Caught With Our Pants Down In The Gulf
Submitted by Justin Raimondo via AntiWar.com,
Your bullshit-ometer should be making an awful racket in response to the shifting explanations given for the twenty-four-hour Iranian hostage scare involving two US Navy boats intercepted in the Gulf.
First they told us “at least one of the boats” had experienced a “mechanical failure.” Then they said the boats had run out of fuel, although it wasn’t clear if they meant both boats. Then they said “there was no mechanical problem.” Then they claimed that the two crews had somehow not communicated with the military command, although “they could not explain how the military had lost contact with not one but both of the boats.” As the New York Times reported:
“Even as Mr. Kerry was describing the release on Wednesday morning, American military officials were offering new explanations about how the two 49-foot patrol boats, formally called riverine command boats, had ended up in Iranian territorial waters while cruising from Kuwait to Bahrain.”
And they still haven’t explained it – or any of the other distinctly odd circumstances surrounding this incident.
The best they could do was have an anonymous Navy officer aver “When you’re navigating in those waters, the space around it gets pretty tight.” However, as the Times put it:
“But that is hardly a new problem, and the boats’ crews would almost surely have mapped out their course in advance, paying close attention to the Iranian boundary waters. And each boat has radio equipment on board, so it was unclear how the crews suddenly lost communication with their base unless they were surrounded by Iranian vessels before they could alert their superiors.”
We are told they were on a “training mission” – but what kind of mission? The Washington Post adds a helpful detail by telling us that “The vessels, known as riverine command boats, are agile and often carry Special Operations forces into smaller bodies of water.”
Ah, now we’re getting somewhere.
Amid all the faux outrage coming from the neocons and their enablers in the media over the alleged “humiliation” of the US – Iran “paraded” the sailors in their media! They made one of the sailors apologize! The Geneva Conventions were violated! – hardly anyone in this country is asking the hard questions, first and foremost: what in heck were those two boats doing in Iranian waters?
And if you believe they somehow “drifted” within a few miles of Farsi Island, where a highly sensitive Iranian military base is located, then you probably think there’s a lot of money just waiting for you in a Nigerian bank account.
Anyone who thinks the adversarial relationship between Washington and Tehran has turned into “détente” due to the nuclear deal is living in Never-Never Land. Our close ally, Saudi Arabia, has all but declared war on the Iranians and that means we are being dragged into the rapidly escalating conflict. In this context, two US military boats coming a mile and a half away from a major Iranian base in the Gulf isn’t an accident. This ‘training mission” was a military incursion, and although we have no way of knowing what mission the US hoped to accomplish, suffice to say that it wasn’t meant to be a kumbaya moment.
Rachel Maddow is also raising questions about this: after a load of nonsense about how showing the sailors on Iranian media violated the Geneva Conventions – they didn’t: we aren’t at war with Iran yet – she pointed out the suspicious nature of the Pentagon’s shifting story during her January 13 broadcast.
To add another layer to the mystery, the Iranian government released the sailors after holding them for less than twenty-four hours – which isn’t the sort of behavior one might expect if those sailors were on a spy mission. And the Iranians issued an Emily Litella-ish statement, as reported by the Los Angeles Times:
“’After explanations the U.S. gave and the assurances they made, we determined that [the] violation of Iranian territorial waters was not deliberate, so we guided the boats out of Iranian waters,’ said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.”
So if those two boats were “snooping,” as the Fars News Agency originally claimed, why would Tehran come out with this all-is-forgiven statement?
None of it makes any sense, at least not until one realizes that the Iranian government is hardly a monolith: power is divided up between various agencies and factions, with only the loosest sort of unity being enforced by the Supreme Leader. Farsi Island is controlled by the hard-line Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the hard-line faction of the ruling elite, which wields enormous political and economic power within the multi-polar Iranian state apparatus. It was the hard-liners who released the video and photos of the American sailors with their hands in the air, and their spokesmen demanded an apology from the US. It was the diplomats, however – the moderates, who negotiated the Iran deal – whose contacts with the US facilitated the sailors’ quick release.
