Boats and planes - tensions rising in the Persian Gulf

[gareth]

Some old news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7175325.stm

[scubadiver]

Iran boats 'threatened US ships'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7175325.stm

[TonyGosling]

Report: US warship nearly shot at Iranians
Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:33:59
Washington claims US sailors on warships in the Strait of Hormuz came 'close' to opening fire on Iranian naval vessels patrolling the area.

A Pentagon official alleged Monday that the Iranian speedboats came within 200 meters of the US ships in 'international waters' in the strait on Saturday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said although no shots were fired, the US Captain was about to give fire order.

There was no independent confirmation of the incident and Iranian officials have not yet commented on the report. However, an Iranian source dismissed the allegation.




Two US F-18 jets crash in Persian Gulf
Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:08:40
The Pentagon has confirmed two F-18 fighter jet planes from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman' crashed in the Persian Gulf.

A Pentagon official said Monday all the crew members of the planes are in good condition.

"One was a two-seater, one was a one-seater. Every is fine, there were no injuries to the personnel," said the official.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that there are 'no connections whatsoever' between the crash and an incident Sunday in which the US officials alleged Iranian boats 'harassed' three US navy warships.

[fish5133]

Things had gone a bit quiet in the media as the article suggests. Probably needed to ratchet it up a level.

[Thermate911]

'Persian Gulf incident US psyop'
Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:58:53

Iran's Majlis Speaker Haddad-Adel has dismissed the US allegation that Iranian speedboats harassed US warships in Persian Gulf waters.

Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel insisted that reports by the American media are part of the US psywar and propaganda campaign targeted at Iran.

"The US warships have traveled thousands of kilometers away from home and deployed in the Persian Gulf for several years now; whereas Iran is a littoral state of the body of water; it is Iran's right to protest US intervention in the region," he told Press TV Tuesday while speaking to reporters at the Majlis.

"If any party has the right to protest another country's interference, it certainly is Iran," he said.

The parliament speaker added Iran has made it clear that it is committed to peace, and avoids tension and confrontation.

Referring to speculations that US President George W. Bush's visit to the Middle East is aimed at isolating Iran, Haddad-Adel said, "Mr. Bush should be confident that such measures could never isolate Iran."

He observed, "Iran owes its popularity among the Middle East nations to the country's truthfulness and honest policies which in turn stem from Islam and the Islamic Revolution."

"As long as Washington supports the Zionist regime's atrocities, such visits would yield no long-term results," he noted.

The speaker said despite the US proclaimed willingness to normalize ties with Iran, Washington has not abandoned its hostile policies towards the Iranian nation. "This in fact is an obvious contradiction in US words and actions."

He pointed to the upcoming parliamentary elections in Iran and said the country has to go through a fateful and sensitive juncture, saying elections provide a means of manifesting the national will.

"Elections in our country are a display of religious democracy. We regard the public role in the county's affairs as a primary achievement of the Islamic Revolution," he added.

SF/BGH

[conspiracy analyst]

Bushlicker and his new sidekick Paul Stott would have us believe all that appears in the media is all that is.
Newly declassified reports show the hoaxes and faked attacks in times of war.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident alongside Pearl Harbour remain the USA's excuses for entering unpopular wars.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Report_reveals_Vietnam_War_hoaxes_f_01082 008.html

Report reveals Vietnam War hoaxes, faked attacks
AFP
Published: Tuesday January 8, 2008

View This Story On Propeller.com!




North Vietnamese made hoax calls to get the US military to bomb its own units during the Vietnam War, according to declassified information that also confirmed US officials faked an incident to escalate the war.

The report was released by the National Security Agency, responsible for much of the United States' codebreaking and eavesdropping work, in response to a "mandatory declassification" request, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) said Monday.

From the first intercepted cable -- a 1945 message from Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh to his Russian counterpart Joseph Stalin -- to the final evacuation of US spies from Saigon, the 500-page report retold Vietnam War history from the perspective of "signals intelligence," the group said in a statement.

During the war, North Vietnamese intelligence units sometimes succeeded in penetrating US communications systems, and they could monitor American message traffic from within, according to the report "Spartans in Darkness."

On several occasions "the communists were able, by communicating on Allied radio nets, to call in Allied artillery or air strikes on American units," it said.

"That's something I have never heard before," Steven Aftergood, director of the FAS project on government secrecy, told AFP.

But 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.

"There were previous indications of this but this is the first time we have seen the complete study," he said.

[Mandalorian]

Not forgetting the USS Liberty incident

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ussliberty.html

[fish5133]

Liked the Suns take and photo on the story

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article662609.ece

especially the bit

[nrmis]

One of the most soul-destroying things about this for me was that I heard the story this afternoon on national radio 1.
Complete with soundbites from some cnut whom I cannot remember and then Condoleeza Rice telling us what a serious and dangerous situation this was and that Iran was a serious threat to the world.
Seriously, I'm not sure how much more of this * I can take.

