ABC EXCLUSIVE: Iraq Weapons -- Made in Iran?

[sabra]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/IraqCoverage/story?id=1692347&page=1

EXCLUSIVE: Iraq Weapons -- Made in Iran?
Intelligence Officials Say Weapons Responsible for Increasing U.S. Deaths in Iraq

March 6, 2006 — U.S. military and intelligence officials tell ABC News that they have caught shipments of deadly new bombs at the Iran-Iraq border.

They are a very nasty piece of business, capable of penetrating U.S. troops' strongest armor.

What the United States says links them to Iran are tell-tale manufacturing signatures — certain types of machine-shop welds and material indicating they are built by the same bomb factory.

"The signature is the same because they are exactly the same in production," says explosives expert Kevin Barry. "So it's the same make and model."

[Radio_Guy]

1. Propaganda

Trying to justify an invasion of Iran. So transparent.

[RazzleDazzle]

77. absolutely, positively

I wouldn't believe ANYthing coming out of "intelligence and military" figures in this administration -- esp. if it serves the larger goal we all KNOW is in place: attacking Iran.

[Dhalgren]

2. Bull shit...

[VegasWolf]

3. ABC = Another Bushco Corporation. Can't stand their "news". nt

[Fire Bush]

4. Timing couldn't be better

[iconoclastNYC]

5. Hmmmmmm "Rendon" group???

[leftchick]

6. any mobile labs and aluminun tubes

oh yeah and yellow cake?? Been there done that.

[Jacobin]

7. Who believes a single f---ing thing this administration says?

I don't think even Smirky's former supporters buy into this warmongering bullshit

[kysrsoze]

8. Ummm...how do we know this is not true?

Look, I'm all for questioning everything with this administration, but isn't it possible Iranian Shia are helping Iraqi Shia? Still, that doesn't give us reason to bomb Iran.

[endarkenment]

18. because the bombs are being used by sunni insurgents?

Generally speaking, and there could be exceptions, the insurgency is ethnic sunnis. Other than that you have a valid point. Oh wait, shouldn't the person making the assertion of fact be the one providing the evidence? in other words, this government mouthpiece ought to prove that it is the Iranians supplying ethnic sunni insurgents with 'new deadly bombs', and you shouldn't make it incumbent on us to prove they aren't.

Rather difficult in general to prove a negative, which is why propagandists rely on simply assertion of bogus information as a basic tool. Prove it ain't true. Prove Saddam didn't have WDM. Prove the Iranians aren't making a bomb. Blah blah blah.

[Tin Man]

45. You make a good point - Iranian Shia arming Sunis, who then attack Shia ??

...It doesn't make a lot of sense.

How about this scenario? Using materials stockpiled since the fall of Saddam, and following 3 years of practice and refinement - Suni insurgents are developing and deploying more sophisticated IEDs.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

67. That would make too much sense. Can't have that, can we?

[Webster Green]

26. Based on past performance, we must assume they are lying.

It really is that simple. They have lied about everything.

[ET Awful]

9. "certain types of machine-shop welds"?

BULLSHIT. What a load of blatantly obvious bullshit.

Hey, those welds were done with an arc welder. . . they MUST have come from Iran, nobody else uses arc-welding equipment. . . oh wait, yes they do, everybody on the fucking planet uses them.

[pfitz59]

10. Up the ante!

Buck Fush and his weaselly slime-ball propagandists!

[endarkenment]

11. And the beat goes on

More war drum beating by bushco as we prepare for phase three of Conquest of the Planet.

[Fridays Child]

12. So does this mean that the so-called legitimately elected govt. of Iraq...

...which has been forging an alliance with Iran, is aware of the situation and, possibly, even facilitating it?

Makes you wonder.

[sutz12]

13. Tough call

Likely it's bullshit, meant to jen up support for action against Iran.

It it's real, it means that another of our fears have come true. By taking out Saddam, we de-stabilize the region and the neighbors start butting in. Fucking area's gonna blow up.

Either way, we're pretty much screwed.

Thanks G. Dubai Bush.

[mike923]

14. de-stablized the region?

I'm no fan of the current administration, but it wasn't a bed of roses over there when he took office.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

17. Really? There was trans-national movement of

terrorists and open warfare in civilian areas then?