But it isn’t just the Iranians who are riven with factions and conflicting lines of authority: the American empire is overseen by a vast national security bureaucracy involving both military and civilians, and it isn’t monolithic, either. Although, in theory, civilians are in the drivers’ seat and the military just follows orders, in reality the Pentagon is an independent power that can obstruct or even effectively veto whatever diplomatic or military plans the White House has in mind. And while opposition to the nuke deal was centered in Congress, the Pentagon insisted at the last moment that sanctions on conventional arms and particularly those related to ballistic missiles remain in place. Iran’s recent testing of medium range ballistic missiles must have the generals in an uproar, and it could well be that this “training mission” in the Gulf was related – as either a spying mission, or an outright provocation designed to imperil relations. Or perhaps both.
We’ll probably never know for sure: but what we certainly can know is that the official explanation for this latest incident stinks to high heaven. There’s no denying we were caught by the Iranians with our pants down. The only question is – how were we trying to f—k them over?
I warned after the signing of the Iran deal that we are in for a long series of provocations in the Gulf, and this is only the beginning. In order to keep all this in perspective, just remember that the long dance between Washington and Tehran involves at least four partners, including their hard-liners and ours.
(18 votes)
»
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
It's all Jewish hysteria over this Iran thing >> http://bit.ly/1UgSpfb
Just think if our swift boat boys had violated Turkish waters...
supposed millions in cash blown up on ISIS bombing strike:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/watch-millions-in-islamic-state-cash-bl...
Airstrike vids on MarketWatch. lol
That cash belonged to the U.S. taxpayers. In the end, more profits for the unFederal Reserve. Now, that the cash is blown up, new money (debt) will be created and loaned back to the taxpayers who will pay the interest until maturity. Win-Win for the Fed/MIC/Rothchilds banking mafia.
Wash, rinse and repeat. The winning formula for the Fed since 1913.
Ma-Grav
What if... the baksters orchestrated this event with Kerry to stop others from shorting oil thinking that with this incident, the lifting of sanctions will be delayed.
The bullshitter-in-chief,
"President Obama on Sunday defended his historic nuclear accord with Iran as proof that “smart, patient and disciplined” diplomacy can improve relations with a longtime foe,"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-to-speak-to-the-nation-on-...
'...we are in for a long series of provocations in the Gulf...'
The Gulf... meaning the PERSIAN Gulf.
Persia... meaning Iran.
If the US doesn't want to be involved in a long series of provocations in the Persian Gulf... then perhaps they should simply remove their invading forces.
My grandma's dead dog could work out that one.
"... Moreover, at no point did either of the ships notify anyone that they had inadvertently “misnavigated” into Iranian territorial waters, a significant enough event that would warrant some sort of radio or other notification. “U.S. defense officials were befuddled about how both vessels’ navigational systems failed to alert them that they were entering Iranian waters,” reported the Daily Beast’s Nancy Youseff on Tuesday night. Carter sought to explain this away by saying, “It may have been they were trying to sort it out at the time when they encountered the Iranian boats.” Not one sailor on either of the boats could communicate the “error”? Beyond that, “misnavigating” within a few miles of an Iranian Guard Corps naval base is a striking coincidence (the LA Times summarized an exciting and remarkable tale of how the boats were perhaps running out of gas, entered Iranian waters merely as a “shortcut,” experienced engine failure when they tried to escape, and then on top of all these misfortunes, experienced radio failure).
What we know for certain is that the storyline of “mechanical failure” and “poor U.S. boat in distress” that was originally propagated — on which Lake exclusively relied to blame the Iranians — was complete fiction. At least according to the government’s latest version, the boats were working just fine. But, as always, the bulk of the U.S. media narrative was built around totally unverified, self-serving claims from the U.S. government, which, yet again, turned out to be completely false. ..."
https://theintercept.com/2016/01/15/the-u-s-radically-changes-its-story-of-the-boats-in-iranian-waters-to-an-even-more-suspicious-version/
Uncle scam has been running around ass naked and high on coke for years... yanking on his dick with one hand while he flips the bird to anyone who passes by.
methinks the title to this article was peddled by BO herself.... just a thought
Yep, the Washington/Tehran nuke deal is nothing more than Obozo attempting (foolishly) to establish his "legacy."
