McCain's Gaffes Reflect Bush's Iran-Qaeda Myth
by Gareth ****ter
WA****NGTON - Sen. John McCain's confusion in recent allegations of Iranian
training of al Qaeda fighters in Iraq is the result of a drumbeat of
official propaganda about close Iran-al Qaeda ties that the George W. Bush
administration and neoconservatives have promoted ever since early 2002.
McCain, the Republican nominee for the presidency, was confusing the Bush
administration's charges of Iranian training of ****'a militiamen
associated
with the Mahdi Army with the administration's propaganda theme of Iranian
tacit or explicit sup****t for al Qaeda operatives in Iran - charges which
have amplified by right-wing media.
During a press conference in Jordan Tuesday, McCain brought up the charge
that Iran with training al Qaeda operatives
and sending them to Iraq, then corrected himself after Sen. Joseph
Lieberman, a Democrat from Connecticut, whispered in his ear. It was the
fourth time in a little over three weeks, however, that McCain had made
the
same charge.
McCain's confusion has been widely characterised as demonstrating his
inability to distinguish Sunni al Qaeda from ****ite Mahdi Army. But more
fundamentally, McCain's gaffes were a reflection of how thoroughly he had
internalised a favourite theme of the Bush administration and
neoconservatives - that Iran has tolerated and even covertly assisted al
Qaeda agents operating inside Iran.
Those administration charges have continued despite the repeated release
of
information by Iran and other countries about its arrest, detention and
repatriation of al Qaeda suspects.
That charge has been given credence by mainstream news media for years.
The theme of an Iran-al Qaeda link first appeared in the wake of the
defeat
of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Although most al Qaeda cadres
escaped
to Pakistan, a much smaller number crossed the border into Iran. Despite
the
fact that U.S. officials later said Iran had been responsive to U.S.
communications about intercepting al Qaeda cadres at the border, then
Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld stated on more than one occasion in
2002 that Iran was "harbouring" al Qaeda officials.
That was same term Bush had used in his Sep. 20, 2001 speech as criterion
for considering a nation to be a "hostile regime" in regard to terrorism.
The Bush propaganda line was taken so seriously by the news media that the
Wa****ngton Post re****ted Aug. 28, 2002 that "Arab intelligence sources"
were
saying that two high-ranking al Qaeda officials were being "sheltered in
Iran along with dozens of other al Qaeda fighters in hotels and
guesthouses
in the border cities of Mashad and Zabol."
The Post said the re****t "sup****ted the Bush administration's
long-standing
assertion that Iran - or at least hardliners in the conservative clerical
line of authority that controls the army and intelligence services - is
harbouring al Qaeda fighters."
In spring 2003, Iran declared that it was holding senior members of al
Qaeda
but refused to divulge their identities and proposed to exchange
information
on its al Qaeda detainees in return for the U.S. providing Iran with
information on the anti-Iran terrorist group Mujihidden e Khalk (MEK)
which
had surrendered to U.S. troops in Iraq. But hardliners in the Bush
administration rejected such a deal, on the grounds that MEK should be
protected from Iran.
After the May 12, 2003 terrorist bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed
eight
U.S. citizens and 26 Saudis, Rumsfeld declared, "We know there are senior
al
Qaeda in Iran.presumably not an ungoverned area." Then CBS news re****ted,
"U.S. officials say they have evidence the bombings in Saudi Arabia and
other attacks still in the works were planned and directed by senior al
Qaeda operatives who have found safe haven in Iran."
That was an obvious ploy to insinuate that Iran was deliberately allowing
al
Qaeda operatives to plan terrorist attacks from Iranian territory. The New
York Times re****ted May 26, 2003, however, that the Rumsfeld statement was
disputed by another unnamed administration official who observed that the
intercepted messages did not necessarily refer to the Saudi bombing at
all.
Former U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence on the matter say
there
was never any clear evidence that any al Qaeda detainees were being
allowed
to operate freely. Paul Pillar, the intelligence officer on Iran at the
time, said in an interview in 2006, "It was very fuzzy whether they were
free to do things or not."
Lawrence Wilkerson, later chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin
Powell,
recalled in an interview, "The Iran experts agreed that, even if al Qaeda
had come in and out of Iran, it didn't mean the Iranian government was
complicit."
Iran did hand over 225 suspected al Qaeda operatives to their country of
origin in 2003, and provided their names to the United Nations. Saudi
Arabia
confirmed that Iran had repatriated suspected al Qaeda of Saudi
nationality.
Nevertheless, Bush administration officials carried out a determined
campaign of press leaks in 2003 and 2004 suggesting covert Iranian sup****t
for al Qaeda terrorism.
A typical example of such press leaks is a CNN story on Oct. 27, 2003
quoting "U.S. intelligence officials" as saying that the "Quds Force" of
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps "may be sheltering some al Qaeda
leaders, including its military commander, Saif al-Adel and Saad bin
Laden,
son of the al Qaeda leader."
On Mar. 24, 2003, the New York Times re****ted from Tel Aviv that senior al
Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had "turned up in Iran" under the
protection of Iranian security forces, according to senior Israeli and
U.S.
officials.
But in the Arab-language London daily Asharq Alawsat, usually known for
its
anti-Iran coverage, published an article by Mahammed Al Shafey in 2005
which
quoted an internet posting by al-Adel in which he recalled that
approximately 80 percent of the group of al Qaeda operatives led by
al-Zarqawi which had fled to Iran had been arrested and the rest had fled
to
Iraq.
According to Al-Adel, "The steps taken by Iran against us shook [us] and
caused the failure of 75 percent of our plan."
The high point of the Iran-al Qaeda theme was the spate of stories in the
week before the publication of the 9/11 Commission re****t in July 2004,
re****ting that the Iranian government had facilitated the transit of eight
Sep. 11 hijackers through Iran.
But CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin said the CIA had "no evidence" of
any official Iranian approval of the transit.
In July 2005, Iran's intelligence minister Ali Younessi said Iran had
apprehended more than 1,000 members of al Qaeda since late 2001. Younessi
said that some al Qaeda agents had taken refuge in Iranian cities but had
been arrested "because they intended to use Iranian territory to launch
terrorist strikes on other countries".
He also referred to the arrests and trial of a number of Ansar al Islam
operatives who he said were "still in prison".
*Gareth ****ter is an historian and national security policy analyst. The
paperback edition of his latest book, "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of
Power and the Road to War in Vietnam", was published in 2006.
Copyright © 2008 IPS-Inter Press Service
What is more scary about McCain? Believing the Bush, Cheney, & Co. big lie
about the Iran-Al Qaeda myth or continuing to put it out there in order to
get elected? Considering his suffering for a prior war that was also based
on lies, it adds an element that should send a chill down the spine of any
non-braindead Fox News viewer.
|
