Tuesday, August 03, 2004
ZARQAWRI IN IRAN ?
Middle East Newsline, which I believe is Israeli sourced, is reporting that Islamist terrorist Abu Mussib al Zarqawri is operating from the Iranian side of the Iran-Iraq border. I find this somewhat unlikely, given Zarqawri's noted hostility toward Iraqi Shiites, that Iran, even the hardliners, would select him in particular as their Sunni catspaw of choice. Unlike Juan Cole I don't find prospects of Iranian cooperation with Sunni terrorists impossible; in fact in the case of the Palestinians there is good evidence that this has been going on for years. Iran itself admits to having senior al Qaida figures in some kind of vague custody, though not to helping them directly.
This is difficult to decipher. Iran's government is much like that of a schizophrenic with multiple personalities - while the hardline Shiite Islamists under Khameini, Rafsanjani and the Security services are dominant, the decision-making process of the leadership is convoluted.
¶ 7:21 PM
Middle East Newsline, which I believe is Israeli sourced, is reporting that Islamist terrorist Abu Mussib al Zarqawri is operating from the Iranian side of the Iran-Iraq border. I find this somewhat unlikely, given Zarqawri's noted hostility toward Iraqi Shiites, that Iran, even the hardliners, would select him in particular as their Sunni catspaw of choice. Unlike Juan Cole I don't find prospects of Iranian cooperation with Sunni terrorists impossible; in fact in the case of the Palestinians there is good evidence that this has been going on for years. Iran itself admits to having senior al Qaida figures in some kind of vague custody, though not to helping them directly.
This is difficult to decipher. Iran's government is much like that of a schizophrenic with multiple personalities - while the hardline Shiite Islamists under Khameini, Rafsanjani and the Security services are dominant, the decision-making process of the leadership is convoluted.
¶ 7:21 PM
