Military holding a top leader of Iranian force in Iraq

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. troops in Iraq are holding a top leader of an Iranian special forces group believed to be supplying weapons to insurgents who are targeting and killing U.S. forces in Iraq, U.S. officials said Monday.

Brig. Gen. Mohsen Chirazi, said to be the third-ranking officer in the Iranian Quds Force, was arrested in late December during a raid at the home of a man connected to the leader of the top Shiite party in Iraq with deep ties to the Iranian government, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, according to U.S. officials.

The Quds Force is a paramilitary arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and has helped direct attacks on Iraqi and U.S. forces inside Iraq, President Bush, Defense Secretary Gates and other senior military leaders have said.

more:http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/02/26/monday/index.html

[wakeme2008]

1. Mmm arrested in Dec and we are just hearing about it

Mmmmmm something smells

[maddezmom]

3. we heard about it

we just didn't know who we were supposedly holding. I'll look later for the link.

[maddezmom]

5. a couple links

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2664619

Top Iraqi condemns US over Iran
17 January 2007

One of Iraq's most powerful Shia politicians has condemned the arrest of Iranians by US forces in Iraq as an attack on the country's sovereignty.

The comments by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, made in a BBC interview, are seen as the strongest expression yet of Iraq's concern about the US approach to Iran.

They follow two recent US raids in which Iranians were arrested.

The remarks are interesting as Mr Hakim is seen as close to President Bush, says the BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad.

Late last year, US troops descended on Mr Hakim's residential compound in Baghdad and detained two Iranian officials.

One of Iraq's most powerful Shia politicians has condemned the arrest of Iranians by US forces in Iraq as an attack on the country's sovereignty.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2692452

[iconoclastic cat]

2. Well, that ain't good. nt

[rocktivity]

4. WE'RE NUMBER THREE! WE'RE NUMBER THREE!

But if he's been in custody since December and the weapons are still coming in, IS he the right guy?

:shrug:
rocknation

[mazzarro]

6. This is another crappy propaganda again!

Notice that the so-called top Iranian military leader was visiting with the leader of SCIRI - Abdul Aziz al-Hakim whose political party is in the government. Doesn't that make it an Iraqi government sanctioned affair; and why arrest him for that? Besides SCIRI is a Shia group as opposed to the Sunnis that are the active insurgents at this time.

[maddezmom]

7. that was all known at the time of the arrest, what wasn't known was who the US was holding

Top Iraqi condemns US over Iran

17 January 2007

One of Iraq's most powerful Shia politicians has condemned the arrest of Iranians by US forces in Iraq as an attack on the country's sovereignty.

The comments by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, made in a BBC interview, are seen as the strongest expression yet of Iraq's concern about the US approach to Iran.

They follow two recent US raids in which Iranians were arrested.

The remarks are interesting as Mr Hakim is seen as close to President Bush, says the BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad.

Late last year, US troops descended on Mr Hakim's residential compound in Baghdad and detained two Iranian officials.

One of Iraq's most powerful Shia politicians has condemned the arrest of Iranians by US forces in Iraq as an attack on the country's sovereignty.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2692452

[Kagemusha]

8. What!!?? SCIRI has been actively targeting US forces SINCE WHEN!?!

That's shocking news if it's true.

Of course. That's if.

Edit: And if they mean he was funneling arms to the Mahdi Army, what the HELL was he doing in the personal compound of the head of SCIRI, Sadr's rival for street power among Shiite Iraqis?

[youngdem]

9. Bullshit. More black ops.

Our government is a pathetic lying machine, who doesn't yet realize the entire world now knows that whenever it speaks or acts, it is a lie.

I am ashamed at the lengths these Neo-Con crazies will go to provoke their blood-lust dream.

Fucking disgusting.

[maddezmom]

10. do you disagree that they are holding someone?

not saying the chagres are true, but looks to me like they've been holding someone. :shrug:

[youngdem]

11. Sure, they are holding someone, and they have decided his name

Just grab a guy, never let him see a lawyer, call him a name that makes your point, and carry on with your illegal wars. Since this guy will never see the light of day, who knows who they have designated as the scape goat, but I would bet my two front teeth they don't have anyone real, or we would have been hearing about it every fucking day for weeks on end since it happened.

