WASHINGTON - Small Iranian fast boats swarmed around massive U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, and a man speaking heavily accented English threatened, "I am coming to you. ... You will explode," according to a video released Tuesday by the Pentagon.
The Iranian boats appeared to ignore repeated warnings from the U.S. ships, including horn blasts and radio transmissions, as the ships moved through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf.
In a four-minute, 20-second video, shot from the bridge of the destroyer USS Hopper, the small boats — including a bright blue one — can be seen racing near the wake the U.S. ships and crossing close to each other...
Inserted from <Yahoo News>
I saw the film, and it the boats never appeared to maintain a direct collision course. Yesterday I posted that I suspected a false flag here, and earlier this morning I replied to a comment in that article that the ship most closely approached has Gatling guns capable of shredding a small gun boat, which I thought these were, based on yesterday's report. But look at the US Navy picture. Where is the bristling weaponry Bush and the GOP claim? This is not an armed gunboat. It's a pleasure craft, a speed boat. I had one like it whan I was a kid, but mine was bigger and had inboard inboard engines, not an outboard motor like this one. Warships used to visit Atlantic City on Memorial Day, and my friends and I used to play in their wakes and pretend we were PT-109, attacking them. To me it appears that this terrible provocation was most likely a bunch of teens playing. And what of the radio broadcast? How many lies have Bush and the GOP told to create international incidents?
3 opinions:
This sort of thing happened a few times during the Cold War particularly underwater.
It's good the US commanders held their nerve.
Ok, dude, but that is about the same size of the boat that almost sunk the cole!
Glad the Navy held their fire, but if they got any closer I hope they would have fired, they have to protect themselves and the ships they serve on!
HB, had the threat come from a sub, the situation would be altogether different, but I agree.
Hi Thomas, and welcome to Politics Plus. I fully agree that sailors need to protect themselves and their ships. However, in the pictures and video tapes I saw, there was no evidence of a significant overt threat. It was mild harassment at worst. Since you invoke the memory of the Cole, I invoke the memory of the Vincennes.
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