McCain loses a major campaign talking point
by
partizan
05/12/2008, 11:16 PM #
Quiet US
Confession
Weapons Were Not
Made In Iran
After All
CASMII Press
Release
12/05/08
"ICH" -- - In
a sharp reversal
of its
longstanding
accusations
against Iran
arming militants
in Iraq , the US
military has
made an
unprecedented
albeit quiet
confession: the
weapons they had
recently found
in Iraq were not
made in Iran at
all.
According to a
report
by the LA Times
correspondent
Tina Susman in
Baghdad:
"A plan to show
some alleged
Iranian-supplied
explosives to
journalists last
week in Karbala
and then destroy
them was
cancelled after
the United
States realized
none of them was
from Iran. A
U.S. military
spokesman
attributed the
confusion to a
misunderstanding
that emerged
after an Iraqi
Army general in
Karbala
erroneously
reported the
items were of
Iranian origin.
When U.S.
explosives
experts went to
investigate,
they discovered
they were not
Iranian after
all."
The US, which
until two weeks
ago had never
provided any
proof for its
allegations,
finally handed
over its
"evidence" of
the Iranian
origin of these
weapons to the
Iraqi
government. Last
week, an Iraqi
delegation to
Iran presented
the US
"evidence" to
Iranian
officials.
According to Al-Abadi,
a parliament
member from the
ruling United
Iraqi Alliance
who was on the
delegation, the
Iranian
officials
totally refuted
"training,
financing and
arming" militant
groups in Iraq .
Consequently the
Iraqi government
announced that
there is no hard
evidence against
Iran.
In another
extraordinary
event this week,
the US spokesman
in Iraq, Maj.
Gen. Kevin
Bergner, for the
first time did
not blame Iran
for the violence
in Iraq and in
fact did not
make any
reference to
Iran at all in
his introductory
remarks
to the world
media on
Wednesday when
he described the
large arsenal of
weapons found by
Iraqi forces in
Karbala.
In contrast, the
Pentagon in
August 2007
admitted
that it had lost
track of a third
of the weapons
distributed to
the Iraqi
security forces
in 2004/2005.
The 190,000
assault rifles
and pistols roam
free in Iraqi
streets today.
In the past
year, the US
leaders have
been relentless
in propagating
their charges of
Iranian meddling
and fomenting
violence in Iraq
and since the
release of the
key judgments of
the US National
Intelligence
Estimate in
December that
Iran does not
have a nuclear
weaponisation
programme, these
accusations have
sharply
intensified.
The US charges
of Iranian
interference in
Iraq too have
now collapsed.
Any threat of
military strike
against Iran is
in violation of
the UN charter
and the IAEA's
continued
supervision on
Iran's uranium
enrichment facilities
means there is
no justification
for sanctions.
CASMII calls on
the US to change
course and enter
into
comprehensive
and
unconditional
negotiations
with Iran.