Shrine Attack Deals Blow to Anti-US Unity--A Times (Iran twist)

[Gloria]

From the new World Media Watch up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Feb 24, 2006

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HB24Ak01.html



SHRINE ATTACK DEALS BLOW TO ANTI-US UNITY

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Spring is only a month away, and preparations for Nauroz (the Persian new year) are well under way. In Iran this year, however, Nauroz was due to come with a deadly dimension: the start of a new phase of a broad-based anti-US resistance movement stretching from Afghanistan to Jerusalem.

Wednesday's attack on a revered shrine in Iraq could change all this.

The presence in Iran of the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as members of the Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan, is well known, as is the presence of other controversial figures related to the "war on terror", such as al-Qaeda members. Security contacts have told Asia Times Online that several al-Qaeda members have been moved from detention centers to safe houses run by Iranian intelligence near Tehran.

The aim of these people in Iran is to establish a chain of anti-US resistance groups that will take the offensive before the West makes its expected move against Tehran.

Iran has been referred to the UN Security Council over its nuclear program, which the US and others say is geared towards developing nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency is due to present a final report to the Security Council next month, after which the council will consider imposing sanctions against Tehran. Many believe that the US is planning preemptive military action against Iran.

With Wednesday's attack on the Golden Mosque in Samarra in Iraq, home to a revered Shi'ite shrine, the dynamics have changed overnight.

MORE

[leftchick]

1. perhaps the US did indeed bomb the mosque

this article seems to make it more likely than any of the other groups mentioned.

[USA_1]

2. Had it been Sunni Jihadists ...

... who committed this atrocity, they would NOT have worn masks, would have fought to the death, and freely taken martyrdom. Also, Sunnis do not burn Korans and would not have torched a building that contained these sacred books and other writings and historical material that is held sacred by all Muslims. Obviously, it was CIA sabotage.