Petraeus: Iran’s Iraq Ambassador Is Quds Force Terrorist
Agencies:
The top US military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, has accused Iran’s ambassador, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi of being a member of an elite unit of Iran’s Republican Guard. Washington accuses the force, the elite unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, of inciting bloodshed in Iraq and of training and equipping militias who have attacked U.S. troops.
Gen Petraeus said he had no doubt Iran was behind attacks that had led to the deaths of US soldiers.
“There is no question about the connection between Iran and these components, (the) attacks that have killed our soldiers.”
“There’s no question, absolutely no question that Iran is providing advanced RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades], RPG 29s,” Petraeus said.
“It has provided some shoulder-fired, Stinger-like air-defense missiles. It has provided the explosively formed projectiles and it has provided 244 mm rockets, in addition to mortars, mortar rounds and other small-arms ammunition.”
Gen Petraeus said: “There should be no question about the malign, lethal involvement and activities of the Quds Force in this country.”
He said Iran was “responsible for providing the weapons, the training, the funding and in some cases the direction for operations that have indeed killed US soldiers”.
Gen Petraeus made his comments during a briefing to journalists at a US military base near Iraq’s border with Iran.
Gen Petraeus said the Iranian ambassador to Iraq was a “Quds Force member”, but added: “Now he has diplomatic immunity and therefore he is obviously not subject [to scrutiny]. He is acting as a diplomat.”
Mr Kazemi-Qomi has twice met US counterpart Ryan Crocker this year to discuss Iraqi stability.
Iran admits the existence of the Quds Force but gives few details of its activities. Analysts believe it is behind funding of such groups as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Gen Petraeus said Iran was implicated in the car-bomb assassinations of two provincial governors in southern Iraq in August.
Gen. Petraeus said the Iranian ambassador has given his Iraqi counterpart assurances Iran would stop the supplying and training of insurgents.
“They had two sessions,” he said. “Numerous Iraqi leaders have gone to Tehran and asked that they stop very, very directly, stop the lethal assistance. There have been sub-ambassadorial meetings as well. And there have been assurances in return actually from Iran to Iraqi leaders and we are waiting to see if those assurances bear fruit or not frankly. We are very much in the show-me mode right now. We would love to see that.”
Petraeus reiterated that Iranians detained by the United State recently in northern Iraq are Quds Force members. One of them was arrested recently in Sulaimaniya and five others were arrested in Irbil.
The Iranian embassy in Baghdad had no immediate comment.
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
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A 12 cent, 9mm to the temple will correct this problem!
October 7th, 2007 at 8:46 amThe Iranian embassy in Baghdad had no immediate comment.
Hmmmm….I ask you….when is the last time an Iranian diplomat didn’t seize the opportunity to flap his gums?! Nothing to say? Well, my guess is those Quds Force operatives in U.S./Iraqi custody are singing like canaries.
October 7th, 2007 at 8:51 amNice bit of intel. Either these jerks are flapping their gums, or all those hard drives and docs we intercepted, are giving up lots of good intel. I’m just wondering how much longer we are going to wait before dealing with these bastards.
October 7th, 2007 at 9:29 ammullahcraty nomenklatur is pasdaran especially
October 7th, 2007 at 9:31 amCode Pink was not available at the time of the Patraeus interview to give the opposing Iranian view.
October 7th, 2007 at 9:39 amMoveOn stated it will provide an ad in the NY Times this week to assist in defending the Iranian ambassador from Bush’s military puppet betrayers.
Columbia University has invited Mr Kazemi-Qomi to it’s campus to explain that there are no terrorists in Iran.
Democrat politicians up for election are preocuppied with defending phony soldiers from right wing talk-shows and stated they will await above responses from supporters and subsequent polling data before taking a position.
Hmmm…. Does “diplomatic immunity” work for terrorists? It seems to me that one’s immunity should go away for crap like this.
October 7th, 2007 at 9:48 amGen Petraeus said: “There should be no question about the malign, lethal involvement and activities of the Quds Force in this country.”
