NYT: Bush Authorized Iranians' Arrest in Iraq, Rice Says

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 — A recent series of American raids against Iranians in Iraq was authorized under an order that President Bush decided to issue several months ago to undertake a broad military offensive against Iranian operatives in the country, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.

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The White House decision to authorize the aggressive steps against Iranians in Iraq appears to formalize the American effort to contain Iran’s ambitions as a new front in the Iraq war. Administration officials now describe Iran as the single greatest threat the United States faces in the Middle East, though some administration critics regard the talk about Iran as a diversion, one intended to shift attention away from the spiraling chaos in Iraq.

In adopting a more confrontational approach toward Iran, Mr. Bush has decisively rejected recommendations of the Iraq Study Group that he explore negotiations with Tehran as part of a new strategy to help quell the sectarian violence in Iraq.

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Mr. Bush’s public warning to Iran was accompanied by the deployment of an additional aircraft carrier off Iran’s coast and advanced Patriot antimissile defense systems in Persian Gulf countries near Iran’s borders. Both the White House and the secretary of defense, Robert M. Gates, insisted Friday that the United States was not seeking to goad Iran into conflict, and that it had no intention of taking the battle into Iranian territory. The White House spokesman, Tony Snow, warned reporters away from “an urban legend that’s going around” that Mr. Bush was “trying to prepare the way for war” with Iran or Syria.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/13/world/middleeast/13strategy.html?hp&ex=1168664400&en=5b2b789a19f259a1&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Why are these people in Iraq on the invitation of President Talibani? And are there any consequences for President Talibani for having done so?

Why are they in at the invitation of figures like Barzani, the Kurdish regional leader, and al-Hakim, the head of SCIRI, the Iran-sponsored, originally anti-Saddam militia that has never been accused of attacking US troops?

So they can invite anyone they want in to the country. Anyway, that's the theory I keep hearing propounded. Don't tell me it's not true.

but don't. :(

It's barely perceptible...