aw poor baby did i rain on your parade again ? hey if you can show any of the facts in this article are wrong please do so .
On Nov 17, 12:27 pm, jgg1000a <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Mike desperate to exploit "Hate BUSH ALL the time" fanatics, posted > another lie by half or less truth... By selectively choosing facts > that fit the assumption Mike has once again proved that any thesis can > be proven true if your side controls which facts are permissible... > > It is rumored that Mike's new book will conclusively prove the Moon is > made of green cheese and that Wisconsin dairy farmer lobbyists have > paid off governmental watch dogs in order to inflate the price of > green cheese.. This vast RW conspiracy according to Mike is just > another example of the neo-cons seeking to control the world... > > Sources tell this reporter that Mike is said to have claim ed "Hitler > and Stalin were geniuses at half truth lies, so I follow their expert > advise"... Mike refused to comment about how he learned his spin > craft... > > http://www.mikesfoghorn.com > > On Nov 17, 6:44 am, "mike [move on] 532" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > > US Task Force Found Few Iranian Arms in Iraq > > http://www.truthout.org/111608C > > Washington - Last April, top George W. Bush administration officials, > > desperate to exploit any possible crack in the close relationship > > between the Nouri al-Maliki government and Iran, launched a new round > > of charges that Iran had stepped up covert arms assistance to Shi'a > > militias. > > > Secretary of Defence Robert M. Gates suggested that there was > > "some sense of an increased level of [Iranian] supply of weapons and > > support to these groups." And Washington Post reporter Karen DeYoung > > was told by military officials that the "plentiful, high quality > > weaponry" the militia was then using in Basra was "recently > > manufactured in Iran". > > > But a U.S. military task force had been passing on data to the > > Multi-National Force Iraq (MNFI) command that told a very different > > story. The data collected by the task force in the previous six weeks > > showed that relatively few of the weapons found in Shi'a militia > > caches were manufactured in Iran. > > > According to the data compiled by the task force, and made > > available to an academic research project last July, only 70 weapons > > believed to have been manufactured in Iran had been found in post- > > invasion weapons caches between mid-February and the second week in > > April. And those weapons represented only 17 percent of the weapons > > found in caches that had any Iranian weapons in them during that > > period. > > > The actual proportion of Iranian-made weapons to total weapons > > found, however, was significantly lower than that, because the task > > force was finding many more weapons caches in Shi'a areas that did > > not > > have any Iranian weapons in them. > > > The task force database identified 98 caches over the five-month > > period with at least one Iranian weapon, excluding caches believed to > > have been hidden prior to the 2003 U.S. invasion. > > > But according to an e-mail from the MNFI press desk this week, > > the > > task force found and analysed a total of roughly 4,600 weapons caches > > during that same period. > > > The caches that included Iranian weapons thus represented just 2 > > percent of all caches found. That means Iranian-made weapons were a > > fraction of one percent of the total weapons found in Shi'a militia > > caches during that period. > > > The extremely small proportion of Iranian arms in Shi'a militia > > weapons caches further suggests that Shi'a militia fighters in Iraq > > had been getting weapons from local and international arms markets > > rather than from an official Iranian-sponsored smuggling network. > > > The database was compiled by MNFI's Task Force Troy, which was > > directed to examine all weapons caches found in Iraq beginning in > > early January 2008 to identify Iranian-made weapons. The database was > > released by MNFI last July to the Empirical Studies of Conflict > > project, co-sponsored by the U.S. Military Academy and Princeton > > University, and was published for the first time by West Point's > > Counter-Terrorism Centre last month as an appendix to a paper on > > Iranian strategy in Iraq by Joseph Felter and Brian Fishman. > > > In late April, the U.S. presented the Maliki government with a > > document that apparently listed various Iranian arms found in Iraq > > and > > highlighted alleged Iranian arms found in Basra. But the U.S. > > campaign > > to convince Iraqi officials collapsed when Task Force Troy analysed a > > series of large weapons caches uncovered in Basra and Karbala in > > April > > and May. > > > Caches of arms found in Karbala late last April and May totaled > > more than 2,500 weapons, and caches in Basra included at least 3,700 > > weapons, according to official MNFI statements. That brought the > > total > > number of weapons found in those former Mahdi Army strongholds to > > more > > than 6,200 weapons. > > > But the task force found that none of those weapons were Iranian- > > made. The database lists three caches found Apr. 19, but provides no > > data on any of them. It lists no other caches for the region > > coinciding with that period, confirming that no weapons had been > > found > > to be of Iranian origin. > > > In announcing the weapons totals discovered in Basra to reporters > > on May 7, Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said nothing about the provenance > > of > > the weapons, implicitly admitting that they were not Iranian-made. > > > Only two months before the new high-level propaganda push on > > alleged Iranian weapons supply to Shi'a militias, the U.S. command > > had > > put out a story suggesting that large numbers of Iranian-supplied > > arms > > had been buried all over the country. On Feb. 17, 2008, U.S. military > > spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith told reporters that Iraqi and > > coalition forces had captured 212 weapons caches across Iraq over the > > previous week "with growing links to the Iranian-backed special > > groups". > > > The Task Force Troy data for the week of Feb. 9-16 show, however, > > that the U.S. command had information on Iranian arms contradicting > > that propaganda line. According to the task force database, only five > > of those 212 caches contained any Iranian weapons that analysts > > believed might have been buried after the U.S. invasion. And the > > total > > number of confirmed Iranian-made weapons found in those five caches, > > according to the data, was eight, not including four Iranian-made > > hand > > grenades. > > > The task force database includes 350 armour-piercing explosively > > formed penetrators (EFPs) found in Iraqi weapons caches. However, the > > database does not identify any of the EFPs as Iranian weapons. > > > That treatment of EFPs in the caches appears to contradict claims > > by U.S. officials throughout 2007 and much of 2008 that EFPs were > > being smuggled into Iraq by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. > > The > > allegedly Iranian-manufactured EFPs had been the centrepiece of the > > U.S. military's February 2007 briefing charging Iran with arming > > Shi'a > > militiamen in Iraq. > > > Press reports of a series of discoveries of shops for > > manufacturing EFPs in Iraq in 2007 forced the U.S. command to admit > > that the capacity to manufacture EFPs was not limited to Iran. By the > > second half of 2008, U.S. officials had stopped referring to Iranian > > supply of EFPs altogether. > > > Felter and Fishman do not analyse the task force data in their > > paper, but they criticise official U.S. statements on Iranian weapons > > in Iraq. "Some reports erroneously attribute munitions similar to > > those produced in Iran as Iranian," they write, "while other Iranian > > munitions found in Iraq were likely purchased on the open market." > > > The co-authors note that Iranian arms can be purchased directly > > from the website of the Defence Industries of Iran with a credit > > card. > > > -------- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
