Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday said the ruling class in Iran may not know that their special operations agentsare inside Iraq aiding the insurgents in killing Americans and Iraqis.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which controls the special al Quds forces, “may be acting on their own in Iraq,” Gates told reporters at the Pentagon. ” We don’t know how high it is.”
Gates added to the debate swirling in Washington over a briefing the Baghdad command conducted Sunday on Iranian arms in Iraq. An anonymous briefer told reporters that the highest government levels in Iran directed the arms and cash brought in by al Quds.
The next day, Gen. Peter Pace, Joint Chiefs chairman, seemed to contradict the briefer. He said U.S. intelligence does not know if Iran President Mahmoud Ahmedinejed or the ruling mullahs are involved.
The contradiction sparked a reporter’s question at President Bush’s press conference on whether the administration inflated Iran’s role to justify military strikes.
Gen. Pace, who appeared with Gates yesterday, sought to set the record straight.
“What I tried to say when I said I didn’t know about the Iranian government, I’m talking about the top two or three people in the government,” the four-star general said.
The other key parts of Sunday’s briefer are solid, he said.
The U.S. has captured and interrogated Iranians inside Iraq who are al Quds members assigned to the high-level Revolutionary Guard.
“We know that there are explosives and weapons being used inside of Iraq that were manufactured in Iran,” Pace said. “We do not have proof that the senior leadership in Iran is directing these activities in Iraq … I was trying to be very precise about what facts are and what conclusions are.”
The Bush administration is extra sensitive to charges of using flawed intelligence to justify military action. A CIA assessment that Iraq still harbored weapons of mass destruction, the main Bush argument for going to war, turned out false.
