Posted on 08/20/2006 2:22:58 PM PDT by humint
Three factories in Iran are mass-producing the sophisticated roadside bombs used to kill British soldiers over the border in Iraq, it has been claimed.
The lethal bombs are being made by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps at ordnance factory sites in Teheran, according to opponents of the country's theocratic regime.
|
|
Designed to penetrate heavy armour, the devices being manufactured in Iran involve the use of "explosively formed projectiles" or EFPs, also known as shaped charges, often triggered by infra-red beams.
The weapons can pierce the armour of British and American tanks and armoured personnel carriers and completely destroy armoured Land Rovers, which are used by the majority of British troops on operations in Iraq.
The Sunday Telegraph revealed in April that Iranian-made devices employing several EFPs, directed at different angles, were being used in Iraq.
And in June, this newspaper obtained the first picture of one of the Iraqi insurgent weapons - designed to fire an armour-piercing EFP - believed to have been responsible for the deaths of 17 British soldiers.
British Government scientists have already established that the mines are precision-made weapons thought to have been turned on a lathe by craftsmen trained in the manufacture of munitions.
Members of the Washington-based Iran Policy Committee have released the details about the three bomb factories gathered by the exile group, the National Council for Resistance in Iran (NCRI).
Iranians working for the NCRI pinpointed the facilities at three industrial sections called Sattari, Sayad Shirazi and Shiroodi. The factories are in the Lavizan neighbourhood in northern Teheran which is controlled by the country's defence ministry. The Sattari Industry specialises in anti-tank mines and operates under the aegis of the IRGC's al-Quds or Jerusalem Force.
 |
|
|
|
Alireza Jafarzadeh, a former spokesman for the NCRI who in 2002 revealed the existence of two Iranian nuclear facilities at Natanz and Arak, said the devices were smuggled to Iraq via Iran's Shalamcheh border region.
"These sites are close to a military site, known as Lavizan 2, that is now being used for Iran's nuclear programme. It shows there is a high level of co-ordination by the Iranian regime, which wants to destabilise Iraq to make way for an Islamic Republic.
"This is not a ragtag workshop in some remote area. These sites are within an area that is one of the most sanitised parts of Teheran which is controlled by the Iranian Defence Ministry."
He added that NCRI sources reported the movement of EFP devices from Teheran into Iraq as recently as June and that supplies of the devices, which began last year, had been stepped up in recent months.
The infra-red triggering mechanism for roadside bombs was perfected by Hezbollah, under Iranian tutelage, against Israeli forces in the 1990s. Mr Jafarzadeh said that in recent weeks Iran had facilitated the movement of cash from Shia groups in Iraq to Hezbollah.
Brig James Dutton, then the commander of British forces in southern Iraq, revealed last November that EFPs had led to a marked increase in the lethality of attacks. He said the "technology certainly, and probably the equipment is coming through Iran". He added: "They come in various grades, these EFP improvised explosive devices, from those that could be made in a relatively simple workshop to those that would require a reasonably sophisticated factory."
Last week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former IRGC commander and the man believed by Western intelligence agencies to be in charge of Iranian operations in Iraq, was asked in an interview with CBS television why Iran would furnish roadside bombs to Iraqi insurgents.
He ignored the question, instead responding: "We are saddened that the people of Iraq are being killed. I believe that the rulers of the US have to change their mentality. I ask you, sir, what is the American army doing inside Iraq? Why are the Americans killing Iraqis on a daily basis?"
The factory disclosures come amid growing unease among soldiers in Iraq over what they believe is inadequate protection against terrorist booby traps.
There are fears that soldiers' lives are being put at risk by senior officers insisting that troops must conduct patrols in armoured Land Rovers even though they provide little or no protection from such insurgent devices.
Pressure continues to mount on the Ministry of Defence to introduce a new range of military vehicles that will protect troops from the terrorist bombs in Iraq.
The last two soldiers to be killed by the device were Lieut Tom Mildinhall, 27, and L/Cpl Paul Farrelly, 28, both members of the 1st Queen's Dragoon Guards, who were killed on May 28 in a district north-west of Basra.
