The real 'revolution'

Michael Ledeen: On the brink...

Good article, which can be found in full here.

Some excerpts are below...

President Bush is annoyed that Afghan President Karzai and Iraqi President Maliki are both speaking about Iran in words reserved for an ally, rather than the main engine driving the terror wars in their countries. But if you look at the world through their eyes, it is easy enough to understand. They fear that the Americans will soon leave, and the Iranians will still be there. They know that Iran is a mortal threat, and they are now making a down payment on the insurance costs that are sure to come if the Democrats in Washington have their way. For extras, Maliki has certainly noticed that the United States is paying off the Middle Eastern Sunnis, hoping that the Saudis, Jordanians, and Gulf States will manage to contain Iran in the future. This cannot be good news in Baghdad, where the Shiites are struggling to put together a government capable of managing the country's myriad crises....

...That the Iranians are at the heart of the region's violence is proven most every day. So while Karzai was publicly kissing up to Tehran, Colonel Rahmatullah Safi, the head of the border police along the Iranian frontier, told the London Times "it is clear to everyone that Iran is supporting the enemy of Afghanistan, the Taliban," and U.S. Army Colonel Thomas Kelly confirmed that the infamous EPFs, the new generation of explosive devices that can penetrate most American armor, are now coming into Afghanistan. Col. Kelly notes that these devices "really are not manufactured in any other place to our knowledge than Iran."

The same holds true in Iraq, where these devices accounted for a third of American combat deaths in July (99 such attacks were directed against us--an all-time high). General Odierno blamed 73 percent of attacks on Iranian-supported Shiite terrorists....

...In simple English, there is so much poverty in Iran that the minister wants to change the reporting requirements so that nobody can really know the full dimensions of the Iranian people's misery. Even their current language (what is "the absolute poverty line" anyway?) is designed to mislead.

Iranians are not stupid people; they know they are ruled by tyrannical incompetents. Listen to the words of one Reza Zarabi, in the August 5 Jerusalem Post: "Iranians have become accustomed to dictators, yet an incompetent despot that bases his economic policies on the future benevolence of the coming Islamic Messiah is another thing altogether. . . It is quite remarkable for such economic damage and global ridicule to be heaped upon a nation in (so) short a time. Yet the policies of the current Iranian administration have left nothing for the imagination."

I ask you, is this not a perfect description of a revolutionary situation? And you reply: So why aren't we doing anything about it? Which, I think, is precisely the question our military leaders in Iraq, and the people of Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, are aiming at Washington.

Iran 'training Iraqi mortar men'

Here's some evidence, but will anybody ever prosecute the Iranian regime?

Looks doubtful.

Militias firing rockets and mortars on Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone have become more accurate because of training in Iran, the US military says.
The comments were made by Lt-Gen Raymond Odierno, one of the top US commanders in Iraq.

It is the latest in a series of accusations made by the US about the alleged training and arming of Iraqi Shia militiamen by Iran.

What's the point...

...of 'talking' to the Iranian regime, if afterwards we criticize them for what we already knew was true? These thugs only understand things in their own language.

The news item I'm referring to can be found here: US accuses Iran after Iraq talks.

Iran has increased support for militia groups in Iraq in recent months, the US ambassador in Baghdad has said.

Ryan Crocker spoke after meeting his Iranian counterpart for rare talks on Iraq's security crisis, only the second direct meeting in almost three decades.

Washington blames Tehran for fomenting violence in Iraq, while the Iranians are demanding the US withdraws troops.

More evidence of Iran's deconstructive activities in Iraq

Anyone listening? Doesn't appear so.

Here's the story: "US: Weapons Smugglers with Iran Links Nabbed in Iraq"

And another: "Chinese Missiles Smuggled Through Iran into Iraq"

Galloway booted out

Thank goodness for that. And, in the words of Ali G, 'Respect...'

The 'beloved' Guardian has the news. Some earlier video footage can be found here.

George Galloway was ejected from the Commons chamber on top of his suspension from parliament last night.

The Respect MP had expected the 18-day expulsion after the standards and privileges committee last week criticised him over the transparency of his charity, the Mariam Appeal.

But, while defending himself in the chamber last night, Mr Galloway was ejected by the Speaker, Michael Martin, after repeatedly criticising the committee and its members.

