15 British Troops Captured by the Iranian Guards: Border Violation, Another Silly Excuse to Strike At the West

“The European Union will demand the immediate release of 15 British navy personnel detained by Iran in the Gulf,” said the EU president.

The German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told reporters that “Berlin has obtained official confirmation that the troops are under arrest for an alleged border violation.”

“The EU presidency would issue a statement later demanding the immediate release of the soldiers”, he also said.

Iran says the sailors entered Iranian waters illegally while Britain says they were carrying out routine checks on shipping in Iraqi waters. Even in case if what the Iranian government claims is true, is the controversy over a simple border violation, or is Iran getting smart on the west by magnifying the issue, accusing a bunch of sailors and marines of spying for the UK? What is there in those limitless waters possibly worth spying on?

The Iranian government insists that the British troops had entered the Iranian waters intentionally, to lay the bed for an indefinite lock-up of them, so that country have the chance to continue playing on the west, ecpecially regarding its nuclear power issue.

Iran's semi official Fars news agency said: “Navigational equipment on the seized British boats show that the sailors were aware that they were operating in Iranian waters and Iranian border guards fulfilled their responsibility.”

Fars added that, “The 15 sailors and marines, who include a woman, were brought to the capital Tehran for questioning about what they were doing during what Britain insists was a routine anti smuggling patrol.”

The eight Royal Navy sailors and seven Royal Marines have just been transferred to Tehran for more interrogations.

The Islamic regime of Iran has claimed repeatedly that the troops have admitted to having violated the Iranian borders. But is there anyone who might possibly not confess to literary anything whilst under that government's notorious custody, where you know that anything can happen to you and being mentally & physically tortured is a trivial routine.

“The said personnel are being interrogated and have confessed to aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran's waters,” A top military official, General Ali Reza Afshar told the state news agency IRNA and the semi official news agency, ISNA.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, accused the British of “violating the sovereign boundaries of Iran,” calling the entry “a blatant aggression.”

He accused Britain of trying to cover up the incursion, saying: “They should refrain from putting the blame on others.”

This story has been a significant headline for almost any publications in the free world since a few days ago and the British government has reacted very firmly to this shocking, worrying and unexpected event.

Tony Blair said that, “It simply is not true that they went into Iranian territorial waters and I hope the Iranian government understands how fundamental an issue this is for us. We have certainly sent the message back to them very clearly indeed. They should not be under any doubt at all about how seriously we regard this act, which is unjustified and wrong.”

Britain's Defense Ministry said: “The Royal Navy personnel were in Iraqi territorial waters when they were seized.”

Commander Kevin Aandahl of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said: “It is very clear they were in Iraqi waters. We've been on operations there for several years. Coalition vessels respect the 1975 treaty.”

On the other hand, there are some Iraqi officials who deny knowing anything about the operation and consider the possibility of the British troops having gone a bit too far.

“We were informed by Iraqi fishermen after they had returned from sea that there were British gunboats in an area that is out of Iraqi control. We don't know why they were there,” General Hakim Jassim told AP Television News, in the Iraqi southern city of Basra.

The Cornwall's commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, said: “I hope the detention is a simple mistake, stemming from the unclear border.”

300, the Movie: Hollywood Challenges the Iranians' Sense of Patriotism

“Hollywood declares war on Iranians,” read a headline in the Iranian newspaper, Ayende-No, on Tuesday.

“The film depicts Iranians as demons, cultureless and without feeling or humanity, who think of nothing except attacking other nations and killing people,” Ayende-No said in its Tuesday article.

“It is a new effort to slander the Iranian people and civilization before world public opinion at a time of increasing American threats against Iran,” it said.

Iran’s most circulative newspaper, Hamshahri, said “300 is serving the policy of the U.S. leadership and predicted it will prompt a wave of protest in the world. Iranians living in the U.S. and Europe will not be indifferent about this obvious insult.”

One alleged newspaper headline read: “300 Against 70 Million!”

The movie 300, which is based on Frank Miller's graphic novel, tells a fictional version of the Thermopylae battle in 480 B.C., in which 300 Spartans fight against a gigantic Persian army at a greek mountain pass for three days.

