Fauxtography: Iran touts military power with photos of … model airplanes
posted at 9:27 pm on July 25, 2008 by Allahpundit
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I can’t find the photo gallery on the Foreign Ministry website, but they have been known to dabble in this sort of thing. A Mossad officer quoted in the Time piece I linked earlier called them a “paper tiger”; who could have guessed that that was literally true? Or is this all an elaborate ruse to convince western spooks that their capabilities are more primitive than they actually are? Honestly — model airplanes on a government website, knowing that the Israelis are watching? Dude.
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Looks like the Iranians have been getting propaganda advice from the Obama campaign.
elduende on July 25, 2008 at 9:30 PM
This is totally awesome.
Of course, it’s just an distraction. And it doesn’t help Mahmoud’s children.
Spirit of 1776 on July 25, 2008 at 9:33 PM
IRAN, F*CK YEAH!
Coming again, to save the day – Allah willing, yeah,
IRAN, F*CK YEAH!
Being the number one supporter of terrorism is the only way yeah,
America your game is through cause now you have to answer too,
IRAN, F*CK YEAH!
wise_man on July 25, 2008 at 9:34 PM
They also should have Gore’s Inconvenient Truth technicians mock them up some nonexistent melting glaciers for background effects.
whitetop on July 25, 2008 at 9:35 PM
Methinks AkMyDumbJihad has been sniffing that model-airplane glue.
jgapinoy on July 25, 2008 at 9:36 PM
Ha! Plastic tiger! hahaha
Tony737 on July 25, 2008 at 9:37 PM
That’s nothing. Have you seen my ride?
Weight of Glory on July 25, 2008 at 9:37 PM
This is pretty lame, however, it’s not as bad as when the jihadis in iraq tried to show an American soldier being held hostage and it turned out to be a G.I. Joe doll! HAAA! Losers!
Tony737 on July 25, 2008 at 9:38 PM
That plane looks suspiciously like one of the F-14 Tomcats we gave them back before the islamic revolution (when we were friends). Of course, when our Tomcat techs left the country in the middle of said revolution, they made sure to bring with them all the spare parts and service manuals, thus leaving Iran with a dozen or so 30 ton doorstops.
CurtZHP on July 25, 2008 at 9:42 PM
Actually our enemies do all sorts of stuff to throw off our intelligence assessments. The Iraqi Baathists used to have “blow up” plastic decoy tanks and airplanes deployed so that it would confound imagery from our sats.
elduende on July 25, 2008 at 9:43 PM
Remember when the Boston Globe ran pictures of American troops raping Iraqi women? Problem was, the pictures came from a porn site.
TheBigOldDog on July 25, 2008 at 9:43 PM
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
I’m surprised they haven’t
killedreassigned their photo guy yet after the Magnificent Missile Launch debacle.PattyJ on July 25, 2008 at 9:44 PM
Thats nothing.Have you seen my ride.
Weight of Glory on July 25,2008 at 9:37PM.
Weight of Glory:Sweet,but Dude,so much chrome,yer gonna
be lit up like a perverbial wh#re house
and be seen for at least a light year!
haha:)
canopfor on July 25, 2008 at 9:45 PM
EPIC FAIL
doubleplusundead on July 25, 2008 at 9:46 PM
Time to go down memory lane,first Gulf War,
with some chi-chat about how Saddam might of
had fake artillery and tanks on the ground,
and oh no,would the US Military know the
difference!
canopfor on July 25, 2008 at 9:48 PM
Problem was, the pictures came from a porn site. – OldDog
Yeah, and they just ran with it. Don’t investigate, just take their word for it. Losers.
The Iraqi Baathists used to have “blow up” plastic decoy tanks and airplanes deployed so that it would confound imagery from our sats. – El Duende
During Gulf War 1, they put burning buckets of oil on top of some tanks to make it look like they’d already been hit. It worked, until ground forces got close enough … and killed those tanks anyway. Again, LOSERS!