Wow.

Who knew.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

68. Oh, please. Tell us why Iraq was illegally invaded and occupied.

[gunsaximbo]

15. The parts of which were given to Iran by Russia?

There you go WMD.

[Richard Steele]

16. Didn't they run this same story last summer?

I'm pretty sure I have seen this same crap before,
almost word for word.

[sabra]

24. you are correct. seems like some one got a call to package this

one up as LBN...

[VegasWolf]

19. A month ago Bush was saying Syria was supplying arms to Iraq. Can't

Bush keep his lies straight? I guess in Bush's eyes everyone is supplying arms to Iraq.

[meganmonkey]

20. I am going to throw up

:puke:

welcome to the next phase of WWIII. The propaganda is coming out in full force. :cry:

[FloridaPat]

21. How did all these intelligence officials get time away from all that

torturing to wander the border and find these weapons? Isn't that the border where the Kurds and the Israelis are working together to stir up trouble in Iran?

[Scurrilous]

48. Israelis in Iran?

Report: Israelis in Iran Hunting Nukes

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=99700

An Israeli special operations team is working undercover in Iran, according to a report Sunday in a British newspaper.

<snip>

"The soldiers are on a mission to prevent the Iranians from succeeding in their bid to develop a nuclear weapon. They are involved in locating uranium enrichment facilities in Iran, according to the British Sunday Times, and are currently based in neighboring northern Iraq.

The United States is supporting the move, says the paper.

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made an oblique reference to the operation on Sunday in his video address to the annual AIPAC conference in the U.S. He warned that Israel would not be able to stop the Iranians on its own, adding his hope that the international community, led by the U.S., would impose sanctions on Iran. He said the country is a threat to the modern world.

Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz also spoke on Sunday about the issue. He said that Iran poses a major threat to Israel, and that the verbal hostility coming out of Tehran is something that needs to be closely monitored."

[FloridaPat]

59. They've been there for about a year at least working with the Kurds.

There have been a couple of reports on it.

[anitar1]

63. Yep, they are also salivating, IMO. n/t

[earthside]

22. Pretext for Attack

This 'news' fits the prediction I made yesterday in a commentary:

Iran, Terror and Bush Fascism
http://www.earthside.com/earthside/2006/03/strike_on_iran_.html

Bush's only hope to rescue his plummeting poll numbers and save the radical Republican Congress ... is to get a new threat and war going.

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

[xchrom]

23. propagandizing the effort to bomb iran.

[VegasWolf]

25. WW-III !!!! The end of the World! Mushroom clouds on the horizon! Bush

the AntiChrist induces the Rapture. Take peoples minds off Bush's poll numbers.

[Emillereid]

27. The drums of war are growing louder!

[stillcool]

29. unfrigging believeable...

they are hitting heavy with this shit....coming at us from everywhere...Bush gave them 30 days to come clean or something didn't he?

[madame defarge]

31. and will get louder as...

the election nears and the poll numbers drop. I heard Joe Cirincione speak this weekend about this very issue and he confirmed this. He did say that the right approach is to slowly ratchet up the pressure on Iran, but that diplomacy is truly the only approach to take.

He also said that insider talk in DC is that the war in Iraq is lost.

He was interviewed by "Talk of the Nation" today; here's the link for the transcript/audio:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5247773

[lovuian]

28. See the pattern emerging Nuke blueprints weapons made by

Iran ... it continues as the days go by we will see more and more...

[movonne]

30. This is the wmd's of Iran....our new excuse to go to war...how stupid

do they take us for??? Well we will have to exclude the 38+ or minus depending who takes the polls...

[Barrett808]

32. Here's what Robert Fisk has to say:

Robert Fisk: Somebody is Trying to Provoke a Civil War in Iraq

TONY JONES: What if you put Iran into this equation, because, as we all know, Iran is under tremendous pressure from the West and particularly from the United States at the moment. It has links to these Shia militias and, possibly, links too, to these people you are talking about in the Interior Ministry.

