Lets just approve the Iran Deal -- Really, what difference does it make ....
•Organizations Supporting Terrorist Organizations
•Iranian Committee for the Reconstruction of Lebanon: Channels Iranian material and financial support for Hezbollah.
•Imam Khomeini Relief Committee (IKRC) Lebanon Branch: Helped fund Hezbollah youth training camps to recruit future Hezbollah members and operatives. Hezbollah leaders acknowledge IKRC is funded by Iran.
Read more: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/11/iran-primer-timeline-of-us-sanctions.html#ixzz3jfOeohCi
•Hushang Allahdad: IRGC-Qods Force financial officer. Oversees distribution of funds to Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
•Hossein Musavi: Qods Force General and Commander of Ansar Corps. Provides financial and material support to the Taliban.
•Hasan Mortezavi: Qods Force Colonel. Provides financial and material support to the Taliban.
•Mohammad Reza Zahedi: Qods Force commander in Lebanon. Acted as liaison to Hezbollah and Syrian intelligence services.
•Hessam Khoshnevis: Director of the Iranian Committee for the Reconstruction of Lebanon. Provides financial, material, and technological support to Hezbollah.
•Ali Zuraik: Director of the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee Lebanon branch. Provides financial and material support to Hezbollah.
•Razi Musavi: Syria-based Iranian official. Provides financial and material support to Hezbollah.
Read more: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/11/iran-primer-timeline-of-us-sanctions.html#ixzz3jfOLeor6
Company that makes the IED's and explosively formed penetrators," or EFPs
In 2006, the British newspaper, The Telegraph, revealed that three Iranian factories were “mass producing” the roadside EFP bombs used to kill soldiers in Iraq. “The factories are in the Lavizan neighborhood in northern Teheran which is controlled by the country’s defense ministry,” The Telegraph wrote. “The Sattari Industry specializes in anti-tank mines and operates under the aegis of the IRGC’s al-Quds or Jerusalem Force.” 15
Raymond Tanter of the Iran Policy Committee -- 2006 U.S. Newswire
"The Ordnance Factories Complex is located in the Lavizan neighborhood in northern Tehran and consists of three separate and independent industrial sections called Sattari, Sayad Shirazi, and Shiroodi, each with its own products. Sattari Industry specializes in anti- tank mines and bombs.
The industry works on turning mines and bombs into improvised explosive devices."
Tanter also said: "Intelligence reports received from reliable sources inside Iran indicate that powerful explosively formed projectiles (EFPs), shaped charges, used against the multinational force in Iraq are built under a confidential order by the Qods (Jerusalem) Force in Iran.
Explosively formed projectiles are advanced improvised explosive devices that are harder to detect, can penetrate thicker armor, and are more lethal than traditional IEDs. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Qods Force places its orders with the Ordnance Factories Complex."
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
[Public Notice 8182] Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation Imposition of
Nonproliferation Measures on Chinese and Iranian Foreign Persons
AGENCY: Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Department of State.
ACTION: Notice.
SUMMARY: The U.S. Government has determined that a number of Chinese and Iranian foreign persons have engaged in proliferation activities that warrant the imposition of measures pursuant to Executive Order 12938 of November 14, 1994, as amended by Executive Order 13094 of July 28, 1998 and Executive Order 13382 of June 28, 2005. DATES: Effective Date: February 11, 2013.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: On general issues: Pam Durham, Office of Missile, Biological, and Chemical Nonproliferation, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Department of State
(202–647–4930). On import ban issues, Rochelle Stern, Director Policy Planning and Program Management, Office of Foreign Assets Control, Department of the Treasury (202–622–2500). On U.S. Government procurement ban issues:
Eric Moore, Office of the Procurement Executive, Department of State (703–875–4079).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to the authorities vested in the President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.)
(IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2 751 et seq.), and Section 301 of title 3, United States Code, and Executive Order 12938
of November 14, 1994, as amended, the U.S. Government determined on December 21, 2012 that the following Chinese and Iranian foreign persons have engaged in proliferation activities that warrant the imposition of measures pursuant to sections 4(b), 4(c), and 4(d) of Executive Order 12938:
Dalian Sunny Industries (China);
Li Fangwei (China) [also known as: Karl Lee];
Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) (Iran);
Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group (SBIG) (Iran); and
Shahid Sattari Ground Equipment Industries (Iran).
The Telegraph reports this morning that rifles imported from Austria by Iran have surfaced among insurgents in Iraq. Steyr-Mannlicher exported 800 of its high-powered HS50 models, capable of piercing body armor, to the National Iranian Police Association for their anti-narcotics efforts:
Austrian sniper rifles that were exported to Iran have been discovered in the hands of Iraqi terrorists, The Daily Telegraph has learned. More than 100 of the.50 calibre weapons, capable of penetrating body armour, have been discovered by American troops during raids. The guns were part of a shipment of 800 rifles that the Austrian company, Steyr-Mannlicher, exported legally to Iran last year.
The sale was condemned in Washington and London because officials were worried that the weapons would be used by insurgents against British and American troops.
This appears to aubstantiate the findings of the Department of Defense, presented this weekend, that Iran has actively supplied weapons to the Iraqi insurgencies, and that those weapons have killed American troops. The DoD focused on the EFPs, explosive devices that can destroy vehicular armor, and counted 170 American deaths from the super-IEDs. The HS50s have also killed Americans, and seem designed to do so. The first American to die from the HS50 was shot 45 days after the Iranian police received their shipment.
US forces have captured over a hundred of the HS50s from the Iranian police shipment. That amounts to over 12% of the total number of rifles imported by Iran to fight drug dealers, a dodge that has grown more threadbare ever since the invasion of Iraq. The Iranians have not claimed -- yet -- that they managed to lose one-eighth of all the new rifles intended for their police, and the Iranian government was clearly the recipient of the arms. In fact, Austria defended the sale on that very point.
We can trace these weapons from its manufacturer directly to the Iranian government. The quantity in which they have been found in insurgent bases precludes any explanation that a few just got mislaid; they obviously have been transferred from an Iranian state organization to the terrorists in Iraq. It's the clearest evidence of Iranian involvement in attacks on Americans. The involvement of the mullahcracy is undeniable, and it is a direct retort to those who keep claiming that Iran has no stake in Iraqi instability.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on February 13, 2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1526809/Three-Iranian-factories-mass-produce-bombs-to-kill-British-in-Iraq.html
Three Iranian factories 'mass-produce bombs to kill British in Iraq'
Three Iranian factories 'mass-produce bombs to kill British in Iraq'
Toby Harnden in Washington -- 20 Aug 2006
Rooftop snipers cause carnage in Baghdad
Three factories in Iran are mass-producing the sophisticated roadside bombs used to kill British soldiers over the border in Iraq, it has been claimed.
The lethal bombs are being made by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps at ordnance factory sites in Teheran, according to opponents of the country's theocratic regime.
Designed to penetrate heavy armour, the devices being manufactured in Iran involve the use of "explosively formed projectiles" or EFPs, also known as shaped charges, often triggered by infra-red beams. The weapons can pierce the armour of British and American tanks and armoured personnel carriers and completely destroy armoured Land Rovers, which are used by the majority of British troops on operations in Iraq.
The Sunday Telegraph revealed in April that Iranian-made devices employing several EFPs, directed at different angles, were being used in Iraq.
And in June, this newspaper obtained the first picture of one of the Iraqi insurgent weapons - designed to fire an armour-piercing EFP - believed to have been responsible for the deaths of 17 British soldiers.
British Government scientists have already established that the mines are precision-made weapons thought to have been turned on a lathe by craftsmen trained in the manufacture of munitions.
Members of the Washington-based Iran Policy Committee have released the details about the three bomb factories gathered by the exile group, the National Council for Resistance in Iran (NCRI).
