U.S.: Iranian Officer Arrested In Iraq

Alleged Quds Force Leader Said To Be Roadside Bomber, Insurgent Smuggler

(CBS/AP)  Odierno said the U.S. military had separately released at least 50 detainees per day, or a total of at least 250, since beginning an amnesty program for inmates as a goodwill gesture linked to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

After the shooting Sunday in the Mansour district of western Baghdad, Blackwater spokeswoman Anne E. Tyrrell said the employees acted "lawfully and appropriately" in response to an armed attack against a U.S. State Department convoy.

But Iraqi witnesses claim seeing Blackwater security guards fire at civilians randomly.

Speaking from his bed in the Yarmouk hospital four days after the incident, lawyer Hassan Jabir said he was one of the wounded when Blackwater's security guards opened fire in Nisoor Square.

He said he was stuck in a traffic jam near Nisoor Square in western Baghdad when he saw the American convoy of armored vehicles and black SUVs parked about 20 yards away at an intersection, apparently following an explosion.

Jabir said the Americans began yelling to disperse the vehicles, then opened fire as the cars were trying to turn around.

"It is not true when they say that they were attacked. We did not hear any gunshots before they started shooting," he said from his hospital bed, where he lay with bandages on his stomach and back.

"Some people, including women and children, left their cars and began crawling on the street to avoid being shot but many of them were killed. I saw a 10 year-old boy jumping in fear from one of the minibuses and he was shot in his head. His mother jumped after him and was also killed," Jabir said, adding that his car flipped over in the chaos.

The incident has angered Iraqis uniting them in blaming American forces for the violence ravaging their country and backing the government's announcement to ban Blackwater from Iraq.

American and Iraqi officials announced they would form a joint committee to try to reconcile widely differing versions of the incident. Conflicting accounts were circulating among Iraqi officials themselves.

Land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials outside the fortified Green Zone was suspended following the Iraqi government order that Blackwater stop working.

The U.S.-based company is the main provider of bodyguards and armed escorts for American government civilian employees in Iraq and banning it from Iraq would hamper and make movement of U.S. diplomats and others difficult.

Al-Maliki, who disputed Blackwater's version of what happened, spoke out sharply against the company Wednesday, saying the government would not tolerate the killing of its citizens "in cold blood."

He also said the shootings had generated such "widespread anger and hatred" that it would be "in everyone's interest if the embassy used another company while the company is suspended."

Eager to contain the crisis, the State Department said Wednesday a joint U.S.-Iraqi commission will be formed.

The size and composition of the commission have yet to be determined but its members are charged with assessing the results of both U.S. and Iraqi investigations of Sunday's incident, reaching a common conclusion about what happened and recommending possible changes to the way in which the embassy and its contractors handle security, the State Department said.

[prinzowhales]

Its time to end the US-inspired terrorism in Iraq. Its way past time that our troops come home.

A million dead Iraqis since the Washington Regime''s launch of its war of aggression against Iraq is testimony to who the real terrorists are in Iraq.

What was Commissar Paul Bremer''s Fuehrer-Order #81?-- It outlawed the saving of seeds by the Iraqi farmers...Monsanto was the big beneficiary of this order. Ask yourself, does this sound like the act of a regime interested in promoting freedom for Iraqis, or the interests of the corporate beasts?

Arrest George W. Bush and his criminal War Pig Regime! Troops Home Now! The borders are open, the Constitution betrayed and Washington is enemy-occuppied territory.

[socrates392]

Would the unnamed author for this propaganda piece care to offer any substantiation for these claims, other than alleged, unspecified "intelligence reports", and the say-so of this war criminal, General Raymond Odierno?

I would like to take this opportuinity to mark this article as exhibit "L", in the case of CBS News complicity in the fomentation of an unjustifiable and illegal war of aggression against Iran.

Posted by FeelFree1 at 04:39 PM : Sep 20, 2007

It is fascinating how the authors of these stories never take credit isn''t it? Maybe they are written by a computer . . . no, more likely, a grad student intern, embarrassed of their work.

[feelfree1]

Prinzowhales,

Re: "How''s My Driving?"

Funny stuff!;-)

[prinzowhales]

From the standpoint of those who support peace, America has already failed in Iraq--1,000,000 Iraqi dead and 4,000,000 refugees...all for Oil and Israel.

As the Pentagram only counts as KIA, Americans who die on the ground in Iraq...our casualty count probably stands closer to 15,000 than the current number of close to 4,000.

We failed in the Gulf War as well--we have a quarter of a million on disability from this "cheap" war... all so an emir could squat on his gold commode and rule for the few--a few around the throne and a few around the New York banks.

[pastdue1]

What I really want to know is why we continue to hear nothing about the investigation into Blackwater USA and their alleged smuggling of weapons into Iraq. Addtionally, why is nobody looking at the budgets of these "security contractors" Their expenditures should be totally transparant because after all, it is the American taxpayer who is paying these private companies. The American public needs to know the owners, the backers, and the substance of the contracts that these companies have. It should be public knowledge in prime time media. Senators, need to know that they have dropped the ball on this. While supporting the mercenaries to the hilt, they have failed to support our troops.

[prinzowhales]

FeelFree1--The Quds force member was driving a semi tractor trailor truck with crates clearly marked in English, "EFP--Made In Iran-"...the truck had a sticker on the back that read: "How''s My Driving? 1-800-IAM-QUDS".

[feelfree1]

Re: "An Iranian officer accused of smuggling powerful roadside bombs into Iraq for the elite Quds force was arrested Thursday, the military said."

"The suspect - a member of the Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran''s Revolutionary Guards - was detained in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, the military said."

"He was allegedly involved in transporting roadside bombs, including armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, into Iraq, according to a statement. It said intelligence reports also indicated he was involved in the infiltration and training of foreign fighters in Iraq."

Would the unnamed author for this propaganda piece care to offer any substantiation for these claims, other than alleged, unspecified "intelligence reports", and the say-so of this war criminal, General Raymond Odierno?

I would like to take this opportuinity to mark this article as exhibit "L", in the case of CBS News complicity in the fomentation of an unjustifiable and illegal war of aggression against Iran.