US Military: Iranian Arms Found In Afghanistan, Including IEDs

[Purveyor]

Source: Dow Jones Newswire

WASHINGTON (AFP)--Afghan security forces found a cache of weapons manufactured in Iran, but it is uknown whether the arms indicate an effort by Iran to aid insurgents, the Pentagon said Thursday.

The weapons seized last month in western Herat province included rockets, firing devices for bombs and powerful armor-piercing explosives known as explosively-formed penetrators (EFPs), said the Defense Department.

"They arrested two individuals at the time affiliated with this particular weapons cache," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.

It is unclear when the weapons were brought into Afghanistan and whether the Iranian government played a role in shipping the arms, Whitman said.

It was the first discovery of a cache of Iranian-manufactured weapons in Afghanistan since 2007, the spokesman said.

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200909101407dowjonesdjonline000650&title=us-military-iranian-arms-found-in-afghanistan-including-ieds

[billyoc]

1. Smart move, keep the U.S. bogged down in Afghanistan for 20 years so Iran isn't invaded.

Note to Iran: Don't kill yourselves arming Afghanistan, the U.S. will be bogged down there for 20 years anyway.

[lib2DaBone]

2. Why are we in Afghanistan? What does a "WIN" look like?

[Javaman]

3. So then, it appears as if Iran is learning a few tricks from the US...

Only difference was that the US was smart enough to cover their tracks when the supplied the Afghanistan's during the Soviet Occupation.

Honestly, though, does it really matter?

There was a story this week that the taliban have been using US weapons for a while now.

So what does this all mean?

We have the bush* era type excuse to start carpet bombing Iran?

Here's a simple way to solve the problem: pull out.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. A year ago, the military found Iranian weapons...

in Iraq. Remember that?

That was part of a multi-year sustained effort to get the US into a war with Iran by the Cheney administration. Bush and Admiral Fallon were smart enough to say no to that.

There is an international arms trade, both legal and black market. I'd bet that they also find weapons from Russia, the US, China, Pakistan, India, Germany, France, Israel, and any other country that makes weapons. There are no major weapons factories in Taliban controlled areas, so they get them from where ever they can.

This is propaganda, probably to convince our allies to put more pressure on Iran, diplomatically.

[formercia]

7. Iran is Shia

They have their own insurgency to deal with from Sunnis near the border with Afghanistan.

Why would they give or sell weapons to Sunnis that might be used against them?

[Igel]

15. Because it hurts an enemy?

Because it's profitable to the state and state-run industry?

Because they want to increase their presence in what has historically been an extension of Persian language and culture, and in so doing extend their sphere of influence?

Because by arming these Sunni groups, they can gain loyalty from them--and so neutralize the Balochi quasi-insurgency in the SE part of Iran?

Because some smugglers stole materiel and needed a place to sell it? Because they were able to exchange the weapons for drugs? Because the weapons will help ensure that the drug routes are in reliable hands?

Saying that Shia and Sunnis are implacable enemies, so can never work together, overlooks the fact that such boundaries are flexible. Consider Iranian support to the Sunni-run Hamas. Ethnic feuds seldom get in the way of profit and working towards strongely held mutual goals.

[Grinchie]

12. No no no.. It's appropriations time for the Military.

They are inflating the "Horrible, Frightening, Threats from the Boogeyman Du Jour in order to justify their payroll and weapon systems.

This has been going on since the Cold War in the form of Missile Gap, Electro Magnetic Weapon Gap, Mind Control Gap, Space Gap, you name it.

Nice to see so many actually able to identify this Bullshit as soon as it's plastered over the M$M.

And you are right on the money regarding Black Market weapons sales.. All one needs to look at is Blackwater, and see a pretty well known supplier, documented and proven.

We now know that Blackwater is a CIA subcontractor as well, ans we know the CIA supplied Stingers to the Taliban, along with training and shitloads of money to fight a proxy war against Russia.

