One of the most puzzling 'news' items today is the not—so—stunning story on Iran's influence in the fighting in Iraq in the Inside the Ring column of The Washington Times.  Pentagon reporters Gertz and Scarborough reveal (?) that the military is concerned about Iranian intelligence agents helping the so—called insurgents in Iraq:

U.S. intelligence officials tell us Iran has dispatched to Iraq about 200 [only 200!] intelligence officers and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The Iranians are not simply spying for Tehran.  Intelligence from Iraq also indicates they are supplying information to the insurgents on the Iraqi government and on the United States and coalition forces.

The IRGC operatives are part of the notorious Qods force, which has been used to train foreign terrorists and to export Iran's version of Islamic extremism.

For readers of AT or NRO's Michael Ledeen, this is old news, in fact, almost a year old .  It should come as no big surprise that the terrorists and irregular fighters in Iraq are tools of intelligence services and the special operations forces of radical Islamist nation—states and remnants of Saddam's Special Republican Guard.

One wonders at the usefulness of publishing an article about this miraculous discovery now, especially since Iranian operatives started infiltrating into Iraq shortly after the fall of Baghdad in 2003.  If this is part of an information warfare operation to increase pressure on the mullahs, it will only make them chuckle at our lack of investigative prowess.  On the other hand, if this is truly some new intelligence coup, our national security organizations are in bigger trouble than I thought.

Doug Hanson   03—18—05