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  Why Iran 'meddles' in Iraq
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ContributorPenguin 
Last EditedPenguin  Feb 20, 2007 02:03pm
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CategoryOpinion
MediaNewspaper - Los Angeles Times
News DateSunday, February 18, 2007 08:00:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionTHIS TIME AROUND, when the Bush administration presented "intelligence" from unidentified sources about a dangerous foe in the Middle East, the American media was noticeably more skeptical. Eager to redeem themselves for the generally obsequious reporting about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction and ties to Al Qaeda, journalists don't want to get fooled again as the administration lays the groundwork for a possible war against Iran.

But even though journalists have quite rightly raised questions about the credibility of the intelligence and the motives behind its release, they have failed to take the next step and examine the fundamental underlying premise behind the administration's accusations: that Iran's role in Iraq is inappropriate.

Take, for instance, the New York Times' Feb. 13 editorial, "Iran and the Nameless Briefers." While demanding that President Bush "make his intentions toward Iran clear," warning against "another disastrous war" and questioning the administration's assertion (since retracted) that "the highest levels of the Iranian government" authorized the sale of armor-piercing explosives to militants in Iraq, the paper added, as if it were self-evident: "We have no doubt of Iran's malign intentions. Iran is defying the Security Council's order to halt its nuclear activities, and it is certainly meddling inside Iraq."

Let's be clear: Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with his disgraceful Holocaust denial conference and incendiary strutting, cuts an unsavory profile, to say the least. And since the collapse of the Iranian reform movement, hard-liners have shrewdly exploited Bush's threats, jailing intellectuals with contacts in the West.
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