| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"pedro martori" |
| Date: |
23 Jul 2003 06:52:04 AM |
| Object: |
ARE THESE THE ONES WHO ARE ATTACKING US FORCES IN IRAK.... |
..S.: Iran will infiltrate 5 Iraqi cities By Eli J. Lake
UPI State Department Correspondent
From the International Desk
Published 4/3/2003 7:37 PM
View printer-friendly version
WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- Iran's senior leadership decided last month to
send irregular paramilitary units across their border with Iraq to harass
American soldiers once Saddam Hussein's regime fell, according to U.S.
intelligence reports.
On March 24, a U.S. intelligence agency issued a "spot report" to a wide
range of senior U.S. officials detailing conversations in a meeting of the
Islamic Republic's top leadership in the equivalent of the U.S. National
Security Council. The council, which is working on Iran's post-conflict
strategy, includes Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamanei.
"This confirmed all of our suspicions that the Iranians are not our friends
and not for peace in the region. They are in fact for a piece of the
region," one U.S. intelligence official told United Press International.
This official said the units would target the Iraqi cities of al-Najaf and
Karbala, the two places in Iraq considered holiest by the country's Shiite
Muslim majority. But also targeted would be Baghdad, where several hundred
thousand Iraqi Shiites live in the suburb known as Saddam City, as well as
Basra and the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk.
"They were saying we have to be careful ultimately in the battle for Iraq.
This is not to be won on the battlefield. Remember the tactics we need are
direct confrontation we must raise the cost of occupation," this official
said recounting the conversation detailed in the March 24 intelligence
report.
Adding to American concerns, previous CIA reports on Iran claim that the
country's Revolutionary Guard has procured several Saudi and Kuwaiti
military uniforms, a tactic another intelligence official said was meant to
cause confusion on the battlefield.
The explosive intelligence from March 24 also confirmed the failure of U.S.
and British diplomatic efforts in the last three months to convince Iran to
remain neutral in the current conflict. On the weekend of March 16 the U.S.
special envoy to the Iraqi opposition met with Iranian diplomats in Geneva,
under the auspices of a U.N. grouping to discuss Afghanistan, to firm up an
agreement from Tehran not to send proxy forces over their border or attempt
to send agent provocateurs into Iraq during or after the conflict.
The private statements from last month's meeting follow with many of the
public statements from Iran's senior leaders in the run up to Operation
Iraqi Freedom. On March 14 Hujjat al-Islam Hassan Rowhani, Iran's national
security adviser, warned ominously in a public statement that there will be
no "happy ending to the way the Americans have chosen" for their occupation
of Iraq. "The U.S. presence in the Middle East is worse than Saddam's
weapons of mass destruction," Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former Iranian
president and current chairman of the country's powerful expediency board,
said on Feb. 7.
The intelligence has already hardened America's public reaction to Iran's
intentions in the war. On March 28, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld opened
his news briefing with a stark warning to the Baddr Brigades, the military
wing of an Iranian opposition group that he said was "equipped and directed"
by Iran's Revolutionary Guards. "The entrance into Iraq by military forces,
intelligence personnel, or proxies not under the direct operational control
of (Central Command Chairman) Gen. Franks will be taken as a potential
threat to coalition forces," Rumsfeld said. He added that the United States
would hold the Iranian government responsible for the actions of the Badr
Brigades. Two days earlier when Secretary of State Colin Powell was asked
whether Iranian proxies were becoming a problem for U.S. forces in the Iraq
campaign, he said, "Not yet."
Copyright © 2001-2003 United Press International
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