The propaganda flacks at CENTCOM and MNF-I are at it again:

Washington DC - The U.S. command in Baghdad this week ballyhooed the killing of a key al Qaeda leader but later admitted that the military had declared him dead a year ago.

A military spokesman acknowledged the mistake after it was called to his attention by The Examiner. He said public affairs officers will be more careful in announcing significant kills.

The incident shows the eagerness of the command to show progress in dismantling al Qaeda at a time when Democrats and some Republicans are pressing President Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander, has declared al Qaeda enemy No. 1 in Iraq.

We’ve known for a long time that being a key leader in al Qaeda is a very dangerous job. It’s the best way there is to get killed off by MNF-I.

Another case in point: Last week we killed the #2 guy in Iraq. Abu Azzam was the “top lieutenant” of Abu Massab al-Zarqawi, who of course, is the #1 guy, the head of al_Qaeda in Iraq. Now, being the #2 guy is a very dangerous job. I know this, because we’ve killed or captured the #2 guy about 30 times. It’s true. You could look it up. A fella over at Blogenlust has been keeping score.

We can’t seem to catch the top guy, because he’s a wily, slippery guy. I mean, reportedly having only one leg, and all, he’s real hard to find. And that other #1 guy? The guy with the mobile dialysis pump? Osama bin Forgotten? We can’t find him, either. Maybe he has a stealth dialysis unit, and that’s why we can’t find him.

It looks like we’ve been so successful at killing off al Qaeda leaders that MNF-I is having to “administratively reset” them, like they do every evening with units knocked out at the National Training Center at Ft Irwin.

The new propaganda chief at MNF-I, BG Kevin Bergner is a very political general. Prior to his present post in occupied Iraq, he worked for Mr Bu$h in our occupied White House. So, I suppose we’ll have to “administratively reset” our magnifying glasses and carefully examine everything he says.

Like this:

Apparently those evil and devilishly clever Iranians are at it again. They’re supplying arms and weapons to Iraqis, as has been carefully noted in the past. Now there is a new provocation. BG Bergner says the evil and devilish Iranians are supplying C4 explosives in Iraq.

This is very troubling. Notice that, just like the other examples of Iranian weaponry MNF-I has shown us this stuff is also marked in English. I never knew English was the common language in the Iranian Army. All my professional life I was under the impression they spoke Farsi. Maybe it’s just a common second language.

The American Army has long had second languages. Spanish is a very common second language in the US Army because many Latinos have seen service as the ladder to social mobility, and good for them. Lately, with the dearth of qualified volunteers and desperation for bodies the Army has been accepting gangbangers. I can just see how this will work out in a few years, as these guys become sergeants:

“Mira, vatos hora me. Put down those chingada blunts esse, an’ ruck up. We goin’ blastin’ on those chingada hajis, carnal.

This disguising of weapons has happened before. Go read this.

However, regarding this latest Iranian atrocity of disguising their C4 as American stuff. Over at Newshogs Cernig is very worried, too.

The U.S. military's explanation is that they know the explosives are Iranian because the telltale chemical trace additives that every nation puts in its explosives as a marker point to Iranian origins.

Which means that those Iranian machiavellis are so cunning that they forge a wrapping that looks exactly like the U.S. one but then so incompetent that they forget to put explosives in that wrapping that don't point right back to them.

We’re doomed, I tell you.