Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Iran, Syria, and "Salvador" Sepp

This morning Renee Montagne talks to Kalev Sepp about the need to secure Iraq's borders. Here's Renee launching the piece with her completely unsubstantiated accusations against Iran and Syria: "There are six countries surrounding Iraq – Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and Iran – the most problematic of these borders are with Syria and Iran; black market oil is being smuggled into those countries, weapons and foreign fighters are flowing out to Iraq. That’s according to Kalev Sepp of the Naval Post Graduate School..."

Beyond the "according to Kalev Sepp" attribution, Montagne doesn't offer a shred of evidence for her claims. I've yet to find any independent sources that can confirm strong Syrian support for foreign fighters crossing its border into Iraq (any more than Saudi Arabia). And the idea that Iran is arming and supporting the Sunni insurgency is ridiculous. Iran's interests are with its SCIRI allies in Iran. Sepp states that Iran in particular "helps move terrorists" and "the most lethal forms of the improvised explosive devices" across its border. As if the insurgents needed more lethal weapons from Iran when they were able to loot and cache them after the invasion.

Who is this Kalev Sepp and should we trust him? Here's what he has to say about the horrors of murder, rape and torture that the US inflicted on El Salvador in the 1980s, "During the 12-year-long Salvadoran Civil War, 25 SF[Special Forces] field advisers and 30 staff advisers were the core of the effort that trained the 50,000-man Salvadoran Army that battled insurgents to a draw and forced them to accept a negotiated end to the war." This nightmare of unspeakable US-sponsored atrocities against a civilian population he calls "America's success." And Sepp should know, he was one of the US Special Forces advisors helping the Salvadoran killing machine of which he's so proud.

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