Iran Top Threat To Iraq, U.S. Says

Last week's violence in Basra and Baghdad has convinced the Bush administration that actions by Iran, and not al-Qaeda, are the primary threat inside Iraq, and has sparked a broad reassessment of policy in the region, according to senior U.S. officials.

Evidence of an increase in Iranian weapons, training and direction for the Shiite militias that battled U.S. and Iraqi security forces in those two cities has fixed new U.S. attention on what Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday called Tehran's "malign" influence, the officials said.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[imusintheevening]

I think it is pretty damn clear that the biggest threat to Iraq has been and still is the US.

[SuiginTou7]

George, just shut up, we're not listening anymore

[robeson]

Thank you great leader. I thought al-Qaeda was the threat. That's what leadership is about.

[Barbarossa03]

So this is when we launch a nuke at Iran and declare martial law calling off the 2008 elections right?

Anybody that believes that Iran is more of a threat in Iraq fell off the turnip truck yesterday. So i guess this would be most republicans.

I'm envisioning an upcoming event similar to that of when Germany invaded Poland. Germany planted some shaved head corpses, claiming they were Polish Army personnel that were killed by the Wehrmacht, as they were trying to plan a surprise attack against Germany. This was ultimately Nazi Germany's reason to invade Poland.

[Ramirez]

OTOH, the ultmate reason for Germany to invade Poland may have been the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed a month earlier, in which Stalin and Hitler split Poland down the middle. This may have also contributed to the Russian invasion of Poland two weeks after the Germans.

[amanda85]

Only a complete idiot and diehard neonazi would blame the Soviet Union for Hitler's crimes against humanity...

[AC500]

The only real threat in the world is the US under Bush and Cheney.

[GuiltyByStander]

For another perspective on Iran-Iraq-US relations, see:

http://www.juancole.com/

for Sunday , April 13.

[bushmocker]

The headline U.S.says Iran is top threat to Iraq is wrong.The jerkoffs in this administration that were never elected are saying that, Americans on the whole are aware of what lying SOB's they are and do not in any way agree with this warmongering mouthpiece Gates..

[SEQUOIABISON]

No the USA is the biggest threat to not only Iraq but to world stability.

[terrorfied]

There's a reason Hillary became a Senator for NY rather than Arkansas. It was Hillary and Giuliani that blocked ALL testing of the WTC's building material to see if man-made explosives and detonations had brought down the 3 towers on 911. It was Hillary that stopped ALL investigations. It was Hillary and Giuliani that demanded the immediate removal and destruction of every single speck of building material from 911. Ps.....CDI Controlled Demolition Inc was doing "work" inside WTC's 1,2, and 7 the weekend before 911 on the 8th and 9th. For the first time in WTC history the very tops of the buildings had a "power down" on Sept 8th and 9th before 911. Not only just the tops....but the exact floors and exact locations where the "planes" struck. Perfect and necessary for installing detonation charges as well as for turning off all video cameras in the building.....though 100's saw CDI that entire weekend in NYC. CDI even gave an NPR interview just days before 911 while in NYC. (There is a reason Bill gets very angry when you mention 911 was an inside job. It is the same anger when asked about Monica Lewinsky while he was still in office before he admitted his affair. He is a bad liar when there is guilt beyond every doubt?) I am looking forward to 8 more years of dictatorship that began a Bush or Clinton in the White House since 1980.

[getoffmedz]

Since the Iraq War and occupation started 5 years ago, anyone not working for this lying administration is an enemy at one time or another.

Now, it's Iran. This is the stupid administration that "cries wolf" to focus MSM propaganda.

And y'all voted for them, TWICE!

[Marlyn]

USA OUT of IRAQ NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ashabot]

Conservatives are the top threat to America, Bu$h Co. and the military/corporate complex.

[Gabrielle]

SABBER RATTLING
WE ARE GOING TO WAR, BEFORE THE CLOWN GETS OUT OF OFFICE, IT IS THE PLAN AND THE PEOPLE CANNOT DO A THING ABOUT IT...OR CAN WE?

IMPEACH NOW

OBAMA 08

[CaptainHowdy]

I see that neither the Drudge report nor Huffington post have yet to post any stories about 9 people getting killed in a mosque in Iran.

Both sites were FOAMING AT THE MOUTH when the same number of Israelis were killed in a seminary last month.

The bias of these websites is both transparent and disgusting...

[willo]

I think Huffington Post has been compromised, like almost every other news source. There is now more censoring of comment's. They also do it by choosing what topics they will, and will not cover.

[Blutus]

Mosque bombings are not news anymore.

[syllepsis]

This omission was noted by several last night, and appears to have been corrected as of 9:30 am.

[CaptainHowdy]

"Omission"???

Don't you mean bias?

[CaptainHowdy]

Ok, the Huffington Post finally mentions the mosque bombing... a day after it happened.

Drudge is still ignoring it.

God forbid that Americans learn that groups like al Qaeda also have issues with Iran. It would confuse Americans sooo much to have to learn that we share a common enemy with Iran, especially when we are making Iran the new enemy.

[TimN]

Don't be a dolt. Americans are well aware that Iran has enormous internal sectarian and ethnic conflicts between the intolerant ruling class of Persian Shia and subject Kurds, Arabs, Sunni, Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians, and Baha'i. In fact its this internal aspect that what makes it not internationally news-worthy unlike Israeli conflicts with Hamas and Hizbullah.

[Marlyn]

Of course Iran would be the new enemy now that everyone knows there are LESS THAN 1000 Al Qaeda in Iraq.

[syllepsis]

I sincerely hope you're wrong about the American public's confusion. I would hate to think that our country is afflicted by a McCain-like senility.

[syllepsis]

The casus belli was 9/11. Apparently that's not good enough anymore. I hope people realize what that means. It would ignite talk about secession in many quarters. (I am writing this in case my last reply didn't make it past the censors.)

[syllepsis]

It is positively INFURIATING that the Administration and its army of hacks in the media are publicizing neocon fantasy as fact when alluding to supposed ties between al Qaeda and Iran. As a resident of the city that was hardest hit by al Qaeda, I would like New York to SECEDE from the Federal Government's unconstitutional realm rather than see my taxes and our soldiers go to die for the cause that does not benefit our STATE'S enemies, only Bush's and his neocon friends. If the Red States want to be conned into more of this illegal and immoral war, let them do so. New York has no business participating in its own ruin.

[truthyguy]

I wish this administration would stick with one story. It doesn't make any difference which one they choose because they are all lies anyway. But it would save everyone time in debunking them.