CERTAINLY IRAN was involved in the attack on UN?

Post #116,053 by Simon_Jester 8/30/03 11:28:13 PM Reply	CERTAINLY IRAN was involved in the attack on UN? Oops...maybe not. NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -- Police have arrested 19 men - many of them foreigners and all with admitted links to al-Qaida - in the car bombing of the Imam Ali shrine in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, a senior Iraqi investigator told The Associated Press on Saturday. Two Iraqis and two Saudis grabbed shortly after the Friday attack gave information leading to the arrest of the others, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. They include two Kuwaitis and six Palestinians with Jordanian passports with the remainder Iraqis and Saudis, the official said, without giving a breakdown. Initial information shows the foreigners entered Iraq from Kuwait, Syria and Jordan, the official said, adding that they belong to the Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam. "They are all connected to al-Qaida," the official said. [link\|http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT\| St. Petersburg Times ] Damn...no Iran. Lots of Saudia Arabia though. And still no offical report. You'd think ol' Marlowe would be screaming for that by now. Hey look, Kuwait is harboring terrorists (entering through Kuwait)...can we invade Kuwait now?
Post #116,055 by boxley 8/30/03 11:31:43 PM Reply	Sunni's(Saudis especially hate Shiites) Iraqi majority good thing, gives Iran and Iraq an excuse to releive Medina of the Sunni occupation, when that hapens evens. thanx, bill America, Love it or give it back questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]
Post #116,084 by scoenye 8/31/03 10:57:06 AM Reply	Incorrect The Shiites make up 2/3 of Iraq's population [link\|http://www.franksmyth.com/clients/FrankSmyth/FrankS.nsf/0/8F420191888F0B4F85256C470075D3C9?OpenDocument\|http://www.franksmyt...D3C9?OpenDocument]
Post #116,085 by boxley 8/31/03 11:07:31 AM Reply	what I meant, sorry America, Love it or give it back questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]
Post #116,277 by jake123 9/1/03 10:14:40 PM Reply	Basic Metric The attack on the shrine would never have been done by Iran. Iran is Shiia; they would no more attack that shrine than Boston Catholics blowing up the main Cathedral in New York. Sunni's might, but it's probably unlikely... at least for Iraqi Sunni; they live too close and have had far more opportunity in the past to do so. Why would they do it now? Furthermore, discord between Iraqi Sunni and Shiia is not going to happen now; they are far more likely to make common cause against the Western occupiers than anything else, and the lack of revenge killing between the two groups in Iraq bears that out. Wahabbists, OTOH, they would be very likely to do something like that. And Wahabbism means radical Saudi's. I bet the money trail leads right to Riyadh, if not much else does. Considering the infrastructure required for the two attacks, my personal suspicion is that the same group was responsible for both, that the group was al-Qaida, that you're looking at Wahabbist noise making (as they have done for the last 150 years, most of which has been and continues to be directed at other muslims), and that any reasonable person in the intelligence community in the US knows this is far and away the likeliest scenario. Any saber rattling one may hear about Iran flowing out of this is mostly people pushing an agenda in defiance of facts. --\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton jake at consultron.ca \n [link\|http://consultron.ca\|http://consultron.ca] [link\|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca\|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] \n Kingston Ontario Canada [link\|news://news.consultron.ca\|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------
Post #116,283 by Simon_Jester 9/1/03 10:29:31 PM Reply	It does look that way... although at least [link\|http://www.juancole.com/\| one commentator ] says he still thinks it could have been Saddam's men. In contrast, this move makes perfect sense for Saddam loyalists. They have not scrupled to damage the shrine in the past, when they put down the 1991 uprising. Saddam sent out a videotape around August 15 calling on the Shiite clergy to declare jihad against the Americans. All of the major Shiite clerics, including Baqir al-Hakim rejected and derided this call. I believe that this bombing was the Saddam loyalists' response to that rebuttal. It also punishes Baqir al-Hakim for cooperating with the Americans and for his years of guerrilla attacks on the Baath from Iran. He also recommend holding off on finger pointing at this time. (Emphasis added) *In Najaf crowds demonstrated in protest of Friday's bombing. Some anti-American slogans were heard (the US is blamed for not providing enough security.) Najaf police have arrested some 19 suspects in Friday's massive car bombing. They say that some have confessed, and that some have clear ties to al-Qaeda and/or Saddam's secret police. I'd take all this with a large grain of salt. Apparently the criterion for arresting people was that they weren't local Najafis and were different in dress or outward appearance. A couple of Basrans in a coffee house were taken away in handcuffs at first, but the US military expressed extreme skepticism that they were involved. The Najaf police chief appears to have described some Palestinians, Syrians and Jordanians picked up as "Wahhabis." Only most Saudis and Qataris are really properly so called, which does not increase confidence in the Najaf police's cultural knowledge of Sunnis. CNN kept talking about 2 Pakistanis arrested, but the UPI and other print articles do not refer to them. It is no doubt a confused scene. As for the alleged confessions, I suspect that a hapless Sunni looking at the furious crowds of Shiites in the street and promised police protection if he will cooperate might well choose to enter the penal system than to try to walk the streets again after having been fingered as a suspect. The Pakistani newspaper Dawn characterized the likely perpetrators as a mix of Saddam loyalists and Sunni radicals, and that is entirely possible. But I would be very surprised if the Najaf police have already cracked the case the way that they claim.

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