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McCain Camp Argues 'Iran Aiding Al Qaeda in Iraq' Notion Not as Nutty as You May Think

March 21, 2008 12:10 PM

The New York Sun's Eli Lake reports that Sen. John McCain's campaign is reminding folks that though the candidate walked back the claim that Iran is aiding Al Qaeda in Iraq through training and providing them a safe haven, there is plenty of publicly sourced information showing that there is aid being provided.

"McCain's national security adviser, Randy Scheunemann, told The New York Sun, 'There is ample documentation that Iran has provided many different forms of support to Sunni extremists, including Al Qaeda as well as Shi'ia extremists in Iraq. It would require a willing suspension of disbelief to deny Iran supports Al Qaeda in Iraq.'"

And the Sun's reporting concurs:

"The Sun, in a series of dispatches from northern Iraq and Baghdad, detailed claims that Iran has supported Al Qaeda in Iraq. One such dispatch, published on April 25, 2007, quoted the director of the security ministry for the Sulaimaniyah province, Sarkawt Hassan Jalal, as saying Iran had harbored the leadership of a group calling itself Al Qaeda in Kurdistan in five towns on the Iraqi border. A subsequent story, based on an interview with a Kurdish prisoner who went by the name Osman the Small, said Iran's revolutionary guard and domestic intelligence service had issued the Kurdish jihadist group political refugee cards, identifications that made it possible for them to cross back and forth into Iraq from Iran.

"Senior military officials from Multinational Forces in Iraq have said on the record that Iran provides support for Sunni terror outfits in Iraq, but they have not identified them as Al Qaeda in Iraq. A former commander of a group that has at times aligned with Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Islamic Army of Iraq, Abu Azzam al Tamimi, told Al Arabiya television on January 18, 2008, that Iran 'interferes in every aspect in Iraq.' When asked whom Iran supports, Mr. al Tamimi said, "Everybody — it works with the government, with the opponents of the government, with the opponents of the government's opponents, with Al-Qaeda, with the enemies of Al-Qaeda, with the militias, with the enemies of the militias ... Iran spreads its investments everywhere – with the Shiites, the Sunnis, and the Kurds," according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

"The Sun also reported in July that a senior leadership or management council for Al Qaeda meets regularly in eastern Iran, according to the classified portion of the latest national intelligence estimate on Al Qaeda. An intelligence briefer to the press for that estimate at the time claimed to have no recollection of the section, but the Sun maintains that it is there. Following the defeat of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2001, many senior Al Qaeda leaders, such as Saif al Adel and Saad bin Laden, fled to Iran, while others, such as Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, are believed to have fled to the border tribal provinces in Pakistan."

Huh.

- jpt

UPDATE: This post has been changed to more accurately reflect the McCain campaign's argument.

March 21, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (17)

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I respect McCain for his military service but he's should not be president. G'obama!

Posted by: truth speaks | Mar 23, 2008 3:57:30 AM

-John McSame (or McLame, whichever you prefer) will most assuredly clean up Bush's unfinished business. He talks a big game about climate change, but he'll simply extend the Oil Wars (what history, like three hundred years hence, is going to call all this) to Iran and to Venezuela. He's dangerous to everyone, including himself. Everybody needs to unite behind the democratic contender, even if that contender is a literal donkey, because our safety and our economy depend on it. We can't afford any more escalation, and that is exactly what McSame has in the cards.

Posted by: jh | Mar 22, 2008 11:26:28 PM

Given 20% of Dems will go to McCain if their own candidate doesn't get the nod, and given that surveys show McCain leading both Dem candidates, I think the American electorate has shown themselves dumb enough to deserve McCain. Maybe the rest of us can take a four-year vacation to Yucatan...

Posted by: Collin | Mar 22, 2008 4:07:15 PM

mr. mccain: we have already had a "war president". war presidents admit their only specialty is war. not surprisingly the economy has gone to hell in a handbasket under this war president.

what's more, he's not even good at "war". we don't need another one of your kind, mccain. and I'm not even going to bring up 2000, when the dimwit in charge now called you a dimwit, and for 8 years you have proven him right by actually supporting him... what does that say about you, mccain?

