Iranian Military Officials Captured in Iraq, American Media Yawns

If I told you there was a major development in Iraq last week, one which could have behind-the-scenes implications on U.S. policy towards both Iraq and Iran in 2007, would you be interested? What if I told you that said development may provide the ultimate smoking gun evidence that Iran is helping to direct insurgent attacks against American forces in Iraq--basically, that Iran is helping to murder America's sons and daughters on a daily basis? Call me crazy, but I think most Americans would want to hear about that--especially given that 12 of our leading foreign policy "realists" recently suggested the U.S. should open dialogue with Iran over events in Iraq.

Why then, would news that two Iranian military officials were captured recently in Iraq over events in Iraq. Why then, would news that two Iranian military officials were captured recently in Iraq be virtually ignored by most of the mainstream media? Especially when these two officials were seized in the Baghdad compound of influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who traveled to Washington just three weeks ago for a personal audience with President Bush.

Here's more from the New York Times (via Iran Focus), which, by the way, didn't even see fit to print this story on its front page:

The American military said Tuesday that it had credible evidence linking Iranians and their Iraqi associates, detained here in raids last week, to criminal activities, including attacks against American forces. Evidence also emerged that some detainees had been involved in shipments of weapons to illegal armed groups in Iraq.

In its first official confirmation of last week’s raids, the military said it had confiscated maps, videos, photographs and documents in one of the raids on a site in Baghdad. The military confirmed the arrests of five Iranians, and said three of them had been released.

The Bush administration has described the two Iranians still being held Tuesday night as senior military officials. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell IV, the chief spokesman for the American command, said the military, in the raid, had "gathered specific intelligence from highly credible sources that linked individuals and locations with criminal activities against Iraqi civilians, security forces and coalition force personnel."

We already knew that Iran was supplying roadside bombs to Iraqi insurgents. These new revelations are obviously even more serious.

American officials have long said that the Iranian government interferes in Iraq, but the arrests, in the compound of one of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite political leaders, were the first since the American invasion in which officials were offering evidence of the link.

The raids threaten to upset the delicate balance of the three-way relationship among the United States, Iran and Iraq. The Iraqi government has made extensive efforts to engage Iran in security matters in recent months, and the arrests of the Iranians could scuttle those efforts.

Some Iraqis questioned the timing of the arrests, suggesting that the Bush administration had political motives. The arrests were made just days before the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution imposing sanctions on Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

"Political motives?" On whose part? According to the Times, they may belong to Iraq's own Iran-friendly government:

Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, had invited the two Iranians during his visit to Tehran, his spokesman said Sunday, but by Tuesday, some Iraqi officials began to question if Mr. Talabani had in fact made the invitation. His office was unavailable for comment Tuesday night.

"We know when they caught them they were doing something," said one Iraqi official, who added that the Iranians did not appear to have formally registered with the government.

I think we've established that this is a vitally important story, and I strongly encourage you to read it all. That said, why isn't it headlining tv and radio gabfests from coast to coast ads I write this? Rich Miniter of Pajamas Media.com has some ideas:

These arrests-indeed this story-should be front page news. Instead, it doesn’t even make the front page of the New York Times’ web site.

Why aren’t our media elites interested? I am no mind reader, but I am a reader. I recall a raft of articles in the New Yorker, the Nation and the New York Times predicting or fearing that Iran was next on Bush’s list. Why tell the public that Iran is the reason we are bleeding in Iraq and that we cannot honorably leave until Iran ceases interfering in the affairs of its Arab neighbor? That means regime change in Iran. And that is not on the Times’ agenda.

I'm afraid Rich hits the nail on the head here. As for the Bush administration's reaction to all this? Stay tuned.
CBN