The outspoken anti-war MP had been talking for more than an hour as he sought to defend himself against a motion to suspend him.

You have to laugh...

...when you see headlines like these (of all places, on Fox News!).

"US to Set-up Regional Security Subcommittee with Iran and Iraq"

Needless to say, there is 0% chance that the Iranian regime would actually help the US with the security issues in Iraq and the region as they are the ones causing the major problems on a national level. This is the classic two-faced strategy of Iranian politics, which I can't believe anyone - especially the US - is still falling for. Wake up guys!

'Iranian-linked militant' among dozens captured in Iraq raids

Gee, I wonder what the US military's reaction was when they learned of this surprising news? Shock & Awe? I wish we saw more of that...

Yahoo! News has the story.

Great article from Michael Ledeen: 'Listen to the Military'

I would highly recommend reading his latest instalment on the current situation of the Middle East. You can find the full article here. Some excerpts are copied below for convenience.

In short, the president sees that it is a regional war, as it has been from the beginning, just as our enemies in Damascus and Tehran publicly told us it would be, even before a single American soldier set foot in Iraq. The two biggest causes of casualties in Iraq are non-indigenous: suicide bombers and constantly improving explosive devices deployed in and alongside roads. Eighty to ninety percent of all suicide bombers are foreigners (mostly Saudis who are trained in Syria), not Iraqis, and the explosives have long been known to be of Iranian design to contain Iranian components, and often constructed in Iran (see the latest intelligence news about al Qaeda reconstituting in Iran).

Moreover, the spinal column of the terror army in Iraq is intimately linked to Iran and Syria. As U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner recently put it, our recent successes in Iraq have been accomplished despite ongoing resistance from al-Qaeda, proxy groups like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and their Lebanese Hezbollah surrogates. Bergner stressed that the activities of these Iranian forces, and joint instruments of Iran and Syria such as Hezbollah, are relentlessly increasing. “we’ve actually been very forthright in explaining the role that those groups are having and they are an increasing problem — one that’s having an increasingly destabilizing effect on both the government of Iraq and creating more problems for us to deal with.”

With all that, Bergner insisted “that there is no question that al Qaeda is the principle fueler of violence and sectarian attacks,” and is therefore our main target. But it is indisputable — and further information is emerging every day to confirm this — that al Qaeda itself is hardly an independent actor. Several years ago, Spanish judge Baltazar Garçon noted that the leaders of al Qaeda reconstituted their headquarters in Iran after being driven from Afghanistan. I wrote at the time that Osama bin Laden and key members of his family had gone to Iran, and other key figures, such as Zarqawi (the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, lest we forget), had created an international terror network from Tehran. I have no doubt that when we finally unravel the terror network, we will find that people like Zarqawi repeatedly went back and forth between Iraq, Syria, and Iran, as did — and does — arch terrorists like Imad Mughniyah of Hezbollah....

...Yes, our troops are magnificent (as New York Times reporter John Burns so well put it), and the Iraqi people are also magnificent (their courage and patience are inspirational, and if the Nobel Committee were up to its task, it would award the Peace Prize to the Iraqi nation, excluding the terrorists of course). But fighting brilliantly in Iraq alone cannot possibly win such a vast war. Bill Kristol knows that, which is why he says “we will have to do more...but we can.” Yes, we can. But will we? There is still no sign of that, and there are screams of horror at the very thought that we might support freedom in Iran, where significant numbers of people daily demonstrate their willingness to fight their oppressors.

Instead, every new revelation about Iran’s role in the terror war is greeted with the pathetic mantra “but this does not prove that the regime itself is involved.” As if General Suleimani of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force would dare launch operation after operation against us in Iraq without the explicit approval of his commander-in-chief, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Do our analysts not know that the Revolutionary Guards were created for the explicit purpose of responding to the whims of the Supreme Leader? Whenever the Guards move, they do so precisely because “the regime” has willed it.

Big wars require big strategies, and we do not have one. Yet. I believe the country would support one if the case were made clearly and honestly. Taking the war to our enemies in Damascus and Tehran does not require troops on the ground or bombs from the air, except in the limited cases of terrorist training camps and weapons factories. It requires, above all, two things: support for the democratic forces in Syria and Iran, and the will to confront our enemies. That will can be easily expressed, but no president has had the coherence and courage to do that. Iran has been at war with us for nearly thirty years, but no president has ever said we want an end to the terror regime in Tehran.