Iranians working for the NCRI pinpointed the facilities at three industrial sections called Sattari, Sayad Shirazi and Shiroodi. The factories are in the Lavizan neighbourhood in northern Teheran which is controlled by the country's defence ministry. The Sattari Industry specialises in anti-tank mines and operates under the aegis of the IRGC's al-Quds or Jerusalem Force.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, a former spokesman for the NCRI who in 2002 revealed the existence of two Iranian nuclear facilities at Natanz and Arak, said the devices were smuggled to Iraq via Iran's Shalamcheh border region.
"These sites are close to a military site, known as Lavizan 2, that is now being used for Iran's nuclear programme. It shows there is a high level of co-ordination by the Iranian regime, which wants to destabilise Iraq to make way for an Islamic Republic.
"This is not a ragtag workshop in some remote area. These sites are within an area that is one of the most sanitised parts of Teheran which is controlled by the
Iranian Defence Ministry."
He added that NCRI sources reported the movement of EFP devices from Teheran into Iraq as recently as June and that supplies of the devices, which began last
year, had been stepped up in recent months.
The infra-red triggering mechanism for roadside bombs was perfected by Hezbollah, under Iranian tutelage, against Israeli forces in the 1990s. Mr Jafarzadeh
said that in recent weeks Iran had facilitated the movement of cash from Shia groups in Iraq to Hezbollah.
Brig James Dutton, then the commander of British forces in southern Iraq, revealed last November that EFPs had led to a marked increase in the lethality of
attacks. He said the "technology certainly, and probably the equipment is coming through Iran". He added: "They come in various grades, these EFP improvised
explosive devices, from those that could be made in a relatively simple workshop to those that would require a reasonably sophisticated factory."
Last week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former IRGC commander and the man believed by Western intelligence agencies to be in charge of Iranian
operations in Iraq, was asked in an interview with CBS television why Iran would furnish roadside bombs to Iraqi insurgents.
He ignored the question, instead responding: "We are saddened that the people of Iraq are being killed. I believe that the rulers of the US have to change their
mentality. I ask you, sir, what is the American army doing inside Iraq? Why are the Americans killing Iraqis on a daily basis?"
The factory disclosures come amid growing unease among soldiers in Iraq over what they believe is inadequate protection against terrorist booby traps.
Three Iranian factories 'mass-produce bombs to kill British in Iraq' - Telegraph Page 1 of 2
There are fears that soldiers' lives are being put at risk by senior officers insisting that troops must conduct patrols in armoured Land Rovers even though they provide little or no protection from such insurgent devices. Pressure continues to mount on the Ministry of Defence to introduce a new range of military vehicles that will protect troops from the terrorist bombs in Iraq.
The last two soldiers to be killed by the device were Lieut Tom Mildinhall, 27, and L/Cpl Paul Farrelly, 28, both members of the 1st Queen's Dragoon Guards, who were killed on May 28 in a district north-west of Basra.
Three Iranian factories 'mass-produce bombs to kill British in Iraq' - Telegraph Page 2 of 2
http://nypost.com/2015/08/04/irans-already-at-war-with-us-it-helped-kill-my-dad/. Aug 19, 2015
The slogans have undoubtedly been focus-group tested, but they ignore history and offer a false choice between the two extremes. President Obama is attempting to frame the debate by pretending war would break out if Congress rejects the terms of the nuclear deal. In fact, the opposite is true: We’re already at war with Iran, and have been for years. I know, because my father was killed by Iranian weapons in Iraq. Congressional ratification of a nuclear deal won’t bring peace. It’ll merely perpetuate a war that’s been raging for more than 30 years.
