Iran has a plan to manipulate US Congress

“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,” Guardian deputy editor Simon Tisdall reported May 22.

“‘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].'”

US commanders in Iraq are reading for a widespread summer offensive orchestrated by Iran, and consisting of an alliance among al Qaeda and Sunni insurgents, and Shi’ite militias. Iran’s goal, according to the Guardian, is for the uprising to “trigger a political mutiny in Washington and a US retreat.”

“We expect that al-Qaida and Iran will both attempt to increase the propaganda and increase the violence prior to Petraeus’s report in September [when the US commander General David Petraeus will report to Congress on President George Bush’s controversial, six-month security “surge” of 30,000 troop reinforcements],” a US official tells the paper.

Simultaneously in Afghanistan, Iran is backing Taliban military attacks on American, British and other NATO forces, according to the report.

“Tehran’s strategy to discredit the US surge and foment a decisive congressional revolt against Mr Bush is national in scope and not confined to the Shia south, its traditional sphere of influence, the senior official in Baghdad said. It included stepped-up coordination with Shia militias such as Moqtada al-Sadr’s Jaish al-Mahdi as well as Syrian-backed Sunni Arab groups and al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, he added. Iran was also expanding contacts across the board with paramilitary forces and political groups, including Kurdish parties such as the PUK, a US ally.”

Bloggers and other commentators seeking an American withdrawal or defeat in Iraq have been attacking the Guardian as a “US mouthpiece” and alleging that the deputy editor is a spy.