It’s long past time to hear those words.

Iran’s terror war against the US in Iraq

Somebody else who is on the right trail....Alireza Jafarzadeh, a Fox News foreign affairs analyst. His recent article starts like this:

Iran’s broad and destructive activities in Iraq are bringing renewed attention to the Iranian regime’s longstanding role as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. As it continues to fund Shi’ia militias in Iraq and deliver weapons such as IEDs to the insurgency, Tehran is also escalating its presence in the Middle East as part of its goal to export Islamic fundamentalist rule throughout the Muslim world.

Earlier this month, Sen. Joseph Lieberman discussed this issue in the Wall Street Journal, summarizing that “Iran is acting aggressively and consistently to undermine moderate regimes in the Middle East, establish itself as the dominant regional power and reshape the region in its own ideological image.”

New intelligence out of Iran reveals that Tehran has instituted several new strategies for building its presence in the neighboring region. According to my sources associated with the National Council of Resistance of Iran — the same group that revealed the secret nuclear facilities in Natanz and Ark in 2002 and many additional, validated facts about Iran’s nuclear program and activities in Iraq — one of these tactics is the covert militarization of Iran’s diplomatic corps.

Update: Galloway and the Select Committee on Standards and Privileges

Here's an update from Harry's Place. Some of the post is copied below fyi.

Todays report of the Standards and Privileges Committee into George Galloway is being spun in various different ways by the MP and his Press Spokesman Ron McKay.

As ever when George talks about cash, examine what he says closely.When read fully, the Report constitutes a damning indictment of the behaviour of an MP whose default position on cash related matters has been to dissemble. No surprise to those who have followed his behaviour over the decades.

In essence, what the Report concludes is that Galloway connived to conceal that his appeal was funded with Oil for Food money, that the documents linking him, his wife and his press spokesman to the OFF programme are genuine.

Galloway claims he did not benefit personally, which is not really the point.
However, the Commissioner had no access to Galloway's bank accounts, or those controlled by his wife and so cannot trace where the $270,000 paid into them ended up.

Galloway and his oil money

Good news - he may be suspended as an MP for 1 month. The b*stard should have much more of a punishment than that. Harry's Place reports:

According to an article in the Sunday Times the Parliamentary Standards Committee is to rule later this week that George Galloway should be suspended from parliament for a month.

The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow:

...failed properly to declare his links to a charitable appeal partially funded from money made by selling Iraqi oil under Saddam Hussein according to a source close to the inquiry. The one-month suspension for Galloway, often referred to as “Gorgeous George”, is one of the most severe given to an MP.

However, the MP strenuously denies that he was complicit in any such arrangement and claims he is the victim of a smear campaign. He says he had no idea that the money donated had come from Iraqi oil sales.

Readers can make up their own minds whether the fact that the Galloway-linked charity - the Mariam Appeal - failed ever to file accounts was a convenient smokescreen for covering up the Galloway-Saddam link or a simple and wholly innocent oversight.

Iran's destabilization of Iraq

More evidence pours in...I spoke to a soldier who was based on and off in Iraq for 3 years, and he said that while there are lots of little factions fighting for control over different regions of Iraq, the only groups that are properly organized and effective on a national level and in Baghdad are the ones known to be sponsored by the Islamic Republic. Stories like this just add weight to observations like his.

• US finds Iran rockets aimed at Iraq base
• In a remote Iraqi village a world ends, and the war begins
• US raid on Iranian-linked militiamen leaves 19 dead in Iraq

Iran training fighters in Iraq

Well, duh. The evidence continues to pour in.

Iran is training fighters in Iraq and helping to plan attacks there despite diplomatic pressure for change, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, while violence around the Arab state killed at least 19 people.

The latest accusation levelled against Iran by the U.S. military followed rare diplomatic talks in Baghdad last month between the two old adversaries to discuss Washington's concerns in Iraq.

"There absolutely is evidence of Iranian operatives holding weapons, training fighters, providing resources, helping plan operations, resourcing secret cells that is destabilising Iraq," said chief military spokesman Brigadier General Kevin Bergner."

We would like very much to see some action on their part to reduce the level of effort and to help contribute to Iraq's security. We have not seen it yet," he told a news conference.

