Airborne Combat Engineer

Iranian bombs at Columbia

[After getting "schooled" by the President of Columbia University] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday challenged the audience to look into "who was truly involved" in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, defended his right to question established Holocaust history and denied there were gay Iranians. [He also said his country was the victim of terrorists the US supported.]

When pressed about the harsh treatment of women, homosexuals and academics who challenge Iran's government, Ahmadinejad painted a rosy picture, saying, "Women in Iran enjoy the highest levels of freedom," he said.

He elicited laughter and boos from the audience at Columbia University when he said, "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country." [ROTC was kicked off the Columbia campus in least in part because of the don't-ask-don't-tell policy -- see Advocates for Columbia ROTC]

CNN

Afterwards, the students seemed subdued, processing, almost stunned as they filed quietly off the yard.

The Swamp

The visit was arranged by the Columbia University School of Terrorism (obviously a spoof)

Links to video and commentary in the continuation

More evidence of Iran's involvement in Iraq

Senior Iranian leaders know about the operations of Iran's Qods Force in fomenting violence in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Monday, in some of the most direct accusations yet against Tehran over the chaos in Iraq.

Military spokesman Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner said the Qods Force was also using the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi'ite militia group Hezbollah to sponsor violence in Iraq.

"Our intelligence reveals that senior leadership in Iran is aware of this activity," Bergner told a news conference.

"We also understand that senior Iraqi leaders have expressed their concerns to the Iranian government about the activities."

"We have not seen the demonstrable improvement or anything that could be accounted for as a change in behavior on the part of the government of Iran in reducing these threats and reducing the levels of violence," Bergner said.

Yahoo News

Iran's elite Quds force helped militants carry out a January attack in Karbala that killed five Americans, a U.S. general said Monday. U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner also accused Tehran of using the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah as a "proxy" to arm Shiite militants in Iraq.

LK/AP

As in Vietnam, we are fighting a force supported from elsewhere.  We waited too long to do something about it there, and we're making the same mistake here, with the possible same outcome.

Russia, Israel doubt Iran's centrifuge boast

Russia voiced skepticism Tuesday about Iran's announcement of a dramatic expansion of its uranium enrichment effort, saying it had not received confirmation of the claim.    

Iran said Monday it has begun operating 3,000 centrifuges — nearly 10 times the previously known number — in defiance of U.N. demands that it halt its nuclear program or face increased sanctions.

Russia was unaware, however, of "any recent technological breakthroughs in the Iranian nuclear program that would change the format of its enrichment effort," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a statement.

[AP]

In Jerusalem, senior officials accused Ahmadinejad of engaging in "nuclear boasting."

"He is a dangerous man," one official said, "but let's not downplay the fact that what he is trying to do is convince the Europeans that there is nothing they can do to stop him because he has already passed the nuclear threshold. He is not there."

The official said Israel knows that Ahmadinejad "does not have what he is boasting about."

[Jerusalem Post]

The British hostage story continues

The British government has banned all military service members from talking to the media in return for payment following a storm of protests over interviews with the 15 marines and sailors who were held captive in Iran.

Meanwhile Iranian state television aired video Sunday of 15 British sailors and marines watching football on television, eating, laughing and playing ping-pong and chess during nearly two weeks in Iranian custody. (Watch Iranian video showing the British group in captivity )

[CNN]

Britain’s ‘weakness’ in standing up to Iran in the detained sailors standoff handed Tehran an improbable victory and left it dangerously emboldened, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said on Monday.
[International News]

More kidnaps in future? Damaged Iranian image?

Hardliners in the Iranian regime have warned that the seizure of British naval personnel demonstrates that they can make trouble for the West whenever they want to and do so with impunity. The bullish reaction from Teheran will reinforce the fears of western diplomats and military officials that more kidnap attempts may be planned.

Americans also expressed dismay that the British had suspended boarding operations in the Gulf while its tactics are reassessed. "Iran has got what it wants. They have secured free passage for smuggling weapons into Iraq without a fight," one US defence department official said.

However, a British Government official familiar with the negotiations said that while the abductions had provided Ahmadinejad with a platform from which to humiliate the West, such behaviour would have undermined Iran's ambitions for its nuclear programme. Countries which might otherwise have supported Iran would now be questioning whether a regime that took hostages could be trusted with sensitive nuclear technology.

[Telegraph]

Unfortunately, Iran's slick handling of the "catch and release" has won the open praise of many countries.

