Source: McClatchy Newspapers
BAGHDAD- He’s one of the most powerful men in Iraq, and he isn’t an Iraqi government official, a militia leader, a senior cleric, or a U.S. military commander or diplomat.
He’s an Iranian general — and at times he’s more influential than all of them.
Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani commands the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds [Qods] Force, an elite paramilitary and espionage organization whose mission is to expand Iran’s influence.
As Tehran’s point man on Iraq, he funnels military and financial support to various Iraqi factions, frustrating U.S. attempts to build a pro-Western democracy.
According to Iraqi and American officials, Suleimani has ensured the elections of pro-Iranian politicians, met frequently with senior Iraqi leaders and backed Shiite elements in the Iraqi security forces that are accused of torturing and killing minority Sunni Muslims.
“Whether we like him (Suleimani) or not, whether Americans like him or not, whether Iraqis like him or not, he is the focal point of Iranian policy in Iraq,” said a senior Iraqi official who asked not to be identified so he could speak freely.
McClatchy Newspapers reported on March 30 that Suleimani intervened to halt the fighting between mostly Shiite Iraqi security forces and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia in the southern city of Basra.
Iraqi officials now confirm that in addition to that meeting, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani personally met Suleimani at a border crossing to make a direct appeal for help.
Iraqi and U.S. officials told McClatchy that Suleimani also has:
•Slipped into Baghdad’s Green Zone, the heavily fortified seat of the U.S. occupation and the Iraqi government, in April 2006 to try to orchestrate the selection of a new Iraqi prime minister. Iraqi officials said that audacious visit was Suleimani’s only foray into the Green Zone, but American officials said he may have been there more than once.
•Built powerful networks that gather intelligence on U.S. and Iraqi military operations. Suleimani’s network includes every senior staffer in Iran’s embassy in Baghdad, beginning with the ambassador, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials.
•Trained and directed Shiite Muslim militias and given them cash and arms, including mortars and rockets fired at the U.S. Embassy and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, part of the roadside bombs that have caused hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi casualties.
“I’m extremely concerned about what I believe to be an increasingly lethal and malign influence by (Iran’s) government and the Quds Force, in particular in Iraq and throughout the Middle East,” Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week.
U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because intelligence information is classified, said that Suleimani’s Quds Force has provided arms to Taliban insurgents fighting U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan and supported Islamist militant groups such as Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are Sunni, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which is Shiite.
U.S. military officials also charge that Suleimani has brought in Hezbollah fighters to train Iraqi Shiite cells, which the Americans call “special groups,” that specialize in attacking American forces.
The U.S. officials said that Suleimani’s organization is the main source of EFPs planted by the “special groups” and other Shiite militias. The weapons, used in improvised explosive devices (IEDs), can shoot plugs of molten copper through armor.
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Iran’s embassy in Baghdad didn’t respond to a formal request for information, and its mission in New York had no comment. Iran has repeatedly denied U.S. charges that it’s arming Shiite militants in Iraq.
One of Suleimani’s first major victories against the United States in Iraq, however, was the product of political shrewdness, not military force. It came in January 2005, when Iraqis voted for the first time since Hussein’s ouster.
The Bush administration pulled out all the stops to keep secular interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi in office, aiding him with broadcast airtime and slick campaign ads.
Suleimani countered with a covert PR campaign, and he sent printing presses, consultants and broadcasting equipment, said a senior Iraqi official who’s known Suleimani for years. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive relationship between Iraq and Iran.
When the ballots were counted, Allawi and his bloc were out, and Iran’s allies were in.