The Bush administration has backtracked on its promise (via the Los Angeles Times)to release details of what it knows regarding Iran’s interference in Iraqi affairs, including evidence for some of the more recent and alarming allegations that Iran was supplying arms to terrorists and was responsible for the recent attack in Karbala that resulted in the death of 5 Americans, 4 after being kidnapped and executed. I guess the evidence must not be “sexy” enough for public consumption, yet:
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has postponed plans to offer public details of its charges of Iranian meddling inside Iraq amid internal divisions over the strength of the evidence, U.S. officials said. […]
[S]ome officials in Washington are concerned that some of the material may be inconclusive and that other data cannot be released without jeopardizing intelligence sources and methods. They want to avoid repeating the embarrassment that followed the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, when it became clear that information the administration cited to justify the war was incorrect, said the officials, who described the internal discussions on condition of anonymity. […]
(cont.)
The Bush administration has charged repeatedly that Iranian agents and military personnel have been bringing in explosives and other weaponry for use in Iraq by Shiite Muslim militants. U.S. intelligence and military officials have said they have substantial evidence of Iranian involvement, but have not made it public.
The mounting U.S. charges against Iran have been accompanied by the movement of American warships into the Persian Gulf, giving rise to fears of a possible U.S. attack.
U.S. forces arrested a group of Iranians in Baghdad in December and are holding five Iranian officials who were detained Jan. 11 in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. At the same time, the administration has shunned a proposal by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group to open direct talks with Iran and Syria as part of a plan to quell the violence in Iraq.
The U.S. claims led Tehran’s ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, to challenge American officials last month to show “any shred of evidence” of Iranian meddling.
The U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, promised last week to do so, and American officials initially planned to release their dossier Tuesday.
But the release was delayed, and Sean McCormack, the chief State Department spokesman, declined Wednesday to predict when the report would be issued.
Some of the material may be inconclusive? Someone wants to avoid being embarrassed like Colin Powell was after it was discovered his UN presentation on Saddam’s WMD was concocted from pure horse manure?
Sounds like “someone” at the Defense department doesn’t trust whatever “evidence” for Iranian villainy that the Office of Special Plans Iranian Directorate has “stove-piped” into Vice President Cheney’s office. Maybe spanking brand new Secretary of Defense Gates doesn’t want to go down with Rumsfeld as being responsible for starting a war based on faulty intelligence ginned up by a band of neoconservative ideologues at the Pentagon who will say anything to get the US to attack Iran. Hard to believe Condi is behind this, after all. She’s too much the Bush loyalist.
Regardless, it sure sounds like someone at the Pentagon or State has gone off the reservation if a report on these “internal disagreements” about the strength of the intel regarding Iran is being published in the LA Times. It comes hard on the heels of a wave of very inflammatory charges against Iran which have been made by President Bush and his officials (named and unnamed) over the last few weeks:
That Iran was behind the attack that killed five Americans murdered in Karbala, Iraq on January 20th.
That Iran is supplying weapons to terrorists in Iraq to kill American forces.
That Iran, with North Korean assistance, is only 12 months away from testing a nuclear bomb
Each of these stories have been based solely upon statements made by Bush officials to reporters, with no evidence provided to support their claims. So it isn’t surprising that someone at the Pentagon or State Department who doesn’t trust the intel which has been gathered (cherry picked?) to make the case against Iran would start leaking to the press that the evidence is very thin.
At least, in any normal administration leaks by dissenters from the party line would not be considered unusual. In the Bush administration they are tantamount to being charged with treason. Wonder when the FBI investigation into the identity of these leakers will commence. My guess is that lie detector machines are being carted over to the Pentagon and State Department as we speak.
