I posted this reply on an American Thinker article today.
I rarely pull out my dusty old trident, but in this case, here goes. I was a Navy SEAL officer in the 1980s, and this kind of operation (transiting small boats in foreign waters) was our bread and butter. Today, these boats both not only had radar, but multiple GPS devices, including chart plotters that place your boat’s icon right on the chart. The claim by Iran that the USN boats “strayed into Iranian waters” is complete bull$#it.
For an open-water transit between nations, the course is studied and planned in advance by the leaders of the Riverine Squadron, with specific attention given to staying wide and clear of any hostile nation’s claimed territorial waters. The boats are given a complete mechanical check before departure, and they have sufficient fuel to accomplish their mission plus extra. If, for some unexplainable and rare circumstance one boat broke down, the other would tow it, that’s why two boats go on these trips and not one! It’s called “self-rescue” and it’s SOP.
This entire situation is in my area of expertise. I can state with complete confidence that both Iran and our own State Department are lying. The boats did not enter Iranian waters. They were overtaken in international waters by Iranian patrol boats that were so superior in both speed and firepower that it became a “hands up!” situation, with automatic cannons in the 40mm to 76mm range pointed at them point-blank. Surrender, hands up, or be blown out of the water. I assume that the Iranians had an English speaker on a loudspeaker to make the demand. This takedown was no accident or coincidence, it was a planned slap across America’s face.
Just watch. The released sailors will be ordered not to say a word about the incident, and the Iranians will have taken every GPS device, chart-plotter etc off the boats, so that we will not be able to prove where our boats were taken.
The “strayed into Iranian waters” story being put out by Iran and our groveling and appeasing State Dept. is utter and complete BS from one end to the other.
Agree with that, every story I’ve found so far with similar incidents -regardless of nationality taken- the
Iranians attacked outside of Iranian waters like you said, and then they coerce an admission from the crew or owners to the contrary. Most of the time the incidents occur when a head of state or VIP is visiting so as to embarrass, apparently it plays well for them at home.
Now Obama’s going to try to spin their release as an accomplishment ... but he just had his nose rubbed in it.
Farsi Island’s an IRGC base, isn’t it? The Iraqis hit the Iranians there during the Iraq-Iran War when they were a nuisance then. Can’t picture anyone getting near there when they can give it a wide berth.
The Shiites are agitating in Bahrain again like in the ‘Arab Spring’ in 2011 when Bahrain’s gov called in neighboring countries for help [and when the Soros crowd was also instigating there], so I imagine the IRGs been busy trying to support cells there since, and are thick as flies all around and beyond that island’s 12 mile zone looking for opportunities, maybe inserting agitators in Bahrain to help stoke protest fires and hoping to destabilize it?
” but multiple GPS devices”
Not that I know these boats had it, but there are also common data links that provide real-time position updates to bigger boats. Odds are, others knew exactly where these boats were at all times.
Yep.... spot on.