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For almost a decade, Arab regimes have worried about alleged Iranian plans to create a "Shiite crescent" from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, encompassing Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and a yet-to-be liberated Palestine. Now fresh fears have grown that the "crescent" may take another shape as well -- from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden, and including chunks of Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Since January, for instance, Iran has intensified pressure on Bahrain, where a Shiite majority has grievances against the Arab Sunni ruling elite. An archipelago connected with the Saudi mainland by a bridge, Bahrain provides the...

Iran downs strange bright craft over Persian Gulf Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:02:58 GMT Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has targeted and downed an unidentified shining object after sighting it over Persian Gulf waters. "Glowing objects were sighted over the Persian Gulf. IRGC air defense targeted one of the objects successfully, forcing it to plummet and sink in the seas off Boushehr (Province)," said top regional commander, Brigadier Ali Razmjou. "The three bright objects were detected by our radars when flying over the Persian Gulf Islands of Khark and Khargou," he added, according to a Monday report posted on...

Defense: The Air Force airborne laser program successfully completes a simulated kill from a plane able to find, track and destroy a live ballistic missile. We can shoot down enemy missiles. Instead, we're shooting down the laser program.The Aug. 10 effort was the third such test — sort of like a sniper sighting the target with the red dot of a laser without actually pulling the trigger. In early June, the airborne laser (ABL) program engaged two un-instrumented missiles. This was the first in-flight test against an instrumented target missile. A modified Boeing 747-400F aircraft took off from Edwards Air...

Investigators are trying to determine whether a San Diego sailor passed Navy secrets about security weaknesses and warship movements to a British man accused of having terrorist links, according to court documents unsealed yesterday. E-mail messages from the unnamed sailor, sent in late 2000 and 2001 before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were found in December in computer files belonging to Babar Ahmad, who was detained Wednesday in London, according to the 31-page arrest affidavit. The computer files contained details about security arrangements and movements of the San Diego-based Constellation carrier battle group, which included the destroyer Benfold, on which...

SDI: If you missed the news, which isn't hard given how poorly these things are covered, our "unproven" missile defense proved itself again last week, when a U.S. warship downed a simulated North Korean missile in flight.The test, conducted in Hawaiian waters by the Navy and the Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency (MDA), was the 23rd firing by ships equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile defense system. It was the 19th success, including the shoot-down of a dead U.S. spy satellite last year. A short-range ballistic missile simulating a missile like North Korea's Nodongs or Scuds was fired from...

Blog: Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Blog Details Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria to Link Their Power Networks Iran, Iraq, and Turkey yesterday signed an agreement for power and energy cooperation and for linking their power networks with that of Syria. The memorandum of understanding was signed by Iran's Minister of Energy Parviz Fattah and his Iraqi and Turkish counterparts at the end of the first regional power conference, held in Baghdad. Under the agreement, power networks of the Persian Gulf Arab states, Central Asian republics and regional countries will in the long run be connected to those...

Russian warships are due to call Wednesday, May 27, at the Bahrain port of Manama, seat of the US Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf, DEBKAfile's military sources reveal. They will be following in the wake of the Russian vessels already docked at the Omani port of Salalah, the first to avail themselves of facilities at Gulf ports. Their arrival is fully coordinated between the Russian and Iranian naval commands. According to our sources, this is the first time a Russian flotilla will have taken on provisions and fuel at the same Gulf ports which hitherto serviced only the US...

Iranians have launched an online petition to urge the US President Barack Obama to respect the Iranian identity of the Persian Gulf. The petition is a public reaction to an Obama speech on March 27 in which he referred to the Persian Gulf as 'Gulf'. The petition says that the Persian Gulf is an ancient historical reality that cannot be manipulated. Iran designated today, Thursday, April 30, as the National Persian Gulf Day to highlight the fact that the historic waterway, is part of the natural heritage of Iran. Some Arab countries have launched a campaign to change the Persian...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_1155.html Travel Alert U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs This information is current as of today, Fri Feb 13 2009 01:02:05 GMT-0800 (PST). Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf February 11, 2009 This Travel Alert is being updated to warn Americans about heightened security concerns in and around the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf. U.S. citizens traveling to or already in the region are reminded to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness. This replaces the Travel Alert for the Arabian Peninsula and...

