follow the bouncing ball:
March 30, 2003
Rumsfeld Calls Badr Corps "Combatants", Gives Them $92 Million
On Friday, Donald Rumsfeld angrily warned Iran not to allow the Badr Corps to operate inside Iraq. In a Pentagon press conference, Rumsfeld declared, "We will hold the Iranian government responsible for their actions and will view Badr Corps activity inside Iraq as unhelpful. Armed Badr Corps members found in Iraq will have to be treated as combatants."
He charged that the Badr Corps is trained, equipped and directed by Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
It's worth taking a quick look at the Badr Corps that Rummy is so angry about.
The Badr Corps is the military wing of the Tehran-based Supreme Council of Islamic Resistance in Iraq (SCIRI). Over the past several months, the Bush Administration has been funding the SCIRI, to the tune of $92 Million authorized to SCIRI and four other Iraqi opposition groups. The funds had been authorized under the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, but the Clinton Administration had not distributed the money due to some concerns about the groups.
Even more interesting is that most of the funds have been going to military training. UPI reported last December that "the funding for opposition activities would go largely for military training for such activities as liaison work between Iraqis and the U.S. military."
So if Rumsfeld really wants to contact the Badr Corps, they should be as close as a liaison's office in the Pentagon.
muslimwakeup.com
An army officer, a key source in Kirkuk, reports that not only is the MEK (Mujahaiden Badr Corps) not a pro-Al Queda operation with ties to Iran, as the Bush administration asserted, it is opposed to the regime in Iran and has been fighting Iranian para-military units in Northern Iraq. Well equipped and superbly trained, the MEK did fight with Saddam Hussein against Iran, but only for the purpose of toppling the Mullahs. Most of the upper level MEK commanders and a very significant minority of their troops are women, so they hardly qualify as Fundamentalist terrorists. When Condoleeza Rice said their base in Northern Iraq where they trained was tied to Al Queda, she was lying through her teeth. She knew exactly who and what they were. The Army source in Kirkuk reports that Rumsfeld is considering using them in an invasion of Iran, the way he used the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. The only difference is that the MEK is a far superior fighting force. It is currently under U.S. Army protection against the Iranian para-military units.
lewrockwell.com
Witnesses in Baghdad said about 300 members of the Badr Corps -- the armed wing of the SCIRI -- left Baghdad wearing military-style uniforms and armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades, saying they were going to Najaf.
cnn.com
Q: I'm with the New York Times. Dexter Filkins. I just wanted to maybe take issue a bit. The council members that I've talked to, and many of the Iraqis who I've talked to recently, have expressed a lot of frustration with the security policies that -- that the Coalition Authority is conducting. And just as an example, on Saturday, when there was a big demonstration out in front of the Republican Palace, the SCIRI people were here, and as you know, they have hundreds of their own guys in the Badr brigade, and the leaders were saying, "I don't know how much longer we can keep these people on a leash. They want to do things, they want to help, they want to provide security."
So I'm wondering, how are you doing to acknowledge that frustration and deal with it? And do you have any specific plans to try to incorporate some of these militias and people that they have out there so that they can help?
Bremer: We believe that there is not a role in the new Iraq for organized militias. We do not believe organized militias are consistent with an independent, unified Iraq. However, we have encouraged members of militia, including the Badr Corps, to play a role in security. There are members of militia already; indeed, there are members of the Badr Corps who have already enlisted, for example, in one of the battalions of the Civil Defense Corps that I mentioned. So, it's not as if they don't have a way to play a role; they do have a way to play a role.
We do not believe that militia, whether it's the Badr Corps or other militias, themselves should go around as armed units acting in a security function. We think in the long run, that is not consistent with a unified country with its own police force and its own army. And so, over the period ahead, we will, hopefully, see these militia play a lesser role, though the individuals who are in the militia are welcome to, and have, indeed, already joined both the police force and the new Iraqi army and the civil defense corps.
defenselink.mil
Muqtada al-Sadr called in his Friday sermon at Kufa for American troops who abased Iraqis to be tried in accordance with Islamic law. He referred specifically to what he called the US "attack" on the shrine of Imam Husayn in Karbala last weekend. (For Shiites, the shrine of Imam Husayn is among the holiest sites in the world, and they have a lot of emotional investment in it; maybe like Arlington cemetary for patriotic Americans). He also urged all those Iraqis who were cooperating with the Coalition to repent and to join his proposed Mahdi Army, a militia that would serve as an alternative to the new Iraqi army being created by the US. He issued the call to all Iraqis, including Kurds, and he especially addressed the Badr Corps, a Shiite militia associated with his rivals, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The head of the Badr Corps, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, is serving on the Interim Governing Council, and Muqtada is trying to use that cooperation to turn his own troops against him. He also appealed to the Kurdish Peshmerga to join him. He thanked all those nations who refused to recognize the governing council, and who refused to send troops to Iraq.
His audience kept shouting, "No, no to America!" "No, no to the Occupier!" "No, no to tyranny." It is estimated that Muqtada has about 2 million followers, about ten percent of Iraqis.
juancole.com
you really should pay attention instead of burying your ditto-head up shrub's arse. |
