IRAN: VERY CURIOUS, INDEED...

I find this story very, very curious. Here's the headline:

"U.S.-led forces show evidence of Iranian arms in Iraq"

What I find curious about the story is not so much the content, but the way it's written, the way it's constructed. For example, the headline has now planted in millions of people's minds that not only is Iran helping kill our boys in Iraq, but that there is now "evidence" to back it up. And that's what the Bushies want people to think: Iran helping Iraq, end of story, we got proof, let the bombs fall.

So we read the story, and what do we learn this "evidence" consists of? We get one paragraph:

"Officials showed journalists fragments of what they said were Iranian-manufactured weapons, including one part of an EFP -- which is strong enough to penetrate the armour of an Abrams tank -- and tail fins from 81 mm and 60 mm mortar bombs."

Fragments? Fragments? How big are these fragments? Could we see pictures? Could we see pictures of the fragments alongside pictures of the unexploded weapons they supposedly came from?

To their credit, Reuters does sort of try to inject a little skepticism into the story, saying that they were shown fragments of "what they said" were Iranian weapons--they kinda try to make it seem like they don't totally buy it. Except of course for in the headline, which is all a lot of people will ever read.

And then the paragraph after that is just a quote, in which the still unnamed "senior defense official" claims that "Iran is the only country in the region that produces these weapons."

Hmmm...isn't that convenient in several ways. I mean, not only have they determined that fragments of something are in fact "EFP"s (another acronym!) instead of just pieces of say, an Iraqi car that has been crushed by an American tank, but they've also determined that such things ONLY COME FROM IRAN. I mean, look at that--you keep saying you're not planning a war with Iran but then come to find out, 170 of our boys have been killed by these horrible devices that are only available in Iran.

How fishy is this?

Here's how fishy--according to this Newsweek story, journalists were called to this presentation given by three officals who journalists were told they wouldn't be allowed to name in their stories. Not only that:

"No TV cameras or tapes were allowed in, and journalists’ cell phones were taken away before they entered the briefing room."

Isn't that something? We're supposed to take these three guys at their word but they won't tell us their names and they won't let us see pictures of what they're talking about.


Carriers in the Gulf

Well, hell, what are we gonna do? We can't let this go on, can we? What can we...wait a second! Don't we just happen to have a couple of carrier groups in the Persian Gulf? What a coincidence! We happen to have aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf at just the same time we reveal to America that Iran is killing our soldiers with weapons only they can produce! That is so lucky--it's almost as if it were not a lucky accident or twist of fate at all, but were completely planned and thought out!

This is too much...I have to go to bed. I want to sort this out, but I am tired from rocking and rolling all day in the Nereids Mardi Gras parade in Waveland. But now I'll have to go to the online forums of my local newspaper this week and try to debunk this crap. It's exhausting...