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Gulf "Incident:" Iran's Video Puts Final Nail in Liar-in-Chief's Coffin
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Ed Pearl
Video:
Strait of Hormuz Incident from the Point of View of Iran
http://www.politube.org/show/341
The Telegraph - Jan 10, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;;?xml=/news/2008/01/10/wiran110.xml
Iranian video 'shows no threat to US navy'
By Richard Holt
Iran has released a video which is claimed to show that its boats did
not threaten US navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, as has been
claimed by the Americans.
The confrontation at the weekend in the strategically vital Gulf
waterway was described by President George W Bush as a "provocative
act".
A Pentagon spokesman had said that five Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Navy boats harassed and provoked three US ships, giving a radio
warning saying: "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of
minutes."
The Americans said the Iranian boats came within 200 yards of the US
vessels, which were sailing in international waters.
The Pentagon released its own video which it claimed backed up their
claims.
But the new video, broadcast by Iran's Press TV satellite station,
gives a completely different version of the incident.
Press TV said the video, released by Iran's Revolutionary Guards a day
after the force dismissed the Pentagon video as fake, included a
recording of what it said was the exchange between the two sides.
Guards Brigadier General Ali Fadavi said Iran's boats had only
approached the US ships to examine the registration numbers as they
had been unreadable, Press TV said.
The video showed an Iranian naval officer on a small boat speaking via
radio to a ship which can not be clearly identified. A total of three
ships can be seen on the video.
The Iranian officer says: "Coalition warship 73 this Iranian navy
patrol boat"
"This is coalition warship 73. I read you loud and clear," the person
replied in what appears to be an American accent.
The Iranian officer then appears to ask for the ships to identify
themselves, although not all his words can be understood:
"Coalition warship 73 this Iranian navy patrol boat, request side
number ... operating in the area this time," the Iranian voice says.
Gen Fadavi, describing the Iranian action as normal inspections of
vessels, accused the United States of creating a "media fuss",
according to Iran's Fars news agency.
"The governing system of America, at the time of Bush's failed trip to
the region, is in need of such media fuss in order to reach its
specific political goals," he said.
In contrast, the Pentagon video included a voice from a US ship
informing one of the small craft that it was "straying into danger and
may be subject to defensive measures".
President Bush has warned Iran of "serious consequences" if it
attacked US ships in the Gulf and reiterated his country's strategic
position towards the Islamic Republic by stressing that "all options
are on the table".
The incident is the latest sign of tension between Washington and
Teheran. It coincides with Mr Bush's visit to the Middle East this
week.
***
Workers World - Jan 17, 2007 issue
http://www.workers.org/2008/world/iran_0117
ALERT: U.S. war provocation against Iran
By Sara Flounders
What is an armada of U.S. warships doing off the coast of Iran?
The Pentagon has initiated an extremely dangerous war provocation just
off Irans coast, in the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. Navy has gathered nuclear-armed aircraft carriers,
guided-missile destroyers, frigates, cruisers and submarines thousands
of miles from the U.S. off the coast of Iran.
Isnt this massive mobilization of deadly, nuclear-armed equipment a
major provocation?
On Jan. 6, the U.S. claims a confrontation took place between three
massive guided-missile U.S. attack vessels and five small, open Iranian
speedboats at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Iranian media on Jan. 9
denied the U.S. claims, saying Washington fabricated a video showing
the skirmish.
At its narrowest point, the Strait of Hormuz is only 34 miles across.
However, there is only a 2-mile-wide navigable channel for inbound and
outbound tanker traffic, as well as a 2-mile-wide buffer zone. Roughly
40 percent of all globally traded oil supply flows on ships through
this narrow chokepoint of water between the Persian Gulf and the
Arabian Sea.
It is essential to take note of when this dangerous incident took
place. It was on the eve of President George W. Bushs trip to the
region. Bush is expected to spend eight days visiting Kuwait, Bahrain,
Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. The purpose of his trip is to
convince these corrupt, feudal regimes, which are dependent U.S.-client
states, that Iran represents a dangerous threat.
Isnt this threatening trip to the countries surrounding Iran a
provocative act?
While the Iranian government has attempted to downplay the incident,
Washington has gone out of its way to further threaten Iran. The
corporate media has, with one voice, uncritically reported the U.S.
charges that what happened was an Iranian provocation.
