US Marines Board Iraq Tanker and Sink It

CNN ^ | November 17, 2001 | CNN Reporting

[Peach]

CNN just reported at 10:30 a.m. EST that US Marines boarded an Iraq oil tanker and based on what was found on the tanker, deliberately sank the tanker. Two US Marines are missing. There was a grahic at the bottom of the screen that stated the same thing, but now they are interviewing some politician about congressional matters. Did anyone else see this report?

[Peach]

Ouch. I'd rather just tell them that CNN gets it wrong sometimes and FR gets it right more often than not!

[operation clinton cleanup]

Excuse me, old friend.

Way to handle the nit-pickers, Peach!!

[Native American Female Vet]

" after the sinking of an oil tanker they and other security forces had boarded, officials said."

[operation clinton cleanup]

Are we to assume that we have some very big marines walking around tipping over ships?

That would take a big ass Marine, by anybodys standards!

[Diogenesis]

CNN is often wrong. But even a broken, unplugged, clock is correct twice a day.

[beethoven]

Just ignore the gripe. . .You don't owe him/her an explanation.

I appreciated your effort to let us know. My son is a Marine.

[revtown]

It was probably some marines from the Midwest that were getting bored and wanted to do some cow tipping. But all they could find was an oil tanker.

[operation clinton cleanup]

Fox is reporting nothing. The big story is Kabul TV is back on the air, people are digging up thier tv sets out of thier back yards, news reporters now have a job after five years (they couldnt do anything else?).

[Peach]

Love the graphic; best laugh of the morning.

[Republic of Texas]

Sounds like a fire-fight onboard the tanker.

[Peach]

Godspeed to your son, wherever he is assigned. Thanks for the message, too!

[jackbill]

Since this is AP (as opposed to a translated report) the article implies that as a result of the boarding we now have one sunken ship, two missing and six wounded sailors.

Did I miss something? Where in the AP article does it say that the six other sailors were "wounded"?

[caseyblane]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Navy rescuers scoured the northern Arabian Sea on Sunday for two sailors missing after a ship allegedly smuggling Iraqi oil sank with them aboard, the Pentagon said.

Three members of the suspect vessel were also missing and one was dead, officials said.

The Pentagon said the destroyer USS Peterson -- part of the Operation Ñorthern-Southern Watch mission set up to keep an eye on ships sailing in and out of Iraq -- spotted the ship, the Samra, in the northern Arabian Sea on Saturday evening. Noticing the ship sitting low in the water and listing, the crew suspected the Samra was carrying smuggled Iraqi oil.

Eight sailors boarded the Samra, officials said, and found 1,700 tons of Iraqi oil aboard. It was not clear exactly when the ship began to sink, but the officials said they did not consider the sinking an attack on U.S. personnel and the Peterson did not fire on the Samra.

"There was no incident, no hostile incident at sea, but rather, when American sailors boarded to check out the cargo, the ship sank," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said on CNN's Late Edition. "It may have been weather-related, it may have been overloaded, but we have no reason to believe it was a hostile incident of any kind."

Six members of the Peterson crew and 10 members of the Samra crew were rescued from the water after the Samra sank, sources said.

Officials said five Navy ships and helicopters had deployed to the area to search for survivors.

[Don Myers]

"That would take a big ass Marine, by anybodys standards!"

Amen, Brother.

[okie01]

"news reporters now have a job after five years (they couldnt do anything else?)."

From this, I conclude that Afghani TV news reporters are no better trained than ours...

[Don Myers]

"But all they could find was an oil tanker."

Perhaps, a little contest to see who could throw a tanker the furthest distance?

[Jackie222]

an interested bump.......

[Amerigomag]

six others were recovered alive

article implies

[Ross Amann]

1,700 metric tons isn't much of an environmental problem. This must be a small ship smuggling oil to another country - where it would be loaded on a large tanker.

[Republic of Texas]

If American soldiers died on an illegal Iraqi tanker, that's war to me brother.