No Evidence Of Iran Meddling In Iraq

By Cernig

There's an excellent bit of analysis by veteran journalist, historian and foreign policy expert Gareth Porter on the InterPress Service website today. Porter reads behind the White House warhype and stenographic reporting about recent accusations that Iran forces, and specifically the Quods Force, are meddling in Iraq to the extent of arming, funding and directing insurgent groups. His conclusions, based on all the evidence provided by the U.S. military:

Even the military can't get the official spin straight, saying both that the Quods Force are still active in and have pulled out of Iraq.

"Nine months after the George W. Bush administration declared that it was going to go after Iranian agents in Iraq who were threatening U.S. troops, the U.S. military still has not produced any evidence that the Quds Force operatives in Iraq were engaged in assisting the militias fighting against U.S. troops."

The U.S. military command in Iraq has failed to capture a single Quds Force member whom it could link to the Shiite militias.

A long-term relationship between Hezboullah and significant leaders of the Madhi Army, going back even before the U.S.-led invasion, is sufficient to explain the presence of EFP know-how and equipment in Iraq. No Iranian leadership involvement is needed, or proven.

Despite interrogations of allegedly high-level detainees including the leader of an EFP smuggling cell and a key Hezboullah operative, the U.S. military "have not led to the capture of a single Iranian official. Nor has the military been able to identify a link between any Iraqi militia member and any Iranian official. On Jul. 6, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of U.S. operations south of Baghdad, told reporters his troops had not captured 'anybody that we can tie to Iran'."

Some senior members of the U.S. intelligence community have already concluded that "there is no concrete evidence" linking the Quds force in Iraq with the Shiite militias" and that "this has little to do with Iraq...It's all about pushing Iran's buttons."

Read the whole thing. For myself, I agree with porter's finding that administration and military hype over Iran's supposed involvement in Iraq violates logic, and I've been saying so for some time now.