{"id":237,"date":"2007-01-31T09:36:03","date_gmt":"2007-01-31T14:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=237"},"modified":"2007-01-31T09:37:38","modified_gmt":"2007-01-31T14:37:38","slug":"karbala-bushs-casus-belli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=237","title":{"rendered":"Karbala: Bush’s Casus Belli?"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Bush administration seems to<\/title>The Bush administration seems to be escalating its campaign against Iran and may have already found its justification for military engagement.<\/p>\n<p>Start with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/2007\/01\/apupkarbala070121\/\"> a January 20, 2006 attack on US forces in the Shiite city of Karbala<\/a> in southern Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Helena Cobban at <a href=\"http:\/\/justworldnews.org\/archives\/002350.html\">Just World News<\/a> emphasized the significance of the attack and feared that the US would try to bury the story:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It seems the US authorities were not eager for the US public (or anyone \telse) to know \t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/01\/21\/AR2007012100227_pf.html\"> \tthe details<\/a> of the lethally effective raid mounted against US occupation \tforces in Karbala last Saturday…<\/p>\n<p>[A]ll in all, for the Bushites, it’s an extremely inopportune time for \tdetailed news about an attack like the one in Karbala to get out and be \tdisseminated to a wide US readership.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, they proved unable to suppress the news.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Fear not.\u00c2\u00a0 The “Bushites” are now more than eager to disseminate the news.<\/p>\n<p>According to\u00c2\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2007\/WORLD\/meast\/01\/30\/iraq.main\/index.html\">CNN<\/a> and an article in the<em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/01\/31\/world\/middleeast\/31karbala.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin\"> New York Times<\/a><\/em>, the Pentagon is investigating the possibility that Iranians–in cahoots with “rogue” elements of the Mahdi Army–were involved in the Karbala attack.\u00c2\u00a0 James Glanz and Mark Mazzetti of the <em>Times<\/em> reports:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Investigators say they believe that attackers who used American-style \tuniforms and weapons to infiltrate a secure compound and kill five American \tsoldiers in Karbala on Jan. 20 may have been <strong>trained and financed by \tIranian agents<\/strong>, according to American and Iraqi officials knowledgeable \tabout the inquiry…<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tying Iran to the deadly attack could be helpful to the Bush \tadministration<\/strong>, which has been engaged in an escalating war of words \twith Iran…<\/p>\n<p>An Iraqi knowledgeable about the investigation said four suspects had \tbeen detained and questioned…<\/p>\n<p>The suspects have also told investigators that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153<strong>a religious group in \tNajaf<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was involved in the operation, the Iraqi said, in <strong>a clear \treference to the Mahdi Army<\/strong>, the militia controlled by the breakaway \tShiite cleric, Moktada al-Sadr. If that information holds up, it would \tdovetail with assertions by several Iraqi officials that Iran is financing \tand training a small number of splinter groups from the Mahdi Army to carry \tout special operations and assassinations.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I hear that there are a number of commando and assassination squads that \tare disconnected and controlled directly by Iran,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the senior Iraqi official \tsaid, citing information directly from the prime minister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They \thave supplied JAM and others with significant weaponry and training,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he \tsaid using shorthand for the group, from its name in Arabic, Jaish al Mahdi.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I don’t mean to be overly skeptical about <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=73\">reporting by James Glanz<\/a>, although I agree with Juan Cole that his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/01\/29\/world\/middleeast\/29iranians.html?hp&ex=1170133200&en=6f1bbc475aa92694&ei=5094&partner=homepage\"> recent report on Iranian influence in Iraq<\/a> seemed “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.juancole.com\/2007\/01\/fighters-for-shiite-messiah-clash-with.html\">a little breathless<\/a>.”<\/p>\n<p>In the report on Iran and the Karbala attack, Glanz and Mazzetti include a seemingly skeptical reference to the ways in which allegations of a link between Iran and the Karbala compound attack could be “helpful” to an administration accustomed to the self-serving public amplification of faulty intelligence.\u00c2\u00a0 (Maybe the sober influence of Mazzetti?)<\/p>\n<p>But the article then makes what seems like quite a leap to suggest that mention by suspects of “a religious group in Najaf” was a <em><strong>clear reference<\/strong><\/em> to the Mahdi Army.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Note well: there are no “scare quotes” around the phrase clear reference.\u00c2\u00a0 This is presented in the authoritative voice of the reporter.\u00c2\u00a0 Is this supposed to be “clear” to Glanz and Mazzetti?\u00c2\u00a0 Clear to the Bush administration?\u00c2\u00a0 Clear to<em> <\/em>everyone?