The Iranian Threat to Iraq

Raymond Tanter

January 25th 2010

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iran has sought to dominate Iraq politically, economically, and militarily. The most recent and visible manifestation of Iran’s meddling with its neighbor was the late December 2009 seizure of a portion of the remote Fakka oil field in Maysan Province in southeastern Iraq; although the Iranians, however, withdrew after three days, the seizure made it clear that Tehran has the capability to enforce its will on Baghdad. Also, there is the threat of suicide bombing in Iraq by foreign Arabs; in addition to Syria—Iran’s only Arab ally—Iran itself has become another entry point for foreign suicide bombers to enter Iraq, e.g., for Arabs entering Iraq from Afghanistan.

Political Threats

Despite promises to the United States not to do so if Washington took action against the main political opposition to Tehran based in Iraq, thousands of Iranian-sponsored clerics crossed into Iraq from Iran. They carried books, compact discs, and audiotapes that promoted the Iranian version of militant Islam in spring 2003, following Operation Iraqi Freedom. Furthermore, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Qods (Jerusalem) Force established and continues to support armed underground cells across the Shiite southern region of Iraq, using the humanitarian organization, the Iranian Red Crescent, as a front.

The Jerusalem Force has medical centers and local charities in Najaf, Baghdad, Hillah, Basra, and Amarah to gain support from the local population. Even as Tehran began to send Iranian operatives into post-Saddam Iraq, members of what has become Iraqi Hezbollah infiltrated the country. Because most of Iraqi Hezbollah’s members are Arab, they constitute an even more effective Iranian proxy in Iraq than Farsi-speaking Iranian agents trained in Arabic.

Tehran tasked Iraqi Hezbollah with sending agents>>>

Al Qaeda's Deep Tribal Ties Make Yemen a Terror Hub

• JANUARY 22, 2010

By CHARLES LEVINSON And MARGARET COKER

SAN'A, Yemen—In nearly a decade of rebuilding its terror network here, al Qaeda has put down deep roots, a move that is now complicating U.S.-backed efforts to battle the group.

Unlike other chapters of the global terror network, Yemen's Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a largely homegrown movement, with carefully cultivated ties to the local population. That sets it apart from other affiliates of al Qaeda, and could make it much more difficult to dislodge.

The group's strategy: apply lessons learned from mistakes by affiliates in other Mideast havens, particularly Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

In both those places, al Qaeda's footprint weakened significantly as local support for the group turned sharply against it. To avoid a similar fate in Yemen, the group has worked hard to curry favor with local tribes—so much so that it is now largely interwoven in the country's tribal fabric.

"They've worked hard to put deep, and what they hope are lasting, roots that will make it very difficult for them to be rooted out of Yemen," says Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University. "They've done a good job of looking at the mistakes that other versions of al Qaeda have made elsewhere."

Since late last year, Yemen has emerged as one of the biggest and most dangerous hubs for al Qaeda operations. U.S. officials have tied al Qaeda militants based here to two attacks against U.S. targets, including the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing allegedly by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who told U.S. Officials that he received his training from al Qaeda operatives in the Arab country. The push into Yemen, say U.S. officials, shows the group's increased ability to wage jihad against the U.S. and its allies, a main al Qaeda goal.

In recent months, a top al Qaeda leader publicized moving his foreign family here, while another married into a local tribe. The group is providing social and financial assistance in some of the country's poorest areas, according to tribesmen, local residents and a former al Qaeda member. Its leaders have also tempered its message of global jihad to fit local grievances—including the lack of economic benefits from Yemen's oil revenues—to recruit new members.

In exchange, some tribal leaders are welcoming al Qaeda members, allowing their sons to sign up, and providing protection from government troops. That has made al Qaeda militants almost indistinguishable from many of the rugged tribesmen and sympathizers they now mix with.

"As long as Qaeda respects the tribes, some tribes will welcome them," says Sheikh Abdulqawi Sherif, the head of the pro-government Bani Dhabian tribe, whose land borders Mareb and Shebwa provinces, two areas where al Qaeda cells are based.

Gen. Yahya Saleh, nephew of Yemen's>>>

Israeli Occupation Army Carries A Series Of Airstrikes on Gaza, Attacks Raba ...

Army Carries A Series Of Airstrikes In Gaza

Friday January 08, 2010 00:54 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Israeli occupation air forces bombarded, on Friday at dawn, resistance strongholds in a number of areas across the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip; damage was reported, no injuries.

The first air strike targeted resistance fighters in Al-Zeitoun neighborhood, in Gaza City.

The army also bombarded two locations in Al-Qarara area, near Khan Younis in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. One of the missiles hit an area close to a local school causing excessive damage.

