Pentagon releases video of naval clash

[951-Riverside]

Source: Associated Press

The Pentagon released video Friday it says depicts the entire confrontation last Sunday between U.S. and Iranian naval forces in the Persian Gulf.

The more than half-hour video, shot by a crew member on the bridge of the destroyer USS Hopper, was unedited, said, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

The often uneven and grainy video shows crew members answering radio calls and monitoring the five Iranian boats and for much of the time follows one or more of the fast boats moving around the U.S. ships.

It chronicles crew members communicating with each other on the Hopper, as well as U.S. crew on the other two ships in the convoy. And as the incident escalated, sailors can be heard growing more agitated about how fast and close the small boats were moving near the ships.

The Pentagon released the entire video of the event after days of fielding questions about the origin of a voice on the initial video that warns in English: "I am coming to you" and then, "You will explode after ... minutes."

Less than five minutes of the video footage was released Tuesday.

The confrontation reflects a shift in military strategy by Tehran to use its Revolutionary Guard's fast boats in a more aggressive manner in the region, the top U.S. military officer said Friday.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080111/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iran

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All warships (that I know of) have long range daytime/night vision cameras so where is that video?

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Here is a little perspective on what total bullshit this is.

1) the innocent victim:



2) the evildoers:



Any questions?

[Pavulon]

3. Misleading

No aircraft carriers involved..Or those guys would be fish shit.


Damage from smaller boat.


The other side (Rev Guard) brought us this..

[Warren Stupidity]

6. The pictures were from the linked article.

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Pentagon-Iranian-boats-confront-US-warships-US-Navy-President-George-W-Bush-destroyer-USS-US-Navy/ss/events/wl/010908iranboatusnavy/s:/ap/20080111/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iran_36/im:/080108/photos_wl_me_afp/92377cd3d0c6d2d377063482c3d7b2f7/

Take it up with AFP and yahoo.

But it seems like you would like revenge for the Beirut attack, or the Al Qaeda attack in Aden. Neither of those attacks were conducted by the Iranian Navy, or by Iran, or by Iranians.

The Iranian Navy has every right to inspect the vessels in the transit passage. Small patrol boats such as these are hardly a threat in open waters in broad daylight.

[Pavulon]

12. You added the aircraft carrier

not ap. The revolutionary guard (iranian) ran those attacks in Beirut. They also killed french soldiers on the same day in multiple attacks. So the french bombed them with aircraft.

Iran does not have a right to operate small craft in a dangerous manner near us ships.

While I value your threat assessment I value the opinion af a naval officer in command of a warship's more.

Not everyone in the entire armed forces is in on the "fix"

[Warren Stupidity]

13. I did? No I didn't. Go to the damn link.

Now you are just making shit up.

Here is the direct link to the AFP page, complete with aircraft carrier:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iLp6a2jzu9GTFYgFs9HdQurhFwOw

Iran most certainly has the right to inspect all vessels in the straits of Hormuz.

Where is the evidence of any threat at all?

The aircraft carrier in the picture, and on the yahoo link from the OP and the AFP link above, is currently operating in the gulf. That is the sort of threat that Iran faces from us every day. It is their patrol boats against the planet's largest navy. The only threat is to Iran, from a psychotic president determined to clean the slate and leave his mark on history, and prevent the next administration from undoing what he has done. With help from the bullshit media system and from the perpetually gullible, Bush may yet get his war on.

[awaysidetraveler]

4. The death squad guys in orange lifejackets are coming to get us!

Yeah, it's funny how I see joy riders and they see death squads. Why would people who were about to blow themselves up wear orange lifejackets?

[951-Riverside]

7. Hmmmz @ awaysidetraveler

Kamikaze pilots wore flack jackets, helmets, etc, the 9/11 hijackers wore shirts and jeans and I recall a suicide bomber in Israel dressed as an orthodox jew. If someone wanted to "do us harm" they would want to appear somewhat inconspicuous and innocent so it would make sense to wear an orange life jacket in that environment.

Before anyone tries to twist my words, keep in mind I know they were not suicide bombers.

[951-Riverside]

2. Can anyone find the full version?

[slackmaster]

5. Video from the good cameras is probably classified

Because releasing it would reveal too much about the cameras' capabilities.

[951-Riverside]

8. They don't seem to have any problems releasing drone and helicopter videos plus

...the system isn't exactly secret, information about it is widely available on several websites.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/an-say-1.htm">

[slackmaster]

9. Ships' commanders don't have the authority to release videos to the public

That permission comes from higher up the food chain.

(My brother is a senior Naval officer.)

[951-Riverside]

10. I'm fully aware of that.

The fact the Navy/Dod and the media shills expects us to believe that video taken by a crew member is the only one available is distressing.

[shraby]

11. With the amount of money the armed forces

have for equipment, why are all their videos grainy??? A cheap walmart camera would do better'n that.