Iran's supreme leader suspects US, Israelis behind Iraq hostage-takings

[Minstrel Boy]

Iran's supreme leader suspects US, Israelis behind Iraq hostage-takings

Agence France Presse (AFP)
Wednesday, July 14, 2004

TEHRAN: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said he suspects that US and Israeli "agents" are behind the wave of kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq, the state news agency IRNA reported Tuesday.

...

"We seriously suspect the agents of the Americans and Israelis are conducting such horrendous terrorist moves," Khamenei said, reasoning that he "cannot believe that the people who kidnap Filipino nationals, for instance, or behead US nationals are Muslims." The US-declared "war on terrorism," he added, was merely a pattern of hypocrisy.

"In the early 1980s, Iran suffered terrorist attacks in which 72 prominent personalities were martyred on one occasion and a president and a prime minister on another," he said, referring to anti-regime attacks by the People's Mujahideen armed opposition group.

Khamenei added that the group, which was granted a base of operations in Iraq by then-president Saddam Hussein, were "now living freely under the protective umbrella of those Western countries that claim to be the standard bearers of the international campaign against terrorism." He also pointed to the 1998 killing by the Taleban of a group of Iranian diplomats in the Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif. "Even then neither the Americans nor the Europeans...showed any reaction at all," he complained.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=6221

[pocket]

1. Well, if the Ayatollah says so

then that's good enough for me.

[Catfight]

2. nothing to see here..move along! Orange jumpsuit alert!

Next I'll be hearing how Iran is part of the Axis of Evil, hasn't the world learned yet...you don't Mess with the MadCowboy!"

[jeff30997]

3. It's a possibility...

[Jim Sagle]

4. The Jooooooos are coming! Mooooooooo!!!!!!!

[LittleApple81]

6. Sorry, but is something that is not a rumor. Israeli intelligence

presence in the Kurds area has been openly discussed in several "non-vapor-news" media. For example, in the edition before last the New Yorker Magazine had a VERY LONG ARTICLE ABOUT THIS.
The Israelis are very concerned that the USA made a FUBAR out of the whole thing and they want to make sure that their interests are protected. And one of their main interests is Iran's nuclear arms.

[The Magistrate]

10. As A Matter Of Curiousity, Sir

The presence of some Israeli operatives in Kurdistan operates how to reinforce the Ayatollah's claims that the kidnappings and killings of prisonners in Iraq is not the work of the fundamentalist Islamic radicals who claim it for their own? The Ayatollah, having been involved in the Islamic Republic's operation at a high level for a long time, is perfectly aware Moslems do in fact do such things, as that government sponsored the doing in Lebanon some years ago. Not even a blinkered fundamentalist wretch like this can be accused seriously of believing Moslems would not do such things. He is simply making pious noises to wave off a public relations problem....

[LittleApple81]

11. No. See the post I was responding to. The poster just said

"The Jooooooos are coming! Mooooooooo!!!!!!!"
That post does not say anything about Iran's comment. I took it to implying that discussing the Israeli's presence in Iraq is not reality.
I have not idea if they are involved in any HORRIBLE events as these are.
I don't know if OUR GOVERNMENT is involved in these HORRIBLE EVENTS.

But I do know that Israeli presence in Iraq has been discussed in serious news outlets.

[The Magistrate]

13. Mr. Sagle's Comment, Sir

Certainly seemed to me aimed at mocking the idea put forward by the Ayatollah that Israeli agents particularly are behind these actions. That is, indeed, an idea that deserves no more than mockery. Mr. Sagle, to my knowledge, sets some store by the competance of the Mossad, and would be bitterly dissapointed if it did not have agents in Iraq today. The question is not whether there are Israeli agents in country, but whether the usual suspects are going to rally here to support of the Ayatollah's self-serving delusions concerning the "hidden hand" behind all evil in this sorry world: it is one thing for a reactionary and obscurantist cleric to believe and spout such drivel, and quite another for persons who style themselves progressives and leftists to parrot such garbage.

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[LittleApple81]

5. Wow... I guess he probably has read some of the threads in DU.

I never participated on those threads because I REALLY don't know what is going on in Iraq with respects to these kidnappings.

It says a lot when we the citizens can so seriously doubt the US government that we the citizens don't feel like we could legitimately contradict what the government always conveniently calls "conspiracy" theories. And that a government such as Iran has GAINED credibility thanks to our "commander in chief" is amazing too.

We have some DUers that have had a lot of doubts that these "spectacles" were really conducted by insurgents. I remember the deal with the white hands.

[hightime]

7. And all the idiot ELF, ALF and PETA fools are really RW plants.

Seen it and heard it all before. "None of our people would have done that."

[tom_paine]

8. Sorry, I don't believe the Iranian ayatollah any more than I believe Bush*

Of course, I don't believe Bunnypants* Bush any more than I believe the Iranian Ayatollah, either...

[genius]

9. I also suspected the government. WE know they faked the Berg video

THey might be still trying to create outrage.

[goodhue]

12. PsyOps

Arab mercenaries are used both by the US and the Israelis.

[Ganja Ninja]

14. I find the Ayatollah just as credible as Bush.

But that's not saying much.