Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
NPR
May 5, 2008 Morning Edition (NPR), 11:00 AM
STEVE INSKEEP: Iraqi's government says it is ready to investigate the suspicions about one of its important neighbors. Iran stands accused of funneling weapons to Iraqi militias. Just last week, in fact, a militia leader told our own Tom Bowman that of course they're getting weapons from Iran. The U.S. has made its own allegations about Iranian influence for years now.
So from the perspective of the U.S., the good news is that Iraq's government says it will form a special committee to investigate, but that also means that Iraqis will not take anybody's word for this, not even the Americans.
NPR's Tom Bowman has more.
TOM BOWMAN: The committee will look for hard evidence who in Iran is shipping weapons, indicating they will not just accept the American information. Here's Dr. Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Dr. ALI AL-DABBAGH (Government Spokesman): (Through translator) We want to find some really good evidence and not evidence based on speculation.
BOWMAN: Five Iraqi parliament members just got back from Tehran, where they discussed those supposed weapons shipments with Iranian leaders. Again, Ali al-Dabbagh.
AL-DABBAGH: There were some questions and also news about interferences. I think the delegation received clear answers from the Iranian side.
BOWMAN: Later, al-Dabbagh called several reporters to clarify his remarks after their stories appeared because he said the stories indicated he saw no hard evidence of Iranian weapons shipments. He told NPR he is convinced Iranian weapons are coming into Iraq. The question now is who's sending them. He is uncertain whether there is complicity by the Iranian government.
Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll, an American military spokesman, appeared with al-Dabbagh at yesterday's press conference and talked about the way ahead.
Rear Admiral PATRICK DRISCOLL (U.S. Navy): There is going to be a more formal dialogue between the government of Iraq and the government of Iran on this issue.
BOWMAN: That's more diplomatic than American officials have been in recent weeks. CIA Director Michael Hayden says he believes top Iranian leaders are approving the shipment of weapons that are being used to kill Americans. And the American military says they've caught the Iranians red-handed.
Large caches of weapons, found mostly in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, where Iraqi government forces are fighting Shiite militia groups - missiles, mortars, bomb-making equipment, say the Americans, some of it bearing the stamp of Iranian manufacturers with a date of 2008; also testimony from captured Shiite militia fighters who say they were trained in Iran, according to a senior American officer here.
For its part, the Iranian government has always denied sending any weapons to Shiite militia fighters in Iraq.
U.S. military leaders in Washington and Baghdad said they would display what it says are captured weapons at a press conference following the Iraqi lawmakers' trip to Tehran. Now Admiral Driscoll says there are no plans for that while the Iraqi committee meets and prepares its report.
We were told that there would be a press conference showing all these weapons, the more recent ones. Is that off the table now?
DRISCOLL: It's currently not scheduled. So we'll see what happens in the future here with that brief. You'll have to wait and see. It's a bit of teaser for you.
BOWMAN: The debate about whether Iran is funneling weapons has been settled in one quarter. Abu Mushtaba, a senior commander with the Mahdi Army - that's the Shiite militia group led by anti-American cleric Moqtada al Sadr - tells NPR that Iran is sending arms to his fighters, especially to Mahdi gunmen in Basra, not far from the Iranian border.
ABU MUSHTABA (Senior Commander, Mahdi Army): (Through translator) The fighters in Basra received weapons from Iran because it's closer. Medium and small arms, mortars, Katyusha rockets, launchers that can be easily transferred.
BOWMAN: But the commanders says with tight security around the Iraqi capital, it's hard to move Iranian weapons in.
MUSHTABA: (Through translator) Now it's very difficult to receive weapons from Iran to Baghdad, but we are using the ones that reached Baghdad before this crisis. Any army without weapons is worth nothing.
BOWMAN: And the commander says the Mahdi Army will not lay down its arms, whether they're Iraqi or Iranian.
Tom Bowman, NPR News, Baghdad.
