Exclusive: President Trump Calls Alleged Iranian Attack on Oil Tankers 'Very Minor'

[DonViejo]

Source: TIME Magazine



BY TESSA BERENSON
11:41 PM EDT

Facing twin challenges in the Persian Gulf, President Donald Trump said in an interview with TIME Monday that he might take military action to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, but cast doubt on going to war to protect international oil supplies.

“I would certainly go over nuclear weapons,” the president said when asked what moves would lead him to consider going to war with Iran, “and I would keep the other a question mark.”

Just hours earlier, Iran announced an escalation of its nuclear program, saying that within 10 days it will breach the limit on its stockpile of enriched uranium that was set under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Last week, U.S. officials blamed Iran for attacks against Norwegian and Japanese oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Trump described those and other recent attacks attributed by administration officials to Iran as limited. “So far, it’s been very minor,” Trump told TIME.



Read more: https://time.com/5608787/iran-oil-tanker-attack-very-minor/

[Chemisse]

1. Could we be going back from the brink?

Or does Trump just need another pep talk from those who are leading him down the warpath?

[BlueIdaho]

9. You mean warmonger John Bolton? nt.

[htuttle]

2. He heard his master's voice

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142330277

[Ilsa]

3. He must have gotten orders from putin

to back off and tell Pompeo and Bolton the same.

Putin named him viceroy of the US. He has his orders.

[Submariner]

4. Based on our experiences with the fake attack on the Maddox and Turner Joy and

the WMD lie, these grainy small boat images may very well be the lying bone sawing Saudi's along with Eric Prince's Blackwater mercenaries posing as Iranian's to star a war.

It would be a great wag the dog war for the cowardly Trump to call everyone who opposes him a traitor, and maybe launch the shooting portion of Civil War 2 in the states.

[FBaggins]

7. Far less grainy photos have since been released

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2019/06/pentagon-releases-images-gulf-oman-attack-190618055528966.html

[Submariner]

11. Iranians or Saudi Arabia/UAE?

Trump, and ANY republican who speaks for him cannot be trusted.

If Schiff has a picture of a boat with an Iranian flag maneuvering real close to an oil tanker with a hole in it, he better show it if he wants to be believed.

These are the same damn arguments with photos that asshole LBJ crammed down our throats in August of '64, and all we ended up with after the war was 55,000 dead bodies shipped stateside.

[FBaggins]

15. That's an awfully long distance for ten guys to travel in an open boat

Yet awfully close to an IRGC base with boats exactly like that and with that mission profile. Reportedly... multiple patrol craft of the same class have been trying to block the vessel from being taken under tow. All this within weeks of Iran threatening to close the straights and Japan ceasing to do business with Iran due to US sanctions.

If Schiff has a picture of a boat with an Iranian flag maneuvering real close to an oil tanker with a hole in it, he better show it if he wants to be believed.

They have been shown. If you look at the photo below, that's clearly the ship in question (name on the transom), there's a hole from one exploded device... and a "likely mine" at precisely the location where the released video shows a small coastal craft removing something from the hull. I'm not sure whether the IRGC flags vessels of that size, but their uniforms are consistent.

And limpet mines have been the predicted anti-ship strategy for the IRGC going back to the 80s.

[Submariner]

23. If I was Trump, Bibi, and that Saudi bone saw terrorist

I would have Erik Prince and Blackwater setup one or more of these boats to start my war, and to remove a mine (US/Israeli/Saudi evidence). Bolton was just over to coordinate the coming attacks with Bibi a week or so ago. Both crooked Bibi and Donald need a wag the dog war something fierce.

I have been on Gulf gas field suveys, and those so-called small boats are basically the entire Iranian Navy, and they travel long distances in what is basically a calm body of water for small boats throughout the Gulf.

If Schiff has a picture of a boat with an Iranian flag maneuvering real close to an oil tanker with a hole in it, he better show it if he wants to be believed.

Thanks for the illustration, but I need to see the flagged Iranian boat in the same picture shot as the ship, not 100 miles away from each other.

