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why would iran do this? especially since darth cheney is itching for another war... the iranians better watch it with crazy uncle at the helm...
(CNN) -- The U.S. military reported Monday on a "significant" confrontation involving five Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats that "harassed and provoked" three U.S. naval ships in international waters over the weekend.
The USS Hopper, seen in a file photo, was one of the ships harassed by Iranian boats, officials say.
U.S. military officials said the incident occurred early Sunday morning in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping channel leading in and out of the Persian Gulf.
The five Iranian ships made "threatening" moves -- in one case coming within 200 yards of a U.S. ship, the U.S. officials said.
In one radio transmission, the Iranians told the U.S. Navy: "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes," the U.S. military officials told CNN.
When the U.S. ships heard that radio transmission, they took up their gun positions and officers were "in the process" of giving the order to fire when the Iranians abruptly turned away, the U.S. officials said. Watch what U.S. officials are saying about the incident »
After the radio transmission, one of the Iranian ships dropped white boxes into the water in front of the U.S. ships, the officials told CNN. It was not clear what was in the boxes, the officials said. See a map of the Strait of Hormuz »
No shots were fired and no one was injured in the confrontation.
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Iran patrols Persian Gulf, U.S. says
The Iranian government had no immediate response to the Sunday incident.
The Strait of Hormuz, which is in international waters, is near much of the world's oil supplies.
The White House urged Iran to refrain from "such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
In November, the U.S. military reported that Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps had taken command of that country's naval operations in the Persian Gulf.
The U.S. considers the Revolutionary Guard to be a major supporter of terrorist activity.
Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have increased over the last few years. The U.S. has concerns about Iran's nuclear program, and has charged that Iran supplies weapons to insurgents in Iraq who target American forces.
In March, Iran detained 15 crew members of a British ship before releasing them after nearly two weeks. Iran claimed the British vessel strayed into Iranian waters -- a claim Britain strongly denied.
anybody buy this claim?
why would iran do this? especially since darth cheney is itching for another war... the iranians better watch it with crazy uncle at the helm...
This is akin to a chihuahua harassing a rottweiler.....The Strait of Hormuz, which is in international waters...
Nowhere near Tonkin-level, but stupid on their part nonetheless.
..then again, Tonkin was no-where near Tonkin, it was also completely made up too....
Point taken...
Our problem has gone from not enough information to too much information, but at least from initial indications regarding this story I would doubt that it generates any action from the administration.
It should, however, give more "hypotheticals" for the media to play with in questions to the presidential candidates...
More details emerging...
CNNThe U.S. Navy also received a radio transmission that officials believe came from the Iranian boats. The transmission said, "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes," the U.S. military officials told CNN.
When the U.S. ships heard that radio transmission, they took up their gun positions and officers were "in the process" of giving the order to fire when the Iranians abruptly turned away, the U.S. officials said.
After the radio transmission, one of the Iranian boats dropped white boxes into the water in front of the U.S. ships, the officials said. It was not clear what was in the boxes, the officials said.
No shots were fired, and no one was injured.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman downplayed the incident, calling it "ordinary," IRNA reported. Mohammad Ali Hosseini said that similar incidents had occurred in the past between Iranian and American ships, and the issues were resolved as soon as the ships recognized each other, IRNA reported.
...
On Friday, the U.S. Navy announced the same team of naval ships had been searching in the Arabian Sea for a sailor missing for a day from the USS Hopper. The outcome of the search was not immediately known Monday.
hmmmmmm...............why would 'a sailor' be in International waters near Iran??
While The American People have been scared stupid by dubya/ head/rove/neo- s (eg, the 2004 prez election), it looks like the Iranians aren't scared at all about poking the US military.
Could it be because the Iranians see the US military exhausted physically and logistically, tied down, and about to "break" in April (according to US generals) in Iraq and back-sliding Afghanistan?
The Iranians know they can't win militarily, so I guess they were just having a little fun tweaking the American nose.
Congrats to the Navy for not shooting over a trivial incident. head would have fired his shotgun and missed.
Any more gratuitous aggression by head will certainly cost the Repugs the WH, and Congress, and we know head is all (oil) politics, all the time, and never about US security.
A blast from the past...
Link"Last night I announced to the American people that the North Vietnamese regime had conducted further deliberate attacks against U.S. naval vessels operating in international waters, and I had therefore directed air action against gunboats and supporting facilities used in these hostile operations. . . The threat to the free nations of southeast Asia has long been clear. The North Vietnamese regime has constantly sought to take over South Vietnam and Laos. This Communist regime has violated the Geneva accords for Vietnam. It has systematically conducted a campaign of subversion, which includes the direction, training, and supply of personnel and arms for the conduct of guerrilla warfare in South Vietnamese territory. . .
In recent months, the actions of the North Vietnamese regime have become steadily more threatening...
As I have repeatedly made clear, the United States intends no rashness, and seeks no wider war. . . "
...we all know how that worked out....
...meanwhile, anyone remember the liberty?
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Israel...ions_0107.html
US nut-case Jew war mongers/neo- s and Israelis pushing dubya/ head to attack Iran.
Your commentary is completely and utterly destructive and offers nothing which might be considered constructive and useful.
Good job....Wanna COOKIE!
I see you've met Croutons.Your commentary is completely and utterly destructive and offers nothing which might be considered constructive and useful.
Good job
Who was the president when the Bay of Tonkin incident occured?
Lebron James????
it's a good thing that this was at sea, because this whole story smells fishy.
the iranian revolutionary guard has been labeled a terrorist organization, so we let this "known" group of terrorist within what amounts to a 5 or 6-iron of our navy vessels and they are sending radio messeges about blowing them up, and we do nothing while we're at such high alert?
i also smell a rat.
I wonder what your reaction would have been if we had infact opened fire on the Iranian vessel?
Something tells me its a damned of you do and damned if you don't scenario in your eyes.
I love your sig. Love that movie.
do you blame people for questioning this administration?
Yes, they're idiots.
I highly doubt this story to begin with, much less the idea that Iranian vessels carrying Iranian revolutionary guards that are now regarded as terrorist would be allowed to approach our ships within 200 yards.
Not my point Cheech.
Rawstory breaks an important aspect of the original Tonkin incident....
RawstoryBut he said that probably the "most historically significant feature" of the declassified report was the retelling of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident.
That was a reported North Vietnamese attack on American destroyers that helped lead to president Lyndon Johnson's sharp escalation of American forces in Vietnam.
The author of the report "demonstrates that not only is it not true, as (then US) secretary of defense Robert McNamara told Congress, that the evidence of an attack was 'unimpeachable,' but that to the contrary, a review of the classified signals intelligence proves that 'no attack happened that night,'" FAS said in a statement.
"What this study demonstrated is that the available intelligence shows that there was no attack. It's a dramatic reversal of the historical record," Aftergood said.
JFK Would never Have Fallen for Phony INTEL!.....but LBJ certainly did.....
Another myth/pretext that led to war the US wanted anyway: "Remember the Maine!"
Well, you guys called it. Turns out these "Iranian Patrol Boats" were actually a combination of random radar blips and the destroyer's own engine noise.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/...4105110&page=1
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