Iran "Skirmish" Story Falling Apart?


Remember that "skirmish" reported the other day between the US Navy and a bunch of Iranian speedboats? Well, the story is falling apart. From rubber hose:

the story of the belligerent iranian boats confronting the u.s. in the gulf of hormuz has completely fallen apart. after some pointed out that the threatening voice's accent didn't sound iranian and that there was no ambient noise or wind and waves that one would expect from a transmission from a small boat speeding across the water, the pentagon is now acknowledging that the voice may not have come from the boats at all. the pentagon admits that it separately recorded the audio portion and then edited it together with the video of the iranian boats, making it appear as if the audio was coming from the boats.

There is more to it than that, er, I mean less to it, read the whole post. Look, I'll be the first one to admit that the Iranian speed boats have the potential to be highly dangerous to US Navy warships. But sitll, this whole effort, from beginning to end has been pretty pathetic, which is about the only thing we can be certain of at this point.


Sean Paul Kelley January 10, 2008 - 11:29pm
( categories: Iran )

... no ambient noise or wind and waves that one would expect from a transmission from a small boat speeding across the water...

How the hell did I miss that?


"The best-informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Escher Sketch January 10, 2008 - 11:53pm

Gordon January 11, 2008 - 12:17am

Seem,s that new technoloogy is enabeling citizens to debunk and debugg lies and fallacies from that most trustworthy Bush-Chenney imperium.

Jelco Cathlon January 11, 2008 - 1:10am
LJ January 11, 2008 - 1:40am

I did see video that showed Iranian speed boats within what looked like a couple hundred yards of one of the ships, but other than that, it sounds like the whole "incident" was faked by the US military. Who would be motivated to order such a boneheaded scheme?
.
"Adapt or perish." Murphy's Law? Nope, Darwin's Guarantee.

Jimbo92107 January 11, 2008 - 5:46am

...like an attempted false flag operation

Stranger0nFire January 11, 2008 - 3:30pm

Lets get on it Wolfie, and Brian, and you other bozos:

Who created this lied? Why did they lie? Who asked them to lie? What was the purpose in creating this lie?

Zman1527 January 11, 2008 - 11:25am

AIPAC

adrena January 11, 2008 - 11:29am

another pearl harbor in the making.

Stranger0nFire January 11, 2008 - 3:31pm

rubber hose's criminally under-read 'blog got got some love from the Agonist. Very cool.

monkey knife fight January 11, 2008 - 4:17pm

but i should mention that sean-paul has been more than generous with his love. i am eternally grateful for his support, whether the occasional link, or in helping me find a place to stay in samarkand years ago.

upyernoz January 12, 2008 - 3:10pm

January 11, 5:12pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A tense encounter between U.S. Navy ships and Iranian boats in the Gulf shows Iran poses a threat and the United States is ready to counter it, the top U.S. military officer said on Friday.

"There's no doubt in my mind that shots would have been fired, had the situation demanded it," said Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"The incident ought to remind us all just how real is the threat posed by Iran and just how ready we are to meet that threat if it comes to it," Mullen told reporters.

"We will defend ourselves and our ships, and we will do so with deadly force if need be," he said at the Pentagon.
More

adrena January 11, 2008 - 7:58pm

Bush in Kuwait to seek Gulf backing against Iran

His tour of Washington's closest friends in the oil-rich Gulf region comes amid escalating tensions between the United States and Iran over a naval confrontation in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

But several commentators in the region have voiced strong misgivings about his intentions, amid fears Washington could resort to military action to halt Iran's disputed nuclear drive.

Although Kuwait is welcoming Bush as a friend, officials have said the emirate will not allow the United States to use its territory as a launchpad for any strike against Iran.

"Mr President, the region needs smart initiatives not smart bombs," the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai said in a front-page editorial.
More

adrena January 11, 2008 - 8:06pm

The Pentagon released the entire video of the event after days of fielding questions about the origin of a voice on the initial video that warns in English: "I am coming to you" and then, "You will explode after ... minutes."

Less than five minutes of the video footage was released Tuesday.
More

adrena January 11, 2008 - 8:13pm

to prepare an "unedited" video...

Less than five minutes of the video footage was released Tuesday.

Neverthless, I'm sure there's no truth to the rumor that they've had to pull in the entire Bin Laden video tape team for the job. They're mighty pissed about it too, I hear. They've been hard at work on the fabulous "Elivis and Osama - the Concert They Never Gave" video set for release sometime before the Iran invasion this spring. Insiders say the tunes are fantastic. Apparently Osama plays a mean guitar. And the Elvis - Osama collaboration on "Hey Jihad" will bring a nostalgic tear to your eye. Apparently they haven't yet worked out copyright issues with the Village People which will allow them to include "Why, C.I.A".

Chickadee January 12, 2008 - 4:04pm

WASHINGTON: There is a reason American military officers express grim concern over the tactics used by Iranian sailors last weekend: a classified, $250 million war game in which small, agile speedboats swarmed a naval convoy to inflict devastating damage on more powerful warships.

In the days since the encounter with five Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz, American officers have acknowledged that they have been studying anew the lessons from a startling simulation conducted in August 2002. In that war game, the Blue Team navy, representing the United States, lost 16 major warships — an aircraft carrier, cruisers and amphibious vessels — when they were sunk to the bottom of the Gulf in an attack that included swarming tactics by enemy speedboats.

"The sheer numbers involved overloaded their ability, both mentally and electronically, to handle the attack," said Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper, a retired Marine Corps officer who served in the war game as commander of a Red Team force representing an unnamed Gulf military. "The whole thing was over in 5, maybe 10 minutes."

If the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, proved to the public how terrorists could transform hijacked airliners into hostage-filled cruise missiles, then the "Millennium Challenge 2002" war game with Van Riper was a warning to the armed services as to how an adversary could apply similar, asymmetrical thinking to conflict at sea.

Van Riper said he complained at the time that important lessons of his simulated victory were not adequately acknowledged across the military. But other senior officers say the war game and subsequent analysis and exercises helped to focus attention on the threat posed by Iran's small, fast boats, and helped to prepare commanders for last weekend's encounter.

"It's clear, strategically, where the Iranian military has gone," Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Friday. "For the years that this strategic shift toward their small, fast boats has taken place, we've been very focused on that."
More

adrena January 12, 2008 - 11:00am

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