Im checking on the accuracy of the report, but I thought it would be worth giving this story from Debka file a closer look.
I usually take Debkas entries with a grain of salt, but I gotta tell you, sometimes theyre eerily on the mark. Rumor has it, the site is a public voice for the Israeli intelligence services, dropping hints to real or imagined threats in hopes of smoking out reality. On this one, Im only too happy to oblige.
Debkas latest post hints that al Qaeda is starting to develop its own electronic countermeasures to U.S. anti-IED technology. As has been reported on these pages quite frequently, the U.S. relies heavily on electronic means to detect and defeat roadside bombs. It seems that AQ is getting in on the act possibly with Iranian help.
Soon after [electronic jammers] were fitted on US military vehicles and went into successful use, al Qaeda came up with a device capable of jamming and disarming both US electronic measures by radio signals. The Islamist terrorists thus escalated their challenge to the US military by introducing electronic warfare.
Their success has boosted the US and British death toll in Iraq. Of the 50 US and UK soldiers who died in Iraq in the first 9 days of April, 30 were killed by IEDs. Al Qaedas mystery device is believed by military experts to account for the soaring rate of effective roadside bomb hits on American vehicles, even those fitted with the new counter-measures...
...al Qaeda is suspected of acquiring its advanced electronic warfare technology from Iran, which also supplies the IEDs to Iraqs Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents. Tehran owns an interest in the successful performance of its weaponry on Iraqs battlefields and, most of all, in proving its technology is superior to American systems.
The notion doesnt seem too far fetched. When it comes down to it, a lot of the back and forth on IEDs is a low-tech game: washing machine timers, radio phone transmitters, garage door openers, cell phones. Maybe its not so hard to counter American counter-measures after all?
(Gouge: WaZinn)
-- Christian
