Did you hear? Iran isn’t supplying Shiite factions in Iraq with weapons. Or at least no one can find any evidence of it.

Earlier this month, Iraqi government officials headed to Tehran with U.S.-supplied “proof” that the Iranians were supplying weapons. When they returned, they withdrew all charges, saying the “proof” was apparently speculation. An Iranian spokesman acknowledged it was certainly possible that Iraqi factions had Iranian arms – after all, those arms are sold widely on the open market. The trouble is, none of these Iranian weapons seems to be turning up.

A massive accumulation of weapons was captured in Karbala and Basra, long home turfs of the Mahdi Army, the main Shiite opponent of U.S. occupation in Iraq, a supposedly major user of Iranian ordinance. These weapons were ballyhooed as absolute proof. The press was invited to a showing, but it was called off when U.S. arms experts couldn’t find any Iranian-made weapons in the bunch. Worse, all the armor-piercing roadside bombs (supposedly being supplied by Iran) had been made in Iraq.

The administration was planning a massive media blitz of proof of Iranian interference in Iraq, but it seems to have gone down in flames.

Sounds newsworthy, wouldn’t you say?

Dick Atlee

Southwest Harbor