He alleged Iran was ratcheting up its support for militias in Iraq by providing them with newly manufactured weapons and bringing them across the border to receive training from members of Teheran's Republican Guard.
Jn:8:44: Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Mullen said the military
is preparing to roll out evidence, including date stamps on newly found
weapons caches, to prove that recently made Iranian weapons are flowing into
Iraq at a steadily increasing rate.
He would not detail the evidence, which is
expected to be revealed (manufactured) by
military leaders in Iraq as early as next week. Another senior military
official said it will include mortars, rockets, small arms, roadside bombs and
armor-piercing explosives, known as explosively formed penetrators or EFPs
that troops have discovered in caches in recent months.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because the evidence has not yet been made public, said dates on some of the
weapons were well after Teheran indicated late last year that it was scaling
back aid to insurgents.
In addition, the evidence will include information gleaned from detainees (tortured)
who were reportedly trained by members of Iran's Quds Force, as well as
insurgents who received instruction on how to train others.
Part of the firepower the military will unveil was used to support insurgents
during the recent fighting in Basra in southern Iraq, officials said.
Mullen said he has seen
evidence "that some of the weapons are recently not just found, but
recently manufactured."
Both Mullen and
Defense Secretary Robert Gates have made clear that while all military options
are on the table, they prefer at this point to use other pressures on Iran.
In laying out details of Iran's continued efforts to fuel terror in
Iraq, US military leaders are sending signals both to Teheran and Baghdad.
The United States clearly is trying to send a message to Iran that it will
take action if necessary to stop Iranian infiltration.
Washington also hopes that Iraqi leaders will resist negative influences from
their Shi'ite Muslim co-religionists in Iran and continue efforts to exert
control over their own country.
"The solution right now still lies in using other levers of national
power, including diplomatic, financial and international pressure (against
Iran)," Mullen
said.
Still, while Mullen
acknowledged that launching a third conflict in that region would be extremely
stressful for US forces, he said he has reserve capabilities in the Navy and
the Air Force for any needed military action.
"It would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat
capability," he said.
The latest findings, said Mullen,
still do not prove that the highest leadership in the Iranian government has
approved the stepped-up aid to insurgents who are killing US and Iraqi forces.
But he said it appears that the leaders of the Quds Force are aware of the
activity. With their strong ties to Teheran's leaders, Mullen
said, it is difficult to believe that "there isn't knowledge there as
well."
Still, Mullen added:
"I have no smoking gun that could prove the highest (Iranian) leadership
is involved in this."
Mullen's comments came as military officials confirmed Friday that crewmen on
a ship under contract to the US Navy fired flares and warning shots at small
boats, believed to be Iranian, that approached their ship in the Persian Gulf.
The Navy said that on Thursday two high-speed boats approached the ship,
contracted by the United States to carry military cargo, but the boats turned
away after the shots were fired. No injuries were reported.
US military leaders have escalated their rhetoric against Iran of late, saying
that suggestions last year that Teheran may have been backing off its support
for militants have turned out not to be valid. Instead, Mullen
said there also is recent evidence that Iran is continuing to train insurgents
for the fight in Iraq.
"I just don't see any evidence of them backing off. And Basra highlighted
a lot of that," Mullen
said.
He would not detail any potential US military options, and he played down any
impending action.
"We have to continue to increase pressure, and I have no expectations
that we're going to get into a conflict with Iran in the immediate
future," said Mullen.
"But I am concerned over time, just in these last couple years, that
tensions continue to rise. Iran does not respond and, in fact, they seem to be
ratcheting it up in terms of their support for terrorism."
He said Iran has made it clear it wants to be a regional power, and he
believes Teheran would prefer to see a weak Iraq, so it could significantly
influence what happens there.
The Persian Gulf encounter involving the ship contracted to the Navy is one of
several similar episodes in recent months. Earlier this month the USS Typhoon,
a Navy patrol boat, fired a flare at a small Iranian boat in the Gulf after it
came within about 200 yards of the boat.
In January, several Iranian boats made what the Navy called provocative moves
near a US ship in the Strait of Hormuz. And in December the USS Whidbey Island
fired warning shots at a small Iranian boat that officials said was rapidly
approaching the ship.
Iranian officials have acknowledged several of the incidents but describe them
as normal encounters that caused no threat to the US vessels.
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