Bet they know better than to try it with US troops, however. Got a feeling they'd never get them back to shore.

Quid pro quo? Still don't know. Time will tell.

There is circumstantial evidence that a deal was struck, despite denials. "I hope we didn't negotiate with them because if we did, it is a mistake," Bolton said.

The first sign of a possible quid pro quo came when Jalal Sharafi, an Iranian diplomat and suspected member of the Quds force held in Iraq - purportedly by an insurgent group - was released last Tuesday. Some US sources assert that he was in the joint custody of the Iraqi Government and Americans at the time.

According to one report, Shafari was released at the urging of the White House over the objections of some US military commanders.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates went on to say that US and Iraqi officials hoped to be able to give "some kind of Iranian access" to the five Iranian prisoners captured by US forces in the northern city of Irbil in January.

He denied they would be released, but speculation persists that they may be freed before Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, heads to Baghdad this month for regional talks on Iraq's future.

[Australian]

"The storm over the money came as it emerged that the White House had intervened to boost the British captives’ chances of release despite official denials of a deal."

[Times]

 

British hostages can sell stories

The 15 British military captives who were released by the Iranians have been authorised by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to sell their stories.

MoD officials claimed that the move to lift the ban on military personnel selling their stories while in service was justified because of the “exceptional circumstances” of the case. The hostages are expected to earn as much as £250,000 between them.

The story of Faye Turney, 26, the only female among them, is expected to be the most lucrative. She could profit by as much as £150,000 from a joint deal with a newspaper and ITV.

[Times]

What's the World coming to?

The Iranians are saying they decided to make the capture based on an interview of a sailor by the British media on the Cromwell 10 days earlier. You can watch it at EVTV1. The Iranians interpreted what he said to be an admission of spying and claim to have confiscated GPS devices (with path memories, apparently) which prove the British were in Iranian waters. Perhaps less interviews would be better. And handheld GPS units should be tossed overboard.

Iran's other "gift" to the British

Just as the fifteen British captives landed happily on England's soil, last Thursday, the shocking news filtered through the already, high-spirited celebrating media, that four British soldiers became the new victims of the deadly device known as Explosively Formed Projectile (EFP), an offspring of the equally deadly shaped charge IED, used already widely in Iraq and Lebanon.

It may not be by sheer coincidence, that Coalition forces recently intercepted a shipment of infra-red triggered EFPs being transported into Iraq across the Shatt al-Arab waterway from Iran. This may well explain Captain Chris Air's frank explanation that Royal Navy routine checks in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway  may indeed be crucial to save British and US soldier's lives in Iraq.

[Defense Update]

Some criticized Blair's insinuation that Iran could have been instrumental in the deaths, saying it was "completely unsubstantiated," but it's a reasonable assumption.

Many want to buy into Iran's PR that it wants to be a good citizen in the World community, and we can negotiate peace, but the evidence, as well as what has been said by the Iranian leader, don't support this dream. If we allow Iran to get nukes, we'll be faced with some very bad alternatives in future.

See continuation for how the hostages say they were treated and Iran's hope the UK will return the favor for Iran having returned those it stole and at least psychologically tortured.

Tactical analysis of the hostage taking

"What should be examined is how a fully armed boarding party manned by experienced Royal Marine Commandos let themselves be taken without a fight, while their mothership and a hovering helicopter were within sight, or least should have been?

If the operation went according to standard operations procedure, then either the ship's radar or the helicopter crew must have detected a hostile party of no less than six speedboats going at full power and heading straight towards the thalweg divide. 

This would have alerted the boarding party, to call off their mission, either take evasive action by speeding towards the mothership, or at least opening warning fire from on-board weapons to head off the attackers as they passed the thalweg divide. [IF they were on the wrong side]

[Colonel David Eshel @ Defense Update]

As the Colonel notes, we don't know some important details at this point.

Hopefully, the UK will issue a complete after-action report after the Marines and Sailors are released.

The US is stepping up vigilance to insure nothing like this happens to US troops (see continuation)

Increasing evidence of Iranian meddling in Iraq

The United States has growing evidence of Tehran's involvement in destabilizing Iraq, with more sophisticated Iranian weapons being found, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday.

Five Iranians were detained by U.S. forces in January in a raid in the Iraqi town of Arbil. The Iranians have demanded their release and said they were diplomats. But the State Dept. said the five were linked with Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRG) networks involved in providing explosive devices used to attack U.S. troops in Iraq.

[Reuters]