Petraeus Says Iran Wants Iraqi 'Hezbollah' Force

[sabra]

Source: VOA

The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq says there is hard evidence of Iranian efforts to establish a permanent militia presence in Iraq, and that Iraqi leaders have addressed the issue in meetings in Tehran. General David Petraeus made the comment at a news conference, after two days of testimony before the Congress. VOA's Al Pessin reports from Washington.

General Petraeus says the capture of key insurgent operatives in mainly Shiite southern Iraq, including a senior official of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, resulted in irrefutable evidence of Iran's efforts.

"This is evidentiary," Petraeus said. "It is not just intelligence. It rises to the level of evidence, particularly what we captured when we got the hard drives of the computers from the individuals that we picked up."

The general says the evidence convinced Iraqi leaders, even though most of them are Shiite Muslims, that they should be concerned about Iran's effort to establish a long-term armed presence in Iraq.

Read more: http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-09-12-voa38.cfm

[movonne]

1. I don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth...he is getting

on the bandwagon of bomb Iran...when our real enemy is the Saudis..

[happygoluckytoyou]

2. bomb bomb bomb...bomb bomb iran... vote mccain / lieberman in 2008

SEND YOUR KIDS EMAILS.... SEE THAT THEY GET OUT AND VOTE...

IF YOU TEACH YOUR CHILDREN NOTHING ELSE...
AND YOUR IGNORANT REPUBLICAN FRIENDS AS WELL...

READ THE PAPER
LISTEN TO THE NEWS
THINK OUT THE ISSUES
DISCUSS THEM WITH FRIENDS

......GET OUT AND VOTE


...................OR LIVE WITH WHAT YOU GET AND QUIT CRYING

[FVZA_Colonel]

3. Wouldn't a "permenant militia presence" lead to the even further destabalization of that country,

which, considering that it is on Iran's very border, is not something that would be all that good for the Iranian's long term security interests in Iraq?

[Larkspur]

4. They already have that force. It's called the Badr Militia

and the Shiite party that controls the Iraqi central government.