m. CT Feb 13, 2007
JAKARTA, Indonesia - A top U.S. general said Tuesday there was no evidence the Iranian government was supplying Iraqi insurgents with highly lethal roadside bombs, apparently contradicting claims by other U.S. military and administration officials.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces hunting down militant networks that produced roadside bombs had arrested Iranians and that some of the material used in the devices were made in Iran.

“That does not translate that the Iranian government per se, for sure, is directly involved in doing this,” Pace told reporters in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. “What it does say is that things made in Iran are being used in Iraq to kill coalition soldiers.”

His remarks might raise questions on the credibility of the claims of high-level Iranian involvement, especially following the faulty U.S. intelligence that was used to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003.


Three senior military officials in Baghdad said Sunday that the highest levels of Iranian government were responsible for arming Shiite militants in Iraq with the bombs, blamed for the deaths of more than 170 U.S. troops

Asked Monday directly if the White House was confident that the weaponry is coming on the approval of the Iranian government, spokesman Tony Snow said, “Yes.”

Iran on Monday denied any involvement.

“Such accusations cannot be relied upon or be presented as evidence. The United States has a long history in fabricating evidence. Such charges are unacceptable,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters in Tehran.

[Jadeite]

Found another article, more recent than the other.

Iraqi insurgents using Austrian rifles from Iran
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:55am GMT 13/02/2007

Austrian sniper rifles that were exported to Iran have been discovered in the hands of Iraqi terrorists, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

More than 100 of the.50 calibre weapons, capable of penetrating body armour, have been discovered by American troops during raids.

The Steyr HS50 is a long range, high precision rifle
The guns were part of a shipment of 800 rifles that the Austrian company, Steyr-Mannlicher, exported legally to Iran last year.

The sale was condemned in Washington and London because officials were worried that the weapons would be used by insurgents against British and American troops.

Within 45 days of the first HS50 Steyr Mannlicher rifles arriving in Iran, an American officer in an armoured vehicle was shot dead by an Iraqi insurgent using the weapon.

Over the last six months American forces have found small caches of the £10,000 rifles but in the last 24 hours a raid in Baghdad brought the total to more than 100, US defence sources reported.

The find is the latest in a series of discoveries that indicate that Teheran is providing support to Iraq's Shia insurgents.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, yesterday denied that Iran had supplied weapons to Iraqi insurgents. But on Sunday US officials in Baghdad displayed a range of weapons they claimed had originated in Iran.

They said 170 American and British soldiers had been killed by such weapons.

The discovery of the sniper rifles will further encourage those in Washington who want to see Iran's uranium-enriching facilities destroyed before a nuclear weapon is produced.

The Foreign Office expressed "serious concerns" over the sale of the rifles last year and Britain protested to the Austrian government.

A Foreign Office spokesman said last night: "Although we did make our worries known the sale unfortunately went ahead and now the potential that these weapons could fall into the wrong hands appears to have happened."

The rifle can pierce all body armour from up to a mile and penetrate armoured Humvee troop carriers.

It is highly accurate and fires a round called an armour piercing incendiary, a bullet that the Iranians manufacture.

The National Iranian Police Organisation bought the rifles allegedly to use them against drug smugglers in an £8 million order placed with Steyr in 2005.

The company was given permission to export them by the Austrian government, which is not a Nato member.

[MKSheppard]

That's literally a smoking gun. I can understand a few weapons going missing, but about 12% of the entire shipment of weapons?

[Wanderer]

That's literally a smoking gun. I can understand a few weapons going missing, but about 12% of the entire shipment of weapons?

Do the serial numbers match? Those guns could have come from anywhere. I'd wait till the serials match before jumping to conclusions.

Besides even if the serials match it is not grounds for war as Iran can sell its weapons to whoever has money and a license to buy them. As for other Iranian weaponry, those can be dug up around Basra, including wrecked aircraft and helicopters from the Iran Iraq war.

[SirNitram]

And we're back to 'Is it justification for a war?'. What stupidity. Going to war with Iran creates no positive outcomes for anyone, save, perhaps, Blackwater and it's fellows for more security contracts.

[Coyote]

A lot of things also have to be examined and disproven-- was the Iranian government that gave XYZ weapons, or was it sympathisers that happened to live in Iran and had access to them? Was it just an Iranian crime ring in it for the money?

There were, IIRC, neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan groups that raided National Guard armories for weapons, I'd hardly describe those weapons as "provided by the government" except in a manner of irony.

[SirNitram]

A lot of things also have to be examined and disproven-- was the Iranian government that gave XYZ weapons, or was it sympathisers that happened to live in Iran and had access to them? Was it just an Iranian crime ring in it for the money?

There were, IIRC, neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan groups that raided National Guard armories for weapons, I'd hardly describe those weapons as "provided by the government" except in a manner of irony.

Indeed; as I pointed out a little while ago to Kast, proclaiming Tehran is behind attacks on US troops is like declaring Dublin is, at present: The rIRA and I beleive a few other splinters went out there, but that doesn't mean the government of Ireland is behind it.

All madness.