ROBERT FISK: No, no, no, that's wrong. The Iranians link is with the Iraqi Government. The main parties in the government of Iraq which have been elected, who are there now dealing with the Americans, these are the representatives of Iran. Moqtada al-Sadr is irrelevant to Iran. Iranians are already effectively controlling Iraq because the two major power blocks, the two major parties who were elected and who Bush has just been talking to, these are effectively the representatives of Tehran. That's the point. Iran doesn't need to get involved in violence in Iraq.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=194961

[daleo]

33. How would they know the "weld signature" of machine shops in Iran?

I think that would only be relevant in highly automated production facilities, like the spot welds of robots in a big car plant. Bomb making of this sort is more likely to be a custom business, with every weld being different from the last one.

I don't trust them.

[BlueCollar]

38. every welder has a "signature"

but why does it matter...we've been arming insurgents for decades.

[daleo]

43. And does the CIA have every Iranian welder's signature on file?

Somehow I doubt it.

Nonetheless, your point about the hypocrisy of the U.S. crying foul is very valid. Only in bizarro world could a country that has invaded another country complain that a third country might be interfering in the country they invaded.

[BlueCollar]

46. we armed bin laden

and the contras in Nicaragua and....oh never mind...our hypocrisy is breathtaking

[coalition_unwilling]

34. THE TRUTH ALWAYS PREVAILS. No matter how many times

they repeat their lies, nor how shrilly they repeat them, the truth is that the Iraqi resistance is composed of some of the most technically advanced personnel in the Middle East, outside of Israel. When you think about it outside of nationalist prism, the achievement of the Iraqi resistance is liitle short of mind-boggling, akin to Stalin's destruction of Hitler's army at Stalingrad or Ho Chi Minh's victory over first the Japanese, then the French, and finally the U.S.

Here's the counter to this latest blatant lie: Saddam Hussein put out informal peace feelers to the Crime Family in January of 2002. When those peace feelers were rejected, Hussein knew he would be invaded (fully a year before the invasion began). Hussein instructed his general staff to read histories of the Vietnam War. Shortly after the fall of Baghdad (April, 2003), U.S. Military Intelligence discovered a memo from a Mukhabarat office that explicity detailed Hussein's strategy of changing from fighting a conventional war with set-piece battles to a war of resistance, a la Vietnam, and detailed tactics for how to accomplish it, i.e., by fostering small cell-based military organization, dispersing conventional weapons throughout the country and arranging payments for resistance fighters.

[FlemingsGhost]

35. ABC's "exclusive": Manufacured in the Pentagon?

What a steaming pile ...

[BlueCollar]

36. even if true

plenty of weapons used to exterminate the opposition in Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Iraq (pre-revolution), Iraq (pre deposure of Hussein) Vietnam,etc...had made in the USA on them...

What's the point...selling arms is a multi-billion dollar industry....and the sellers really don't care...

What would the US have said if the Soviets complained about stinger missiles during the occupation of Afghanistan?

[StrafingMoose]

37. Sure, Iran "made" these weapons...

...and what does Iran gain from killing US soldiers ? A big zero, nothing. And what does the neocons gain from Iran supposedly killing US soldiers ? A pretext to stay there.

Even Negroponte agrees that Iran cannot do much since it'll award them a reason to be bombed.

Of course, we shouldn't remember how Bush spent 1.6 billions in favorable PR spin since 2003 :eyes:

[oblivious]

39. Richard Clark - propagandist

"I think the evidence is strong that the Iranian government is making these IEDs, and the Iranian government is sending them across the border and they are killing U.S. troops once they get there," says Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism chief and an ABC News consultant. "I think it's very hard to escape the conclusion that, in all probability, the Iranian government is knowingly killing U.S. troops."

Where is the evidence Mr Clark? Do Iranian welders all weld the same? Do they all have the same distinctive bead?

[StrafingMoose]

41. He has as much evidence about that than he had

about bin Laden involved in 9/11: zero

Clarke is a shill who poses as "opposition" to Bush's regime, while protecting the precious pillars on which their rethoric is sitting: bin Laden and the "terrorism threat", and now Iran.

He was on a the Colbert show (can't remember the name of it) and answered to a question saying, basically, that the USG for the moment doesn't really care about stopping wars.

Well, seems like Mr Clarke is all too happy to help the out this warmongering regime!

