Iran has the smoking gun, I mean the mushroom cloud...

Or is it the smoking mushroom?

Glenn Greenwald points out that the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times both reported doubts about the Bush administration's linking bombs in Iraq to Iran. The New York Times regurgitates the White House talking points without question:

But today, The New York Times does precisely the opposite -- it has published a lengthy, prominent front-page article by Michael Gordon that does nothing, literally, but mindlessly recite administration claims about Iran's weapons-supplying activities without the slightest questioning, investigation, or presentation of ample counter-evidence. The entire article is nothing more than one accusatory claim about Iran after the next, all emanating from the mouths of anonymous military and "intelligence officials" without the slightest verified evidence, and Gordon just mindlessly repeats what he has been told in one provocative paragraph after the next.

Start with the headline: Deadliest Bomb in Iraq is Made by Iran, U.S. Says. That is a proposition that is extremely inflammatory -- it suggests that Iranians bear responsibility for attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, even though that is a claim for which almost no evidence has been presented and which is very much in dispute. Why should that be the basis for a prominent headline when Gordon's sole basis for it are the uncorroborated assertions of the Bush administration? The very first paragraph following that headline is the most inflammatory:

The most lethal weapon directed against American troops in Iraq is an explosive-packed cylinder that United States intelligence asserts is being supplied by Iran.

Is that extremely provocative claim even true? Gordon never says, and he does not really appear to care. He is in Pravda Spokesman mode throughout the entire article -- offering himself up as a megaphone for administration assertions without the slightest amount of scrutiny, investigation or opposing views.

Update: Tengrain at MockPaperScissors notices, too.

Update: Bryan catches CNN doing it as well. He also has some points about the ordnance:

While I don’t expect reporters to know it, but the whole world uses 81mm mortars, including the US and UK, and given that Iran and Iraq fought a decade long war, there is plenty of ordnance from both countries in both countries. If the US had guarded Saddam’s weapons storage areas we wouldn’t be dealing with this level of violence.

Iraqis don’t need help to create weapons. The army that Bremer dispersed had munitions people, explosive ordnance disposal people, engineers, artillery, tankers, etc. who all know how to make things, including tanks, go boom. After Gulf War I do they expect people to believe that the Iraqi army didn’t study how to disable Abrams tanks?

None of the people involved will identify themselves and take responsibility for what they are saying. The media isn’t allowed to photograph the “evidence” and submit it for review by experts. The briefing is in the controlled environment of the Green Zone. This is garbage.