Pentagon caught framing Iran

[darkbeaver]

Pentagon Caught Red Handed in an attempt to Frame Iran: Iran Does Not Manufacture 81MM Mortar Shells

By Kurt Nimmo

Global Research, February 13, 2007
Another Day in the Empire - 2007-02-12

Pentagon carelessness fabricating bogus “evidence” against Iran is really quite stupendous. As I wrote here yesterday, the 81mm mortar shell offered up to the complaisant corporate media as “evidence” Iran is supplying weaponry to the Shi’a of Iraq is an obvious ruse, as the date on the proffered shell does not follow the Muslim calendar and other markings are in English when it only makes sense they would appear in Persian script.
But it gets worse.
As a recent email points out, Iran does not manufacture 81mm mortar shells. According to a report offered by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, connected to the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the neocon Brookings Institute, the smallest mortar produced by Iran is the 107mm M-30. This information is included in the JCSS’s “Middle East Military Balance,” updated last February. It can be read in this PDF file on page 15. According to JCSS, “The Middle East Military Balance has been the most authoritative source on Middle Eastern Armies since 1983.” It is quite fortunate for us the hubris-filled neocons care not to double check their engineered lies—erroneously described as a “machining process”—before unleashing them on an unwitting public.
As Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told the Associated Press, the “United States has a long history in fabricating evidence,” an undisputed fact more than underscored by the lead-up to the Iraq invasion when the neocons claimed Iraqi weather balloon trailers doubled as biological weapon labs and clumsily recycled a student’s homework as evidence Saddam was dabbling in weapons of mass destruction.
Considering the shoddiness of the mortar ruse, it makes perfect sense so-called “experts” involved in the scam told “a large gathering of reporters” (more accurately described as script readers and errand boys) “they not be further identified,” lest blame be delivered to their doorstep.
“Why are US officials hiding behind the cloak of anonymity when presenting the most detailed evidence yet that Iran is supplying anti-US forces in Iraq with weaponry?” muses Eason Jordan. “After weeks, if not months, of US official planning to present a damning ‘dossier’ of incriminating evidence against Iran, and after this same US administration presented us with lopsided, erroneous information about the capability and evil intentions of the Saddam Hussein regime, the best the US government can give us today is incendiary evidence presented at a Baghdad news conference by three US officials who refuse to be quoted by name?…. The American people deserve straight talk from identified US officials.”
Of course, such “straight talk” will not be forthcoming—not now or after Iran is destroyed, as Iraq was destroyed before it.
Maybe, if we are lucky, at some point in the future, the names of these “experts” will emerge in the course of a new Nuremberg trial.
Addendum
Iran does not manufacture 81mm mortars—but Pakistan does. Compare the photo on this death merchant catalog page with the one offered up as “evidence” against the Iranians. Minus the nosecone and fins at the bottom, it is almost a dead ringer, excuse the metaphor (see enlargement here).
Is it possible the Pentagon neocons, in their zeal to finger the Iranians and thus kick start World War Four, as they fondly call it, are using a Pakistani mortar and attributing it to Iran? Considering the long and sordid history of collaboration between the CIA, Pentagon, and Pakistan’s nefarious ISI, this is likely the case.


http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=section&sectionName=membership

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[mabudon]

a few good points in there, very interesting reading (somehow I didn't happen upon this in my daily reading so thanks for posting it)

It IS odd that no-one wants to be responsible for the "slam dunk" "evidence" (man, talkin about this "war on terror" is REALLY hard on the "quote button" on my keyboard)

I really do hope all the previous lies get fully investigated before fresh ones are allowed into the discourse- maybe, MAYBE this time the US admin had finally gone too far (tho if I had a dollar for every time it looked like the case...)

Blaming Iran for the abject failure in Iraq shows how desperate the admin has gotten, they're scrambling like rats- I would hope that aonther attack on US soil isn't required to get the civilians on the side of "justice" again eh??

 

[darkbeaver]

New York Times Falls for Bogus Iran Weapons Charges
Completely Implausible Numbers are Thrown Around - Repeat of Judy Miller Scandal
By Juan Cole​

02/12/07 "ICH" -- -- This NYT article depends on unnamed USG sources who alleged that 25 percent of US military deaths and woundings in Iraq in October-December of 2006 were from explosively formed penetrator bombs fashioned in Iran and given to Shiite militias:' In the last three months of 2006, attacks using the weapons accounted for a significant portion of Americans killed and wounded in Iraq, though less than a quarter of the total, military officials say.'

