Iran’s “Managed Chaos”
Phillip Sherwell, writing in the Telegraph, looks at Iran's operations inside Iraq. The report shows that there is a major problem there. And Iran is causing an awful lot of the trouble. The recent raids against some Iranian agents is just the tip of the iceberg as to what is happening over there.
Iran has set up a network of fake import-export companies in Iraq's Anbar province to channel funds to Sunni fighters, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.
At secret meetings, tribal sheikhs with close ties to the insurgents revealed details of the money-laundering to Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official and political adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority.
"Truckloads of Iranian appliances like televisions are shipped into Iraq, apparently legitimately, and then sold for cash that can be channelled to Sunni insurgents," said Mr Rubin, now at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank. "The Iranians are very pragmatic about who they will deal with.
"The underlying assumption of those like Tony Blair and the Iraq Study Group, who back talks with Teheran, is that a stable Iraq is somehow in Iran's interests. But that's not so. Iran does not want a new Somalia on its borders, but nor does it want to live next to Switzerland. They are happy with managed chaos."
Iran has worked with individuals linked to al-Qa'eda-related groups responsible for some of the worst atrocities against Iraqi Shias, including the attack on the Golden Mosque in Samarra last February.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, the Iranian exile leader who first revealed Teheran's secret nuclear programme to the world, has compiled a dossier detailing the vast network run by Quds in Iraq. Its operations are centred on Basra and Najaf, and use a series of supposed religious and cultural organisations as well as diplomatic consulates across the country to develop, fund and arm militia and rebel groups.
Thousands of Shia militiamen have reportedly travelled to Iran for training and indoctrination, while Quds sends millions of dollars cash in the other direction each month, through diplomatic pouches and border crossings it controls.
Iran is backing both Shia and Sunni groups and facing them off against one another. Iran is essentially fighting two proxy wars, one against the US forces in Iraq, the other against Iraq itself. It is chaos alright. And the more this nation shows internal disarray to opportunistic enemies like Iran, the worse the situation gets.
By PoliticalCritic, January 15, 2007 @ 12:14 pm
If the U.S. directly attacks Iran, they may never recover. Unlike Iraq, Iran had the ability to retaliate against U.S. forces. They have more than enough missiles to reach the Green Zone and the Baghdad Airport, where many U.S. forces reside. We don’t want this fight….at least not right now.