Iranian Diplomat Kidnapped in Baghdad by Iraqis With Official ID

[Bhaisahab]

Iranian Diplomat Kidnapped in Baghdad by Iraqis With Official ID
By JAMES GLANZ
Published: February 6, 2007

BAGHDAD, Tuesday, Feb. 6 — An Iranian diplomat was abducted Sunday evening when his convoy was stopped by men with official Defense Ministry identification in the Karrada neighborhood here, senior Iraqi and American officials said Monday.

Iraqi security forces captured several suspects after pursuing their vehicles through the streets of Baghdad, two of the Iraqi officials said.

The vehicle with the diplomat was not caught, though.

<SNIP>

The abduction of the Iranian took place in a largely Shiite section of the city not far from where a truck bomb killed at least 135 people on Saturday and where residents have complained that the slow pace of the increase in American troops has left them open to attacks.

The men captured in the chase by Iraqi forces on Sunday were Iraqis with Defense Ministry identification, Iraqi and American officials said, raising serious questions about whether government forces themselves were involved in the abduction.

A senior Iraqi official said that the credentials initially appeared to be genuine but that investigators later received conflicting information about whether the men had been dismissed from the ministry but somehow kept their identification.

When asked about indications that an Iranian diplomat had been abducted in Baghdad, Mohammad alHosseini, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman in Tehran, said: “We need to investigate, because we have been receiving a lot of news like that these days. I cannot confirm it yet.”

COMPLETE ARTICLE AT http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/world/middleeast/06iraq.html?ref=world

[uppityperson]

1. "Been receiving a lot of news like that these days". k&r

[Eugene]

2. The Iraqi uniforms were not from just any unit.

From Reuters...

Gunmen kidnap Iranian diplomat in Baghdad

-snip-

The gunmen were wearing uniforms of the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion,
a special operations unit that often works with U.S. military forces in Iraq,
the official said.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06752644.htm

The Iranians are already blaming the U.S. for the kidnapping.
Whether or not the U.S. is responsible, the situation in Baghdad
just got even more seriously f**ked than it already was.

[Hissyspit]

3. Officials: Gunmen (Wearing Iraqi Army Uniforms) Seize Iranian Diplomat In Baghdad

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_IRANIAN_SEIZED?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME

Feb 6, 5:07 AM EST
Officials: Gunmen Seize Iranian Diplomat

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms seized an Iranian diplomat as he drove through central Baghdad, officials said Tuesday.

One Iraqi government official said the diplomat was detained Sunday by a special Iraqi army unit that reports directly to the U.S. military. But a military spokesman denied any U.S. troops or Iraqis that report to them were involved.

"We've checked with our units and it was not an MNF-I (Multi-National Forces - Iraq) unit that participated in that event," military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said, adding he could not confirm the diplomat was seized.

An official with the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information, said the diplomat was heading to check on the planned opening of an Iranian bank Sunday in the central Karradah neighborhood when he was seized by men wearing Iraqi army uniforms.

MORE

[annabanana]

6. My guess?. . . . . "Contractors"

That vast mecenary army that answers to no body politic. This is where all that new military budget money is headed...

[dos pelos]

15. We were behind it.Just like we set up Karbala...

Provocation,set up.Use of proxies or mercenaries.Poking at Iran.Karbala is distressing because it involved the use of a corporate army,mercenaries,against US Citizen troops,for the creation of a provocation.It is amazing how quickly and how low this administration has stooped.

[HuffleClaw]

7. "...special Iraqi army unit that reports directly to the U.S. military."

yet another provocation by a criminal administration

[jannyk]

4. Breaking BBC: Iran envoy 'abducted in Baghdad'

very little detail as still breaking...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6334439.stm

Jalal Sharafi, the embassy's second secretary, was abducted on Sunday from the central Karrada district by men wearing special Iraqi army uniforms.

Iran condemned the kidnapping and held the US responsible for the diplomat's life, Iranian state media said.

[Justice]

5. oh that's not good

[bdamomma]

8. they are really provoking for a confrontation with Iran.

disgusting, the big bullies of the world USA.:shrug:

[roamer65]

9. Hopefully Iran plays it cool.

That's the only thing that will stop the escalation at this point.

[tanyev]

10. So do I bookmark this in my Iraq War folder or my Iran War folder?

Hmmm.

:freak:

[mikeytherat]

12. Yes.

mikey_the_rat

[redqueen]

11. Boy, they really want to get the next phase of their "unending war" plan started

don't they?

[saigon68]

13. K & R

[OKNancy]

14. kick

[GeorgeGist]

16. Iranian diplomat snatched in Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms kidnapped a senior Iranian diplomat in Baghdad, Iraqi and Iranian officials said on Tuesday, and Tehran blamed the U.S. military and demanded his immediate release.

"We are dealing with this as a kidnapping," an Iraqi government official said of the incident, which threatens to further raise tensions between the United States and Iran.

The official said the diplomat, the second secretary at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, was snatched in the central Karrada district on Sunday by 30 gunmen wearing the uniforms of a special Iraqi army unit that often works with U.S. military forces in Iraq.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini blamed U.S. forces for the kidnapping of Jalal Sharafi, saying it was carried out by a group attached to Iraq's Defense Ministry "which works under the supervision of American forces".

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0675264420070206

[TheDebbieDee]

17. The Iranians might assume we did the kidnapping..............

retaliate and then * will start WWIII!

[dos pelos]

20. I suspect we were behind this kidnapping....

As I suspect we were behind the Karbala incident.Provoking the Iranians.Poking them with a sharp stick.There is plenty of historic precedent around.To kick off the invasion of Poland in WWII Herr Hitler staged a fake raid on a german border radio station.Shot some concentration camp inmates,dressed them in German and Polish uniforms and Voila!Pretext for war.This is not to mention the recent american analog to the Reichstag fire which got the War On Terror kicked into high gear.Point is,we're setting up provocations to make way for the war on Iran that is imminent.

[OKthatsIT]

22. You are absolutely right! US IS PROVOKING IRAN

I only hope IRAN realizes ANY violent response will get their butts bombed.

If Israel strikes Iran...our troops are dead in Iraq.

[BluePatriot]

18. Eeeee...

I hope they find that official alive...

[peacetalksforall]

19. Circumstantial .... Don't we supply the Iraqi uniforms? It would

be fitting to the crimes of profit of our politician-military-intelligence-PNAC leaders to charge us to contract out to a friend the business of designing, manufacturing, and shipping Iraqi uniforms. (Unless, of course, they sold some Iraqi oil to pay for the uniforms. Or, unless they are using existing uniforms, if there are existing uniforms that aren't Bathist/former Hussein army uniforms?)

So it would be very easy to dress up some of the CIA or contractor guys to do the kidnapping...... as step 1 to war.

How would a scriptwriter plot this?

Does it make sense that Iraqis would kidnap an Iranian Diplomat on their own?

Will this Diplomat be given Diplomatic courtesies or will he be sent to Syria, Egypt, Romania, or Diego Garcia for 'questioning'.

[The Stranger]

21. So classic false flag, with all the plausible deniability and yet provocation of Iran to war.

Nicely done, Neonazicons.