Iran, Plane Crashes

I've been procrastinating about this for a couple of months. Given our rapid movement toward war with Iran, it's hardly germane, but I want to post it before we "do something" about that country. Sad to say, but I'm the only one who (to my knowledge) noticed the following. I'm sure there were plenty who did, in various intelligence circles, but I'm the only one who's bothered to mention it in public [pats self on back].

Early this year, a year after Seymour Hersh reported that the US was messing around in Iran (again) and many months after the unacknowledged Joshua Kurlantzick reported that the US was supporting the now oft-reported crazy MEK in conducting covert operations in Iran, three planes "crashed" in Iran. No big deal. Except that the crashes were timed close together (again, no big deal) and two of them killed a number of the sort of people you'd want to kill if you were aiming to topple the government (okay, well, pretty convenient).

It's late and I have a job, so here's the homework:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/12/06/tehran.crash/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/09/iran.crash/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/19/world/main541219.shtml

Two of the crashes were within a month of each other, early Jan. 2006 and Dec. 2005. The other one was in 2003. In the most recent two cases, the plane was transporting the "elite" Revolutionary Guard. Given that we're messing around inside Iran with Rummy having a near blank-check to take covert action, this is highly suspicious.

As the CBS piece notes, in the December 2005 crash, "All aboard — 18 crew and 284 passengers — were members of the Revolutionary Guards, an elite group under the direct control of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The guards protect Iran's borders and defend ruling hard-liners in this ultraconservative society." It also notes that several of the victims were "high-ranking officers of the Guard."

That's who we're trying to get rid of--the ruling hard-liners.

In the latest crash, in early February, 11 high-ranking Revolutionary Guard officials were killed. Iran's news service, IRNA, reported that "the guard's Commander of Ground Forces, Ahmad Kazemi, along with the commander of the 27th Rassoulollah Army Division and the chief of intelligence, died in the accident."

The chief of intelligence died. Pretty convenient. Now I don't know what's going on or who did this (it could be coincidence, but it stinks of something else), but I would be amazed if we weren't involved, either directly or through a third party, say, the Iranian crazies that are buddy-buddy with the neocon establishment (you know, the MEK):
http://www.wetdogdesign.net/realitique/iran-kurlantzick.htm.

Put this in the context of the recent reports of serious planning for attacks on Iran and the outed-agent Valerie Plame was working on Iran, and the Plame leak begins to look suspicious (I'm not saying it wasn't more than a political maneuver, which everyone outside of Power Line acknowledges, but there may be something else at work).

Rob

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I think the first, earliest crash was just an accident. It's the latter two that look suspicious. But hearing about the first one raised my suspicions about the ones that followed. As usual, for something this (ahem) important, I get no comments whatsoever.