The US arrest of Iranians
Incidents like this lead any sentient person to question just how reliable US intelligence actually is.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
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4 comments:
That was a "main story" in the news over there? Man, you people are obsessed. While covered, it was barely a blip over here.
Since it seems they were detained as a result of having illegal weapons after going through a checkpoint, trying to paint it as some kind of intelligence failure does not seem to be accurate.
That was a "main story" in the news over there? Man, you people are obsessed. While covered, it was barely a blip over here.
The clip was actually from BBC America, Jason. The logo at the top right hand corner of the screen should have alerted you to that.
And the weapons you are talking about actually belonged to the Iraqi guards who were escorting the Iranian energy ministry delegation on an official visit to the Iraqi government.
So yes, it does reflect very badly on American intelligence that they appeared unaware of who these people - on an official visit - were.
The clip was actually from BBC America, Jason. The logo at the top right hand corner of the screen should have alerted you to that.
Yeah, I got that. The news shown on BBC America is "BBC World News Today", which I seem to remember watching when I was in England, but I suppose it could have been somewhere else.
So yes, it does reflect very badly on American intelligence that they appeared unaware of who these people - on an official visit - were.
Who says anywhere that intelligence didn't know who they were.? It was obviously not a planned operation, which would have received intel support. It's doubtful the grunt-on-the-street would have had access to such information when they came across a target of opportunity, which is likely what happened.
I brought up BBC America and the fact that it's shown in the states to counter your notion that this information was only available mostly outside of the US.
And I'm stunned that you don't think it reflects badly on US intel that the grunts on the ground are so uninformed that they know nothing of visiting delegates who they then proceed to treat like criminals, including blindfolding them.
And as for your claim that intel may well have known all about this, you might want to watch the clip again. Patreaus's spokesman says that "once we found out from the Iraqi government that they were on official business, we released them".
So no, your intelligence sources didn't know who they were.
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