ABC's "Scoop" That Iran Supplying IEDs To Iraq is OLD NEWS From Last Oct.

[kpete]

Something from emptywheel:



Kudos to Newshog for recognizing that ABC's recent "scoop" that purported Iran was supplying improved IEDs to Iraqi insurgents was no such thing. He describes how the same news appeared last Fall in the British media ... until it became too embarrassing for the Brits:

Another way Brian Ross is failing to be in any manner "investigative" is in failing to find out or inform the public that this isn't any kind of exclusive - it is actually old news from way back in October last year.

Back then, the British media were full of the accusations that improved IED's using motion detectors as triggers were being sent to Iraq from Iran. They were being sent, according to British claims, to the Sadr militia - an organisation that the US has gone out of it's way to placate - but that too isn't mentioned by Ross. Just as now, absolutely no evidence was brought forward to show that the Iranian government were at all involved... and then the kerfuffle suddenly stopped. Why?

Well as I wrote at the time, it was discovered that the new, deadly IED's were using a British design that had been stupidly given to the IRA by British intelligence and then passed around various terror groups the IRA were allied with. Major egg on faces - story dropped.

...................

As Newshog describes, this improved IED story was tried in the UK last October, and has now been recycled here in the States.

............

Not that this is new. After all, reasserting the aluminum tube claim and the uranium from Niger claim over and over again, until all the critics were silenced, proved to be an effective approach to get us into war in Iraq. I guess they figure they'll just go with what they know, repeating something over and over again until we get so tired of tracking their claims we just give in.

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2006/03/churning_the_ir.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4315924.stm
http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2005/10/bombs-from-iranumm-made-in-uk.html

[Roland99]

1. Good find!

[karynnj]

2. Does this mean they've used up all the ones from the ammo dump?

(that was left unsecured)

[LSK]

3. who thinks ABC will "scoop" the DSM next?

[Just Me]

4. I read on DU that Rummy said the same thing earlier today.

At a press conference, Rummy apparently said that Iran was sneaking in fighters and IEDs.

Surprised?

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. "Shipped by the truckloads from Iran"?? BULL. If that were true....

...we would have been targeting those alleged "trucks" long ago.

And I seriously doubt that the capability for making these devices is centered solely among the Shia population. I recall during the Afghan-Russian War that the Afghan resistance became very skilled at designing IEDs and using them to their best advantage...were the Iranians involved in supplying the Afghans, too?

And if memory serves me correctly, isn't the Al Qaeda organization known to be experts at the design and use of IEDs? Do you think Iran is supplying them, too?

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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[Buck Rabbit]

9. Active imagination, much?

Truckloads intercepted, just like the fantom truckloads of ballots intercepted from Iran.

If even one truckload of bombs were intercepted at the Iranian border you would see the video being displayed on every network on your evening news and Fox would be showing it 24/7 for the next month. The military would be putting on such a dog and pony show it would boggle the mind.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[Buck Rabbit]

14. Because Fox News hates Bush and loves Iran?

Is that the HUGH reason that the media doesn't report it?

[Richard Steele]

11. Very active, it seems.

This guy is making more outrageous claims than B*shCabal itself.

[jsamuel]

13. I have seen SOOOO much evidence, my head is hurting! WOW!!!

:sarcasm:

Man, report after report sighting evidence! Just because I have never been shown one shred of it doesn't mean anything!

:sarcasm:

[MasonJar]

6. But..but...but W wants it out now....again.

[kpete]

12. Iran bombing odds are 2:1 by 2007

Mag: Iran bombing odds are 2:1 by 2007
RAW STORY
Published: March 7, 2006

The odds of an American or Israeli airstrike on Iran by March 31, 2007 are 2:1, according to April editions of the Atlantic Magazine. The magazine relies on online betting at tradesports.com, and provides a few details of the circumstances in which each strike might take place.

The Atlantic is known for its predictions of future events, and has held widely respected debates on military strikes on North Korea and Iran. Neither scenarios resulted in a favorable position for the United States. Excerpts follow.


By this date, the United Nations Security Council may have only recently enacted sanctions, such as travel bans or freezing the assets of Iranians associated with the nuclear program. More important, neither the United States nor Israel is likely to risk a strike in the midst of an election year. Israel will have only recently voted in a new parliament, and the United States will be mere months away from mid- term elections. Advertisement

3:1: Overt Air Strike by the United States or Israel by December 31, 2006.

The November elections will be over in the United States, and a new government will be firmly in place in Israel. But the two powers may continue to defer to the international community, and wait to assess whether sanctions and diplomacy curb Iran’s ambitions.

2:1: Overt Air Strike by the United States or Israel by March 31, 2007.

If Iran continues to make progress toward nuclear weapons capability, despite heavy international pressure, a surgical military strike against one of its key facilities—such as the uranium-enrichment plant in Natanz or the uranium-conversion facility in Isfahan—would become more politically feasible. Analysts at the Eurasia Group, an international consulting firm, predict that surgical strikes are likely “by the or Israel during the first quarter of 2007.”

Current betting figures can be obtained at http://www.intrade.com.

http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Mag_Iran_bombing_odds_are_21_0307.html