IT'S GO TIME!
Posted on 11/19/2012 5:22:18 PM PST by Nachum
Three U.S. Navy amphibious warships are returning to the eastern Mediterranean to remain on standby in the event they are needed to assist Americans leaving Israel in the coming days, according to two U.S. officials.
The officials stressed an evacuation remains an extremely remote possibility and the Obama administration is not currently planning for one. Americans who wish to leave the region now are able to do so using commercial airlines.
But the decision to send the ships even if the event is such a remote contingency underscores the growing concern about where the Israel-Gaza conflict could be headed.
"This is due diligence. It is better to be prepared should there be a need," one official said Monday. Both officials said the ships would be used only for assisting Americans and not for any combat role.
The most immediate impact will be on the ships' crews and the estimated 2,500 Marines on board. They had been scheduled to return to Norfolk, Virginia, just after Thanksgiving; their homecoming will now be delayed several days depending on events, the officials said.
The ships involved are the USS Iwo Jima, the USS New York and the USS Gunston Hall. At the end of last week the ships were west of Gibraltar, before the decision was made to turn them around and send them back to the eastern Mediterranean, where they will remain for now.
(Excerpt) Read more at security.blogs.cnn.com ...
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
“See, I care about our people. Now knock off this Benghazi stuff.”
What a poser...
I got my US/Israel Fight Against Terrorism bumper sticker on my vehicle over the weekend —
Invade and destroy those miserable animals - push them back into Egypt or the sea!
GO ISRAEL!!! KICK THE LIVING CRAP OUT OF THOSE MUZZIES!!!
Will the American Citizens have to show ID? Or will all the Hamas leaders be the first on board as the Israels drive them into the sea?
Flight had with already left or was leavIng ASAP.
... Which is why we moved three ships into the area and made a big announcement that we were fully prepared to evacuate.
I don’t think this has happened before. Must be a Hussein feely good ploy. I would think any concerned Americans are on planes out of there. Why three ships? That many? Maybe to save Hamas terrorists, they are Muslim brothers after all.
I wonder if anyone here knows what happens with the tour groups that are in Isael?
I ask this because I had a friend that returned one day before the TSHTF.
She said there are busloads of tourists arriving. Surely thay can’t allow these folks to visit their religious sites.
Isael=Israel
Evacuating Hamas, Hezzbollah, PLO and Syrian leaders, right?
Will they be relocated to the Bahamas like the terrorists from Gitmo?
Out of Guantánamo, Uighurs Bask in Bermuda
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/world/americas/15uighur.html?pagewanted=all
Thanks Nachum.
No , but we’ve never had a muslim commander in chief before
this idiot president embarrasses me - he need a trip to the woodshed
We should have war ships there in Israel’s defense being “in their face” with face with anybody that thinks they want some.
Oh, so we do have ships in the Mediterranean still!?! Just not to help Americans being killed by al Qaeda.
That’s funny, Obama wasn’t fully prepared on September 11, 2011.
If the evil Odumbo ordered our troops to attack Israel, what would they do?
No question that the ships are an implied threat.
Well, if the bad guys are going to do anything, they’ll wait until 5pm Washington time because after that Obama puts on his Buzz Lightyear jammies and goes to bed.
Veiled threat to Bibi? What the heck!
That would be the next step in preparing for an evacuation of non-essential personnel (NEO); charter flights, arranged by the State Department. If you report is accurate—and I don’t have any reason to doubt you—it looks like this NEO is moving from possible, to probable.
What sane American would evacuate to a destroyer instead of a comfy Boeing or even a cruise ship?
No way in hell are these ships there to assist evacuations, no they are under orders from Obama to paint Israeli targets with their radar and to be intimidation.
They had best be careful, America lost a warship some years ago...I’m just saying that I would support Israel all the way on this and those captains should consider where their patriotic duty must lead them.
My thinking after listening to this pilot was first that this would be for important U.S. personnell in or around Jordan then also, for first family of Jordan as the Arab Spring is now threatening the “monarchy” of Jordan.
I was to be one of these tourists in the next few weeks until I cancelled due to upcoming violence, even massive violence.
As much as I loved the retelling of her trip and would love to see all the things she saw (with an excellent tour guide I might add)...that part of the world is pretty iffy.
I wonder if the tours reschedule when something like this happens. Probably not.
