“Pentagon says ships harassed by Iran” or was it vice versa?
Pentagon says ships harassed by Iran
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer 1 hour, 25 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – An Iranian fleet of high-speed boats charged at and threatened to blow up a three-ship U.S. Navy convoy passing near Iranian waters, then vanished as the American ship commanders were preparing to open fire, the top U.S. Navy commander in the area said Monday. No shots were fired an an Iranian official in Tehran said the incident amounted to “something normal.”
Bush administration officials complained that the Iranian actions amounted to a dangerous provocation, but one private analyst said the Iranians may have believed they were acting defensively in a narrow waterway that is heavily trafficked by commercial ships, including oil vessels.
The incident raised new tensions between Washington and Tehran as President Bush prepared to depart Tuesday on his first major trip to the Middle East.
The three U.S. warships — cruiser USS Port Royal, destroyer USS Hopper and frigate USS Ingraham — were headed into the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz on what the U.S. Navy called a routine passage inside international waters when they were approached by five small high-speed vessels believed to be from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy.
The Iranians “maneuvered aggressively” in the direction of the U.S. ships, said Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, the commander of U.S. 5th Fleet, which patrols the Gulf and is based at nearby Bahrain. The U.S. ship commanders took a series of steps toward firing on the boats, which approached to within 500 yards, but the Iranians suddenly fled back toward their shore, Cosgriff said.
Cosgriff was not precise about the U.S. ships’ location but indicated they were about three miles outside Iran’s territorial waters, which extend 12 miles from its shores, headed in a westerly direction after having passed the narrowest point in the strait.
At one point the U.S. ships received a threatening radio call from the Iranians, “to the effect that they were closing (on) our ships and that the ships would explode — the U.S. ships would explode,” Cosgriff said.
The rest of the article can be read here.
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Here you have a commander of an American Fleet who’s been sailing for many, many years, and he can’t be PRECISE about his location??? Think about that for a minute. To a sailor, even if he was captain of a shrimp boat, saying you were about “three miles outside Iran’s territorial waters” is like saying 5 + 5 equals something between 5 and 15. A captain knows the exact location of his boat at any given time and he should because, you know, the ocean’s kinda big and it’s easy to get lost.
Bottom line: They’re trying to stage another Gulf of Tonkin, just like Ron Paul said.
Rocket said,
January 16, 2008 at 3:17 pm
OMG…can something be taken out of context any further? lol
Obviously, someone has no concept of military matters. As a military veteran, I can tell you that no military person is going to be “precise” about troop locations, fleet locations, military vehicle locations, weaponry locations…not because they don’t know how, but because it is a violation of regulations and a protocol violation and the “precise” information can be considered a “tempest” security violation. In other words, the commander did not say he doesn’t know his location, only that he is not allowed to be precise, so he is not going to be precise which means he is not going to be precise “for a reason.”
But, we dont expect much more from the general public. It’s their nature to take statements out of context due to their lack of understanding.
dianarn said,
January 16, 2008 at 3:25 pm
As someone who uses “OMG” at the beginning of his statement, I can only assume that the rest of the statement is an emotional rant, containing nothing whatsoever.
When you’re ready to speak some truth, I’ll be here to listen.
Rocket said,
January 20, 2008 at 12:44 pm
That’s what you get for assuming;) The post is factual.
dianarn said,
January 20, 2008 at 11:59 pm
The real fact is that this whole Iran-USA “confrontation” is a sham. Even with Cosgriff not being precise, 3 miles is a very very short distance for an aircraft carrier and several destroyers, even if they are nautical miles, which the article does not mention. If they were really 3 miles away from Iran’s territorial waters, I think we would be expecting a larger response from the Iranian military. Like you said in your other comment, the video is a joke.
But for the dumbed-down Americans who think Iran is an island, the video is reality. These news articles and CNN headlines only help to propagate this lie and get Americans comfortable with the idea of a war with Iran.