“The film sold an estimated 70 million USD worth of tickets in its first three days, setting a new record for a March release,” the film's distributor Warner Bros. Pictures said on Sunday.

This pro-Greek movie has twisted the story the other way round, and therefore lacks any historical credibility. The movie pictures the ancient Persians as a cruel, blood-thirsty nation, despite the historical fact that they have been very modest, friendly and culturally very rich.

Iran's officials described the Hollywood's blockbuster movie as “a hostile behaviour which is the result of cultural and psychological warfare.”

According to Time magazine's website, “Some Iranians believe that the movie was secretly funded by the US government to prepare Americans for going to war against Iran.”

A cultural adviser to Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Javad Shamqadri, said: “300 is part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological warfare aimed at Iranian culture. Following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Hollywood and cultural authorities in the U.S. initiated studies to figure out how to attack the Iranian culture. Certainly, the recent movie is a product of such studies.”

Government spokesman, Gholamhossein Elham, Told a news conference on Tuesday that, “Not only would no nation or government accept this, but it would also consider it as hostile behaviour which is the result of cultural and psychological warfare. Cultural intrusion is among the tactics always used by the aliens and calling such a fabrication of culture and insult unacceptable and hostile.”

“Four MPs urged Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi to ask other Muslim countries not to show ‘this anti Iranian Hollywood movie,’” ISNA news agency said.

But the struggle over the movie 300 is not limited to the world of politicians and many of the Iranian angry citizens have so far reacted to this story in their own special way.

Among them, is an Iranian who published a petition against the movie 300 on the Internet saying that, “It is a proven scholarly fact that the Persian Empire in 480 B.C. was the most magnificent and civilised empire.”

This Internet petition refers to the recent Warner Bros.' blockbuster movie as “irresponsible, unethical and unscientific.” 35,000 signatures have shown up on the petition so far.

Interestingly, the state owned/dependent news agencies have reacted most severely to the story, attacking Holywood and the Warner Bros. in particular, over their blockbuster movie. That is while the Iranian government normally is not at all concerned about or even happy with the persian ancient herritage, and only seems to be using this situation as an opportunity to criticize the old enemy.

The governmental Iranian news agency IRNA reported that, “Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham termed the new film 300 part of the extensive cultural aggression aiming to degenerate cultures of world states, and added that the Iranian nation and those involved in cultural activities will respond to such a cultural aggression.”

IRNA added that, “The film has fabricated history in depicting a war between Iran and Greece, whereas no Greek king dared to stand up to the Persian Empire or the Emperor Xerxes.”

An Iranian news agency, Fars, reports that, “the movie 300 has angered the Iranian people due to its insults to the country's ancient culture and is being viewed by many, even non-Iranians, as ignorant and untruthful.”

Fars added that, “The Iranian state television had already aired several commentaries calling the film insulting, and had hosted Iranian film directors to point out its historical inaccuracies.”

The story has become nationally so important that even an archaeologist, Hamed Vahdati-Nasab, is leading a protest against Warner Bros. and the movie. “Announcing our disgust at such a heresy, we demand an immediate historical review and quick apology from the responsible people,” he said.

“What would people say if they made a film about Martin Luther King, showed him as a monster, and tried to defend it as a fiction? You can't do that. It's unethical. This is a national matter for all Iranians,” Vahdati-Nasab continued.

In a written complaint to Koichiro Matsuura, a group of Iranian cinematic figures including Dariush Mehrjuee, Majid Majidi, Mohammad-Ali Najafi, Mohammad-Mehdi Heidarian, and Mojtaba Raei, have suggested that, “Since UNESCO has previously complained against the threatening and demolition of historical documents and monuments belonging to various nations throughout the world, we expect the organization to prevent the cinema industry from humiliating and obliterating the historical identity which definitely leads to international cultural and social consequences.”

What no one seems to be paying attention to is the Warner Bros.’ continuous statements, underlining the entertaining side of the fictional story which the movie has been created based on, and rejecting any accusations of cultural confrontation with Iran.

