By BRIAN ROSS, RICHARD ESPOSITO and JILL RACKMILL

March 6, 2006 — U.S. military and intelligence officials tell ABC News that they have caught shipments of deadly new bombs at the Iran-Iraq border.

They are a very nasty piece of business, capable of penetrating U.S. troops' strongest armor.

What the United States says links them to Iran are tell-tale manufacturing signatures — certain types of machine-shop welds and material indicating they are built by the same bomb factory.

"The signature is the same because they are exactly the same in production," says explosives expert Kevin Barry. "So it's the same make and model."

U.S. officials say roadside bomb attacks against American forces in Iraq have become much more deadly as more and more of the Iran-designed and Iran-produced bombs have been smuggled in from the country since last October.

"I think the evidence is strong that the Iranian government is making these IEDs, and the Iranian government is sending them across the border and they are killing U.S. troops once they get there," says Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism chief and an ABC News consultant. "I think it's very hard to escape the conclusion that, in all probability, the Iranian government is knowingly killing U.S. troops."


'Very Lethal'

U.S. intelligence officials say Iran is using the bombs as a way to drive up U.S. casualties in Iraq but without provoking a direct confrontation.

John Negroponte, director of national intelligence, testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Feb. 2, saying, "Tehran's intention to inflict pain on the United States and Iraq has been constrained by its caution to avoid giving Washington an excuse to attack it."

The U.S. Army has embarked on a crash effort to find ways to stop the bombs, according to an unclassified report issued last month. The devices are easily hidden and detonated by motion detectors — like those used in garden security lights — that cannot be jammed.

When exploded, the copper disc becomes a molten liquid bullet that can penetrate the thickest armor the United States has.

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"They penetrate the armor of an M1 Abrams tank," Clarke says. "They're shape charges. They go through anything, and they are very lethal."



There is currently no real defense against the weapons, he says.

"The Pentagon has a major crash study under way to figure out how to stop them," Clarke says, "but they haven't figured it out yet."

what's so special about molten copper?

Oh for fuck's sake... Enough with the the propaganda! We know Iran has been helping the insurgency, never been a secret. You have the American Public's permission to go in and stomp the living daylights out of Iran.

Or at least you will in another month of these stories....

Quoted: what's so special about molten copper?

It has the physical properties to allow it to be shaped in flight by the detonation behind it and chance from a flat plate to a projectile capable of defeating heavy armor. Probably spalls well too. It's also used in RPG7 rounds as well for this purpose.

Quoted: what's so special about molten copper?

Shaped charges compress the copper and shoot it out at thousands of feet per second.  It is nearly plasma and will penetrate nearly anything.  same concept as HEAT rounds, missile warheads, etc.

read this:

IN early 1997, Lawrence Livermore successfully tested a shaped charge that penetrated 3.4 meters of high-strength armor steel. The largest diameter precision shaped charge ever built produced a jet of molybdenum that traveled several meters through the air before making its way through successive blocks of steel (Figure 1). A shaped charge, by design, focuses all of its energy on a single line, making it very accurate and controllable.

I guess the trick is to find out where the bomb factory is and............

Iran has been killing Americans since 1979, what's new ?? They have been emboldened by our lack of direct response.  Need to plant some of these IED's on mullah's driveway real early one morning

rj

Get ten big sanitized bombs, no markings, and use explosives manufactured in Russia or China. Then use a few stealth aircraft to drop them on the top ten suspected bomb factories in Iran.

Then, deny, deny, deny.

Quoted: Get ten big sanitized bombs, no markings, and use explosives manufactured in Russia or China. Then use a few stealth aircraft to drop them on the top ten suspected bomb factories in Iran. Then, deny, deny, deny.

Deny what?

Quoted: Quoted: Get ten big sanitized bombs, no markings, and use explosives manufactured in Russia or China. Then use a few stealth aircraft to drop them on the top ten suspected bomb factories in Iran. Then, deny, deny, deny. Deny what?

I see that someone gets it

ETA:  I must say that I am still a big advocate of a dose of American made Canned Sunshine.

Uuhhh, I thought everyone already knew that Iran was our major problem in Iraq.  I was hearing this last year.

I think the US should use assasination more often.

Members of the iranian government would make good targets.

Bush should have invaded Iran, the true source of all terrorism instead of Iraq where he went solely to avenge Saddams attempt to kill papa.

Quoted: what's so special about molten copper?

It's moving at 18,000 feet per second.

Quoted: Bush should have invaded Iran, the true source of all terrorism instead of Iraq where he went solely to avenge Saddams attempt to kill papa.

Look at a map and then you will figure out why we are in Iraq.  We have Iran surrounded.

Quoted: Bush should have invaded Iran, the true source of all terrorism instead of Iraq where he went solely to avenge Saddams attempt to kill papa.

And exactly how were we supposed to do that? The logistics would have been a nightmare and the insurgency we set off would have made the Iraqi one look like a peaceful protest march. Then there’s the possibility that Iraq would have come to the aid of Iran. (I understand the history between them, Hussein could have grabbed a lot of prestige, power, and territory out of the deal.)

Imagine the international political fallout and the political ramifications at home.

Sorry, but invading Iran wasn’t possible. However with Iraq taken out we can use it as a base to conduct covert operations against Iran.