Iranian Weapons in Iraq: Interdiction Not Invasion

Friday, February 16, 2007

By Bridgette Quinn, Fox News Live

February 12, 2007

Bridgette Quinn: Good to have you here Congressman.

Tim Roemer: Thanks Bridgette.

Quinn: You have also served in the capacity of being on an Intel committee, and I’d like to get your take on the evidence that was presented at that news conference. Do you find it credible that Iran is playing a hand here?

Roemer: Well it’s certainly serious, and we need to make sure that we have our facts right -- we saw what happened when we didn’t have the intelligence right going into Iraq, Bridgette. One, we need to keep our eye on the prize. We have serious military challenges for us in Iraq and Afghanistan, where we see backsliding. And two, we need to be smart and strategic, and we need to make sure that we’re going after these folks, these Iranians if they’re in Baghdad and making sure we confront them, and we also need to make sure that we go after the routes that these weapons might be coming in through and interdict that. We don’t need a drum beat for invasion; we need a chorus for interdiction.

Quinn: Alright Congressman if I could just jump in. You use the word confront; how do you confront Iran on this?

Roemer: Well there are three ways to do it Bridgette. One is inside Iraq where we have an ongoing civil war, and we have to keep, again, our eye on the prize. Our own military says that this is both a military effort and a political war, and we need to engage our diplomats in the political war, and we have not done that very effectively.

Secondly, we need to confront, as we have, some of these so-called agents of Iran when they do come in and get them, and interrogate them, and stop them from what they’re doing.

And third, we need to go after the supply lines and interdict those routes very aggressively and very strategically. That doesn’t mean you have a drum beat for war with Iran. I think you want to isolate Ahmadinejead and isolate him further from his people rather than give the Iranian people a reason to come together and potentially launch efforts that might strengthen them in the Middle East.

Quinn: Alright, former Indiana Congressman Tim Roemer. Always good to see you. Thank you very much.

Roemer: You’re welcome.

###