E&P: Gordon, 'NYT' Reporter Who Got Iraqi WMDs Wrong, Now Offers Claims About Iran

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003544369

Saturday’s New York Times features an article, posted at the top of its Web site late Friday, that suggests very strongly that Iran is supplying the “deadliest weapon aimed at American troops” in Iraq. The author notes, “Any assertion of an Iranian contribution to attacks on Americans in Iraq is both politically and diplomatically volatile.”

What is the source of this volatile information? Nothing less than “civilian and military officials from a broad range of government agencies.”

Sound pretty convincing? It may be worth noting that the author is Michael R. Gordon, the same Times reporter who, on his own, or with Judith Miller, wrote some of the key, and badly misleading or downright inaccurate, articles about Iraqi WMDs in the run-up to the 2003 invasion.

In fact, he wrote with Miller the most widely criticized one of all, even by the Times itself, the Sept. 8, 2002, “aluminum tubes” story that proved so influential, especially since the administration trumpeted it on TV talk shows.

aipac &/or expat Persians?

I could very well be wrong, but I believe it said that. Of course, that may have been one of the reasons why Bush sent it back.

"Broad agreement" by American intelligence agencies, eh? Have we not heard this before? On the same day that Douglas Feith's role in manufacturing intelligence that has resulted in the deaths of thousands and thousands, the Times is at it again. By the end of March, my friends. Like so many here on DU, that is my prediction. A rain of death by air on Iran. We speak boldly, but we seem to always lose to the Bush regime and its mindless orc supporters. If you are interested, here is the Times link. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/world/middleeast/10weapons.html?hp&ex=1171083600&en=ca3616f749ffa5e8&ei=5094&partner=homepage

where this guy's wife gets raped, and she's very visibly traumatized by it. The husband is driving her home from the hospital and she sees this man on the street and suddenly shrieks, "It's him, it's him, it's him!" The husband parks the car, gets out and follows the guy and, kills him.

So, the husband gets back in the car with his wife, telling her that it's okay, it's taken care of and the guy will never bother her. They drive further down the road and suddenly she sees another man, a different man on the street and she shrieks, "It's him, it's him!" And she sees yet another and she says it again, "It's him, it's him!"

There is a moment which follows where, if you really were ever innocent about understanding murder as the ultimate tabu, this horrible feeling just washes over you when you realize that an innocent person was driven to do something horrible and wrong for all the right reasons.

I just hope, that if we fully understand what it is to be good, that we accept that we just shot our wad with Iraq.

Where is the outrage! These people have caused the destruction of the sovereign nation of Iraq, the deaths of nearly a million people, and the displacement of countless others, and now they want another war.

They are the true enemies of the American people!

Here's my email this evening. Let them know we know. And email and print out this very good E&P article.

I was reminded this evening in Editor & Publisher that Michael R. Gordon was the writer who with Judith Miller did such a disservice to your readers and this country with overblown and inaccurate claims about WMD's that helped allow the Bush Administration to take this country to this ill-advised war we are now stuck in.

Why should I believe Mr. Gordon and his government sources? Seems to me he may be again aiding a Bush Administration and their neocon minions gin up another military adventure. I would hope you closely vet Mr. Gordon's information and search for alternate sources to his information. Are we being fed lies again?

K&R :kick:

http://nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/infoservdirectory.html

PUBLIC EDITOR
To reach Byron Calame, who represents the readers, e-mail public@nytimes.com or call (212) 556-7652.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/world/middleeast/10weapons.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin


February 10, 2007

Deadliest Bomb in Iraq Is Made by Iran, U.S. Says
By MICHAEL R. GORDON

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — The most lethal weapon directed against American troops in Iraq is an explosive-packed cylinder that United States intelligence asserts is being supplied by Iran.

The assertion of an Iranian role in supplying the device to Shiite militias reflects broad agreement among American intelligence agencies, although officials acknowledge that the picture is not entirely complete.

In interviews, civilian and military officials from a broad range of government agencies provided specific details to support what until now has been a more generally worded claim, in a new National Intelligence Estimate, that Iran is providing “lethal support” to Shiite militants in Iraq.

The focus of American concern is known as an “explosively formed penetrator,” a particularly deadly type of roadside bomb being used by Shiite groups in attacks on American troops in Iraq. Attacks using the device have doubled in the past year, and have prompted increasing concern among military officers. In the last three months of 2006, attacks using the weapons accounted for a significant portion of Americans killed and wounded in Iraq, though less than a quarter of the total, military officials say.

followed by and 'anthough"



.......The assertion of an Iranian role in supplying the device to Shiite militias reflects broad agreement among American intelligence agencies, although officials acknowledge that the picture is not entirely complete.

......Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates appeared to allude to this intelligence on Friday when he told reporters in Seville, Spain, that serial numbers and other markings on weapon fragments found in Iraq point to Iran as a source.

Some American intelligence experts believe that Hezbollah has provided some of the logistical support and training to Shiite militias in Iraq, but they assert that such steps would not be taken without Iran’s blessing.

“All source reporting since 2004 indicates that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Corps-Quds Force is providing professionally-built EFPs and components to Iraqi Shia militants,” notes a still-classified American intelligence report that was prepared in 2006.

“Based on forensic analysis of materials recovered in Iraq,” the report continues, “Iran is assessed as the producer of these items.”

......Adm. William Fallon, President Bush’s choice to head the Central Command, alluded to the weapon’s ability to punch through the side of armored Humvees in his testimony to Congress last month.

“Equipment that was, we thought, pretty effective in protecting our troops just a matter of months ago is now being challenged by some of the techniques and devices over there,” Admiral Fallon said. “So I’m learning as we go in that this is a fast-moving ballgame.”

Mr. Gates told reporters last week that he had heard there had been cases in which the weapon “can take out an Abrams tank.”

The increasing use of the weapon is the latest twist in a lethal game of measure and countermeasure that has been carried out throughout the nearly four-year-old Iraq war. Using munitions from Iraq’s vast and poorly guarded arsenal, insurgents developed an array of bombs to strike the more heavily armed and technologically superior American military.

Wow! Where are the pictures? Where are the "Abrams Tanks Blown Apart in Iraq" stories?

These jerkoffs fail to realize that their "all good all the time" news coverage demand has prevented the truth from being published - you know all the "Tanks Blown Apart" stuff.

:shakeshead:

Thanks for the post Rodeodance - that was directed at the news article, not you :hi:

have a good day

I scrolled back to the top of the page to see who wrote it and wondered if he wrote the same article about Iraq? Thanks for confirming what I suspected...he's carrying the water for the WH borg....

JG

We will find out, now, clearly, who is "on the payroll". This will not be allowed again. Like Commander Cuckoobananas said so well ~
"Fool me once..."

There is an "Iran goup" either at the Pentagon, or at the DOD that is populated by the same crowd of proven liars and warmongers.

http://agonist.org/quiet_bill/20070125/iran_syria_policy_and_operations_group_isog

snip>>

"Sources close to the administration's Iran policy say the primary vehicle for U.S. government planning on Iran is the Iran-Syria Policy and Operations Group, an inter-agency body created in early 2006 that includes representatives and Iran specialists from the Office of the Vice President, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the State Department, the Treasury Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the National Security Council, and other agencies.

The overall group has four or five subgroups..."


http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_04/008597.php

snip>>

"REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN....Remember the White House Iraq Group? And the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans? Basically, they were organizations designed to sidestep the moldy old national security bureaucracy and market the war with Iraq directly to the American public. And while in retrospect some may have questioned their, um, dedication to precise and sober analysis, you can't deny they were effective.

Well, guess what? Lawrence Kaplan reports that we now have a similar organization for Iran..."


Also

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060417fa_fact

THE IRAN PLANS
Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Issue of 2006-04-17

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/3312

snip>>

'In response to a reporter's question at a March 3, 2006 press briefing, Adam Ereli, deputy spokesman for the State Department, confirmed the creation of a new “Department of Iranian Affairs.” He added: “ We have also created a number of new positions in the field—for Foreign Service officers to work on Iran-related issues. This comes in the context of the secretary's broader initiative regarding transformational diplomacy and is part of our overall effort to realign resources with policy priorities in recognition of a changing world, a world that is far different from the one for which we have been geared to deal for the last generation, really.”1


Sources

State Department Daily Press Briefing, March 3, 2006.
www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2006/62581.htm

Xinhua, “ U.S. State Department To Have New Office of Iranian Affairs,” People's Daily, March 4, 2006.
english.people.com.cn/200603/04/eng20060304_247819.html

Robert Dreyfuss, “Déjà Vu All Over Iran,” Tompaine.com, March 14, 2006.
www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/14/deja_vu_all_over_iran.php

Laura Rozen, “U.S. Moves to Weaken Iran,” LA Times, May 19, 2006.
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-usiran19may19,0,3463436.story?coll=la-home-world

Steve Clemons, “Zoellick Departure May Trigger Next Condi-Cheney Skirmish,” Washington Note, May 30, 2006.
www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001409.php

“Bush Fiddles While Iran Arms,” Center for Security Policy, June 1, 2006.
www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/index.jsp?section=today

“New Office of Iranian Affairs Outlined in State Department Cable,” thinkprogress.org.
thinkprogress.org/2006/03/01/iran-doc/

Rozen, “U.S. Moves to Weaken Iran.”
Ibid.

Patricia Kushlis, “The U.S. and Iran: What's Next? Regime Change or Nuclear Containment?” WhirledView, May 23, 2006.
whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview/2006/05/the_us_and_iran.html

snip>>

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/rw/3277

Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich, who opposed the bill, argued: “While this bill makes a point of so-called not using force against Iran, be assured this is a stepping stone to the use of force, the same way that the Iraq Liberation Act was used as a stepping stone.”


House approves Iran Freedom Support Act

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2534654&mesg_id=2534654


Coalition for Democracy in Iran (CDI) etc.

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1457

its a disgrace

perchance that's why the Administration and its' minions PROVIDE the drivel - in Repug BizzaroWorld perception is so much more important than the truth or facts. Reason being that facts and truth have no place in their policies or actions.

:kick: