Bush Authorized Raids Against Iranians In Iraq With Order Issued Months Ago

[kpete]

Bush Authorized Iranians' Arrest in Iraq, Rice Says
By DAVID E. SANGER and MICHAEL R. GORDON
Published: January 13, 2007

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 — A recent series of American raids against Iranians in Iraq was authorized under an order that President Bush decided to issue several months ago to undertake a broad military offensive against Iranian operatives in the country, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.

“There has been a decision to go after these networks,” Ms. Rice said in an interview with The New York Times in her office on Friday afternoon, before leaving on a trip to the Middle East.

Ms. Rice said Mr. Bush had acted “after a period of time in which we saw increasing activity” among Iranians in Iraq, “and increasing lethality in what they were producing.” She was referring to what American military officials say is evidence that many of the most sophisticated improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, being used against American troops were made in Iran.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/13/world/middleeast/13strategy.html?hp&ex=1168664400&en=5b2b789a19f259a1&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[bridgit]

1. not surprising, war plans have been drawn up for years...

the only surprising thing is that Iran hasn't figured out by now just how war-crazy g.w. bush really is, that's surprising

[jeff30997]

2. OMFG! It's gonna suck big time!

Bunch of idiots!

[scarletwoman]

3. Liars. The IEDs are made right there in Iraq, with the materials looted from all the weapons

caches that were left unguarded by the U.S. invaders. And the technology for making them is all over the internet.

Not to mention that it's the SUNNI insurgency and ex-Baathists that employ them -- why in the world would Shia Iran be giving material support to Sunnis and old Sadaam loyalists?

This is just more utter bullshit for ginning up a war on Iran.

sw

[leftchick]

20. wouldn't it be swell

if the democrats in congress could connect these dots and realize they are being served another steaming pile of BS from bush? Instead of nodding their heads and agreeing Iran is a threat?

:argh:

[scarletwoman]

23. Never happen. AIPAC won't allow it.

Iran MUST be dealt with, don't you know?

sw

[Straight Shooter]

4. Incompetent leadership (unguarded ordnance) is probably where most of those IED's come from.

By EVAN WRIGHT
Published: June 17, 2004
LOS ANGELES

To the American troops in Iraq being subjected to a daily rain of fire from roadside bombs, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, it often seems that the insurgents have limitless stocks of munitions. In fact, in the time I spent embedded with a platoon there, I heard more than one marine joke that the insurgents must have more bullets to spare than the Americans.

But it's no joke: some military officials told me that the Iraqis have so many weapons that they are suspected of exporting them over the Syrian border. And for this bounty, they can thank the Pentagon. Of all the blunders American military leaders have made in Iraq, one of the least talked about is how they succeeded in arming the insurgents.

By the time of the coalition invasion, Iraq had one of the largest conventional arms stockpiles in the world. According to one American military estimate, this included three million tons of bombs and bullets; millions of AK-47's and other rifles, rocket launchers and mortar tubes; and thousands of more sophisticated arms like ground-to-air missiles. Much of the arsenal was stored in vast warehouse complexes, some of which occupied several square miles. As war approached, Iraqi commanders ordered these mountains of munitions to be dispersed across the country in thousands of small caches.

<snip >

But under orders to reach Baghdad as quickly as possible, the marines rarely had a chance to remove, destroy or even mark the stockpiles. In one village, combat engineers (led by local children whom they had bribed with bags of Skittles candies) discovered an underground bunker crammed with dozens of sophisticated air-to-ground missiles. Yet higher-ups in the division insisted that there was no time to destroy them. The marines moved on, leaving the missiles unguarded."

http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2004/06/biggest-blunder-of-iraq-war.html

Condi thinks that Americans have no memory of past events. The fault lies on the head of Rumsfeld and on bush for putting Rumsfeld in charge of this war.

