Iran and Al Qaeda

I think liberals and conservatives are both getting it wrong on John McCain's mispeaking about the relationship between Iran and Al Qaeda.

McCain said that Al Qaeda was going up into Iran for training and then returning to commit violence in Iraq.

According to the Washington Post, Iran is supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq, but only Shiites are going up into Iran for training: "Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said Iranian intelligence operatives were backing the Sunni militants inside Iraq while at the same time training Shiite extremists in Iran."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/11/AR2007041102121.html

So liberals are right when they say that McCain misspoke when he said Al Qaeda members were being trained in Iran, but wrong when they say that Shiites in Iran would never support Sunni terrorists in Al Qaeda. (James Taranto also points out that Iran supports the terrorist group Hamas, who are also Sunnis http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120611553243855079.html)

Conservatives are wrong when they insist that McCain did not mispeak. He did, in fact, say that Al Qaeda members were being trained in Iran, "as everyone knows," and that is not the case.

I will add that Obama also gets it wrong when he criticizes McCain for the mistake: "Just yesterday, we heard Senator McCain confuse Sunni and Shi'ite, Iran and al Qaeda," Obama said. "Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no al Qaeda ties." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/966544.html

While it is true that Iraq did not collaborate with Al Qaeda on 9/11, it is not true that Iraq did not have any ties with Al Qaeda. But that is the subject of another post.

For more on Iran's support of terrorism in Iraq, see also http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120643509488262009.html?mod=googlenews_wsj