[blam]

FYI: The Persian Gulf was completely dry during the last Ice Age.

Click here to see for yourself.

[tobyhill]

Iran better be ready for the nasty letter in all caps from the State Dept.

[GulfBreeze]

Ron Paul issued an immediate apology and promised to stay out of international waters once elected president!!!!!!!!

[Michael Barnes]

Ping to you, saw your earlier thread, thought you might be interested.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

U.S.-Iran naval confrontation in Gulf raises tensions

*********************EXCERPT********************

While the US State Department demands an explanation, Iran's Foreign Ministry calls the incident 'normal.'

By Gordon Lubold | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the January 8, 2008 edition

Washington - Five Iranian fast boats confronted a small flotilla of US Navy ships in the Persian Gulf in a "careless, reckless and potentially hostile" incident Sunday, Pentagon officials said.

The incident, which ended after the Iranian boats turned away with no shots fired, occurred as President Bush prepared to visit the Middle East for talks this week. It considerably raises tensions between Iran and the United States.

The US Navy routinely encounters Iranian boats in the region, but the actions of the Iranian Navy on Sunday are "more serious than we've seen," said Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, commander of the US Fifth Fleet.

"These are unnecessarily provocative [actions] in international waters," Admiral Cosgriff told reporters by videoconference from his headquarters in Bahrain.

Three US Navy ships – the cruiser USS Port Royal, the destroyer USS Hopper, and the frigate USS Ingraham – were on patrol about 12 miles from Iranian territory in the Strait of Hormuz early Sunday when five small boats associated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards approached them, Pentagon officials said. The fast boats, highly maneuverable patrol craft, were "visibly armed," a Pentagon spokesman said, and began aggressive maneuvers against the three American ships, steaming in formation into the Persian Gulf.

The boats got within 200 to 500 yards of the American ships before splitting into two groups. At least one of the fast boats then dropped several white boxes in the water in the pathway of the Ingraham, which successfully dodged them, considering them potential floating mines. Commanders of the US ships also received radio communications thought to be from one of the Iranian boats in which they heard an individual say in English, "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes."

A Navy official said it was impossible to determine if the radio transmission actually came from one of the five boats.

Taken together, however, the American ships began to employ other evasive maneuvers and were prepared to "take appropriate action" before the five boats turned away, officials said.

One of the US ships was reported to be on the verge of shooting at one of the Iranian boats but apparently the boats turned away before the commanding officer gave that command, officials said.

Navy officials would not be specific about the kinds of precautions the US ships took, citing the classified nature of the rules of engagement during such incidents.

Cosgriff said it's dangerous for Iranian boats to provoke American ships in such a way because US naval ships are prepared to defend themselves as they ramp up their procedures in response to a threat.

********************************snip***************************

The US State Department and the National Security Council are demanding an explanation of what they termed was harassment from the Iranian government.

"What we're doing now is reviewing the situation and trying to make a determination to see what level we would lodge some form of formal protest or discussions with the Iranians with this thing," says a State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

[Parley Baer]

I think the Iranians realized at the last moment that the US Navy means business and is not to be messed with. I think they got the wrong message from the British incident with the Cornwall and thought it would also apply to the US Navy. They guessed wrong.

[Candor7]

I have no idea why the US Navy does not have Psy Ops against the Iranian naval probes and harassment.

I mean a cannister round full of pork fat exploding in proximity to an Iranian ship would render it inoperable for months while it was cleaned. No Muslim would come aboard her to work. And infidels would have to be hired to scour the ship down , have it repurified by mullahs and re painted. We would be economically benefiting infidels in Iran!

Seriously. Pig grease is a weapon that we should be using in these encounters with a great deal of delight.

There would not be any more probing of US Navy ROE.

[kingu]

A New York Times articles states: The Hopper had trained an M240 machine gun — which fires upward of 10 armor-piercing slugs per second — on one of the Iranian boats that had pulled to within 200 yards of the American vessel, well within the gun’s range, Pentagon officials said. But before the order to fire was issued, the Iranian boat suddenly steered away from the Hopper.