A Warner Bros. spokesman has made an statement, saying to the Iranians that, “The studio developed this film purely as a fictional work with the sole purpose of entertaining audiences. It is not meant to disparage an ethnicity or culture or make any sort of political statement. The film 300 is a work of fiction inspired by the Frank Miller graphic novel and loosely based on an historical event.”

Multi Millionaire Mullahs: Plundering a Nation's Wealth

“Iranian Mullahs stash millions as their people struggle to survive,” CNN reports.

“24 years from the revolution, the mullahs have miserably failed to create this so- called idyllic society they were so emphatically referring to. Instead, Iran is in the throes of the biggest political, social, and economical crisis of its recent history,” says Peyvand, an Iranian popular news website.

“The ayatollah's denials will do little to dispel the widely-held view in Iran that a new class of millionaire mullahs are plundering the riches of the country,” Iran Voice reports.

The Mullahs in Iran keep adding up to their wealth endlessly. That is while the gap between the poor and the rich is getting bigger and bigger, and all the nations’ wealth is being circulated in the hands of a few people, mainly Mullahs, and all with high ranking governmental posts.

One of the people very interested in disclosing the Mullah’s financial abuse was the famous Russian Paul Klebnikov.

Klebnikov, the former Chief Editor of the Russian edition of Forbes Magazine, was shot to death in Moscow less than two years ago. Investigations are still on going.

Klebnikov was a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and the London School of Economics.

Klebnikov was also the author of the book Millionaire Mullahs, which according to the Winds of Change news weblog “Tore the lid off of the organized corruption that lies behind the terrorist theocracy of Iran.” In the book he wrote:

“A looming nuclear threat to the rest of the world, Iran is robbing its own people of prosperity. But the men at the top are getting extremely rich.”

Soon after, Klebnikov reveal the illegal financial activities of the Grand Ayatollah Rafsanjani, perhaps the richest man serving the Islamic corrupt regime. He wrote:

“The 1979 revolution transformed the Rafsanjani clan into commercial pashas. One brother headed the country's largest copper mine; another took control of the state-owned TV network; a brother-in-law became governor of Kerman province, while a cousin runs an outfit that dominates Iran's $400 million pistachio export business; a nephew and one of Rafsanjani's sons took key positions in the Ministry of Oil; another son heads the Tehran Metro construction project (an estimated $700 million spent so far). Today, operating through various foundations and front companies, the family is also believed to control one of Iran's biggest oil engineering companies, a plant assembling Daewoo automobiles, and Iran's best private airline (though the Rafsanjanis insist they do not own these assets).”

Since Klebnikov’s death, there has always been this debatable issue wether the Iranian authorities had ordered his murder or not?

“Given their frequent practice of assassinations abroad, it would be foolish to dismiss the possibility,” Winds of Change suggests.

Seriously, what options does the free world have in order to prevent such rebellion regimes from continuing their terror and curroption?

Women Rights in Iran: Women, Voiceless Victims of the Most Violent Crimes

The Iranian hard line regime arrested 33 women, who were peacefully protesting in front of a courthouse in tehran, on 4th of March.

They were protesting the capture of five of their colleagues who had been arrested during another women rights demonstration last June.

“These arrests are illegal since the constitution authorizes demonstrations. they had no logical justification because the women were just taking part in a gathering,” Iranian human rights lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told reporters.

“Based on Article 27 of the Iranian Constitution, demonstrations and gatherings are free if arms are not carried by demonstrators, said Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer.

The Worldwide Press Freedom Organization said: “These women have not broken any law. They simply exercised their right to demonstrate peacefully.”

The Los Angeles Times reports that “About 50 peaceful protestors were quickly confronted and overwhelmed by riot police, including dozens of young female officers wearing bright green uniforms with red stripes.”

Most of the detainees were released on International Women’s Day, on bails ranging from $11,000 to $55,000, the Associated Press reports.

Before their release, the arrested women had started a hunger strike, and at least one woman was held in solitary confinement, according to Human Rights Watch.

The families of two activists were visited by Iranian officials and asked to sign pledges that the women would also avoid the International Women’s Day demonstration, the BBC reports.

As usual, the ultra conservatives accused the women’s rights activists of having been bribed and motivated by the anti revolutionary agents who want to promote curroption in the society.

