U.S. Troops Raid Iranian Consulate in Iraq
puremagic
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Report: U.S. Troops Raid Iranian Consulate in Iraq
By Howard Schneider and Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 11, 2007; 11:04 AM
U.S. troops raided an Iranian consulate in northern Iraq late Wednesday night and detained several people, Iran's main news agency reported today, prompting protests from Tehran just hours after President Bush pledged to crack down on the Islamic Republic's role in Iraqi violence.
Iran released news of the raid through its Islamic Republic News Agency in a dispatch that was broadly critical of Bush's plan to deploy about 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.
The IRNA report said that U.S. forces entered the Iranian consulate in Irbil, in Iraq's Kurdish-dominated north, and seized computers, documents and other items. The report said five staff members were taken into custody.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry appealed to the Iraqi government to obtain the release of its personnel.
U.S. officials have not confirmed the raid but did say in a press release that they had taken six people into custody in Irbil during the course of "routine security operations." The release said the individuals were "suspected of being closely tied" to attacks on Iraqi and U.S. forces.
The incident could provide an early test of promises by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to enforce security laws more strictly regardless of the political or ethnic affiliation of the suspect.
In December, the United States apprehended two men described as senior Iranian agents, in the process seizing lists of weapons and weapons shipments, organizational charts and other documents. In a decision that angered U.S. officials, the Iraqi government decided to simply expel them to Iran.
Maliki's Shiite government has ties to Iran and has been accused of overlooking security breeches on the part of Shiite militias and death squads.
In his speech Wednesday night calling for deployment of more U.S. troops, Bush said that part of Iraq's security "begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."
Although U.S. officials have not confirmed that an Iranian diplomatic building was involved in today's raid, a man who lives next to the consulate, Sardar Hassan Mohammed, 34, said he saw what he believed to be U.S. forces surrounding the building with their vehicles before entering it. Mohammed said at least five people were taken.
An official with the Kurdish Democratic Party, who declined to give his name, said the U.S. troops confiscated belongings inside the consulate in addition to arresting people inside.
Without addressing the recent incident, top U.S. officials in Washington were pointed in remarks today about how they intend to follow up on Bush's pledge to curb Syrian and Iranian influence in Iraq.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the United States is systematically trying to identify networks of people who bring weapons and explosives into the country -- a central allegation against Iran -- and will move to shut them down.
Improvised explosives have been a key source of U.S. casualties and deaths since the war began.
"We will do what is necessary for force protection," Rice said at a press conference. "Networks are identified. They are identified from intelligence and they are acted upon . . . whatever the nationality."
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , Gen. Peter Pace, referring to the earlier arrest of Iranians, said that Tehran's involvement in Iraq "is destructive. . . . They are complicit . . . and we will do what is necessary."
Partlow reported from Baghda
By Howard Schneider and Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 11, 2007; 11:04 AM
U.S. troops raided an Iranian consulate in northern Iraq late Wednesday night and detained several people, Iran's main news agency reported today, prompting protests from Tehran just hours after President Bush pledged to crack down on the Islamic Republic's role in Iraqi violence.
Iran released news of the raid through its Islamic Republic News Agency in a dispatch that was broadly critical of Bush's plan to deploy about 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.
The IRNA report said that U.S. forces entered the Iranian consulate in Irbil, in Iraq's Kurdish-dominated north, and seized computers, documents and other items. The report said five staff members were taken into custody.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry appealed to the Iraqi government to obtain the release of its personnel.
U.S. officials have not confirmed the raid but did say in a press release that they had taken six people into custody in Irbil during the course of "routine security operations." The release said the individuals were "suspected of being closely tied" to attacks on Iraqi and U.S. forces.
The incident could provide an early test of promises by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to enforce security laws more strictly regardless of the political or ethnic affiliation of the suspect.
In December, the United States apprehended two men described as senior Iranian agents, in the process seizing lists of weapons and weapons shipments, organizational charts and other documents. In a decision that angered U.S. officials, the Iraqi government decided to simply expel them to Iran.
Maliki's Shiite government has ties to Iran and has been accused of overlooking security breeches on the part of Shiite militias and death squads.
In his speech Wednesday night calling for deployment of more U.S. troops, Bush said that part of Iraq's security "begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."
Although U.S. officials have not confirmed that an Iranian diplomatic building was involved in today's raid, a man who lives next to the consulate, Sardar Hassan Mohammed, 34, said he saw what he believed to be U.S. forces surrounding the building with their vehicles before entering it. Mohammed said at least five people were taken.
An official with the Kurdish Democratic Party, who declined to give his name, said the U.S. troops confiscated belongings inside the consulate in addition to arresting people inside.
Without addressing the recent incident, top U.S. officials in Washington were pointed in remarks today about how they intend to follow up on Bush's pledge to curb Syrian and Iranian influence in Iraq.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the United States is systematically trying to identify networks of people who bring weapons and explosives into the country -- a central allegation against Iran -- and will move to shut them down.
Improvised explosives have been a key source of U.S. casualties and deaths since the war began.
"We will do what is necessary for force protection," Rice said at a press conference. "Networks are identified. They are identified from intelligence and they are acted upon . . . whatever the nationality."
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , Gen. Peter Pace, referring to the earlier arrest of Iranians, said that Tehran's involvement in Iraq "is destructive. . . . They are complicit . . . and we will do what is necessary."
Partlow reported from Baghda
SIN EATERS--We take the moral excrement we find in this equation and we bury it down deep inside of us so that the rest of our case can stay pure. That is the job. We are morally indefensible and absolutely necessary.
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But, I'm thinking... Jesus ain't coming back to save ol' Georgie... He's coming back to spank his sorry little punk ass.
Hail, Hail!!!
Fri Jan 12, 11:35 AM ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi foreign minister said Friday that the five Iranians detained by U.S.-led forces in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq were working in a liaison office that had government approval and was in the process of being approved as a consulate.
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Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, also said U.S. forces tried to seize more people at the airport in Irbil, 220 miles north of Baghdad, prompting a confrontation with Kurdish troops guarding the facility that was resolved without casualties.
A Pentagon official in Washington said that after troops detained the people in the first building, they learned another person may have escaped and fled to the airport.
An American team went to the airport, where they "surprised" Kurdish forces, who apparently had not been informed they were coming, said the Defense Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak about the incident on the record.
"No shots were fired, no one was injured, it was just a tense situation," said the official.
Local Kurdish authorities protested that they were not informed in advance about the arrests and raised fears that tensions between Iran and the United States were hurting Iraq's interests.
"We don't want Iraq to be a battleground for settling scores with other countries," Zebari told CNN in an interview
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070112/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
I guess the ol' PNAC plan is backfiring in the worst possible way.
Now you have Shiite running Iraq in support of Iran and Syrian.
The American people really need to put a lid on their president.
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength