| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"can_o_worms" |
| Date: |
28 Feb 2007 06:20:01 PM |
| Object: |
Hey Wolf Blitzer - Evidence that IEDs in Iraq are made in Iraq - NOT Iran |
Iraq's Superbombs: Home Made?
This article linked from: antiwar.com
(as are many posts seen in this NG)
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/02/where_are_iraqs.html
Where are Iraq's superbombs coming from, really?
The Pentagon is claiming -- again --
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/26/world/middleeast/26weapons.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
the the Iranian government supplied the deadly
"explosively formed penetrators" (EFPs).
http://www.noahshachtman.com/archives/003285.html
But the more you study these devices -- which use an
explosive charge to a convert disc-shaped metal
'lens' into a high-velocity slug capable of smashing
through thick armor at an extended range –- the more
likely they seem to be home-made in Iraq.
The LA Times' Andrew Cockburn noted last week that
"U.S. troops raiding a Baghdad machine shop came
across a pile of copper disks, 5 inches in diameter,
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-cockburn16feb16,0,6714688.story?coll=la-opinion-center
stamped out as part of what was clearly an ongoing
order." (Here's a picture.)
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/02/picture_this_de.html
If that's accurate, then building EFPs in Iraq becomes
a fairly easy operation. Given the appropriate design
(which is the tricky bit) any machine shop can turn
them out by the hundred. (Today's New York Times notes
that the disks found in Hilla, Iraq "look like a thick
little alms plate or even a souvenir ashtray minus the
indentations for holding cigarettes.")
It took years for the American military to learn how
to make these weapons on the fly. And yet insurgents
in Iraq already have essentially the same capability.
It's an example of what's been called 'Intermediate
Technology' which takes a lot of time and money to
develop, but when it exists it can be quickly, cheaply
copied.
rest of article at:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/02/where_are_iraqs.html
.
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