First, why anyone would let armed patrol boats come that close -- there's got to be more to the story. Especially the claim by the New York Times that a M240 machine gun would be trained on a potentially hostile vessel. Did they install these after the USS Cole incident for port usage? In open waters, it just doesn't make sense that these would be manned or considered a defensive weapon. I mean, a 7.62mm round?

And if it was as pictured, with broadcast threats, you'd assume the automatics would be turned on.

Something is just plain strange. They were late transiting the straight due to the absence of one crew member, suspected to have gone overboard a couple days before, but - I don't know how tired you'd have to be to defend a frigate with a small arms machine gun, or let potentially hostile boats that close in.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I like this headline from the Times - UK:

‘Reckless’ Iranians threaten to blow up American warships in the Gulf

*************************************EXCERPTS**************************************

The radio message received by three American warships as they entered the narrow Strait of Hormuz sent the crews to action stations for an imminent attack.

Five Iranian speedboats had been detected on the radar, approaching fast in the dim light of the early Gulf morning. As they sped towards the group they slipped suspicious boxes into the water.

However, it was the warning transmitted as they closed in that threatened to turn a potentially hostile manoeuvre into a dangerous incident that could have spiralled out of control. “I am coming at you, you will explode in a couple of minutes,” the message said.

***********************snip************************

The confrontation between the five gunboats and the US Navy ships that took place on Sunday was described by the Pentagon as “the most serious provocation of this sort that we’ve seen yet”. The incident, which lasted about 20 minutes, was “careless, reckless and potentially hostile”, Bry-an Whitman, the Pentagon spokesman, said. He demanded an explanation from the Iranians.

The Pentagon said that the Iranian boats had turned away “at the very moment that US forces were preparing to open fire in self-defence”.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which took command of Iran’s naval operations in the Gulf last November, has proved on many occasions that it is prepared to be antagonistic towards Western warships in the crowded shipping lane, twice seizing Royal Navy craft and their crews and holding them hostage – in 2004 and again last year. In Sunday’s incident, at about 5am local time, the Iranian speedboats “swarmed” around the US warships and gave every indication of wanting to provoke the Americans into opening fire. The threat to bomb the ships was the first time that the Iranians had used such a ploy to heighten the tension, although Tehran tried to play the whole incident down by saying that it was a routine manoeuvre.

Under US rules of engagement, warships under threat are entitled to open fire in self-defence and to take preemptive action if the evidence points to an imminent attack. Why the US commanders held back after receiving the radio message was not clear. But the gamble paid off. No shots were fired and no one was hurt.

However, Sean McCormack, the US State Department spokesman, said that America would “confront Iranian behaviour where it seeks to do harm either to us or our friends or allies in the region”.

The White House said the harassment of the US ships by Iran was “provocative” and warned Tehran against taking similar action in the future. “We urge the Iranians to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future,” Gordon Johndroe, the White House spokesman, said.

[MarkL]

Doesn't Iran also have very quiet DE subs (russian or ex-soviet, supposedly with brand new russian extremely high speed torpedos) and chinese silkworm anti-ship missiles?

I'm also wondering if the CIWS can be used against surface targets. But then it wouldn't surprise me if there was a "swarm attack" of these speed boats and in the middle of it, a "swarm" of silkworms as well, and maybe a torpedo attack too... I'll bet they'd do anything, and sacrifice an awful lot just to put an American ship out of action, or sink it.

A very dangerous game, they're playing.

Mark

[khnyny]

This crap has been happening for a long time. I’ve heard stories similar to this from the ‘80’s that never made it into the MSM.

[ken21]

good show!

[BJungNan]

Five Iranian patrol boats came within 200 yards of the US vessels, issued threats over the radio and dropped mysterious objects into the water.

200 feet is too close. Glad our team kept their cool but next time they should fire away.

[Damifino]

Geesh! Is that pic real? We could take that little armada out with our wake!

Oh, and the rest of the world started using trim-tabs back in the '70s.