Petraeus Says Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq Is in Elite Force

[babylonsister]

U.S. General Says Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq Is in Elite Force


By PAUL VON ZIELBAUER
Published: October 8, 2007

BAGHDAD, Oct. 7 — The American military command here increased its criticism of Iran on Sunday, accusing that country’s ambassador of undisclosed membership in a Revolutionary Guard force and announcing the arrests of three men it described as Iranian agents responsible for kidnappings and weapons smuggling.

The latest accusations came as a series of car bomb attacks in the capital killed at least nine people, apparently all civilians, including one blast near the Iranian Embassy that left three people dead, officials said.

The United States has increasingly accused Iran of involvement in planning and executing attacks against Iraq’s government and American military operations in Iraq — accusations that the Iranian government has repeatedly denied.

On several occasions American military commanders have said the elite Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran was responsible for supplying anti-American militia forces here with particularly lethal bombs that have been used to kill American troops. The Bush administration has been considering whether to classify the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group.

But Sunday appeared to be the first instance in which the Americans had publicly asserted that Iran’s top diplomat in Iraq was himself a member of the Revolutionary Guard.

The accusation was made by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American military commander, who made the remarks to CNN while he was traveling with a small group of reporters to a military base on the Iranian border. He said, “We have absolute assurance” that a number of Iranians detained by the Americans in Iraq were members of the Quds Force.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/world/middleeast/08iraq.html

[EFerrari]

1. If Petraeus is accusing someone else of kidnapping and smuggling

we know now exactly what *he's doing*.

[babylonsister]

2. Nice use of diplomacy by Petraeus, isn't this. I'm so sick of this

ratcheting up!

[Poiuyt]

3. Our intel community better hurry up with those reports

Fineman: Intel Community To Release ‘Three Iran Reports’ To ‘Slow Down’ Bush’s Warmongering

On the Chris Matthews Show today, NBC’s Howard Fineman revealed that the intelligence community will release “three different reports” in upcoming weeks to “slow down” the administration’s current drumbeat for war with Iran:

The intelligence community over the next few months is going to come out with three different reports on Iran about internal political problems of Iran, about the economy, and about their nuclear capability.

Those are going to be key to decide what the Bush administration is going to do, and it’s the intelligence community I think trying to slow down what the president, most particularly the vice president, want to do in Iran.

The intelligence community’s warning against war with Iran echo its warnings prior to the invasion of Iraq. Pre-war intelligence forewarned that occupying Iraq could be a “long, difficult and probably turbulent challenge” and would “accelerate” regional terrorism.

Similarly, the administration “ignore the intelligence community’s belief that the militant Islamist al-Qaida and Saddam’s secular dictatorship were unlikely allies,” instead setting up an “alternative intelligence” shop to disseminate false information about Hussein. Mohamad El Baradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency has also warned that pre-Iraq failures are being repeated

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/07/fineman-intelligence-iran/

Video at link

[babylonsister]

5. Today would be nice, but I think everyone's off-again. Sigh. nt

[tularetom]

4. But you can't say anything unfavorable to this authentic american hero

Betray-us has sold his soul to the chickenhawks in the chimpistration and has lost whatever iota of credibility he ever had as a result. and anybody who wants to ridicule him as a desk bound general with no pre-Iraq combat experience (I know he was in Bosnia but not in a combat role) should not be intimidated by the pubs from doing so.