Jan. 22, 2007 issue - Has George W. Bush ordered up a "secret war" against Iran and Syria? Some administration opponents on Capitol Hill began asking this question after U.S. forces in recent weeks arrested two groups of Iranian government representatives inside Iraq. Bush particularly alarmed critics when, in announcing his new Iraq policy, he pledged to "interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria" and to "seek out and destroy the networks." Sen. Joseph Biden, now Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman (and a Dem presidential contender), sent a letter to Bush after a question-and-answer confrontation with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Biden said Rice had been evasive on whether Bush's statements meant that U.S. military personnel could cross into Iran or Syria in pursuit of insurgent support networks. He also asked whether the administration believes the president could order such action without first seeking explicit congressional approval—as Biden thinks he must. A White House aide declined to comment on Biden's letter. But the tough approach stunned even America's firmest Iraqi allies, the Kurds. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, told NEWSWEEK that one of the U.S. Special Forces raids on Iranians working in Iraq "caught everyone by surprise. We should have been alerted and informed."
Source: Has Bush Ordered Secret War on Iran? - Newsweek Periscope - MSNBC.com
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