New propaganda

So the Cheney wing managed to spew some more anti-Iranian propaganda. Planted in the Guardian:

Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaida elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces intended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say.

"Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq and it's a very dangerous course for them to be following. They are already committing daily acts of war against US and British forces," a senior US official in Baghdad warned. "They [Iran] are behind a lot of high-profile attacks meant to undermine US will and British will, such as the rocket attacks on Basra palace and the Green Zone [in Baghdad]. The attacks are directed by the Revolutionary Guard who are connected right to the top [of the Iranian government]."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2085195,00.html

This is ridiculous. Juan Cole shoots the whole thing down in one paragraph.

I suppose I have to link to this silly article by poor Simon Tisdall in of all places, The
Guardian, whom someone is using to push a sinister agenda. Yes, its sources are looney in positing a coming offensive jointly sponsored by Iran, the Mahdi Army and al-Qaeda. Anyone who reads IC regularly will see immediately holes in this story. At a time when Sunni Arab guerrillas are said to be opposing "al-Qaeda inMesopotamia" for its indiscriminate violence against Iraqis, including Shiites, we are now expected to believe that Shiite Iran is allying with it. And, it claims that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are shelling the Green Zone. The parliament building that was hit to day by such shelling is dominated by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and its paramilitary, the Badr Organization. Who trained Badr? The Iranian Revolutionary Guards. And they are trying to hit their own guys . . . why? By the way, the US has 16,000 suspected insurgents in custody. Tisdall should ask how many of them are Iranian. (Hint: close to none. What, do they just run faster than the others?) The article even traffics in the ridiculous assertion that Iran is backing hyper-Sunni,
Shiite-killing Taliban in Afghanistan. Why not just cut to the quick and openly
say that Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei is in reality . . . Satan! It really
is discouraging that Tisdall didn't report instead on what crazy things the US
military spokesmen in Iraq told him. US military spokesmen have been trying to
push implausible articles about Shiite Iran supporting Sunni insurgents for a
couple of years now, and with virtually the sole exception of the New York Times, no one in the journalistic community has taken these wild charges seriously. But The Guardian?

http://www.juancole.com/

P.S. not much posting-the old computer seems to need the sledgehammer treatment.