Rebranding

Some new terminology from the US military in Iraq --

Coalition Forces captured a key financier of Special Groups terrorists during a pre-dawn raid Monday in Western Baghdad. The detained individual is believed to be a Special Groups leader for the Bayaa province in Western Baghdad.

No shots were fired when Coalition Forces conducted a ground assault to capture or kill a suspected key financier of the "Special Groups" that are believed to have direct ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps – Quds Force (IRGC-QF). These Special Groups terrorists are suspected of killing Iraqi citizens, directing attacks against Coalition Forces, and promoting sectarian violence.

Special Groups therefore seem to be neither al-Qaeda in Iraq or Mahdi Army. One hopes that it's not simply a residual classification developed to rationalize the seemingly conflicting goals attributed to terrorists in Iraq, of both being in league with Shia Iran but trying to bring down a Shia-supported government through attacks on the Shia population.

UPDATE 15 AUGUST: The "Special Groups" appear to have graduated from lower case letters when they were discussed about a month ago by White House Baghdad operative Kevin Bergner. Bergner is making waves today with a news briefing that seems to be just a repetition of the claims from the earlier story, although this anecdote --

Ali Musa Daqduq contends the Iraqi special groups could not have conducted this complex operation without the support and direction of the Quds Force

-- to claim that the other source, Qayis Khazali, was smiling when he said "there's no way could do this without that source of support [Iran]". So the US evidence for their claim that the support has to be coming from Iran is captured terrorists agreeing with them that the support has to be coming from Iran?

And remember, this is all the in the context of the high probability that Bush's "enhanced interrogation techniques" are being used in Iraq.