[DemReadingDU]

14. if we need to remember past events, we use The Google

Doesn't anyone in this adminsitration realize we can find just about anything using The Google

[Seldona]

5. And the TONS of military grade explosive lefy lying around?

I am sure that particular failure had NOTHING to do with it? Yep, got to be Iran.

pfft

[Abathar]

21. Your correct

that there is more than enough explosives laying around that they don't need to import them, but what our troops have been finding is that the triggering device (the most important part) of the IED has been what they have needed.

The radio controlled detonators used now are far more advanced than garage door openers and cell phones they started out with. They learned in a hurry that we can broadcast almost every frequency they were using with a broad range transmitter and were setting them off at odd times during the day.

The new ones being used are far more high tech, they use complex multi-frequency receivers at long range. These have been traced back to the manufacturers, and also we have captured many of these coming across the borders from Iran and Syria both. The IED has become such an effective way of killing coalition troops that we have spent massive resources finding the source of them and stopping them from getting into the insurgents hands. The truth is most of these are coming directly from Iranian manufacturers across the porous border, whether or not with direct knowledge is the biggest question. I have relatives there now I have been learning all this from, both of them fear the IED over any other threat there.

[crickets]

6. Sounds like another false flag op is in full swing. God help us. nt

[bleever]

7. "There has been a decision..."

Yeah, that's the ticket.

A decision has been...been.

[nealmhughes]

8. Those damned Communists...uh, Iranians...burning the Reichtag...um, sending in arms...

That is what one gets when one passes an Enabling Act.

Bush must be stopped NOW.

No more farting around, no more stroking his ego, pretending he is rational, he must simply be so tied up by impeachment hearings that he will willingly go to Paraguay or his "ranch" or anywhere in disgrace to get out of the public eye and ear by resigning.

Bush is not to be trusted, not one word he says. He is either mad or evil...anything approaching treating him with respect must be terminated, he needs be treated as a pariah by the world.

[LuckyX]

9. THESE PEOPLE ARE PSYCHO!

and they are going to take us all down with them, if only because we can't focus on the environmental crisis we are facing, while we all look at the wars. They are evil,pure and simple!

We had a coup d'etat on Nov. 22nd 1963 and a fascist government was installed. The sands of the hourglass are running through the glass, its almost zero hour. We all need to show up in WASHINGTON DC NOW!!!

[doublethink]

10. U.S. Forces Fighting Iranians In Iraq ......

Pentagon sources tell CBS News the U.S. military has planned covert cross-border raids into Iran — but so far none has been approved. -snip-

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/12/politics/main2355951.shtml

The above article has quite a few of the talking points as the OP's in this thread, but the line I snipped stood out to me in this one ......wonder how long before bush approves these cross border raids? Peace.

[Roland99]

11. IMPEACH!!!!! He's also going forward with the escalation no matter what Congress says!!!

Bush tells 60 Minutes 'no matter what Congress wants' surge is on
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Bush_tells_60_Minutes_no_matter_0113.html

In an excerpt of a CBS 60 Minutes interview released Friday, Bush said he believes he has the authority to send additional troops "no matter what Congress wants."

"They could try to stop me from doing it, but I have made my decision and we are going forward," Bush said.

:mad:

[Heywood J]

19. That would be contempt of Congress

and flagrant violation of laws. If nothing else, it would be impeachable.

Any law Congress passes to keep him from going in should include text along the lines of "Violation of this statute is a high crime."

[Jacobin]

12. Waiting for the naysayers on Iran invasion to join us

I WANTED to be a naysayer. I didn't want it to happen

[leveymg]

13. If Pace and other JCS members leave, head for the hills:

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/04/08/hersh-joint-chiefs-opposed-to-iran-nuke-attack-members-of-congress-gung-ho/

[SutaUvaca]

15. Uh huh, more decisions based on bush-intel.

bush-intel = oxymoran = bloody lies.

[helderheid]

16. thanks as usual kpete

[Nickdfresh]

17. The Iranians

Do not the Iranians and the US support the same corrupt, death squad reliant gov't of Maliki?

