I do not care to know the "names" of the officials or the analysts.
I do not care to know the name of our "sources", especially if it will hinder getting those sources to talk again.
I do not care about anything other than we have pictures, we have serial numbers and we have Iranian markings on weapons we have obtained from the enemy in Iraq.
This is what I care about. Weapons. Made in Iran. Killing our soldiers.
Ask the parents of our soldiers what they care about. Ask the soldiers themselves what THEY care about. It isn't a name. It IS the fact that 170 of their fellow soldiers are dead because of these weapons.
THAT is what they care about and it should be what you care about too.
WASHINGTON — Field investigations, serial number tracking, and interrogation transcripts helped convince a reluctant intelligence community and the Bush administration that Iran was a major factor in the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq.
After nearly two weeks of delays and last-minute modifications, three senior American officers in Baghdad yesterday presented a roomful of reporters with slides, old ordnance, and a briefing that accused the Iranian regime of culpability in the deaths of 170 soldiers.
The main culprit in the killings were 10-inch-long, 6-inch-wide pipes known as explosive formed projectiles, a roadside bomb capable of piercing the armor of America's Abrams tanks.
[...]
On February 2, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said the White House had sent back an earlier draft of the presentation. Indeed, while the specific intelligence on the explosive formed projectiles is no longer disputed in the intelligence community, the CIA is questioning whether their export from Iran represents a strategy of the regime or the rogue actions of one of its security services, known as the Quds Force. According to reports from the briefing in Baghdad yesterday, American commanders said Iran's export of the bombs to Iraqi Shiite militias was a deliberate strategy of the regime, noting that the Quds Force reports directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to intelligence officials interviewed by The New York Sun over the last month, the trail leading to Iran began after military investigations of individual soldier deaths in 2005 turned up a pattern of the new roadside bombs and noted that their sophisticated design and deadly effect appeared to come from specialized equipment. From those investigations, the Treasury Department began tracking the serial numbers on the exploded bombs to a set of factories in Iran. As more of the investigations into the roadside deaths came in, "a pattern emerged back to Iran," an American intelligence analyst said.
But the issue was not settled in the intelligence community until late December, after the interrogation of senior Iranian members of the Quds Force, some of whom were captured in the compound of the Shiite Iraqi leader Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim. The Associated Press quoted a senior official in yesterday's briefing as saying most of the roadside bombs were made in 2006. The wire service also said Iranians captured in January at the Kurdish city of Erbil "were caught trying to flush documents down the toilet. ... They had also tried to change their appearance by shaving their heads. Bags of their hair were found during the raid."
While the background briefing yesterday is the most explicit evidence the Americans have given to date on the Iranian role in Iraq, officials say more intelligence was not shared because of political concerns here and in Iraq. "We have a lot of stuff pointing to individual Iranians. We are not getting into because it would make things very tense between us and the government," an American diplomat said last week. The official, who requested anonymity, added that there were concerns at the White House that any information that did not represent a consensus view of all 16 American intelligence agencies would be challenged by Democrats in Congress concerned that the new focus on Iran could be a pretext for a new war.
So it has taken them two years of gathering evidence before releasing this information to the public.... I guess this I can understand considering the faulty intelligence we had on Iraq, which as I pointed out yesterday, was considerable.
In the meantime we have Diane Sawyer once again giving a forum to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to spread his lies throughout our country.... in the days of Tokyo Rose that was called enemy propaganda, then again, I expect nothing more from our MSM these days.
Iran is supplying deadly shoulder-fired missiles and armor-piercing bombs to Iraqi insurgents, along with TNT, triggering devices, rockets and other weapons that are killing and injuring hundreds of U.S. and allied troops, a U.S. military intelligence report made public yesterday says.
The detailed briefing report, titled "Iranian Support for Lethal Activity in Iraq," stated that Iranian Misagh-1 portable anti-aircraft missiles were found after a failed attempt to shoot down a plane at Baghdad's airport in 2004.
Disclosure of the Iranian provision of anti-aircraft missiles comes as six U.S. helicopters have been shot down by insurgents in the past three weeks. It is not known whether Iranian missiles were used in the attacks.
The armor-piercing bombs have killed at least 170 American and allied troops in Iraq, defense officials told reporters in Baghdad, where the report was released.
"More than 170 U.S. and coalition troops have been killed by these things, and 620 wounded. There was a significant increase in their use over the past six months," one defense official said.
"The weapons had characteristics unique to being manufactured in Iran. ... Iran is the only country in the region that produces these weapons," said a defense official who briefed reporters in Baghdad, adding that Tehran was using Shi'ite cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army as a surrogate in Iraq.
The borders need to be closed, the Iranians inside of Iraq need to be captured or killed and these weapons need to be destroyed.
These are things we are doing.... what are we NOT doing?
We are not showing unity on the war on terror. We are not all working for success. We are not showing the world that we have integrity. We are not fighting the information media war.
We have our Presidential hopefuls doing their best destroy our relationships with those that are our allies....like who needs Australia, right Barack?
