Iran To Hold New "Massive" Naval Exercise Near Straits Of Hormuz, To Run Parallel With Joint US-Israel Wargame
The selloff in crude yesterday, provoked by this Reuters article stating that Iran is ready to resume nuclear talks with the West, is now well over and the accumulation has again resumed, following (not so) stunning news that merely days after its 10 day Straits of Hormuz military exercise ended, the country is already preparing for yet another, "massive" naval exercise. As RT reports, "Iran is planning to hold new “massive” naval exercises near the strategic Strait of Hormuz within the next few weeks, the country’s Fars news agency has said, as Tehran’s tensions with the West continue to escalate following threats of new sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its controversial nuclear program." And this time the wargame comes with a twist - it will likely occur just across from a comparable drill ran jointly by the US and Israel: "The newly announced Iranian drills, codenamed The Great Prophet, may coincide with major naval exercises that Israel and the United States are planning to hold in the Persian Gulf in the near future. AP quoted on Thursday a senior Israeli military official as saying the drills would be held in the next few weeks." And since the Tonkin Gulf Resolution script is being used point by point, any lost escalation "chances" in the end of 2011 will surely be regained within days.
Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi was quoted in the Fars report as saying the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps was planning to conduct “its greatest naval war games” near the Straight of Hormuz in the near future.
The announcement came just days after the Iranian navy completed its 10-day naval exercises near the Strait of Hormuz. The drills were held after the Islamic Republic threatened to block the waterway, where an estimated 40 percent of the world's seaborne oil passes, in response to Western plans to ban oil imports from Iran. The Islamic Republic derives some 60 percent of its budget revenues from oil exports.
The exercises, called Austere Challenge 12, which both Israeli and U.S. officials have described as the largest-ever joint drills by the two countries, are designed to improve missile defense systems and co-operation between the U.S. and Israeli forces.
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My War Game is bigger than yours!
The Great Prophet. Is this what happens when men-children with nukes take over?
i'm sorry. did you call them..."men children with nukes"?
Does it not seem like Rob Riggle's character from The Goods is now world leader?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6hI0rFZ_w8&feature=related
Where can I get a boat like that? Perfect for summer weekends on the great south bay.
Ill definitely get a spot at Flynn’s with that thing. Excellent bug out boat!
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2011/12/Iran%20boat.jpg
Was thinking the same thing. Thought it would be great fun to tease Green Peace boats with in the PNW. Nice looking boat anyways. Wonder if it would sleep a family of four???
If you don't like that one take your pick.
http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=85526
Don't know - but here's a closer look to help decide on procuring one...
http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-12-30T191149Z_202532918_G...
Decent looking vessel for a missile launching fishing trip.
more dangerous than "sharks with frikken lasers"?
Lol! :)
hey, DogSlime, I paid good money for those "sharks with frikken lasers" in my Evil Redoubt, don't you cheapen them
"Austere Challenge 12" ??? This is not a codename worthy of "The Great Prophet"
First: I'm flabbergasted, I thought two-word codenames would be enough without numbers.
Second: did I miss Austere Challenges 1-11?
I propose we rename Austere Challenge 12 into "Humility Bush 2" - I definitely remember how Bush the Second was calling for Humility in foreign affairs.
But of course the crowd here would prefer "Nobel Price 1" - the Iranian Leadership would opt for "The Great Satan 666"
Sink a couple ships and it will soon be the "Great Profit" for the ship builders and the rest of the defence industry... financed with our children's futures, assuming we win this time, which we wont.
It appears that Iran tells to zionists in Amarica and Israel: "fu*k you", we are not Libya.
I must say the game becoming interesting. Iranian are doing the right things since they must closely monitor potential aggressor activities and respond immediately.
PS
The longer America will be screwed waging zionist wars. the sooner China will get a superpower economic and military status.
The longer America will be screwed waging zionist wars.
---
But it is good for Barry O:
1) Something "happens"
2) Oil goes above $ 150 bbl
3) Global economy tanks
4) Barry blames the Great Satan. Gets himself off the hook
5) Barry has a war on his side come November
6) Barry can roll back all his defence cuts citing the Great Satan
7) Barry can proclaim his laws regarding illegal search and indefinite detention were all enacted with security of US people in mind in this form of war scenario. He demonstrates his "foresight." No one bothers to ask if his "foresight" was part of his plan.
8) Economic problems and unemployment all roll off the front pages as we get to watch the ME explode and the Great Teleprompter takes credit for the war on Great Satan.
9) Peace Prize II coming right up.
