TPMMuckraker: Tony Snow Spins! And He Misses! (VIDEO)

[Hissyspit]

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002558.php

Snow Spins! And He Misses!

By Spencer Ackerman - February 13, 2007, 2:41 PM
How sharper than a serpent's tooth, the loss of message discipline.

One of the things we've been highlighting since Sunday's briefing on Iranian meddling in Iraq is the reliance on innuendo instead of fact. Remember that Bush administration had delayed the briefing out of fear of overstating its case and calling attention to its past history of inaccurate statements about intelligence.

As a result, the administration relied on anonymous military officials to present Iranian-made weapons, but relied on a chain of inferences to make the case that "the highest levels of the Iranian government" were involved. So the problem is a lack of clarity as to the actual significance of what was presented. Hence Gen. Peter Pace's agnosticism.

Today in his briefing, Tony Snow saw the wages of all that.

MORE AT LINK

[originalpckelly]

1. I know, aside from the electronics, the explosively formed penetrators...

are primitive and could have even been produced in Iraq.

[Jonathan50]

2. Two Daily Telegraph articles on EFPs ... both articles have pictures of EFPs

Note that both articles are from mid 2006.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/06/25/wirq225.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/06/25/ixnews.html

The device, described as an "off-route mine", was seized by British troops in Iraq earlier this year and brought back to Britain where it underwent detailed examination by scientists at Fort Halstead, the Government's forensic explosive laboratory in Kent.

The Ministry of Defence has attempted to play down the effectiveness of the weapons, suggesting that they are "crude" or "improvised" explosive devices which have killed British troops more out of luck than judgement.

However, this newspaper understands that Government scientists have established that the mines are precision-made weapons which have been turned on a lathe by craftsmen trained in the manufacture of munitions.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/30/wiran130.xml


The device consists of an array of up to five armour-piercing "explosively formed projectiles" or EFPs, also known as shaped charges. They are fired at different angles at coalition vehicles, resulting in almost certain death for at least some of the soldiers inside.


The bombs are easier for insurgents to use because, unlike single EFP devices, they do not need to be carefully aimed and so can be planted beside a road within a few seconds. Their killing potential is also enhanced because more than one EFP is likely to hit a single vehicle.

Some have been painted to look like concrete blocks - a modification of a tactic used by Iranian-backed Hizbollah, which hollowed out imitation rocks, bought in Beirut garden centres, to conceal bombs targeting Israeli vehicles.

[Emit]

3. Thanks, Hissyspit, for bringing attention to Snow's rhetoric today

If I hadn't have seen your post, I would've missed Snow trying to spin -- and I would've missed how they are making repeated references to the Qud/Qod forces -- virtually the same info that this MEK group mentioned in their DC slideshow last month.

It just confirms that Bush & Co. are using the MEK as, possibly, their primary source:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=194123&mesg_id=194123