What a fukin' fool!
and to think i bought that bullshit broken boat story.
Indeed a BS story. If it were real, Kerry or someone else would protest that showing those men is fully against the Genevain Convention. Like they were all over it when some caught Ukrainians were showed in a street march.
Whatever the Liar in Chief says, the opposite is true.
more about Iran reaction here
http://thesaker.is/week-fifteen-of-the-russian-intervention-in-syria-whe...
What if it was Israeli waters, the Israelis would have made a 'mistake' and USS Liberty'd them.
"Just think if our swift boat boys had violated Turkish waters..."
The Turks would have done nothing since they were not Russian.
This Iran thing with the hostages feels like it was a set up with the complicity of the USG. It was orchestrated to prove that Iran is not as suicidal as the neocons want us to think. It was necessary to put on that show because from the very beginning the Jewish neocons who want to bomb Iran for IsraHell were all hysterical about the negotiated deal with the Persian powerhouse >> http://bit.ly/1UgSpfb
No General at the Pentagram ordered an invasion of a foreign country without approval from the White House. Not only would such an ass kissing piece of brass sacrifice his pension, but he would also hand Obama a slam dunk treason conviction, and take the "purge" of half-hearted ass kissing generals to a whole new level, and imperil any like minded brethren left.
The funny thing about revoking lawful sanctions or laws, is that the revocation does NOT nullify previous convictions under those laws while they were in force. Iranians imprisoned in the US would not be released without either an explicit and separate commutation or pardon by the president... or a convenient prisoner swap. And either side maintaining effectively hostages or political prisoners after the P5+1 agreement was implemented would be an impediment to cooperation.
These sanctions have been implemented through countless rounds of legislation and executive orders over more than three decades. It took a lot of planning to undo those thousands of individual enforcement actions.
Not too sure if the Iran deal means anything in terms of an end of tension with Iran. US and UK made a deal with Gaddafi too. Look how that ended.
Although it is intriguing, as to why end the embargo and return the 150bn. We will see what the agenda is...
Can't help hoping bad things for the Iranians. Never have forgiven the 1979 thing
Don't worry, they haven't forgiven the us for the CIA coup in the 50s, the Civilian airliner in 1988 or all the other bullshit either
Bump . . .
The question's not if the US-Saudi-Israel axis are the good guys, or the Iranian-Baathist-Shia wear black hats. It's the interest of the American people and nation in however things come out (minimal, and arguable) and the many costs they pay for their government to play the Great Game (not discussed and not small). There are very few people who want the American President to be Dictator of the World. You put it baldly, it becomes clear.
Anyone who enlists to put on a uniform for these bankster PNAC AIPAC pychopaths is an idiot. Any parent who let's their kid join is delusional.
Even if trump wins it does not matter. The GOP-e Ryan are selling out Americans as fast as Obola and the Dems. Pure evil.
NeoCon Zionist maniac John Bolton is Donald's foreign affairs advisor.
What's your problem with yoga pants? Other than the 200 pounders in them ripping the seams open?
("Down" as in, "take 'em off")
Down, as in, "Pull them down please." At least that's what I got!
I'll forgive such a stupid fucking comment. For your avatar, and for your avatar only.
Executive orders & victory laps.
Nice job Brownie.
Seal insertion? Seems plausible to me...
...they would have gone in unseen.
This is more O'Barry media bullshit, probaly to disguise the fact that the Iranians accepted an interest (audible gasp) payment.
http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/01/251338.htm
The boats had a nuclear weapon for the Iranians... special boat delivery...
Don't forget that our boats were captured by a few Boston Whalers. Highly improbable.
The only question is – how were we trying to f—k them over?
Really, how about......
How did some Iranian rubber dinghys captured some big-ass, fully loaded, special forces attack boats....is certainly another question that pops into my mind?