And the Drudge Report has this distraction fior us today.
"US denied killing Iranian Scientist with car bomb today!"
Car bomb us the distraction while ship number two moves in,
I still say the first bomb dont drop until oil is at 150.
Yes that includes night time trading too.
..........
Do you see it what happens Larry....
When you park 2 ships in the Straight of Hormel Chili?
Satans last trade:
Long Oil
Short S&P
All profits, reinvested
Long Oil
Short S&P
Which ones are you referring to? The Iranians have operational weapons technologies that are far in advance of the US in some vital areas...such as radar avoiding supersonic missiles (Mach 2.5+), one type of which carries a 300kg warhead, 300mph cavitating torpedoes and the most advanced passive raders in the world which are linked to some of the most advanced missile batteries. The small subs they have are ideally suited to the location and they are very quiet.
Sure the US, without intervention from Russia and China, would prevail simply from a material perspective but it would be a very costly conflict from many dimensions. To my knowledge US warships have no defence against such fast rader defeating missles which would be launched from the backdrop of the rugged Iranian coast - hard to see them coming and the Palanx system on US ships may not have enough time to lock on as they predict a target threat against a number of criteria and one of which is a consistent reduction in range from the target - these missiles are designed to evade this.
Iran, has therefore, assumed a posture to fight a non conventional asymetrical war.
LOL. I'm not fan of American militarism, but we hear this every time we are about to go to war. The enemy has some special weapons that will defeat us. Every single time.
And then we beat the hell out of every conventional force we face and eventually the unconventional forces. People look at Jane's and read some articles on websites and think that we are about to lose a massive battle because people have some kind of hard-on for the USA to lose a fight.
First, you need to determine if these super weapons are real. While we must figure they must be, we have caught Iran numerous times posting images of weapons that do not exist.
Second, you need to determine if they have sufficient quantities to affect an actual battle. Just because I drove by your house in a Lamborghini kit car and honked the horn - doesn't mean it's real and I have 5 more at home. Having one demo model that you shoot for state TV does not mean you have a large enough number of them for sustained operations.
Third, you need to determine if it actually is radar avoiding. An Aegis destroyer is vastly different than Russian ground radar systems they have been testing these missles against. They don't even have S-400's and have limited S-300's in the mountains, not on the ocean in a Star Craft lake boat with rocket launchers.
Fourth - We have known these exist since 2006, we have defenses. We actually look at these things and learn.
They just finished almost two weeks of war games - they are a month, minimum, away from another war game because they have to port, refit, resupply, debrief, retrain, then go out. That's why we are going in - because they are gone now and the chances of a blow up are lessened.
If the Iranians win a sea battle against the Americans, I will post a video of myself eating dogshit on Youtube and post the link here - and Tyler has my actual email and can call me out.
Austere Challenge 12 is a US shortened code name for the US economy. The full code name is "Austerity Challenge 2012". I think the sheeple won't get it.
How about renaming it False Flag 12? Too truthy??
Ka mate Ka mate
It is death It is death
Ka ora Ka ora
It is life It is life
Ka mate Ka mate
It is death It is death
Ka ora Ka ora
It is life It is life
Tenei Te Tangata Puhuruhuru
This is the hairy man
Nana i tiki mai whakawhiti te ra
Who caused the sun to shine again for me
Upane Upane
Up the ladder Up the ladder
Upane Kaupane
Up to the top
Whiti te ra
The sun shines!
www.maori.org.nz/waiata/sound/mp3/kamate.mp3
"The Great Prophet. Is this what happens when men-children with nukes take over?"
......................
Idiot-men-children... Hormuz conflict to be followed by gas rationing... To be followed by an overnite explosion of counterfeit gas rationing cards... To be followed by the imprisonment of any caught using fake ration cards on grounds that they are terrorists... To be followed by construction of more prisons in US... etc, etc, etc...
Ain't Democracy great? I'm certainly glad that the founding fathers locked in our Bill of Rights!
Gas rationing for Euro-land, but maybe not for the U.S. How much of the U.S. oil comes through the Strait? Not that much if I remember. We get most of ours from Canada, Mexico, West Africa, and Venezuela I think. While it's true that oil is fungible, I'm pretty sure the U.S. would have a little talk with our Northern and Southern neighbors about who they should keep selling their oil to.
