Where did MacKay get his information.

I always thought that MacKay got his info from David Wilkins the US ambassador to Canada but then MacKay's spokesperson said he didn't. That is strange, Wilkins was invited by MacKay to go to Afghanistan with him. Wilkins would have had ample opportunity to have given him the info. Perhaps it went like this:
Wilkins: You know Peter it would be a nice New Year's gift if you helped us beat up on Iran a bit. Here is some dirt from our TOP administration officials.
Peter: Sure Dave. Always ready to help out our freedom loving friends to the south. Just don't send us back that Khadr kid. The press will lap up this stuff and I will make sure your name is never mentioned..

Monday » January 7 » 2008

Where did MacKay get information?
Targeting iran. Anyone can make a roadside bomb

MIKE BLANCHFIELD
CanWest News Service


Monday, January 07, 2008


As far as international bad guys go, Iran has proven to be a convenient and safe target for Canada.

So when Defence Minister Peter MacKay turned up in Kandahar on Christmas Day and accused Iran of arming the Taliban insurgency against Canada and its allies in Afghanistan, few eyebrows were initially raised.

But to anyone with even a passing knowledge of recent history in the region, MacKay's broad assertion - short on nuance or explanation - triggered alarm bells.

"I think we're going to have to ask him where he got his information," Brig.-Gen. Marquis Hainse said several days later.

In recent months, other prominent figures have raised doubts about whether Iran's ruling clerics are behind the shipment of guns and bombs over its eastern frontier to the Taliban-Al-Qa'ida insurgency in southern Afghanistan: Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Canada's former ambassador to the country, Chris Alexander, now the deputy United Nations envoy to Kabul who Prime Minister Stephen Harper has touted as a leading expert on Afghanistan. So where did MacKay get his information?

His office isn't saying. But his spokesman made clear Friday where it didn't come from: U.S. ambassador David Wilkins, who accompanied MacKay on his lengthy journey to Kandahar.

The original source of the Iran-meddling-in-Afghanistan narrative began with top Bush administration officials.

"Canada is very concerned by allegations that arms are reaching Taliban groups through Iran," a Foreign Affairs spokesperson said. Through the Iranian embassy in Ottawa, Canada has "urged the government of Iran to take appropriate measures" to prevent any support from reaching insurgents in Afghanistan, France Bureau added, without providing details.

U.S. experts suggest it is unlikely that Tehran is directly supporting the insurgency.

In western Afghanistan, Iran is a positive influence and evidence is easy for any visitor to see, said Anthony Cordesman, a senior analyst with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

In Kandahar, MacKay said he was concerned about information on how to make improvised explosive devices was coming into Afghanistan from Iran.

But Gary Sick, a member of the National Security Council in the 1970s, said there is nothing inherently Iranian about the IEDs. "Anyone with a decent machine shop who knows what they're doing" can build IEDs."

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008








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