The Keyhan newspaper, Iran’s most hard line publication, said that “Women’s rights activists of being sponsored by what the paper called executives of American plans for soft overthrow of the Islamic Republic.”

A former member of parliament’s national security committee, Elahe Koulaie, said that “These authorities are very pessimistic about the intentions of foreigners, and assign this kind of protest to external factors.”

Dr. Ebadi and Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan have issued a joint statement on Wednesday, calling for an end to all discrimination against women in Iran. “We know there is a direct relationship between peace, justice, and respect for human rights. As long as women are denied human rights, anywhere in the world, there can be no justice and no peace. Recognizing women’s equal rights, therefore, is an essential requirement for the creation of strong, sustainable, and stable societies and ensuring that women enjoy equality with men in all areas of life are key steps to making human rights a universal reality,” Ebadi and Khan stated.

Once again, the Europeans reacted to the Iranian hard line regime’s brutal suppression of the human rights supporters, by issuing an statement condemning the recent arrests. But isn’t it yet time to act, instead of passing useless papers around?

“The activists were exercising their established right to freedom of assembly and opinion, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations,” the presidency of the European Union said in an statement.

“The presidency of the European Union calls for the immediate and unconditional release of those still being detained and the cessation of proceedings against those already released,” the statement added.

The human rights activists have always been suppressed since the Islamic revolution, even in the 8 year period of the reformist government led by Mohammad Khatami. But the issue has recently gotten so worse that has made many of the former (reformist) and current (utlra conservative) governmental agents to publicly complain about it.

“Today is no longer a day for someone to be jailed for thinking and expressing their views,” said parliament deputy Soheila Jelodarzadeh, speaking at a women's conference.

Isa Saharkhiz, a former editor and reformist said: “They are afraid of the women’s movement, because there are some links between them and journalists, and they cooperate with the foreign NGOs.”

The US government was among the very first foreign organizations which officially reacted to suppression of the women’s movement in Iran. But do they really care about practice of the human rights in the Middle East, or is it just another silly excuse for Mr. Bush’s government to attack the Iranioan regime? It perhaps is the latter one, I guess.

The US State Department said on Thursday that, “it was deeply disturbed by the reports.”

“These repressive actions by the regime highlight an alarming trend of intolerance toward the expression of independent views by the Iranian people,” spokesman Sean McCormack said.

For years, many human rights activists and organizations have kept calling for justice and freedom for the Iranian people in the international assemblies, however, it does not seem to have had any practical changes on the Iranian people’s quite miserable lifestyles.

Hadi Ghaemi, Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch said: “Iranian women are at the cutting edge of social activism in Iran, although they are visible and extremely successful in every social, economic and cultural domain. Iranian law treats them as second class citizens, and discriminates against them. During the past year, the Iranian government has substantially stepped up its persecution and prosecution of peaceful women’s rights advocates.”

Director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch, Sarah Leah Whitson, said that,“These arrests raise Iran’s repression of peaceful activists to a new level. There are absolutely no legal grounds for arresting these women, under international or Iranian law.”

“The government of President Ahmadinejad is trying to roll back even the modest freedoms won by Iranian civil society over the last decade,” Whitson said.

Many people, a lot of them inside Iran, think as soon as some political detainee/arrestee is released, everything is over and they can go back to their normal personal and professional lives. But the truth is far from that.

Fariba Davoodi Mohajer, a prominent Iranian campaigner for women’s rights asked: “Are we supposed to be happy that all the other women were released? “Meanwhile, there are open cases before the court for all these women. And at any moment, they might be detained again.”

“For the first time, five women were accused on charges of working against national security, undermining the basis of government and advertising against the government by speaking with foreign media,” she said.

An Anti-Jewish President: Ahmadinejad and Denial of Holocaust

While millions of people all around the world simply attribute Ahmadinejad’s anti jewish statements to his mad genocidial intents based on his hard line beliefs, there are experts who believe the reality is far from what it seems to be.

“Holocaust revisionism is really what the Islamic Republic’s leaders believe, and not just what Ahmadinejad believes,” said Frank Nikbakht, a local Iranian Jewish activist and researcher and former public affairs director for the Council of Iranian American Jewish Organizations.