They have needed a scape goat for Iraq's failure and a reason to attack Iran, and a real capture of such a man in Iraq would be impossible to shout about.

Instead, we hear about it in some quiet way months after his supposed capture? Bullshit.

They were wetting themselves to tell us within minutes of killing Hussein's kids, Zawahiri, and capturing Saddam. We would have heard if this guy were a real big fish.

I pity their designated terrorist. He won't even make it to Gitmo.

[sabra]

12. According to initial reports we let him go...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17103722/site/newsweek

The officials zeroed in on the Qods Force as the "enabler of violence." " really report directly to the Supreme Leader," the senior defense analyst said at the briefing. This had led the U.S. military to conclude that the campaign was being orchestrated at "the highest levels of Iranian government." Recent U.S. military raids in Baghdad have nabbed top members of the IRGC. Disclosing some of the details of these raids, the briefers said that last Dec. 21, Mohsen Chizari, allegedly the No. 3 man in the IRGC, was pulled out of a compound linked to the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the top Shiite party in the government. Chizari was later freed when it was proven that he had a diplomatic passport. The defense analyst told the briefing that there were no dubious ties between the Qods Force and members of the Iraqi government, but the senior defense official seemed to contradict that assertion by noting that soldiers found a long list of weapon inventories at the SCIRI compound--including sniper rifles and mortars, items that he called "offensive-type armament."

[struggle4progress]

13. Bomber attacks Hakim's house in Iraq (24 Feb 07)

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 19:50:20

A suicide car bomber has hit the checkpoint protecting the house of the major Iraqi Shia leader, Ayatollah Abdul Aziz Hakim, on Saturday in Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding four more.

According to AFP, the attacker struck the first barrier protecting an access road leading from Al-Hussein Square in downtown Baghdad's Jadriyah district towards Hakim's fortified compound ...

Ayatollah Hakim's son was detained by U.S. forces a day earlier and held in custody for 12 hours. As a response, Iraqis on Saturday took to the streets of different cities in Iraq and protested over the detention by U.S. troops ...

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=502§ionid=3510202

[struggle4progress]

14. President Bush Meets with His Eminence Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim (4 Dec 06)

Leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
December 4, 2006

2:26 P.M. EST

PRESIDENT BUSH: Your Eminence, welcome back to the Oval Office. This is the second opportunity I've had to meet with one of the distinguished leaders of a free Iraq. This is a man whose family suffered unbelievable violence at the hands of the dictator, Saddam Hussein. He lost nearly 60 family members, and yet rather than being bitter, he's involved with helping the new government succeed ...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/12/20061204-7.html

[struggle4progress]

15. US holding two Iranians in Iraq (27 Dec 06)

... Iraqi leaders cited by the New York Times, which broke the story last week, said the Iranians were detained at the compound of powerful Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim who met US President Bush at the White House this month.

A spokesman for Hakim denied that the raid took place at his compound, but the site of the arrests marked on a map handed out by the US military was consistent with being in or near the fortified compound.

The home of President Jalal Talabani, who invited the two Iranians to Iraq, is also adjacent to the Hakim compound, in the Karrada neighbourhood.

Talabani has invited the two Iranians to Iraq as part of an agreement between the newly forged allies to improve security, his office said, declaring that the president was "unhappy with the arrests" ...

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/27/061227143736.n9b0odp0.html

[Ezlivin]

16. God help us if other countries start detaining/arresting our SpecOp guys

With over 700 publicly known bases, the US has SpecOp personnel scattered everywhere.

What if one was "captured" in Iran? What then?

[Pavulon]

18. Iran would hold them hostage...

for years, resulting in some of their deaths. Freeze and then thaw their body to show in a video. OH wait..

[struggle4progress]

17. So Bush invited Hakim to the White House in early Dec 06, the Iraqi government

invited several Iranians to Iraq, the Americans arrested the Iranians in a raid either at Hakim's place or at a place nearby in late Dec 06 -- while denouncing the raid, Hakim has denied it was at his place but the Americans are still saying it was (in any case, the Iraqis were unhappy about the arrests -- then the American arrest and release Hakim's son, and a car bomb goes off at Hakim's place.

I suppose "Good News from Iraq" is the suggested corporate media headline for this

[HuffleClaw]

19. usually its the NUMBER TWO guy !

what a load of malarky. next they'll 'find' documents