Tony737 on July 25, 2008 at 9:49 PM
When Mahmoud said he was gonna wipe Israel off the map, he meant a real map. And with his cool model jet fighters. “Yeeerrrrowwww!”
silverfox on July 25, 2008 at 9:51 PM
Well, I’ve never been worried much about the Iranians in uniforms.
It’s the ones – and their supporters like Hezbollah – that don’t wear uniforms that are of concern.
The types that go into pizza parlors, only they’re not in there to pick up a pizza (yes, it was a Palestinian; but you get the idea).
SteveMG on July 25, 2008 at 9:53 PM
Jamil Hussein (Karl Rove)—–You magnificent bastards!
Rovin on July 25, 2008 at 9:55 PM
And with his cool model jet fighters. “Yeeerrrrowwww!” – Fox
HA! 10 points!
Tony737 on July 25, 2008 at 9:55 PM
I CAN HAZ JDAM?
wccawa on July 25, 2008 at 9:55 PM
A sloppy attempt at deception. One of the oldest, and best, tricks in the book.
Zorro on July 25, 2008 at 9:58 PM
During Gulf War
Tony737 on July 25,2008 at 9:49PM.
Tony737:Tony,I think we(Twins) did it again!haha:)
canopfor on July 25, 2008 at 9:58 PM
CanOp – Wonder Twin Powers – ACTIVATE!
Tony737 on July 25, 2008 at 10:02 PM
They might as well go for broke and show a squadron of X-Wings or maybe even the Death Star. That would make us think twice.
BDavis on July 25, 2008 at 10:03 PM
This explains a lot. Mahmoud’s been sniffing glue.
hepcat on July 25, 2008 at 10:05 PM
Curiouser and curiouser
Terrye on July 25, 2008 at 10:05 PM
Tony737 on July 25, 2008 at 9:49 PM
No doubt Brother! The Iraqis were taking a page straight out of Soviet doctrine with their silly games. It sure helped a heap huh!
elduende on July 25, 2008 at 10:07 PM
But what if they’re doing this to bait the Lefties into arguing that “they are really defenseless, and are so scared of attack that they are trying to deter an Israeli/US attack with models”; like Israel’s dropping of seltzer bottles during the War of Independence?
WHAT IF THIS IS A TRICK?
ParisParamus on July 25, 2008 at 10:08 PM
… show a squadron of X-Wings … – BD
Hahaha! See, this is why I love HotAir! Some of my real-world friends wouldn’t even get that! Or what Silver said about AhmaDingDong playing with models and making jet noises as he ’strafed’ Israel. Hilarious! But only to us!
Tony737 on July 25, 2008 at 10:10 PM
What a bunch of losers.
CP on July 25, 2008 at 10:12 PM
All your base are belong to us!
Alden Pyle on July 25, 2008 at 10:13 PM
It sure helped a heap huh! – El D
Yeah, about as much as using Soviet tanks and Soviet planes and Soviet tactics. The Gulf War helped to push the USSR over the edge when they saw how ineffective their junk was. Then they watched us to in Afghanistan in 10 weeks what they couldn’t do in 10 years. Yet another bunch of losers!
Tony737 on July 25, 2008 at 10:16 PM
Lick My Decals Off Baby!
profitsbeard on July 25, 2008 at 10:17 PM
?
jerrytbg on July 25, 2008 at 10:18 PM
You callthat a ride?
Ha!
This is my ride…
jmarcure on July 25, 2008 at 10:20 PM
actualy, we used the blowup tanks and planes in England prior to D-Day.
jerrytbg on July 25, 2008 at 10:21 PM
Tony737 on July 25, 2008 at 10:16 PM
Yeah the Iraqi military were not the sharpest tacks. Not content with the first ass whoopin… they had essentially the same tactics in Gulf II. Even the beginning of their guerrilla operations were pretty much Soviet doctrine until the Jihadis got involved and took over financially and ideologically.
