The "threatening" incident was as phony as........

[Crazy Horse]

I'm becoming very intrested in this Kpete primitive

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2788426

kpete  (1000+ posts)       Tue Jan-29-08 06:52 PM
Original message
The “threatening” incident was as phony as the mobile biological weapons vans in the Iraqi desert 
 Edited on Tue Jan-29-08 06:53 PM by kpete
COMMENTARY: The Pretext to War


Painting by: EJ Fitzgerald, "Gulf of Tonkin" Courtesty of: Library of Congress

By James Bamford 01/29/2008
.............

The problem was, the “threatening” incident was as phony as the mobile biological weapons vans in the Iraqi desert, or the meeting between Mohamed Atta and Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agents in Prague, or the transfer of yellow cake from Niger. Like the pretexts that helped launch the country into war in Iraq, there never were any threats from the Iranian sailors. Worse, the incident was intentionally manufactured by the Pentagon and then dangerously hyped by the White House, Republican candidates, and political pundits into a near-war event.

It’s now clear that the open, unarmed speedboats were never threatening and were of no great concern to the top Navy commander in the Gulf, Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, who said his men were never perturbed. "I didn’t get the sense from the reports I was receiving that there was a sense of being afraid of these five boats," he said. The Iranian ships had "neither anti-ship missiles nor torpedoes," he said, "and I wouldn’t characterize the posture of the U.S. 5th Fleet as afraid of these small boats . . . We are familiar with their presence; they’re familiar with ours.”

Nor did the Iranian boats make any threats. They simply identified themselves to the U.S. ship, saying, “Coalition warship No. 73 this is an Iranian navy patrol boat." The “threats” were just harassing comments by an unidentified broadcaster on a completely different channel. Even the sound of his voice was different from that of the Iranians, and there was also no background noise that would have been generated by a loud speedboat. “We don’t know for sure where they came from,” Cmdr. Lydia Robertson, spokeswoman for 5th Fleet in Bahrain, finally admitted. “It could have been a shore station.” Nonetheless, the Pentagon decided to deliberately edit the disassociated jibe into the non-threatening actions of the Iranian boats, thereby turning an innocent action into a potential act of war.

..............

But what hasn’t changed is a desire by presidents for far off wars, and a dangerous need to invent pretexts to justify them.

James Bamford is the author, most recently, of "A Pretext For War: 9/11, Iraq and the Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies." He is also the author of "The Puzzle Palace" and "Body of Secrets," both about the National Security Agency

more at:
http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/commentary-th...

 
now for this gem

grantcart (636 posts)       Tue Jan-29-08 06:59 PM
Response to Original message
1. It is a standard practice for countries to buzz other countries 
 to test their defense systems.

I had a professor in college that worked for the DIA (Russian language analyst) and once a year he was required to fly in some old fighter right up to the Russian border. They did it to us as well. One time the Russians ****ed up got it mixed up with a Korean Airlines and shot it down as it actually entered Soviet air space.

Iranian buzzing our guys is exactly the same thing and they knew exactly when they had to break it off.

I have seen guys talk about this before laughing how close these guys came to getting air conditioned.

If you noticed the military guys giving the briefing on the Iranian boats afterwards you could detect (I think) an effort by the Navy briefer not to break into a laugh when describing the danger they were in.

let me be the first to say........BULLSHIT!!!!!!!

[Freeper]

I was just reading that thread are you stalking me at DU? 

[franksolich]

Yeah, Mr. Wiggum's primitive, the kaput primitive, is an interesting one.

What I find scary about the kaput primitive is that the kaput primitive has a life outside of Skins's island, and so rates as a first-tier primitive, a Threat to the Republic, because the kaput primitive is apparently in a position to influence others in the real world with lies and distortions and fantasies.

[Crazy Horse]

I was just reading that thread are you stalking me at DU? 

there was something about shaved legs and I got all excited

 

[PatriotGame]

I was just reading that thread are you stalking me at DU? 

I took pictures of you wearing a Speedo while swimming and posted them on Hillary's campaign web site. 

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

St Paul of the Flaming Anus already addressed this:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzFtISty8hE[/youtube]