Is an Iranian General the Most Powerful Man in Iraq?

McClatchy News Service ^ | April 28, 2008 | By Hannah Allam, Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel

[freerepublic_or_die]

One of the most powerful men in Iraq isn't an Iraqi government official, a militia leader, a senior cleric or a top U.S. military commander or diplomat, He's an Iranian general, and at times he's more influential than all of them.

Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani commands the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, an elite paramilitary and espionage organization whose mission is to expand Iran's influence in the Middle East.
As Tehran's point man on Iraq, he funnels military and financial support to various Iraqi factions, frustrating U.S. attempts to build a pro-Western democracy on the rubble of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.
According to Iraqi and American officials, Suleimani has ensured the elections of pro-Iranian politicians, met frequently with senior Iraqi leaders and backed Shiite elements in the Iraqi security forces that are accused of torturing and killing minority Sunni Muslims.

"Whether we like him (Suleimani) or not, whether Americans like him or not, whether Iraqis like him or not, he is the focal point of Iranian policy in Iraq," said a senior Iraqi official who asked not to be identified so he could speak freely. "The Quds Force have played it all, political, military, intelligence, economic. They are Iranian foreign policy in Iraq."
McClatchy reported on March 30 that Suleimani intervened to halt the fighting between mostly Shiite Iraqi security forces and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in the southern city of Basra. Iraqi officials now confirm that in addition to that meeting, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani personally met Suleimani at a border crossing to make a direct appeal for help.

[freerepublic_or_die]

Iraqi and U.S. officials told McClatchy that Suleimani also has:

* Slipped into Baghdad's Green Zone, the heavily fortified seat of the U.S. occupation and the Iraqi government, in April 2006 to try to orchestrate the selection of a new Iraqi prime minister. Iraqi officials said that audacious visit was Suleimani's only foray into the Green Zone; American officials said he may have been there more than once.

* Built powerful networks that gather intelligence on American and Iraqi military operations. Suleimani's network includes every senior staffer in Iran's embassy in Baghdad, beginning with the ambassador, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials.

* Trained and directed Shiite Muslim militias and given them cash and arms, including mortars and rockets fired at the U.S. Embassy and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, the sophisticated roadside bombs that have caused hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi casualties.

Puts in perspective how things are going in Iraq.

[Recovering Hermit]

* Trained and directed Shiite Muslim militias and given them cash and arms, including mortars and rockets fired at the U.S. Embassy and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, the sophisticated roadside bombs that have caused hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi casualties.

*sigh*

Add this asshole to the list of "insurgents" that should be killed as soon as possible.

I'm sure there are reasons to keep people like this alive, but I just think that they need a good killing.

Period.

[ikez78]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/156kncex.asp

They are only about two and a half years late on that.

[Thomas W.]

“Is an Iranian General the Most Powerful Man in Iraq?”

No.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the Weekly standard article:

***********************EXCERPT*****************************

As reported by the London Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, al-Sadr visited Iran in late 2003 and met with General Suleimani. At the onset of al-Sadr's uprising, the paper reported that Qods Force had set up training camps at Qasr Shireen, Ilam, and Hamid in southern Iran along the Iraqi border to train the radical cleric's Mahdi Army and financed his campaign to the tune of $80,000,000. A March 2005 report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) treated most charges of Iranian meddling in Iraq with skepticism, but quoted one E.U. diplomat as saying that "[Qassem] Suleimani seemingly had an agenda to support Muqtada al-Sadr in the Najaf crisis. . . . But as the war went on, he withdrew his support." The report cited another diplomat as saying that Iran had provided al-Sadr with "funding and arms."

IN MAY 2004, al-Sharq al-Awsat published a story claiming that members of Qods Force had attempted to provide both explosives and upwards of $900,000 to Abu Musab Zarqawi, with the intention of him carrying out attacks on U.S. and European embassies and commercial centers in five Gulf states. According to the newspaper, the plot was thwarted by Iranian intelligence at the behest of the-then President Khatami, who likely recognized that such action could easily result in a US reprisal against Iran. At Khatami's direction, Iranian intelligence arrested a number of al Qaeda operatives as well as a Qods Force official, yet no actions were taken against General Suleimani and he remains in command of the elite military unit to this day.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Ernest.

[SunkenCiv]

...said a senior Iraqi official who asked not to be identified so he could speak freely. "The Quds Force have played it all, political, military, intelligence, economic. They are Iranian foreign policy in Iraq."

When we send the smart bomb to wipe Quds Force's leader (and perchance much of the Quds hierarchy) off the map, we need to strap this "senior Iraqi official who asked not to be identified".

[PhilDragoo]

The enemy offed the head of the NA three days before 911, but America has eschewed executive action after the manner of gentlemen not reading other gentlemen's mail.

This is combat with the desert warlords, just as the China matter is such with a trimillenial warlord progression.

Yet Paul Bremer and John McCain execute the limpwristed policy espoused in the 2004 CFR paper "Iran: Time for a New Direction (Negotiations)" by Zbigniew Brzezinsky and Robert M. Gates (now SecDef).

Better to continue the type of operation which has accounted for terrorist face cards dispatched by Israelis, and the trash Viktor Bout taken out by the tenderhearted DEA.

Is this a war on terrorism or a tea party.

Remember: we may have a new president who launched his political career in the living room of a woman caught with 740 pounds of explosives after praising the Manson family for butchering Sharon Tate et al and sticking a fork in one victim's stomach during a post-massacre dinner.

Wearisome to ask, yet the answer is pandemic: why is Nancy Pelosi not in prison with the rest of the traitor trolls.

[dixiechick2000]

Excellent post, Phil!

"Is this a war on terrorism or a tea party."

Unfortunately, too many thinks it's a "tea party."

One round would do it, but why not drop something larger and include his cleric friends? ;o)

[Marine_Uncle]

Of course the scenario has changed by all indications. He could be captured if found in Iraq at this point and put on trial for being a foreign agent directly doing harm to the Iraqi people. The article should be read in the past tense.

[potlatch]

[PhilDragoo]

One round would do it, but why not drop something larger and include his cleric friends? ;o)

So instead of a body count, we have a Mahdi count.

It's evil and I like it very much.

[devolve]

.

Good post potlatch!

[MeekOneGOP]

B-A-N-G !!!

[dixiechick2000]

OOOOOOOH!

NOW you’ve got my attention!

I LOVE it!