President Bush claimed Iran committed a provocative act and a
dangerous situation. Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff attacked Iran as
unnecessarily provocative. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
described the move as provocative and dangerous. Bryan Whitman, a
Pentagon spokesperson, charged the Iranians with acting in a reckless
and dangerous manner.
U.S. warships a constant threat
None of the corporate media has even once asked what this deadly array
of U.S. warships is doing in this narrow chokehold of vital shipping
off the coast of Iran.
The U.S. Navy has again and again held major war games to plan for and
stage just such a confrontation with Iran. The Pentagon has announced
that it has already set targets on thousands of sites in Iran.
A video released to the media belies the very story that is being
drummed up by the Bush administration. It shows five small open-air
Iranian speedboats buzzing in the distance, far from the USS Hopper.
Iranian boats have every right to patrol and defend their own coastal
waters.
It should be noted that, according to the Pentagons own description,
the USS Hopper is a guided-missile destroyer. It carries an M240
machine gun that can fire 10 armor-piercing projectiles per second and
is capable of carrying nuclear missiles that can destroy whole cities.
This high-tech ship weighs 8,373 tons and measures 504 feet in length.
It was traveling in convoy with the USS Port Royal"a guided-missile
cruiser that weighs 9,600 tons fully loaded and has a length of 567
feet and is also capable of firing Tomahawk cruise missiles"and the
guided-missile frigate USS Ingraham, weighing 4,100 tons and measuring
445 feet in length.
These three deadly ships are just a small part of the U.S. Navy armada
arrayed off the Iranian coast, which includes aircraft carriers that
can carry out prolonged bombing missions. In addition, heavy armor and
military supplies for the U.S. occupation in Iraq and other Gulf
countries pass through the channel aboard U.S. Navy-owned, U.S.-flagged
and foreign-flagged ships.
The Bush administration has continued to threaten Iran even since 16 of
the top U.S. spy agencies publicly released a National Intelligence
Estimate concluding that Iran has no nuclear program, at least since
2003, nor nuclear weapons. This NIE Report was a public rift within the
top levels of the U.S. military and the ruling class, who are concerned
that the Bush/Cheney push for a wider war involving Iran would
boomerang.
The attempt by the administration to suppress the NIE Report and the
fact that it was publicly released are signs of just how overstretched
the Pentagon is as it faces massive popular resistance in both Iraq and
Afghanistan.
But Bush, speaking to the press after the release of the NIE report,
could only say, Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, and Iran will
continue to be dangerous. Bushs trip to the region is seen as another
attempt to ratchet up a confrontation with Iran. Just before departing,
Bushs repetitive message was: Iran was a threat, Iran is a threat,
and Iran will continue to be a threat.
Gulf of Tonkin ~incident in 1964
It is important to remember that the massive U.S. bombing of Vietnam
and the Johnson administrations escalation of the war was preceded by
reports of an attack on a U.S. destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin off the
coast of Vietnam"which years later was finally admitted to be phony.
On Aug. 2 and 4, 1964, the Pentagon claimed that small Vietnamese boats
had fired on the USS Maddox and another destroyer in the Gulf of
Tonkin. Lyndon Johnson used this attack as pretext for ramming a
resolution through Congress giving him the power and funds to wage war
on Vietnam.
Johnsons own papers later revealed it was a fraud, and then Defense
Secretary Robert McNamara admitted in the film Fog of War that the
whole incident had been phony.
The U.S. military has prepared a plan to attack more than 10,000
possible targets inside Iran, which could destroy the countrys entire
infrastructure.
Nearly all the Republicans and Democrats in both houses of Congress,
including the present major contenders for the presidential nomination,
voted for resolutions against Iran. In a staged or fraudulent
confrontation with Iran, with wild charges from the corporate-owned
media, Congressional opposition is highly unlikely.
It is vital that the anti-war movement be on full alert regarding the
danger of wider war with Iran. It could well start, as it did in
Vietnam, with a staged provocation.
As in both Vietnam and in Iraq today, once the Pentagon initiates a war
of colonial conquest it can drag on for many years at a cost of
millions of lives and untold destruction. But in the long run the
popular determination to resist occupation is more powerful than the
Pentagons deadliest weapons.
Flounders is coordinator of the Stop the War on Iran Campaign, a
project of the International Action Center.
Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and
distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without
royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wwnews-subscribe@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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