The Candians have already said "no pipeline, then the oil goes to China" The Europeans have the benefit of a much lower sensitivity to the relative price of oil since the taxes are so much higher in Europe, which also gives the European States the ability to lower the oil taxes, pay a higher price for crude, and keep the drain on the consumers' wallets constant. The US does have a "strong dollar policy" it could leverage, but then the FED would have to monetize an even greater % of GDP to make up for the export loss, and further subsidize EU bailouts in the process. The US lacks the tax policy flexibility- except with respect to developing nations which still subsidize oil prices. So in a bidding war between the US, EU, and China, the US holds the weak hand, since it doesn't have China's (or actually any) excess foreign exchange reserves to draw down. We already gave the Canadians and Mexicans NAFTA in pursuit of energy security, and have drawn a line in the sand on building pipeline. At this point the Mexicans probably think we are arming the opposition, which is only one step removed from putting US boots on Mexican ground. If Obama tries the imperial approach, I think he is going to be laughed out door and it could blow up in his face given the foreign policy "image" he is trying to project.
Everyone should have equal rights .. if Israel can have nukes why not Iran. I thought Zerohedge is for non-biased sensible people.
Exactly
There are no non-biased sensible people - anywhere. Everyone is biased in the direction of their own self-interest. If all had equal rights, all would have equal access to my food and my land. Ain't gonna happen. Not here. Not there. Individuals, who value their own personal food and land, won't let it happen.
I agree! If any Afghan peasant can own an AK-47, why shouldn't I be able to own one too?
Making sure they don't miss their stop Iranian style
http://news.payvand.netdna-cdn.com/news/12/jan/public-hangings-Sepah-Ban...
Boyz. I think we have a dance off. Get the cardboard...we be break dancin.
Looks like it might get really fucking serious. Have to time-constrain your priorities more and more.
http://rt.com/usa/news/us-troops-israel-iran-257/
Seriouser than ever, yet it also seems so pointless - barely a wave of fear on the surface of my meditation, and then I go back in the depths of being centered. That's the beauty of it once you've gone to the absolute time constraint - living in the now.
I think "The Great Profit" more apt.
Keynesians everywhere salivating at the prospect of significant public sector spending programs.
Keynesian economics = socialism.
"techno--econo--geeko's" salivating even more as the prospect of a "great white naval light" leads to whole a new slew of..."thingy's." Scary if you actually think about...what did they call it? Operation False Prophet?
after watching the corporal get cut off on cnn. i am inclined to believe our guys are not so gung ho anymore....
it also led me to believe, when the time comes, they will point their guns in the right direction...
the brainwashing propaganda, just like here at home has lost its magic on our soldiers.....i could be wrong..
You're not wrong.
"the brainwashing propaganda, just like here at home has lost its magic on our soldiers.....i could be wrong.. "
If the polls are right, and I think they are, our military strongly favors Ron Paul and his call for all wars to pass constitutional muster by being voted on by Congress rather than giving the President(s advisors?) fiat power to wage war whenever they feel the urge.
Chickenhawks like Gingrich aren't getting much support from our troops.
I really, really, really hope you (and the polls) are right. It would be the only true ray of sunshine in an otherwise very bleak outlook for the US political future.
Oops. Duplicate. Sorry. Please delete.
Hmm.. so fascists aren't salivating over this oppurtunity? You still don't know what those words you use mean, do you?
Pan the ist...
About your post above... The first oil tanker that is sunk in or near the Strait of Hormuz will send insurance on tankers through the roof.
Not to mention that damn few merchant marine crews will sign on for a cruise into a hot war zone.
Point is, they'll get to extract wealth from us to "defend us" from the fucking mess they made - the fascists.
The same cocksuckers who stir up the wars profit from them.
"The same cocksuckers who stir up the wars profit from them."
..................
Of course. I assumed we all knew that. My point is; what is left of the US economy will be wrecked by one or more oil tanker sinkings... oil being fungible and likely to go the highest bidder.
If the oil supply to China is constrained significantly I doubt they will remain out of the conflict entirely.
China wants in, IMO. They need to rejigger their population imbalance. Their one child policy has created a surplus of single dudes unable to find a wife and build a life. Just my two cents.
a large surprlus of young men is a really bad situation, historically speaking.
I imagine Russia doesn't want to be a silent witness to all of this. They already warned us about intervening in Syria & went on high alert a week or so ago. They're supplying Iran with a lot of their nuclear materials. Why should they sit idly by while we attack one of their clients? Well, maybe they'll benefit from the spiking oil prices, but they're still a big wild card in all of this as well.
It's WWIII... it's baked in, I think. Who knows who ends up on what dance card... though it would seem natural for China and Russia to be on one side, with the US on another. Which labels get applied to which team will be largely agreed upon after the war is over and a winner is declared.
