U.S. Military Top Brass Contradict Bush Administration's
Iranian Information
A media campaign portraying Iran as supplying arms to the Taliban
guerrillas fighting U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, orchestrated by
advocates of a more confrontational stance toward Iran in the George W.
Bush administration, appears to have backfired last week when Defense
Secretary Robert Gates and the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan,
Gen. Dan McNeil, issued unusually strong denials.
The allegation that Iran has reversed a decade-long policy and is now
supporting the Taliban, conveyed in a series of press articles quoting
"senior officials" in recent weeks, is related to a broader effort by
officials aligned with Vice President Dick Cheney to portray Iran as
supporting Sunni insurgents, including al Qaeda, to defeat the United
States in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
An article in the Guardian published May 22 quoted an anonymous U.S.
official as predicting an "Iranian-orchestrated summer offensive in
Iraq, linking al Qaeda and Sunni insurgents to Tehran's Shia militia
allies" and as referring to the alleged "Iran-al Qaeda linkup" as "very
sinister".
That article and subsequent reports on CNN May 30, in the Washington
Post Jun. 3 and on ABC news Jun. 6 all included an assertion by an
unnamed U.S. official or a "senior coalition official" that Iran is
following a deliberate policy of supplying the Taliban's campaign
against U.S., British and other NATO forces.
In the most dramatic version of the story, ABC reported "NATO
officials" as saying they had "caught Iran red-handed, shipping heavy
arms, C4 explosives and advanced roadside bombs to the Taliban for use
against NATO forces."
Iran has long regarded the Taliban regime as its primary enemy and
was the first external power to support Afghan forces in an effort to
overthrow it. It is not merely a sectarian Sunni-Shiite divide but the
Pakistani government patronage of the Taliban that has made it an
irreconcilable enemy of Iran.
The line being pushed by the Cheney group in the administration that
Iran is supplying the Taliban with arms appears to be based on a highly
imaginative reading of some recent intelligence reporting on Iranian
contacts with the Taliban. A source with access to that reporting, who
insists on anonymity because he is not authorised to comment on the
matter, told IPS that it indicates Iranian intelligence has had contacts
with the top commanders of the Taliban's inner Shura - the leadership
council located in Kandahar.
Read More: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061307J.shtml
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