From Informed Comment:
11:05 PM (4 minutes ago)Wikileaks Gates: No Iranian Help to Talibanfrom Informed Comment by Juan
What they tell us:
In summer of 2009, it was revealed that Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair informed the US Congress that, according to Marcus Baram at HuffP,
“Iran is covertly supplying arms to Afghan insurgents while publicly posing as supportive of the Afghan government.” That includes the provision of small arms, mines, rocket-propelled grenades, rockets, mortars and plastic explosives. Ironically, Blair also noted that Iran has been assisting Afghanistan with developing their security capabilities through the “construction of border security facilities.”
Gen. Stanley McChrystal publicly made similar charges in fall, 2009.
What they tell each other:
According to a newly released wikileaks document, in February of this year, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates met with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. Afghanistan was on the agenda.
Gates “noted that intelligence indicated there was little lethal material crossing the Afghanistan-Iran border.”…
I have been saying for years that the occasional Pentagon or other USG allegations of Iranian support for the hyper-Sunni, Shiite-killing Taliban are just war propaganda. Iran has Afghan President Hamid Karzai on a $2 mn. a year retainer! Why would Tehran want to overthrow him? Gates told Frattini the real story, not the cover story.
It appears that in private they level with other security bureaucrats, but then lie in public to Obama and the Congress.
You could imagine a good Saturday Night Live skit about “Wikileaks Gates” (the honest straight shooter) and “Television Gates” (who says what we’ve all been hearing). And, mind you, Gates is not by any means the worst offender.
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