If leaders don't know about supplying bombs in Iraq that is a real problem too

Bill Gertz:

Senior defense and military leaders said yesterday that Iran's government is behind the providing of deadly bombs to Iraqi insurgents, although it is difficult to say whether senior Iranian leaders approved the shipments.
"We know that the Quds force is involved. We know the Quds force is a paramilitary arm of the [Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)], so we assume that the leadership of the IRGC knows about this," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters.
"Whether or not more senior political leaders in Iran know about it, we don't know," he said. "And frankly, for me, either way it's a worry. Either they do know and have approved it, or they don't know and the IRGC may be acting on their own in Iraq."
Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, qualified earlier comments that he doubted high-level Iranian government linkage to special armor-piercing bombs and rockets found in Iraq.
"What I tried to say when I said I didn't know about the Iranian government, I'm talking about the top two or three people in the government," Gen. Pace said, noting that "we do not have proof that the senior leadership in Iran is directing these activities in Iraq."
The level of Iranian government involvement is secondary to the danger the arms pose to U.S. and coalition forces, he said.
"We know that there are explosives and weapons being used inside of Iraq that were manufactured in Iran," Gen. Pace said.
Also, on two occasions during operations to attack networks supplying improvised bombs, "we had policed up Iranians," he said. "We know that those Iranians are Quds force members. Those are facts."
The comments came after a senior defense official in Baghdad said Sunday that the Iranian arms shipments -- including shaped charge explosives, shoulder-fired missiles and armor-piercing rockets -- had been directed by the highest levels of the Iranian government.
...

It is reasonable to assume they know. Argentina was able to gather evidence that the leadership knew and approved of the attack on the Jewish center and indicted them. These operations are right next door and they know that if caught it is going to reflect on them. Then there is the fact that Ahmadinejad did not deny supplying the weapons when questioned by Diane Sawyer. The most reasonable assumption is that they know and that they were used as intended. Iran has been at war with the US since 1979 and it would be very foolish to give them the benefit of any doubt on issues like this.

There is also the fact that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini has threatened world wide attacks against the US if we destroy their nuke operations. Just what forces would he use for such an operation? My speculation is the Quds force is the most likely.

Jonah Goldberg asks, "... tell me, how does the top leadership in a totalitarian or authoritarian regime get to say 'we were out of the loop'? The whole point of unfree societies is that the state is responsible for everything. They are the loop."