Posted on 01/17/2016 1:57:49 PM PST by Taxman
CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, January 18, 2016
Iranian coup: A tale of two U.S. Navy vessels
Last week, the U.S. Navy dispatched two of its fearsomely armed Riverine Command Boats (RCBs) to patrol between Kuwait and Bahrain. Somehow, the RCBs were seized by the Iranian Navy; the crewmembers arrested, and -- even though the U.S. and Iran are not technically at war -- treated as Prisoners of War (POWs). How could this happen?
The Swedish-designed, U.S.- manufactured RCBs cost $2.8 million per copy. Each RCB carries six machine guns, to include a .50 caliber Gatling gun, plus grenade launchers. Covered with armor plating able to deflect AK-47 fire, the RCB’s 49.4 mile-per-hour top speed means RCBs can outrun every known surface warship.
To guard against surprise attack, RCBs carry the Sea FLIR III infrared sensor system, thermal imaging, a laser rangefinder, and long-range radar. Navigation is by a top-of-the line GPS and chart plotter system, along with traditional chart and compass back-up. The RCB’s world-wide communications gear nets with ships, aircraft, and ground forces.
Operating in pairs, the RCBs provide each other with mutual fire support. If one RCB is disabled, the other RCB can tow it to safety. Thus, the question arises: How could two RCBs lose their ability to navigate at the same time and stray into Iranian waters? And how could two world-class weapons platforms be seized by the, arguably, inferior Iranian Navy?
Apparently, one of the RCBs had a propulsion problem and radioed U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain for assistance. Congressman Louis Gohmert (R) of Texas claims the Obama White House intervened, asked the Iranian Navy to provide assistance, and ordered the U.S. 5th Fleet to stand down.
By long-standing naval custom, disabled boats found in territorial waters are rendered assistance, and simply escorted back into international waters. Their crews are not subjected to POW treatment or put on world-wide video display, looking like criminals.
But, instead of being treated as distressed vessels exercising the mariners’ right of innocent passage, the Iranians arrested the crew members, treated them as POWs, and, somehow, got the officer-in-charge to make filmed statements praising the Iranians and saying the treatment the crew received was: "Fantastic."
Absent Congressman Gohmert’s explanation -- citing White House intervention -- it appears Articles II and V of the U.S. military’s Code of Conduct were violated. Article II states: "I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender the members of my command while they still have the means to resist." Article V reads: "When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am required to give name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the best of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause."
Alternatively, could it be that the White House-imposed Rules of Engagement (ROE) robbed the RCBs of their "means to resist"? Were the RCB’s awesome weapons even permitted to be loaded? Congress should demand to see the Operations Order under which the two RCBs left Kuwait for Bahrain and demand copies of all the communications between the RCBs, U.S. 5th Fleet, and the White House. Meanwhile, the RCB crews are left twisting in the wind.
Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, is a laureate of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame, and is a recipient of the University of Nebraska 2015 Alumni Achievement Award. He was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the Infantry School, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.
©2016. William Hamilton.
The Iranians gave the boats back AFTER they had time to go over them .
So BO and Kerry asked the Iranians to help?arresting our sailors is a strange way of offering assistance. Must be a muzzle thing
On one of the Travis McGee threads yesterday, one thing stood out to me as making sense: if we get the boats back and the gps / electronic info is all scrubbed, or if we don’t get the boats back at all, then this could have happened in international waters. We would have no way of knowing. Also, if these sailors are all sworn to secrecy.
Definitely a setup. We can’t say by whom but the admin is today crowing about how Iran suddenly stopped wanting to make nukes now. Mm,hmmm, sure....
"I'll turn these US military lemons into some diplomatic lemonaide, and I'll serve it up at the SOTU..!!!"
"I'll say, George Bush made ENEMIES of the Iranians, who still burn him in effigy, and just LOOK...! Now I have them RESCUING US military people..! It's like the Iranians are the new Jose's at my White House car-wash --shine it up, pretty..! FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION, BOOM..!!"
It sounds like he was dreaming the wet-dream of an academic, and instead the Iranians took him to school and passed him around the cell-block like a cheap pack of smokes.
Riverine craft are literal boats.
Literally?
I would like to hear more about your scenario. Who would “our boys” have been that were being exfiltrated?
Or some Revolutionary Guard commander stuck out in the middle of Farsi island takes the initiative and intercepts and captures some Americans that strayed in range thinking he's going to get promoted and get the hell off Farsi.
Meanwhile, Obama is planning his new Iranian peace wing of this library and the mullahs are picking out which marble is going into the bathroom of the new jet he's buying with this windfall when this blows up.
The mullahs scream at the Farsi commander to let them go so they can get their new toys on schedule and for the 1st time ever Iranians let Americans leave in their own boats with even a full tank of gas for their trouble.
Littoral
The look away from.the camera says F-You to.Iran
Looks like this was a pre-arranged setup. The Iranians wanted one extra drop of humiliation and especially wanted to humiliate the U.S. Navy, that they’re never been able to touch until now. Obola wanted the civilian hostages back. Hence, a corrupt deal: Obola would send the boats on a sitting duck mission where they’d be captured, their crews publicly humiliated and then returned; in return, the civilian hostages would be returned. The boats’ OIC gave it away by putting such a happy face, sort like the day the hogs et his sister.
Is his first name Mohammed?
Close. Contaminated Fuel. If this is the same boat I looked up it's a twin engine boat. If one is down due to that engines failure it should in theory limp in on one. So what would disable both engines putting a boat Dead In Water? A fuel issue is all I can think of mechanically unless there was some shared electronic control. The most common fuel issue is contamination. Although they run on DFM, JP5, or JP8, it seems there has been some bio-fuel testing as well.
#bringbackourboats
I have bad gas right now! But I wouldn’t surrender to Iranians because of it!
That guiding principle of this administration...
Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Or is it, never allow an opportunity to screw America not develop?
Maybe they just had a couple of boats to give away.
If there’s a violation of Iranian territorial waters, I could see it going to the White House pretty quickly.
Obowma should have sent over the entire fleet of LCS boats. They prolly would have had mechanical difficulties and are truly worthless.
One obvious explanation would be an Iranian jamming of GPS and perhaps radio communications. THE GPS jamming would pemit false signals towards a nearby Iranian navy vessel. Iranian rational would be a show of strength for internal consumption (since population will not notice the freeing of funds). US rational is communication security.
WTF!! Are you kidding me? Obama sicked the Iranians on our men? That IS TREASON!! Where is the congress?? This makes me sick@!!
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