Your Economy (No Politics)

[Bullwinkle]

Maybe it is just me, but does anyone else see where Rummy is going with this? Sounds eerily familiar...


Rumsfeld accuses Iran of allowing weapons to cross into Iraq
Tue Aug 9, 3:10 PM ET


WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Iran of allowing weapons to be smuggled across its border into Iraq, warning that "ultimately, it's a problem for Iran."

US intelligence believes that a cache of newly manufactured Iranian bombs discovered about two weeks ago in northeastern Iraq came from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, a US intelligence official told AFP.

"It is true that weapons clearly, unambiguously from Iran have been found in Iraq," Rumsfeld told reporters.

He said he did not know whether there was official Iranian involvement in the weapons smuggling. But he added: "It's a big border and unhelpful for Iranians to be allowing weapons of those types to be crossing the border."

"It's a problem for the Iraqi government. It's a problem for the coalition forces. It's a problem for the international community. And ultimately, it's a problem for Iran," he said.

Pressed on what he meant, Rumsfeld said, "Well, they live in the neighborhood. The people in that region want this situation stabilized with exception of Iran and Syria," he said.

Rumsfeld and other senior administration officials have often attacked Syria for allowing Iraqi insurgents to move foreign fighters, money and arms across its borders.

But until now they had been more reserved about the role of Iran, whose Shiite regime has been viewed as more closely aligned to Iraq's Shiite majority than to an insurgency that has been drawn mainly from the country's Sunni minority.

The tougher line against Iran comes amid a spike in US casualties, including 14 marines and an interpreter who were killed last week when a triple decker mine went off under their amphibious assault vehicle.

General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that bomb was "a relatively small device place in the road that overturned the vehicle and when it did so, of course, there was no way out of the vehicle once it overturned."

The Iranian weapons found by US forces were reported to include more sophisticated "shaped" charges, which focus an explosions power in ways that can penetrate armor as thick as that of an M-1 tank.

"We believe they came from Iran's Revolutionary Guards," an intelligence official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that intelligence analysts had "fairly high confidence" in their conclusion.

The find is significant not only because of the Iranian connection but also because it indicates manufactured bombs are now being introduced in a conflict that has seen the widespread use of mainly improvised explosive devices.

"I think we believe there is more of them out there, that this is just the first cache we've actually obtained," the official said.

US commanders have warned of a surge in insurgent violence in the coming weeks as Iraqis draft and vote on a constitution, and then hold elections for a new government in December.

But they also are planning for a substantial reduction of the 138,000 US force in Iraq next spring and summer if those political milestones are met and Iraqi forces are strong enough to progressively assume responsibility for security.

Rumsfeld was emphatic, however, that any drawdown will depend on conditions on the ground, including the level of the insurgency.

Among the variables, he said, "are what are the Iranians doing? Are they going to be helpful or unhelpful? If they're increasingly unhelpful, then obviously the conditions on the ground are less advantageous.

"Same thing with the Syrians. Are they being helpful?" he said.

Asked how long it will take for the Iraqi security to take the lead in the fighting against insurgents, Myers said: "Nobody knows. It's event driven."

He said there were now 178,000 Iraqi security forces and they were coming on "at a certain rate with certain capabilities. We're not going to bet on that until we have that in hand."


Copyright © 2005 Agence France Presse.