the war on Iran has begun, special forces involved

[tocqueville]

I found an interesting quote in Asia Times

The London Times quoted British Defense Ministry sources on Sunday saying that SAS (Special Air Service Regiment) commandos, operating jointly with the US and Australian special forces units, have engaged in at least a dozen intense firefights in the recent weeks with Iranian border guards. The newspaper spoke of British special forces having repeatedly crossed into Iran several times in recent weeks, and of "persistent reports of American special-operations missions inside Iran preparing for a possible attack".

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IJ25Ak01.html

the source is the London Times :

"BRITISH special forces have crossed into Iran several times in recent months as part of a secret border war against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Al-Quds special forces, defence sources have disclosed.

There have been at least half a dozen intense firefights between the SAS and arms smugglers, a mixture of Iranians and Shi’ite militiamen.

The unreported fighting straddles the border between Iran and Iraq and has also involved the Iranian military firing mortars into Iraq. UK commanders are concerned that Iran is using a militia ceasefire to step up arms supplies in preparation for an offensive against their base at Basra airport.

An SAS squadron is carrying out operations along the Iranian border in Maysan and Basra provinces with other special forces, the Australian SAS and American special-operations troops."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2691726.ece

more here :

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2461368.ece

and here

http://timesonline.typepad.com/mick_smith/

[razors edge]

1. This came out a couple days ago

in the sites we can't post from.

Those wacky conspiracy guys must have guessed at, and nailed another one before the M$M, how do they do it?

[seemslikeadream]

2. can ya give me a hint?

please

[razors edge]

6. I think I saw it on

WRH, Rense, and maybe Prison Planet, I mostly just read the headlines and blow off the nutty stuff.

[TheWraith]

3. By being completely wrong 9,999 times out of ten thousand.

And now is quite likely one of those times, unless you twist logic and definitions to serve one's own purposes.

[razors edge]

7. Who doesn't

twist logic and definitions to serve one's own purposes?

I'm a big boy, I can read between the lines.

Hell, deciphering and finding one line of simple truth from any media is tough anymore.

[seemslikeadream]

10. That's the problem with those guys they just don't think we are grown

up enough to read stuff like that, they gotta help us figure out what's the truth so we don't make a mistake

[razors edge]

12. Control the message. n/t

[tocqueville]

5. I think my sources are reliable

besides the Mick Smith blog is not a freeper blog, rather the opposite :

"Bush has declared that he is not prepared to leave office without having found a solution to the perceived threat from Iranian nuclear weapons, with the military option a real likelihood. It is vital that the Democrats use the power they acquired in the mid-term elections to rein in the administration before we get to that point."

http://timesonline.typepad.com/mick_smith/2007/06/has-america-rea.html

[razors edge]

9. I read them,

I read everyone.

I used to hate to read, I was 20/200, after my lasik surgery I have become a news junky.

[tocqueville]

4. There is an interesting strategic aspect

The fighting doesn't occur (or at least for the most) in the northern Kurdish part that borders Iran (even if intermezzos happen there too). It happens in the South near Basra. Or Basra is a harbour and one of the natural ways for a US retreat from Iraq.

[tocqueville]

8. more here from Asia Times

Least of all, as Erdogan told the Sunday Times, "In our country a serious wave of anti-Americanism is fast gaining a momentum all of its own. This did not happen overnight for no reason. The developments in Iraq are very important here."

Erdogan went on to explain why this is so: "The United States came to Iraq from tens of thousands of kilometers away. Why and for what purpose it came I cannot say. But if you ask me my personal opinion, there is no success that I can see. There is just the death of tens of thousands of people. There is just an Iraq whose entire infrastructure and superstructure has collapsed. These need to be correctly evaluated."

That is why Bush's apocalyptic vision of an impending World War III will not easily convince Turkey. How to make Turkey bend to the US regional policies in the Middle East remains an open question. The PKK card may have outlived its utility for the present. From now on, the law of diminishing returns will be at work. The better course will be the British way of doing harsh things - first, completely identifying with Turkey's sorrows, and then making an offer that Ankara may be hard-pressed to refuse.

But the buck ultimately stops in Washington. The key meeting will be on November 5 when Erdogan sits down with Bush. Erdogan will want to hear from Bush that Washington is determined to rein in Barzani and the PKK so that a new Iraq war can be avoided. The pashas in Ankara, cautious by temperament, will await the outcome of the meeting. By beating the war drums in the meantime, Turkey has called attention to its demand that PKK leaders based in northern Iraq must be handed over.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IJ25Ak02.html

in another words Erdogan will ask the US to clamp down on the PKK in the north or else they will do it themselves. Another point is that this would facilitate for Erdogan to permit a US retreat through Turkey in the future and in case of an attack on Iran to let the US transit go through. But it means that the US has to open a second front in Iraq, and the US military is probably not very enthusiastic about that.

all this seems to be to me another lose-lose "solution" in the WH Kobayashi Maru war game.

[razors edge]

11. If it weren't for

Israel's close ties with the Kurds, bush would welcome the Turks to roll over them and set up shop. The Kurds always get fucked over.

It would be one less problem for the US to police, and a NATO ally would soon be pumping oil without major world objections.

Bush can bomb the Iranians, but he has overplayed his hand. Our Marines and Army are ground down in the sand, and Iran would walk right over them short of sustained close air cover. That may not be a bad thing to Bush if he gets desperate, since he could use it as an excuse to reinstate the draft and hand the mess off to Hillary to solve or not. Or he could use it as a reason to declare Martial Law and suspend elections, but even he would see the problems with that.

The international community already hates him more than we do, he needs to dump a problem like that on someone who would be able to smooth it over with the world, while we still get our hands on the Caspian Sea oil. So, we will get Hillary.

[Gregorian]

13. So if the administration is trying to get Iran to start a war with the US,

isn't that treason?

[razors edge]

14. If a tree falls in the woods

and the Democrats will impeach,

did it make a sound?

Edit: changed no to the, not fair to count out DK.

[Wiley50]

15. So far, Iran is proving tough to pick a fight with

But, once the bombers are in the air

Bush will swear that they forced us to do it

[CGowen]

16. Special Forces have been in Iran for a long time( Hersh reported it in 04/05)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0118/dailyUpdate.html


I don't know if they are helping MEK and PJAK to commit terrorism or if what the papers report is true.