Iranian Diplomat shot dead in Iraq - AFP

[rooboy]

Reported on Sky News UK.

Link (courtesy of Leftchick):

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040415/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_diplomat_killed&cid=540&ncid=1480

[ZR2]

1. Marine sharpshooter no doubt

Can't have anyone possibly neogtiate peace.

[Muddleoftheroad]

3. Evidence?

Of course you have none, you just want to defame the Marines.

[saigon68]

6. Have to wait to sort this one out.

He should have hired these guys

[ZR2]

9. Not really, just trying to be first

in this "blame America for everything" game.

[FlashHarry]

10. Gee, where have I heard that before?

Careful; your slip is showing...

[JNelson6563]

15. "everything"?

How about if we blame America for America's own actions? That ok? I dunno, what does Rush say on this?

You blaming an imagined mindset of a group of people for your baseless accusation against the marines is rather revealing friend.

Julie

[callous taoboy]

35. Yeah, sure ZR

[progressivebydesign]

38. Wait.. you sound like.. like..

ANN COULTER!!!

[izzie]

25. Sounds to me it is more just get in car and someone may shoot you.

Starting to look like a free shooting range. I wonder how it is to say live off to one side of the main part of the city? I read Riverbend and Read and it looks like people are staying inside all over the city.I lived in Saudi once and it was on the our side where you shopped with every day people etc. They all had guns just like the people do here.People in Iraq have a lot of guns or so I have read.

[Trajan]

36. No marine, perhaps ...

But CERTAINLY someone who feels both angry enough to kill a man in cold blood and confident enough to pursue such a policy of assassination without fear of capture ...

We can thank the false 'theology' of the Likudnik worldview that now inhabits OUR White House for this freewheelng lawlessness ...

I respect the members of OUR Armed Forces as I despise the PNAC/AEI/Vulcan mindset in the halls of government ...

[Judi Lynn]

8. no post. n/t

[Qanisqineq]

2. just popped up on my MSNBC news alerts too

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4746451/

[maddezmom]

4. link here:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4836715

[Quetzal]

5. How odd

very odd.

[progressivebydesign]

39. Whoever shot him, seems to be very skilled...

Three shots to the head? Unless they were at close range, which the car damage doesn't indicate, that would be a pretty good sniper.

How sad.. another life lost. For what??????????

[leftchick]

7. Here is the AP link....

This is very fucked up....

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040415/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_diplomat_killed&cid=540&ncid=1480

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iranian diplomat was assassinated in Baghdad by gunmen who fired on his car near Iran's embassy on Thursday, an embassy official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the slain man as Khalil Naimi, the embassy's first secretary.


It was unclear whether the slaying was connected to a visit to Iraq (news - web sites) on Thursday by a senior Iranian envoy who is trying to mediate an end to the U.S. standoff with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.


Asked whether the killing was linked to the envoy's visit, the embassy official said, "There is some speculation, but we do not have a clear idea."


The hood of the diplomat's car was crumpled and bullet holes pockmarked the windshield. The car had diplomatic plates but no symbols on it suggesting it was Iranian.


Naimi was shot three times in the head, the Arab TV station Al-Jazeera said.




A security guard of the Iranian embassy stands near the bullet riddled car of Khalil Naïmi, an Iranian diplomat who was gunned down in Baghdad by unknown assailants.(AFP/Karim Sahib)

[MaineDem]

11. What if the Iranians take this as a reason for unilateral invasion?

It's a better reason than made-up WMDs.

Yikes...this could play out badly. :(

[ZR2]

12. The Iranians I believe are smarter than that.

They realize that would play right into shrub's hand, and give him an excuse, not a reason, but an excuse to invade Iran.

[w13rd0]

13. Bush can't manage Iraq...

...and you expect him to march into Iran? Haha, I think you are underestimating the patience of the world community for this exceptionally dangerous man with the worlds most dangerous weapons. I am of course speaking of Bush.

[ZR2]

14. I certainly would not put it past him to attempt it.

The dumbass has already been spouting off about Iran being on the "list".

[w13rd0]

16. Iran isn't under sanctions...

...and has a standing army. It would be a...monumentally stupid move on top of a pile of monumentally stupid moves... Is Bush trying to force his vision of Armageddon? Is he trying to force the hand of fate so that every Christian is put to the sword? Sure seems like it...

