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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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 Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 12:56 pm Post subject: the botched us raid that led to the hostage crisis |
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| Quote: | The botched US raid that led to the hostage crisis
Exclusive Report: How a bid to kidnap Iranian security officials sparked a diplomatic crisis
By Patrick Cockburn
Published: 03 April 2007
A failed American attempt to abduct two senior Iranian security officers on an official visit to northern Iraq was the starting pistol for a crisis that 10 weeks later led to Iranians seizing 15 British sailors and Marines.
Early on the morning of 11 January, helicopter-born US forces launched a surprise raid on a long-established Iranian liaison office in the city of Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. They captured five relatively junior Iranian officials whom the US accuses of being intelligence agents and still holds.
In reality the US attack had a far more ambitious objective, The Independent has learned. The aim of the raid, launched without informing the Kurdish authorities, was to seize two men at the very heart of the Iranian security establishment.
Better understanding of the seriousness of the US action in Arbil - and the angry Iranian response to it - should have led Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence to realise that Iran was likely to retaliate against American or British forces such as highly vulnerable Navy search parties in the Gulf. The two senior Iranian officers the US sought to capture were Mohammed Jafari, the powerful deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council, and General Minojahar Frouzanda, the chief of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to Kurdish officials.
The two men were in Kurdistan on an official visit during which they met the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, and later saw Massoud Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), at his mountain headquarters overlooking Arbil.
"They were after Jafari," Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of Massoud Barzani, told The Independent. He confirmed that the Iranian office had been established in Arbil for a long time and was often visited by Kurds obtaining documents to visit Iran. "The Americans thought he [Jafari] was there," said Mr Hussein.
Mr Jafari was accompanied by a second, high-ranking Iranian official. "His name was General Minojahar Frouzanda, the head of intelligence of the Pasdaran [Iranian Revolutionary Guard]," said Sadi Ahmed Pire, now head of the Diwan (office) of President Talabani in Baghdad. Mr Pire previously lived in Arbil, where he headed the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Mr Talabani's political party.
The attempt by the US to seize the two high-ranking Iranian security officers openly meeting with Iraqi leaders is somewhat as if Iran had tried to kidnap the heads of the CIA and MI6 while they were on an official visit to a country neighbouring Iran, such as Pakistan or Afghanistan. There is no doubt that Iran believes that Mr Jafari and Mr Frouzanda were targeted by the Americans. Mr Jafari confirmed to the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, that he was in Arbil at the time of the raid.
In a little-noticed remark, Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian Foreign Minister, told IRNA: "The objective of the Americans was to arrest Iranian security officials who had gone to Iraq to develop co-operation in the area of bilateral security."
US officials in Washington subsequently claimed that the five Iranian officials they did seize, who have not been seen since, were "suspected of being closely tied to activities targeting Iraq and coalition forces". This explanation never made much sense. No member of the US-led coalition has been killed in Arbil and there were no Sunni-Arab insurgents or Shia militiamen there.
The raid on Arbil took place within hours of President George Bush making an address to the nation on 10 January in which he claimed: "Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops." He identified Iran and Syria as America's main enemies in Iraq though the four-year-old guerrilla war against US-led forces is being conducted by the strongly anti-Iranian Sunni-Arab community. Mr Jafari himself later complained about US allegations. "So far has there been a single Iranian among suicide bombers in the war-battered country?" he asked. "Almost all who involved in the suicide attacks are from Arab countries."
It seemed strange at the time that the US would so openly flout the authority of the Iraqi President and the head of the KRG simply to raid an Iranian liaison office that was being upgraded to a consulate, though this had not yet happened on 11 January. US officials, who must have been privy to the White House's new anti-Iranian stance, may have thought that bruised Kurdish pride was a small price to pay if the US could grab such senior Iranian officials.
For more than a year the US and its allies have been trying to put pressure on Iran. Security sources in Iraqi Kurdistan have long said that the US is backing Iranian Kurdish guerrillas in Iran. The US is also reportedly backing Sunni Arab dissidents in Khuzestan in southern Iran who are opposed to the government in Tehran. On 4 February soldiers from the Iraqi army 36th Commando battalion in Baghdad, considered to be under American control, seized Jalal Sharafi, an Iranian diplomat.
The raid in Arbil was a far more serious and aggressive act. It was not carried out by proxies but by US forces directly. The abortive Arbil raid provoked a dangerous escalation in the confrontation between the US and Iran which ultimately led to the capture of the 15 British sailors and Marines - apparently considered a more vulnerable coalition target than their American comrades.
The targeted generals
* MOHAMMED JAFARI
Powerful deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council, responsible for internal security. He has accused the United States of seeking to "hold Iran responsible for insecurity in Iraq... and [US] failure in the country."
* GENERAL MINOJAHAR FROUZANDA
Chief of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the military unit which maintains its own intelligence service separate from the state, as well as a parallel army, navy and air force |
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2414760.ece |
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faceless
admin
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 1:24 pm Post subject: |
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very interesting - cheers for that.
but who'd have thought that "our" side wouldn't have mentioned it? It must have slipped their minds what with all the killing, chaos they're causing and such like. |
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Mandy
Joined: 07 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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Well spotted Luke.
I did read about the raid at the time, and did realise the Iranians were p...d off, but this is the first time I heard that their targets were others who got away, which, bearing in mind the seniority of the targets, must have really upset the Iranians more.
Indeed, an Iranian diplomat was recently kidnapped in Baghdad.
I wonder if it is a "coincidence" that that diplomat who was snatched in Baghdad was TODAY released :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6522113.stm
"Seized Iran diplomat free in Iraq"
Probably a deal has been struck, and at some stage the Irbid diplomats will also be freed in return for the 15.
Looks like "power politics" is the only message US/Britain listen to these days.
UPDATE : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6520571.stm
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Speaking at a press conference US President George Bush said there should be no "quid pro quo" in negotiating the British crew's release.
There have been suggestions that the release of five Iranian officials held by the US since January could positively affect the navy personnel's case.
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This is a one way ticket to open war, especially if Iran took same position of [no "quid pro quo"] for it's diplomats.
Looks like "negotiations" / "diplomacy" is a bad word when you intend to bomb / overthrow a regime. |
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Mandy
Joined: 07 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 1:26 pm Post subject: |
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| GG_Fan wrote: |
Probably a deal has been struck, and at some stage the Irbid diplomats will also be freed in return for the 15.
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I wrote above yesterday. Just heard from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news :
"Iran's president says 15 British sailors have been pardoned and will be freed, translations of his
news conference in Iran indicate." |
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Mandy
Joined: 07 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 6:11 am Post subject: |
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Latest development today :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6528235.stm
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"the BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran said speculation was likely to continue over whether the release had anything to do with developments in Iraq.
There, an Iranian envoy has reportedly been given access to five Iranians captured by US forces and a kidnapped diplomat was released on Tuesday. "
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Do we really believe Bush/Blair that there was no negotiations ? |
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