Iran airs own video of US ship incident

[Judi Lynn]

Source: AFP

Iran airs own video of US ship incident
37 minutes ago

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian state television on Thursday aired a video taken by Iranian forces of an incident in the Strait of Hormuz with US warships, in a bid to counter footage issued by the Pentagon.

The four-minute video broadcast by English-language channel Press-TV showed an Iranian commander in a speedboat contacting an American sailor via radio, asking him to identify the US vessels and state their purpose.

"Coalition warship number 773 this is an Iranian patrol," the Iranian commander is heard to say in good English.

"This is coalition warship number 73. I am operating in international waters," comes the reply.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080110/wl_mideast_afp/iranusmilitary_080110084026;_ylt=A0WTcVW24IVHkaQAWxJsbEwB

[Judi Lynn]

1. Iran says US navy video is 'clumsy fake'

Bush opens Mideast tour with new warning to Iran
23 hours ago

(snip)
Tehran and Washington have given sharply differing accounts of what transpired between their navies in the key waterway for world energy supplies, with an Iranian commander accusing the Pentagon of "clumsily" fabricating video footage claiming to show Iranian speedboats harassing US ships.

"The pictures that the Pentagon broadcast of the naval incident are file pictures and the voices have all been fabricated," the Fars news agency quoted a senior commander in the Revolutionary Guards as saying.

The Pentagon released a video and audio tape on Tuesday that it said confirmed US charges that Iranian speedboats swarmed around US warships in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and radioed a threat to blow them up.

"The voices and pictures broadcast by the Pentagon about the latest incident have been fabricated so clumsily that the pictures and voices in the video are not even synchronized," the Guards commander said.

"That fact that it is a fake is clear to all."

More:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iwohqUMy5OcALZHDfFb7QJjlEV0QIran says US navy video is 'clumsy fake'

[Finite]

4. hmmmm

As much as I don't trust the word of the Bush administration, I trust the word of the Revolutionary guard even less! They've got a history of trying to provoke the west (see the kidnapping of the british sailors), and basically operate as a law unto themselves.

[sofa king]

5. They kidnapped British sailors because we kidnapped their diplomats.

Sure, they were probably Iranian intelligence agents--we were apparently going for some really high level guys--but they had diplomatic cover and we kidnapped them anyway.

After a while, they picked up the Brits and negotiated an exchange that nobody wants to admit.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/11/iraq.main/index.html
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2414760.ece
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_kidnapping_of_Iranian_diplomat_%28February_2007%29

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ohio2007]

15. I wouldn't trust linking to a website originating from the mullahs controlled internet

kinda risky buisness.
never know what they may be sending out in a video link....

[slackmaster]

21. They're lying

The US Navy video is real.

[Pavulon]

38. Wasted effort

people are so polarized by the administration they can not evaluate something that sourced from the navy. They have no idea of the history that the Navy and Iran have and would rather believe the people who bombed marine barracks in 83.

Pretty sad.

[951-Riverside]

2. Video from Iranian governemt owned PressTV

http://217.218.67.244/presstv/080110/OUTPUT_11-10-00-Teh-Navy%20Patrol.wmv

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=38190§ionid=351020101

[Drum]

3. Well, to be fair, the US Navy has to feel kind of left out

of this whole new land-based war on terra....

Some brilliant tactician in the Bush asylum probably felt the USN could contribute something to the neo-con bloodlust in this way. I hate seeing our service members used like this.
:(

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. cheney is doing his best to help them out on that score.

[tekisui]

6. Sonuvabitch. Forget the NIE, forget Resolutions. WW III may start anyday.

[rodeodance]

7. seems the film is real--the US is disputing the time

he grainy 5-minute, 20-second video — without sound or narration — showed a man speaking into a handheld radio, with three U.S. ships floating in the distance. It appeared to be shot from a small boat bobbing at least 100 yards from the American warships.

The footage did not show any Iranian boats approaching the U.S. vessels or any provocation. But the short clip likely did not show Sunday's entire encounter, which U.S. Navy officials described as threatening, and said lasted about 20 minutes.

It aired on Iran's state-run English-language channel Press TV, whose signal is often blocked inside Iran.

The clip also aired on the state-run Al-Alam Arabic channel, with an announcer saying the video showed "a routine and regular measure."

