Red are my comments.
Iranian boats confront U.S. warships in Strait of Hormuz
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/07/africa/iran.php?page=2OK, the title could have been U.S. boats confront Iranian warships, but it is U.S. Press.
WASHINGTON: In a confrontation in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, five armed Iranian boats approached three U.S. Navy warships in international waters, taking aggressive actions in a brief weekend confrontation described by the Pentagon as "reckless and dangerous."
Humm, reckless? Why they are patrolling waters near their country. The US does it, every country does it. Just because your the USA doesn't mean your absolved from being watched in international waters near Iranian waters.
The incident Sunday, which ended after about 20 minutes without damage, shots being fired or anyone being hurt, took place as the three American vessels were sailing into the Gulf, said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.
Throw in the "without damage, shots being fired or anyone being hurt" to ensure those reading think of the possibility of death or damage even though there was none. Good one press !!! Those conditioned enough will subconsciously grab the shots fired or being hurt.The Iranian government played down the episode, saying that it had ended immediately after the vessels recognized one another.
But Whitman and other U.S. officials described a tense confrontation in the strait, a narrow but vital passage through which millions of barrels of oil pass each day. Oil prices on world markets spiked briefly after the news, which was first reported by CNN on Monday morning.
Who is Whitman, should we care? Tell us who this person is and why he is the one telling as about the incident please. What did he describe ? Without that we are left to [ as the news media wants us to obliviously... ] to envision in our heads that tense moment and from those thoughts and emotions react to the so called confrontation.
Also, those friggen oil people sure are jumpy. They hear talk about boats going near each other and the price rose? Rose to what? Why did it rise? Spiked for how long? Should the OPEC council really worry about speculated and non-issue confrontations. Sure if war broke out or one country started a blockage thats news and hurts oil, but this was NOTHING... NOTHING at all. Shows how fake the rise and drop of oil is.
In Iran, the Fars news agency posted an article based on the CNN report in both Persian and English. But only the English translation gave a motive for the Iranian actions, saying that they had been a warning to the American vessels to stay away from Iran's territorial waters.
Good English news people. Now .... Fars posts news, OMG it's not exactly what CNN posted! OMG the end of the world. That Fars news must be corrupt. It's slanted towards it own country and people. Now that
The incident came at a time of considerable tension between the two countries, and a day before President George W. Bush was to visit the region for a weeklong tour aimed both at encouraging Middle East talks and conveying a message that Iran continued to pose a serious threat.
The White House on Monday called the Iranian action "provocative" and warned Tehran against any repetition.
The US is going to goto the Middle East and call the country dangerous and such, and the US is the noes saying we will take action is you do it again... hummm seems the US is the bully here. But the wording of course is to say "the US is the guardian of light and justice, so they can patrol the waters and Iran can't since they are bad people". Go fly a kite. The world is not yours to police America, sorry.
"We urge the Iranians to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future," said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman.
One Defense Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe early reports from the U.S. Navy's regional headquarters in Bahrain, said that the Iranian boats had made a radio threat that the American ships would explode.
Ahem, the part above says "who spoke on condition of anonymity". OK, thats like saying we can't proce it was said. Why bother saying it? Why like the above posts. To have you think of the threat. Look, someone somewhere said it was dangerous, so it must have been I could just as easily say: n condition of anonymity I know an Iranian who said that they were not even 10 miles near the US boats. It's a complete lie but if I put that in a news article the reader would NEVER know the difference. Thats just bad journalism. But news media don't care anymore.
The Defense Department official said the Iranian boats had dropped boxes in the waters behind one of the U.S. vessels, which could have been either mines or simply dummy boxes meant to test - and learn from - the American reaction.
"The five Iranian fastboats essentially came in and charged the ships," the Defense Department official said. The verbal warnings heard in English over the internationally recognized bridge-to-bridge radio channel said, "I am coming at you, and you will explode in a few minutes," the official said.
A few minutes later, one of the Iranian boats placed two white boxes in the wake of one of the U.S. ships, which caused another of the American vessels to take evasive action.
"Whether they're just testing us to learn about our procedures, or actually trying to initiate an incident, we don't know," the official said.
The five fastboats were identified by Defense Department officials as belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Traditionally, the Guard's maritime forces have operated in a far more hostile manner than the regular Iranian Navy.
"We have found in the past that the regular Iranian Navy was a courteous and professional organization, and our relations are as we would have with any other navy in the world," said a Pentagon official who has studied the issue. "The IRGC navy has a tendency to act in these unprofessional ways and to be very provocative at times."
Last March, Iranian Revolutionary Guard sailors seized 15 British sailors in waters that the British government insisted were international and held them for nearly two weeks.
At least unlike the British, they didn't dress like Iraqi's and kill iraqis to cause in fighting, or other black operations. http://rawstory.com/news/2005/CAUGHT_RED__0923.htmlhttp://www.sott.net/articles/show/138504-Suicide+Bombings+-+A+Favourite+US+Counter-Insurgency+Tactic
In actions last year that brought immediate expressions of concern from senior navy and Defense Department officials, the Iranians began operating in ways that led American officials to believe that Iran had turned command of its naval missions in the Gulf over to the Revolutionary Guard and stripped the regular Iranian Navy of that responsibility.
As the Iranian boats approached, the U.S. warships issued warnings and "conducted evasive maneuvering," Whitman said. The U.S. warships, he said, were "prepared to take appropriate action."
The United States has conducted significant war games to prepare for the scenario that unfolded over the weekend, as navy officers have expressed concerns that the smaller Iranian fleet would choose to confront U.S. warships by swarming with larger numbers of smaller craft.
In an interview in Bahrain last month, Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, commander of U.S. naval forces in the region, said that while Iran was unlikely to try to close the strait, it might take actions to intimidate U.S. allies in the Gulf and to illustrate its ability to damage global prosperity.
"I wake up thinking about Iran, I go to bed thinking about Iran," Cosgriff told reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Robert Gates during a visit to Bahrain.
What the fuck does that have to do with anything? Your in the army, your near Iran. I bet more Iranians dream about the masses of US Warships and Aircraft Carriers near their counrty then you do sir. Another stupid part of the news story to drum up your emotions and get you against the nightmare, sleepless night causing evil Iranians.
Nazila Fathi contributed reporting from Tehran. Who cares, o look an Arab name. Must be impartial right. Maybe. But she's american and works for the NY Times.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/nazila_fathi/index.html
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