A Mahdi Army *splinter group* says that Iranians are training Iraqis????

[Roland99]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6548992,00.html

Commanders of a splinter group inside the Shiite Mahdi Army militia have told The Associated Press that there are as many as 4,000 members of their organization that were trained in Iran and that they have stockpiles of EFPs, a weapon that causes great uneasiness among U.S. forces here because they penetrate heavily armored vehicles.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell would not say how many militia fighters had been trained in Iran but said that questioning of fighters captured as recently as this month confirmed many had been in Iranian training camps.

``We know that they are being in fact manufactured and smuggled into this country, and we know that training does go on in Iran for people to learn how to assemble them and how to employ them. We know that training has gone on as recently as this past month from detainees debriefs,'' Caldwell said at a weekly briefing.

Let me guess, Chalabi and "Curveball" are the Chairman and CEO, respectively, of this "splinter group"???


:banghead:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. The possibility of Shiites training Sunnis...

Is right up their on the list of possibilities with Karl Rove giving the keynote on strategy at the next Dem National Convention.

[applegrove]

6. They always seem to leave out the religeon of the Iraqis the Iranians are training.

I would guess the Iranians are training shites. So who needs to be scolded about training the Sunnis?

[Roland99]

7. Hmm...gee. Who could it possibly be?

[applegrove]

9. My point is why are they so very vague all the time about who the Iranians

are training. So dumb people will assume they are helping the insurgency....then they will back US attacks on Iran or something. It is just so weird.

I dare one WH or Republican official to say..the Iranians are training the shites..not the sunni insurgency. I double dutch dare them to say that out loud.

They get miles and miles out of the incureosity of "their base".

Syrians are helping the Sunnis. Al Qaeda & perhaps Saudi Arabia too.

Why not talk about that. Sunnis are where the insurgency is.

[Roland99]

12. Ah, I see your point. Quite clearly. And, there is this on Saudis funding the Sunnis >>>>>

Saudis reportedly funding Iraqi Sunni insurgents
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-12-08-saudis-sunnis_x.htm

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Every time I hear a news report that shows any link between

Iraq and Iran it makes me even more convinced that we are headed for a conflict with Iran. We are being set up for this just like we were for Iraq.

[Rick Myers]

3. It makes me mad every time someone suggests that EFPs are...

...being manufactured in Iran!!! You can learn EVERYTHING needed to build EFPs from one of several Discovery Channel TV shows!!! The only thing remotely complex is creating the copper 'lens' for the thing. Everything else is off the shelf PVC pipe, some plastic explosives and a blasting cap. A basic machine shop could turn out hundreds of lenses in a day, it's just a simple concave chunk of copper.

BushCo wants the public to believe these hare very sophisticated weapons, since they can turn $10 worth of Home Depot material into a device that can KILL a 70-ton Abrams tank. A ten year old could be taught to assemble them from scratch in a half hour!!!

Iran, Iran, Iran!!! These people make me SICK!!!

[Selatius]

4. It does not take much technical skill to manufacture EFPs.

A conventional shaped charge has a generally conical metal liner that projects a hypervelocity jet of metal able to penetrate to great depths of into even armor steel; however, in travel over some distance the jet breaks up along its length into particles that drift out of alignment, greatly diminishing its effectiveness at a distance.

An EFP, on the other hand, has a liner in the shape of a shallow dish. On detonating the explosive, the liner is transformed into a projected compact body of metal that generally remains intact and is therefore able to penetrate armour at long range. It can easily punch through the protection of light- to medium-armored vehicles, to deliver a wide spray of fragments of liner material and vehicle armor backspall into the vehicle's interior, injuring its crew and damaging other systems. EFPs have been adopted as warheads in several weapon systems, including the TOW-2B anti-tank missile, CBU-97 and the SADARM submunition.

...

Often mounted on crash barriers at window level, they are placed along roadsides at choke points where vehicles must slow down, such as intersections and junctions. This gives the operator time to judge the moment to fire, when the vehicle is moving more slowly. The intent is often to penetrate the vehicle crew compartment.

Detonation is controlled by cable, radio control (RC), or remote arming with passive IR (PIR) trigger. EFPs can be deployed singly, in pairs, or in arrays, but the common practice is singly as it reduces the likelihood of wasting a number of valuable weapons upon discovery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosively_formed_penetrator

This is a "poor man's" anti-armor weapon.

[soothsayer]

5. Gee, this sounds like saddam's WMDs and al qaeda camps

when we were spoiling for war with them. Hmmm, I wonder who we're itching to attack next?

[SoCalDem]

8. If Panama attacked/invaded Mexico, WE would "help" them

I don't see why anyone's surprised:shrug:

[Oilwellian]

11. In fact....

many of us took to the streets BEFORE we invaded Iraq because we KNEW it would be handing the country over to Iran.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

10. Whoah! Talk about playing both sides against the middle.

AND THE USA IS "THE MIDDLE"!!!

This administration and its 'loyalists' are CRAZY if they believe they will get out of this mess they created. But, HEY,...they are laughing all the way to the bank (assholes)!!!