ROYAL Australian Navy petty officer Benjamin Sime showed no hesitation when he jumped from his helicopter into the sea to assist a group of US sailors wounded by suicide bombers targeting Iraqi oil installations in the Persian Gulf in April 2004. Petty Officer Sime, a sensor operator, remained in the water assisting four survivors until a rescue boat arrived - actions acknowledged yesterday with the award of a Medal for Gallantry. The rescue occurred in the Gulf's northern waters and followed the attempted boarding of a suspect dhow by seven sailors from the USS Firebolt. As the boarding party approached...

"Sir, you have done India proud." That was how the anchorman of a television channel in Delhi addressed the Indian navy chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, on the victorious sea battle by warship INS Tabar with would-be hijackers as dusk was falling on Tuesday evening in the Gulf of Aden. Those words would have made Sir Francis Drake, the 16th-century British navigator and slaver-politician of the Elizabethan era, truly envious. Sir Francis had bigger claims to fame in a life cut short by dysentery while attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1595. Unsurprisingly, the patriotic Indian media dutifully expressed its gratitude...

A vessel belonging to the US Navy has reportedly caught fire in the northern Persian Gulf near the Iraqi port cities of Al-Bakr and al-Amaya. Informed military sources said on Monday that the UN Navy had secretly moved the vessel to the coasts of Kuwait after the fire broke out, Iran's Arabic-language TV channel Al-Alam reported. The sources did not rule out the possibility that a blast had started the fire on the vessel that was said to be "one of the four US warships in the region," the report added. The US military has not yet commented on the...

LONDON -- Iran's fleet has the capacity to inflict crippling damages on any US vessels in the Persian Gulf, a French newspaper reports. In an article in Le Figaro published on Wednesday, George Malbrunot has written that Iran has a tactical defense scheme in the Persian Gulf to implement against any possible US attack. Malbrunot noted that the Islamic Republic has mass-produced a large number of speed boats with rocket launchers and other sophisticated military equipment which are able to strike a heavy blow on any foreign warship if the country comes under attack.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran announced Tuesday that it has put the elite Revolutionary Guards in charge of defending the country's territorial Persian Gulf waters in what appeared to be a hardening of its stance in the vital oil route. U.S. commanders in the Gulf have in the past said they find Guards ships more confrontational than the regular Iranian navy, which until the new order was responsible for Iranian defenses in the Gulf. Iran has warned repeatedly that it will close the narrow Hormuz Strait at the mouth of the Gulf if the United States or Israel attacks it amid...

Kuwait has activated its Emergency War Plan after an armada of US naval battle groups headed for the Persian Gulf, Middle East Times reports. The report comes after DEBKAfiles claimed on Monday that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the USS Ronald Reagan, and the USS Iwo Jima are sailing toward the Persian Gulf to reinforce the US strike forces in the region. The US naval force is accompanied by a British Royal Navy carrier battle group and a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine. The deployment is believed to be the largest naval task force assembled by the United States and its allies...

Operation Brimstone ended only one week ago. This was the joint US/UK/French naval war games in the Atlantic Ocean preparing for a naval blockade of Iran and the likely resulting war in the Persian Gulf area. The massive war games included a US Navy supercarrier battle group, an US Navy expeditionary carrier battle group, a Royal Navy carrier battle group, a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine plus a large number of US Navy cruisers, destroyers and frigates playing the "enemy force". The lead American ship in these war games, the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN71) and its Carrier Strike Group Two (CCSG-2)...

Two additional United States naval aircraft carriers are heading to the Gulf and the Red Sea, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait Times. Kuwait began finalizing its "emergency war plan" on being told the vessels were bound for the region. The US Navy would neither confirm nor deny that carriers were en route. US Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said it could not comment due to what a spokesman termed "force-protection policy." While the Kuwaiti daily did not name the ships it believed were heading for the Middle East, The Media Line's defense analyst said they could...

Two additional United States naval aircraft carriers are heading to the Gulf and the Red Sea, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait Times. Kuwait began finalizing its "emergency war plan" on being told the vessels were bound for the region. The US Navy will neither confirm nor deny that carriers are currently en route. US Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said it could not comment because of what a spokesman termed "force-protection policy." While the Kuwaiti daily did not name the ships it believes are heading for the Middle East, The Media Line's defense analyst said they...

