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.
Unlikely. Those riverine boats are *faster* than the Iranian boats, and there aren't any bulletholes on either boat. How do they get ambushed without a shot fired and by slower boats?! I don't see that.
Fast boats. Fast boats that were just sitting there next to Farsi Island.
Littoral boats. Littoral fast boats that weren't in littoral waters, but rather than crossed 50+ miles of blue water to get to Farsi Island where they...stopped and waited.
Why? Probably has to do with North Korea's recent nuclear test and the docking of a North Korean ship at Farsi Island.
Might be due to North Korea's recent missile test, though. Could even have been a potential NK defection via Iran's Farsi Island.
For all of the above, you'd send in a SEAL team (or a Nuclear Emergency team in one case), probably via HALO insertion...
...and you'd need an extraction team with something a bit larger than the SEALs' normal SWCC rubber rafts. Something about the size of a riverine boat or two.
And that extraction team wouldn't tow a disabled fellow riverine boat out of Iranian waters. Nope. That extraction team would sit there anchored until our infiltrators made their exfiltration.
Redundancy is a good thing.
Giant conspiracy? Hardly.
The press was more than happy to take Iran’s word for it when Iran captured the British ship.
Thanks for the reminder- forgot about that!
The story was the boats were supposed to rendezvous somewhere to refuel. One boat ran out of fuel - for whatever reason- before the other. Maybe trying to avoid another country’s speedboats? Failure to check fuel before departure? Or a compromised tank, maybe from hitting unexpected debris in the water? Refilling a tank or patching it would not take long.
That Commander Xero would do this is entirely consistent with his anti-colonial character. Still, this is the part of Gohmert's story that gives me fits: This boat has twin propulsion systems. So how did it possible that it broke down so completely? How is it that a small boat that breaks down comes to the immediate attention of the President? Why would the Navy even bother to tell him when the standard procedure would be for the other boat to tow it back to the fleet?
I would think a boat with twin drives would have divorced fuel systems, if nothing else but for purposes of adjusting trim. Even if both sides were contaminated when fueling, they wouldn't both drop out simultaneously. If it was discovered to be a fuel problem (which is the first place anybody would look), the second filter could be drained and they could probably limp out of there on one engine. The story just doesn't make sense.
I think bloggers, in trying to sensationalize the headlines and such to get clicks, are implying/reading more into what Gohmert said than what he actually meant.
Could be. This just doesn’t add up. It makes no sense that two boats with twin screws would be disabled simultaneously.
None dare call it treason
forgot to fill address box.
Starts with tow line deployment.
Also occurs off Bahrain. Have to wonder if not same crews and boats that were captured.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u-raonCAX6k
Just checked wiki, according to them, USN purchased only 6 of the RCB-90’s from Sweden. So it seems there’s a 1:3 chance of the Bahrain video shows the captured boats and possibly crews.
Grapevine would know.
missed pinging you twice this am... need more coffee.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u-raonCAX6k
Just checked wiki, according to them, USN purchased only 6 of the RCB-90’s from Sweden. So it seems there’s a 1:3 chance of the Bahrain video shows the captured boats and possibly crews.
Grapevine would know.
Nice sleuthing..!
Obama IS the foreign power he surrendered to.
And in Terry Lakin’s court-martial it was already decided that it doesn’t matter.
Wow.
Because anybody who notices what he does is called a “crazy conspiracist” by supposed “conservatives”.
The threats to the media in October of 2008 set us up for this. The media decided that conspiracies don’t ever exist (unless they’re vast rightwing ones) and “our” side swallowed it hook, line, and sinker - just like these boats let Iran board without a fight. It’s ALL orchestrated by the thugs who own Obama.
The story goes the boats were returned.
Anything can be jammed if you have the power.
http://gpsworld.com/massive-gps-jamming-attack-by-north-korea/
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