You most likely made a good choice in cancelling. Now, back when I was ten feet tall and bullet proof and could run like the wind...I wouldn’t think twice. :)
Exactly the point that needs to be made here. Why would the US send ships to evacuate Americans from Israel? Only if there is going to be an attack on Israel. An invasion by Arab armies does not seem imminent so what could it be then? Missiles from Hezbollah and Iran in addition to the ones from Hamas? Is there something that the White House is hoping for that Israel should be preparing against?
And to use American citizens as human shields.
Maybe intelligence pointing to a large transfer of Al Quds forces from Iran to Syria to prop up Assad has been discovered to be in the works?
Israel could not tolerate that and a war between Syria and Israel could break out bringing Syrian chem-bio weapons into play (not to mention likely Saddam weapons inventory).
The US would definitely have to get US citizens out then and there are lots of dual US-Israeli citizens.
Note the Der Speigel story indicating that Turkey is “expected” to imminently request Patriot missile batteries to be transferred from NATO inventory to its border with Syria and that German troops may be required to man them.
Things look to be getting hotter during the “end game” for the Assad Regime in Syria!
The odd thing is IIRC, Obama and/or Hillary took their time with evacuating people from one of the Arab Spring countries. I remember at the time they waited longer than seemed prudent- I think it was Egypt. Now, they do this? Either they know something is coming very soon, or there is a political reason. Probably good time to fill up gas tank.
Just a little transportation, in case it’s needed.
With 2500 Marines aboard.
*cough*
I have a friend that works with the same company as I do and he returned robust awl today. He said his flight was delayed from landing but is in Haifa now. We work for a Fortune 500 oilfield service company and they are anything but lax about security.
I have a friend that works with the same company as I do and he returned robust awl today. He said his flight was delayed from landing but is in Haifa now. We work for a Fortune 500 oilfield service company and they are anything but lax about security.
I have a friend that works with the same company as I do and he returned robust awl today. He said his flight was delayed from landing but is in Haifa now. We work for a Fortune 500 oilfield service company and they are anything but lax about security.
I have a friend that works with the same company as I do and he returned robust awl today. He said his flight was delayed from landing but is in Haifa now. We work for a Fortune 500 oilfield service company and they are anything but lax about security.
I have a friend that works with the same company as I do and he returned robust awl today. He said his flight was delayed from landing but is in Haifa now. We work for a Fortune 500 oilfield service company and they are anything but lax about security.
I have a friend that works with the same company as I do and he returned robust awl today. He said his flight was delayed from landing but is in Haifa now. We work for a Fortune 500 oilfield service company and they are anything but lax about security.
Yes indeed. But the question is, who is he threatening?
When I was in the Navy, been retired 10 years now we did a couple Noncombatant Evacuation Operations (NEO).
We'd sit off the coast of say a US Embassy, over the horizon away from prying eyes and wait get the word if it was a go or no go.
But it was never announced publically until after the fact.
Its funny how when I see my comments sent back at how bad I am forming sentences, I meant being intimidated.
American human shields on US ships? So that they can stage an attack and say it was another Israeli sub trying to sink them?
Trying to repeat history? That could work and Obammy being Moslem trained would go for it in a heartbeat, well maybe quicker since he has no heart.
That or go on painting with the radar undisturbed. Either is bad for Israel, a borderline act of war.
That could work and Obammy being Moslem trained would go for it in a heartbeat, well maybe quicker since he has no heart.
Yup. Sometimes the obvious answer is rejected because it is so disgusting and outrageous. Methinks we'd better get used to it.
Warships aren’t for evacuation.
We’re I in Israel, I’d stay put and help fight.
That could work and Obammy being Moslem trained would go for it in a heartbeat, well maybe quicker since he has no heart.
Those "human shields" would almost all Jews or Jewish sympathizers. Surely the Iranians would LOVE to set up a story that "the Jooos did it." Or could anybody be so vile as to sink our own boat for propaganda purposes? I shudder to think it, but with Zero, who knows what he'd do? He did leave four of our guys to die just for cover.
If the evil Odumbo ordered our troops to attack Israel, what would they do?
They would do what the Commander in Chief directs. For 3 years, Obama will be the one to direct the military. Thankfully, he will not do this. I don’t believe the military would go against the orders.
They can serve the purpose of evacuation. In 2006 the USS Iwo Jima (one of the ships now going there) evacuated US citizens from Lebanon. USS Iwo Jima is part of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Yes they do evacuations. I’d rather be evacuated by a warship than anything else,
wouldn’t you?
I wouldn't put it past Obama to have had the Benghazi operation ship some of Qaddafi's chemical weapons to the Syrian opposition to stage an incident that could be blamed on Assad.
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