The slogans have undoubtedly been focus-group tested, but they ignore history and offer a false choice between the two extremes. President Obama is attempting to frame the debate by pretending war would break out if Congress rejects the terms of the nuclear deal. In fact, the opposite is true: We’re already at war with Iran, and have been for years. I know, because my father was killed by Iranian weapons in Iraq. Congressional ratification of a nuclear deal won’t bring peace. It’ll merely perpetuate a war that’s been raging for more than 30 years.
Iran’s war on Americans began in earnest with the 1979 Tehran hostage crisis, in which 52 Americans were rounded up and held hostage for more than a year. Since then, Iranian operatives have consistently attacked, killed and maimed Americans around the world.
In 1983, the Iranian regime sponsored three deadly attacks, beginning with the bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, in which 17 Americans were killed.
This act was followed by the horrific bombing of the Beirut Marine barracks, killing 241 Marines. Another bombing of the Kuwait embassy, also linked to Iranian operatives, killed five more.
They didn’t stop there. In 1984, Iranians abducted and later murdered CIA station chief William F. Buckley.
Iranian operatives sponsored the 1984 terrorist attack on Kuwaiti Airlines Flight 221, in which two more Americans were murdered. And in 1996, Iranian operatives participated in the Khobar Towers attack in which 19 American servicemen were killed.
Beginning in 2003, and continuing for a decade, American forces in Iraq began encountering improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that killed or maimed countless soldiers during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
It didn’t take long for US investigators to uncover the source behind the bombs: Iranian operatives had an active pipeline of IED components and funding to help the insurgents build, deploy and detonate roadside bombs.
In September 2005, US Army Lt. Col. Leon James became one of the highest ranking American officers to be killed in action in Baghdad when one of those IEDs exploded. It killed two soldiers instantly and seriously wounded James, who died from his injuries two weeks later.
US intelligence analysis concluded that the bomb type that killed Lt. Col. James and others was consistent with those supplied by Iranian operatives.
And though I’m just a college student currently attending Purdue University, I’m intimately familiar with this subject: Leon James was my father.
So when President Obama jumps on a conference call that includes impressionable college students just like me, and tells them we have only two choices, diplomacy or war, it’s time to call him on it.
Iranian operatives, including high-ranking members of the current regime, have engaged in murder, mayhem and terrorism against the United States for three decades.
If ratified, the deal would give Iran billions in international aid and allow it to buy arms on the international market, guaranteeing that Iran’s sponsorship of worldwide terrorism will be conducted with state-of-the-art weapons and technology.
President Obama’s poorly negotiated nuclear deal is not an alternative to war, it’s the continuation of it. Instead of ending the current conflict, the deal gives Iran access to the money and weapons needed to continue killing and maiming more Americans.
Members of Congress should vote no. And they shouldn’t be bullied into submission by Obama’s demonstrably false arguments.
Maria James is a student at Purdue University. She also volunteers with military nonprofit groups, including Gold Star Families.
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/capitol-hill/2015/07/14/iran-linked-to-deaths-of-500-us-troops-in-iraq-afghanistan/30131097/.
Maria James
“I know that when I stand to honor the flag, I also stand in honor of all soldiers, and most mportantly, to the parents whose life created mine,” said Freedom Alliance Scholarship recipient Maria James, a freshman majoring in Political Science at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana.
Maria’s father, Lieutenant Colonel Leon James, served in the U.S. Army until he was killed in action in 2005, when an IED detonated on the side of his humvee during Operation Iraqi Freedom. LTC James was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with a Combat “V” for his valor.