May 5, 2008 Morning Edition (NPR), 11:00 AM
STEVE INSKEEP: Iraqi's government says it is ready to investigate the suspicions about one of its important neighbors. Iran stands accused of funneling weapons to Iraqi militias. Just last week, in fact, a militia leader told our own Tom Bowman that of course they're getting weapons from Iran. The U.S. has made its own allegations about Iranian influence for years now.
So from the perspective of the U.S., the good news is that Iraq's government says it will form a special committee to investigate, but that also means that Iraqis will not take anybody's word for this, not even the Americans.
NPR's Tom Bowman has more.
TOM BOWMAN: The committee will look for hard evidence who in Iran is shipping weapons, indicating they will not just accept the American information. Here's Dr. Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Dr. ALI AL-DABBAGH (Government Spokesman): (Through translator) We want to find some really good evidence and not evidence based on speculation.
BOWMAN: Five Iraqi parliament members just got back from Tehran, where they discussed those supposed weapons shipments with Iranian leaders. Again, Ali al-Dabbagh.
AL-DABBAGH: There were some questions and also news about interferences. I think the delegation received clear answers from the Iranian side.
BOWMAN: Later, al-Dabbagh called several reporters to clarify his remarks after their stories appeared because he said the stories indicated he saw no hard evidence of Iranian weapons shipments. He told NPR he is convinced Iranian weapons are coming into Iraq. The question now is who's sending them. He is uncertain whether there is complicity by the Iranian government.
Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll, an American military spokesman, appeared with al-Dabbagh at yesterday's press conference and talked about the way ahead.
Rear Admiral PATRICK DRISCOLL (U.S. Navy): There is going to be a more formal dialogue between the government of Iraq and the government of Iran on this issue.
BOWMAN: That's more diplomatic than American officials have been in recent weeks. CIA Director Michael Hayden says he believes top Iranian leaders are approving the shipment of weapons that are being used to kill Americans. And the American military says they've caught the Iranians red-handed.
Large caches of weapons, found mostly in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, where Iraqi government forces are fighting Shiite militia groups - missiles, mortars, bomb-making equipment, say the Americans, some of it bearing the stamp of Iranian manufacturers with a date of 2008; also testimony from captured Shiite militia fighters who say they were trained in Iran, according to a senior American officer here.
For its part, the Iranian government has always denied sending any weapons to Shiite militia fighters in Iraq.
U.S. military leaders in Washington and Baghdad said they would display what it says are captured weapons at a press conference following the Iraqi lawmakers' trip to Tehran. Now Admiral Driscoll says there are no plans for that while the Iraqi committee meets and prepares its report.
We were told that there would be a press conference showing all these weapons, the more recent ones. Is that off the table now?
DRISCOLL: It's currently not scheduled. So we'll see what happens in the future here with that brief. You'll have to wait and see. It's a bit of teaser for you.
BOWMAN: The debate about whether Iran is funneling weapons has been settled in one quarter. Abu Mushtaba, a senior commander with the Mahdi Army - that's the Shiite militia group led by anti-American cleric Moqtada al Sadr - tells NPR that Iran is sending arms to his fighters, especially to Mahdi gunmen in Basra, not far from the Iranian border.
ABU MUSHTABA (Senior Commander, Mahdi Army): (Through translator) The fighters in Basra received weapons from Iran because it's closer. Medium and small arms, mortars, Katyusha rockets, launchers that can be easily transferred.
BOWMAN: But the commanders says with tight security around the Iraqi capital, it's hard to move Iranian weapons in.
MUSHTABA: (Through translator) Now it's very difficult to receive weapons from Iran to Baghdad, but we are using the ones that reached Baghdad before this crisis. Any army without weapons is worth nothing.
BOWMAN: And the commander says the Mahdi Army will not lay down its arms, whether they're Iraqi or Iranian.
Tom Bowman, NPR News, Baghdad.