An Associated Press article appears in the North Adams Transcript (Massachusetts) under the headline, Bush can't back up Iran claims. But then in the very first sentence the article says,
WASHINGTON — Challenged on the accuracy of U.S. intelligence, President Bush said Wednesday there is no doubt the Iranian government is providing armor-piercing weapons to kill American soldiers in Iraq. (emphasis supplied)
That doesn't sound like someone who can't back up his claims. A hint about what Bush is supposedly unable to back up doesn't appear until we get further into the article.
Defending U.S. intelligence that has pinpointed Iran as a hostile arms supplier in Iraq, Bush said, "Does this mean you're trying to have a pretext for war? No. It means I'm trying to protect our troops."
There have been mixed signals in the administration about Iran's involvement in supplying Shiite groups in Iraq with a particularly lethal type of roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators.
Three senior U.S. military officials, at a weekend briefing in Baghdad, said the highest levels of the Iranian government had ordered the weapons smuggled into Iraq. They based their claim on the belief the weapons are moving into Iraq through the Iran's Revolutionary Guards elite Quds Force.
But Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said later he was not ready to conclude that Iran's top leaders were behind the attacks. Some lawmakers also have questioned the administration's statements.
Wading into the debate, Bush said the Quds Force was instrumental in supplying the weapons — "we know that," he said — and that the Quds Force was part of the Iranian government. "That's a known," he said. "What we don't know is whether or not the head leaders of Iran ordered the Quds Force to do what they did."
Pressed again on the subject, Bush displayed some irritation and said, "Whether (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad ordered the Quds Force to do this, I don't think we know. But we do know that they're there and I intend to do something about it. And I've asked our commanders to do something about it. And we're going to protect our troops." Ahmadinejad has denied Iran was behind the attacks.
The misleading headline is arises from quibbling by reporters over how high in the Iranian government do orders come for shipping weapons into Iraq. If there's any doubt that weapons are coming from Iran no one is admitting it, not even the Associated Press. From another Associated Press article, this one appearing in the Houston Chronicle, we learn,
The chief U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, said Iranian and Iraqi detainees in U.S. custody said in interrogations that "the Quds Force provides support to extremist groups here in Iraq both in the forms of money and in weaponry."
U.S. forces detained six Iranians in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil in January, one of whom military officials say is the Quds Forces' operational commander in Iraq, Mohsin Chizari.
But as noted in this North Adams Transcript article non sequitur, "Iranian President Ahmadinejad has denied Iran was behind the attacks." OK. Well, I guess his word is good enough for the Associated Press.
President Ahmadinejad's views are summarized on this website: ahmadinejadquotes.blogspot.com
Posted by: Al | February 16, 2007 at 09:35 AM