LeAnna and Sara Felts
“My dad loved being a soldier,” said Freedom Alliance Scholarship recipient LeAnna Felts. “When he left for war, he had no regrets. He knew he may never make it back home — and he didn’t.” LeAnna’s sister, Sara, is also a scholarship recipient. Their father, Army Colonel Thomas Felts, Sr., was killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom, having served in the Army for 27 years. While on patrol in Baghdad, Colonel Felts’ humvee was hit by an IED at an abandoned checkpoint, killing him and his gunner. Colonel Felts is the recipient of the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
Officials: Iran behind advanced, lethal IED
Top levels of Iranian government said to be authorizing export of weapon
Feb. 11, 2007 - 09:06AM | Last Updated: Feb. 11, 2007 - 09:06AM
U.S. and Iraqi soldiers secure the scene of an IED attack against a U.S.
armored vehicle in 2006. A military official said Sunday that some of the most
destructive bombs being used in Iraq come from Iran, and that the "highest
levels" of the Iranian government have been involved in supplying the weapon to
insurgents. (The Associated Press)
By Steven R. Hurst
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD — Military officials on Sunday accused the highest levels of the
Iranian leadership of arming Shiite militants in Iraq with sophisticated
armor-piercing roadside bombs that have killed more than 170 American
forces.
The military command in Baghdad denied, however, that any newly smuggled Iranian weapons were behind the five U.S. military helicopter crashes since Jan. 20 — four that were shot out of the sky by insurgent gunfire.
A fifth crash has tentatively been blamed on mechanical failure. In the same period, two private security company helicopters also have crashed but the cause was unclear.
The deadly and highly sophisticated weapons the military said it traced to Iran are known as "explosively formed penetrators," or EFPs.
The presentation was the result of weeks of preparation and revisions as U.S. officials put together a package of material to support the Bush administration's claims of Iranian intercession on behalf of militant Iraqis fighting American forces.
Senior military officials in Baghdad said the display was prompted by the military's concern for "force protection," which, they said, was guaranteed under the United Nations resolution that authorizes American soldiers to be in Iraq.
Three senior military officials who explained the display said the "machining process" used in the construction of the deadly bombs had been traced to Iran.
The experts, who spoke to a large gathering of reporters on condition that they not be further identified, said the supply trail began with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, which also is accused of arming the Hezbollah guerrilla army in Lebanon. The officials said the EFP weapon was first tested there.
The officials said the Revolutionary Guard and its Quds force report directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The briefing on Iran was revised heavily after officials decided it was not ready for release as planned last month.
Senior officials in Washington — cautious after the drubbing the administration took for the faulty intelligence leading to the 2003 Iraq invasion — had held back because they were unhappy with the original presentation.
The display appeared to be part of the White House drive that has empowered U.S. forces in Iraq to use all means to curb Iranian influence in the country, including killing Iranian agents.
It included a power-point slide program and a handful of mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades which the military officials said were made in Iran.
The centerpiece of the display, however, was a gray metal pipe about 10 inches long and 6 inches in diameter, the exterior casing of what the military said was an EFP, the roadside bomb that shoots out fist-sized wads of nearly molten copper that can penetrate the armor on an Abrams tank.
"A normal roadside bomb is like a shortgun blast. But these are like a rifle. They're focused and they're aimed. ... It's going to take anything out in its way, go in one side and out the other," said 1st Lt. Zane Galvach, 25, of Dayton, Ohio, a soldier with the Army's 2nd Division, based in Baghdad.
Skeptical congressional Democrats said the Bush administration should move cautiously before accusing Iran of fomenting a campaign of violence against troops in Iraq.
Senate Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said "the administration is engaged in a drumbeat with Iran that is much like the drumbeat that they did with Iraq. We're going to insist on accountability."
On the Republican side, Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi said he did not think the United States was trying to make a case for attacking Iran. Lott said the U.S. should try to stop the flow of munitions through Iran to Iraq but that "you do that by interdiction ... you don't do it by invasion."
The EFPs, as well as Iranian-made mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades, have been supplied to what the military officials termed "rogue elements" of the Mahdi Army militia of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. He is a key backer of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The U.S. officials glossed over armaments having reached the other major Shiite militia organization, the Badr Brigade. It is the military wing of Iraq's most powerful Shiite political organization, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, whose leaders also have close ties to the U.S.
