This is now getting silly. Admiral Fallon, the head of CENTCOM, is saying that he has no idea who might be smuggling weapons into Iraq. General Pace of the JCS says he hasn’t seen any evidence that the Iranian government is involved or even merely complicit. One wonders who the people at the “anonymous briefing” in Baghdad actually were. I’m beginning to feel more optimistic that we may have caught this meme before it left the ramp. (hat tip: DefenseTech, who also added to it by picking up on my EFP post.)
Apparently, the briefing in Baghdad was repeatedly called off as the content was redrafted, and the final result was hardly convincing. Now, we see that a further claim, that Steyr-Mannlicher sniper’s rifles sold to Iran were turning up in Iraq, is struggling. We’re that serious about it, we haven’t even bothered to ask Steyr AG to look up the serial numbers. And, anyway, the rifle is now, ahem, open source hardware..
“Our weapons are copied around the world. It’s just like with pharmaceuticals, there are lots of imitations,” he added. [snip] Holzschuh however pointed out that the license for its HS50 rifles had “expired a long time ago,” making them easy to copy.
I mean, please…
I checked a site in the States, they were sold out, could the government have bought them and shipped them to Iraq, to be “Found”.
I feel sorry for Pace, Petraeus, and Casey—their reputations are going to be vastly diminished from this whole episode, just as Colin Powell’s was after the “16 words” business. But I suppose orders are orders .