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Operational Brimstone, starting Monday, July 21, aimed at giving military teeth to the two-week ultimatum the six world powers gave Iran in Geneva Saturday to accept the suspension of uranium enrichment or face harsh sanctions and isolation. The penalty of withholding refined oil products from Iran would be exercised by means of a partial international naval blockade of its Gulf ports. Taking part in the 10-day exercise in the Atlantic Ocean are more than a dozen ships, including the US carrier strike group Theodore Roosevelt and expeditionary strike group Iwo Jima; the French submarine Amethyste,...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran tested more missiles in the Persian Gulf, state media reported Thursday, a day after the country drew Western criticism for test-firing nine rockets.

TEHERAN - Iran reiterated that it would block the oil export route in the Persian Gulf if attacked, a Teheran newspaper reported Saturday. "It is understood that a country would use all possible options against an aggressor if militarily attacked. In that case, Iran would also intensify control of the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz," the commander of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards told Jam'e Jam daily. General Mohammad Ali Jafari also warned neighbouring countries not to take part in any military strike plans against Iran. The general made the statement in reference to reports that the United States and...

MEXICO CITY, April 30, 2008 – The movement of a second aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf this week doesn’t signal an escalation of the U.S. naval presence -- but could serve as a “reminder” of it to countries in the region, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here last night. Gates did not specifically name Iran when responding to a reporter’s question about the arrival this week of USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf. “The size of our naval presence in the Gulf rises and falls constantly,” he said. “This deployment has been planned for a long time. I...

A second American aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf Tuesday as the Pentagon ordered military commanders to develop new options for attacking Iran. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that the planning is being driven by what one officer called the "increasingly hostile role" Iran is playing in Iraq - smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.

A vessel contracted by the Navy in the Persian Gulf fired warning shots Thursday on two Iranian fast boats, FOX News has learned. The Westward Venture, a ship contracted by the Navy to carry military cargo to Kuwait, fired upon the boats Thursday after attempts to get Iranian boats' attention failed. The ship was about 50 miles off the coast of Iran when the fast boats approached. A Navy security team, armed with M16 rifles and .50-caliber machine guns, was onboard at the time the warning shots were fired.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices rose sharply Friday on news reports that a ship under contract to the U.S. Navy fired warning shots at two Iranian boats. The report on Fox News raised concerns that a conflict between U.S. and Iranian forces could cut oil supplies from the Persian Gulf region. Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose $2.85 to $118.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier rising as high as $119.50. Prices were already up before the report on news of a pipeline attack in Nigeria and a looming refinery strike in Scotland. At...

U.S. and Gulf allies in exercise to block ships carrying WMDs April 21, 2008 ABU DHABI — The United States has held a rare naval exercise with Gulf states which it said was not directed at Iran. The U.S. Navy began the exercise on April 19 meant to test Gulf Cooperation Council capabilities to block the entry of ships that carry weapons of mass destruction. This was the second such exercise in the Gulf in as many years. Officials said Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar participated in the exercise while representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia observed.

Another source: http://cbs2chicago.com/national/iran.naval.confrontation.2.697662.html The Navy says a ship encountered a small Iranian high-speed boat in the central Persian Gulf and warned it away by firing a flare. Two other similar Iranian boats in the area did not come as close. The USS Typhoon tried unsuccessfully to establish radio contact with the Iranian boat after it came within an estimated 200 yards of the Typhoon on Thursday, outside Iranian territorial waters. A Navy official says the ship then fired the flare and continued on its way without incident. The official says there were no signs any boat was armed. It was...

Nothing followed.

Updates welcome. The story just showed up. Casus belli ?

An American nuclear submarine has crossed the Suez Canal to join the US fleet stationed in the Persian Gulf, Egyptian sources say. Egyptian officials reported that the nuclear submarine crossed the canal along with a destroyer on Friday and Egyptian forces were put on high alert when the navy convoy was passing through the canal. An American destroyer recently left the Persian Gulf, heading towards the Mediterranean Sea; earlier Thursday, a US Navy rescue ship crossed the canal to enter the Red Sea. The deployment comes as recent reports allege that US Vice President Dick Cheney is seeking to rally...

ARABIAN GULF — The Royal Navy has taken command of the Coalition Maritime Forces protecting Iraq's vital oil platforms in the Northern Arabian Gulf. Commodore Duncan Potts RN has taken over command of Combined Task Force 158 (CTF158) from Commodore Allan du Toit of the Royal Australian Navy. Command of the Task Force is rotated between the UK, US and Australia. The UK last held command of CTF158 in July 2007 and will command the Task Force until August. Combined Task Force 158's primary mission in the Northern Arabian Gulf is maintaining security in and around both the Al Basrah...

