I’m sure they’ll get back to us with proof

February 1, 2007

Yesterday:

Iran is supplying Iraqi militias with a variety of powerful weapons including Katyusha rockets, the No. 2 U.S. general in Iraq said Tuesday.

“We have weapons that we know through serial numbers … that trace back to Iran,” Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno said in an interview with USA TODAY.

His comments came as the Bush administration has been taking an increasingly tough stance against what it alleges is Iranian meddling in sectarian violence in Iraq.

Today:

The Bush administration has postponed plans to offer public details of its charges of Iranian meddling inside Iraq amid internal divisions over the strength of the evidence, U.S. officials said.

U.S. officials promised last week to provide evidence of Iranian activities that led President Bush to announce Jan. 10 that U.S. forces would begin taking the offensive against Iranian agents who threatened Americans.

But some officials in Washington are concerned that some of the material may be inconclusive and that other data cannot be released without jeopardizing intelligence sources and methods.

Perhaps this is a sign of maturity on the part of the Bush White House. In 2002 and 2003, “internal divisions” were merely an invitation to cherry-pick the desired conclusions. Now, at a minimum, some of these same officials are hesitating.

Sure, the aggressive rhetoric has once again preceded the evidence, but it’s a sign of some progress, isn’t it?

i’m a big fan of this page, and i have to sadly assume that the voters out there who support the neo-con sabre rattlers and the “Tough-minded” Bush posture don’t read you … but maybe you and the other blogs, and perhaps the American Idol hosts and the fast food takeout servers who shape half the country’s foreign policy opinions could remind everyone and or explain exactly what the Gulf of Tonkin incident was ?

thanks.

  • Yeah, and all of those mobile biological weapons labs that satellite pictures are picking up on Iranian highways, well, they might just be like moving vans and delivery trucks after all.

    “But some officials in Washington are concerned that some of the material may be inconclusive and that other data cannot be released without jeopardizing intelligence sources and methods.”

    Resorting to the “if we told you we’d have to kill you” secrecy defense is a sure sign of White House cooked intelligence, at least based upon past experience.

  • I’m just taking a break from transcribing a long discussion about Cheney, the unparalleled power he’s achieved, his isolation, and his attitude towards naysayers. It leaves me with the impression that very little of what the administration says and does on the surface — what we see and try to analyze — is relevant compared to what’s really going on behind the scenes. Unless Congress finds a way to stop him/them, it’s damn the torpedoes… They’ll go ahead without approval, without real intelligence — quite blindly.

  • CNN is definitely eager to be responsible for another major gaff by unquestioningly pushing Bush’s sabber-rattling storyline about Iran. This is why I hope they’re stupid enough to do it. It’s going to be more than a political reallignment by the time we break free of the oligarchy.

  • One aspect of progress is that many journalists these days are wary of becoming the next Judith Miller.

    Still, you have to love the way debate is framed. Iran is apparently “meddling in sectarian violence in Iraq”. How this is much different from what Chimp is doing escapes me.

  • Bush & Co. aren’t hesitating to release the evidence because it’s dubious, they’re hesitating to release it because they know the PUBLIC will see it as dubious — or will learn later that it’s fraudulent. They don’t want another Colin Powell in front of the UN. As PW notes, it’s damn the torpedoes…

  • Yeah — well, how about the reporting that Fox is doing (I know, I know) according to Raw Story, that IRAQI GENERALS are supposedly behind the Karbala kidnappings, not some shadowy Iranians.

    Remind me why we’re there, again? Who are our “allies”? Who are the “enemy”?

  • This time the “proof” will be a lot higher quality, because the people who want this war are really good at playing the game of making up stuff. No cheesy forgeries, no bogus germ warfare trailers.

    Sometimes they even stage what are called “false flag” operations, where the dupe (that would be us this time) is “attacked” by the intended victim (that would be Iran). The dupe thinks the victim attacked them, and of course attacks the victim “in self defense” (the real perpetrator sits back and watches and doesn’t get blamed).

    I predict that we will see another Gulf of Tonkin event, just as “timeoutofmind” fears. But by the time the dust settles, nobody will be able to say whether Iran attacked us or not, and we won’t even be able to consider the possibility that we were duped for quite awhile (because of the pro-war fervor that always accompanies any new war).

    Israel’s involvement will of course be investigated right after hell freezes over, just like the USS Liberty.

  • I have it on excellent authority that Iran recently tried to buy significant amounts of uranium from Africa….

    Oh, wait, we did that bit already. (erase erase erase)

  • Technically, “Katyusha” was the nickname for the 82mm rockets used by the Red Army in WWII.
    The rockets used by most armies and militia groups are based on the Soviet 122mm “Grad”, as well as the Chinese Type 63 107mm rocket.

    What relevance is this? Absolutely nothing, I just have what I call “severe anal terminology” issues. Labeling stuff incorrectly really irritates me for some reason.

  • PW (#3) has nicely and sadly defined the situation. Bush will probably bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities sometime in the near future.
    It won’t matter what Congress, the public, the world, or dissenters in the military think. He will follow the ideological agenda that he has been thoroughly taught. He will not falter ’cause he knows he’s right. See, Jesus told him! And real men take risks, they don’t talk, they do! And we gotta win or the world will see us as weak! And history will prove he’s right! And we’re gonna show ’em we’re tough!

  • 2Manchu, I think it’s called “getting the facts right” and it’s something the White House has never got the hang of. Thank goodness somebody does. 🙂

  • None of this matters under the well-established and universally accepted doctrine of the Divine Right of Preznents.

    Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words `EAT ME’ were beautifully marked in currants. `Well, I’ll eat it,’ said Alice, `and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I’ll get into the garden, and I don’t care which happens!’

  • “We have weapons that we know through serial numbers … that trace back to Iran”

    So what? There are plutonium tipped unexploded bombs lying all over Iraq that can be traced back to the U.S. Does that mean Iran should invade the U.S.??

    We have to stop treating Iraq as our 51st state. At least Iran is a neighboring country, what’s our excuse for being there?

  • So how many weapons are they tracing back to the US ??
    We keep losing them, some one, some where, has to have found them.

    I wouldn’t doubt they can trace then back to Iran, and probably every other country that has arms dealers and or produced weapons. It proves nothing.

  • Keith O was scary yesterday on Countdown, comparing the rethoric from 2002 about Iraq with the rethoric in 2007 about Iran coming out of BG2’s mouth. It’s almost word for word.

    Yep, BG2 is going to turn his two little wars into one Big War! That will teach America to doubt him!

  • 2003—Iraq has absolutely no ability to shoot back at US naval forces in the Persian Gulf.

    2003 through 2007—Bush considers Iran to be “just another Iraq.”

    2007—Iran has absolute ability to shoot back at US naval forces in the Persian Gulf.

    Y’know something? this could make the Battle of Jutland look like a sailing regatta….

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