Bush Administration's smoking gun on Iran Misfires
Gareth Porter | 17.02.2007 11:03 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | Terror War | World
Taking into account the false notes struck by the anonymous officials, the damaging admissions they made and the absence of information they needed to make a case, the briefing appears to have been a serious setback to the administration's propaganda campaign. It will certainly haunt administration officials trying to convince Congress to support its increased aggressiveness toward Iran.
The first major effort by the George W. Bush administration to substantiate its case that the Iranian government has been providing weapons to Iraqi Shiites who oppose the occupation undermines the administration's political line by showing that it has been unable to find any real evidence of an Iranian government role.
Contradicting recent claims by both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defence Robert Gates that U.S. intelligence had proof of Iranian government responsibility for the supply of such weapons, the unnamed officials who briefed the media Sunday admitted that the claim is merely "an inference" rather than based on a trail of evidence.
Although it was clearly not the intention, moreover, the briefing revealed for the first time that the Iranians and Iraqis detained by U.S. forces in recent months did not provide any evidence implicating either the Iranian government or the Islamic Revolutionary Guards in the acquisition of armour-piercing explosive devices and other weapons by Iraqi Shiite groups.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace further underlined the weakness of the administration’s case by declaring Monday in an interview with Voice of America, "It is clear that Iranians are involved, and it's clear that materials from Iran are involved," he continued, "but I would not say by what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit."
In the end, the administration presentation suggested that there could be no other explanation for the presence of Iranian-made weapons than official government sponsorship of smuggling them into Iraq. But in doing so, they had to ignore a well-known reality: most weapons, including armour-piercing projectiles, can be purchased by anyone through intermediaries in the Middle East.
The briefing displayed a number of weapons or photographs of weapons said to have been found in Iraq, including what were called "explosively formed penetrators" (EFPs), which the officials said were smuggled into the country by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard "Quds Force". The RPG-7s and 81 mm mortar rounds shown to reporters did indeed have markings showing that they had been recently manufactured, and there is no reason to doubt that those weapons were manufactured in Iran.
The argument for Iranian official responsibility assumes that such weapons are so tightly controlled that Shiite groups could not purchase them in small numbers on the black market in Iran, Syria or Lebanon. It is well documented, however, that the Shiites have resorted to black market networks to obtain EFPs.
An article in Jane's Intelligence Review last month by Michael Knights, chief of analysis for the Olive Group, a private security consulting firm, reports that the British discovered that there was indeed an organisation in Basra engaged in arranging for the purchase and delivery of imported EFPs and that it was comprised entirely of police officials, including members of the Police Intelligence Unit, the Internal Affairs Directorate and the Major Crimes Unit. They found that members of the organisation followed no specific Shiite faction, but included members from all the factions in Basra.
The Washington Post quoted one of the U.S. officials at the briefing as saying that there was no "widespread involvement" of the Iraqi government in supplying weaponry, thus implicitly conceding that some elements of the Iraqi government officials are indeed involved in the weapons traffic.
By insisting that the Iranian government was involved, the Bush administration has conjured up the image of a smuggling operation so vast that it could not occur without official sanction. In fact, as Knights points out, the number of EFPs exploded monthly has remained at about 100, which clearly would not require high level connivance to maintain a flow of imports.
The power point slides presented to the press in Baghdad ended with a slide that essentially confirms that the evidence points not to official sponsorship of cross-border weapons smuggling but to private arms trafficking networks.
The slide, which can be viewed on the Talking Points Memo website, includes the curious statement that information from detainees "included references to Iranian provision of weapons to Iraqi militants engaged in anti-coalition violence." That formulation carefully avoids stating that any of the information implicated Iranian officials. Furthermore the slide's six bullet points, representing the concrete "highlights" of the information, fail to make reference to any official Iranian role in the smuggling of weapons across the border.
In fact, the slide reveals that the smuggling is handled by what it calls "Iraqi extremist group members", not by the Qods Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The oral presentation accompanying the power point indicated that the smuggling had been carried out by "paid Iraqis", without specifying who was paying them, according to the New York Times report.
The final bullet point of the slide says, "Qods Force provides support to extremist groups in Iraq by supplying money, training and propaganda operations." But its silence on the question of supplying weapons to groups in Iraq represents a serious blow to the credibility of the administration's line.