Furthermore, the Israeli air force targeted resistance strongholds in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and in Al Nusseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.

The air force also fired at least one missile at Al-Jaradat area, between Rafah and Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. At least one missile was fired at an area close to the border line in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli occupation army also carried four air strikes targeting an area in central Gaza.

On Thursday evening, the Israeli occupation army carried a limited invasion into Al Shuhada Graveyard area, east of Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Several military vehicles, tanks and bulldozers invaded the area while the Israeli occupation army opened fire at local homes.

The invasion was carried out hours after>>>

Special Forces ‘tried to rescue hostages near Iranian border’

From The Times

Tom Coghlan and Alice Fordham, in Baghdad

British Special Forces tried to rescue Peter Moore and four other British hostages near the Iranian border in May 2007 but they failed to locate the kidnappers’ convoy, it was claimed last night.

The Ministry of Defence would neither confirm nor deny the report. “It is Special Forces related so we wouldn’t comment,” a spokesman told The Times. Other officials also refused to give details of the attempted rescue operation, which they described as an extremely sensitive issue, according to The Guardian. A British official involved in attempts to free the hostages confirmed, however, that at the time there were reports that the abductors were moving the hostages towards the Iranian border, but said that these remained unconfirmed.

Mr Moore, an IT consultant from Lincoln, was abducted along with his bodyguards, Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell, Alec Maclachlan and Alan McMenemy, from the Iraqi Finance Ministry in Baghdad by a large force of kidnappers dressed in police uniform.

Mr Moore was released last week.>>>

A Gulf in the grasp of our facts - the release of Peter Moore

Jan 3 2010 by David Williamson, Wales On Sunday

The release of Iraq hostage Peter Moore, after the murder of Welsh bodyguard Alec MacLachlan and two other security men, poses as many questions as it answers, as DAVID WILLIAMSON reveals

HOSTAGES such as Terry Waite and the BBC’s Alan Johnston became household names and the campaigns to end their captivity made global headlines.

But mystery still surrounds the kidnapping in Iraq of computer expert Peter Moore and the deaths of at least three of his four bodyguards, including Alec MacLachlan from Llanelli.

Mr Moore was freed last week amid allegations that his kidnap from the finance ministry in Baghdad in 2007 involved Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

General David Petraeus , the former US commander in Iraq has said Mr Moore was “certainly” held in Iran at some stage of his captivity.

It has long been accepted that Iran has had close contacts with Shia insurgents, but if such a high level of involvement is proven, the US and the UK will be compelled to do more to support pro-democracy activists and prevent the development of nuclear weapons in the Gulf region.

When the full details of this hostage drama emerge we may gain an important insight into the murky and dangerous world of post-invasion Iraq. US and Iraqi officials deny that Mr Moore was freed in return for handing over a suspected insurgent leader to Iraqi authorities.

A light may also be shone on the strategies of the US, UK and Iraqi governments in dealing with the tangled network of armed groups who have brought death and suffering on a massive scale to Iraq.

The human story also features angry family >>>

Shia cleric's release by US forces provided key to Peter Moore's freedom

Qais al-Khazali: set to take on a leading role in Iraqi politics after his release. Photograph: Sabah Arar/AFP/Getty Images

Qais al-Khazali has been key to the release of Peter Moore ever since the Briton was kidnapped. The 26-year-old Shia cleric was a rising star in the Righteous League, a band of Iranian-backed Shia militants, a nascent Islamic group when he was captured by the SAS in March 2007.

Moore was seized two months later by the Righteous League, which aimed to swap him for members who had been detained during US military sweeps, then ultimately Khazali, who would emerge as the man who had seen his followers freed ahead of him. Moore was the group's most valuable pawn.

Under a deal spelled out in March, Moore and Khazali were to be the last two men released as part of a phased swap of prisoners that would be cloaked under the process of Iraqi national reconciliation. The deal proceeded according to a loose blueprint which neither Britain, the US nor Iraq wanted to acknowledge as a deal. In the eight months since, the bodies of three of Moore's guards have been handed over in return for several hundred former Shia detainees, including Righteous League members and loyalists of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The release of Moore and the handing>>>

Friday: 1 Iraqi Killed, 5 Wounded

by Margaret Griffis, January 01, 2010

Updated at 6:30 p.m. EST, Jan. 1, 2010

Although the New Year’s holiday has tamped down casualty reports from Iraq, other news made the international media. Among them was an independent analysis of civilian deaths and the Iraqi government’s displeasure with the dismissal of a case against Backwater contractors. Also, former hostage Peter Moore returned to the United Kingdom with new details about his abduction. In violent attacks that were reported, one Iraqi was killed and four more were wounded.

more>>>