And they're not even bothering to lie well

[avram]

I’m willing to believe that Iranian munitions are finding their way into the hands of insurgents in Iraq. It’s entirely plausible. I’m even willing to believe that the Iranian government might be deliberately arming Iraqi insurgents. Despite that, I think expanding the war into Iran would be an even bigger disaster than it is in Iraq.

But look, Telegraph, if you’re going to run an article about allegedly Iranian munitions found in Iraq, well, first it would help if the anonymous American “senior defense department officials” making this claim were actually personally stand by their claims. Second, you might want to accompany the article with a photo of an actual Iranian mortar round, and not one from Pakistan. Here’s a hint: Iranian munitions are labeled in Farsi, complete with Farsi numerals.

Same for you, Washington Post, and you, LA Times.

Update: Don’t take this one to the bank. Turns out that maybe some Iranian munitions manufacturers do use western writing on their bombs. (That’s from a .IR domain, so it probably really is Iranian, though note that in the image the text is in a different font and different location on the mortar than in the US-released photo. Also, the Iranian image has obviously been Photoshopped.)

The anonymous American “explosives expert” said that the mortar’s tail fin was distinctively Iranian. Said tail fin is not visible in the released photos.

Also, General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he was not aware of the briefing, and is not standing by the claim that the Iranian government is supplying Iraqis with weapons.

Comments

[dirkcjelli.livejournal.com]

Bush said: "If they continue to act in a hostile manner, we'll have no choice."

Bush meant: "Once we can drum up a case for this, maybe 3-6 months, then airstrikes will begin."

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

It seems they do sometimes use Roman-character labeling, including for shells like those. See http://www.diomil.ir/en/amig.aspx?search_id=mb81smoke and the comments by JustPlainDave in Sean-Paul's post.

[avram]

Hm. That looks like a Photoshop job. Note how the lettering doesn't really follow the contours of the shell casing. I wonder what's up with that.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

If the comment is to be believed, that's an official Iranian domain. So it may be photoshopped to look pretty, but unless the site's been hacked, it hasn't been shopped to frame the Iranians.