Dueling Press Conferences
Sam Gardiner at Left Coaster has a post on the Iranian show and tell, Iranians Reveal Evidence, which demonstrates that they can organize a dog and pony show.
Their stuff looks realistic if you didn’t know that those generic 20-round boxes of 7.62 ammo for an AK-47 were likely available any day of the week on the Iraqi black market, as is the rest of the stuff. I don’t doubt that some of came from the US, but that doesn’t prove anything. A relative of Chalabi got the contract for supplying that sort of thing, so I wouldn’t bet my life on it working, only that it was over-priced.
When you see boxes like that at gun shows you find that its re-loaded, usually with Soviet bloc casings. As long as you’re just wasting your money punching paper, it’s not bad, but you can expect dud rounds and need to pay extra attention to cleaning your weapon after you use it.
I don’t doubt the US is supporting the MEK, or that the MEK are continuing to cause trouble in Iran, but it’s frankly not a serious attempt at anything, and the Iranians have been dealing with them for decades. The only problem would be if anyone were using the MEK as a source of intelligence. That’s not what they do.
