Juan Cole: NYT Falls for Bogus Iran Weapons Charges -- Repeat of Judy Miller Scandal

[Barrett808]

NYT Falls for Bogus Iran Weapons Charges
Completely Implausible Numbers are Thrown Around
Repeat of Judy Miller Scandal

This NYT article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/world/middleeast/10weapons.html) 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

...

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!

(more)

http://www.juancole.com/2007/02/nyt-falls-for-bogus-iran-weapons.html

[Jackpine Radical]

1. And if it's true, so f&^king what?

Half the remaining deaths are probably due to our own munitions that we sorta left lying around here & there & that drifted into the hands of the "insurgents."

[acmavm]

2. The NYT 'falls' for bogus charges. Bullshit. They're back to business

as usual, providing support and cover for the bush** administration.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. The NYT: If it was a horse that kept tripping in the same hole in the pasture,

it would have broken a leg by now and put down to sleep.

[formercia]

4. Perhaps they were bought for the Sunni insuergents

with Saudi money to make the Iranians look bad. Just because a weapon was made in a given country doesn't mean the originating country provided the weapons to a given group. If the Iranians wanted to provide covert assistance, do you think they would supply devices that say "Made in Iran?"

[rodeodance]

5. playing games with soldiers lives again.

[Peace Patriot]

6. It's infuriating, isn't it? They don't even care about their circulation, they

want this second killing front in the Mideast so badly.

And now, maybe, with Valerie Plame and the entire Brewster-Jennings WMD counter-proliferation network out of the way--thanks in part to NYT WMD war propagandist Judith Miller--they can plant nukes and bioweapons on these "captured Iranians," with impunity, and run the thing right over the border into Iran. You don't think they're going to stop with this lame accusation*, do you? It's just prep.

My disgust with the NYT is total. They ARE the enemy.

-----------------

*(And, of course, they never ask the question: IF Iran is intervening in Iraq, in any way at all, who has more right to do so, Iran or the Bush Junta? Say it was Mexico invaded by China, to grab their oil? Would the US have a right--and, indeed, a duty--to intervene? WHO is the aggressor in the Middle East? WHO has slaughtered a 100,000 innocent people, and tortured others, and looted reconstruction money? WHO has set up a puppet government--hidden behind barricades in the US "Green Zone"--to get oil contracts signed, that give the country's only resource to western corporations? WHO is the bad actor in the Middle East? WHO has directly caused this civil war? It's not Iran. And so, IF Iran is supplying weapons to Iraqis--something for which there is thin evidence from known liars, at best--why is that a crime, while slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent people and destroying their country is not? The NYT is engaged in pure propaganda, based on the Bushite premise that the Middle East does not belong to the people who live there unless they are Israelis--and if the Israelis ever turn against the Bushites--which I sincerely hope they do--then THEY will lose their sovereignty as well, in the view of the Bush Oil Cartel. Pure propaganda and pure hypocrisy--and, from the standpoint of the safety and security of the Israeli people, pure insanity. And the most forgiving thing I can say about them is that the NYT is so steeped in blood and hypocrisy, and so hogtied to the war profiteers in the US and Israel, that the institution has gone mad--has succumbed to mass hysteria.)

[bluenydem]

7. The Libby trial shows just how easy it is for the WH to manipulate the press

And lets not forget the long proud history of Yellow Journalism in this country and also the CIA's Mockingbird project. Then as a backstop just bug everyone's phone for blackmail opportunities.

Crazy crazy world we live in.

[Morgana LaFey]

8. I knew as soon as I turned on ole Wolfie today that the

neocons had been hard at work, along with (presumably) the military black ops folks. What I didn't know was how long it would take for the truth to surface. As it turns out -- much quicker than I expected. I thought "by tomorrow" would be reasonable and expected. So I'm dazzled by this (and almost always dazzled by Juan Cole).