Jackass!!
It’s not often that an interview on Australian television makes news in the US, but a short remark by John Howard touched off a blaze in American Presidential politics. “If I were running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March, 2008, and pray as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats,”
Gotta love those Aussies!!!!! They tell it like it is.
We don't need no stinkin allies, unless of course they are Islamic extremists...right?
From Aussie News and Views:
Barack Obama is either very badly advised or a complete fool to smear Australia by implying via his comments we are not carrying our share of the load or not putting our money where our mouth is in Iraq.
He has neglected to acknowledge Australia (not Austria, thats over near Germany) also has troops in Afghanistan,Timore, Soloman Islands, Egypt and SAS in the Philippines, it would seem that Obama like so many on the left in the USA and Australia see nothing worthwhile in acknowledging that commitment to peace keeping, in a region of the world where the most populace Muslim nation on earth,Indonesia,is but a stones throw from Australia's northern doorstep, Darwin, in other words Barack our defence forces are flat out like lizards drinking.
I wonder does Barack Obama know how many personnel Australia has in its defense forces,I wonder does he know the population of Australia and the size of the country, I hope the answer is no he does not, to both questions,that way he could only be labeled an ignorant fool and not a malicious mischief maker attempting to make cheap political capital by smearing Australia's defense forces for implying they are not doing enough in Iraq.
For someone SOOOOOO interested in "diplomacy" Obama certainly doesn't understand that Australia is our friend. It shows his political immaturity, which will be helpful in the 2008 elections.
From Jules Crittenden:
I don’t know, not so bad for a country of 20 million, with a total active-duty military force strength of about 50,000 that includes an army of 26,000, that has been deploying troops in and out of Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor and Micronesian troublespots for years. If a lot of other small countries with small armies were even half as responsible as Australia has been, the world would be a much safer place. But the vast majority, large and small, prefer to exercise “multi-nationalism of the lowest common denominator,” as Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer put it so eloquently a few years ago.
What all this points out though is deeper than Obama against Howard, or Howard against Democrats... what these statements show is how the Democrats are viewed around the world and that, in and of itself, should stop people in their tracks and make them wonder why.
Why are the Democrats being seen, around the world as defeatists.... why do the terrorists love them and our allies distrust them?
The media? Doubtful, since the majority of the media are constantly shoving the bad news down our throats while ignoring the good news.
Proof of that can be shown easily.
Did you know that 30 were killed in a car bombing incident yesterday? You did? Thats right, it is here, here, here, here and here and that is to just show a few.
Did you know that in BAGHDAD, Iraq -Coalition Forces captured a suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq military planner and detained 14 other suspected terrorists during operations Sunday?
No?
That is because it is only shown in this news release. The MSM didn't bother.
They also didn't bother to tell us that in CAMP TAJI, Iraq - Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers, using artillery fire, destroyed a building used by terrorists near a village west of Baghdad Feb. 9.
But the release came out on 2/10/07, two days before the car bomb story.
Did you know in response to a call for air power, a U.S. Air Force F-16C aided U.S. ground forces by delivering precision munitions on eight hostile personnel in an air strike south of Baghdad Thursday night?
The direct hit destroyed the building, where the eight hostile personnel barricaded themselves, and neutralized the threat. All eight were killed while no U.S. or coalition forces or Iraqi civilians were injured in the attack.
You didn't know that? The news was released on 2/10/07, so why didn't you know about it?
Did you know that the local citizens provided tips that allowed Iraqi security forces with coalition members to discover weapon caches in a factory in Khan Bani Sa'ad, Iraq, last Sunday?
You didn't? Well the press release came out on 2/10/07..... why haven't you seen it?
Did you know that the The Central Criminal Court of Iraq convicted 14 insurgents from Jan. 26 - Feb. 1, for various crimes including possession of illegal weapons, possessing fake identification and illegal border crossing?
Nope.... haven't seen it in the news, have you? That also was released on 2/10/07.
Have you seen ANY of these releases coming from the major media outlets?
If you have please let me know so I can acknowledge the reporting.
Those are just a few of the dozens and dozens of stories that our media neglects to show us and they come out on a daily basis.
Which leads us back to the question of why the international communitys sees the Democrats as not having the backbone to honor our word, complete our mission and stabilize Iraq.
They are managing, without any help at all, to destroy their own image across the world because they care more for their political careers than they care about succeeding.
When the next "poll" dictates your next words....you have a problem.
When it is recognized around the world...you have a bigger problem.
Wonder how long it will take for them to realize this?
I will not hold my breath waiting.
I ask the same question at the end of this post as I asked in the title.... what do YOU care about? Making a political statement? Winning an election? Supporting our troops? Winning the War on Terror? Bush Bashing? Democrat Bashing? Maybe that dirty word called success?
If you decide to answer... please also include what the ramifications of your decision are and add that to your answer or do not bother answering.
I am not interested in the party line from either side of the aisle, I am truly curious about what you care about, how to obtain what you want and what the consequences of that are.
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