Time to crank crank up the Syria "slipping foreign fighters into Iraq" ...again.

"... Intelligence officials say foreign fighters have been slipping back into Iraq in larger numbers recently and may have been behind some of the most devastating attacks this year, reviving a threat the U.S. military believed had been almost entirely eradicated.

It is impossible to verify the actual numbers of foreign insurgents entering the country. But one Middle Eastern (read israeli) intelligence official estimated recently that 250 came in October alone. U.S. officials say the figure is far lower, but have acknowledged an increase since August.

At the same time, Iraqi officials say there has been a surge in financial aid to al-Qaida's front group in Iraq as the U.S. military prepares to leave by the end of 2011. They said it reflects fears by Arab states over the growing influence of Iran's Shiite-led government over Iraq and its Shiite-dominated government.

On Sunday, security official Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said Iraqi forces are searching for six foreign fighters who are among Iraq's most wanted terrorists.

The six are suspected of involvement in the Oct. 31 siege of a Christian church that left 68 people dead and drew international outrage, al-Moussawi said. They are also suspected in two summertime attacks on an Iraqi army headquarters in central Baghdad that killed a total of 73 people. "All who committed these attacks are (non-Iraqi) Arabs," he said. "This indicates the failure of al-Qaida leaders to recruit Iraqis to carry out suicide attacks."...

But a Mideast counterterrorism official said an estimated 250 foreign fighters entered Iraq in October alone. He said they came through the Syrian city of Homs, a hub for Syrian Muslim fundamentalists that is run mostly by Tunisians and Algerians. Other fighters have come from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Yemen.

Additionally, the official said tens of millions of foreign dollars annually are funding the Iraqi insurgency, which has received about $5 billion in aid since 2007. The money comes from al-Qaida leaders, Muslims who want the U.S. to leave, and so-called 'Arab nationalists' who are eager for Sunni Muslims to regain power in Shiite-dominated Iraq.

A senior U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the sensitive issue estimated about 10 foreign fighters enter Iraq each month. Michael Knights, a Lafter Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy predicted there are only "small cells of experienced foreign fighters in ISI."...."