White House challenged over Iran Dossier

[Peto]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20070213&articleId=4781

The White House was today challenged to retract accusations by senior US defence officials that the "highest levels" of the Iranian government are supplying roadside bombs to Iraqi insurgents. The call comes from a group of academics and Middle East experts who described the latest allegations as “highly implausible and deeply misleadingᾠ and “reminiscent of the false accusations against Saddam’s regime in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraqᾠ...

 

[Peto]

Another article on Iran from the same site:

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

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=NIM20070213&articleId=4772

Pentagon carelessness fabricating bogus “evidenceᾠ against Iran is really quite stupendous. As I wrote here yesterday, the 81mm mortar shell offered up to the complaisant corporate media as “evidenceᾠ 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,ᾠ 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.ᾠ It is quite fortunate for us the hubris-filled neocons care not to double check their engineered lies—erroneously described as a “machining processᾠ—before unleashing them on an unwitting public.

 

[PopHistorian]

Two bits to add to this that somehow seem to escape discussion:

1. So what if there are Iranian weapons? Doesn't mean Iranians sent them.

2. IMO, there's a double standard implied by this. There are US secret agencies that exist in large part to provide material and informational support for particular political movements within other nations, and even to foment them from scratch. There are likely dozens of such operations going on right now all over the world (including violent ones that are resulting in dead Palestinians, Somalis, etc.). If the standard were consistent, then the people hurt by this support, whoever they are, would be entitled to blame the USA. I'm sure they do, but they are allowed no voice in Western mass media.

 

[Peto]

Two bits to add to this that somehow seem to escape discussion:

1. So what if there are Iranian weapons? Doesn't mean Iranians sent them.

Right, US weapons are everywhere in the world. No one says the US is responsible for every single one of them.

2. IMO, there's a double standard implied by this. There are US secret agencies that exist in large part to provide material and informational support for particular political movements within other nations, and even to foment them from scratch. There are likely dozens of such operations going on right now all over the world (including violent ones that are resulting in dead Palestinians, Somalis, etc.). If the standard were consistent, then the people hurt by this support, whoever they are, would be entitled to blame the USA. I'm sure they do, but they are allowed no voice in Western mass media.

You are so right AdPop. Even if Iran were supporting insurgents in Iraq, it would just be doing what the US has been doing for ages. But even if we overlook the double standard, the case against Iran still does not hold water.