[ZR2]

18. There are those that leave thier mark in history

by building up a nation, and those that leave thier mark by destroying it. Obviously shrub belives in destroying.

[havocmom]

31. One would hope there would be 'communication failures'

on any line connecting military commanders and the Deserter-in-Chief should bush* decide to invade Iran.

[sam sarrha]

34. i had a relative that worked there... dont jump to comclusions.. giving

the government any credit for pocessing rational thought..

[teryang]

17. The best defense is a good offense

AS would be on the short list of suspects.

[Dhalgren]

23. Who's AS - it's still early for me.

[teryang]

24. The author of the new "road map"

I don't want to turn this into a P/I thread, but he is an advocate of assassination as a matter of policy.

[GiovanniC]

27. .

[ultramega]

30. al Sadr? al Sistani? + both are Iranian, I think.

[Dhalgren]

37. Al-Sadr is Iraqi, Sistani is Iranian

And I now get who AS is, and yes, it does have all the hall marks of that gang.

[bemildred]

40. Hard to say.

I expect there is a good deal going on under the table now.
The fact that the Iranians are THERE mediating tells you a good
deal about how it is going for the coalition, but this fellow's
unfortunate death seems unlikely to affect that.

[DoYouEverWonder]

19. This was a very deliberate act

Guess somebody really didn't like this guy.

It was on the front page headline of my local mullet rapper this morning that Iran offered to mediate in Iraq crisis.

My guess is that the neocons or likudniks don't want no stinking Iranians trying to make peace in the ME. It really screws up their plans.

[jmcgowanjm]

22. Britain is working w/ Iranians/Serious break w/ US in Iraq

It will come up in meeting w/ Blair.

Foreign Policy not to be coming out of Basra

Iran would offer him(alSadr) temporary asylum, until June 30
and the formation of a sovereign Iraqi government, at
which time he could report to Najaf for his trial. In return,
the US would withdraw its forces from the environs
of Najaf.

http://www.juancole.com/

[Oilwellian]

28. Actually...

from what I've read, it was we who asked for Iran's help. Isn't that something? We asked a member of the axis of evil for help.

[DoYouEverWonder]

32. So is the W's definition

of we can't lose, no matter what?

[leesa]

20. Someone wants the Iranians involved. Who could that be?

[tlcandie]

21. Wow .. not to hijack the thread but at the reuters link .. did you catch

this tidbit of info?

<snip>
"What happened on September 11 and March 11 are your goods returned to you so that you know security is a necessity for all."
<snip>

From OBL and his offer of a truce for those who pull out from Iraq and quit harming Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine.

Alleged Bin Laden Tape Offers Europe Truce, Not U.S.
Thu Apr 15, 2004 06:51 AM ET

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4836027

Well, sharpshooters pulling up in a car quickly. Hmmmm, will be interesting to see this develop. Now WHO would want this man dead? :think:

[Teaser]

26. This is probably one of Sadr's loyalists.

If what Juan Cole (http://www.juancole.com) says is true, asSadr has been forced into accepting temporary exile in Iran until the new government is formed and has been ordered to disband the Mahdi army by the Hawza, Najaf's elite circle of clerics. Iran has helped to negotiate this outcome between Sadr and the Najaf clerics.

As asSadr's men have never been terribly happy with Sistani and the other Najaf elite, they can certainly not be very happy with the Iranians role in all this.

There is a danger here of a fractious split in the shi'ah community. The young turks who follow the Sadrist movement and the old Guard who may increasingly be seen as facilitating the occupation.

Alternatively, this might be a Sunni militant trying to spark intra Shi'ah tensions.

Keep your eyes on the shi'ah ball.

[sofa king]

29. Depending on the back story, it could be anyone.

There are plenty of motivations out there. Prolonging or intensifying the tension in Iraq could be an objective of Syria, Israel, Saudi Arabia, all sorts of Islamic fundamentalist groups both governmental and terrorist, various Iraqi groups, and plenty others. If the guy was a VEVAK operative under diplomatic cover, it could be the United States and/or Britain. Dark horse is GROM, pulling a little bit of old-school Eastern Block-style hostage negotiation.

It will be interesting to see who did it. May take decades to come out.

[CabalBuster]

33. The Israeli Mossad could also be involved

They would love for the Iranians and others to get involved and inflame the whole region and force the US hand. This has long been the PNAC / Israeli strategy of destroying all regimes considered a threat to Israel in the region and to assert its supremacy.