Later, another state TV channel aired four minutes of audio it said were radio communications between the Iranian boats and American ships.

[rockybelt]

9. I'll repeat myself

Don't believe a goddamned thing this administration tells you. If they tell you the sky is blue, you had better get your ass up and go look out the window and then have them describe "blue" to you. They will lie even if it easier to tell the truth. That makes them pathological.

[leftynyc]

10. I don't believe this administration

problem is, I trust the Iranians even less.

[damntexdem]

34. It's enough to say that neither should be trusted.

We have no way of knowing what really went down when the gnats approached the elephant. Maybe the elephant really did feel intimidated.

;-)

(And, yes, I DO remember the Cole incident -- sometimes the gnats are really wasps with stingers.)

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Spurt]

11. Of course if the Iranians...

... had a battle group or three permanently cruising international waters off the coast of California, the US Navy wouldn't go out there and wave the finger at them would they.

I don't quite believe either report however I do believe the episode is exaggerated to hell. The Iranians are in 20? foot open boats. A couple of 50 cal rounds could stop them a mile away. They are simply not a real threat approaching in broad daylight in open ocean. A bit like going into a gun fight with a knife.

The whole thing smells like Saddam's WMD's.

[boricua79]

13. the most rational post I've seen on this issue yet

Mike Tyson crying about a paraplegic threatening him...that's what this is like.

[Sweet Pea]

16. Funny....

Back in the 70's and 80's and thru to the early 90's when the Soviet Union sent Surface Action Groups (SAGs) to Cuba and those ships, all standard Soviet warships, transited the Straits of Florida between the keys and Cuba, no US Navy nor Coast Guard ship harassed them. International law stated they had free transit through those international shipping lanes and as such, they had free transit. The US respected those laws.

Same went for other passages and straits in the Caribbean region, which in many areas are similar to Hormuz.

Point being is the Iranians are very likely in violation of international law if they harassed US Navy ships on a transit through international waters of the Strait of Hormuz.

[daleo]

22. I suppose it would depend on the definition of harassment

Also, Bush has shown that he doesn't care about international law, so that makes the situation somewhat hypocritical.

Nonetheless, I agree with your general point about international shipping lanes. But that strait is very narrow at points (under 5 miles, I believe), so some tension is unavoidable, especially given Bush's stated antipathy towards Iran.

[SOS]

24. Today's reporting adds to that funny smell...

From the NYT, 1/10/08:

"Naval and Pentagon officials have said that the video and audio were recorded separately, then combined.

The audio includes a heavily accented voice warning in English that the Navy warships would explode. However, the recording carries no ambient noise — the sounds of a motor, the sea or wind — that would be expected if the broadcast had been made from one of the five small boats that sped around the three-ship American convoy."

And all of this just a couple of days before Bush goes to the Middle East where he uses the "incident" to threaten war.
WMDs indeed!

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pavulon]

37. Didn't the USSR

sail vessels close to the US for many years. Only one incident like this ever happened (that has been acknowledged). And it almost lead up to a global thermonuclear war.

We routinely sunk those boats in the 80's with radar guided 5".

They have a long history with the Navy.

But you can believe the people who blew up the marine barracks.

No gays there either, thats the truth man..

[IsItJustMe]

12. This whole thing is probably much to do about nothing. But then again, when your on the fast track

to start a new war, then you can take the mole hills and turn them into mountains. Of course our msm is there to help in any way they can, just like they did with Iraq. This seems to be turning into a self fullfilling prophesy that our media and the power structure in this country is pushing us into.

The sad fact is, if you want war and you expect war and you think about war and you plan for war, You're gonna get it.

[NavyDavy]

14. I agree 100%

[Amonester]

19. Bingo. And the poor souls who will suffer, burn, explode, and die...

are not known personally to the greedy war criminals who don't want others to have the freedom to own their bourse.

No.

Their innocent victims and their millions of orphans are just expendable pawns and slaves.

[fascisthunter]

17. So the US is Making Something Out of Nothing

gee... who would have known!? :sarcasm:

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dipsydoodle]

18. Some of the video here :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7180000/newsid_7180600/7180695.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&asb=1&news=1&ms3=22&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=2

[Judi Lynn]

20. Very odd voice on the US one, isn't it? The background sound is even different.

Sounds as if it's made inside a chamber of some kind, whereas the other recording sounds completely outdoors.