“It is also part of their psychological warfare arsenal in their serious struggle to eliminate Israel, and their long-term program of global jihad as embodied in the current Iranian constitution,” he added.

Despite the fact that Ahmadinejad’s thoughtless racial statements behind the international tribunes has put the Iranian nation in a lot of trouble, the majority of the Iran’s educated class of people seem to have faced the whole thing productively, giving it a positive look.

“This is the first time there has been a visible interest by millions of curious young Iranian Muslims in the issue of the Holocaust in a positive and sympathetic way, a result that is exactly the opposite of Ahmadinejad’s intent. Countless Iranian groups and intellectuals are learning the truth about the Holocaust from articles written on the Web in Persian and through media broadcasts,” Nikbakht said.

Since the very first time Ahmadinejad talked about his dream to wipe Israel off the world’s map, there have been several analyses of his behaviour published in the media, very different in some cases.

Director of the Iranian studies program at Stanford University, Dr. Abbas Milani, said: “The most important reason for Ahmadinejad’s comments, I think, has been that he has been an absolute utter failure in his economic policies, in his international proposals, and he has isolated Iran more than ever,” Milani said. “Like most politicians, he likes to change the subject and this has again unfortunately done that for him.”

“Ahmadinejad uses Holocaust denial as a means to delegitimize Israel's existence,” said Yigal Carmon, president of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), in Washington D.C.

“Holocaust denial is important to Ahmadinejad because the Holocaust lends moral justification to the creation and continued existence of the State of Israel. Ahmadinejad’s primary obsession is not with the Holocaust, but with Israel’s very existence. If the Holocaust can get in the way of achieving this goal, it must be denied,” Carmon said at a recent Holocaust denial symposium at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Responsible for BRS social action initiatives, Rabbi Simcha Freedman, said that “We are witness to a madman, Ahmadinejad, who is today visiting with the president of Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir, and telling him he supports the progress of his country. What progress? The Sudanese president is allowing the genocide of a people to continue in Darfur.”

But the story sounds somehow different when told by the Iranian high ranking officials. But whose version of the story is more credibe?

A senior adviser to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and president of the Holocaust Foundation, Mohammad Ali Ramin, said: “the Islamic Republic addressed an issue as delicate as that of the Holocaust on which Western governments are extremely sensitive, aware of the price it would have to pay on the international stage.”

“We were convinced that denying the Holocaust and underlining the destruction of Israel we would have diverted international attention away from the Iranian nuclear dossier. Denying the Holocaust has posed problems for that part of the West which, by sending the nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council, sought to bring us to our knees,” he added.

A lot of Iranian publications protested Ramin’s statement right away, calling them naiive, disruptive and unrealistic.

“Considering the high price paid by the country after the denial of the Holocaust, it would be no surprise to discover that president Ahmadinejad had been pushed to adopt such a position by an agent of the secret services of the Zionist regime,” wrote Baztab, a popular Iranian news webtie, in an apparent reference to Ramin.

In spite of all the irritations which Ahmadinejad and his colleagues have caused for both the free world and the Iranian nation, he keeps repeating those naiive words and continues to make anti semitic statements wherever he notices a camera filming him! Here are some instances.

“Why should Palestinians suffer for the anti-Semitism of Europeans?" Ahmadinejad said at a meeting on 24 February.”

At a previous meeting with US religious leaders in New York last year, Ahmadinejad said: “Let me ask you a question. What is it with Zionists and America? Anytime anyone says anything against the Zionists, it creates problems in the US. Are Zionists ruling America? Perhaps this is due to the sensationalising efforts of the media.”

Ahmadinejad also said: “Why the event should not be studied, giving a place to all opinions Why do you permit questions on the very existence of God, but not about the existence of the Holocaust?”

Senior legal council of the Jewish human rights group B’nai Brith, David Matas, said at a news conference: “Iran's president is inciting genocide against Jews.”

Israel’s foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, said in Brussels: "Iran is not only a threat to Israel but to the entire free world.”

Ahmadinejad’s racial statement has not only irritated the Israelis and the jews as a whole, but also naturally lots of people from all corners of the free world.