Nope, not a wild card at all.
Russia will come in firmly on China's side. They have a strong mutual defense pact with China, and they've been waiting a long time for an opportunity like this.
Iran is China's 3rd biggest oil supplier.
Both Russia and China have warned America (and Israel) stay out of Iran.
America invades Iran it'll go thermonuclear very quickly.
Escape - Yeah, that's right - and that includes US Elite's corporate-military-bankster-USD-World-Reserve pseudo-individualist, Collectivist Empire Keynes-sianism a.k.a FASCISM.
Remember - only little child-men buy into the pseudo-dichotomy between left and right - whereas grown ups realize that left and right slogan'ism, symbolism and dreck seduction is synergistically employed by THE ELITE to further their fraternal networks' of individual-and-fraternal abhorent hunger for power.
Socialism+Fascism = cousin forms of Keysianism = COLLECTIVISM = ELITE CONTROL.
THE ENEMY - IS - ALWAYS - THE ELITE - IN ALL ITS FORMS.
This is Irans second attempt for a war game.
Other news in the region which may point (lets hope not) to a potential comfromtation.
Syria revolts.
Turkey warns aon distabilization-http://www.ecomm-unity.com/group/politics/forum/topics/turkey-warns-on-a...
Saudi hacker hits israeli cards and servers- http://www.ecomm-unity.com/group/payment-industry-news/forum/topics/saud...
Austere Challenge? LoL!
Can't we all just get along?
~Rodney King
No, we can't. The middle class still holds wealth, and this is totally unacceptable to the banker elite which controls the BIS, and hence the world's central banks.
The power grab at present is astonishing. SOPA, PIPA, NDAA, and all in the space of a few months. This isn't the thin end of the wedge, this is full blown fascist controls imposed on the population.
Right before our very eyes... and nobody is doing a thing to stop it.
I take back everything I said before and humbly apologize.
"call me Francis and i'll kill ya'." Francis Sawyer, "Stripes."
And then, depression set in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peXZBKCQOV0 - 3 wonderful minutes
"Lighten up, Francis"
Sgt. Hulka
Sorry peeps... Forgot the /SARC tag
That Rodney King thing used to make me laugh... I lived in Simi Valley, CA right at the time of the police officer trials...
I'll never forget in May of that year, just as the riots were happening, I was flying back from Denmark to Los Angeles & the final flightpath flew right over the area which was basically on fire... Smoke everywhere...
I get no respect. The way my luck is running, if I was a politician, I would be honest.
~Rodney Dangerfield
And the US has changed the name of their military 'games' to "The Great Profit".
"Massive'? Twenty-nine guys in leaky bathtubs making motor boat noises with their lips. Why don't the Big Swingin' Dicks from both sides just whip them out, find a ruler, and get this charade over with? Throw in a camel to make it interesting...
Marcus Bachmann? Is that you?
What gave it away? The 'swingin' dicks', the camel, or 29 guys 'motor-boatin'? Sounds like a new campaign slogan...
Swinging dicks may be the first casualty if the No Dong missiles are used :P
coffee spit, thanks
We're gonna need a micrometer.
Codename "Great Prophet"? One well placed bunker buster will make it codename "Great Profit".
please step away from your x-box. you've obviously already spent far too much time playing war games.
Just put the malt liquor down and walk away.
The Strait of Hormuz sits on a fault line. There has been volcanic island building activity as of late and recent earthquake activity.
Doesn't seem like the best bathtub for two nuclear armed boyz to be playing in right now.
M5.0 yesterday 173kms away from the Bushawhotsit nuke station.....
I hope that both naval commands are paying attention.
Is that true? I wonder how a volcano erupting in the Strait of Hormuz would be interpreted from a religious point-of-view in the Middle East?
At least we can hope that each side
Gets equal time space in the water to conduct their exercises.
I know this is war, but lets it keep it fair.
Gentlemen please keep it above the belt.
All wars are expensive, the glorious ones are really expensive and the sacred ones are the most expensive.
just waiting to read about a chinese naval "exercise" in the persian gulf - hello ww3
its not a conspiracy theory its the real deal and its public news for quite some time this only beeing the tip of the iceberg http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136917/matthew-kroenig/time-to-at...
They won't participate. They will stay out of the conflict, as their military capacity is growing by the day.
They are not yet ready to challenge the US for world hegemony.
well they stated otherwise - and you might remember that chinese submarine surfacing behind an us aircrfat carrier during naval exercise without them noticing it....and they are not alone russia is with them as well and even if they might not win they are well capable of destroying the world remeber einstein saying ww4 will be fought with stones and sticks....