[FBaggins]

36. You CAN see the two right next to each other.

Last edited Tue Jun 18, 2019, 07:13 PM - Edit history (1)

The video is clear enough to recognize the class of patrol boat and that they're in the same spot as the supposed unexploded limpet.

You can see the same draft marks right at the tip of the "likely mine" arrow... the same railing and chemical-tanker piping on deck... the same dozen evenly-spaced circles with the same white "T" hull marking slightly closer to the 5th one than the 4th.

In fact... at about the 49-second mark, you can even see the damage in the video from the earlier explosion.

No matter how far down the conspiracy-theory hole you spin, there's no credible argument to be made that the video of the supposed Iranian craft removing something from the side of the ship... was not the same ship shown in the photo showing damage and an object marked "likely mine" right where the filmed boat removed something.

[Submariner]

38. All we need now is indisputable proof that the boat is full of Iranians

and not Saudi's, or other Gulf actors.

[Sapient Donkey]

26. I was trying to determine how common that specific boat is

I haven't had much luck on that, though. Should check around now that these clearer photos have been released.

[FBaggins]

31. I think they have ten of them

Check the video in the reply below. They built that entire fleet back in 2016 and I don't see any mention of additional units being constructed.

Note that these aren't just some modified Boston Whalers that a "false flag" operation could just pick up at a boat show and add a swarthy-looking crew to. It's an Iranian-made craft with Russian armaments.

[Sapient Donkey]

40. I just saw the video.

I am interested in seeing what kind of explanations people can give for that.

[FBaggins]

30. These guys do

Here's a video from when the model was first delivered back in 2016 (along with two other Iranian-built speedboat designs.

Who took the pictures?

A Navy helicopter crew. Likely an SH-60 from the Bainbridge.

[NCDem47]

5. Russia told him to back off. Plus...

Nobody was buying it in the international community and the media here had moved on.

[ebbie15644]

6. Torn between two lovers Neocons and Putin

[blueinredohio]

8. After Putin told him to stand down.

[Lulu KC]

10. Based on his propensity for lying

this makes me very nervous.

[McKim]

13. Tanker Attack?...that was SO last week....!!!!!

Once again Trump flip flops and lies, lies, lies. Tanker Attack scandal?// Oh that was SO last week, now it’s onto rounding up undocumented people and deporting millions of them!!!!! Anything to keep the headlines off the Democratic Party candidates and platforms.

[amcgrath]

14. That's a huge step down

from Trump. Somebody has told him - probably Putin.

But you know John Bolton will still be calling for it - and Stephen Miller is probably whispering in Trumps ear, that 'they wouldn't impeach a president in war time'

[Vinca]

16. Translation: it probably wasn't Iran, especially considering someone else took credit for it.

Big bad Don strikes out again.

[FBaggins]

17. Who took credit for it?

[Vinca]

18. One of the terrorist groups in the Middle East - I forget which one.

[FBaggins]

19. I think you've confused what you read

The IRGC is considered to be a terrorist group by many in the west (designated as such by the US Treasury just a few weeks ago)... but that IS the group that is thought to be behind the attack. It isn't a 3rd party terrorist group claiming credit.

Nor is there such a group that could make a plausible claim to making the attack.

[JI7]

20. or the boss told trump to bash off

Russia and iran are allies.

[Maxheader]

21. Well which is it you dumb son of a bitch?

Is this about nukes...or irans funding of fundy terrorist activitys around the world...Which was your first reason for pulling out of the accord...Why aren't you as good a buddy with the leaders of iran as you are with the north korea dictator...WHO IS BUILDING nukes...with chinas help..

[Scurrilous]

22. LOL

Gulf of Never Mind Incident.

[MosheFeingold]

24. Think this through

1. Trump's main chest-beating point for getting re-elected is the good economy. Expensive oil would hurt that. Ergo, he is not motivated to have a war in the ME.

2. Putin wants high oil. Russia is falling apart and its main export is oil. Ergo, he might be the suspect for a false-flag, but not Trump's rather mild response. So, no, Trump is not doing Putin's bidding -- in this instance.