Turns out Google already had another cartographic controversy on its hands. Earlier this week we learned of an Israeli city's slander lawsuit against the search giant based upon Google's refusal to remove a user-generated Google Earth notation that identifies the community of Kiryat Yam as Arab Ghawarina. A Google spokesperson told me that the notation violated no aspect of the company's terms of use agreement, no matter how much it violated the sensibilities of Kiryat Yam officials. In this second controversy, however, Google does not have the "We didn't do it" card at its disposal. That's because Google itself has...

Iran bristles as French forces head for war games in the Gulf By Ben Hall in Paris and Simeon Kerr in Dubai February 23 2008 French armed forces will take part in large-scale war games in the Gulf next week, underlining France's growing military presence in the region amid heightened tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions. France will deploy 1,500 personnel, two frigates and eight Mirage fighter jets to the defence exercises, held in conjunction with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Paris has long-standing defence co-operation agreements with the two countries and is one of their biggest suppliers of arms....

Not content with finishing construction of the "The World", a constellation of man-made islands forming the shape of the continents, Dubai's developer, Nakheel, is to build "The Universe": an archipelago of reclaimed islands depicting the sun and the planets and moons of the solar system. Only half of The World's islands have been sold, but Sultan bin Sulayem, Nakheel's chairman, says Dubai is pressing ahead with another offshore project. Residents have already moved into apartments and villas on Palm Jumeirah, the city's first reclaimed development, which will boast several deluxe hotels, including a refurbished Queen Elizabeth II, the liner's final...

PARIS (AP) - For sale: A palatial pleasure yacht with swimming pools, opulent salons and, should the winds of war blow, a rocket launcher and mini-submarine. The sale of the 269-foot Ocean Breeze, built for Saddam Hussein and docked on the French Riviera, could be thwarted, however, if Iraq can prove it belongs to someone in the late dictator's entourage - and now, therefore, to the government in Baghdad. A court hearing will likely be held in March to determine the rightful owner. The government in Baghdad suspects the yacht, which French authorities seized on Jan. 31, is still Iraqi....

Open letter to Google Earth 2008-01-26 Open letter to Google Earth Google Earth uses the incorrect name of the Persian Gulf It has come to our attention that Google Earth has been using an unrecognized name for the Always and Forever, Persian Gulf. Considering the fact that it is in Googles interest as a search engine is to support educational and scientific institution, it is hard for us to fathom how they made reference to the Persian Gulf with an unrecognized name. The United Nations, in addition to historical records and facts that date back more than thousands of years,...

Iran Says French Base in Gulf "Not Conducive" to Peace February 03, 2008 Reuters Fredrik Dahl TEHRAN -- Iran declared on Sunday that a French military base in the Gulf would not help security and peace in the oil-rich region. Paris signed a deal with the United Arab Emirates in January to build France's first permanent military installation in the Gulf, just across the water from Iran. The base will accommodate 400 to 500 personnel, keeping France within reach of sea lanes through which over a third of global oil shipments pass. "We are against any kind of increase in...

TEHRAN (AFP) - A gas field with an estimated 11 trillion cubic feet in reserves has been discovered in the Gulf off the coast of Iran, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said on Saturday. "A gas field with an estimated reserve of 11 trillion cubic feet (311 billion cubic metres) was found by an Indian company in the Persian Gulf," Nozari told a news conference.

CAIRO, Egypt - Iran's top military commander said Saturday that his forces would retaliate against American military bases in the Persian Gulf if they are involved in any possible future attack on Iran.

Six gulf states control sovereign wealth fund assets of some $1.7 trillion. Here are the men who manage these funds The men who manage the so-called sovereign wealth funds of the Persian Gulf for their governments are quickly becoming some of the world's most powerful money managers. They are using billions from Persian Gulf oil revenues to change the face of global finance by buying big chunks of blue chip companies, partnering with private equity firms to do buyouts, and increasingly snapping up companies on their own. As the credit crisis deepens, investment banks and buyout firms are stepping back...

IIn the movie “Die Hard 2,” a terrorist is laying out his nefarious plans to the air-traffic control chief — played by one Sen. Fred Thompson — at Dulles International Airport. “Dammit, you can't do this!” an aghast Thompson tells the terrorist character. “I am doing this!” snarls the terrorist. With similar melodramatic aplomb, the Iranians played a potentially deadly game of chicken just as all eyes were fixated on Thompson and the rest of the New Hampshire hopefuls. As Iranian speedboats confronted U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, a radio transmission intoned in the speaker's best Darth Vader English,...

