Author: Eli J. Lake
Publication: United Press International
Date: December 9, 2002
URL: http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20021209-050003-8913r
The United States has approved military
funding for six Iraqi opposition groups, including an Iran-based organization
that maintains close ties to that country's hard-line Islamic clerical
leadership.
The group, known as the Supreme
Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, is an umbrella for
a number of Shia Islamist groups including some that have in the past coordinated
activities with Iran's intelligence services. The group maintains an office
in Tehran that is paid for by the Iranian government.
Under an order signed by President
Bush Saturday, SCIRI and five other Iraqi opposition groups would be eligible
for $92 million worth of military training and defense articles from the
Pentagon -- authorized by the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act.
"The Iranians have allowed SCIRI
to take some positions different than the government. That said the group
is never going to go against Iranian policy, and is dependent on Iranian
financial and logistical support," Patrick Clawson, the deputy director
of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy told United Press International
Monday.
Clawson called the step "significant
because the Iranians are willing to see someone on their soil accept money
from the United States government."
U.S. funding for Iraqi opposition
groups on Iranian soil in the past has been limited to the Iraqi National
Congress, an umbrella of exiled oppositionists founded in 1992 who have
received overt support from the U.S. government since 1999. In 2001, the
State Department approved funding to the INC to establish an office in
Tehran and last year the Iranians also agreed to allow the organization
to set up a radio transmitter on its soil for broadcast into Iran.
But the Iraqi National Congress
also does not receive funding directly from the Iranian government and
its composition and leadership are largely based in London. This is not
true for SCIRI, whose spiritual and political leader Muhammed Baqr al-Hakim
lives in Tehran.
Last month, Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz wrote the SCIRI leader inviting him to a conference scheduled
to begin on Saturday in London of the Iraqi opposition. Ahmad Chalabi,
a co-founder of the INC and close friend of many in the civilian leadership
at the Pentagon is currently in Tehran for talks with al- Hakim on the
issue of the opposition conference.
U.S. officials Monday told UPI that
the funding for opposition activities would go largely for military training
for such activities as liaison officers between Iraqis and the U.S. military
and military policing. Under the arrangement, the six opposition groups
have submitted names of people for the training and these names are in
turn vetted by Pentagon officials. One State Department official said Monday,
"We are saying here you go. We are ready to give you the whole 92 million,
now give us the full list of names."
Apart from the INC and SCIRI, the
groups are: the Iraqi National Accord; the Kurdistan Democratic Party;
the Movement for Constitutional Monarchy and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan;
The decision to authorize the training
represents a significant break in a longstanding policy fight within the
Bush Administration on whether to authorize the training at all. For the
first year and a half of the administration, the $92 million promised in
the Iraq Liberation Act for the Iraqi opposition was not disbursed.
