Military Says Iran Has Stemmed Weapons Flow Into Iraq

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American Forces Press Service
Nov 18, 2007


WASHINGTON - Recent weapons cache finds in Iraq indicate that the Iranian government is living up to its promise to Iraqi leaders to stem the flow of weapons across the border into Iraq, a senior U.S. general in Baghdad told reporters today.

" . . . most of these weapons appear to have been in Iraq for months," he said. "So we have not seen any recent evidence that weapons continue to come across the border into Iraq. We believe that the initiatives and the commitments that the Iranians have made appear to be holding up."

Simmons credited the new Multinational Corps Iraq Law Enforcement Forensics Laboratory with providing scientific analysis that's able to determine how long weapons caches have been in place. "For most of the caches we have found, we have been able to determine that those weapons systems have been there for months," he said.

Pressed by reporters, Simmons insisted there's been no sign that Iran is continuing to send weapons into Iraq. "If we found evidence that a weapon system had just come across the border from Iran, we would be standing here telling you that," he said. "But right now, I have not had any evidence laid in front of me that says that they have violated the commitment they have made."

Officials in Tehran reportedly assured Iraqi government leaders they would work to stop the flow of bomb-making materials and other weapons into Iraq.

"It is my understanding that they have provided such assurances," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters during a Nov. 1 Pentagon news conference.

Gates said he had no solid proof that Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, was aware that parts for explosively formed penetrators, the most deadly form of roadside bomb, had been flowing from Iran into Iraq. "I haven't seen anything definitive along those lines," Gates said. "My guess is that the highest levels are aware."

Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agreed there's no proof that Iranian leaders were aware of the shipments . . .


http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_18507.shtml

[rodeodance]

1. Topic subject -Seizure of Iranians Failed to Validate Bush Line

Forum Name Latest Breaking News
Topic subject Seizure of Iranians Failed to Validate Bush Line
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3069788#3069788
3069788, Seizure of Iranians Failed to Validate Bush Line
Posted by rodeodance on Sat Nov-17-07 10:03 PM

Source: ipsnews



http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40104

Seizure of Iranians Failed to Validate Bush Line
by Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (IPS) - The George W. Bush administration's campaign to seize and detain Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officials in Iraq, presented by Bush himself last January as a move to break up an alleged Iranian arms smuggling operation in Iraq, appears to have run its course without having been able to link a single Iranian to any such operation.

Despite administration rhetoric suggesting that the U.S. military had solid intelligence on which to base a campaign to break up Iranian-sponsored networks supplying armour-piercing weapons, what is now known about the kidnapping operations indicates that the actual purpose was to obtain some evidence from interrogations that would support the administration's line that the IRGC's elite Quds Force is involved in assisting Shiite forces militarily.

None of the six Iranians now held by the U.S. military, however, has provided any evidence for the administration's case despite many months of very tough interrogation usually employed on "high value" detainees.

Wayne White, former deputy director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research Office of Analysis for the Near East and South Asia, told IPS he believes the administration badly wanted to get information from the Iranian detainees that they could use to make their case, but has been unable to do so.

"I'm convinced that they haven't gotten anything out of them," he said in an interview. "They haven't come up with anything they can shop around."


Read more: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40104

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2. they tortured them and still couldn't tie them to any of the crap they claimed

they released these folks without charge:

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-11-09T083052Z_01_L09108678_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-IRAN-IRAQ-COL.XML

. . . where's the fire, Bush?

[TwilightGardener]

3. We've had a few meetings between Ryan Crocker and Iranian diplomats

about Iran's interfering in Iraq--good things sometimes happen when you sit down with other countries and ask for cooperation. Looks like Iran listened.