Many key government figures and members of the Shiite political establishment have deep ties to Iran, having spent decades there in exile during Saddam Hussein's rule. The Badr Brigade was formed and trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
An intelligence analyst in the group said Iran was working through "multiple surrogates" — mainly in the Mahdi Army — to smuggle the EFPs into Iraq. He said most of the components are entering the country at crossing points near Amarah, the Iranian border city of Meran and the Basra area of southern Iraq.
The analyst said Iraq's Shiite-led government had been briefed on Iran's involvement and Iraqi officials had asked the Iranians to stop. Al-Maliki has said he told both the U.S. and Iran that he does not want his country turned into a proxy battlefield.
"We know more than we can show," said one of the senior officials, when pressed for tangible evidence that the EFPs were made in Iran.
U.S. officials have alleged for years that weapons were entering the country from Iran but had until Sunday stopped short of alleging involvement by top Iranian leaders.
During the briefing, a senior defense official said that one of the six Iranians detained in January in the northern city of Irbil was the operational commander of the Quds Force.
He was identified as Mohsin Chizari, who was apprehended after slipping back into Iraq after a 10-month absence, the officer said.
The Iranians were caught trying to flush documents down the toilet, he said. They had also tried to change their appearance by shaving their heads. Bags of their hair were found during the raid, he said.
The dates of manufacture on weapons found so far indicate they were made after fall of Saddam Hussein — mostly in 2006, the officials said.
http://justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/271545626-Iran-Deal-Text.pdf
A 159-page PDF of Obama’s Iran nuke ‘deal’ was leaked online and you won’t believe what’s in it! My God, this is way worse than we thought! This is a complete nightmare. We got DUPED!
Paragraph 36 is the most chilling. In essence it says that IRAN CAN END THE DEAL WITH A 35 DAY NOTICE!
Under Paragraph 36, Iran can claim that any of the P5+1 is “not meeting its commitments” under the agreement. That triggers a 35-day set of meetings. Once that clock runs, Iran can claim the issue “has not been resolved to [its] satisfaction” and that it “deems” that the issue “constitutes significant non-performance.” Iran can then “cease performing its commitments under this JCPOA in whole or in part.” The agreement is done.
Once Iran has received its $150 billion and locked in long-term business contracts with the West, this quick exit could be an attractive option. So, too, could Iran bolt later on, removing the restrictions that remain after years ten and fifteen, or it could bolt under some scenario hard to foresee now. (The Hill)
The military command in Baghdad denied, however, that any newly smuggled Iranian weapons were behind the five U.S. military helicopter crashes since Jan. 20 — four that were shot out of the sky by insurgent gunfire.
A fifth crash has tentatively been blamed on mechanical failure. In the same period, two private security company helicopters also have crashed but the cause was unclear.
The deadly and highly sophisticated weapons the military said it traced to Iran are known as "explosively formed penetrators," or EFPs.
The presentation was the result of weeks of preparation and revisions as U.S. officials put together a package of material to support the Bush administration's claims of Iranian intercession on behalf of militant Iraqis fighting American forces.
Senior military officials in Baghdad said the display was prompted by the military's concern for "force protection," which, they said, was guaranteed under the United Nations resolution that authorizes American soldiers to be in Iraq.
Three senior military officials who explained the display said the "machining process" used in the construction of the deadly bombs had been traced to Iran.
The experts, who spoke to a large gathering of reporters on condition that they not be further identified, said the supply trail began with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, which also is accused of arming the Hezbollah guerrilla army in Lebanon. The officials said the EFP weapon was first tested there.
The officials said the Revolutionary Guard and its Quds force report directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The briefing on Iran was revised heavily after officials decided it was not ready for release as planned last month.
Senior officials in Washington — cautious after the drubbing the administration took for the faulty intelligence leading to the 2003 Iraq invasion — had held back because they were unhappy with the original presentation.
The display appeared to be part of the White House drive that has empowered U.S. forces in Iraq to use all means to curb Iranian influence in the country, including killing Iranian agents.
