Propaganda Retread

U.S. military and intelligence officials tell ABC News that they have caught shipments of deadly new bombs at the Iran-Iraq border.

They are a very nasty piece of business, capable of penetrating U.S. troops' strongest armor.

What the United States says links them to Iran are tell-tale manufacturing signatures — certain types of machine-shop welds and material indicating they are built by the same bomb factory.

-- ABC News,
March 6, 2006

U.S. officials say they have found smoking-gun evidence of Iranian support for terrorists in Iraq: brand-new weapons fresh from Iranian factories. According to a senior defense official, coalition forces have recently seized Iranian-made weapons and munitions that bear manufacturing dates in 2006.

This suggests, say the sources, that the material is going directly from Iranian factories to Shia militias

-- ABC News,
November 30, 2006

Admittedly, the one difference I can see between these two stories -- and I do mean stories -- is that previously there were only "tell-tale manufacturing signatures." Now, by god, these bombs bear "manufacturing dates." Because when you're the Iranian government covertly supplying weapons to Iraq, you certainly want to make sure everyone knows you're doing it by putting your seal of approval all over them. I think the most amusing part of the second story is that "Iranian-made munitions found in Iraq include advanced IEDs designed...." A manufactured IED? That hardly seems improvised now does it?

After ABC funneled Pentagon propaganda about the supposed Iranian-supplied weapons, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Peter Pace, had to admit that there was, in fact, no evidence that the Iranian government was involved. The issue quietly went away. But now, here it is again, raising the spectre of Iran all over again. Will it work? Who knows? All they can do is try, try again.

What this recycled story really demonstrates is that the dispute between White House and Pentagon neocons and the the Baker boys is not quite resolved. News has been rife lately with any number of stories all meant to turn up the angst about Iran. The neocons are still trying to breathe life into their plans of attacking Iran even though the Carlyle Group had stepped in to put an end to the nonsense. It would appear that Baker has not quite had the calming effect he expected. The neocons are still thrashing around, agitating for more war.

Keep an eye out for future, though buried, denials that this is no evidence of Iranian government involvement.

[via Newshog]