[nrmis]

Lol, think I've sussed my problem. Been away for 3 weeks and not heard any news/lies/propoganda.
Bit of a * to come back to. God bless the bbc.

[James C]

Why is the film footage of the Iranians (?) in their speed boats so shaky? I have a video camera and have never taken a wobbly shot in my life and I'm a complete amateur. Anyone would think they were trying not to show too much information - like who actually was in the boats and what equipment were they carrying.

[conspiracy analyst]

[conspiracy analyst]

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=160903

[conspiracy analyst]

If you believe Iran “harassed” US ships, you have forgotten USS Vincennes

Presscue
January 8, 2008

Airbus

The US navy claimed yesterday that Iranian fast boats harassed them in the Straits of Hormuz. On July 3, 1988, USS Vinceness shot down Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) killing 290 innocent civilian from six nations including 66 children.

The US navy initially claimed that they mistakenly identified the passenger liner as an Iranian fighter, and denied that they were not inside Iranian territorial waters.

But the official ICAO investigation found that the US Navy guided missile cruiser’s attempts to contact Iran Air 655 were sent on the wrong frequency and addressed to a non-existent "Iranian F-14".

US government’s own investigations found that both IR655 and the USS Vincennes were inside Iranian territorial waters at the time of the attack.

Instead of admitting its mistake and issuing an apology, the US Government the people responsible for the atrocity were awarded medals for "heroic achievement".

"The U.S. has a long history of sailing into Iranian waters and otherwise provoking Iran," Journalist Reese Erlich , the author the news book The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis said. "Remember on July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes shot down an unarmed Iranian passenger plane and the U.S. tried to cover up the incident. In that context, the U.S. version of events must be carefully examined. It seems highly unlikely that Iran planned to blow up U.S. naval ships and precipitate a major incident or even war. If the U.S. attempts to make propaganda points based on the incident, it will reflect a new truculence coming out of Washington."

If you believe Iran digg:If you believe Iran spurl:If you believe Iran wists:If you believe Iran simpy:If you believe Iran newsvine:If you believe Iran blinklist:If you believe Iran furl:If you believe Iran reddit:If you believe Iran fark:If you believe Iran blogmarks:If you believe Iran Y!:If you believe Iran smarking:If you believe Iran magnolia:If you believe Iran segnalo:If you believe Iran gifttagging:If you believe Iran

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1.
UNITEDWEREFALLING on January 9th, 2008

And the Band played on, here we go again while the Sheeple stand behind Bushazi and agree that those Ragheads should be eliminated. And plus we need the oil.
2.
WinstonNephron on January 9th, 2008

Very interesting that this incident occurs within a day of an NSA Declassification Report which reveals that the U.S. did indeed fake the Gulf of Tonkin attack in order to escalate the Vietnam War.

But then, George ‘Iraq is buying uranium in Africa’ W. Bush would never consider doing such a thing….now would he?
3.
Bob Vine on January 9th, 2008

You need to read “Killing Hope” by William Blum; and “Overthrow” by I can’t remember whom. The U.S. has been screwing around in other nation’s affairs since they overthrew Queen Lili (I can’t remember how to spell her name) of Hawaii. Our policies are brutal but at home we are just helping the poor downtrodden people of the world.

Posting your comment.

[ciaran036]

This is a disgrace!
They think they're going to use this event to get us to support an invasion of Iran.
Those war-mongers can go to hell. George Bush is away to Israel to hold 'peace talks', but as George Galloway said on Newsnight, be bets that he's there to get Israel to attack Iran for him, so he won't have to!

And the Daily Mirror had a cartoon of this particular event, with the caption: "Captain, Captain! I swear, they splashed us!"

They've brought in enormous heavily armed gun-boats into waters just 12km off the coast of Iran to provoke and get a reaction from the Iranians.

How I'd love to be burning a picture of George Bush and Dick Cheney (and all the rest of their evil pals!) right now.

[Sam Danner]

To the readers of this forum: I feel in my heart after taking one year off, of here to get the real truth on American Airlines Flight 77 as I saw it at the Pentagon, that another False flag issue is about to happen that will make nine eleven in the United States look like sunday school.
Did it ever occur to my UK friends that the United States Navy set up that whole incident itself? I have played the tapes over and over and got all of the camera shots and angles and I find much in doubt about the radio broadcast as it has changed wording twice. I wrote a piece in reply to the Bush will nuke Iran. But this is the prelude to another 9/11. I can see it plainly as I saw it on the oringinal attack on New York City. This Iran Post I am wrtting is not over Nuclear weapons. It is my pretense that this is a Bush adminastration and other nations plan for a very major False Flag operation of the style of armagaden. Mark my words regardless of what my American critic,s say. People have now taken notice of the disinformation protocal my goverment uses.
FYI~My My space Blog is fixed about flight 77 and that is the last I have to say about that.
Sam Danner