It included a power-point slide program and a handful of mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades which the military officials said were made in Iran.
The centerpiece of the display, however, was a gray metal pipe about 10 inches long and 6 inches in diameter, the exterior casing of what the military said was an EFP, the roadside bomb that shoots out fist-sized wads of nearly molten copper that can penetrate the armor on an Abrams tank.
"A normal roadside bomb is like a shortgun blast. But these are like a rifle. They're focused and they're aimed. ... It's going to take anything out in its way, go in one side and out the other," said 1st Lt. Zane Galvach, 25, of Dayton, Ohio, a soldier with the Army's 2nd Division, based in Baghdad.
Skeptical congressional Democrats said the Bush administration should move cautiously before accusing Iran of fomenting a campaign of violence against troops in Iraq.
Senate Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said "the administration is engaged in a drumbeat with Iran that is much like the drumbeat that they did with Iraq. We're going to insist on accountability."
On the Republican side, Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi said he did not think the United States was trying to make a case for attacking Iran. Lott said the U.S. should try to stop the flow of munitions through Iran to Iraq but that "you do that by interdiction ... you don't do it by invasion."
The EFPs, as well as Iranian-made mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades, have been supplied to what the military officials termed "rogue elements" of the Mahdi Army militia of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. He is a key backer of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The U.S. officials glossed over armaments having reached the other major Shiite militia organization, the Badr Brigade. It is the military wing of Iraq's most powerful Shiite political organization, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, whose leaders also have close ties to the U.S.
Many key government figures and members of the Shiite political establishment have deep ties to Iran, having spent decades there in exile during Saddam Hussein's rule. The Badr Brigade was formed and trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
An intelligence analyst in the group said Iran was working through "multiple surrogates" — mainly in the Mahdi Army — to smuggle the EFPs into Iraq. He said most of the components are entering the country at crossing points near Amarah, the Iranian border city of Meran and the Basra area of southern Iraq.
The analyst said Iraq's Shiite-led government had been briefed on Iran's involvement and Iraqi officials had asked the Iranians to stop. Al-Maliki has said he told both the U.S. and Iran that he does not want his country turned into a proxy battlefield.
"We know more than we can show," said one of the senior officials, when pressed for tangible evidence that the EFPs were made in Iran.
U.S. officials have alleged for years that weapons were entering the country from Iran but had until Sunday stopped short of alleging involvement by top Iranian leaders.
During the briefing, a senior defense official said that one of the six Iranians detained in January in the northern city of Irbil was the operational commander of the Quds Force.
He was identified as Mohsin Chizari, who was apprehended after slipping back into Iraq after a 10-month absence, the officer said.
The Iranians were caught trying to flush documents down the toilet, he said. They had also tried to change their appearance by shaving their heads. Bags of their hair were found during the raid, he said.
The dates of manufacture on weapons found so far indicate they were made after fall of Saddam Hussein — mostly in 2006, the officials said.
http://justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/271545626-Iran-Deal-Text.pdf
A 159-page PDF of Obama’s Iran nuke ‘deal’ was leaked online and you won’t believe what’s in it! My God, this is way worse than we thought! This is a complete nightmare. We got DUPED!
Paragraph 36 is the most chilling. In essence it says that IRAN CAN END THE DEAL WITH A 35 DAY NOTICE!
Under Paragraph 36, Iran can claim that any of the P5+1 is “not meeting its commitments” under the agreement. That triggers a 35-day set of meetings. Once that clock runs, Iran can claim the issue “has not been resolved to [its] satisfaction” and that it “deems” that the issue “constitutes significant non-performance.” Iran can then “cease performing its commitments under this JCPOA in whole or in part.” The agreement is done.
Once Iran has received its $150 billion and locked in long-term business contracts with the West, this quick exit could be an attractive option. So, too, could Iran bolt later on, removing the restrictions that remain after years ten and fifteen, or it could bolt under some scenario hard to foresee now. (The Hill)
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