elduende on July 25, 2008 at 10:22 PM
There goes the thread…;)
jerrytbg on July 25, 2008 at 10:24 PM
Reminds me of a story I heard that supposedly happened during WWI. At some point during war, the Germans built an airbase. It was a fake. But they had mock ups of all the normal things you would expect to see but they were made of wood; wooden trucks, planes, ect. Once it was complete, a single British plane flew over and dropped a wooden bomb. I’ve always hoped that story is true.
austinnelly on July 25, 2008 at 10:24 PM
At least I built my model. He only used a screen cap from Trek and it wasn’t even from a good episode.
jmarcure on July 25, 2008 at 10:28 PM
Hah, I saw this yesterday.
Here is the site they got their pictures from:
Model Airplanes
I haven’t found the MiG, but that is the pictures of the F-14.
Very nice job too.
cozmo on July 25, 2008 at 10:29 PM
And as long as we are on “rides”, here is one of mine:
Flagship
Navy
cozmo on July 25, 2008 at 10:33 PM
Hey, you guys aren’t being fair. Iran is just being a good citizen of the world and reducing its carbon footprint by using these models.
hillbillyjim on July 25, 2008 at 10:46 PM
Further proof that Iran is a threat to the United states.
(snicker)
RMC1618 on July 25, 2008 at 10:49 PM
It’s called “The Obama Effect”, or “How Faux Can You Go?”.
hillbillyjim on July 25, 2008 at 10:49 PM
My Flagship
My Fleet
One of my pilots.
MirCat on July 25, 2008 at 10:51 PM
I think we should sic “Team America” on them.
darwin-t on July 25, 2008 at 10:51 PM
And so it came to pass that the Ayatollah Khamanei saw The Obama, and a tingle sprang forth down his leg…and he beat his U-234 into plowshares and his fighters into frisbees.
hillbillyjim on July 25, 2008 at 10:58 PM
NOW WE’RE TALKING!!
jerrytbg on July 25, 2008 at 10:58 PM
maybe they’ll get here in time to save us from the iranians!
jerrytbg on July 25, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Excellent idea.
wise_man on July 25, 2008 at 11:00 PM
darwin-t on July 25, 2008 at 11:02 PM
Hey they turned an F5 into a better platform than the F18, stealthy and everything and they did it all on their own according to most of the MSM and their motorboats have already defeated the US Navy. Come to think of it I believe the Iranains have already landed men on Mars, they are a world power that demands our respect.
We have become a self neutered joke!
dmann on July 25, 2008 at 11:09 PM
PITIFUL…
Faux, Faux, Faux, Faux, FauxIran!
byteshredder on July 25, 2008 at 11:18 PM
we used the blowup tanks and planes in England prior to D-Day. – Jerry
Yeah, Patton’s inflatable diversion army. An it worked, although Patton was not happy about his new assignment.
a single British plane flew over and dropped a wooden bomb. – Austin
Ha! That’s the coolest story ever! Almost as cool as that is the one about the speeder who got a ticket in the mail with a picture of his tag plate. He sent them a picture of money in the amount of the ticket! So they sent him back a picture of handcuffs! He ‘got the picture’ and paid the ticket.
Tony737 on July 25, 2008 at 11:19 PM
Looks like the AP at work again, here. I guess Ahmadinawackjob brought them in to consult for on PR.
This is about the level of their technical expertise.
seanrobins on July 25, 2008 at 11:29 PM
This could be a new arms race…I’m thinkin’ giant robot invasion pigs.
cozmo on July 25, 2008 at 11:31 PM
Now we know what Israel is gonna drop. Bic lighters.
Limerick on July 25, 2008 at 11:40 PM
It’s always weird when these threads digress. I’m going to sleep.
jerrytbg on July 25, 2008 at 11:49 PM
Plane-a-lot! Plane-a-lot! Plane-a-lot!! Sshh – it’s only a model.
exhelodrvr on July 26, 2008 at 12:09 AM
When I was a kid I built a model of a Fokker D VII. Maybe I could sell it to Iran.
