You won't find this story in the American press. In fact, you are much more likely to be labeled a kook if you push the idea that Iran is sending men and material into Afghanistan in order to destabilize the government of President Karzai.
Iran, as we all know, is not sending IED's to the terrorists in Iraq or infiltrating their own intelligence people there. This is the narrative that has been advanced by the war's opponents for years, despite gobs of evidence to the contrary.
Now we have Iran doing exactly the same thing in Afghanistan, as this piece in the Asia Times by Zia Ahmadi and Mustafa Saber shows:
Islam Qala, a small border town that forms the gateway between Iran and Afghanistan, is a focus of concern for Afghan officials fighting the Taliban insurgency because some believe Iran is using it to infiltrate guerrillas intent on destabilizing the Kabul government.
"I was working in Iran for about eight months," said one man, a former refugee, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But I got an offer from the Taliban in Gozara district [of Herat province] offering me a higher salary, so I accepted."
Once he had crossed the border into Afghanistan, he said Pakistanis and Iranians based in the hills of Pashtun Zarghon district, the site of a growing insurgency, gave him military training.
For four months, the man said he participated in armed attacks on behalf of the Taliban in the Gozara and Pashtun Zarghon districts, and received a monthly salary of 20,000-30,000 Pakistani rupees (US$240 to $360).
"We struck security posts in the villages of Toot, Siyawooshan and Injel, as well as carrying out attacks on foreign military convoys," he said.
Now he is happily settled in civilian life, having been awarded a certificate by the Peace and Reconciliation Commission - an Afghan body established in 2005 as a mechanism for engaging with insurgents - that records his decision to lay down his arms.
Officials believe that up to 100 "Afghans" return daily from Iran. But most of them have no identity documents so it is very easy for Iranians to slip into the country and attack NATO forces as well as Afhgan police units.
Of course, we're told that the Iranians would never work with the Taliban, that they hate them and wanted to help us defeat them back in 2001. Just was we were also told that Shias and Sunnis would never work together in Iraq and that the idea that Iran was supplying the Sunni tribal militias with weapons was crazy.
At some point, the Iranian apologists are going to have to face the fact that they have been dead wrong about the regime in Tehran. Until then, they will keep assuring us of the mullah's peaceful intentions and their eagerness to work with America to stabilize both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pathetic.
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