Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, in a speech, accused Ali Faisal al-Lami, the executive director of the Accountability and Justice Commission along with Ahmad Chalabi, the panel's chairman, of being "clearly influenced by Iran."
Gen. Odierno said both men, according to intelligence reports, were in close contact with Abu-Mahdi al-Muhandis, the top Iraqi adviser to Iran's Quds Force commander. The Quds Force comprises Iran's unconventional military units, which have orchestrated anti-U.S. paramilitary and political operations in Iraq.
In one sense, it makes sense for Iraqis to get information on Baathists from Iranians since the Iranians have been tracking Saddam's boys for decades now in order to exact revenge for the Iran-Iraq War. So I wouldn't automatically assume something is really wrong.
It all depends on whether the close contact with the Iranians involves more than just receiving information on Iraqis tied to Saddam.
But until I read more about this issue, I'll worry about the election commission and give the Sunni Arabs a little more of a hearing. Not that this would justify the Sunni Arabs resorting to violence. They should pursue all options within the law.
UPDATE: And I'd like to clarify that I really don't worry that the Iranians can take over Iraq in a stealth campaign of seeking influence. If they could have done that before, they would have rather than trying to bomb their way to power by arming the Sadrists and inflitrating their own astro-turn Shia rebels. We should seek out Iranian agents and work to minimize their efforts to infiltrate Iraq.
But I don't worry we'll lose Iraq to the Iranians. Especially since I think we'll be in Iraq long after 2011. The Iraqi government will renegotiate our presence in Iraq before the current status of forces agreement compels us to get out completely. We're still needed there to train the Iraqis, deter the Iranians and Syrians from making too much mayhem, and setting limits for domestic entities as they jockey for power within the new Iraqi system.