Damned creepy. This is very, very odd.

Thank you.

[sarcasmo]

23. With what this Administration had done, why wouldn't we believe Iran's version.

[kitty1]

32. 'We are coming for you and will blow you up" think about it

These aren't bat shit crazy lunatics who are bent on starting Armageddon.
This is the Revolutionary Guard patrol cruising the strait for ships with questionable passage thru there. They are deliberate and cautious in their moves and suggestions.
Do the Bushies really think the people consider Iranians as just a bunch of irrational idiots bent on starting a war? Oh wait a minute....

[Pavulon]

36. Bet you life on it?

If you rent a power boat in Norfolk and then maneuver it like that around a naval vessel (minus the audio of course) you have a reasonable chance of being shot. Not a scolding, shod dead by a .50 cal machine gunner.

At minimum you would be arrested.

Iran acknowledged the incident, acknowledged the boats. If the audio originated from on shore who cares.

The video shows small craft to close to warships.

If you believe that the navy and Iran do not have a long history, well I guess you may believe there are no gays in Iran..

[ronnie624]

42. Iran has not acknowledged "the incident".

The only thing they have "acknowledged", is that they have patrol boats in the area, doing what patrol boats do. But why wouldn't they? These waters are clearly within Iran's sphere of influence, not in Norfolk.

And your claim that "the navy and Iran" have a "long history" doesn't even make any sense. Iran has never sent military forces half way around the globe in order to harass or attack the US Navy. Any "history" between the two, is entirely a product of US foreign policy, in Iran's region of the world.

Too bad we can't just respect Iran's sovereignty.

How unsurprising to see you so eagerly consuming and regurgitating corporatist propaganda.

[kitty1]

44. So when the Brits on their inflatable speed boats were...

arrested for being in Iranian waters and imprisoned afterwards, was that against international laws in your estimate?
According to your statement, if that was the U.S. Coastline and some questionable foreign ship was passing thru, do you think the U.S. Navy would be obliged to send power boats out if they felt compelled to check it out.
The strait is close to Iran, and they have a right to check out a situation in a non threatening way if they feel the need. The U.S would do the same with a ME vessel close to their shores. Especially a Naval one with a nation behind it that seems itching for a fight.

[Marrah_G]

25. Sorry Iran....not buying your story this time.

[ohio2007]

26. anybody speak or understand Farsi ? ( iranian video )

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8f6_1199959765

some is in English when they want to switch frequencies.... then I think somebody started to hot dog the fact they established communication with the warship.

to bad this video was edited


"small craft advisory" ;)


http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4ab48d6357

[boricua79]

33. um...you may have EGG on your face

Pentagon is backpedaling...saying the voices on the tape may not be from the tape.

meaning, they're admitting that their video was doctored in some way.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3132911&mesg_id=3132911

The Iranians were telling the truth, and our administration LIED to us again, and tried to run with the lie to justify YET another war. Gulf of Tonkin incident part 2 JUST deflated...

[Marrah_G]

35. Nope no egg yet

[boricua79]

41. let me know when you admit you have egg on your face

When you're accusing someone of something...and then you go, "wait...maybe I'm wrong"...that doesn't sound convincing.

But hey, keep believing...they need people like you to run this country the way they want it.

America #1!!!!!

[Judi Lynn]

39. They wouldn't even admit it if they didn't know everyone else can see right through this.

Anyone denying it is wildly hoping he/she can get someone to swallow a large dose of disinformation.

Fortunately, most of us are bright enough to have recognized the signs at first glance. It IS that obvious.

[Pavulon]

40. No gays in iran?

no really. If you maneuver a small craft around a us vessel putting out at whatever naval base nearest you, you are a coin flip away from death.

If lucky you will be arrested.

For many years the USSR and the Navy played games, and this is a pretty obvious breach of the rules.

Iran has a history with the navy, we had to bleed them a bit in the 80's when they mined international waters. They are just playing the game.

Who ever was running this on their side is probably in deep shit. A few lashes may be coming his way.

[ohio2007]

43. You decide

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0ce_1200006960


anyway, the Iranian MSM released this english translation on the incident that says the western MSM was hyped to get reactions.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9bb_1199903953


?
anybody wonder what the Iranian public thought of this story ?