Posted on 01/08/2008 1:48:00 PM PST by blam
Recordings Show Iran-US Clash in Gulf
Tuesday January 8, 2008 9:16 PM
By SEBASTIAN ABBOT and LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) - Video and audio recordings clearly show Iranian boats confronting U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf, and a voice speaking in heavily-accented English can be heard threatening that the American vessels were going to explode, military officials said Tuesday.
The incident, which President Bush denounced Tuesday as a ``provocative act,'' was videotaped by a crew member on the bridge of the destroyer USS Hopper, one of the three ships that faced down five Iranian boats in a flare-up early Sunday.
The recordings were described by several military officials who viewed them. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the recordings were still being reviewed and had not been released to the public.
``It is a dangerous situation,'' Bush said during a White House news conference. ``They should not have done it, pure and simple. ... I don't know what their thinking was, but I'm telling you what my thinking was. I think it was a provocative act.''
At the Pentagon, defense officials were working to release about five minutes of video and audio that show several small boats as well as the U.S. ships involved in the clash. The Hopper was in the lead as the ships were moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
Military officials said the audio recording includes both threats and transmissions from the Iranians, as well as U.S. Navy transmissions. The audio and video recordings were made separately, and initially covered much of the more than 20 minute confrontation, but were pulled together and combined by the Navy, the officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
This is why we need Fred Thompson, not Romney or Huckabee or Giuliani, and certainly not Ron Paul.
Amen
Let’s do this!!!!!!
Duncan Hunter. You don’t mess with that man.
Iowa did.
What about Mr. “Change”, Thefirstblackamericanpresident? Think he’s up o the task of finally putting the IRanians in their place.
He’s handsome you know, and such a good speaker...
And why we do not want Barack Hussein Obama, hillary rodham clinton, or those others....
LLS
With his ears he is a good listener!
LLS
Hunter also could handle it... I was speaking on the top 4.
LLS
Thanks for the non sequitur.
“With his ears he is a good listener!”
....and poised and articulate and well groomed and multicultural diverse (do you know he once lived in ...gasp...Asia?) and tolerant and inclusive and dammit...he’s got that Oprah stamp of approval.....
Here’s some info on what MAY (I do not know for sure) of what threatened our ships.
n 1992, Iran and China negotiated a deal for Iran to recieve a fleet of 70-ton Chinese patrol boats with Styx antiship missles. In 1993, Iran bought two Russian Kilo-class submarines and eight mini-submarines from North Korea. All done in an effort to rebuild after the Navy was nearly destoyed after the Islamic Revolution, Iran continued to purchase foreign weapons systems.
Here’s the link:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/navy.htm
This is maybe more their style if if does come down to a shooting engagement.
Iran is adding Chinese-made small boats armed with anti-ship cruise missiles to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps navy that can be used in attacks on shipping in the oil-rich Persian Gulf, according to the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). “Iran still states that the [Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps navy] will employ swarming tactics in a conflict,” ONI analyst Robert Althage said in an e-mail, noting that the paramilitary organization “continues to add boats armed with anti-ship cruise missiles, such as the FL-10, to its inventory.”
China began supplying Iran over the past several years with small, high-speed C-14 catamarans armed with the optically guided FL-10 anti-ship cruise missiles. Mr. Althage said in response to questions posed by Bloomberg News that recent exercises by the Iranians did not show any new capabilities and that the maneuvers appeared designed “for publicity.” Currently, Iran operates three Russian-made Kilo submarines but has not yet mined waterways, the ONI analyst stated.
A 2004 ONI report said the Iranian IRGC navy has more than 1,000 small boats ranging in length from 17 to 60 feet, and many are concentrated near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, where a large majority of the world’s oil passes. The boats can be used in attacks against shipping and include infantry weapons, unguided barrage rockets, recoilless guns, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.
http://www.worldthreats.com/al-qaeda_terrorism/bgertz_inside_the_ring_061507.html
Got my heart thumping a bit, that’s for sure. We still don’t know if they may have been dropping mines into the water? I doubt we’d risk lives making a sweep of the area so those “boxes” they dropped overboard may remain a mystery. But there’s no question that was a close call.
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