11
Feb
2007
More twisted ‘intelligence’ on “Iranian IEDs” in Iraq
There’s a very odd front page story in the Washington Post today entitled “Military Ties Iran To Arms In Iraq.”
The article quotes an unnamed “senior defense official” who, together with an unnamed “defense analyst” and an unnamed “explosives expert,” showed a group of reporters in Baghdad’s Green Zone “mortar shells, rocket-propelled grenades and a powerful cylindrical bomb, capable of blasting through an armored Humvee, that they said were manufactured in Iran and supplied to Shiite militias in Iraq for attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops.”
Here’s the photo that accompanies the article, along with its caption…
Caption: “U.S. officials showed reporters weaponry they said was manufactured in Iran, including armor-piercing rocket-propelled grenades, left, and shipping containers for 81mm mortar rounds.”
Oddly, no rocket-propelled grenades are visible in the photo, and the “shipping containers” have the word “MORTAR” printed in English, which strikes me as an odd choice of language for an Iranian manufacturer.
Also on display at the show-and-tell were “pieces of what they called an “explosively formed penetrator” or EFP.” The article continues:
The one such device shown at the briefing was a cylinder of PVC pipe about eight inches long and about six inches in diameter. The officials said the devices are deadly because the explosion sends a slug of malleable metal, often copper, at velocities high enough to penetrate the armor of tanks and Humvees. Their components require precision machining that Iraq has shown no evidence of being able to perform, the officials said.
It’s too bad that we’re not allowed to see pictures of the EFP, but if it was an 8-inch long piece of 6-inch diameter PVC pipe, it might have looked something like this homemade “outdoor light fixture”:
Or maybe this mold for stacking ahi tartar:
Of course, not everything made with 6″ PVC pipe is so innocuous. Check out this potato cannon, for example.
Pretty scary, eh? Looks like we’re gonna have to keep that precision-made pipe out of Iraq at all costs. The only problem is, the bad guys can also get it on ebay, where anyone at all can order 2-foot-long sections for $15 from NorVa Plastics, which ships worldwide.
On the other hand, Longport, NJ, used 5,700 feet of 6-inch diameter PVC pipe in their sewage system rebuild, and didn’t we pay Fluor-AMEC $1 billion to build sewage systems in Iraq? They might’ve used some of that money to import 6″ PVC pipe. For all we know, there might be 50 million dollars’ worth of the stuff lying around Iraq right now.
Even worse, it’s used in aquaculture too, and Iraq has, or had, 7,500 hectares (18,500 acres) of aquaculture ponds.
It looks like if we’re really serious about victory, we may have to bomb all the carp ponds and sewage lines in Iraq.
Incidentally, we debunked this Iranian IED nonsense almost a year ago. One of the most persistent floggers of the story since then has been Joe Lieberman.
Update: Photos of the “sophisticated, precision-machined” EFPs have been released:
and
It’s amazing that Iraq, a country that just a few years ago was on the verge of building nuclear weapons, now is incapable of making these simple, crude bombs. Apparently we’ve successfully bombed them back to the stone age.
Update: Just as he did last time around, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace demurs.
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A point I have been making on this issue is that this material may well have been shipped to Hezbollah for their fight against Israel. We know that a number of Israeli tanks got blown apart in that fight. Some of that material looks to be filtering back through Syria and into Iraq. As long as we are speculating, my speculation makes more sense than what the Bush administration is putting out. On the other hand, I am not trying to pick a fight with Iran.
Regardless, this “intelligence” fails the smell test, much as Colin Powell’s statement before the UN failed the smell test.
Lastly, the Soviet Union providee North Vietnam with weapons and training in that war. Did this mean that we bombed the Soviet Union for providing that support. Of course not. War with Iran now makes no more sense than war with the Soviet Union would have made back then. Diplomacy finally ended that conflict and it will require diplomacy, not war, to end this conflict as well. Any moron should realize that.
February 12th, 2007 at 4:59 amIran rejects U.S. accusations on Iraq
Iran on Monday rejected U.S. accusations that the highest levels of Iranian leadership have armed Sh
February 12th, 2007 at 5:19 amTalking Points Memo similarly notes the problems with the “evidence,” as well as the fact that a reasonable assumption is that something is there, but surely not enough for sane people to make war over it given the balance of risk. Something like my sentiment in ’02-’03.
The deja vu flows into the fact that a NYT reporter is selling unnamed source material in scary terms, acting bitchy when challenged on the point (see, e.g., Glen Greenwald). You know something has run its course when they start repeating plots so blatantly.
February 12th, 2007 at 5:21 pmEric, on another matter. President Bush has said a number of times that “Saddam wouldn’t let the inspectors in”. I have never heard that statement explained. Since it has a direct bearing on why Bush invaded Iraq it still has relavance today. Since Bush himself kicked the UN inspectors out so he could begin the bombing campaign I would still like to know what Bush meant when he repeatedly stated that “Saddam wouldn’t let the inspectors in”.
The October 2002 Congressional resolution specifically limited US military action to Saddam not complying with UN Resolutions. Bush here seems to be claiming that Saddam was in violation of the UN Resolution on WMD inspections so he had to invade in order to enforce the UN Resolution. Frankly, I don’t think he has a leg to stand on yet he has never been taken to task over this very issue. From where I stand Bush is not in compliance with the October 2002 Congressional resolution limiting military action to UN Resolutions. Bush was, after all, unable to get a second UN Resolution to green light an invasion of Iraq. Using Bush’s own words “whatever you (Congress) voted for” Bush has failed to abide by that resolution limiting war to Saddam not abiding by the terms of the UN Resolution.
February 13th, 2007 at 10:28 amFollowing is the Bush transcript most in question in my comment above. While there are a number of false statements here it is the one at the end where Bush proclaims that he gave Saddam a chance but that Saddam wouldn’t let the inspectors in that has always galled me.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030714-3.html
February 13th, 2007 at 12:58 pm81mm shells on an Iranian Military Website – It would appear that Iran’s Defense industries DO in fact make 81mm shells.
February 13th, 2007 at 1:33 pm“It’s amazing that Iraq, a country that just a few years ago was on the verge of building nuclear weapons, now is incapable of making these simple, crude bombs.”
Very well said. When I read “precision machining” I thought that might have meant turning on a lathe a metal cone with a sophisticated shape to tolerances of 0.0001 inch. That’s not what the photos seem to show, by a long shot.
Here’s a very interesting military-oriented thread on this same topic.
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=103905
I’ll also mention that you can find quite a bit of useful information (if you want to make such devices) doing a Google or a patent search with the proper terms.
February 13th, 2007 at 5:18 pm