The Telegraph (UK) is reporting that 81 mm mortar shells of Iranian manufacture were captured by Iraqi police January 13, 2007. A photograph of one of the the shells is shown with the markings “81 MM” and “3-2006” on it. Here’s the photograph:

What’s wrong about this picture? Several things. The absence of dating using the Iranian calendar for one thing. The use of the Roman alphabet for the markings on the shell, rather than the use of Farsi, for another. You see, in the past, Iranian armaments that have been captured or found had markings on them which were printed in Farsi (which uses a form of the Arabic alphabet) such as these from 1997:

…However, a significant portion of newer ordnance originated in Iran, as indicated by Farsi markings stenciled onto it. This included large quantities of G-3 assault rifles, landmines, and mortar ammunition. […]

No. 4 Pedal Mines (Iran—green plastic with Farsi writing, shoe mines) […]

[M]ost of the equipment the SAF captured from Eritrean Islamic Jihad in the Togan area of northeastern Sudan in April 1997 bore Farsi writing and was Iranian-made, from boots to light weapons.

Isn’t that odd? Iranian armaments, including mortar shells, have markings in the Farsi language on them when discovered in the Sudan in 1997, but Iranian arms alleged to have killed 170 US soldiers in Iraq have no Farsi markings on them when captured in 2007. Even odder, most US troop deaths (by far) have occurred in the Sunni areas of Iraq (e.g., Anbar province, around Tikrit, West Baghdad), but these Iranian arms are supposedly being delivered to Shi’a militias. What could possibly explain this seemingly counterintuitive inconsistency? It couldn’t possibly be a disinformation campaign by the Pentagon (like the one employed by the US Military in the run-up to the Iraq invasion) targeted at generating support for a military strike against Iran among the American public, could it?

The strategy is clear. Define a target as evil. Find some kind of connection with weapons of mass destruction—chemical, biological, nuclear—or just to low-tech “terrorism,” draw some sort of Hitler parallel and get strategically placed press people on board. Plant the stories, then cite them as though they were troubling news to you. Then cite “intelligence”—this mystical reservoir of wisdom restricted to the elite (rather like the gnosis of ancient mystery religions)—trusting that the foolish masses will accept it on faith, at least until the job’s all done and the noble lies are inevitably exposed. You can always scapegoat the intelligence community for any errors. It can’t, by its very nature, resist that scapegoating.

Like Fox News, I only report. I’ll let you come to your own conclusions.











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