Posted on 06/13/2019 11:31:41 AM PDT by Red Badger
U.S. Secretary of STate Mike Pompeo has blamed Iran for the "blatant assault" on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman earlier on Thursday.
In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Pompeo said Iran is working to disrupt the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz and are a deliberate part of a campaign to escalate tension.
His comments came shortly after a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News that it saw an unexploded mine attached to the hull of the Panama-listed, Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous ship, one of the two ships attacked. It is the same type of mine used to damage four oil tankers last month in the same area - an attack senior Pentagon officials blamed on Iran.
A spokesman for Taiwan's CPC Corp oil refiner, which chartered the other boat attacked on Thursday morning, the Front Altair, said it was "suspected of being hit by a torpedo", although his not been confirmed.
2 OIL TANKERS DAMAGED IN SUSPECTED ATTACK IN THE GULF OF OMAN, CREW EVACUATED
Whether it be a torpedo or mines, Jakob P. Larsen, head of maritime security for BIMCO, told the Associated Press that the incident brings the region closer to an armed conflict.
“The shipping industry views this as an escalation of the situation, and we are just about as close to a conflict without there being an actual armed conflict, so the tensions are very high,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Yes we do.
But tell Iran over & over & over that if an American ship gets attacked then Operation Praying Mantis 2.0 will be way worse than the first one.
Nope, bomb Venezuela.
Amen. George Will and Bill Kristol and Jonah Goldberg have their war paint on and are whooping it up with an indian war dance.
There's a wrestling character I would like to see...The Retard!
And the Neocons and Transnationalists try to get the US entangled in yet another war.
Don’t buy it, folks.
This is a cause of “Lets You and Him fight” by someone who has something to gain from harming the US and Iran.
“We” don’t know anything. And I sure as hell don’t trust my government to tell the truth about any of this.
I agree Iran needs to be dealt with at some point, but it would be nice for once if everyone in government would be this pumped up to protect the border.
It is time for Americans to tell the Military-Industrial Complex to sod off.
One of our greatest presidents Eisenhower in his farewell address to the American people on the evening of January 17, 1961 warned America about the threat that the Military-Industrial Complex is to our republic and our freedom. Eisenhower, like a biblical prophet of old, accurately predicted the situation that the American people face today:
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system — ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.”
“I sure as hell don’t trust my government to tell the truth about any of this.”
Any?
Absolutely.
The Nayirah testimony was a false testimony given before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990 by a 15-year-old girl who provided only her first name, Nayirah. The testimony was widely publicized, and was cited numerous times by United States senators and President George H. W. Bush in their rationale to back Kuwait in the Gulf War. In 1992, it was revealed that Nayirah's last name was al-Ṣabaḥ (Arabic: نيرة الصباح) and that she was the daughter of Saud Al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States.Furthermore, it was revealed that her testimony was organized as part of the Citizens for a Free Kuwait public relations campaign, which was run by the American public relations firm Hill & Knowlton for the Kuwaiti government. Following this, al-Sabah's testimony has come to be regarded as a classic example of modern atrocity propaganda.
Here is the kicker. We found an unexploded limpet mine on one of the freighters. You can bet we will recover it and dismantle and find its origin.
That’s when the fly will be in the buttermilk.
Bravo! Just say NO to the deep-state, neocon, AIPAC warmongers.
I tend to agree with you on this.
Since the 1990's I feel that America's intelligence
agencies have ceased working for what's best for America
and it's people. Who do they represent now?
Who do they take orders from ..... ????
“going to war with at this time, and that country is Mexico.”
OK, would you intern all the Mexican citizens living in the US?
“OK, would you intern all the Mexican citizens living in the US?”
All you have to do is tell them that they have 2 months to get out of the country voluntarily or their assets will be siezed and they will be rounded up and forcibly deported.
*** On Mexico, he is crickets chirping... ***
All his global war mongering while ignoring the border. Isn’t the SOS supposed to represent/promote the interests of the USA? Seems his loyalties lie elsewhere.
Even then, who’s to say that some foreign power didn’t divert an Iranian mine into a shipping lane in order to stir the pot?
Remember, the CIA developed software to plant files on other’s computers and making it looked like the Russians or Chinese did it.
This kind of deception does occur.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.