Then their is the Burning, Ithching, hidden problem of Pakistan.. One doesn't hear much about Pakistan these days, eh? You know, the guys that got 10 Billion worth of high tech weaponry in exchange for their coorperation in the Global War on Terror, who subsequently murdered a popular political figure, Benazhir Bhutto, which ultimately forced Musharrif, our good buddy and Stalin wannabe out of his cushy Dictatorship job?

Well, what happened to all the Billions of dollars of weaponry? Why don't we hear more about the Massive Bombing of the Marriot in Islamabad? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamabad_Marriott_Hotel_bombing

Please notice the date when this event occurred.. Do you see a pattern here like I do?

[formercia]

17. Wrong place.

self delete.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Again? Or are they the same ones dragged out in 2007?

[Soylent Brice]

6. smoke and mirrors.

K&R

[Wizard777]

8. Another bite in the ass from Bush.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Israel Lobby arrives in DC to push for war on Iran and voilà

all of the sudden the Pentagon finds WMD, or in this case, find Iranian weapons cache. Who really runs this country?

Here is the earlier LBN story about Israel's puppets in America lobbying for war:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4051799

[jasi2006]

14. Here we go again. I am sure we could find some US arms in

Afghanistan too, including cluster bombs.

[Grinchie]

10. Oh god, it must be Appropriation month again...

Oh yeah, it is!

You'd think 700 billion dollars that they got a year ago just before the Bailout was passed would have been enough to tide them over for a while...

Apparently not, bwcause no we get to see the Annual Muslim Boogeyman paraded tyrough the M$M in order to drum up support for more Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and the missiles that they carry.

Now that we know that Health Care Reform will "Not Add One Penny to the Deficit", the Military can streamroll ahead and add trillions to the defiecit unencumbered! Thanks Obama.

[jakeXT]

11. What happened to those stories ?

Taliban's bombs came from US, not Iran
By Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - In support of the official United States assertion that Iran is arming its sworn enemy, the Taliban, the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Dennis Blair, has cited a statement by a Taliban commander last year attributing military success against North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces to Iranian military assistance.

But the Taliban commander's claim is contradicted by evidence from the US Defense Department, Canadian forces in Afghanistan and the Taliban themselves that the increased damage to NATO tanks by Taliban forces has come from anti-tank mines provided by the United States to the jihadi movement against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

..

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KI05Ak02.html




US arms sent to Afghan forces 'in Taliban hands'

(AFP) – May 19, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Pentagon munitions have leaked from Afghan forces to Taliban militants, enabling them to fight an insurgency for years against materially superior US and Afghan forces, The New York Times reported.

According to a Times study of ammunition markings, of 30 rifle magazines removed from the corpses of insurgents in eastern Afghanistan last month, at least 17 contained cartridges, or rounds, "identical" to ammunition the United States has provided to Afghan government forces.

Although "the scope of that diversion remains unknown," the newspaper warned that "poor discipline and outright corruption among Afghan forces may have helped insurgents stay supplied" in the wake of "only spotty" US and Afghan controls of weapons and ammunition sent to Afghanistan.

..

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g-iVYYi6BnCHhJgOTtHGbrzOkPPg


Who is funding the Afghan Taliban? You don’t want to know

KABUL — It is the open secret no one wants to talk about, the unwelcome truth that most prefer to hide. In Afghanistan, one of the richest sources of Taliban funding is the foreign assistance coming into the country.

Virtually every major project includes a healthy cut for the insurgents. Call it protection money, call it extortion, or, as the Taliban themselves prefer to term it, “spoils of war,” the fact remains that international donors, primarily the United States, are to a large extent financing their own enemy.

“Everyone knows this is going on,” said one U.S. Embassy official, speaking privately.

It is almost impossible to determine how much the insurgents are spending, making it difficult to pinpoint the sources of the funds.

...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6315811
http://blogs.reuters.com/global/2009/08/13/who-is-funding-the-afghan-taliban-you-dont-want-to-know/

[and-justice-for-all]

13. US arms found in Israel, Including nuclear war heads...nt

[The Stranger]

16. Did any civilians get hit with U.S. or NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan today?

Those would be with U.S.-made bombs, no doubt.