The EFPs used against U.S. and British troops in Iraq were the centrepiece of the briefing. But the anonymous U.S. officials did not claim that the finished products have been manufactured in Iran. Instead they referred to machining of EFP "components" -- referring to the concave metal lids on the devices -- as being done in Iran.
That position parallels the testimony by Gen. John P. Abizaid on Mar. 16, 2006 to the Senate Armed Services Committee, which claimed only that "sophisticated bomb-making material from Iran has been found in improvised explosive devices in Iraq".
It also raises an obvious question: if Iran has the technical ability to supply the complete EFPs, why are only components being smuggled into Iraq?
The absence of shipments of complete EFPs suggests that the components that have been smuggled in have been manufactured in small workshops outside the official system. Knights, the most knowledgeable and politically neutral source on the issue, says these components could have been manufactured by a "small handful of external bomb-makers". He notes that the only source to claim that the Iranian defence industry is the source of the EFP components is the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran.
The U.S. briefers argued that EFPs are not being manufactured within Iraq. The New York Times quoted a "senior military official" as saying that they had "no evidence" that the machining of components for EFPs "has ever been done in Iraq".
But Knights presents evidence in Jane's Intelligence Review that the Iraqi Shiites have indeed manufactured both the components for EFPs and the complete EFPs. He observes that the kind of tools required to fabricate EFPs "can easily be found in Iraqi metalworking shops and garages."
He also notes that some of the EFPs found in Iraq had substituted steel plates for the copper lining found in the externally made lids. Knights calculates the entire production of EFPs exploded thus far could have been manufactured in one or at most two simple workshops with one or two specialists in each -- one in the Baghdad area and one in southern Iraq.
"I'm surprised that they haven't found evidence of making EFPs in Iraq," Knights told IPS in an interview. "That doesn't ring true for me." Knights believes that there was a time when whole EFPs were imported from outside, but that now most, if not all, are manufactured by Iraqis.
Taking into account the false notes struck by the anonymous officials, the damaging admissions they made and the absence of information they needed to make a case, the briefing appears to have been a serious setback to the administration's propaganda campaign. It will certainly haunt administration officials trying to convince Congress to support its increased aggressiveness toward Iran.
*Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specialising in U.S. national security policy. His latest book, "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam", was published in June 2005.
Contradicting recent claims by both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defence Robert Gates that U.S. intelligence had proof of Iranian government responsibility for the supply of such weapons, the unnamed officials who briefed the media Sunday admitted that the claim is merely "an inference" rather than based on a trail of evidence.
Although it was clearly not the intention, moreover, the briefing revealed for the first time that the Iranians and Iraqis detained by U.S. forces in recent months did not provide any evidence implicating either the Iranian government or the Islamic Revolutionary Guards in the acquisition of armour-piercing explosive devices and other weapons by Iraqi Shiite groups.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace further underlined the weakness of the administration’s case by declaring Monday in an interview with Voice of America, "It is clear that Iranians are involved, and it's clear that materials from Iran are involved," he continued, "but I would not say by what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit."
In the end, the administration presentation suggested that there could be no other explanation for the presence of Iranian-made weapons than official government sponsorship of smuggling them into Iraq. But in doing so, they had to ignore a well-known reality: most weapons, including armour-piercing projectiles, can be purchased by anyone through intermediaries in the Middle East.
The briefing displayed a number of weapons or photographs of weapons said to have been found in Iraq, including what were called "explosively formed penetrators" (EFPs), which the officials said were smuggled into the country by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard "Quds Force". The RPG-7s and 81 mm mortar rounds shown to reporters did indeed have markings showing that they had been recently manufactured, and there is no reason to doubt that those weapons were manufactured in Iran.
The argument for Iranian official responsibility assumes that such weapons are so tightly controlled that Shiite groups could not purchase them in small numbers on the black market in Iran, Syria or Lebanon. It is well documented, however, that the Shiites have resorted to black market networks to obtain EFPs.
An article in Jane's Intelligence Review last month by Michael Knights, chief of analysis for the Olive Group, a private security consulting firm, reports that the British discovered that there was indeed an organisation in Basra engaged in arranging for the purchase and delivery of imported EFPs and that it was comprised entirely of police officials, including members of the Police Intelligence Unit, the Internal Affairs Directorate and the Major Crimes Unit. They found that members of the organisation followed no specific Shiite faction, but included members from all the factions in Basra.
