Atrios (Via Lew Rockwell) has caught the Washington Post attempting to lie you into another war.
I had noticed a funny thing to make it into print in today’s Antiwar.com top story from the Christian Science Monitor while reading it on my radio show this morning. Dig this:
The US military also issued a statement on Sunday calling the operation in Diwaniyah, dubbed Black Eagle, a “great success” so far. It said it detained 39 militiamen and killed an unspecified number. It also has uncovered “many large caches of weapons,” including factories that make explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), devices that Washington accuses Tehran of supplying to Sadr’s militia.
You remember the EFPs right? The IEDs that are so powerful they got a brand new acronym a couple months back? The ones that, as the Monitor notes above, the U.S. government has accused Iran of supplying to the Iraqi Shi’ite militias that America and Iran are both currently backing? (Gareth Porter explains the truth about them here.)
Well, here was also this Reuters piece from Saturday which included the same information. The Post ran the story, but apparently one of their editors (liars) realized this might reveal the holes in War Party claims that these new “EFPs” must be coming from Iran. After all, here, supposedly, is a whole EFP factory just a few miles south of Baghdad.
The paragraphs revealing Iraqi EFP-self-reliance were then excised from Post version of the story.
“Red alert! Quick! Get out your Pravda penâ„¢ brand exacto-knives and get to work before some damn blogger catches us admitting the truth in contradiction to one more of our half-baked excuses for war against Iran!”
Too Late. You’re caught, discredited Washington Post liars. From Eschaton:
“Washington Post version of the story, as captured by Google News”:
That paragraph is now missing from that WaPo version of the story. But you do have this:
- The U.S. military said two U.S. soldiers died in separate roadside bombings in the east and west of Baghdad on Friday. One of the bombs was an explosively formed projectile, a particularly deadly type of device which Washington accuses Iran of supplying Iraqi militants. [AWC bold]
Am I supposed to believe that this was anything but a deliberate, premeditated act meant to deny the truth to people who may cite it as a reason to not have a war and replace it with more government lies?
The Post is forever disgraced and has been. This is just another nail in their coffin.
To any Post reporter who considers himself an actual journalist, why not pick today to resign from that War Party propaganda rag?
What? Do you think their reputation is going to get better from here?
“Bleichwehl said troops, facing scattered resistance, discovered a factory that produced “explosively formed penetrators” (EFPs), a particularly deadly type of explosive that can destroy a main battle tank and several weapons caches.”
That paragraph is still in the boston.com version of the piece available on the web here:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/04/06/iraqi_us_forces_sweep_through_iraqi_city/
These comments also support the common knowledge that EFPs and IEDs are being manufactured inside Iraq:
Intelligence officials have long blamed Iran for supplying EFP parts, but this remains in doubt. In any case, as Janes reports, even if the original technology came from Iran,
….the knowledge required to manufacture and use EFPs may have become so widespread that Iranian assistance is no longer required.
According to London’s Telegraph newspaper,
The Ministry of Defence has attempted to play down the effectiveness of the weapons, suggesting that they are “crude” or “improvised” explosive devices which have killed British troops more out of luck than judgement.
However, this newspaper understands that Government scientists have established that the mines are precision-made weapons which have been turned on a lathe by craftsmen trained in the manufacture of munitions.
– – – – –
At least two EFP factories have since been found in Iraq, facilities which produced the thin copper ‘lenses’ for EFPs.
– – – – –
Journalist Andrew Cockburn reported in February that in November 2006 U.S. troops raiding a Baghdad machine shop had discovered a pile of copper discs “stamped out as part of what was clearly an ongoing order.”
In Iraq, Anyone Can Make a Bomb”
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Generic quote from u.s. govt sources and the Establishment media:
“The Bush administration has accused Iran of providing the [EFP] technology to Shiite insurgents in Iraq.”
* OR, on the other hand the Shiites and anyone else in the world who wanted the information got it from American internet websites: *
Segmented kinetic energy explosively formed penetrator assembly [Published 28 January 2003]
Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP) and Fragmenting Warhead [Published 25 September 2003]
Remote detonation of explosive charges [Published 05 December 1989]
– – – – –
Iran-Etats-Unis : drôle de guerre en Irak
….C’est là que nous rencontrons le major Scott A. Pettigrew, responsable du renseignement militaire américain pour la province de Diyala. Lui ne croit pas à une connexion entre l’Iran et Al-Qaeda. En fait, il contredit placidement la plupart des accusations qui circulent à Washington contre l’Iran. « Nous n’avons jamais arrêté aucun agent iranien dans cette province et nous n’avons jamais intercepté de flux financier en provenance d’Iran. Je n’ai jamais vu aucune activité ni présence de la Force Al-Qods. Je ne vois rien qui ressemble ici à une guerre par procuration avec l’Iran. »
Roughly translated into English:
Iran-United States : Peculiarity of war in Iraq
….That’s where we meet Major Scott A. Pettigrew, man in charge of American military intelligence for the province of Diyala. He does not believe in a connection between Iran and Al-Qaeda. Indeed, he calmly contradicts most of the accusations against Iran that circulate in Washington. “We never stopped an Iranian agent in this province and we have never intercepted finances flowing [into Diyala province] from Iran. I never saw activity of or the presence of the Al-Quds force. I see nothing here that resembles a war by proxy with Iran.”
Thanks very much for the links!