That’s a statement of finality…T48-72 hours and counting
October 7th, 2007 at 9:52 amThe question is, is it going to be covert or overt
dittos dan we’ve got three carrier groups there now., lets quit f**king around with these a**holes and take the gloves off. lets make an example of iran and make it very clear you f**k with us this is what happens to you. we delt with crazier f**ks in wwII with the japanese.
October 7th, 2007 at 9:55 amAnd yet we hear nothing from the rest of the international community except the Brits…
October 7th, 2007 at 11:42 am1.) No attempt at humor would top PhilNBanx!
2.) It’s always an honor and a pleasure to hang-out (if only in cyberspace) with all of you soldiers. I’m sitting here smoking butts, too lazy to go to the store. Fighting for my country, for me is a bunch of hot air.
3.) I’ll add my 2 cents anyway. I remember getting liberal Democrates, 3 or 4 years ago, to agree with me that we are fighting a (proxey) war with Iran in Iraq.
Should we blame The Left for taking our eyes off this glaring truth? Don’t forget all the tabliod crap that infest the so called “news” comes from Libs.
Hopefully now that his name is known, the great general will be listened to. Unless Britney goes to jail.
October 7th, 2007 at 1:29 pmStart the bombing NOW. J.Q. Public is too busy with the new People magazine to notice how many of our troops have been killed and severely wounded for life because of that nasty fuck Ahamadickwad and the Iranian Regime.
Q_Mech
Hmmm…. Does “diplomatic immunity” work for terrorists? It seems to me that one’s immunity should go away for crap like this.
I would think so too Q_Mech. Great point.
October 7th, 2007 at 2:52 pmHowever the lib left wants them to have all the rights we do so they may object to this reasoning.
[…] Petraeus: Iran’s Iraq Ambassador Is Quds Force Terrorist […]
October 7th, 2007 at 4:11 pmVoice of America and Fiasco at Persian Service.
October 7th, 2007 at 5:52 pmThere is no need to attack Iran IF the Bush administration pays attention:
Millions of dollars are spent in Persian Service of Voice of America but the end result is nothing but scandalous way of cockamamie management and programming.
It is hard to believe but the Persian Service which supposed to be an organization to convey the policy of the U.S. has become a free platform for hard-line terrorist group of communists who attack the United Sates!
I have the documents in writings to prove that these were done with the full knowledge of the management.
I used to work there and as I said before, I have all the documents in writings.
The manager is a woman called Sheila Gandji who can not read and write Persian. Therefore, in order to hide this shortcoming from the higher management, she has hired an eighty something man called Kambiz Mahmoudi who has a lengthy background as crook and in charlatanism.
You expect a doctor to be in charge of a medical clinic. You expect an engineer to be in charge of an engineering department. You expect a plumber to fix your plumbing.
So why do you expect a person who has no education in Iran and doesn’t know the language of that country should be in charge of publicity, literature or politic for such position?
Sheila Gandji falsely pretended and presented herself as educated with background in journalism. These are absolute fabrications. Nobody in Iranian communities inside of the country or outside has any knowledge about her being a journalist, then and now.
Her partner, Kambiz Mahmoudi is a hateful and despicable person whose activities as crook are widely known through out Iran. Can’t the U.S. government appoint somebody without such shameful background and baggage?
Don’t think that this is a personal vendetta.
Let me quote you a view from another media:
“The Iran Steering group concluded that much of the anti-American perspective that is broadcast is the result of decisions made by station managers in Washington D.C. and Prague. Sheila Gandji, the manager of Persian service has faced sharp criticism, particularly for her decision to stop VOA shortwave radio program in July, 2006 in order to focus on television broadcasts, which are more susceptible to censorship, since the government regularly confiscates satellites dishes in order to prevent the infiltration of foreign broadcasts.”
And this is not the only one. The mismanagement at the Persian Service of Voice of America is the subject of hundreds of web sites and articles in newspapers indicative of disgusts and ridicules in the world about VOA.
The bizarre situation at the Persian Service of Voice of America caused even the Republican Senator Coburn to write a long letter to President Bush about the fiasco there.
It is only in America where the government pays to be insulted. Really, why Voice of America is doing this harm to our nation?