The Conservative Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, Jason Kenney, said that “Ahmadinejad is possessed with a maniacal hatred, and promises repeatedly to use violence to obliterate the Jewish people from the face of the earth. This is a man who must be stopped by the civilized world, and by his own people.”

Mount Royal MP and the Liberal human rights critic, Irwin Cotler, said that “Canada, as a state party of the Genocide Convention, should initiate a complaint against Iran before the International Court of Justice.”

Iran and Growth of Terrorism in the Region: The Quds Force & Other Shi'a Militant Groups

On Feb. 20, BBC News reported that, “US’ Iran attack plans revealed: US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure.”

“This should be no surprise to anyone. There are two reasons for this action: Iran refuses to stop its nuclear program, and the US accuses Iran’s secretive Quds Force of arming Iraqi militants with deadly bomb-making material, recruiting Iraqis and supporting not only Shiite militias but also Shiites allied with Washington,” reports Fox News.

The Quds Force is an elite unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) that carries out operations outside of Iran, and is is organized into eight different directorates based on geographic location, including Iraq and Lebanon.

“What Quds does is very specialized, the most dangerous work, operating underground,” said Mahan Abedin, an Iran expert and the research director at the London based Center for the Study of Terrorism.

“It would be very incriminating and dangerous for Iran to directly supply weapons to the militias, and it’s not a part of Iranian policy to directly confront the Americans,” he continued.

That is why many experts introduce the Quds force activities as a part of the Iran’s proxy war against america. A proxy war is a war where two powers, use third parties as a supplement or a substitute for fighting each other directly.

“The goal is likely to enable these armed formations to gain an advantage over their Sunni rivals in the battle for power that Iran expects could erupt later. They are looking to beyond when the Americans withdraw. They see the Shiite militias as natural allies,” Added Mr. Abedin.

“Iran likely does not want a direct confrontation with U.S. troops in Iraq but is backing militiamen to ensure Shiites win any civil war with Iraqi Sunnis after the Americans leave,” experts said on Thursday 15 Feb.

Many countries in the world have identified the Quds Force as a terrorist group.

The chief U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, Major General William Caldwell, said “Iranian and Iraqi detainees in U.S. custody said in interrogations that the Quds Force provides support to extremist groups here in Iraq both in the forms of money and in weaponry.”

Expectedly, George Bush, the US president, is most concerned about existance of the Quds Force and its curroptions in Iran-Iraq border.

Bush said: “What we do know is that the Quds Force was instrumental in providing these deadly IEDs to networks inside of Iraq. What we don’t know is whether or not the head leaders of Iran ordered the Quds Force to do what they did.”

“There are weapons in Iraq that are harming US troops. But whether Ahmadinejad ordered the Quds Force to do this, I don’t think we know,” he added.

But how deep is the Quds Force involved into Iraq’s issues and what role is it exactly playing in the Iraqi current affairs?

A Shiite political party official told AP that “In addition to supplying weapons to Iraqi militias, the Quds Force has been recruiting Iraqi Shiites, giving them up to $150 a month and sending some to Iran for training.”

The US Vice President, Dick Cheney, said on a trip to Australia last week: “We’ve made it clear we believe they have engaged in providing improvised explosive devices, for example, to insurgents inside Iraq that have been used against coalition forces.”

So it has been proven as a fact that the Iran has been using the Quds Force to secure its interests in any unstable parts of the world, and the Middle East in particular. But who is really in charge of them?

“There are people who believe the Quds Force does not move a muscle without getting explicit orders from the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. There are other people who believe they are rogues. The weight of evidence is somewhere in the middle.” said Kenneth Pollack, an Iran expert at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy.

“We do have evidence here and there, circumstantial in many ways, that the Quds Force guys and other people in the Revolutionary Guard like to push the edge of the envelope, But Tehran almost certainly told the Quds Force to go into Iraq,” Pollack added.

“They are the brains behind those who are pulling the trigger; you are never going to see their fingerprints,” said one official.

Commander of the U.S. led forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, said on Thursday that “The bottom line is that we believe that the Quds Force has been involved in training and possibly providing funding and potentially weapons to some groups within Iraq. So we watch that extremely carefully.”