New Evidence Clouds U.S. Case Against Iran

From TPM

Today's Must Read
By Paul Kiel - February 27, 2007, 9:17 AM

New Evidence Clouds U.S. Case against Iran

Two weeks ago, the administration organized an intelligence briefing for journalists in Iraq to show that Iran was providing weapons to insurgents there. The weapons, particularly explosively formed penetrators or E.F.P.s, were manufactured in Iran, and provided to insurgents by the Quds Force, the anonymous briefers asserted, a fact that meant direction for the operation was “coming from the highest levels of the Iranian government.”

Well. A raid in southern Iraq on Saturday seems to have complicated the case. There, The Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.), troops "uncovered a makeshift factory used to construct advanced roadside bombs that the U.S. had thought were made only in Iran." The main feature of the find were several copper liners that are the main component of EFPs. But, The New York Times reports, "while the find gave experts much more information on the makings of the E.F.P.’s, which the American military has repeatedly argued must originate in Iran, the cache also included items that appeared to cloud the issue."

Among those cloudy items were "cardboard boxes of the gray plastic PVC tubes used to make the canisters. The boxes appeared to contain shipments of tubes directly from factories in the Middle East, none of them in Iran."

Possibly, the Times muses, "the parts were purchased on the open market" and then "the liners were then manufactured to the right size to cap the fittings."

But where were the liners made? The Army captain who led the raid doesn't know. From the Journal:

Capt. [Clayton] Combs said the copper caps were smooth and perfectly symmetrical, suggesting they had been made with a high degree of technical precision. He said he didn't know where the caps came from or whether they had been made in Iran. "That's the hard thing about this war," he said.

 

Technorati tags: Iran: Must Read, intelligence, EFP's

 

Laura Bush "...what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everybody."

   In case you've missed it, there are alot of comments going around after Bush's wife, Laura, appeared on Larry King Live last evening. I missed the show so I have been going the transcript to see what Laura had to say.

    I must say that she is about as impressive as a pair of shoes on a goat! She is about as confused, incompetent and stupid as her husband is. No wonder they like each other.

   Read some for yourself BELOW

                                                                         

 

CNN LARRY KING LIVE

Interview With Laura Bush

Aired February 26, 2007

KING: Has the war -- I don't know if it's a good term -- worn you down? I mean, the public, obviously the -- more people disapprove than approve. It's hurt the standing of the presidency.
What has it done to you?
BUSH: Well, of course, it's wearing, wearying. There's no doubt about it. And I understand how the American people feel and that they feel like things aren't going like we want them to there.
On the other hand, I know how important it is for us to continue to help the Iraqis and that to leave now would be a serious mistake. And I really agree with the president on that, that the Iraqi government needs to get up and running as fast as they can.
And, of course, we want our troops to come home. Nobody wants war. No one's pro-war. We want the -- to be able to have a democracy there, to have the people in Iraq, who have been oppressed by a dictatorship for all these years, to be able to build a good government that represents everyone. And I think it'll happen.
Is it going to be fast?
No. And we never expected it to be fast.
KING: So it's going to be going on when you leave office?
BUSH: Probably. I mean I have no idea and there's no way I could predict. But I hope not. I hope that they can build their government and reconcile with each other and build a country. This is their opportunity to seize the moment, to build a really good and stable country. And many parts of Iraq are stable now. But, of course, what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everybody.

   One bombing a day? What kind of drugs are this bit idiot doing? Maybe we should all pitch in and get her a calculator because her math does not add up.

 

Technorati tags: Laura Bush, George Bush, Larry King, Iraq