The Washington Post quoted one of the U.S. officials at the briefing as saying that there was no "widespread involvement" of the Iraqi government in supplying weaponry, thus implicitly conceding that some elements of the Iraqi government officials are indeed involved in the weapons traffic.
By insisting that the Iranian government was involved, the Bush administration has conjured up the image of a smuggling operation so vast that it could not occur without official sanction. In fact, as Knights points out, the number of EFPs exploded monthly has remained at about 100, which clearly would not require high level connivance to maintain a flow of imports.
The power point slides presented to the press in Baghdad ended with a slide that essentially confirms that the evidence points not to official sponsorship of cross-border weapons smuggling but to private arms trafficking networks.
The slide, which can be viewed on the Talking Points Memo website, includes the curious statement that information from detainees "included references to Iranian provision of weapons to Iraqi militants engaged in anti-coalition violence." That formulation carefully avoids stating that any of the information implicated Iranian officials. Furthermore the slide's six bullet points, representing the concrete "highlights" of the information, fail to make reference to any official Iranian role in the smuggling of weapons across the border.
In fact, the slide reveals that the smuggling is handled by what it calls "Iraqi extremist group members", not by the Qods Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The oral presentation accompanying the power point indicated that the smuggling had been carried out by "paid Iraqis", without specifying who was paying them, according to the New York Times report.
The final bullet point of the slide says, "Qods Force provides support to extremist groups in Iraq by supplying money, training and propaganda operations." But its silence on the question of supplying weapons to groups in Iraq represents a serious blow to the credibility of the administration's line.
The EFPs used against U.S. and British troops in Iraq were the centrepiece of the briefing. But the anonymous U.S. officials did not claim that the finished products have been manufactured in Iran. Instead they referred to machining of EFP "components" -- referring to the concave metal lids on the devices -- as being done in Iran.
That position parallels the testimony by Gen. John P. Abizaid on Mar. 16, 2006 to the Senate Armed Services Committee, which claimed only that "sophisticated bomb-making material from Iran has been found in improvised explosive devices in Iraq".
It also raises an obvious question: if Iran has the technical ability to supply the complete EFPs, why are only components being smuggled into Iraq?
The absence of shipments of complete EFPs suggests that the components that have been smuggled in have been manufactured in small workshops outside the official system. Knights, the most knowledgeable and politically neutral source on the issue, says these components could have been manufactured by a "small handful of external bomb-makers". He notes that the only source to claim that the Iranian defence industry is the source of the EFP components is the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran.
The U.S. briefers argued that EFPs are not being manufactured within Iraq. The New York Times quoted a "senior military official" as saying that they had "no evidence" that the machining of components for EFPs "has ever been done in Iraq".
But Knights presents evidence in Jane's Intelligence Review that the Iraqi Shiites have indeed manufactured both the components for EFPs and the complete EFPs. He observes that the kind of tools required to fabricate EFPs "can easily be found in Iraqi metalworking shops and garages."
He also notes that some of the EFPs found in Iraq had substituted steel plates for the copper lining found in the externally made lids. Knights calculates the entire production of EFPs exploded thus far could have been manufactured in one or at most two simple workshops with one or two specialists in each -- one in the Baghdad area and one in southern Iraq.
"I'm surprised that they haven't found evidence of making EFPs in Iraq," Knights told IPS in an interview. "That doesn't ring true for me." Knights believes that there was a time when whole EFPs were imported from outside, but that now most, if not all, are manufactured by Iraqis.
Taking into account the false notes struck by the anonymous officials, the damaging admissions they made and the absence of information they needed to make a case, the briefing appears to have been a serious setback to the administration's propaganda campaign. It will certainly haunt administration officials trying to convince Congress to support its increased aggressiveness toward Iran.
*Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specialising in U.S. national security policy. His latest book, "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam", was published in June 2005.
Gareth Porter
Homepage:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=POR20070215&articleId=4812
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Insult To Injury
17.02.2007 23:36
Report: Weapons used in attack in Zahedan, Iran come from U.S.
TEHRAN, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Explosive devices and arsenals used in a terrorist attack in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan on Wednesday came from the United States, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Saturday.
