Blair convenes Cobra team as crisis in Iran escalates

scotsman.com ^ | 25th March 2007 | BRIAN BRADY

[mainepatsfan]

No doubt part of a larger Mossad operation. /s

[livius]

That's truly incredible. However, I did see some comment here in the US yesterday (in some lefty press source, although it was in passing and I don't recall where) that this was all a "set up" by the US to "provoke" Iran into doing something rash and then we would have an excuse to attack them. These people are delusional.

First of all, it was obvious that this whole thing was planned in advance - the Revolutionary Guards don't act on their own. Ahmadinejad wanted an excuse to get out of coming to the US, and he also probably has some other objective, which I think may be just a propaganda win and looking big in the eyes of the ME. But of course the delusional left has now adopted Iran as their favorite misunderstood nation poster child.

[Scotsman will be Free]

yup

[Diogenesis]

"Sink their fleet.
Every last pos that floats.
If a plane is in the air, divert it to Iraq or Gitmo."

Well said, TET1968. Long, long, long overdue.

[Bogey78O]

The wreckage of the Revolutionary Guard ships would have been the best way to determine location.

[Terabitten]

The Brits have hired COBRA?

[1066AD]

descendants of those who survived WWI ie cowards & weaklings

What an insulting and incorrect comment.

[Sender]

Gee, I wonder what team they will have to assemble when Iran has nukes.

The PYTHON team, of course ;)

Put
Your
Tommy
Helmets
On
Now

[Sender]

I suspect that they had been given strict instructions not to fire on Iranians without contacting HQ first.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Ordered:
Laid down: 14 December 1983
Launched: 14 October 1985
Commissioned: 23 April 1988
Decommissioned:
Fate: Active in service as of 2007.
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement: 5,300 t
Length: 148.1 m (485.9 ft)
Beam: 14.8 m (48.5 ft)
Draught:
Propulsion: 2 x Rolls Royce Spey gas turbines (high speed)
2 x Rolls Royce Tyne gas turbines (cruising)

Speed: 18 knots using Tynes (36.8 km/h)
30 knots using Speys (56 km/h) 32 knots COGAG (Both sets of engines)(59.2 km/h)

Range:
Complement: 250 (max 301)
Armament: 114 mm (4.5 inch) MK 8 gun

Goalkeeper close-in weapons system (CIWS)
Sea Wolf anti-missile system
Two Quad Harpoon missile launchers
Two 20 mm Close range guns
Two Triple anti-submarine torpedo tubes
NATO Seagnat Decoy Launchers
Two Magazine launched anti submarine torpedo tubes

Aircraft: Lynx MK 8 helicopters

armed with:
Sea Skua anti-ships missiles
Stingray anti-submarine torpedoes
Mk 11 depth charges
Machine guns


Motto: unus et omnes
Latin: "one and all"
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu8IkpgZGShsBMNlXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2YnB0cGxiBGNvbG8DZQRsA1dTMQRwb3MDMQRzZWMDc3IEdnRpZANGOTExXzg4/SIG=11tk7ihdm/EXP=1174927268/**http%3a//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Cornwall
~~~~~~~~~~~Look at the size of this ship~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How far away from the ship were these rubber-boats ?
How far does the Mk. 8 gun shoot ??22km (11.9nm)

~~~~~~~~~~~
The Shatt al-Arab (Arabic: ÔØ ÇáÚÑÈ, "Coast of the Arabs") or the Arvandrud (called ÇÑæäÏÑæÏ: arvandrud in Persian) , is a river in Southwest Asia of some 200 km in length, formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris in the town of al-Qurnah in the Basra Governorate of southern Iraq. The southern end of the river constitutes the border between Iraq and Iran down to the mouth of the river as it discharges into the Persian Gulf. It varies in width from about 760 feet (232 m) at Basra to 0.5 mile (0.8 km) at its mouth. The Karun river, a tributary which joins Shatt al-Arab from the Iranian side, deposits copious amounts of silt into the river; this necessitates continuous dredging to keep it navigable.
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu5aSqQZGIYUAdaRXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2YnB0cGxiBGNvbG8DZQRsA1dTMQRwb3MDMQRzZWMDc3IEdnRpZANGOTExXzg4/SIG=125bf8liq/EXP=1174928146/**http%3a//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvand/Shatt_al-Arab
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~How Deep is it ??~~~~~~~~~~~~Don't Know.~~
IMHO the HMS Cornwall was too far away to fire in support.
Too large to enter these waters without risking running aground ,coming under fire and losing the ship.

Hint) Rubber-boats were used for a reason.

[Bogey78O]

It really is a shame

[rwfromkansas]

This is a big international incident, but it won't lead to war.

Nobody wants another war and whatever is required to avoid it, even capitulation, will occur.

Either that or Iran will eventually back down.

[rwfromkansas]

Also, past events like the 2004 kidnapping show that convening Cobra teams here really doesn't mean squat.

Blair won't do anything.

[Keflavik76]

If we start sinking Iranian naval vessels; how soon before Iran starts sinking western oil tankers? An aggressive response from the Brits and US would have to be so overwhelming that it removes all Iranian threats from the theater.

[I see my hands]

"you obviously want world war 3, you mustn't have children that would be eligible for draft in a few years"

Do you think people endorse or reject critical policy based on personal reproductive activity? That's some mighty scary projecting you've got going on there.

[Alas Babylon!]

You're sadly probably right. Too bad the HMS Cornwall couldn't had just moved into those waters and got between the Iranians and the dinghies. Then again, I don't know how far off they were.

Still, the time to react was then, and is now gone, no?

[FreeReign]

I'm sorry, but the timne to confront them was when the whole thing started. HMS Cornwall could have, should have stopped it then!

The error was allowing them to be surrounded.

[VaBthang4]

All of this nonsense, all of this BS could've been avoided had the CO of the HMS Cornball simply been a Man and opened fire.

Tedious.

[Wolfstar]

This just went bigtime...

No it didn't. British are looking for (1) a diplomatic solution, (2) no confrontation, and (3) help from the EU. In other words, they've already backed down to Iran. In fact, they did so when they refused to let the Cornwall engage the enemy.

Predators do not attack strong, healthy prey. They only attack weak, vulnerable prey.

[Shady]

Amen. If we do not start standing up to these threats and little "incidents" the big one will come as it did on 9/11/01. I, for one, do NOT want that to happen. The whole reason we started this in Afghanistan and Iraq was to take the fight TO the Terrorists, of which Iran and it's "government" is the chief "facilitator" at this juncture.