Iranian troops cross into southern Iraq; attack British troops

Latest act of war from Iran. Latest response from the UK: nothing.

IRANIAN forces are being choppered over the Iraqi border to bomb Our Boys, intelligence chiefs say.

Military experts claim this worrying move means we are at WAR with Iran in all but name…

Our Boys picked up the Iranian helicopters on radar crossing into empty desert.
The sightings have been confirmed to The Sun by very senior military sources.

At least two Brit squaddies are thought to have been killed by bombs planted during these incursions into Maysan province — Corporal Ben Leaning, 24, and Trooper Kristen Turton, 27…

Until now, secret units from Iran’s fanatical RGC have restricted themselves to just training and arming Shia rebels in Iraq.

British using BBC to destroy allied forces in Iraq?

Well, that would be similar to the way they used BBC World Service (Farsi) - paid for by Foreign Office, of course - to foment public opposition against the shah in the late 70's. Doesn't surprise me, but I assume most people would be shocked to learn the Aunty might be proactively trying to help American soldiers (and possibly some of her own) get killed...apparently the MoD wasn't even aware this was going on.

Allahpundit reports:

Politicians reacted in disbelief to the revelation that for over two hours yesterday, the BBC News website carried a request for people in Iraq to report on troop movements…

[A]ccording to accounts last night, a story on a major operation by US and Iraqi troops against al-Qa’eda somewhere north of Baghdad contained an extraordinary request for information about the movement of troops.

Last night the BBC confirmed the wording of the request was: “Are you in Iraq? Have you seen any troop movements? If you have any information you would like to share with the BBC, you can do so using the form below.”…

The Ministry of Defence was not aware of the affair yesterday until alerted by The Daily Telegraph.

British hostages held by ‘Iran-backed’ killers

The Times of London ran a big story today on this. More wood to throw on the fire that's seemingly being ignored by the White House and definitely ignored by nearly all of the MSM.

A group funded, trained and armed by Iran was responsible for kidnapping five British civilians in Baghdad last month, according to the commander of US forces in Iraq.

General David Petraeus told The Times yesterday that he believed that the men, four security guards and a consultant, were alive and added that there had been repeated attempts to free them. No demands have been made for their release....

...Of the cell responsible for the kidnap, he said: “They are not rank-and-file Jaish al-Mahdi. They are trained in Iran, equipped with Iranian [weapons], and advised by Iran. The Iranian involvement here we have found to be much, much more significant than we thought before. They have since about the summer of 2004 played a very, very important role in training in Iran, funding, arming.”

He added that the group was responsible for other attacks against British targets using weapons smuggled from Iran, including explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), which can destroy even the most heavily armoured British vehicle.

National Review editors make a good point about Iran

Read their editorial here.

Today's quick news round-up

Sorry Noggrites, little-to-no time today, but here's a few quick headlines I saw that may be of interest...

• Eyes on Iran, Israel launches new spy satellite (al-Reuters)
• House again votes to bar sale of F-14 parts to Iran (LA Times)
• 'Iraqis are being shot everyday by Iranian bullets' (NCRI)
• Mullahs’ long arm reached U.S. Eastern shore (NCRI)

Senator Lieberman advocates striking at Iran

I saw this in the Chicago Tribune. Good for Joe.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Sunday that the United States should consider a military strike against Iran because of Tehran's involvement in Iraq.

"I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq," Lieberman said. "And to me, that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers."...

..."We've said so publicly that the Iranians have a base in Iran at which they are training Iraqis who are coming in and killing Americans. By some estimates, they have killed as many as 200 American soldiers," Lieberman said. "Well, we can tell them we want them to stop that. But if there's any hope of the Iranians living according to the international rule of law and stopping, for instance, their nuclear weapons development, we can't just talk to them."

He added, "If they don't play by the rules, we've got to use our force, and to me, that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they're doing."

Lieberman said much of the action could probably be done by air, although he would leave the strategy to the generals in charge. "I want to make clear I'm not talking about a massive ground invasion of Iran," Lieberman said.

"They can't believe that they have immunity for training and equipping people to come in and kill Americans," he said. "We cannot let them get away with it. If we do, they'll take that as a sign of weakness on our part, and we will pay for it in Iraq and throughout the region and ultimately right here at home."