\u00c2\u00a0 Gosh, when I think of religious groups in Najaf my mind wanders over to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/printedition\/asection\/la-fg-village31jan31,1,5239760.story?coll=la-news-a_section\"> a whole panoply of groups<\/a> that appear to be active there.\u00c2\u00a0 Juan Cole took a look at religious groups in Najaf and threw up his hands, asking “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.juancole.com\/2007\/01\/fighters-for-shiite-messiah-clash-with.html\">Who knows?<\/a>“\u00c2\u00a0 I guess James Glanz knows.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, the Karbala-Iran link also provides some useful context for another piece of the “Iran campaign” story.\u00c2\u00a0 On Saturday, January 27, 2007 the <em>Washington Post<\/em> published <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/01\/25\/AR2007012502199_pf.html\"> a report by Dafna Linzer<\/a> alleging that the Bush administration had authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The new “kill or capture” program was authorized by President Bush in a \tmeeting of his most senior advisers last fall, along with other measures \tmeant to curtail Iranian influence from Kabul to Beirut…<\/p>\n<p>In Iraq, <strong>U.S. troops now have the authority to target any member of \tIran’s Revolutionary Guard, as well as officers of its intelligence services \tbelieved to be working with Iraqi militias<\/strong>. The policy does not extend \tto Iranian civilians or diplomats. Though U.S. forces are not known to have \tused lethal force against any Iranian to date, Bush administration officials \thave been urging top military commanders to exercise the authority.<\/p>\n<p>The wide-ranging plan has <strong>several influential skeptics<\/strong> in the \tintelligence community, at the State Department and at the Defense \tDepartment who said that they worry it could push the growing conflict \tbetween Tehran and Washington into the center of a chaotic Iraq war…<\/p>\n<p>Advocates of the new policy — some of whom are in the <strong>NSC<\/strong>, the <strong> \tvice president’s office<\/strong>, the Pentagon and the State Department — said \tthat only direct and aggressive efforts can shatter Iran’s growing \tinfluence…<\/p>\n<p>The decision to use lethal force against Iranians inside Iraq began \ttaking shape last summer, when Israel was at war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. \tOfficials said a group of senior Bush administration officials who regularly \tattend the highest-level counterterrorism meetings agreed that the conflict \tprovided an opening to portray Iran as a nuclear-ambitious link between \tal-Qaeda, Hezbollah and the death squads in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>Among those involved in the <strong>discussions, beginning in August<\/strong>, were <strong> \tdeputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams<\/strong>, NSC counterterrorism \tadviser Juan Zarate, the head of the CIA’s counterterrorism center, \trepresentatives from the Pentagon and the vice president’s office, and \toutgoing State Department counterterrorism chief Henry A. Crumpton.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Bush administration made no effort to deny the report.\u00c2\u00a0 Indeed, Bush seemed to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/01\/26\/AR2007012601050.html\"> welcome the chance to confirm<\/a> the Linzer story.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>“It makes sense that <strong>if somebody’s trying to harm our troops<\/strong>, or \tstop us from achieving our goal, or killing innocent citizens in Iraq, that \twe will stop them,” Bush said in response to a question about the program, \tthe details of which were first reported in yesterday’s Washington Post.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>At the time of its publication, the whole idea of a “kill or capture” initiative designed to respond to Iranian attempts to “harm our troops” seemed pretty hypothetical.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no specific reference, at the time, to any particular Iranian activity and authorization for the initiative was reportedly given in the summer of 2006.<\/p>\n<p>In retrospect, however, the timing of the Linzer story seems linked to the Karbala compound attack.\u00c2\u00a0 Bush already had his <em>casus belli<\/em> when he warned against Iranian activity in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it is no coincidence, then, that the first obscure mention I’ve found of an Iranian link to the Karbala attack came the day <em>before<\/em> the Linzer story ran when Bill Roggio–“<a href=\"http:\/\/billroggio.com\/about\/\">embedded reporter” to all the big Neo-conservative\/ Right Zionist media outlets<\/a>–appears to have <a href=\"http:\/\/billroggio.com\/archives\/2007\/01\/the_karbala_attack_a.php\">broken the story<\/a> on his blog, <a href=\"http:\/\/billroggio.com\/\">The Fourth Rail<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I sure wish I had better intelligence about Karbala.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean, how do we know that the whole city isn’t <em>actually<\/em> located <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gwu.edu\/~nsarchiv\/NSAEBB\/NSAEBB132\/index.htm\">in the Gulf of Tonkin<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Bush administration seems toThe Bush administration seems to be escalating its campaign against Iran and may have already found its justification for military engagement. Start with a January 20, 2006 attack on US forces in the Shiite city of Karbala in southern Iraq. At the time, Helena Cobban at Just World News emphasized the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,3,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}