*BAGHDAD, Feb. 11  Senior U.S. military officials in Iraq sought Sunday to link Iran to deadly armor-piercing explosives and other weapons

--Why not in DC, NY, at an international organization?  How senior?  Exactly by whose orders?  Who can delegate a war-provoking claim of world proportions?  Why doesn´t the senior war-monger show his face when making an international claim?  How do I know this is not mutiny by some dis-grunt-led block head?

*...the officials displayed mortar shells, rocket-propelled grenades and a powerful cylindrical bomb, capable of blasting through an armored Humvee, that they said were manufactured in Iran

--1.  This is a very good plan to evade responsibility for the lack of armor in military vehicles in Iraq and blame Iran for military casualties from now on.   2.  A cylindrical bomb.  Do they park their H´s wherever they see a cylindrical artifact?  Or do they sit on their H´s until an enemy fellow comes and places the cylindrical bomb under it?

*"Iran is a significant contributor to attacks on coalition forces, and also supports violence against the Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi people," said a senior defense official, who was joined by a defense analyst and an explosives expert, both also from the military.

--Define and quantify "significant", as compared with Israel, Russia, Spain?, India, China, Cuba? and the rest of the planet.   I will call that statement "quaint" to spare major words.

*The officials said they would speak only on the condition of anonymity, so the explosives expert and the analyst, who would normally not speak to the news media, could provide information directly. The analyst's exact title and full name were not revealed to reporters. The officials released a PowerPoint presentation including photographs of the weaponry, but did not allow media representatives to record, photograph or videotape the briefing or the materials on display.

--Isn´t that a generous act!  Did they wear hoods and gas masks?  No name, no rank, no serial number, no responsibility...  That´s an ethically- transparent way to run a government, err, war.  Considering they are known for media "psy-ops", where the USG pays for canned articles across the globe, they could have just dropped leaflets from a plane in major world cities.

--No more SOS at the UN and no more W, held up by a podium, at a military academy.  No siree!  We are not going to get them on a "technical" lie ever again. ´Chainy can scare people just with his face, but those two will delegate the lying to the grunts in the "green zone" from now on....´

* An official at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad called the U.S. accusations "fabricated" and "baseless."

--The anonymous official apparently doesn´t speak in complete sentences and the reporter run out of "follow-up".

*The U.S. officials said weapons were smuggled into the country by the Quds Force, an elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard

--Read a little further to find they CONTRADICTED THEMSELVES:  "...it's never going to happen," he said.  They didn´t even rehearse it properly!

*With so much official U.S. buildup about the purported evidence of Iranian influence in Iraq, the briefing was also notable for what was not said or shown. The officials offered no evidence to substantiate allegations that the "highest levels" of the Iranian government had sanctioned support for attacks against U.S. troops. Also, the military briefers were not joined by U.S. diplomats or representatives of the CIA or the office of the Director of National Intelligence.

--Thank you for noting the missing evidence, the missing authority and responsibility!

*Although the administration has made many assertions about Iran's nuclear program, its role in Iraq and its ties to groups on the State Department's terrorism list, the U.S. government has never publicly offered evidence proving the allegations. The briefing was the first time during the Bush administration that officials had sought to make a public intelligence case against Iran.

--The USG offers no evidence, but lets its officials make a case...  I wish this were humorous.

*Iraq's deputy foreign minister, Labeed M. Abbawi, said in an interview Sunday that the Iraqi government remains in the dark about the full U.S. investigation into Iranian activities in Iraq. "It is difficult for us here in the diplomatic circles just to accept whatever the American forces say is evidence," he said. "If they have anything really conclusive, then they should come out and say it openly, then we will pick it up from there and use diplomatic channels"

--One at last!  One character trying to make sense, summarizing the situation for the public, asking logical questions, calling things by their name.  

*U.S. military officials in Iraq had previously described the use of "explosively shaped charges" to target vehicles, but Sunday's briefing was the first time they displayed pieces of what they called an "explosively formed penetrator" or EFP.

