text: Tehran's Influence in Baghdad -- Worth a Second Look - Oppenheim Arts & Letters
  « Not Tolerance: Trust -- Cordoba Initiative, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, and Primary Commentary | Main | Y2K - An Israeli Policemen and Injured Jew On the Edge of an Arab Neighborhood »
  Tehran's Influence in Baghdad -- Worth a Second Look
  Both the Iraqi government and the US military have stated that Iran has backed various Shia terror groups inside Iraq, including elements of the Mahdi Army. While the Iranian government has denied the charges, Iraqi and US forces have detained dozens of Iranian Qods Force officers and operatives, captured numerous Shia terrorist leaders under Iranian command, and found ample documentation as well as Iranian-made and Iranian-supplied weapons. [1]
  Not only have I found my second row seat to history far removed from the bars and battlefields associated with conflicts of interest, but have also found it perhaps too omniscient a chair. The web, from the murder of legistors in Somalia [2] to the encircling of Israel [3] may present it all, but one perhaps too average human blogger may not ingest, analyze, and report it all: it would seem to take some reinforcing combination of funding and social interaction to keep a focus narrowed (and I'm short on both).
  At the moment, Iraq's ship of state may have a tiller but it remains uncertain whose hands are on it officially and how firmly. [4,5,6] Urging the bickering politicians to settlement: Sayyid Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani.
  I'm reluctant to throw the spotlight on Sistani and his obligations and enterprise involving Shiia worldwide, but this from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR, 2008) may underscore the danger inherent in overlooking the role an incursion piped through religion may be playing in Iraq's regional positioning:
  Iran has sent more than two thousand religious students and scholars to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. One-third of them belong to Iranian intelligence (PDF) and some are operatives sent to Shiite shrines to influence voters ahead of elections, writes Mounir Elkhamri, a military analyst for the Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. There is also a booming cross-border religious tourism business. Tens of thousands of Iranians and Iraqis cross borders to visit holy sites each year; Iran is even building an airport in Najaf to facilitate this exchange of religious visitors. [7]
  Dimensions covered by the CFR report include Iranian military, religious, economic, and social influence on the still battle scarred, suicide bombed, IED bombed, and altogether unstable state.
  Here are two videos skirting the topic here. In the first, we see former President Bush in 2006 comparing through implication Barack Obama to Neville Chamberlain, infamous for appeasement, prior to the election campaigns coming up; in the second, aired recently, an optimistic outlook sees democracy working in Iraq, albeit with its ends less considered.
  YouTube Poster "Phreland". "Bush Says Obama's Iran Diplomacy is Similar to Nazis." Posted May 15, 2006: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW6LuYo-6Us
  Hulu TV. "Iran, Iraq Loom Large Over Foreign Policy: The Obama Administration." Fmr. Rep. Rick Lazio (R-NY), Jeffrey Goldberg, Paul Gigot and Katty Kay discuss the president's foreign policy strategy with NBC's David Gregory on "Meet the Press." August 2010: http://www.hulu.com/watch/172818/the-obama-administration-iran-iraq-loom-large-over-foreign-policy
  Whatever the "tough approaches" taken by the Obama Administration toward Iran and Syria, the effort has turned out impotent with the Hezbollah-backed Blue Line incident [8]out of Lebanon and more recently Khaled Mashaal's bellicosity [9] underscoring the failure.
  1. Roggio, Bill. "Iranian-backed Shia terror group remains a threat in Iraq: General Odierno." The Long War Journal, July 13, 2010: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/07/iranianbacked_shia_t_1.php
  2. VOA. "More Than 30 Killed in Mogadishu Hotel Attack." August 24, 2010: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/-Legislators-Feared-Dead-After-Somali-Militants-Storm-Hotel-101366024.html
  3. Note: In Lebanon, factor in Hezbollah's incursion into General Suleiman's army and its acquisition of more than 40,000 rockets; in Turkey, it's hard to miss the state's realignment with Iran and the first more than noticeable signs of a thugocracy growing out of Prime Minister Erdogan's arrest-happy governance; in Syria, nothing new: it still believes it holds right sovereignty over Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel; from Gaza, Mashaal's bellicose mouth mirrors improvements in Iran's tactical position, which has been recently much improved by Putin's delivery of fuel to Iran's suspect nuclear program.
  4. Hendawi, Hamza. "Allawi win could curb Iran's influence." Associated Press via MSNBC, March 27, 2010: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36065638/
  5. AFP. "Iran meddling to fill void in Iraq government: poll." August 7, 2010: http://www.france24.com/en/20100807-iran-meddling-fill-void-iraq-government-poll
  6. Al-Ansary, Khalid, Serena Chaudhry, and Michael Christie. "Iraq's rival parties resume government coalition talks." Reuters, August 20, 2010: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67J2PY20100820
  7. Beehner, Lionel. "Iran's Involvement in Iraq." Council on Foreign Relations. Updated March 3, 2008: http://www.cfr.org/publication/12521/irans_involvement_in_iraq.html
  8. IMRA. "UNIFIL Confirms its Support of IDF Account of Lebanese Border Attack." August 25, 2010: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=49152
  9. AP. "Khaled Mashaal: Talks are illegitimate." The Jerusalem Post, August 24, 2010: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?ID=185844
  Cochrane, Marisa. "Asaib al-Haq and the Khazali Special Groups Network." Institute for the Study of War, January 13, 2008: http://www.understandingwar.org/files/reports/Asaib%20Ahl%20al%20Haq%20and%20the%20Khazali%20Special%20Groups%20Network.pdf. (Note: from the introduction, "This paper concludes that, based upon the body of evidence, the Khazali Special Groups Network and Asaib Ahl al-Haq are the same organization").
  Christie, Michael and Ahmed Rasheed. "Iraq group says it has kidnapped U.S. contractor." Reuters, February 6, 2010: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61515Z20100206. (Note: the Iraqi group named, Asaib al-Haq, seems to have its genisis in Iran).
  Foreign Affairs Committee, National Council of Resistance of Iran. "Untold aspects of the Iranian regime's meddling in Iraq." January 29, 2007: http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/2814/1/
  Morford, Mark. "America out of Iraq now! Oh wait." SFGate, August 25, 2010: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/08/25/notes082510.DTL
  Parker, Ned and Saad Fakhrildeen. "Iraq frees Shiite militant in exchange for Briton, followers say." January 6, 2010: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/06/world/la-fg-iraq-release6-2010jan06
  Roggio, Bill. "Iran backs three Shia terror groups in Iraq: General Odierno." The Long War Journal, July 22, 2010: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/07/iran_backs_three_shi.php
  Starr, Barbara. "U.S. official has new evidence of Iranian meddling in Iraq." CNN, October 14, 2008: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/10/14/us.iran.iraq/index.html
  Warner, Bill. "Iraqi Shiite Terror Squads Receiving Training in Iran, 'Special group criminals' who took part in in the Karbala Raid of Jan 2007." August 15, 2008: http://www.billwarnerpi.com/2008/08/us-iraqi-shiite-terror-squads-receiving.html
  Wehrey, Frederic, Jerrold D. Green, Brian Nichiporuk, Alireza Nader, Lydia Hansell, Rasool Nafisi, S.R. Bohandy. The Rise of the Pasdaran: Assessing the Domestic Roles of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Gaurds Corps. RAND National Defense Research Institute, 2009: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG821.pdf