I’ll tell you what happened (my best guess). One boat had trouble. The other boat stopped to help. Realized they couldn’t fix the issue at sea, so they radioed it in.
Their superiors realized there were on the other side of an international border. Thus, they could not send assistance with out “cross border authorization”, which would have to come from the Secretary of State. It goes up the chain of command. John Kerry makes the genius decision that he should ask his Iranian “buddies” to help out, because of course, they owe him a favor (he thinks). He notifies the Navy to tell the boats to stay put and to not resist the Iranians “rescuers” who will be coming by.
That explains why they didn’t just get on the other boat and hightail it, why there was no resistance to a boarding party, and why they didn’t follow standard procedures for captured soldiers. They had already received orders overriding all those normal procedures, and those orders could only come from John Kerry, because this was a cross-border situation in which he would have the final say.
Did Boat #1 have a towing rope?
The 2nd boat couldn't just tow the first boat, and head due West out of Iranian waters?
I would buy that explanation, but it seems to me that there is a item carried on most all boats, called a rope.
I do not buy a word of your theory
They could have just towed the disabled boat back out into international waters. This is something else entirely. The straits are only a few miles wide. We have a carrier fleet patrolling in there. This whole thing stinks to high heaven.
Sounds like Ash Carter must be about up to his eyebrows in frustration.
“I’ll tell you what happened (my best guess). One boat had trouble. The other boat stopped to help. Realized they couldn’t fix the issue at sea, so they radioed it in.
Their superiors realized there were on the other side of an international border. Thus, they could not send assistance with out “cross border authorizationâ€, which would have to come from the Secretary of State. It goes up the chain of command. John Kerry makes the genius decision that he should ask his Iranian “buddies†to help out, because of course, they owe him a favor (he thinks). He notifies the Navy to tell the boats to stay put and to not resist the Iranians “rescuers†who will be coming by.
That explains why they didn’t just get on the other boat and hightail it, why there was no resistance to a boarding party, and why they didn’t follow standard procedures for captured soldiers. They had already received orders overriding all those normal procedures, and those orders could only come from John Kerry, because this was a cross-border situation in which he would have the final say.”
That doesn’t explain why the Navy doesn’t carry rope anymore. The kind used to pull a boat with another one.
Since when can SOS a cross boarder action? I thought it had to be CIC. That is at the heart of the Benghazi trouble. CIC was not available.