Conservative Thoughts

← FBI:Lost and stolen laptops Stupid PC Stuff:Love day instead Valentines day for kiddie show →

Bush or MSM backpeddling on Iran weapons story

February 14, 2007 · 21 Comments

The news media is accusing President Bush of backpeddling on news stories of high-level Iranian officials involvement in the delivery of weapons to Shiite miltia’s in Iraq. The hoopla over the Iranian government’s involvement all started on Sunday during back briefing where the infamous “unnamed” top military analysts implicated the ‘highest levels of Iran’s governement.

US military officials in Baghdad, presenting long-awaited evidence that Iran has been providing weaponry to Iraqi militants, said yesterday that Iranian security forces linked to the “highest levels” of the Iranian government have been smuggling explosives into Iraq for at least the past two years.

The officials , who refused to be identified at the press conference, said the Iranian-supplied munitions had killed more than 170 coalition troops and wounded more than 620 others.

They said the weapons were brought into Iraq under the direction of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which reports to Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The officials said they found no concrete military links to Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Now if I carefully read the first three paragraphs in this story. I find the following facts. 1) weapon brought into Iraq under direction of the Quds force of Iranian Revolution Guard for past two years. 2) Quds report to Supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 3) No concrete military links to Iran’s president.

The only direct fact in this news item related to weapons is that the Quds are the ones bringing them into Iraq. That’s it. Nothing else. The rest is conjecture; by whom? The unnamed analyst or the reporter who wrote this story? There are also some general statements on chain of command and statistics. Nothing more. Is it possible that the highest level of the Iranian government is involved? Certainly. Do you run off and report it on the front page without verification? No.

That is however exactly what the MSM did. This story was also accompanied by analysis that the Administration was beginning to lay a foundation for war with Iran. This piece of news sent the leftwing bloggers into a ’stop the war with Iran’ frenzy. Several officials including the President have stepped forward to reiterate directly the facts as they are known.

General Pace said:

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the evidence is not conclusive about direct Iranian government involvement. “That does not translate that the Iranian government per se, for sure, is directly involved in doing this,” Pace said. “What it does say is that things made in Iran are being used in Iraq to kill coalition soldiers.

and General Caldwell:

I think people want to make an inference. I think people want to hype this up. What we are saying is that, within Iran, that these EFP component parts are being manufactured. Within Iran, weapons and munitions are being manufactured that are ending up in Iraq. And we are asking the Iranian government to assist in stopping that from occurring.

and finally President Bush said today in his news conference.

THE PRESIDENT: What we do know is that the Quds force was instrumental in providing these deadly IEDs to networks inside of Iraq. We know that. And we also know that the Quds force is a part of the Iranian government. That’s a known. What we don’t know is whether or not the head leaders of Iran ordered the Quds force to do what they did.

What are the facts provided from these statements? 1) Weapons are from Iran 2) They are transported into Iraq via the Quds. 3) no evidence of who ordered the Quds to provide the weapons. Seems to be pretty much the same facts doesn’t it?

It seems that the MSM let their personal agenda and opinions of the President get ahead of the facts, again. The MSM is now accusing the Administration of backpeddling on this story. Sorry, but its was your job to collect and verify the facts; You did not do your job, period. Who is really doing the backpeddling here? The administration or the media?

However there is always an exception. Barbara Starr’s statements on CNN today indicate that she no intention of ratcheting down her reporting on this story:

They say the media is trying to hype this up. In fact, the news media pretty accurately reported what was said over the weekend at a background briefing that the U.S. military organized that they would not go on camera, they would not allow their names to be identified. They would not even allow the news media to record this news briefing.

They only passed out these pictures that you see on our air now. So there’s been a very significant struggle to try and get this information out accurately.

The bottom line, Heidi, is the U.S. certainly does have intelligence tying these Iranian weapons shipments to Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It’s not something that the Bush White House wants to talk about in public too much because they really do not want to ratchet tensions up with Iran, the facts aside — Heidi.

I can bet that the source for these statements is the original “unnamed” sources that started this whole mess. Those statements that have been clarified directly by several “NAMED” top officials in the U.S. military and the administration. But, it seems that mere facts cannot deter Ms. Starr’s personal agenda. Surprise, Surprise.

President Bush: press conference
News story (source)

Today’s Reading List
From Woman Honor Thyself - Tuesday’s Victory and Freedom Blog List
From Woman Honor Thyself - Green Card AnyonE?
From Faultline USA -Republicans Breaking Rank By State
From Right Voices - REPORT: YOUTUBE Hands Over User Info to FOX
From Pirate’s Cove - Climate Change May Affect Travel Clock
From Perri Nelson’s Website -I don’t like how the Iraq war is being handled.
From Outside the Beltway - Beltway Traffic Jam
From The Virtuous Republic -Warning to Pakistan
From 123beta - Happy Valentines Day
From Big Dog’s Weblog - Congressional Genitals in the News
From Stuck On Stupid - Valentine’s Day OTB & Linkfest
From The Bullwinkle Blog - Moosetracks Open Trackbacks
From basil’s blog - Blogrolling 2007-02-15
From The Amboy Times - Liberalism is Philisophicly UN-American
From Chaotic Synaptic Activity - Ropeyarn Sunday “Sea Stories” and Open Trackbacks
From third world county - Valentine’s Day Open Trackbacks
From stikNstein… has no mercy - Valentine’s Day Open Trackbacks
From The Pink Flamingo - Spring Training
From Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker - Himalayan Glaciers not retreating
From Dumb Ox Daily News - Wednesday Hero - Valentine Edition

thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Categories: Iran · Iraq · MSM · Media · Military · Politics · President Bush · Quds · United States · War on Terror · militias

21 responses so far ↓

Leave a Comment