This claim is one hundred percent wrong. Because 25 percent of US troops were not killed fighting Shiites in those three months. Day after day, the casualty reports specify al-Anbar Province or Diyala or Salahuddin or Babil, or Baghdad districts such as al-Dura, Ghaziliyah, Amiriyah, etc.--and the enemy fighting is clearly Sunni Arab guerrillas. And, Iran is not giving high tech weapons to Baathists and Salafi Shiite-killers. It is true that some casualties were in "East Baghdad" and that Baghdad is beginning to rival al-Anbar as a cemetery for US troops:

Robert Burns of AP observes, ​

"The increasingly urban nature of the war is reflected in the fact that a higher percentage of U.S. deaths have been in Baghdad lately. Over the course of the war through Feb. 6, at least 1,142 U.S. troops have died in Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency, according to an AP count. That compares with 713 in Baghdad. But since Dec. 28, 2006, there were more in Baghdad than in Anbar - 33 to 31." ​

Over all, only a fourth of US troops had been killed Baghdad (713 or 23.7 percent of about 3000) through the end of 2006. But US troops aren't fighting Shiites anyplace else-- Ninevah, Diyala, Salahuddin--these are all Sunni areas. For a fourth of US troops to be being killed or wounded by Shiite EFPs, all of the Baghdad deaths would have to be at the hands of Shiites!

The US military often does not announce exactly where in Baghdad a GI is killed and so I found it impossible to do a count of Sunni versus Shiite neighborhoods. But we know that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was running interference for the Mahdi Army last fall, and it seems unlikely to me that very many US troops died fighting Shiites in Baghdad. The math of Gordon's article does not add up at all if this were Shiite uses of Iran-provided EFPs.

So the unnamed sources at the Pentagon are reduced to implying that Iran is giving sophisticated bombs to its sworn enemies and the very groups that are killing its Shiite Iraqi allies every day. Get real!

Moreover, there is no evidence of Iranian intentions to kill US troops. If Iran was giving EFPs to anyone, it was to the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and its Badr Corps paramilitary, for future use. SCIRI is the main US ally in Iraq aside from the Kurds. I don't know of US troops killed by Badr, certainly not any time recently.

It is far more likely that corrupt arms merchants are selling and smuggling these things than that there is direct government- to- militia transfer. It is possible that small Badr Corps stockpiles were shared or sold. That wouldn't have been Iran's fault.

Some large proportion of US troops being killed in Iraq are being killed with bullets and weapons supplied by Washington to the Iraqi army, which are then sold by desperate or greedy Iraqi soldiers on the black market. This problem of US/Iraqi government arms getting into the hands of the Sunni Arab guerrillas is far more significant and pressing than whatever arms smugglers bring in from Iran.

We now know that Iran came to the US early in 2003 with a proposal to cooperate with Washington in overthrowing Saddam Hussein, and that VP Richard Bruce Cheney rebuffed it. The US could have had Iran on its side in Iraq!

The attempt to blame these US deaths on Iran is in my view a black psy-ops operation. The claim is framed as though this was a matter of direct Iranian government transfer to the deadliest guerrillas. In fact, the most fractious Shiites are the ones who hate Iran the most. If 25 percent of US troops are being killed and wounded by explosively formed projectiles, then someone should look into who is giving those EFPs to Sunni Arab guerrillas. It isn't Iran.

Finally, it is obvious that if Iran did not exist, US troops would still be being blown up in large numbers. Sunni guerrillas in al-Anbar and West Baghdad are responsible for most of the deaths. The Bush administration's talent for blaming everyone but itself for its own screw-ups is on clear display here.

For more skepticism, see this column at Huffington; and Glenn Greenwald and Think Progress . Labels: Black psy-ops, Iran​

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute. Visit his blog www.juancole.com​

 

[Avro]

The U.S. and in particular the Bush regime are going to have a hard time trying to prove their credibility after the nonsense spewed forth on Iraq.

 

[mabudon]

Hopefully someone can post the "other side" here so we can know the right way to view this situation, cos right now it's looking pretty cut and dried

 

[csanopal]

Big shock! The Americans spreading propaganda!

 

[Sparrow]

I should get some good reactions, I just posted the 2 articles on CourtTV.

 

[hermanntrude]

problem with a thread like this is i have no idea what to think. It sound entirely plausible that the bush regime might try to frame IRAN like this, but stupid and foolish though they are i doubt they'd be dumb enough to "accidentally" write on the side of the weapon in latin script.

At the same time i wouldn't be at all surprised if some anti-bush crazy thought it'd be clever to engineer a situation where it looks like bush has been trying to frame IRAN.

Both sides are certifiably insane and capable of almost anything, so how the hell can someone like me know what's going on, who did it and why?

 

[RUEZ]

problem with a thread like this is i have no idea what to think. It sound entirely plausible that the bush regime might try to frame IRAN like this, but stupid and foolish though they are i doubt they'd be dumb enough to "accidentally" write on the side of the weapon in latin script.

At the same time i wouldn't be at all surprised if some anti-bush crazy thought it'd be clever to engineer a situation where it looks like bush has been trying to frame IRAN.

