Dogs of war bark with no proof
POLITICS-US: Seizure of Iranians Failed to Validate Bush Line
WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (IPS) – George W. Bush administration’s campaign to seize and detain Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officials in Iraq, presented by Bush himself last January as a move to break up an alleged Iranian arms smuggling operation in Iraq, appears to have run its course without having been able to link a single Iranian to any such operation.
Despite administration rhetoric suggesting that the U.S. military had solid intelligence on which to base a campaign to break up Iranian-sponsored networks supplying armour-piercing weapons, what is now known about the kidnapping operations indicates that the actual purpose was to obtain some evidence from interrogations that would support the administration’s line that the IRGC’s elite Quds Force is involved in assisting Shiite forces militarily.
None of the six Iranians now held by the U.S. military, however, has provided any evidence for the administration’s case despite many months of very tough interrogation usually employed on “high value” detainees. </em>
Color me unsurprised.
