Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
April 10, 2009
Are Crowbars Weapons of Mass Destruction?

Iran does not build Weapon of Mass Destruction it buys them.

The 118-count indictment charges the Chinese businessman, Li Fang Wei, a Limmt executive, and the company with conspiring to conceal its transactions and with entering false information on bank transactions that went through Manhattan. The Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, announced the indictment at a news conference Tuesday.

“What we’re trying to do and what we are doing is to make every effort to prosecute the company, which is perhaps the largest supplier of weapons of mass destruction to the Iranian government,”

In one instance, in February 2007, a Limmt subsidiary billed a Defense Industries shell company 89,000 euros, or about $115,700 (dollars in 2007), for 200 graphite cylinders, Mr. Morgenthau said. And in another case, Mr. Morgenthau said, in June 2008, Limmt used the letterhead of a front company to send a Defense Industries subsidiary an invoice for 1.4 million euros, or about $1.8 million, for 24,500 kilograms of high-strength maraging steel rods.

Okay – one can get killed when a high strength maraging steel crowbar comes down on ones head and maybe even with graphite electrodes used in metal furnaces. But how those would constitute weapons of mass destruction is beyond me.

Comments

b-
It’s ’cause you’re still using the “old” webster’s dictionary. You need the NeoCon/Zionist deluxe addition which has the “proper” definitions for things like:

Low grade uranium ore=highly enriched bomb material
Civilian food=Material support for the enemy
A-36 steel=bomb grade steel
Ect, ect

Posted by: DavidS | Apr 10 2009 13:11 utc | 1

Makes no more sense than the sanctions against Iraq did. I don’t speak for the accuracy of the book:
agricultural pesticides
all electrical equipment
all other building materials ambulances
baby food
badminton rackets
bandages
blankets
boots
cannulas for intravenous drips catheters for babies
children’s bicycles
children’s clothes
chlorine and other water
purification chemicals
cleaning agents
cobalt sources for X-ray
machines
deodorants
dialysis equipment
disposable surgical gloves
drugs for angina
ECG monitors
erasers
glue for textbooks
incubators
leather material for shoes lipsticks
medical gauze
medical journals
medical swabs
medical syringes
medication for epilepsy
nail polish
nasogastric tubes
notebooks
nylon cloth for filtering flour
other adult clothes
oxygen tents
paper
pencil sharpeners
pencils
ping-pong balls
polyester & acrylic yarn rice rubber tubes
school books
school handicraft equipment
shampoo
shirts
shoe laces
shroud material
soap
sanitary towels
specific granite shipments
specific umbilical catheters
steel plate stethoscopes
suction catheters for blockages surgical instruments
textile plant equipment
thread for children’s clothes
tissues
toilet paper
tooth brushes
toothpaste
various other foodstuffs
wool felt for thermal insulation
X-ray equipment
X-ray film
— “The Scourging of Iraq: Sanctions, Law and Natural Justice” by Geoff Simons, St. Martins Press

Posted by: Ensley | Apr 10 2009 13:19 utc | 2

And someone should add to this, the list of items deemed too dangerous to allow in Gaza…
From watching america: discover what the world thinks of us

The pasta was allowed into Gaza only after the new secretary of state pressured Israel to stop mounting difficulties on the Palestinian population.
Democratic Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, returned from his trip to the Middle East completely shocked. Kerry, who ran against George W. Bush in the previous presidential election and lost due to fraudulent poll tallies in Florida, visited Israel, the Gaza Strip and Damascus.
In Gaza, he was amazed to discover Israel will not even allow pasta noodles through the security checkpoints. A truck with pasta products was stopped at the checkpoint and not allowed into the strip as humanitarian aid given to the local population.
Senator Kerry reported back with harsh impressions of Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians, leading to an unequivocal demand made by Hillary Clinton after which Ehud Barack, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert decided to allow the truck through.
Shoes, clothes and diapers are only a few of the other essential products still restricted from entering the strip as part of the pressure being put on Hamas to negotiate the return of Gilad Shalit, the kidnapped Israeli soldier, which is not in accordance with the prisoner exchange list demanded by Hamas.
Clinton is arriving on her first Middle East visit next week. She will take part in an international donor conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where two billion dollars will be raised to help Palestinians in reconstruction efforts following the latest Israeli operation in Gaza.
Clinton expressed outrage at the restriction of humanitarian aid into Gaza and made it clear to the heads of state in Jerusalem that this conduct is intolerable and in defiance of international law.
In Jerusalem, concerns have been raised that the United States will put pressure on Israel to open the passages, contrary to the government’s decision to maintain the blockade in hopes that it will achieve the release of Gilad Shalit on more favorable conditions.
The European Union also condemned Israel’s policy, which has faced great difficulty in providing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense said in response that contrary to the European Union’s reports, 116,400 tons of humanitarian aid were allowed into the Gaza Strip at the request of international organizations and the private sector since the ceasefire was declared on January 18th. Therefore, any claims of short food supplies in the Gaza strip are groundless.