Relevant documents, photographs and film footage, which show that the explosives and arsenals used in the attack were American, would soon be made public, an "informed source" was quoted as saying.
The source further pointed out that Jundallah, a shadowy Sunni militant group, had several plots for assassinating Sunni and tribal leaders to sow discord and foment conflicts between the Shiite and Sunni citizens in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
On Wednesday morning, an explosive-laden car exploded in Zahedan as a bus, belonging to ground forces of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, passed by, killing at least 11 people and injuring 31 others.
Jundallah has reportedly claimed responsibility for the Wednesday attack. Iran has blamed the group for past killings in the area bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.
So far a total of 65 suspects in addition to the three people responsible for the bomb attack have been arrested, the official IRNA news agency reported Thursday, quoting Brigadier General Mohammad Gaffari, a senior police officer in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
Jundallah also claimed responsibility for a second bombing on Friday in Zahedan, which caused no casualties.
Related:
Report: Security restored in Zahedan after 2nd bombing
TEHRAN, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Local police have restored full security in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan where a second bomb exploded Friday night, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.
Friday's bombing, which caused no casualties, came after another explosion earlier this week in the same city that had killed 11 people.
Bomb explodes in southeastern Iran
TEHRAN, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- A bomb exploded in southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan on Friday, in the same city where another explosion earlier this week had killed 11 people, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"The sound of a bomb explosion was heard minutes ago in one of the streets in Zahedan," IRNA said without giving further details.
Iran arrests more suspects for bomb attack in Zahedan
TEHRAN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- More suspects have been arrested over the deadly bomb attack against members of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran's southeastern city of Zahedan, the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.
"Some key members linked with the Jundallah terrorist group were arrested last night," said Brigardier General Mohammad Gaffari, a senior police official in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
Report: five arrested on suspicion of involving in Iran's blast
TEHRAN, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Five people were arrested on suspicion of involving in a car bomb attack in Iran's southeastern city of Zahedan on Wednesday morning which killed at least 11, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"Five people suspected of involvement in the huge blast had been arrested," said Soltan-Ali Mir, director-general for political affairs in office of Sistan-Baluchestan province's governor.
IRNA: 18 killed in car-bomb explosion in Iran
TEHRAN, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Eighteen people were killed on Wednesday in a car bomb explosion in Iran's southeastern city of Zahedan, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The explosion occurred around 6:30 a.m.(0300 GMT) in Ahmadabad district on the outskirts of Zahedan, the report said.
Bomb Explodes in Tehran
Friday, Feb. 16, 2007 By AP Article
(TEHRAN, Iran) —A bomb exploded in southeastern Iran late Friday, near the site where an explosion this week killed 11 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, and clashes broke out afterward between Iranian police and insurgents, Iranian news agencies reported.
"The sound of a bomb explosion was heard in one of Zahedan's streets," IRNA, Iran's official news agency, reported. The report gave no further details, including whether there were casualties. The semiofficial Fars news agency said the explosion was at a school and was followed by clashes.
"The insurgents began shooting at people after the explosion. Clashes are continuing between police and the armed insurgents," the Fars agency said.
On Wednesday, a car bomb blew up a bus owned by the elite Revolutionary Guards in Zahedan, capital of the Sistan-Baluchestan province on the border with Pakistan.
A Sunni Muslim militant group called Jundallah, or God's Brigade, which has been blamed for past attacks on Iranian troops, claimed responsibility for the Wednesday bombing.
Iran has accused the United States of backing militants to destabilize the country. The accusation come amid growing tensions between Iran and the United States over the insurgency in Iraq and Iran's nuclear activities.
Separately, IRNA quoted an unnamed "responsible official" late Friday as saying that one of those arrested in Wednesday's bombing has "confessed" that the attacks were part of alleged U.S. plans to provoke ethnic and religious violence in Iran.
"This person who was behind the bombing confessed that those who trained them spoke in English," IRNA quoted the official as saying.
The agency did not identify the official nor the person arrested in Wednesday's bombing but said his group had planned to kill local Sunni Muslim leaders to provoke religious violence in Iran.
A majority of Iran's population are Shiite Muslims but minority Sunnis live in southeastern Iran.
US Covert War Exposed - US Weapons Used In Iranian Bombing