The US (and the UK) doesn’t have an exactly unblemished record when it comes to providing evidence to back its claims regarding military action in the Middle East. A forged signature to “prove” that Saddam was trying to acquire yellowcake from Niger. Meteorological trucks portrayed as chemical weapons labs. Claiming that Saddam was linked to Al Qaeda. And, of course, the now infamous 45-minutes-to- deploy-WMDs claim.
The latest “briefing” given by US military officials in Bagdad on high level Iranian involvement in Iraq is another case in point.
Three unidentified men described only as US defence officials and speaking on condition of anonymity showed weapons parts to journalists in a packed room where all recording devices – TV cameras, voice recorders, even mobile phones were banned. The official photos of the weapons were released later
Can you blame people for being sceptical? There is good reason to be so. Though coverage has included reference to doubts about the claims, only the BBC World Service (you’ll need to click on the yellow ‘podcast’ button to hear the programme, from 12 February) has spoken to independent military analyst, ex RAF and former MoD adviser, Simon Pearson.
He has pointed out that the most sophisticated weapons – such as the RPG-29 – come from Russia and were supplied by them to Syria. What’s more, the Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP), the ones the US says are responsible for most of their military casualties were actually developed by Hizbollah in Lebanon – possibly with help from Iranian technicians. Hardly the same as high level Iranian involvement in Iraqi violence, presumably the excuse the US is looking for to authorise military action against Iran.
When pressed as to how the US can draw the wrong conclusions – particularly after taking much longer than expected to reveal this evidence, Pearson’s answer was hugely instructive.
He said that the US administration is sometimes blinded to reality – their view is that “Iran is to blame, therefore we must find a way of blaming Iran.”

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