The Unknown Candidate: IRANIAN MORTARS MADE IN USA?

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

IRANIAN MORTARS MADE IN USA?

WhatReallyHappened.com appears to have blown a hole in the evidence linking Iranian munitions with Iraqi insurgents, and if so, it is a big one:

WhatReallyHappened.com:

HOW LUCKY FOR THE US MEDIA THAT THIS BOMB SUPPOSEDLY MADE IN IRAN BEARS ENGLISH MARKINGS
Also, Iran gets its weapons, including mortars, from Russia. Russian mortars do NOT use 81MM rounds! They use 82mm.

AND, Modern Iran uses a solar Hijri calendar that is 621 years less than the Western solar calendar, so if this munition were really made in Iran. the date should read 1384 or 1385 (Wikipedia errs in showing it as 1427), rather than 2006! The reason for the uncertainty about those two dates is that the Iranian new year happens in our March. In any event, the numerals should be in Farsi. The letters in the center appear to be "HE". "High Explosive" is a common catagory of mortar shell. But "High Explosive" is English, not Farsi....

Just so you know here is what Iranian writing and dates should really look like:

Iran Newspaper - صفحه اول - 1385/11/21
روزنامه صبح. وابسته به خبر گزاری جمهوری اسلامی.

I guess BushCo thinks we ARE really stupid.

UPDATE: Sean Paul at Agonist suggests the rounds are from Pakistan, and I think he is probably right.

Hat Tip to Al Buono.

Also See:

Salon.com: Iran and Iraq, Anonymously:
"In an August 2004 retrospective on journalism in the run-up to the Iraq war, Washington Post editor Leonard Downie Jr. was asked to explain how two stories that called into question the case for war wound up buried deep inside his newspaper. His answer, at least in part: The stories relied on anonymous sources.

So what's on the front page of the Washington Post today? A 2,600-word story linking Iran to weapons that are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq -- a 2,600-word story that is based almost entirely on unnamed sources. We say 'almost entirely' because the Post's Joshua Partlow does quote one official by name: Labeed M. Abbawi, an Iraqi deputy foreign minister, who says that it is 'difficult' to 'accept whatever the American forces say is evidence" because the Americans won't speak openly....'"
NYT: Iran and the Nameless Briefers
Before things get any more out of hand, President Bush needs to make his intentions toward Iran clear. And Congress needs to make it clear that this time it will be neither tricked nor bullied into supporting another disastrous war.

How little this administration has learned from its failures is a constant source of amazement. It seems the bigger the failure, the less it learns...."
Juan Cole: NYT Falls for Bogus Iran Weapons Charges Completely Implausible Numbers are Thrown Around Repeat of Judy Miller Scandal

Alexander Cockburn: Will They Nuke Iran?
Intelligence Briefings to NYT Notch Up Tension
"President Nixon, a very good poker player, once defined the art of brinkmanship as persuading your opponent that you are insane and, unless appeased by pledges of surrender, quite capable of blowing up the planet.

By these robust standards George Bush is doing a moderately competent job in suggesting that if balked by Iran on the matter of arming the Shi'a in Iraq or pursuing its nuclear program he'll dump high explosive, maybe even a couple of nukes, on that country's relevant research sites, or tell Israel to do the job for him...."
Eason Jordan: Stop This Now: No-Name Allegations, Sourcing Identify US Officials Presenting Disputed Evidence Against Iran

Radio Station Cries 'Enough' -- Won't Quote From Certain News Stories Relying on Unnamed Officials

UPDATE: Bush at Press Conference Today Contradicts Sunday's Briefing on Iranian Weapons
"At his press conference this morning in ice-covered Washington, DC, President Bush was pressed by reporters on US officials' claims at a Baghdad briefing on Sunday. These unnamed officials charged that not only were weapons from Iran killing American soldiers in Iraq, they were being used on orders from top Iranian leaders...."