3. The people who want war are the neocons in the Republican party (e.g., Bolton, Lindsey Graham, Mitt Romney). They are heavily invested in oil interests and defense -- or just like war, depending. They are the same assholes who brought us the Iraq war (twice). They are also disgusted by the populist revolt in the Republican Party, and want Trump to fail, so they can seize the party back from his thugs.

Just play this out in your mind. It's not hard.

[Sapient Donkey]

25. Ignoring the possibility that this is some sort of false flag or something along those lines

Is there any rational reason for Iran to do this intentionally? Trying to be as neutral and unbiased as possible, it's hard to think of any benefit that they would get. So, I would wonder if it was a mistake on their part, or maybe even the act of some rogue elements within their ranks. With the former seeming more likely than the latter.

[FBaggins]

37. One missing point to consider

"Iran" is not a monolithic entity.

IRGC Navy is not the same thing as the Iranian Navy. It's possible that they were acting semi-independently.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1512586

On edit - another good example:

But as the Iranian government seeks to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the IRGC has a different priority. Since it was created after the Iranian revolution of 1979 to be part of the armed forces, it has expanded and diversified its activities in and outside Iran. It has access to ground, naval and air forces and is comprised of 120,000 members, in addition to 90,000 volunteers in the paramilitary Basij militia. Today, it is a multibillion-dollar network that controls business, automotive, energy, telecommunications, real estate, construction and smuggling, among others, and is active, through the notorious Al Quds Brigade, in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

It stands to lose its clout in these countries as well as inside Iran if the biting sanctions continue. Making things worse is President Trump’s decision in April 2019 to designate the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO), making it the first designated FTO that is a part of another government. Such designation means that the IRGC’s financial activities will be under heavy scrutiny.

The IRGC is a state within a state and it is the backbone of the rule of the ayatollahs and without it, the iron-clad control of Iranian affairs would not be possible.

It is highly unlikely that President Hassan Rouhani has any influence over the activities of the IRGC. And it is possible that last week’s attacks were carried out directly by the IRGC without the government’s knowledge. These are disturbing conclusions but they help explain Iran’s erratic and contradictory behaviour.

http://www.jordantimes.com/opinion/osama-al-sharif/why-irgc-main-suspect-behind-tankers%E2%80%99-attacks

[Sapient Donkey]

39. Ahh yeah, good information.

I wish we had sane rational people leading the US right now.

[kwassa]

41. thank you, many don't see the factions within Iran.

The Revolutionary Guard is it's own massive power center.

[empedocles]

29. NYT describes trump, especially latest foreign policy reversals that left his pompeos dizzy,

trump as 'careening'.

[Tiggeroshii]

33. Hopefully fires Bolton too.

But this is good news. One of the positives of being Putin's puppet.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

34. For once I agree with him (somebody please shoot me)

I'm glad that he's not balls to the walls about war with Iran.

[stillcool]

35. Word came down from on high...

RUSSIA SLAMS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S 'DELIBERATE POLICY TO INSTIGATE WAR' WITH IRAN
BY CRISTINA MAZA ON 6/18/19 AT 10:50 AM EDT
Russian government officials slammed the Trump administration's approach to Iran on Tuesday, arguing that the U.S. government is purposefully aiming to provoke a conflict.

"For quite a while, we have been witnessing the United States' continuous attempts to increase political, psychological, economic and military pressure on Iran. I think that such actions are rather provocative and cannot be considered as anything other than a deliberate policy to instigate a war," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters during a press briefing on Tuesday
https://www.newsweek.com/iran-us-trump-russia-war-1444577

Who's your daddy?

[MosheFeingold]

42. Russia desperately wants a war

Again, oil is Russia’s main export. The low price is destroying their economy, which is relatively small to begin with.

Russia would love a war in the ME, with the straights of Hormuz closed and price spiking up to $140k.

Just think this through.

In fact, if I was thinking false flag, I’d put Russia on the list of people trying to start a war.