--Another __ing acronym for a killing thing.  I can just see the words taking up a whole title page of the presentation and repeated every page thereafter for the slower reporters.  Military people seem to feel better about death if it´s caused by some acronym.  Now, I don´t know physics, but please tell me that "explosively" has not been defined and is not a known quantity.  Is it?  What does it look-like?  What does a "pene-traitor" look like???  (No, don´t draw me a picture; just describe it.)

*The one such device shown at the briefing was a cylinder of PVC pipe about eight inches long and about six inches in diameter.  The officials said the devices are deadly because the explosion sends a slug of malleable metal, often copper, at velocities high enough to penetrate the armor of tanks and Humvees. Their components require precision machining that Iraq has shown no evidence of being able to perform, the officials said.  

--Malleable means shapeable, bendable... right?  Which seems to contradict the purpose of something to ___trate metal and armor.  What do I know?

*The first known attack using such weapons in Iraq occurred in May 2004,....   They have also been used in southern Lebanon, the explosives expert said.

--They have kept quiet for almost 3 years to start name-dropping now?  Why now?
As if we didn´t know.  Which country used them in Lebanon?  Both?  All three or more?  And where did those monstrosities come from...?  Do tell us, before more people die!  We are going to find out anyway and we, people, will get even more unpleasant when we find out they are made by a US political contributor, under a foreign license...

*The defense analyst said Iranians used Iraqi smugglers to bring the weapons into Iraq. "The smoking gun of an Iranian standing over an American with a gun, it's never going to happen," he said.

--Funny you just said the opposite, dear analyst.  Is it the Iranians, or the Iraqis?
Why don´t you get your facts straight?  Why did you detain the Iranians then?

*A group of Iraqis coming into southern Iraq from Iran were detained by Iraqi border forces in 2005, the defense analyst said, and "they had the materials, EFPs and whatnot, on them."

--Pray tell, did you stop guarding the borders back then, that so many more acronyms have been brought in????  "...materials, EFP´s and whatnot..."  Now, that´s an articulate, professional,... analyst to quote from, on a case for war!

* The officials provided further details on the case of two Iranians captured during a December raid on the compound of a leading Shiite politician, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and five Iranians seized in the raid of a liaison office in the northern city of Irbil in January.   .....  Hakim visited President Bush at the White House in December.

--The first two have been released and the other five are expected to be, so what are
the blooming details?  That they had nothing to arrest them for except being Iranian?
And why invite a "rogue element" to the Whouse the same month?

*...they were flushing documents down a toilet...

--A small office, in a small town, in a war zone, where the, rare, sanitation systems have been destroyed, not only has a toilet handy, but it is used exactly as seen in countless drug-raid films from the US, according to grunts from the US.  Amazing.

*U.S. forces found a bag of hair

This one must be for the Baghdad comedy club.  If I were a male, a Muslim male, from a USG detested nation, in a war-torn country, occupied by said USG, while committing a dangerous act of espionage ,..... I am sure I would shave my head to stick out like a sore thumb!, unlike the locals, but for sentiment´s sake, I would definitely save my shaven hair for posterity!  Brilliant.

*...showed specific signs of Iranian manufacture, the officials said.  ... while other countries make mortar shells that have removable parts, the explosives expert said.

--If I had reason to trust them on anything else, I may believe this uniquely true.

*Stephen J. Hadley, said in a recent meeting with reporters that the original media presentation had overstated the evidence against Iran and needed to be toned down.

--Oh, right.  A born-again idol of ethical and humane behavior...

*...the senior defense official said charts and graphs outlining the scope of attacks with shaped charges had been removed from the presentation by the intelligence community.  

--Another unrequested favor to the public, which I have to assume covers up political maneuvers and not security secrets.

*The U.S. forces in Iraq "are not trying to hype this up to be more than it is."

--It would be nice if they said exactly what it is, with proof, because it could be said, loud and clear, by the W itself, in a credible venue.

It´s not that I don´t trust ´em; it is they are not trustworthy.