Pakistani militants staging raids inside Iran-ABC

[cal04]

Source: Reuters

The U.S. has been secretly advising and encouraging a Pakistani militant group that has carried out a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran, ABC News reported on Tuesday, citing U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources.

The raids have resulted in the deaths or capture of Iranian soldiers and officials, ABC reported.

The group, members of the Baluchi tribe, operates from Pakistan's gas-rich province of Baluchistan, just across the border from Iran, the report said.

The only relationship with the group that U.S. intelligence acknowledges is cooperation in tracking al Qaeda figures in that part of Pakistan, ABC reported.



Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03296674.htm

[TomInTib]

1. Hell, WE are operating in Iran right now.

You can count on it.

We would be foolish if we weren't.

[whistle]

2. Bullshit, this is Bush's expansionary policies to create a wider war

...in the region and making it more difficult to withdraw even after he leaves office. Bush is keeping his military/corporate base firming in place for years to come.

[Democrats_win]

3. Can we believe this? Either way, it's more sadistic BS from the Deceiver.

[kitty1]

4. Looks like someone is trying stir the big Iran pot using MSM n/t

[Igel]

5. I don't know about this.

To be honest, my problem is from a Pakistani perspective. Every week there's a gas pipeline that's bombed, some armed protest, etc., etc. In Pakistan.

What's happening in Iran parallels Pakistan. Now, it's fine to help the Balochis struggling against the imperialistic and oppressive Iranian empire and all that, but I have trouble imaging that the various groups are all *that* distinct and keep their finances strictly separate.

In other words, if we're helping them fight the Iranians, we're helping them fight the Pakistanis.

Now, I will note that Iran's had a problem before with Balochi separatists. At the same time that Pakistan had the problem. The independence/autonomy movement seems to go in waves. This is wave #3, IIRC. I started reading the Pakistani press in fall '01, and it was an issue then. It's progressively gotten more severe in Pakistan since then--and in Iran, pretty much in lockstep. Adding a dimension to the Iranian struggle is that the Balochis are majority Sunni. In Pakistan it's simply "We're Balochis."

So I'm not saying that the US isn't funding Jundollah (as one paper coyly put it, the Army of God, or as I'd put it, the Army of Allah). Just that the stories coming out strikes me as fishy. Note that the claim (at least in the BBC's account) is that the US is funding the PKK--mostly noted for problems in Turkey, *not* in Iran, and sure to make for a diplomatic skirmish or two.

[woodsprite]

6. Ya know. I saw the headline and said to myself....

we must be putting them up to it. Damned if we aren't! These SOBs need to be impeached.

[cal04]

7. ABC News Exclusive: The Secret War Against Iran

(snip)
U.S. officials say the U.S. relationship with Jundullah is arranged so that the U.S. provides no funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or "finding" as well as congressional oversight.

Tribal sources tell ABC News that money for Jundullah is funneled to its youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi, through Iranian exiles who have connections with European and Gulf states.

(snip)
Pakistani government sources say the secret campaign against Iran by Jundullah was on the agenda when Vice President Dick Cheney met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in February.

A senior U.S. government official said groups such as Jundullah have been helpful in tracking al Qaeda figures and that it was appropriate for the U.S. to deal with such groups in that context.

Some former CIA officers say the arrangement is reminiscent of how the U.S. government used proxy armies, funded by other countries including Saudi Arabia, to destabilize the government of Nicaragua in the 1980s.
http://www.rawstory.com/showoutarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.abcnews.com%2Ftheblotter%2F2007%2F04%2Fabc_news_exclus.html

[tanyev]

8. Looks like we have some new best friends.

Just like Osama bin Laden a couple decades ago.