Can we use an LGB instead? Wouldn't want to get that close the stench.
Have a look at some of the history of this commander. We'll need another one like him soon, IMO. Light intensity tactics don't work for every scenario.
General George S. Patton Jr.
http://www.bobtuley.com/georgepatton.htm
HUMINT: Thanks for the link. Patton's spirit is the order of the day. That spirit can be applied to tactics aligned to the GWOT.
Patton Speaks To The Troops - England, May 31, 1944
Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. Men, all this stuff you've heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight. ALL REAL Americans, love the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, the big league ball players, the toughest boxers . . . Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in Hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war. Because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans. Now, an army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of crap. The bilious bastards who wrote that stuff about individuality for the Saturday Evening Post, don't know anything more about real battle than they do about fornicating. Now we have the finest food and equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world. You know . . . My God, I actually pity those poor bastards we're going up against. My God, I do. We're not just going to shoot the bastards, we're going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy Hun bastards by the bushel. Now some of you boys, I know, are wondering whether or not you'll chicken out under fire. Don't worry about it. I can assure you that you'll all do your duty. The Nazis are the enemy. Wade into them. Spill their blood, shoot them in the belly. When you put your hand into a bunch of goo, that a moment before was your best friends face, you'll know what to do. Now there's another thing I want you to remember. I don't want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We're not holding anything, we'll let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly, and we're not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We're going to hold onto him by the nose, and we're going to kick him in the ass. We're going to kick the hell out of him all the time, and we're going to go through him like crap through a goose. Now, there's one thing that you men will be able to say when you get back home, and you may thank God for it. Thirty years from now when you're sitting around your fireside with your grandson on your knee, and he asks you, "What did you do in the great World War Two?" You won't have to say, "Well, I shoveled shit in Louisiana." Alright now, you sons of bitches, you know how I feel. Oh! . . . I will be proud to lead you wonderful guys into battle anytime, anywhere. That's all."
Bump! Being saying the same for a long long time now.
I stand corrected and apologize for falling victim to the e-mail forwarded from my brother-in-law to me. I guess it is kind of a relief to know that the boy is all right. I'm assuming that the "7th" picture not shown is really an after picture and not a before picture of what we are now calling a stunt.
But are we positive that Snopes has it right? The story about the 'so-called' original website claiming that this was a staged event could have been part of a cover-up to curb world outcry, couldn't it? The 7th picture really could have been the 1st, right?
No. It has to be staged because:
From the Sharia Law link found in Snopes link.
"Sexual offences carry a penalty of stoning to death or flogging while theft is punished with cutting off a hand."
If these where real pictures of an 8 yo getting punished for theft, they would show the hand being severed.
Somehow I'm glad we don't have 'true' Sharia Law pictures.
All of the lessons of Vietnam have been wasted on this administration. I am becoming convinced that the Iraq war was more "family business" then any thing else. Bush doesn't seem to care any more about Iraq or the middle east. Maybe someone in the UK can come up with a plan on how to win the damn war. DC certainly can't.
Just started using them. They are my first online storage I've tried. Noticed you use the bucket and world66. Any benifits of one over the other?
Please sent that to Rummy, he needs to read that every morning before going to work.
Thought #1: It depends on the spiritual condition of the U.S. right before the judgment of Christ on the nations.
Thought #2: As a pre-milleniumist, I believe "that which holds him (anti-christ) back from being revealed" is the Holy Spirit. Since at conversion the Holy Spirit enters the new believer and dwells in him, as long as we, indwelt with the Holy Spirit, are on this earth the anti-christ can not come. When "in a twinkling of an eye, the dead in Christ will rise and be changed from a corruptable to a incorruptable body, and those who are alive will be caught up in the air" also exchanging the corruptable for the incorruptable (the rapture of the church), then the Holy Spirit will have been removed from the planet and the anti-christ will appear. Every nation will be Christainless at that time.
Thought #3: Can't remember any references about Christ coming with His saints from heaven --- and joining forces--- with any nations on this earth to do battle against the anti-christ and his armies.
