McCain Al Qaeda and Iran
It seems that, according to most, Senator John McCain made a major mistake when he said recently that Iran is supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq. After all, Al Qaeda is a Sunni organization, whereas Iran is a country run by Shi’ites. Reading the stories on McCain, then, gives on the impression that he knows as much about the different religious groups in the regions as George W. Bush did when he gave the order to invade Iraq.
Meaning: just about nothing.
Trouble is, however, that although there’s certainly truth to the above, there’s also evidence that implies that Iran is supporting Al Qaeda. Sometimes Shi’ite extremists are willing to ignore their differences with Sunnis, if doing so is considered to be in their own immediate interest.
Citing testimony from detainees in U.S. custody, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said Iranian intelligence operatives were backing the Sunni militants inside Iraq while at the same time training Shiite extremists in Iran.
“We have, in fact, found some cases recently where Iranian intelligence services have provided to some Sunni insurgent groups some support,” Caldwell told reporters, adding that he was aware of only Shiite extremists being trained inside Iran.
Perhaps not as big as a gaffe as the media would have one to believe?
LOL - The Weakly Standard as a recursive source. Most of the outside allegations are from 2004, nothing is current. I don’t think McCain was quoting the Weakly Standard, he was mistaken or spinning. It took is buddy Lieberman to correct his errors.
He meant to say extremists, but his original statement was accurate too. Look at the 9-11 Commission Report, page 61 or The New York Sun 11/14/06, or USA Today 4/11/07, The Guardian 5/22/07, and on and on. Iran will apparently arm and/or train anyone it thinks can hurt the US, regardless of religious affiliation.
Jared is correct, but the gaffe is still disturbing from someone who clearly should know better. If McCain did mean it the way Jared points out, I think he would have clarified it that way rather than backing off of the statement.
I honestly don’t know how it is possible for any of our Senators or other DC officials to not know the basics of the situation; it’s complicated, yes, but not THAT complicated (Bosnia was far more complex, for example.) So given that, and that McCain isn’t unintelligent and has been very involved in foreign policy, I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt but this comment didn’t set well with me.
Did you or McCain forget about this <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/09/1974136.htm">lovely gem</a>?
Or <a href="http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jason_burke/2007/12/zawahiris_lament.html">this stinging criticism</a> of Iran by Zawahiri himself?
<blockquote>Finally, Zawahiri’s speech <b>includes a violent diatribe against Iran, which, he says, “has stabbed the Muslim nation in the back”.</b> This is not helpful to those western rightwingers who have tried to link Iran and al-Qaida. The latest thinking among UK government analysts is that there are some small groups of Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida in Iran but not with the knowledge of Tehran.</blockquote>
I wonder what McCain has to say about this now, or the blog author?
Ah dammit, I can’t use HTML coding on the last post. Oh well.
Jared, if that was the case, then Iran would not have assisted the U.S. in overthrowing the Taliban in 2001.
BTW, there’s a photo of McCain meeting with Afghan mujaheddin back in the 80’s on Juan Cole’s Informed Comment blog. Might be of interest to some on here.