Photo Shows Fake Damage, Pentagon Says

The Pentagon presented its first visual evidence Tuesday that Iraq faked bomb damage to a mosque in the southern city of Basra earlier this month and that it then exploited the alleged damage for propaganda purposes.

Displaying sanitized intelligence drawings and one air reconnaissance photo, Rear Adm. John (Mike) McConnell, director of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asserted that Iraqi engineers dismantled part of the mosque a week after allied planes bombed a command center half a mile away.

The military has selectively released intelligence information when it demonstrates the prowess of American weaponry or supports U.S. charges against the Iraqis. Photographs or other evidence of allied mistakes--missed targets and damage to civilian areas--have been consistently withheld.

McConnell acknowledged that one bomb intended for the command center “went long” and landed about 100 yards from the mosque. But he said that bomb could not have been responsible for the damage that was evident in aerial photographs.

Only the dome of the mosque was missing while surrounding structures were intact and the courtyard was free of debris, the admiral said. He also noted that two smaller buildings stood between the bomb crater and the mosque and protected the shrine from blast effects.

“The damage that was inflicted here probably was by demolition, and it did not occur from a bomb strike,” McConnell said. “If there had been a bomb involved, there would have been some cratering (and) the debris that would have been left would have been sizable, in chunks.”

He cited as further evidence the fact that a tall, delicate minaret that could not have withstood a bomb blast was still standing next to the mosque.

The alleged demolition occurred over the night of Feb. 7-8, the officer said. On Feb. 11, Iraqi government officials escorted a group of Western journalists to the site and described it as an example of the indiscriminate bombing of Iraqi civilian areas.