How fat was the cheque this time Clarke ?

[Imajika]

40. Is Richard Clarke in on the conspiracy?

"'I think the evidence is strong that the Iranian government is making these IEDs, and the Iranian government is sending them across the border and they are killing U.S. troops once they get there,' says Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism chief and an ABC News consultant. 'I think it's very hard to escape the conclusion that, in all probability, the Iranian government is knowingly killing U.S. troops.'"

Richard Clarke was a hero around these parts at one time, what happened?

He says something the majority don't care to hear and suddenly he is either being duped or in on some conspiracy or another. Clarke has no reason to trust this administration in any way, shape or form. I doubt seriously he is gullible enough to believe anything this White House says without his own independent sources and confirmation.

I see no reason to believe Iran wouldn't be trying to bleed the US in Iraq. Infact, if I were the Iranians, that is exactly what I'd do. The worse things go in Iraq for the US, the less likely it is we will try such a thing again.

The question really is, what can/should we do about it? The US supplied guerilla's in Afghanistan with Stinger missiles and other weapons. Those weapons were used to kill lots of Soviet troops. Were not we effectively doing the exact same thing as Iran may be doing now. Did the Soviet Union have cause to attack the United States over this policy? Do we have the right to attack Iran over these IED's?

We are so bogged down in Iraq, and so dependent on the goodwill of the Shia majority there that I just don't see that we can do much about Iran supplying IED to insurgents in Iraq - nor do I believe we can really do much about Iran's nuclear program.

[Zhade]

53. Google 'limited hangout' for your answer.

NT!

[anitar1]

64. Clarke is a pug pig and a sellout. n/t

[Kagemusha]

42. Let me provide you with a different narrative.

The US is making a lot of noises about attacking Iran to shut down its nuclear industry (peaceful or not). Specifically, Ambassador Bolton is telling his peers at the UN that this is viable and must be threatened with UN authorization to cause Iran to give in.

So let's say on the one hand Iran wants to deter this and on the other hand, let's say the US isn't satisfied with an air attack and wants to support anti-Iranian insurgents with a ground campaign. How can Iran slow down such an operation?

Well, one option is making Iraq go utterly to hell with Iraqi insurgents attacking US forces.

But in this case, would the insurgents be the current Sunni insurgents? Well, what's the need for that? There's plenty of very willing Shiites who would be happy to accept Iran's money and plant bombs to fight the Americans if America goes attacking their Shiite brothers in Iran. Maybe not in the past, but they are now.

So why doesn't Iran pre-position weapons - love that phrase? The US Army seems to - with Shiite militias, not for use against American tanks NOW, but as a just-in-case measure for a no holds barred campaign to slow the US Army if it tries to mess with Iran?

Well, this narrative isn't convenient for US forces so of course they'll spread this idea that Iran is shipping directly to the *SUNNI* insurgents - i.e. the enemy of the Iraqi Shiite-led government in waiting - and therefore is engaging in hostile actions against Iraq and its noble Multi-National Force allies, and saying that these bombs are in use right now and meant to kill American troops, now, via Sunni insurgents.

That's an excellent way to muddle the problem and to blame Iran for Al Qaeda and its allies' increasing effectiveness per IED. Now... is it true?

In this environment, who cares if it's true. It's propaganda. Truth is not an asset.

[Danieljay]

44. They must be running out of the ones WE gave them in the 80's ...

Oh the tangled webs we weave. The movie "Why we Fight" talks about this. If you haven't seen it, GO.

[stevietheman]

47. I am not convinced that Iran has the advanced technology to...

build the bombs that were being described in this piece. These were tank-busting bombs the U.S. has no way of stopping. No way of stopping?

This piece smells like it was fed directly from the Bush regime. It needs a *lot* of corroboration before I could begin to believe it.

[jwirr]

49. I am assuming that they are referring to recent weapons

because there were actual list (bills of sale) of weapons that we furnished to Saddam when we were his "friends". This list even included the gas he used to kill the Kurds.

[Dr Fate]

50. I SEE- Emmanuel Goldstein put the WMDs in IRAN!!!!

DAMN that Emmanuel Goldstein and his tricks!!!

