Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

then this one yesterday .. Commander of Iran’s Quds Force Seeks to Magnify His Influence

Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the shadowy commander of Iran’s paramilitary Qud Force, has exerted his influence well beyond Iran’s borders. A selection of diplomatic cables help provide the fullest picture to date of General Suleimani’s role in guiding Iran’s policy in Iraq and his back-channel message to the Americans.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/03/world/middleeast/iran-documents-qassim-suleimani-quds-force.html?ref=middleeast

and Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani is apparently moving on up AND we have some personal 'feelings' about that ... This article goes along with the 'mixed media' stuff above ...snip --

WASHINGTON — When a senior Iraqi intelligence official traveled to Tehran in the summer of 2007 to meet with the Iranian leadership, he quickly figured out who was in charge of Iran’s policy toward its neighbor to the west.

It was not the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It was Qassim Suleimani, the shadowy commander of Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force, who calmly explained that he was the “sole authority for Iranian actions in Iraq,” according to an account the Iraqi official later provided to American officials in Baghdad.

A soft-spoken, gray-haired operative who carries himself with the confidence that comes from having the backing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, General Suleimani is the antithesis of the bombastic Iranian president. Now a major general — the highest rank in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — after a promotion last year, he has been the mastermind behind two central Iranian foreign policy initiatives, exerting and expanding Tehran’s influence in the internal politics of Iraq and providing military support for the rule of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

That role has put him in direct conflict with American policy makers hoping to ensure Iraq’s future as an ally of the United States, to bring about the fall of Mr. Assad and to curb Iran’s attempt to gain influence in the region. Last year, the United States Treasury Department put General Suleimani on its sanctions list because American officials said he had been involved in a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

Go read the whole thing.. when you have time, it's worth it
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/world/middleeast/qassim-suleimani-irans-master-of-iraq-chaos-still-vexes-the-us.html