Thought #4: The U.S. may not be called the U.S. at that time. We might be one big nation stretching from Canada to Mexico. We might be called the United Arabian Empire.
Thought #5: It would be real cool if the church in America did its job and converted every soul in America by the rapture. There would not be anyone in the U.S. to worry about U.N. affiliation.
I've only used Photobucket. It's easy to manage many photos.
My mistake. On your bio page the last two map photos properties showed that they are stored at world66.com. I just assumed they were another storage facility. I now see you can imort the html tag location straight from a website into a post. Just learning about this html thing.
I know very little about HTML, except for the basics.
Regardless, remember to take a break and have one of these at the end of the day.
"Iran regularly threatens to use the so called “oil weapon”. What they’re implying they’ll do is shut down the straights of Hormuz and probably pull their daily contribution off of the petroleum market. I believe this is a credible threat that we do not want to see exercised."
I have to disagree with this. US Naval and Air Forces can and would suppress Iranian attempts to close the straights. The silkworm missile requires ground based radar guidance that can be taken out by wild weasel anti radiation missiles just as Israel just did in Lebanon. Also if we destroy their oil industry putting them on foot and in the dark, how can their threat of pulling their oil off the market be a problem? You should read my entire post as it covers how we can deal with the loss of supply.
I agree with Macarthur, the object of war is Victory. The get victory a nation must take bold actions such as my as my suggestion that we destroy the Iranian oil industry thus crippling terrorist support, and Iranian ability to wage war.
War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision. In war there is no substitute for victory.
&&&
Thanks for that passage. The General certainly knew what he was talking about, didn't he?
...a large lumpy Glass country!
&&
LOL
But, on a serious note, I fear there will be more than one glass country soon. Prayers.
What picture are you talking about?
**
The picture posted by MAD-AS-HELL showing us what Amadinejad (sp?) is thinking about.
The post was pulled by the moderator, so I'm clueless.
It's a chicken or egg argument. Do we take it out of the equation first or do they? Their contribution to energy markets is real leverage against us for a reason. The big picture here is that we want more energy on the market, not less. Yes, you are right, there are energy alternatives coming online but those are taking time – time that we don’t have. They are using this time to accelerate their nuclear program. The application of diplomatic pressure on Iran can be and should be incremental. If we strike too soon and at the wrong targets, the outcome could create a situation far worse than what we have today. Recognizing that petroleum is Iran's primary economic pillar you should consider the mechanics of Iranian statecraft. What would be the impact on their ability to conduct the behavior we intend to force them to stop? Putting the Iranian people in the dark and on foot may enhance the ayatollahs’ asymmetric advantage. Two things to consider 1) the black-market petro-trade will keep the ayatollahs’ lights on ---- and 2) Asymmetric warfare is not expensive. Remember, 9/11 cost our enemies approximately 3Years, 20 lives and $500K. Our reactions to 9/11 cost the terrorists far more than the operation itself but then again, consider their timeline. They are thinking in terms of struggling for generations while the West has to provide results to constituents with Attention Deficit Disorder in an election cycle. To sustain Asymmetric operations one only needs people desperate for change and receptive to an assignment of blame for current conditions. Who is Iran’s rhetorical nemesis? – The Great Satan.
To win, I’m convinced we are going to have to take the asymmetric war to the Ayatollahs’ doorstep. We need to replace their bankrupt fascist ideology with faith in liberty and the rule of law at the community level. This is not a luxury as some suggest. If we cannot operate as allies of the Iranian community then we need allies that can. Every other alternative is a plan that in its best case delays the coming ideological conflict. The longer we wait, the bloodier it will be.
In short – the more the West challenges Iran to join the community of nations the more the Iranian regime escalates the conflict. The reason why rational requests generate irrational responses is a function of what the Iranian government is. They are fascists. Irrational reactions such as air strikes would tend to validate their fascist tendencies. There are only three things you can do to destroy a fascist regime 1) Expose it 2) Humiliate it and 3) Replace it. IMO, putting all Iranians on foot and in the dark is not the best way to do these three things…
Anything other than fighting the enemy to an Unconditional Surrenders is not a win.
WW2 was our last win.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.