[WindRavenX]

51. lol, whatever

The entire Bush administration reads like a Tom Clancy novel on acid...this is so obviously artificial it's almost a let down.

"What? We couldn't BS the WMD thing in Iraq and we need an excuse to bomb the shit out of Iran?"

"..."

"I know! The WMD, which we STILL HAVEN'T FOUND, are made in IRAN..."

Ergo, we nuke Iran.


BRILLIANT.

:sarcasm:

[VegasWolf]

56. Shhhh! You'll ruin the good conspiracy buzz!

:toast:

[Bob3]

52. Didn't the British Try and make this fly a few months ago?

And it fell apart? It's just gibberish. Iran has no reason to supply weapons to the insurgents. They pretty much have it all wrapped up. A shiite dominated Iraq. The US military ground forces stretched thin and unable to mount any offensive actions against them. It would be utterly stupid to start to supply weapons to the Sunni Insurgency. And whatever you say about them - they aren't stupid. WE have the stupid and crazy ones making the decisions.

[rodeodance]

57. umm.. Richard Clarke says it is Iran

U.S. officials say roadside bomb attacks against American forces in Iraq have become much more deadly as more and more of the Iran-designed and Iran-produced bombs have been smuggled in from the country since last October.

"I think the evidence is strong that the Iranian government is making these IEDs, and the Iranian government is sending them across the border and they are killing U.S. troops once they get there," says Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism chief and an ABC News consultant. "I think it's very hard to escape the conclusion that, in all probability, the Iranian government is knowingly killing U.S. troops."

'Very Lethal'

U.S. intelligence officials say Iran is using the bombs as a way to drive up U.S. casualties in Iraq but without provoking a direct confrontation.

John Negroponte, director of national intelligence, testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Februrary 2, saying, "Tehran's intention to inflict pain on the United States and Iraq has been constrained by its caution to avoid giving Washington an excuse to attack it."

[Media_Lies_Daily]

69. The evidence was "strong" about Iraqi WMDs, too. Oops.

[boobooday]

54. Sounds familiar

They're so insulting with their inane propaganda.

[Grateful for Hope]

55. Yeah, right

another "honorable" piece of propaganda.

[Odin2005]

58. My bullshit detector just went off.

[DemInDistress]

60. Only 20 days left until the Iranian Oil Bourse.......h'm nt

[kainah]

61. think this story

has any relationship to this story:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2148674

[anitar1]

62. I saw that on the "news " tonight. My reaction was --total bullshit.

Just more ramping up lies about how bad Iran is.This is getting so old it is boring. We all know this crap when we hear it. How many more days until the new war begins. All the signs seem to seem to indicate it will be quite soon. How transparent can they be? God, how they must be salivating over more killing.

[HuffleClaw]

65. this old story again?

they've dusted this one off probably half a dozen times now. and so what, who cares where they get their arms. i don't see bushco. whining about their chinese/russian made small arms.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

66. Major crapola from the usual suspects.

[Marie26]

70. SCOTTY EXCLUSIVE: IT'S IRAN'S FAULT

Don't you want to attack them now? ABC News seems to get more Bush propaganda than any other source.

[Stockholm]

71. ABC exclusive LOL

Courtesy of DOD. I swear they don´t even try anymore. :rofl:

[underpants]

72. That's terrible but we told you this would happen too

Next?

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

73. some DUDE says IRAN's bombs R killing our troops-Let's kill Iranians now!

and all because some "dude" says so!
explosives expert Kevin Barry?
Who the hell is he?
WTF?
killing and killing and killing in the name of freedom?

[baby_mouse]

74. North Koreans - Are They Vampires?

China - Is it Really as Large as it Looks on The Maps?
Russian Weather - Propaganda by the Old Enemy to Make Themselves Appear More Hardy?
Palestinian People - Are there Really as Many of Them as the Left Makes Out?
Bearing Nice to People - Isn't it Really Just Another Way of Getting Them to Be Nice to You?

Questions, questions, too many questions. Gosh, my mind's just dizzy with 'em!

[Poll_Blind]

75. LOL! n/t

PB

[Roland99]

76. Probably had "Made in France" and autographed by John Kerry, too.