Newsweek suspect Bush Admin fabricated Iran EFP evidence

Right now, it is very easy to accuse the Bush administration of fabricating or exaggerating "evidence". They have only themselves to blame for that. As negative as I am about Bush, I'll cut him a little slack here, for now. If this turns out to be true, it will permanently harm the office of the President and Bush will go down in a heaping pile of sewage. I'm already so angry at him I can barely stand to even hear the man talk.

 

Well, you know who the liberals will give the benefit of the doubt to.... the terrorists...

 

I am almost totally convinced that the evidence is fabricated. They only show it to a group of people in a room who wouldn't be able to tell the difference between real and fake evidence (the press corps), they don't let them take pictures of the presentation, and to the outside world they only release a fraction of their 'evidence' (though it seems that even the 'best' stuff, the stuff they chose to release is still not very convincing, apparently).

For the first day or so I believed the story at face value, but after having looked in the details a bit more I now have very little doubt that it was fabricated. Contrary to what Trader_Jorge says, I wanted to believe and was prepared to believe that it was true, but the dodgy nature of the whole episode is just difficult to ignore.

As an addendum to the general discussion of the government falsifying evidence, I think that it is important to respond for people who think the DoD wouldn't dream of putting one over on the American by reminding everybody of Operation Northwoods. Operation Northwoods was a plan to incite the American public to war with Cuba by creating fake bombings by 'Cuban Terrorists' among other things. It was never carried out, but was apparently considered a legitimate option by the Joint Chiefs, and the SecDef.

 

you are a complete joke. just be quiet so you don't look so silly. TJ are you even a trader? please tell me your screen name is just some kind of joke.

 

The weapons of mass destruction dunk is so great you cant even see it. I listedn to too uch SR 610

 

It's not a matter of giving the benefit of the doubt in this case.

 

[rquoter]
"We are not looking for an excuse to go to war with Iran. We are not planning a war with Iran," Gates said at a Pentagon news roundtable on Thursday.[/rquoter]

http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?id=100972

 

I'm too lazy to go find my posting from a few days ago when this story first broke.

For now, I'll admit the chance that the intel on Iran wasn't cooked up.

But I'm begging to say "I told you so."

It is so easy to manipulate the media. Why does no one see this?

This administration has been begging for a war with Iran and will just about do or say anything to get it. Don't believe me? See also: Iraq (WMD, phony Saddam-al Qaeda connections). Vietnam (Gulf of Tonkin).

"All war is based on deception."

 

Bush - May, 2002
http://www.slate.com/?id=2066336

 

The record of the this Admin. should lead most of us to be skeptical about any evidence it presents in regard to making a case for war. Mobile WMD labs anyone? Although it makes sense to me that Iran would be arming Shiite insurgents as it is very much in their interests to see the Shiites get the upper hand in Iraq and to continue to bog US forces down.

This may be a case of where the Admin. might have it right but are too impatient to actually get out real and more solid evidence.

 

I'm not defending Iran, but what would we expect them to do? With the U.S. threatening them over the nuke issue and with U.S. troops stationed in Iraq, what country wouldn't arm their next-door allies?

That said, our troops have every right to kill and capture Iranian forces inside Iraq, obviously. IMO, that isn't even debatable. But let's get over the "outrage" at Iran trying to influence and control what happening in Iraq. Duh, do we expect them to just sit back while Al Qaeda kills Iraqi Shias indiscriminately and the U.S. tries to establish a client-state?

 

There is absolutely no evidence that this evidence has been faked. First of all, it's well known that Iranians use english markings as they export quite a bit of their arms - they are a big player in the arms market. So they have factories that mark in english.

Of course, ironically - you can refer back to the Iran-Contra scandal for more evidence...

 

I seem to recall a previous scandal with Newsweek and the Bush Admin where Newsweek later had to retract their statements. I think it was the treatment of enemy combatants and how they flushed down pages of the Koran. There might be another one though.

Anyways, I'm getting sick of the media making baseless accusations when they can just as easily be cowed by the government when the pressure is on them. It's tabloid journalism at best and it relieves any responsibility for them to inform the people. In some cases, these magazines become the news themselves.

Yet people read on because they've been loyal readers for years. It seems that viewership has replaced hard work and perseverence in terms of credibility.

 

Did you see (or hear) Bush's press conference? I could only listen for a while before I couldn't stand it anymore. The way he dodged and weaved reminded me of Bill Clinton before the grand jury. When he admitted they weren't sure if the "highest levels of the Iranian government" were behind the Iraqis having those weapons (from the Quds forces), he directly contradicted what the spokesman said days earlier. When pressed on the issue twice (it could have been more after I stopped listening), Bush refused to acknowledge the contradiction. It's this kind of stepping back from overstatements that make people doubt everything this administration says.

 

It isn't like private citizens of Iran can walk down to the corner store and pick up armor piercing explosive devices. They have one customer, the government, who tells the producers what they will be paid for domestic sales. The same agency also handles all aspects of international sales (including pricing). Comparing and discussing retail prices, I think, is not a particularly fruitful topic for discussion here.