March 14, 2007: While Congress debates the war today ...

You remember - those folks who are confused about the difference between Sunnis and Shiites... An article on Ynet this morning might be of interest to them. In the wake of the Asgari case (I wonder how many of our Congresspeople know who he is. Double digits?) it discusses some recent information from inside Iran:

Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported that a Tehran military court sentenced to death a colonel in Iranian military intelligence who recently returned from service in Iraq. The officer was accused of collaborating with American forces and providing them with details on the deployment and activities of the al-Quds unit and Iranian military intelligence operatives. He was also accused of providing the Americans with classified documents, photographs and maps related to Iran's nuclear program and armed forces.

Say what? If this report is true, it means the Iranians are virtually admitting they are infiltrating inside Iraq. Otherwise, why the trial? Will this come up in the Congress today? Would you like to bet? Perhaps we should administer basic information tests to our representatives. But the results might be terrifying.

Comments

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Maybe this is why Congress is so opposed to education choice. They don't want the electorate to become less ignorant than they are.

Posted by: srlucado at March 14, 2007 9:23 AM

Maybe it's time that voters demanded a SAT test for a potential representative.
The question is: who would design the questions? :-)

Posted by: Cynic at March 14, 2007 9:53 AM

As a former boos of mine once stated rather cynically, "You can't fire people for incompetence -- where would it all stop?".

Posted by: Henry Bowman at March 14, 2007 10:12 AM

When the MSM circle the wagons around a Walter Reed disgruntled patient the Plame Chaneys and a few US attorneys, tree one day stories, it's clear they are intimately more interested in keeping a Bush HW going from embarrassment to embarrassments.

They spend more time on these nothing stories than they do breathing.

The enemies of the US and what they might be up to? It's like they want another attack so they can have another round of hearings, revelations, finger pointing and resignations.

Posted by: Lem at March 14, 2007 11:50 AM

The mystery reader in me says that the Colonel didn't kick the proper percentage of something upstairs. Whether he really passed info to the US or it was just a convenient lie to get a bullet into his head is almost immaterial.

According to the article there's lots of Iranian officers passing intel to the US. My cynical thought is that it's not true, but that the CIA, or more likely, a more competent spy agency is planting the stories to encourage defectors and get Iranian officers watching their backs and suspecting their superiors and personnel.

Posted by: Eric Akawie at March 14, 2007 11:55 AM

"If this report is true, it means the Iranians are virtually admitting they are infiltrating inside Iraq... Will this come up in the Congress today? Would you like to bet?"

Bringing it up in that crowd would be worthless. If anyone bitched that Iran was in Iraq, I'd bet the stupid rejoinder would be "So are we", thus glossing over the differences between those who're trying to help rebuild and those who're only trying to destroy and kill.

Information is lost on that crowd.

Posted by: ElMondo at March 14, 2007 4:04 PM

Via Rantburg:

This is NOT the guy in Iraq in article below
WASHINGTON -- The Iranian government is in full damage control mode over the recent defection of a top Revolutionary Guard general and former deputy defense minister, well-placed sources in Tehran tell NewsMax.

Iranian government officials have issued a series of contradictory claims about the defection of Gen. Alireza Asgari, 63, who "disappeared" from his hotel room in Istanbul, Turkey on Feb. 7 and reportedly defected to the United States.

But in recent days, the mood within intelligence circles in Tehran has turned to panic as rumors have begun to circulate that a second well-placed Revolutionary Guards general has defected....

This guy's named (Revolutionary Guards intelligence officer,) Brig. Gen. Seyed Mohammad Soltani.

Posted by: Sandy P at March 14, 2007 5:10 PM

....who recently returned from service in Iraq.
It doesn't sound virtually in that report.

Posted by: Barry Dauphin at March 14, 2007 6:48 PM

".....a colonel in Iranian military intelligence who recently returned from service in Iraq."

As Barry notes, it seems like the blinding glimpse of the obvious.

I wonder what kind of intelligence is making it to the Pelosi crowd. If it is what it appears to be, I wonder how they will distort it into their view that America should lose this war.

Now if only the Bush administration had taken and passed marketing 101...............

Posted by: Barrett at March 14, 2007 7:38 PM

Now if only the Bush administration had taken and passed marketing 101...............

No kidding.

Posted by: Roger at March 14, 2007 8:22 PM

You think Bushco hasn't taken marketing 101? What do you think Rove does? Have you checked their budgets for PR? Andrew Card made it clear how much they base on marketing - they didn't want to start the war in August because you don't introduce a new product in August. Have you read Luntz's book? What do you think he's doing testing the terms the GOP uses with focus groups? I do marketing and I can assure you they are excellent marketers.

Posted by: jill bryant at March 14, 2007 10:52 PM

Oh goody, Angry Jill is back.

Given that she's in marketing (I am so surprised!), she's forgotten the power of truth.

Given her BDS, she cannot account for the US public's preference for victory in Iraq. It must be because of the eeevil Republican machine. It is unthinkable that most people actually prefer victory. Likewise, the optimism that we share with our troops must have been manufactured somehow.

Anyway, on the subject of marketing and truth, I wanted to point out something interesting:

When "progressives" want to excoriate a conservative, they quote that person very carefully and do not provide any easy way for their audience to review the context or here the person's entire conversation. This is the way that the press generally covers Republicans, and the readers have to use other means to find out if the press is representing the story honestly.

In contrast, when conservatives want to excoriate a "progressive," they quote very very extensively and happily provide audio or a complete transcript if possible.

Posted by: Bostonian at March 15, 2007 9:52 AM

Look at the defections, executions, and now, opposition to Ahmadinejad's economic and foreign policy. http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=5651

An Iranian MP who supports summoning Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a discussion on his administration's economic and foreign policy has told the conservative Iranian news agency Aftab that eight more MP signatures are needed.

He said that despite pressure by Ahmadinejad's supporters, he and his colleagues have succeeded in obtaining signatures from 64 MPs.

Add to that the agreement on UN sanctions against Iran, and dissatisfaction with Iran on Russia's part.

Russia signaled sharp dissatisfaction Monday with Iran’s defiant stance on nuclear issues, saying the start-up of a Russian-built nuclear reactor will be delayed and warning that Moscow will not join Tehran "in anti-American games."

Atomstroyexport, the state-run company building Iran’s first nuclear power plant, said the supply of fuel to the nearly completed Bushehr facility would not begin this month as planned because of unresolved disputes over financing. The scheduled September launch of the reactor will also be delayed, it said.

I think there's a good chance we're seeing the start of an internal struggle in Iran...

Which ultimately is going to be a good thing for the region, as the population is much more liberal then the ruling mullahs and their crazy president.

Oh, and speaking of Americans wanting victory in Iraq, here's some interesting poll numbers:

http://asecondhandconjecture.com/?p=608

According to Investors Business Daily polling, "two-thirds believe victory in Iraq is important, while a third (35%) are 'very hopeful' we can win and 23% are 'somewhat hopeful' the U.S. can pull it off." And:

According to the latest IBD/TIPP poll, a majority of Americans recognize that the U.S. still has a lot of work left to do in Iraq. For example, the vast majority (82%) believe it's important for the U.S. and coalition countries to continue training Iraqi security and police forces.

Beyond showing common sense, these findings also show that ordinary Americans are concerned about the security not only of our troops but also of Iraqis - people who, for the most part, they have little relation to or interaction with.

Furthermore, our poll also found that 75% of Americans believe the U.S. should continue to provide economic aid to Iraq. And 71% believe we should continue to help rebuild Iraq's infrastructure.

Posted by: Keith_Indy at March 16, 2007 12:11 PM

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