Both sides are certifiably insane and capable of almost anything, so how the hell can someone like me know what's going on, who did it and why?

So you don't think that Iran could be involved? That's not even an option?

 

[hermanntrude]

oh i'm sure that's possible too. like i said. There's no way for the little guys like u and i to know.

 

[mabudon]

Doubting stupidity??
What about how stupid it would be to make a near-exact copy of the Israeli Flag and "giving" it to the "new Iraq"??

I don't doubt stupidity at ALL, there is LOTS of it to go round...

 

[Colpy]

Pentagon Caught Red Handed in an attempt to Frame Iran: Iran Does Not Manufacture 81MM Mortar Shells

By Kurt Nimmo

Global Research, February 13, 2007
Another Day in the Empire - 2007-02-12

Pentagon carelessness fabricating bogus “evidence” against Iran is really quite stupendous. As I wrote here yesterday, the 81mm mortar shell offered up to the complaisant corporate media as “evidence” Iran is supplying weaponry to the Shi’a of Iraq is an obvious ruse, as the date on the proffered shell does not follow the Muslim calendar and other markings are in English when it only makes sense they would appear in Persian script.
But it gets worse.
As a recent email points out, Iran does not manufacture 81mm mortar shells. According to a report offered by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, connected to the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the neocon Brookings Institute, the smallest mortar produced by Iran is the 107mm M-30. This information is included in the JCSS’s “Middle East Military Balance,” updated last February. It can be read in this PDF file on page 15. According to JCSS, “The Middle East Military Balance has been the most authoritative source on Middle Eastern Armies since 1983.” It is quite fortunate for us the hubris-filled neocons care not to double check their engineered lies—erroneously described as a “machining process”—before unleashing them on an unwitting public.
As Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told the Associated Press, the “United States has a long history in fabricating evidence,” an undisputed fact more than underscored by the lead-up to the Iraq invasion when the neocons claimed Iraqi weather balloon trailers doubled as biological weapon labs and clumsily recycled a student’s homework as evidence Saddam was dabbling in weapons of mass destruction.
Considering the shoddiness of the mortar ruse, it makes perfect sense so-called “experts” involved in the scam told “a large gathering of reporters” (more accurately described as script readers and errand boys) “they not be further identified,” lest blame be delivered to their doorstep.
“Why are US officials hiding behind the cloak of anonymity when presenting the most detailed evidence yet that Iran is supplying anti-US forces in Iraq with weaponry?” muses Eason Jordan. “After weeks, if not months, of US official planning to present a damning ‘dossier’ of incriminating evidence against Iran, and after this same US administration presented us with lopsided, erroneous information about the capability and evil intentions of the Saddam Hussein regime, the best the US government can give us today is incendiary evidence presented at a Baghdad news conference by three US officials who refuse to be quoted by name?…. The American people deserve straight talk from identified US officials.”
Of course, such “straight talk” will not be forthcoming—not now or after Iran is destroyed, as Iraq was destroyed before it.
Maybe, if we are lucky, at some point in the future, the names of these “experts” will emerge in the course of a new Nuremberg trial.
Addendum
Iran does not manufacture 81mm mortars—but Pakistan does. Compare the photo on this death merchant catalog page with the one offered up as “evidence” against the Iranians. Minus the nosecone and fins at the bottom, it is almost a dead ringer, excuse the metaphor (see enlargement here).
Is it possible the Pentagon neocons, in their zeal to finger the Iranians and thus kick start World War Four, as they fondly call it, are using a Pakistani mortar and attributing it to Iran? Considering the long and sordid history of collaboration between the CIA, Pentagon, and Pakistan’s nefarious ISI, this is likely the case.

This guy either is trying to misguide his readers, or he has no idea what he is talking about.

The original point of manufacture does not necessarily indicate the supplier of any arm.

For example, a friend a few years ago bought a Colt 1911 A1 pistol, manufactured in the USA, from the People's Republic of China, who had thousands of them for sale........captured from US troops in Vietnam.

There have also been cases of rebels in South America (El Salvador, specifically) being supplied with US made M-16s, once again from Vietnam.

This dude will have to do a lot better than that..........

And, one should say, this doesn't prove the arms came FROM Iran either............

Neither side in this claim is at all convincing..........

 

[mabudon]

At least you are being totally reasonable Colpy- tho after lal the faked garbage that led to Iraq, any claims the US makes now, under the same criminal administration must be taken with a LOT of salt, which I suppose is unfortunately why it's so easy to believe they're stacking the lies even higher this time

 

[darkbeaver]

This guy either is trying to misguide his readers, or he has no idea what he is talking about. The original point of manufacture does not necessarily indicate the supplier of any arm. For example, a friend a few years ago bought a Colt 1911 A1 pistol, manufactured in the USA, from the People's Republic of China, who had thousands of them for sale........captured from US troops in Vietnam. There have also been cases of rebels in South America (El Salvador, specifically) being supplied with US made M-16s, once again from Vietnam. This dude will have to do a lot better than that.......... And, one should say, this doesn't prove the arms came FROM Iran either............ Neither side in this claim is at all convincing.......... __________________ The case for the frame up is coupled with numerous recent threats to attack Iran from the USA and the fact that they were included on the Axis of Evil index, and they're sitting on a giant oil hole.

 

[Tonington]

Can anyone tell me for certain where the troop increase is going to be concentrated, I heard that they were going to Baghdad and other areas of increasing sectarian violence. It seems to me if this importation of Iranian weapons (as Colpy said they may not be being manufactured in Iran) then why aren't they pulling more troops to the borders. This would also make sense as I think I've also heard the Administration in Washington express concerns over militants crossing from the borders.

 

[darkbeaver]

The americans closed the borders in Iraq to Iran and Syria today.If they don't take Iran out they can't keep Iraq or the oil in the region. If they fail in the middle east they're done.

 

[mabudon]

I just can't get over all the Freedom they've given that region, damn

 

[Avro]

Media caught up in the spin cycle TheStar.com - News - Media caught up in the spin cycle
February 13, 2007
Antonia Zerbisias

This past weekend, the two most influential media organs in the U.S., The New York Times and The Washington Post, both published stories about Iranian weapons in Iraq.
Both stories relied on unnamed U.S. military officials who claimed that, as the Post put it, "Iranian security forces, taking orders from the `highest levels' of the Iranian government, are funnelling sophisticated explosives to extremist groups in Iraq, and the weapons have grown increasingly deadly for U.S.-led troops over the past two years."
This after a briefing where reporters had to agree not to identify the officials, and also had to check their electronic equipment at the door.
As the Times' progressive Paul Krugman wrote yesterday, "Why wasn't any official willing to take personal responsibility for the reliability of alleged evidence of Iranian mischief, as opposed to being an anonymous source? If the evidence is solid enough to bear close scrutiny, why were all cameras and recording devices, including cellphones, banned from yesterday's Baghdad briefing?"
Excuse me, but haven't we been down this road to war before? This is how it worked last time: the administration planted stories in the media and then went on the media to say that the media were reporting stories about smoking guns and mushroom clouds and hey this isn't coming from us, it's coming from the New! York! Times!
All that may have been forgotten by many after four foggy years of war. Which is why tonight's debut of PBS Frontline's four-part special News War: Secrets, Spin and the Future of News is essential viewing. Not only is it a grim reminder of how the White House played the media for suckas to get their war on, it also provides a primer to the current prosecution of Vice-President Dick Cheney's former top aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in connection with the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame in 2003.
Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, had publicly discredited President George W. Bush's line in his State of the Union address that year, just weeks before the attack on Iraq, about Saddam Hussein supposedly seeking uranium from Africa.
Tonight's opener, at 9, catches the Bushies in bald-faced lies and gets into a detailed discussion of how anonymous sourcing is not what it used to be.
"During Watergate, and before that, confidentiality was a tool that journalists would offer to reluctant sources to coax them to come forward,'' says the Project for Excellence in Journalism's Tom Rosenstiel to Frontline's Lowell Bergman. "That has shifted to the point where confidentiality and anonymity are conditions that a source imposes on the journalist.
"That's the powerful trying to get their message out to other elites through elite media."
Yes, most of the program is very American-centric, but there are lessons for Canada. For example, we now have a Prime Minister's Office that tightly controls the message.
Word from Ottawa last week was that the networks, angered that the Conservatives had made unauthorized use of broadcast consortium footage for their attack ads on Stéphane Dion, got together on a group complaint. But one major private network balked at the last moment because joining the protest might not serve its best interests. This network has a major deal up for approval before the CRTC.
Watch for it to land more softball exclusives with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
In subsequent episodes, Frontline delves deeper into freedom of the press issues with the third hour zeroing in on how corporate owners cut costs to maintain high profit margins. Episode four tours media around the world to show Americans how it's done elsewhere, especially in the Arab world.
For those who believe there is no democracy without a strong – and unleashed – watchdog, there is nothing else to watch.
Needless to say those Fox News guys will hate this series.

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/180973

 

[MikeyDB]

American necon media....

Hey it will undoubtedly sell newspapers to Americans eager to recover their "better" image...those that care of course...

Americans don't really care what the world thinks so the lies and fabrications just keep on coming...for domestic consumption of course since who else would believe anything coming out of America....?

 

[Avro]

It's a shame really that a guy like GWB has destroyed what was once a great country.

Perhaps he should get an intern to give him a blowjob to lighten him up.