The Times had a titilating piece ten days back about Iran supplying some of the Iraqi insurgency's roadside bombs. Today, Time magazine carries the story about seven football fields further, documenting a wide-scale effort by Tehran to make its presence felt through Iraq.
A TIME investigation, based on documents smuggled out of Iran and dozens of interviews with U.S., British and Iraqi intelligence officials, as well as an Iranian agent, armed dissidents and Iraqi militia and political allies, reveals an Iranian plan for gaining influence in Iraq that began before the U.S. invaded. In their scope and ambition, Iran's activities rival those of the U.S. and its allies, especially in the south.
Read it all.
THERE'S MORE: "The American commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. John Vines, speaking to reporters from Baghdad June 21, played down the notion of outside [read: Iranian] expertise coming into the country," Defense News observes.
They are certainly getting some outside advice, but there is some technical expertise that was resident in the Iraqi Army, probably from their explosive ordnance personnel. He said it is not so much technical sophistication thats a problem; the lethality of the IEDs comes from a combination of bombs. The tactical expertise to do that, that capability exists here in the country, he said.
