It appears that "someone" in Iraq is "manufacturing" Iranian weapons for some reason

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/28/Worldandnation/Gray_weapons_market_c.shtml

Gray weapons market clouds Iran role

<snip>In a series of media briefings this month, the U.S. military has displayed mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and a particularly lethal type of roadside bomb alleged to have been made in Iran. The military has acknowledged there is no direct evidence the Iranian leadership is responsible, and the Bush administration denies it is building a case for attacking Iran as it did with Iraq in 2003.

But skepticism abounds about the origin of the weapons, with critics wondering why those alleged to have been made in Iran had markings in English, not Farsi. And Monday, the New York Times printed a letter from an Iranian diplomat who said dates on some of the weapons shown - including a warhead marked 5-31-2006 - prove the U.S. claims are "preposterous."

"The dates are in the American date format - month first, day second - whereas the rest of the world does not use this format," wrote M.A. Mohammadi, press secretary for Iran's U.N. mission. Iran and most other countries put the day first, followed by month and year.

Judging from photos on the Web site of Defense Industries Organization, which makes weapons for sale as well as for the country's own defense, Iran does use English lettering - such as HE for "high explosives" - on at least some weapons in accord with international standards. However, none of the weapons shown on the company's site appear to be dated.

There are also visible differences between 81mm mortar shells known to be made by Iran and those displayed Feb. 11 by the U.S. military at a Baghdad briefing. The Iranian mortar shell has four horizontal ribs below the lettering and no date; the one shown in Baghdad has three ribs above the lettering and the date 3-2006.

Indeed, as skeptics have pointed out, the mortar shell displayed in Baghdad looks more like a shell that was made in Iraq - not Iran - around the time of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. After the most recent war began in 2003, coalition troops found caches of munitions throughout Iraq but failed to secure many of them. Tons of weapons fell into insurgent hands.

[MADem]

1. Ah, the sound of bullshit flying!!!

It's amazing, the incompetence. If you're going to try to con people, cross the doggone T's and dot the i's..........

[Cooley Hurd]

2. K&R - Al Qaqaa continues to haunt us...

Arguably, one of the biggest blunders of the initial invasion was the failure to secure the ammo dumps in Al Qaqaa, and our troops are paying for it now.:(

[Bucky]

3. When you wrote "Al Qaqaa" I'd forgot about the ammo depot & thought you meant Bush

But of course his Arab nickname should be spelled "al-Kaka"

[ClintonTyree]

4. How inept are the people trying to make an Iran connection?

I know we're dealing with the Bush Administration here, but really! Can anyone actually be THAT stupid? Everything written in English and without the international style of dating. :banghead: Is it any wonder the United States is in the shit it's in right now with these bozos at the helm.
OR....when given the order by the Bushistas to manufacture a little evidence to implicate Iran, did someone KNOWINGLY commit these blatant errors so everyone would know this was manufactured evidence? There might be some people on the inside that are sick to death of the Bushistas bullshit and are on a mission to discredit THEM? :shrug: It seems unbelievable that the CIA, Army Intelligence or whoever was responsible for these "damning revelations" is stupid enough to make these mistakes.
:shrug: Who knows. Maybe a combination of the two?

[wakeme2008]

5. Simple thing like a date can show how supid the Pentagon staffers are

:grr:

[mainer]

6. I can hear 'em now:

"Hey Mo, whaddya think? This look good enough?"
"How 'bout we add a date? Y'know, to give it that look of authenticity?"
"Yeah, that's the ticket! Put on a date. That'll convince 'em."
"We do good work!"

[leveymg]

8. I doubt career Pentagon staffers or DIA are behind this.

These forgeries stink of Luti's Iran Directorate and the MEK, or some of the Sunni groups funded by Saudi intelligence. Wouldn't be too surprised if Ledeen and Ghorbanifar's dirty-tricks shop is also somehow involved.

[SpiralHawk]

7. "I did not have Black Ops with those A-rabs, Eye-ranians." - Commander AWOL

"I mean, that's the kind of evil behavior you would get from -- say -- some evil preppy who belonged to a darkside occult cabal with a grandpoppy who funded the Nazis, or something Way Evil like that. Smirk, smirk, smirk."

- Commander AWOL

[madokie]

9. This was intentional, so as to foster this violence we see there today

'Tons of weapons fell into insurgent hands.'

to bushco* there never were any intentions except to get their grubby hands on the Iraqi's oil

[LongTomH]

10. Incredibly clumsy forgeries!

However, you've just got to remember: the Bushco disinfo people aren't playing to people who read the N.Y. Times or to people who question what they hear on Faux Snooze or Corporate News Network. They're playing to their base out there in the heartland. Those people in the trailer parks and decaying house who move their lips when they read and never question what they're told by the M$M.

Yeah, I'm being patronizing; but, I grew up out here.

[IWantAChange]

11. What's next from Repugs? 'captured Iranian documents' w/Pentagon logo whited out?

just how 'stoopid' do they think we r???????

:wtf: :wtf:

[Roland99]

12. "The dates are in the American daThe dates are in the American date format - month first, day second

wow



So pathetic, these claims.

[Buzz Clik]

13. I often wondered why the Bush admin never did this in Iraq.

Why did they not ship in a few pounds of anthrax? Why no phony caches of chem weapons? A few scraps of retired nuke technology scattered here and there.

The answer seems to be two-fold: 1) They wanted to save it for the next impending invasion, and 2) they're no damned good at it.

[MsKandice01]

14. WAIT...the most TELLING paragraph in the article is this!

Although the Web site of Defense Industries Organization bars registration by computer users in the United States, Israel, Iraq and a few other countries, it is accessible to potential buyers in several of Iraq's neighbors including Saudi Arabia. The Saudis, whose own domestic weapons industry is small, are thought to be funding and arming Sunni insurgents in Iraq, just as Iran is alleged to be supporting Shiite insurgents.

Shocking, I tell ya.... :sarcasm:

[happydreams]

15. Maybe the Iranians, put the dates on the weapons they

smuggled into Iraq to make them look like US plants. :evilgrin: :tinfoilhat: