Posted on 01/25/2007 11:03:58 PM PST by neverdem
Jan. 24, 2007 - Why is the Bush administration escalating its accusations that Iran is backing Shiite extremists inside Iraq? One reason: mounting intelligence indicating Tehran has been supplying insurgents with electronic sensors that trigger roadside bombs used against U.S. troops.
The devices in question—which cost as little as $1 a piece—are called "passive infrared" sensors or detectors. They are commonly used to turn on lights or burglar alarms when someone or something passes in front of them. Over the past year, U.S. forces in Iraq have repeatedly fallen victim to sophisticated homemade bombs—known as IEDs, or improvised explosive devices—which are often rigged with passive infrared sensors.
Recent reports from U.S. intelligence agencies show that Iranian agents or brokers have ordered the devices in bulk from manufacturers in the Far East, said one U.S. counterterrorism official, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters. Bruce Riedel, a senior intelligence official who retired from the CIA only two months ago, told NEWSWEEK he too was aware of reports that serial numbers of sensors retrieved from IEDs in Iraq have been traced to orders from Iran placed with infrared-sensor manufacturers in Taiwan and Japan. (Riedel is now an analyst with the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution.)
The infrared devices are particularly deadly as triggers for homemade bombs. Unlike cell phones, radio-control systems or garage-door openers—some of the other devices that have been used by Iraqi insurgents to trigger IEDs—the infrared devices do not emit a signal that can be detected before they go off. As a result, it is particularly difficult for U.S. forces to locate and defuse IEDs rigged with such triggers.
The presence of the infrared sensors is not the only intelligence pointing to an Iranian role in the construction of IEDs. Some recovered bombs closely match...
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
foreign interference has been permitted for years in iraq
fighting this kind of p.c. war has placed bush in the same place as clinton
without the moral authority to lead us into battle against iran and syria
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1250
I know, I know, it's Debka but....
Yes, Iran is. It is also funding the Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigade, among other thugly groups.
Most of us have known this for years. Is Newsweek just now caching on?
My typing sucks.
Iran Syria
Laos Cambodia
at least in Nam we bombed Laos and Cambodia.
fighting this kind of p.c. war has placed bush in the same place as clinton
Well most of us have suspected this for years, and although the slow dawning of the truth (that the president may be a tiger at home but he's pussy on the battlefield) has been tough it hasn't really been that much of a surprise.
What REALLY galls me is that Dick Cheney, the guy who's SUPPOSED to be the tough guy and who I really would have expected more from, is still BSing us that things are improving over there and that anything to the contrary is "hogwash". This plays right in to the liberal's hands and indeed is NEVER going to be true until we get tough on Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Al-Sadr, and the other dozen groups/countries that we have more-or-less given a free hand.
We have to stop the hypocrisy NOW.
The title of the thread... that was a rhetorical question, right?
The title of the thread... that was a rhetorical question, right?
would defeat these things...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We have robots that could do most of these tasks.
How hard would it be to spoof a cheap passive IR detector? Gimme a break! Besides which they have absolutely zero discrimination, they're as likely to blow up a school bus as a tank.
If they're using them, they're doing us a huge favor.
Any country that cannot manufacture something more sophisticated than a passive IR sensor has absolutely zero chance of making a useful nuclear weapon.
Any country that cannot manufacture something more sophisticated than a passive IR sensor
A) You gotta know they're there before you dump dirt on them
B) Actually they're a pretty good choice as 1) they have tons of other legitimate applications so you can't criminalize their possession and 2) you can distribute millions of them cheaply and not care if you lose 90% of them because they only cost pennys.
Well, yes. They provide explosives and training, too.
Like the Iranian made EFP (Explosively formed projectile) IEDs that have been tearing apart our Humvees for years, now? Why should there be more uproar over Iranian triggers than Iranian bombs?
This is stupid;
"The devices in question—which cost as little as $1 a piece—are called "passive infrared" sensors or detectors. They are commonly used to turn on lights or burglar alarms when someone or something passes in front of them. "
Iran is the exclusive manufacturer of these "devices"?
Our house has seven of these "devices".
Iran is causing problems but I'm sure these "devices" are available many other places including from the US.
Blaming Iran for these "devices" is so dumb one wonders if it is a deliberate spoof or distraction of some kind.
True, but the enemy is not exactly what you'd call discriminating about who they kill. Before this it was pressure activated IEDs, very simple to make but non-discriminating. Take a garden hose, put a ball bearing in it, Hummer rolls across the the hose, pushes the ball bearing forward to make contact which completes the circuit and kaboom. All Haji has to do is set it up and throw the hose across the road, you can't jam the signal and he can skeedaddle. He just has to not care who gets killed (and he doesn't).
Twelfth Imam bump
lovely
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