Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left Iraq after a historic two-day visit. He was given a red-carpet farewell attended by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
President Ahmadinejad was expected earlier to go on a pilgrimage to the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf during his second day in Iraq.
Ahmadinejad held talks in Baghdad with Iraq's Supreme Islamic Council Abdul Aziz Hakim and the two held a joint news conference.
In a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki yesterday, Ahmadinejad said that his visit to Iraq and talks with Iraqi officials has opened “a new chapter” in Iran-Iraq relations. Al-Maliki called Iran’s role in Iraq “helpful.”
Ahmadinejad took a jab at the US during his press conference with al-Maliki. “Iraqi people do not like America,” Ahmadinejad said. “As soon as foreigners (the Americans) put their foot in the region, the terrorists came here too,” Ahmadinejad added.
US President George Bush had earlier accused Iran of playing a destabilizing role in Iraq. Bush had called on Iran to “quit sending in sophisticated equipment that's killing our citizens.”
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US President George Bush had earlier accused Iran of playing a destabilizing role in Iraq. Bush had called on Iran to "quit sending in sophisticated equipment that's killing our citizens."
I'd like to know specifically what "sophisticated equipment" American spokesmen and politicians are continually referring to which they claim is coming from Iran.
This is a bit off the "Ahmadinejad Leaves Iraq" subject but it's related to some text in the report: I had en eMail exchange last year with Jennifer Griffin from foxnews specifically on this point. Numerous times I had heard her state on television that IEDs and EFPs encountered in Iraq had been "proven" to have originated in Iran. She stated this unequivocally. I then directed her to a couple of contrary reports showing that at least some of those items were being maufactured inside Iraq (see below). She said she'd "get back to me" but of course that was the last I heard from her.
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At least two EFP factories have since been found in Iraq, facilities which produced the thin copper 'lenses' for EFPs. The picture [removed] suggests that one man with a lathe can turn out enough to keep the insurgency supplied at the current rate. Several lathes would mean a lot more EFPs; at the current rate each one of those stacks of five or six copper lenses represents one potential death.
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A U.S. military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Scott Bleichwehl....said troops, facing scattered resistance, discovered a factory that produced "explosively formed penetrators" (EFPs), a particularly deadly type of explosive that can destroy a main battle tank, and several weapons caches. [The story is reported from in or near Diwaniya, Diwaniya Province, Iraq.]
The Iraqis have been been maintaining and repairing oilfield equipment for fifty years or more. There are hundreds if not thousands of qualified machinists and electrical technicians in the country with the technical competence to produce EFPs and other explosive devices. That's not even to mention ex-military people with relevant skills. Heck, the Iraqis may have even found designs for weaponry and remote detonation techniques on the internet. From American websites.
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