Am I in my cabin dreaming, or are you really scheming,

posted by The Sailor @ 5:15 PM Permalink

The current greatest threat to the US
Fiction: The Pentagon released an audio clip of a radio transmission received on the bridge of one of the US ships during the incident in which a voice is heard to say in accented English: "I am coming at you ... You will explode in a few minutes."

Fact: But Pentagon officials now say they do not know the source of the radio transmission, backing off a previous claim that it came from one of the boats.

Additional (sort of) fact: Pentagon officials insist that they never claimed Iran made the threat. "No one in the military has said that the transmission emanated from those boats. [Cough, bull$hit, cough]


Fiction: It appears from the video tape that the Iranians ignored repeated requests by radio from the American ship to identify themselves, to state their intentions and to stay clear of the ship's path.


Fact: Iran yesterday released what it asserted was an abridged video of the same incident, which shows a calm exchange. "Slowly get a little closer . . . can't make out the ship number,"
[...]
The Iranian commander is heard to say, "Coalition warship 73, this is Iranian navy patrol boat." He then requests the "side numbers" of the U.S. warships.
[...]
The Pentagon said it does not dispute anything in the Iranian video.


Fiction: The U.S. ships were within seconds of opening fire on the Iranian speedboats when the boats turned and headed toward Iran, Pentagon officials said.

Fact: "I didn't get the sense from the reports I was receiving that there was a sense of being afraid of these five boats," said [Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, Commander of the 5th Fleet].


Fiction: Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman described the Iranian boats as "highly maneuverable patrol craft" that were "visibly armed,"

Fact: The Pentagon released the full 36-minute video of the encounter yesterday.
[...]
None of the boats appears to have any mounted weapons.


Fiction: yes, it's more serious than we have seen," Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, head of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said at a briefing on Monday.

Fact: The U.S. Navy says 1 of its ships fired warning shots at a small Iranian boat in 1 of 2 serious encounters last month.


Fiction: ""When you get a bridge-to-bridge call, you have no way of knowing where it came from," [Rear Adm. Frank Thorp IV,] said.

Fact: Ship-to-ship Channel 16 is in the VHF band which is short range and line of sight. The US Navy ships are equipped with Common High Bandwidth Data Link which would allow instantaneous triangulation of any radio signal. Even simple radio direction finding equipment would easily confirm if the signals were coming from the boats.


Fiction: U.S. officials said the Iranians dropped objects in the water around the American ships and threatened to blow them up.


Fact: Objects From Iranian Boats Posed No Threat, Navy Says


Opinion: Nothing in the original accounts of the Navy, Pentagon or US Gov't has proven to be true. This was just another example of bush's clumsy, reckless attempt to manufacture a casus belli to justify yet another war. And they are stilltrying to spin it that way!

Bush, et al, keep trying to connect it to the USS Cole bombing. But that occurred while a US naval vessel was at dock in a 'friendly' port.

This manufactured incident happened when sailing, with air cover, and during war time, just outside of Iran's home waters.




Cross posted at SteveAudio

Labels: bush war doctrine, iran war prep, more Bush lies