Alert for ‘Iraqi tankers’ off Crete with top Iraqi government officials on board

ekathimerini.com ^ | Thursday April 10, 2003 | NEWS

[Destro]

Thursday April 10, 2003

Alert for ‘Iraqi tankers’ off Crete

The coast guard has been placed on high alert following a warning from US authorities that three fuel tankers believed to have sailed from a Middle Eastern port with top Iraqi government officials on board could be heading for Greek waters, sources said yesterday.

Also yesterday, US Ambassador Thomas Miller asked Defense Minister Yiannos Papantoniou for Greece to send military medical personnel and stores to US and British-occupied Iraq. Sources said Papantoniou avoided committing himself, arguing that participation in such a mission would hinge on whether the overall effort is organized by the United Nations.

Meanwhile, coast guard sources said air and sea patrols have been stepped up in response to the US tanker tip-off. It is believed that senior Baath party officials, together with members of their families, may have managed to escape US and British forces that entered Baghdad and Basra, and boarded the tankers in an unspecified port belonging to an Arab country.

The ships, according to information made available to the coast guard, are heading for a European Union port, and will probably pass through international waters south of Crete within the next few days.

However, if US and NATO warships patrolling the area manage to locate the tankers, it is believed that the ships could enter Greek territorial waters.

Coast guard vessels, including patrol boats equipped with state-of-the-art electronic tracking devices and manned with special forces, have already set off for Crete from the eastern Aegean. The coast guard is also in close cooperation with the Greek navy and NATO officials.

[Destro]

I know it is not a good time to be a Turkish booster like yourself.

[CholeraJoe]

Have you heard which wing the B-1 that nailed Saddam's bunker was from? Both the 28th and the 7th have aircraft in the gulf.

[fivecatsandadog]

Ship of Fools

[peeve23]

Since we're at war, sink them.

[Fury]

I will note that Turkey made some choices as well... My apologies for omitting them.

[nepdap]

A tanker, huh? That reminds me -- whatever happened to those two mystery ships we heard about a couple of weeks ago? They were supposedly just circling around in the ocean, and there was some thought that they might be hiding WMDs.

[Destro]

No one wants to board the damn things and arrest the Ba'athist?

[Illbay]

...such a mission would hinge on whether the overall effort is organized by the United Nations.

Oh, geez, don't these people get it?

For 90% of the world, "the U.N. should organize things" is their excuse for doing nothing. The excuse that led to a further twelve years of horror for the Iraqi people.

[Mister Baredog]

Freedom means the right to say no. See my 10.

That's a cute saying but here's another: you can tell who your friends are, they are with you in a time of need. I'm guessing we asked them for medical help for injured people. Their excuse is the UN hasn't approved. This is pure crap. Greece is one of Europes most anti-American countries. With friends like these.... Your argument reminds me of the protestors "we have the right"., yes, that's true, and we have a right to remember your actions.

[Illbay]

The S.S. Lusitania more like.

[Illbay]

It's the GREEK Coast Guard they're talking about.

[Illbay]

That's the point.

IMO, Mr. Bush needs to seek every opportunity to subtly discredit the U.N. (which he's done a very good job of so far).

We need to slowly, surely destroy that stupid, feckless cesspool of socialism and despotism.

[tubebender]

Do each of those little bugs have a specific destination preprogramed ?

[Republic]

Still-sorry to learn the Greek gov't is worried about what the UN says. Kinda silly. Any institution that would allow Syria to head its human rights commission or even consider Iraq heading a disarmmament commission is just plain ridiculous. The UN has been transformed into a socialist gulag of cowardly, anti-freedom PC wimps.

[Destro]

As long as they do not obstruct let freedom ring.

[browardchad]

Not from the Greek point of view. Greece doesn't have the money for it nor does the public have the will to send troops over for said mission either if the money was found.

Stawman. What was asked for were military medical personnel and their related supplies -- obviously to help out at the 100+ hospitals in Baghdad, and others elsewhere, that are in as yet unsafe locations, and thus best aided by military doctors familiar with battlefields and related injuries. We didn't ask for troops or any great monetary layout. It appears that Greece is using the UN for cover not to participate, even in a humanitarian effort.

[Axolotl]

I have my doubts about this...there are always these reports of these mystery ships carrying things we can't find (Osama, WMD, and now Saddam).

[Cachelot]

You want to sink an oil tanker?

Not a problem. Just so long as you burn the sh*t. See, all the oil tankers sunk in WWII did not create environmental disasters.

Hey, sharks: deep-fried apparatchiks coming up :).

Of course, we could let them go to France and bomb them in the harbor.

[formercalifornian]

maybe not, but they sure have huge anti-American rallies!

[Destro]

Of course.