Perhaps Washington is sick of Saudi Arabia and are looking in a new direction for allies. It was all very civil for so called adversaries. Saudi Arabia has been crushed by oil prices, foreign policy on Iran enables the oil prices to collapse further. If Saudi Arabia is destabilized, their wealth and power removed a lot of the problems in the middle east are reduced.
Dr. Jim Willie and a few others over a year ago said there would be a pivot to Iran over the Saudis.
Why? I am not totally sure. Big corpoirations aka global facism corporations will sign a lot of deals worth tens of billions with Iran. The other reason may be the West knows that the Saudis oil fields are rapidly dying.
Jim Willie alos has said that London/USA have been stealing all the Saudi gold warehoused in London.
Possibly larger oil reserves than Saudi and to drive a wedge between Iran and Russia. Also aids in boosting dissent within Iran among groups.
If you are a zionist, any dead Islamist is a plus one. Additionally to your point, not only is Wahhabi S.A. a terrorist state, it has been screwing th American consumer for decades. Maybe, some time for payback.
There have been reports out of Iran news agencies that the US boats were transporting a new ISIS commander from Bahrain to Kuwait and the Iranians found out about it and intercepted the boats and apprehended the crews (and passenger?). It was also reported that the recent reports about Iran "testing" a ballistic missile near US warships was actually related to this incident and was more or less a "warning shot" across the bow of the USS Harry Truman that was heading to intercede on behalf of the boat crews. Who knows what's true on this incident but the reports I've read (and tried to summarize above) seem to make much more sense than what the PentaGram is telling everyone.
Delivery made as intended...None the wiser, except the intended.
of course
AC/DC, "Caught With Your Pants Down":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNc3ELaF0K0
From my favorite AC/DC Album/CD "Ballbreaker".
Anyone can speculate fucktard.
But to add butter to the hole, Yomma is following the dicktaste of Zbigneiw Brzezinski's Grand Chess Game Theory, which is to take out Russia and China. Yomama can't do this with out Iran.
The US needs to snuggle up to Iran, which they are, despite the Pentagon's NeoCon/Zionist Game Theory which is in Israels' interest (The Bush administration were their patsies).
Of course the Zionist cunts are going to wail at their fucking wall. They want Iran, Syria, and ultimately all of Islam in their neighborhood destroyed. The US is half-way there, spent $5 Trillion making it happen for them, and now Yomama is fucking up the final soulution.This fact is confirmed by the Yomama Administration's cold shower with BiBi Nuttyahoo.
What we are witnessing is the split foreign policy factions in Washington bickering like little fucking girls about how to rule the world.
After Yomama has had his way with them, the American MSM wipe their zebra cum breath and try to sell a story of continuity and clear foreign policy direction to anyone who will listen.
(Remember that graphic when you watch them speak).
BTW, read this "safer world" shit from the NYT...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/18/opinion/a-safer-world-thanks-to-the-ir...
There are no "good guys" in the USA govt or intel agencies fighting for Americans or The Constitution. it is a fairy tale.
THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB 1960's INTRO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4C_lUy58Rw (3:08)
I can hear Bruce Springsteen's new song:
"We were caught with our pants down
I can't get it up but I'm still in the game
Don't start without me or you'll be the one to blame."
Two boats with GPS were lost????? There is way too much Hollywood here. There has to be a plot yet to be uncovered. We should stick to making movies.
We seem to lose every war we start.
A missile fired?????
"Just sit right back
And you'll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip,
That started from this tropic port,
Aboard this tiny ship..."
Anti-War dot com?
If Justin is so Anti War then he'd support an Iran nuke deal as well as the lifting of sanctions. If the history of the past 100 years (need we go further?) is any indication it's that sanctions, blockades, and embargos inevitably lead to war in the long term, and the leaders of blockaded countries only getting creative/smarter in order to circumvent the immediate economic or even survival issue facing them.
Sanctions also lead to internal support for the ruling regime which is the recipient of sanctions (since they now have a clearly visible enemy to point to who is attacking not only the regime, but the population's well being and standard of living as well), and not any supposed "regime change" that is often touted as the intended effect by the sanctioners.