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In Phases Two and Three of Iran's biggest sea exercise ever (May 6-7), debkafile's military sources report its Navy and Revolutionary Guards acted out a scenario for driving US naval forces out of the Persian Gulf after defeating them - as well as responding to potential retaliatory American WMD strikes. Thursday night, May 6, Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki meanwhile informed the 15 Security Council members he invited to dinner at UN headquarters, New York, that his government would "definitely continue its nuclear program." They all attended including a low-ranking US official. The eight-day war game, dubbed "The Last Prophet"...

Iran's navy will on Wednesday start eight days of war games in the Gulf and the Sea of Oman, state television said, less than two weeks after the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards held manoeuvres in the Gulf. Habibollah Sayari, commander of the navy, said the exercises would display its defence capability, Al Alam television, Iran's Arabic-language satellite television, reported on Tuesday. In exercises held in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz between April 22 and 25, official media said the Guards tested missiles and a new speedboat capable of destroying enemy ships. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman on Tuesday called...

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is expected to begin air, land and sea exercises in the Persian Gulf, perhaps as soon as Thursday, according to Iran's IRIB news agency. A U.S. military official separately confirmed to CNN that the United States has observed in recent days Iran is "relocating surface and air assets" for what appears to be a major exercise. The official did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. The exercise could last five days, according to Iranian media reports. Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy chief of the Revolutionary Guard, is quoted in...

US nuclear sub rammed another ship causing nearly £60MILLION damage - while its navigator was listening to his iPod. Sailors aboard the USS Hartford had also rigged up loudspeakers so they could play MUSIC on duty, an official report found last night. All at sea ... USS New Orleans before being rammed by the subSonar operators and radio men were missing from their posts. Others drove the attack sub while "with one hand on the controls and their shoes off", it said. The report slammed the navigator, who was listening to his iPod in his cabin while revising for an...

Iran's reported acquisition of a record-breaking British speedboat has raised fears it plans to arm it with high-speed Russian torpedoes to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier in hit-and-run raids if Iran is attacked because of its nuclear program. The Financial Times reported Sunday that Iran has got its hands on the 51-foot craft, the Bradstone Challenger, despite U.S. and British efforts to prevent it from obtaining the high-performance boat. The boat was designed by Lorne Camopbell of Britain and is powered by U.S. Caterpillar engines. It was built by ICE Marine of Britain. The project was partly financed by Navatek,...

Most Iranian military threats are more propaganda than reality. Take, for example, their threat to shut the Straits of Hormuz (where ships exit the Persian Gulf and enter the Indian Ocean). Some 40 percent of the worlds oil shipments pass through the Straits of Hormuz, which comes to about 15-20 tankers a day (plus a dozen or more non-tankers). The Persian Gulf in general, is a busy waterway. It is 989 kilometers long, and the average depth is 50 meters (maximum depth is 90 meters). The Iranian problem is that they have a small navy, an obsolete air force and...

Iran's nuclear weapons program is about so much more than destroying the "Zionist Entity." Iran wants to be a super power on the scale of the United States. Iraq acts like a super power feeding little satellite countries like Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, Senegal, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Nothing makes Iran happier than tweaking at the United States because its leadership feels that once it develops nuclear weapons Iran will be on par with the evil Satan, the USA. In September 2008, Iranian Elite forces took charge of the Strait of Hormuz. If they close the Strait, they stop 30%...

March 7, 2007 — A former U.S. Navy sailor has been charged with allegedly passing military secrets about U.S. Navy movements through waters in the Middle East to al Qaeda-related Web sites during the spring of 2001, just months after the USS Cole was attacked in Yemen. Hassan Abujihaad, formerly known as Paul R. Hall, allegedly passed information about U.S. Navy warship movements in the Straits of Hormuz in April 2001 while he was a member of the Navy. The information passed along contained details about vulnerabilites of U.S. vessels — including susceptibility to small boat attacks by terrorists. Abujihaad...

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...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - A federal judge has thrown out a former Navy sailor's conviction on providing support to terrorists. But upheld Wednesday was Hassan Abu Jihaad's (hah-SAHN' AH'-boo zhee-HAHD) conviction for disclosing classified information. Prosecutors say they are reviewing the ruling. Abu-Jihaad's conviction was hailed last year by top national security officials and federal investigators as a model of cooperation among government agencies. Abu-Jihaad was a signalman aboard the USS Benfold. He was accused of passing along information a drawing of the formation the group would use to pass through the dangerous Strait of Hormuz

U.S. Military: Tense Encounters With Iran Occur Almost Daily in Strait of Hormuz WASHINGTON — EXCLUSIVE: Amid false allegations from Iranian media that a U.S. plane was forced down after accidentally entering Iranian airspace, FOX News learned Tuesday about another tense incident that occurred last month near the Strait of Hormuz. On Sept. 6, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard threatened to shoot down U.S. helicopters flying cover aboard the USS Peliliu patrolling in the area, according to a classified military transcript of the radio exchange. According to the transcript, the Peleliu, while en route to the Strait from the Gulf of...

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, met with House Democrats yesterday, talking about his trip abroad and his observations. Obama told the caucus, according to an attendee, "Nobody said this to me directly but I get the feeling from my talks that if the sanctions don’t work Israel is going to strike Iran." The notion that Israel is preparing for such an action against Iran's myriad nuclear facilities is not new, with conjecture heating up in May after an Israeli military exercise featuring 150 aircraft flying almost a thousand miles over the Mediterranean Sea in what was seen as a dress rehearsal...

In case Iran’s interests in the region are jeopardized, it will shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz and will not allow the others to use it, Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Hassan Firuzabadi warned here on Saturday. “The Strait of Hormuz being open is of considerable importance for us but if our interests are ignored, it is all clear that we will close the strait” Firuzabadi stressed. Addressing the U.S. troops in the region, he said “The U.S. army belongs to its government and should not be abused by such warlike and extremists as George Bush...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's military chiefs warned on Saturday that the Islamic republic would shut down the Strait of Hormuz vital for oil exports and use "blitzkrieg tactics" in the Gulf if it came under attack.

January 10, 2008 2:59 AM EST Threat Assessment Regarding US Ships in the Persian Gulf Last weekend’s incident involving Iranian fast boats and US naval ships underscores the volatile nature of the Persian Gulf. During the incident, a US naval convoy was approached by five fast boats operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRG). The Iranian boats came within 200 meters of convoy and issued threats indicating that they were conducting a suicide attack of some sort. The Iranian boats then turned around and fled the area. The incident occurred in the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, through which 20%...

What Happens If Iran Blocks The Strait Of Hormuz? August 27, 2007 The Wall Street Journal Matt Chambers As tensions simmer between the U.S. and Iran, a big energy threat hangs over the world...Iran has said that if the U.S. attacks, it will respond by disrupting trade through the Strait of Hormuz -- the narrow gateway that tankers use to bring oil from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. About two-fifths of the world's seaborne oil passes through the Strait. As tensions simmer between the U.S. and Iran, a big energy threat hangs over the world. Iran...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine collided with a Japanese oil tanker in the Straits of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world's oil supplies travel, officials said. No one was hurt in the accident that happened Monday night in the 34-mile wide straits, which are bordered by Iran and Oman and serve as the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Damage to the fast-attack USS Newport News submarine and the supertanker was light and there was no resulting spill of oil or leakage of nuclear fuel, officials from the U.S. Navy and the Japanese government said....

A senior Iranian officer warned that if the West continues to threaten Iran's economy over its nuclear program, Teheran will discontinue the flow of oil via the Strait of Hormuz, Israel Radio reported Monday.