The content and timing of the briefing

given by "a senior US official"

in Baghdad to the Guardian,

regarding Iran's secret plans to force

US troops out of Iraq by August,

are driven by a political agenda

It's a perfect example of 'news' propaganda

Bush is already preparing the diversion

Just look at the article analysed below,

on the apparent role of Iran in Iraq

Suddenly Iran seems to be best friends with Al Qaeda

if we believe the American military spin

Two months before the election in 2008

Bush will escalate the hidden war with Iran!

The content and timing of the briefing given by "a senior US official" in Baghdad to the Guardian's Simon Tisdall, regarding Iran's secret plans to force American troops out of Iraq by August, is propaganda masquerading as news.

Here's a sample:

Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaida elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces intended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say.

"Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq and it's a very dangerous course for them to be following. They are already committing daily acts of war against US and British forces," a senior US official in Baghdad warned.

"They [Iran] are behind a lot of high-profile attacks meant to undermine US will and British will, such as the rocket attacks on Basra palace and the Green Zone [in Baghdad].

"The attacks are directed by the Revolutionary Guard who are connected right to the top [of the Iranian government]."

The official said US commanders were bracing for a nationwide, Iranian-orchestrated summer offensive, linking al-Qaida and Sunni insurgents to Tehran's Shia militia allies, that Iran hoped would trigger a political mutiny in Washington and a US retreat.

"We expect that al-Qaida and Iran will both attempt to increase the propaganda and increase the violence prior to Petraeus's report in September [when the US commander General David Petraeus will report to Congress on President George Bush's controversial, six-month security "surge" of 30,000 troop reinforcements]," the official said.

"Certainly it [the violence] is going to pick up from their side. There is significant latent capability in Iraq, especially Iranian-sponsored capability. They can turn it up whenever they want.

"You can see that from the pre-positioning that's been going on and the huge stockpiles of Iranian weapons that we've turned up in the last couple of months. The relationships between Iran and groups like al-Qaida are very fluid," the official said.

"It often comes down to individuals, and people constantly move around. For instance, the Sunni Arab so-called resistance groups use Salafi jihadist ideology for their own purposes. But the whole Iran- al-Qaida linkup is very sinister."

Significantly, the briefing has occurred a week before Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador in Iraq, meets Iran's envoy Hassan Kazemi Qomi in Baghdad to discuss Iraqi security.

Washington's ill-disguised intent is to declare: "Aha, you Iranians, we know your clandestine plans to get the American-led soldiers out of Iraq, and more specifically your decision to raise the temperature in Iraq in the run-up to the re-assembling of the Democrat-majority US Congress in September, all ready to pressure President George Bush to start pulling out troops from Iraq."

The briefing also serves the purpose of justifying the first publicly acknowledged diplomatic contact between Washington and Tehran - particularly to US hardliners, who include Vice President Dick Cheney - and reassuring the sceptics that Ambassador Crocker will do straight talking to Kazemi Qomi.

As for its content, on one hand we have the unnamed American official claiming that recently Iran has been escalating its support for Shia militias as well as Sunni insurgents, on the other hand he says, "Last winter they [the Iranians] were literally getting away with murder". The second statement, implying that Iran was more active in Iraq six months earlier, contradicts the first.

The subsequent explanation that "tougher action by security forces in Iraq against Iranians agents and networks, [and] the dispatch of an additional US aircraft carrier to the Gulf" - announced by Bush in his speech on January 10 - led to moderation by Iran is contradicted by the same official's claim that Tehran was escalating its support for the Iraqi insurgency - despite the continued presence of two US aircraft carriers in the region.

The frequency with which the anonymous US official mentions al-Qaida and Iran's alleged links with it are worth noting.

Al-Qaida in Mesopotamia is a small (albeit the most vicious) part of the Sunni insurgency, which contains Iraqi nationalists, former Baathists and moderate Islamists.

However, there is no more potent phrase than "al-Qaida" to draw the attention, even alarm, of Americans and other westerners.

And when it is bracketed with Iran, the combination can set alarm bells ringing in most western capitals. "[But] the whole Iran-al-Qaida link-up is very sinister," says the senior US official.

Such an alliance ignores certain basic facts. While al-Qaida is an exclusively Muslim organisation, it has no known official who is Shia. It is doubtful if it has even a single Shia member. Al-Qaida's leadership belongs largely to such orthodox and puritanical Sunni sub-sects as Salafis and Wahhabis.

They consider Shias to be heretics. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, who was killed last June, was rabidly anti-Shia. In his writings and speeches he called Shias snakes whose heads had to be cut off. Al-Qaida suicide bombers have killed thousands of Shias in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi's successor, Abu Hamza al-Masri, is equally hostile to Shias.

The Iraqis and non-Iraqis belonging to al-Qaida openly say, "Our number one enemy are the Shias and number two are the Americans".

The fact that a Shia-dominated government in Baghdad is hand-in-glove with the American occupiers provides them with solid evidence.

Shia Islam is the official religion of Iran where nearly 90% of the people are Shia. A link-up between the virulently anti-Shia al-Qaida in Mesopotamia and the Iranians, even at a surreptitious level, is beyond belief.

At the same time the reports that the Iranian authorities are holding some al-Qaida leaders, including possibly a son of Osama bin Laden, in custody or under house arrest in Iran are credible.

Following the Taliban regime's overthrow in Afghanistan in December 2001, most al-Qaida leaders and ranks escaped to Pakistan. But some fled to Iran on their way to Iraq and the rest of the Arab world.

The Iranian authorities arrested scores of them. When their nationalities were confirmed their embassies in Tehran were informed. If the respective governments agreed to take the al-Qaida fugitives back, they were flown home. If not, then the al-Qaida fugitives were jailed.

In the back-channel talks between Washington and Tehran, the US demanded custody of these al-Qaida prisoners. In response, the Iranians proposed a swap: al-Qaida detainees in exchange for the leaders of the Mujahideen-e Khalq Organisation (MKO).

Based in Baghdad since 1987, the MKO is responsible for many terrorist attacks in Iran which led the US State Department to declare it a terrorist organisation in 1997.

After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, the Pentagon assembled MKO leaders and ranks in a camp. Despite MKO's continued terrorist status, the US has not taken any action against its leaders. Instead, US intelligence agencies are treating them as "assets" to be used to destabilise the regime in Tehran. Unsurprisingly, Washington has rejected Iran's offer of a swap.

All in all, therefore, the US briefing on Iran deserves to be viewed sceptically. Dilip Hiro @ CIF