U.S. Long Worried That Iran Supplied Arms in Iraq

[RedEarth]

Source: NY TIMES

WASHINGTON, March 26 — More than 20 months ago, the United States secretly sent Iran a diplomatic protest charging that Tehran was supplying lethal roadside explosive devices to Shiite extremists in Iraq, according to American officials familiar with the message.

The July 19, 2005, protest — blandly titled “Message from the United States to the Government of Iran” — informed the Iranians that a British soldier had been killed by one of the devices in Maysan Province in eastern Iraq.

The complaint said that the Shiite militants who planted the device had longstanding ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, and that the Revolutionary Guards and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia had been training Iraqi Shiite insurgents in Iran and supplying them with bomb-making equipment. “We will continue to judge Iran by its actions in Iraq,” the protest added.

Iran flatly denied the charges in a diplomatic reply it sent the following month, and it continues to deny any role in the supply of the lethal weapons. But the confidential exchange foreshadowed the more public confrontation between the Bush administration and Iran that has been unfolding since December.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/world/middleeast/27weapons.html?ex=1332648000&en=c6220eb9bdf58169&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

[CJCRANE]

1. And Who Supplied Arms to Iran..? n/t

[gatorboy]

6. Ronald Reagan the Republican demigod?

[sinkingfeeling]

2. And who could possibly be supplying the Sunnis?

[Lilith Velkor]

4. Maybe the country the 9/11 hijackers came from

I forget, who's responsible for it this year?

[leftchick]

3. they didn't need anything from anyone! "Hussein-era Arms Linked to Fatalities"

for cripes sakes...

http://www.aina.org/news/20070324150308.htm

WASHINGTON -- A newly declassified government report says that half of American troop deaths in Iraq have been caused by explosives left over from Saddam Hussein's regime and that even four years after the war began the US military has failed to conduct an adequate inventory of Hussein's weapons depots.

The assessment by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found that Iraq remains awash in unsecured mortar rounds, shells, and grenades left over from the former regime and that "the looted munitions will likely continue to support terrorist attacks throughout the region."

In one case, insurgents repeatedly stole explosives from a well-known depot while the Iraqi government was supposed to be disposing of the arms, according to the report, which was written in December and based on field reports and secret intelligence.

The report, released yesterday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, also said the original US war plan designated the defeated Iraqi Army to secure the weapons depots. But that strategy fell apart when the Bush administration unexpectedly decided to disband the Iraqi military, leaving an undermanned US military force to take on the task.

"The human, strategic, and financial costs of this failure to provide sufficient troops have been high, with made with looted munitions causing about half of all US combat fatalities and casualties in Iraq and killing hundreds of Iraqis," the report said.

:eyes:

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Why was this moved from LBN?