Johan Klaus on July 26, 2008 at 12:16 AM
I would tend to believe this scenario more than the paper tiger one, lets not forget, these people did invent chess. Lets also remember the Russian Government selling some 250 Sukhoi-30 Long Range Fighter Jets to the Iranian Government and Iran supposedly began producing their own fighter. What better way to buy more time than to look weak and foolish? I just wouldn’t go jumping to conclusions about fauxtography and plastic models so easy to be proven false.
abinitioadinfinitum on July 26, 2008 at 12:18 AM
The Irainian fighter looks like a T-38 Talon.
Johan Klaus on July 26, 2008 at 12:26 AM
Come back! I fight you with my Legos!
Maquis on July 26, 2008 at 12:45 AM
Maybe Tinker Toys.
Johan Klaus on July 26, 2008 at 12:53 AM
Yeah… A major regional power with tonnage of petrodollars to spend is run by mad men… what’s Israel’s hang-up?
Why are the UN and Europe, not to mention the Great Satan World Hegemon ™, getting so hot and bothered? People are so f’ed up, aren’t they? Go figure…
(snicker)
silverfox on July 26, 2008 at 1:17 AM
Allah –
For info on Iran’s Air Force (or anyome else’s for that matter) try here: GlobalSecurity.org: Iran – Air Force
HTH
notta_dhimmi on July 26, 2008 at 2:16 AM
Unfortunately, too many people will draw the wrong conclusion from this. Instead of realizing this is proof that the Iranian govt. cannot be trusted, they’ll say Iran is obviously not a threat.
Anyone want to wager they will vote for Obama?
aikidoka on July 26, 2008 at 2:54 AM
Heck, they don’t even need a Piper Cub.
All they have to do is build a couple of nukes, send one to Israel via a panel truck, and stick the other in a container and have it shipped to the port of New York, San Diego, Seattle, etc.
Their goal is not to win an actual war; all they want is to start Armageddon and usher in the 12th Imam. You don’t need massive amounts of hardware for that, and the marching uniformed imbeciles are only for controlling their own populace.
When are you people going to understand that this isn’t a conventional type war; It isn’t even like a cold war /MAD scenario….. It isn’t even the Crusades anymore.
LegendHasIt on July 26, 2008 at 3:03 AM
For all the joking going on above, I’m with you. A madman holding a live grenade while standing in a crowd is still a threat to the crowd, no matter how insanely silly he may be acting at the moment.
Don’t get me wrong: we *should* laugh at Ahmadinejad and all of his terrorist progeny in the middle east. They absolutely cannot stand humor of any kind. We *should* air every silly f*cked up pronouncement some Imam makes that the good folks at MEMRI expose to the light of day. And we *should* ignore the idiot political Left, whose “the sky is falling!” freakout antics over things like Iran and Iraq belie the fact that their desire for power stands on the continued maintenance of a state of fear (Detente, anyone?).
But in all of this, we should also be ready, willing, and able to put down the madman the moment he acts like he’s going to let go of the grenade handle, and we should do so with all the care and worry that goes into putting down a rabid dog, when it is about to bite you.
Oh, and if we are really serious about defusing the threat that is terrorism in the middle east?
DRILL.
Drill until the US is self-sufficient and doesn’t depend on a single drop of oil from that part of the world.
The dirty little secret of all the oil-producing nations that foster unrest in the world (including Russia, Venezuela, and to a lesser extent, yes, you, Mexico, by influencing our lack of a border control strategy) is that without revenues from crude oil, their economies are basically nothing. For a good example of this, look back to 1998 when oil was $11 dollars a barrel (thanks, Nancy, for helping oil go to $140/bbl), when the Russians were in the poorhouse and Saudi Arabia was scrambling to find money to support all of its welfare programs.
Take the money away from the idiots.
DRILL. NOW.
Wanderlust on July 26, 2008 at 3:42 AM
Excellent point.
