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Iranian boats “provoke” U.S. Navy ships in Hormuz
(Reuters/CNN) 10 minutes ago – Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats provoked three U.S. navy ships Saturday in Straits of Hormuz: CNN
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Five Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route off the Iranian coast, over the weekend, CNN reported on Monday.
Citing unidentified U.S. officials, CNN said the Iranian vessels came within 200 yards (meters) of the U.S. ships in the strait on Saturday.
A radio transmission from one of the Iranian ships said, “I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes,” CNN reported, citing a U.S. official.
Strait of Hormuz - shipping lanes (Univ. of Texas)
After the threatening radio communication, U.S. sailors manned their ships’ guns and were very close to opening fire, it said.
Update [2008-1-7 07:55 AM PST]: Pentagon says ships harassed by Iran
US President George W. Bush will not win any support for military action against Iran when he visits four Gulf Arab allies later this month, political analysts in the region say. While Gulf states are concerned about Iran’s nuclear programme, they would be even more fearful of a US-Iranian conflict.
“It might not spell the end of Iran as a military power, but merely spark Iranian reactions against Gulf states which are more than these countries can take,” Kuwait’s Ayed al-Manna said.
Although Washington rode roughshod over the Gulf states’ opposition to its 2003 invasion of Iraq, they can be expected to urge Bush “not to escalate militarily with Iran because of the consequences that military action would have in the region” and to pursue a peaceful settlement instead, said Emirati analyst Mohammed al-Roken.
Bush will visit Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as part of a week-long Middle East trip starting in Israel on January 9.
The Pentagon, which has in the past tried to place its naval operations above US laws, has suffered a court reversal that is bound to have repercussions well beyond the California coast and impact the US Navy’s global operations.
A federal judge in Los Angeles has imposed rigid limits on the navy’s use of mid-frequency sonar off the coast of southern California. The sonar is suspected of causing disruption to whale and dolphin navigation systems.
The ruling, in response to a case brought by environmentalists, bans sonar within 12 nautical miles of the California coast, increases the navy’s “shut down” zone for sonar use near marine mammals, and mandates the navy monitor for marine mammals one hour prior to sonar exercises as well as during them.
The court’s finding, with “near certainty” that US naval sonic “mitigation schemes” are “grossly inadequate to protect marine mammals from debilitating levels of sonar exposure”, has direct bearing on the navy’s operations in the Persian Gulf, which include active sonar training “under actual conditions”.
The navy’s surface ships and submarines stationed in the Persian Gulf use sonar to detect Iran’s Russian-made diesel submarines. And given the mass stranding of several species of whales following US naval exercises in, among other places, the Bahamas, the Canary Islands, Hawaii, North Carolina, Japan, Spain, Taiwan, and the US Virgin Islands, these operations could be called challenged.
just as price of oil retreats from the $100/bbl… let’s move it to $115/bbl.
On the big picture, how does this fit in with Bush’s visit to Israel? It’s reported, UK and Israel press.
Israel to brief George Bush on options for Iran strike
All eyes should be focused on the real hot spot,Pakistan. Iraq, Iran will pale – ‘a walk in the park’ The next 3 years will be ugly.
Until our loading of the atmosphere with carbon dioxide is cut back drastically, as near to zero as possible, I am going to think oil too cheap.
Great POINT!
Don’t have the link handy (Jonathan Cook’s site has an article discussing it), but over a year ago, Israel produced a documentary about the scurge of Iran and how their deep underground nuclear facilities might be bombed. It was sold to the BBC but I have not heard of its airing.
It seems describe the next stage of the Neocon quest in supplant Islamism with secularism and democracy in the Middle East (except of course for friendly dictatorships). By the same token, it appears that Iran is making a stand against the Neocons, if only they can hold out until a Democratic president is elected and/or Cheney-Bush do not invoke some pretext for bombing Iran’s facilities, on the rationale that higher gas prices merely constitute the American public’s sacrifice for peace.
Is there anything on this that is NOT sourced to an unnamed US government official or the Pentagon?
I’m thinking maybe they’ve misread Hormuz for Tonkin.
hear ya.
Reuters
Given the widt and that the Brits were found to be lying when their sailors were captured in international waters Enlarge the map in the article, take a close look at what is called the Strait of Hormuz. International Waters eh?:
Those guys speak Farsi?
I bet a biggie needed to cover some puts on crude oil contracts…just saying. – enough, 49 cents – to ease out.
This is suspect, why did they hold their fire?
The officials said the Iranian vessels also dropped small white boxes into the water. It was not clear what the boxes contained.
Gimme a break. The OBL tapes are not playing well.
Remember all those flowers that they had stockpiled to greet the troops when they got to Baghdad?
Found `em.
The intrepid Pat Lang explains the WHY for all of this Hmmm drama!
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Public Security Minister Avi Dichter canceled a trip to Britain over concerns he would be arrested due to his involvement in the decision to assassinate the head of Hamas’ military wing in July 2002.
Fifteen people were killed in the bombing of Salah Shehade‘s house in Gaza, among them his wife and three children, when Dichter was head of the Shin Bet security service. He is the first minister to have to deal with a possible arrest.
Dichter was invited to take part in a conference by a British research institute on “the day after” Annapolis. He was supposed to give an address on the diplomatic process.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."have laws allowing for the arrest of those involved in conspiracies to murder. Particulalrly when talking of the muder of children and other inocents. Hopefully the world will beconme a smaller place for these kind of people
You are absolutely fantastic in finding information. I am amazed someone hasn’t hired you to do pure research. None are better 🙂 Thanks of for the Link!
Like I say in my piece on the incident, this is an example of a tempest in a choke point.
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(BBC News) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say the US navy fabricated evidence that a convoy of its ships was harassed by Iranian speedboats in Gulf waters on Sunday. In an audio recording, an Iranian radio operator appears to say “I am coming at you; you will explode”.
The Iranian parliamentary speaker has dismissed the affair as being part of a US propaganda campaign against Tehran.
President Bush described the incident as "provocative", it was a "dangerous situation"The US has released grainy footage, apparently showing small boats speeding near the American warships.
“The footage released by the US Navy are file pictures and the audio has been fabricated,” Iranian state-run TV quoted a Revolutionary Guards source as saying.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."