Posted by: EndAllWars | Mar 22, 2008 2:58:57 PM

Is this what hour politicans have become, that to show they are "strong" on "defense" they start threatening defenseless countries by claiming they are a "threat" to us? When was Iran a threat to this country, when we and the British overthrew their king and took over their country in WWII in order to use their ports to transport arms to Stalin, and to use their oilfields for our war against the Germans? Were they a threat to us when we overthrew their government in 1953 because he nationalized their oil against our wishes? Were they a threat to us when Reagan aided Saddam Hussein kill a million of their people? Oh yeah, thy finally had enough and idiotically took over our embassy for 444 days, but haven't we done enough damage to them already? It's sickening... Simply sickening.

McCain, you're evil. We are the most powerful nation in the world. With power comes responibility. How little of that have we shown in the last few years. May Jesus forgive us.

Posted by: Ron | Mar 22, 2008 2:55:24 PM

John McWar and his master senator Joe LIE-berman(Used to be a Democrat, then independent and now Neocon)should now the day that we allowed idiots and warmongers run the country is OVER.

Posted by: Cyrus | Mar 21, 2008 8:43:50 PM

Maybe somebody can help John McCain understand the difference between Purim (when thousands of Jewish people were delivered from massacre) and Halloween next.

Posted by: Mara | Mar 21, 2008 7:32:08 PM

If John's afraid of everybody who isn't like him (rich, white, old, Republican, disrespectful of his wife, his country (Keating 5) and lies to the American people. (About Iraq and Iran) Doesn't that define all of us who find him despicable as "Homegrown Terrorists?" What's next John, are you gonna bring Guantanamo back to all fifty states, and lock up indefinitely all of us who see through your despotism? Seriously I think he, like most grandpas needs to be medicated and put in a place where he is no harm to himself, as well as others. (Not to mention the international community AND the American people!!!) I vote for sanity, I vote for somebody else! But he's still more than welcome to fly to Afghanistan, find Bin Laden (Ask John Miller at ABC how he foud him for that interview, or perhaps Morgan Spurlock, THEY found him, why couldn't YOU) and follow him "into the gates of hell." We will all be better off in the end, think about it...

Posted by: cba | Mar 21, 2008 7:26:46 PM

Surely, everyone knows by now that China is more of a threat to us and human rights than Iran but the Bush administration is afraid to admit that because we owe them so much money. Bush keeps on proving what a coward he is by picking on smaller nations like Iraq, Iran and Cuba that are not a threat to us. He himself issued a statement that anyone going to the Olympic games should be aware that their rooms would be bugged. But then Bush does bug his own people literally and figuratively.

Posted by: truth speaks | Mar 21, 2008 6:08:11 PM

This man and his Bushlike ideas and "misspeaks" should send all of the Democrats running back to their side, make them quit crying if their candidate isn't doing well and vote Democratic.. Reality check Dems..there is always a winner and a loser, so suck it up and make sure it ain't this guy as the winner and America as the loser.

Posted by: ss | Mar 21, 2008 2:51:24 PM

You've gotta be kidding me.

Posted by: Mara | Mar 21, 2008 2:25:36 PM

On a recent Daily Show segment it showed the Iranian President visiting in Iraq, he was greeted as VIP visitors (flowers, dignataries meeting the plane). Then he showed when Bush visited he had to go in all secret with flak jackets on. Afterwards he stated who is the enemy here? It tickled me because we are supposed to be helping Iraq and being the friend of the country. Why then was it so dangerous for the US President to visit. While Iran President is greeted like a returning hero.

Posted by: toby | Mar 21, 2008 1:59:55 PM

A report by the AFP, Nov 23, 2003, reports the same."The enemy of my enemy is my friend".

Posted by: Tom Tans | Mar 21, 2008 1:05:09 PM

Randy Scheunemann the Sun article also informs us ...that he was the spokesman for that Liberty for Iraq group who gave false info.

Posted by: dl | Mar 21, 2008 12:58:56 PM

This man Mccain is going to take us to another war with Iran, I said that earlier in the week, his statements were no gaffe but a deliberate attempt to stir up a war with much like Bush did with Iraq. America the choice is yours, as war goes so goes the economy and your security because war only, only begats more wars.

Posted by: Emo | Mar 21, 2008 12:46:16 PM

Don't worry John, with the all the annoyed "typical white people" voting for you, it doesn't even matter how crackpot your policies are! :)



Posted by: Nobodys fool | Mar 21, 2008 12:28:03 PM

OH My, here we go again! Another Presdential race based on fear. Is there nothing else to offer?

Posted by: Thinking | Mar 21, 2008 12:16:33 PM

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