LegendHasIt on July 26, 2008 at 3:53 AM
Time to bring out the big guns
Mojack420 on July 26, 2008 at 3:57 AM
Iranians are not allowed to vote in US elections.
astuddis on July 26, 2008 at 4:06 AM
Haha… I drew the wrong conclusion too!
Sorry, Aikidoka
astuddis on July 26, 2008 at 4:09 AM
Mojack420 on July 26, 2008 at 4:35 AM
Cool! Plastics vaporize much faster than metals.
marklmail on July 26, 2008 at 9:11 AM
It could be, it also looks like a drawing or even a model, my point is that I don’t think Iran really intended to fool but only confuse anyone with those fauxtographs or the photos of the models. With the F 22, I don’t think America has anything to worry about facing the Iranian air force, I think that Iran is only putting out stuff like this for ONE purpose. To buy enough time to enrich enough uranium to a point to make a bomb. The “bomb” is the thing they desire most. IMO
.
I just find it hard to believe anyone would be as stupid as the Iranians seem, then again, liberals do exist. :)
abinitioadinfinitum on July 26, 2008 at 9:41 AM
That site always has good info.
True, I think AhmaGenocide believes the 12th imam stuff with every ounce of his being, that is what’s scary.
If we cut off their money for oil, their economy would crumble and then the only way they would be able to attack Israel would be on horseback.
abinitioadinfinitum on July 26, 2008 at 9:58 AM
Ertl…bringing military might to nations run by Islamic doomsday cultists for many years.
MadisonConservative on July 26, 2008 at 10:26 AM
I agree with the Israeli officer who obviously watched “The Good the Bad and the Ugly”. If you have decided to strike, they do not need to rattle sabers, just sharpening them will do.
KW64 on July 26, 2008 at 10:48 AM
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1461793/posts
is this where the pics came from?
this story confuses me.
Vincenzo on July 26, 2008 at 10:50 AM
It’s peculiar because the offending images, of an F-14A and MiG-29, both depict aircraft actually operated by Iran, and even shows them in Iranian markings (though the earth-tone camouflage on the F-14 has been replaced with an air superiority gray scheme in recent years). So I can’t come up with any motivation for willfull deception–the pictures might be fake, but they really are essentially accurate. My suspicion would be simple incompetence on the part of somebody in Iran who simply couldn’t tell the difference between photos of models and photos of the real thing.
Blacklake on July 26, 2008 at 11:23 AM
No, they come from a model building site.
This one
The builder likes aircraft in middle eastern themes.
Free Republic snagged them and left the builders copyright on them.
Global Security is good, but I like Strategy Page too.
Strategy Page
cozmo on July 26, 2008 at 11:31 AM
Should be easy to check if they have a large order of GI Joe.
Sir Napsalot on July 26, 2008 at 12:39 PM
Not entirely correct. The Iranians actually did make pretty good use of them in their war with Iraq, getting lots of kills against Iraqi aircraft. It was a lot more than 12 they had too.
They still have managed to have some of a combat capability, even to this day.
firepilot on July 26, 2008 at 4:06 PM
Yeah, the post-revolutionary fate of the Iranian F-14’s wasn’t nearly as bleak as some would’ve liked to believe. In fact, during the Iran/Iraq war the Iranian Tomcats scored the type’s only air-to-air kills ever with the Phoenix missile (conversely, though, it also suffered its only losses in air-to-air combat). Inspection of wreckage of Iranian Tomcats downed over Iraq revealed that, even back then, they were manufacturing some of their own replacement parts. Electronics support understandably remains the biggest issue, but the Iranians have been able to keep a number of the type functional largely through cannibalization. A debated number remain in Iranian service today (most likely in the vicinity of 30).
Blacklake on July 26, 2008 at 4:20 PM
This so proves that the Iranian threat is imminent.
freevillage on July 26, 2008 at 5:45 PM
Ahmadinnerjacket used to bullseye womp rats in his T-16 back home, they’re not much bigger than two meters.
VekTor on July 27, 2008 at 12:51 AM
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