Inside Iran's Secret War for Iraq

[FreedomAngel82]

Sorry if this is a dupe.

Link: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1093747,00.html

<Sunday, Aug. 14, 2005
Inside Iran's Secret War for Iraq
By MICHAEL WARE/BAGHDAD

The U.S. Military's new nemesis in Iraq is named Abu Mustafa al-
Sheibani, and he is not a Baathist or a member of al-Qaeda. He is
working for Iran. According to a U.S. military-intelligence document
obtained by TIME, al-Sheibani heads a network of insurgents created
by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps with the express purpose of
committing violence against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. Over
the past eight months, his group has introduced a new breed of
roadside bomb more lethal than any seen before; based on a design
from the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hizballah, the weapon
employs "shaped" explosive charges that can punch through a battle
tank's armor like a fist through the wall. According to the document,
the U.S. believes al-Sheibani's team consists of 280 members, divided
into 17 bombmaking teams and death squads. The U.S. believes they
train in Lebanon, in Baghdad's predominantly Shi'ite Sadr City
district and "in another country" and have detonated at least 37
bombs against U.S. forces this year in Baghdad alone.

Since the start of the insurgency in Iraq, the most persistent danger
to U.S. troops has come from the Sunni Arab insurgents and terrorists
who roam the center and west of the country. But some U.S. officials
are worried about a potentially greater challenge to order in Iraq
and U.S. interests there: the growing influence of Iran. With an
elected Shi'ite-dominated government in place in Baghdad and the U.S.
preoccupied with quelling the Sunni-led insurgency, the Iranian
regime has deepened its imprint on the political and social fabric of
Iraq, buying influence in the new Iraqi government, running
intelligence-gathering networks and funneling money and guns to
Shi'ite militant groups--all with the aim of fostering a Shi'ite-run
state friendly to Iran. In parts of southern Iraq, fundamentalist
Shi'ite militias--some of them funded and armed by Iran--have imposed
restrictions on the daily lives of Iraqis, banning alcohol and
curbing the rights of women. Iraq's Shi'ite leaders, including Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, have tried to forge a strategic alliance
with Tehran, even seeking to have Iranians recognized as a minority
group under Iraq's proposed constitution. "We have to think anything
we tell or share with the Iraqi government ends up in Tehran," says a
Western diplomat.

Perhaps most troubling are signs that the rising influence of Iran--a
country with which Iraq waged an eight-year war and whose brand of
theocracy most Iraqis reject--is exacerbating sectarian tensions
between Sunnis and Shi'ites, pulling Iraq closer to all-out civil
war. And while top intelligence officials have sought to play down
any state-sponsored role by Tehran's regime in directing violence
against the coalition, the emergence of al-Sheibani has cast greater
suspicion on Iran. Coalition sources told TIME that it was one of al-
Sheibani's devices that killed three British soldiers in Amarah last
month. "One suspects this would have to have a higher degree of
approval ," says a senior U.S. military official in
Baghdad. The official says the U.S. believes that Iran has brokered a
partnership between Iraqi Shi'ite militants and Hizballah and
facilitated the import of sophisticated weapons that are killing and
wounding U.S. and British troops. "It is true that weapons clearly,
unambiguously, from Iran have been found in Iraq," Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld said last week.

How real is the threat? A TIME investigation, based on documents
smuggled out of Iran and dozens of interviews with U.S., British and
Iraqi intelligence officials, as well as an Iranian agent, armed
dissidents and Iraqi militia and political allies, reveals an Iranian
plan for gaining influence in Iraq that began before the U.S.
invaded. In their scope and ambition, Iran's activities rival those
of the U.S. and its allies, especially in the south. There is a
gnawing worry within some intelligence circles that the failure to
counter Iranian influence may come back to haunt the U.S. and its
allies, if Shi'ite factions with heavy Iranian backing eventually
come to power and provoke the Sunnis to revolt. Says a British
military intelligence officer, about the relative inattention paid to
Iranian meddling: "It's as though we are sleepwalking.">

[aquart]

1. Oh, but I want Iran to have Iraq.

And all the grief that goes with it.

I can't think of another way to re-stabilize the area. Iran and Iraq have grown much too chummy in opposition to us. Remove ourselves from the equation and they can hate each other again.

Are they the same tribe, mostly? Because all I remember is that the people of Iran are Persians, and the people of Iraq are Arabs. Have fun fellas. Toast another oil well on the barbie.

Let's get the heck out of Dodge, and hope to God they don't sue us for damages.