Posted on 07/19/2012 9:42:48 PM PDT by robowombat
candidates for Darwin awards.
As per the “survivors” take on this event, reeks of total BS.
“We wuz mindin’ our own bidness, on the way to chuch in fack, when rat-a-tat-tat! Day smoked us wit a Ma Deuce!”
When you care to send the very best ... 50’s will do the trick!
Testing the Navy to discover the standing order regarding distance/speed for firing on approaching vessel ignoring commands from the Navy vessel.
They are trying to calculate how fast and maneuverable an attack boat will need to be.
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That is, the circumstances of the encounter jibe with the assumption that the fishing boat was making for a port which took it across the course of the Rappahannock, and that the helmsman was trying to double back to cross behind the larger ship. It's easy for me to imagine that he was simply not receptive to any of the warning attempts, up to the warning shots. When these came, he simply thought they were being shot at, and was not able to realize he was expected to kill the throttle at that point to avoid disaster.
What the article DOESN’T mention is the the “Indian” passengers were Tamil from Sri Lanka
The Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka are undoubtedly one of the most organized, effective and brutal terrorist groups in the world. They invented the suicide vest and, according to the FBI, are the only terrorist group to have assassinated two world leaders. The rebels, based in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, have been waging a violent offensive against the central government on and off for more than 20 years.
The 'survivors' now know exactly how close they can get before being fired upon. Apparently their 'bosses' thought that it was worth the risk. How many 'fishing' poles did they have?
One would then have to believe that this driver of this boat was totally ignorant of what has happened since the USS COLE, and what is going on in the world right now. One would have to assume that Iran has not notified their populace to keep 'wide' of American Ships, or that this type of info has not spread through the 'grapevine' of the populace, especially the sea-faring ones.
I can easily believe that these guys never heard of the USS Cole, and payed no attention whatsoever to what is going on in the world. I do have some curiosity how Indian fisherman end up in Dubai, although this seems consistent with my understanding of how the ultrarich Arab states attract peons of various stripes. I'd love to hear the whole story, but again, I wonder if we can even imagine how far removed the minds of these people were from the concerns that we are immersed in.
And well, Indians in Dubai are hardly to be counted as Iranians, so maybe you could use a little brushing up yourself, if you know what I mean.
I don’t by any means discount the possibility that this was some kind of terrorist probe. I’m just saying that the broad outline of the events, which includes the location and course and speed of the Rappahannock, seems consistent with the idea that the fishing boat just blundered into it.
I do have trouble wrapping my head around this whole Dubai fishing thing. Like, did they catch anything? Red fish? Blue fish?
“We were speeding up to try and go around them.” That was all I needed to read. You DON’T speed up to go around the bow of a warship, you slow down and go behind them. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that out....
Yeah. No kidding.
It was easy to go with the flow and assume that due to the current 'threats' from Iran, that this was just another 'exploration attempt'.
Assuming all the info you have given is true, I think the average person could envision how this was just ignorance gone wrong. It still doesn't remove the possibility that our enemy would be smart enough to send out some willing dupes/trained foreign agents to get the job done.
If it was due to ignorance, then it's a pity someone had to die for it.
Indeed. Cf. Ocean Twp. boy killed in sand tunnel collapse identified. As a grandfather, this sort of thing plagues my mind. Danger lurks everywhere.
They should have just heaved to. That is what I would have done. Idiots.
And I always think of the Iranian airliner that was shot down by the USS Vincennes. The pilot had the mindset that he wasn’t going to even acknowledge the infidels. If he had only done so, he wouldn’t have eaten an SM-2.
Arrogance and stupidity is a poor combination.
Wiki..... Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza; Arabic: المنطقة الحرّة في جبل علي al-Minṭaqat al-Ḥurrat fī Jabal ʿAlī) is a free economic zone located in the Jebel Ali area at the far western end of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, near Abu Dhabi. Created under an Emiri Decree, Jafza commenced operations in 1985 with standard size office units and warehouses to provide ready built facilities to customers. In 1990 Jafza expanded its facilities to include light industrial units.
Jafza is served by the Jebel Ali station of the Dubai Metro.
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The free trade zone is the reason for the economic boom in the UAE and is the center for trade, manufacturing and distribution in west asia . It is far more than a popular docking area and no doubt coveted by the mad mullahs of Iran
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