George Bush calls Iran 'leading terror sponsor' By Damien McElroy In Riyadh Last Updated: 4:46pm GMT 13/01/2008 President George W Bush has condemned Iran as the foremost threat to global security as he attempted to rally Gulf states behind a tougher line against the Islamic Republic during a tour of the region. In a keynote speech in Abu Dhabi President Bush said it was time to confront an Iran that supported terrorism and defied the United Nations to pursue secret nuclear research. "Iran is today the world's leading state sponsor of terror," he said. "It sends hundreds of millions of...

WASHINGTON (AP) - An al-Qaida terror suspect detained in England was sent to the United States in early 2001 by the principal architect of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings to perform surveillance on economic targets in New York, according to U.S. officials and government interviews with other captured terror suspects. They said the suspect claimed he has associates in America, possibly in California. Abu Eisa al-Hindi was arrested in a roundup last week in Britain along with 11 others. The disclosure that al-Hindi also was known as Issa al-Britani provides tantalizing details that further link al-Hindi to recent Bush administration...

US reveals new Iran 'incidents' Iran has described the incident as an "ordinary occurrence" Iranian speedboats approached US warships in two previously undisclosed incidents in the Strait of Hormuz in December, a US Navy official has said.The USS Whidbey Island fired warning shots during one of the encounters on 19 December, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He also described a third stand-off on 6 January - that sparked US protests - as the most serious incident. Iran has accused the US of faking its video of the most recent encounter. 'Radio threat' The US official...

CAIRO, Egypt - The top U.S. military commander in the Mideast said Friday that Iran runs the risk of triggering an unintended conflict if its boats continue to harass U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf. Adm. William J. Fallon, chief of U.S. Central Command, said a threatening radio call heard during an encounter Sunday between U.S. Navy ships and Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz was likely connected to Iran's provocative actions. He said the exact origin of the message was still unknown. "This kind of behavior, if it happens in the future, is the kind of event that...

Lockheed eyes additional missile sales in Gulf Tue Jan 8, 2008 2:30pm EST By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has provided technical details to Saudi Arabia and Qatar about advanced systems to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles, hoping to add to missile sales already planned to the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, company officials said on Tuesday. The Bush administration last month announced plans for sales of Lockheed's Patriot PAC-3 missiles to the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait with a potential combined value of nearly $10.4 billion. The sales are part...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Two U.S. Navy fighter jets plunged into the Persian Gulf Monday, after what initial reports suggest was a mid-air collision, a defense official said. All three pilots ejected safely from the planes and were headed back to the USS Harry Truman, the aircraft carrier they were operating from, according to the official, who requested anonymity because the information was preliminary and not yet released publicly. No other details or the crash were released. One of the F-18 jets that crashed held two pilots, the other held just one. The crash occurred at about 1 p.m. EST.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's Foreign Ministry said Monday that a confrontation between Iranian boats and U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf over the weekend was "something normal" and was resolved. It suggested the Iranian boats had not recognized the U.S. vessels. The Pentagon said that in the incident early Sunday, five small Iranian boats repeatedly "charged" U.S. warships in the Gulf's Hormuz Strait and dropped boxes in the water. The boats warned the U.S. ships that they would set up "explosions," a U.S. Defense Department official said. The U.S. craft were on the verge of opening fire when the...

US Navy commanders were moments away from firing on Iranian attack ships during a skirmish in the Straits of Hormuz, it has emerged. Damien McElory: American armada prepares to take on IranA Pentagon spokesman revealed that five Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy boats harrassed and provoked three US ships in the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf at the weekend.   The Persian Gulf is the scene of tensions between Iran and the US The Iranian craft came within 200 yards of the US vessels, which were sailing in international waters. The Iranian provocations included disregarding warnings...

Why We're in the Persian Gulf December 27, 2007 WSJ Walter Russell Mead -excerpt- The U.S. today depends on the Middle East for only a small portion of its energy supplies. -Excerpt- Imports account for 35% of U.S. energy consumption versus 56% for the European Union and 80% for Japan. -excerpt- Only 17% of U.S. oil imports and less than 0.5% of our natural gas come from the Persian Gulf; 80% of Japan's imports come from the Gulf, and by 2015 70% of China's oil will come from the same source. -excerpt- ... a global economic and political system has...