Posted by: DavidS | Apr 10 2009 13:33 utc | 3

DavidS, it reminds me of the time the Bavarian Premier, Franz-Joseph Strauss, visited Israel in the Eighties and was lambasted by the media and every Israeli politician for agreeing to sell the Leopard II tank to Saudi Arabia. Peres almost screamed at him: “But don´t you know your tanks could kill Jews yet again?”
Strauss replied, without missing a beat:
“So why don´t you complain about the sale of Abrams battletanks by the U.S. to Saudi Arabia as well? Do you think ours shoot shells and American tanks shoot only spaghetti?”
He returned to Germany to a hero´s welcome by Germans sick to death of being hypocritically singled out for selective criticism by Zionists.

Posted by: Parviz | Apr 10 2009 15:19 utc | 4

Well, to be fair, maraging steel is used for rotors in high-speed gas centrifuges- (as the article mentions)-and it’s this, I suspect that has prosecutors in a tizzy.
But maraging steel also makes great blades for foils used in fencing because of its strength and flexibility. It’s also very useful as a wear-resistant bearing surface.

Posted by: Obelix | Apr 10 2009 22:06 utc | 5

pariz
you are quite mad sometimes, franz joseph strauss was as corrupt & fundamentalist a politician as you could find anywhere – he makes ahmenijad seem like pierre trudeau

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 10 2009 22:23 utc | 6

Maraging steel’s strength and malleability in the pre-aged stage allows it to be formed into thinner rocket and missile skins, allowing more weight for payload while still possessing sufficient strength for the application. Maraging steels have very stable properties, and even after overaging, due to excessive temperature, only soften slightly. These alloys retain their properties at mildly elevated operating temperatures and have maximum service temperatures of over 400 °C (752 °F).[citation needed] They are suited to engine components, such as crankshafts and gears, and the firing pins of automatic weapons that cycle from hot to cool repeatedly while under substantial loads. Their uniform expansion and easy machinability, carried out before aging makes maraging steel useful in high wear components of assembly lines and dies. Other ultra-high strength steels, such as Aermet alloys, are not as machinable because of their carbide content.
In the sport of fencing, blades used in competitions run under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale d’Escrime are often made with maraging steel. Maraging blades are required in foil and épée because the crack propagation in maraging steel is 10 times slower than in carbon steel. This results in less blade breakage and fewer injuries. The thought that such blades break flat is actually a fencing urban legend. Testing has shown that the blade breakage patterns in carbon steel and maraging steel blades are identical[citation needed]. Stainless maraging steel is used in bicycle frames and golf club heads. It is also used in surgical components and hypodermic syringes, however it is not suitable for scalpel blades, because the lack of carbon prevents it from holding a good cutting edge.
Maraging steel production, import, and export by certain states is closely monitored by international authorities because of their use in gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Very few other materials will work for this task, and its other uses are very specialized.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maraging_steel

Posted by: matter | Apr 11 2009 0:00 utc | 7

@matter – how come it feels like the wikipedia article was written to emphazise the military use of maraging steele.
Indeed maraging steel is used in car engines and tools much more often than is military applications. BTW – Iran itself produces such steel.

Posted by: b | Apr 11 2009 6:41 utc | 8

P 4) Strauss might have pointed out that the Israelis get a commission on ‘brokering’ the sale of US Abrahams tanks to the Saudis, which the Germans alas do not offer, and instead of ‘spaghetti’, offered as guffaw the Zionists don’t complain about Abrahams tanks because they shoot silver shekels.

Posted by: Pontius Pilate | Apr 11 2009 6:47 utc | 9

Are GMOs and aid-tied laws against seed-keeping weapons of mass destruction? US aid to Afghanistan does exactly that. It’s now illegal for Afghan farmers to keep, trade or sell 1,000 year old seed varietals. Instead, they must buy Western GMOs and engage in dangerous monoculture, at a time when food grain prices are set to surge again. Buy with what? Corn ethanol subsidies increases food prices enough to starve 2.7 BILLION people. You may now return to your crowbar verisimilitude to ‘reality’.

Posted by: Shah Loam | Apr 11 2009 7:11 utc | 10

r´giap (#6), I know very well how corrupt FJS was, and his son Max tried to follow in his footsteps and ended up in prison.
But, as usual, you missed my point completely, calling me “quite mad sometimes” without acknowledging or differentiating between FJS´s personal weaknesses and his political skills. This is because all your judgements and opinions are fashioned by your unshakable faith in Communism, which doesn´t allow you to appreciate genius when you see it. I suppose Stalin never made a brilliant statement because he killed 10 million of his countrymen during Collectivization …?

Posted by: Parviz | Apr 11 2009 8:32 utc | 11