Peter Pace Declines to back up claims of Iran's involvement in Iraq

[AnnInLa]

The top American military officer, General Peter Pace, declined Monday to endorse the conclusions of U.S. military officers in Baghdad, who told reporters on Sunday that the Iranian government is providing high-powered roadside bombs to insurgents in Iraq. General Pace made his comments during a visit to Australia, and VOA's Al Pessin reports from Canberra.

General Pace said he was not aware of the Baghdad briefing, and that he could not, from his own knowledge, repeat the assertion made there that the elite Quds brigade of Iran's Republican Guard force is providing bomb-making kits to Iraqi Shiite insurgents.

"We know that the explosively formed projectiles are manufactured in Iran. What I would not say is that the Iranian government, per se , knows about this," he said. "It is clear that Iranians are involved, and it's clear that materials from Iran are involved, but I would not say by what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit."

Military officers who spoke to reporters in Baghdad, Monday, on condition of anonymity, said the high-powered projectile bombs are made with parts manufactured in Iran and that intelligence indicates the parts are sent to Iraq with the approval of senior Iranian officials. The officials said the bombs, whose projectiles can pierce the skin of an armored vehicle, have killed 170 American troops.



more at

http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-02-12-voa20.cfm

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Is he declining or does he simply not have anything

with which to back it up?

[AnnInLa]

2. Not sure....more from Think Progress

Pace: No Evidence Tying Iranian Government To Smuggled Explosives

At Sunday’s briefing in Baghdad, U.S. officials attempted to tie the Iranian government to attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, claiming that “Iran’s export of the bombs to Iraqi Shiite militias was a deliberate strategy of the regime.”

But today, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace disavowed this claim. He told reporters he has no evidence of any links between the explosives killing Americans and top Iranian officials:

We know that the explosively formed projectiles are manufactured in Iran. What I would not say is that the Iranian government, per se , knows about this,” he said. “It is clear that Iranians are involved, and it’s clear that materials from Iran are involved, but I would not say by what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit.

Pace isn’t the only one concerned about the intelligence presented at Sunday’s briefing:

Indeed, while the specific intelligence on the explosive formed projectiles is no longer disputed in the intelligence community, the CIA is questioning whether their export from Iran represents a strategy of the regime or the rogue actions of one of its security services, known as the Quds Force.

The officials offered no evidence to substantiate allegations that the “highest levels” of the Iranian government had sanctioned support for attacks against U.S. troops.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/12/pace-iran-iraq/

((I do think it is telling that he won't back-up the claims that were made this weekend, don't you?))