Sulfur... Agree with most of your post but the Persian Gulf is, for the most part, too shallow for safe submarine ops.
It's the concentration of 3,300 mph missles, well hidden in caves along the cliffs of Irans shore of the Persian Gulf, that could do enormous damage.
Aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf are as vulnerable to attack by fast missles as battleships were to torpedo planes/dive bombers at Pearl Harbor.
...and, don't believe the US Navy isn't well aware of this.
I disagree with the whole "China and Russia are itching to start WW3" meme. China is a world power, the dominant power in Asia. The U.S.-Iran conflict in no way challenges that hegemony. Russia is a world power run by Oligarchs living the high life based on their control of their country's resources. In other words, the leadership of both countries has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. WW3 would destroy the status quo.
My question: where is the liberal, anti-war movement in the U.S. They could stop Obama's escalation in its tracks by holding mass protests and disrupting his 2012 re-election, but they are nowhere to be seen.
"My question: where is the liberal, anti-war movement in the U.S. They could stop Obama's escalation in its tracks by holding mass protests and disrupting his 2012 re-election, but they are nowhere to be seen."
.....................................
Any protesters could be arrested by the military under NDAA... You must have a very short memory.
"My question: where is the liberal, anti-war movement in the U.S. They could stop Obama's escalation in its tracks by holding mass protests and disrupting his 2012 re-election, but they are nowhere to be seen."
Don't ya know? The demopublicans are the new war mongers and world domination flunky's for the military war industrial complex. Next year, it will switch back to the republicrats that started it all. Same old world domination and empire building shit with the accent of population reduction thrown in.
Ron Paul is unelectable and we are not going to have an election to prove that.
Nothing new here, banksters profit from the chaos they create, move along please.
They were all rounded up
While participating in a fake and set up prortest known as OCCUPY
That was last quarters business.
And its not like you can start one called
OCCUPY Iran!
They fuckin tricked us ! I should a known
Something wasn't right with Occupy.
Are you sure about that?
I don't know wether Dong Feng 21 ASBM is ready for (Mach 10) delivery to the first U.S. carrier yet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DF-21#DF-21D_.28CSS-5_Mod-4.29_Anti-ship_ba...
Maybe Iran has received some of them for beta testing.
If so, that would probably not be too desirable for the USN, because "ships currently have no defense against a ballistic missile attack" (according to the USNI).
http://www.usni.org/news-and-features/chinese-kill-weapon
Apart from that, I generally recommend reading the "United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea", especially part II, section 3.
Article 17: "Right of innocent Passage: Subject to this convention, ships of all states, whether coastal or land-locked, enjoy the right of innocent passage through territorial sea." According to Article 19, "passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal state".
For example, prejudicial would be "any threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of the coastal state" or "any practise or exercise with weapons of any kind" and so on.
Even wikipedia says that, "to traverse the Strait, ships pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman under the transit passage provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea".
Seizing Iranian funds and boycotting Iranian oil is, in my opinion, an act of war, since it is essentially a blockade.
Blockades have always been an act of war.
Actually, the law is more differentiated on that.
But I basically agree to your opinion.
Meh... fock the law. Who wrote it, who signed on, and for what purpose? Though I do recognize that you did agree with him... it's war, plain and simple.
Meh agree. Fuck the law. It is written by those who are elected to do so. But the law is what governs society as it is enforced by state power. It is only fiction, created to administer the slaves. And as long as we agree to this circumstance the game will go on. Funny enough, a lot of people say "fuck the law" while whining about their constitution which is being disregarded by state power. And then there are those fuckers claiming to know the difference between law and statutes, right and priviledge and so on although it is all fiction (even according to law dictionaries). I just tend to use the term "law" instead of fiction.
Edit:seizing Iranian funds is an act of war - agree.
Boycotting Iranian oil is different though. Why would you declare not making business with a certain entity an act of war? BTW, China will buy it anyway. Maybe they are even happy that they do not have to exchange their wealth against US toilet paper units, that you have to pay 5 toilet paper units per gallon at the station and that they do not have to fuel the warmonger's non-nuclear part of the fleet.
Nice post. And I don't even mind "the rule of law", I only do mind when people hide behind it as if the truth of some law is self evident because, well, it's a law. I have the same problem with the use of language (which obviously dovetails into law quite nicely). Law + War + Terrorism creates the murkiest of situations. Unfortunately for us commoners, the power of the state gets to define the terms and make the laws.