[dogday]

18. These are the times that try men's souls..

Congress shall be put to the test... They cannot sit by and allow this to happen.. It is time to fight the injustice of this illegal war....

[MilesColtrane]

22. Fishing Expedition

This raid was carried out in an attempt to find direct evidence of Iranian involvement in Iraq.

Once Bush has that to hold up to Congress the runway is cleared for the bombing campaign to begin.

I think evidence will be found whether it has to be manufactured or not.

[Jacobin]

24. I'm not usually a Chicken Little The Sky-Is-Falling but I have something

to say.

Let me preface this by saying I'm older than the hills. Whether this means anything or not, I'm not a MIHOPer or a LIHOPer, except to the extent that their abject negligence let 9/11 happen. I was staunchly against the invasion from the beginning for the reasons that have played out. I'm pissed at the dems (and republicks, for that matter) that voted for IWR, but now is not the time to get into this. You could see this all unfolding, them giving themselves room for widening the Middle East conflagration, even back then.

Bush does not care what anyone thinks, not the congress, not the people, not even his party. He knows he has screwed them all for the next twenty years. He wants to go down in history as having 'cleaned out the rats nest of the middle east' thinking that in 30 years people will look back and say he was smart to do it. He has NO short term goals that will lead to success and no short term goals of ending this.

Have I lost anyone yet? I think most of us will agree on the above.

He is ruled by the craziest of the neo-cons. The ones ready to start a shooting world war to 'make democracy safe for the world', get oil, hegemony, start armageddon, whatever the crazies in each of the niches want to see unfold. There is a significant percentage of americans who will go along with war because its exciting and fun and they don't have to go get shot. The adventurers, tough guys, idiots, whatever.

Congress is only just coming into its own. It is treading carefully, as it must to bring the american people along with it, away from the extreme right wing precipice.

Bush has already widened this war into Iran. He is taunting them. He's trying to get them to shoot back or create a Gulf of Tonkin moment. There can be absolutely NO DOUBT about this. NONE. This is NOT tinfoil. This is the reality of having a crazed theocratic president with zero powers of deduction and reasoning and NO moral compass. He is bat shit fucking crazy. This is not hyperbole.

I've read lots of threads including good ones by Will Pitt cautioning us against making these assumptions. I warn you. He and the other doubters are wrong.

What we can do to stop this is beyond me. Others here probably have ideas. Writing congress is fine. Protesting is fine.

What i would like to see, if it seems reasonable to the readers, is to formulate some kind of consensus that this is the likely course that the administration can take so we are not caught flat footed and have to catch up to what is happening. DU is always on the cutting edge, way ahead of what the RWers are doing and we are good at anticipating.

I would hate to see us behind the curve, for whatever this great community can do to slow down the crazies, help stop them, or whatever we can do to stop the madness.

Thanks for tolerating this somewhat presumptious screed.

Peace (I fervently hope)

[jpak]

27. What you sez

Another factor.

The Iranian nuclear reactor at Bushehr will be fueled and ready for operation by September 2007.

If ChimpCo attacks these facilities after the begin operation, it will be a radiological nightmare.

If they want to avoid this, they have to destroy it before then.

The clock is ticking...

[Zhade]

25. K/R

Kick

[bushmeister0]

26. five detained maybe not real target of raid

Yesterday afternoon I heard an NPR report that said the real target of the raid in Irbil was an Iranian on the Supreme National Security Council, a certain "Dr. Jaffari" who had left the Iranian "Liaison Office" two hours before the US raid. He had been in Iraqi Kurdistan to meet with the KDP's Massoud Barzani.

This may explain the second raid at the airport, the one that almost turned into a fire fight between us and the armed forces of our best allies in Iraq. Perhaps they were tryign to catch up with "Dr. Jaffari" before he could get out of he country?

[bos1]

28. Scott Ritter said the war against Iran has already begun

and he said it some time ago. Got heat for it, but he's gotten heat for being right before. Like about just about everything (WMD are a lie, Iraq invasion will be a catastrophe, etc).