Pentagon makes up Lies to demonise Iran

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Wednesday January 16, 2008 17:18

by Joe

Pentagon Officials spun the 6th January incident between US warships and small Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz in order to create the illusion of Iranian military aggressiveness. A short video with added audio warning US warships would "explode in a few seconds" was fed to the media. Deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs in charge of media operations Bryan Whitman was responsible for the initial fabrication, which has since been denied by Navy Officer who were involved.

Five small, unarmed speedboats, with two men each, came close to three US warships on Saturday 6th January. Only 24hrs later did the Pentagon choose to release fabricated details of this, ‘serious incident.’

Such minor confrontations are common place in the Straight of Hormuz and have been for many years, but with Bush touring the Middle East, attempting to rally support for an attack on Iran, this one had to be molded and hyped. The small boats were never any threat to the US warships, as Navy commanders later admitted.

Such incidents are normally not even reported let alone hyped with false audio. For instance, on 19th December, the USS Whidbey Island fired warning shots after a small Iranian boat that got too close but this was never reported.

Pentagon officials spent Sunday 6th January discussing how to spin the incident in the Strait of Hormuz in a way that would dove-tail with wider administration plans for Iran. The result was the decision to portray it as a major incident.

On January 7th, the commander of the 5th Fleet released information on this episode. This is the first time the 5th Fleet has ever made a news release on an incident with small Iranian boats. The report did not claim the Iranian boats had threatened the US warships or that the US ships were close to firing on the Iranians. All the release said was, "Following standard procedures, we issued warnings, attempted to establish communications with the small boats, and conducted evasive maneuvering."

Later on Monday Bryan Whitman, the top Pentagon official in charge of media relations made a completely different report. CNN reported the Pentagon as saying Iranian boats had not only carried out "threatening maneuvers," but had transmitted a message saying "I am coming at you…. you will explode." They claimed the Iranians had, "dropped boxes that could have been filled with explosives into the water." They claimed the US warships almost fired at the Iranians.

The Iranians believed the US warships were about to enter Iranian waters and as is their custom, they dropped white Styrofoam markers in the water to mark the extent of their territorial waters. To claim these markers were filled with explosives was very untruthful.
On the 9th January, the US Navy released a video in which a voice, clearly different from the Iranian who calls on US ship in the Iranian video threatens the US warships. Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros, Pentagon Public Affairs Office, said this was "a collaborative effort of leadership here, the Central Command, and Navy leadership in the field." Adding the strange voice onto the video was an obvious attempt to mislead by attempting to build the harmless territorial markers into a threat.

On the 11th January Geoff Morrell, Pentagon spokesman, disavowed the manufactured audio threats on the video. He said, "No one in the military has said that the transmission emanated from those boats."

Captain David Adler, commanding officer of the Port Royal, one of the US warships involved, said he never felt threatened by white boxes in the water. He said, "I saw them float by but they didn't look threatening to me."

Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, of the 5th Fleet, also denied the Pentagon story. Commander Jeff James, of the destroyer Hopper, told reporters that the Iranians had moved away "before we got to the point where we needed to open fire." This reveals the gulf between the politically motivated pen pushers in the Pentagon and Naval Officers in the Gulf of Arabia.

Medial outlets have not given the retraction of this story or the exposure of it as a Pentagon Hoax any coverage. For instance, RTE who showed the 'incident' many times, never once mentioned they had reported a manufactured lie even though they now know it to be a bare faced lie.

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Comments (1 of 1)

RTE prefers accusations and claims and supposed 'balance' over reality

by no

Fri Jan 18, 2008 00:16

US accuses Iran of provocative behaviour
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0108/iran.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0109/bushgw.html
US officials claim that armed Iranian boats confronted three US warships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Sunday. The US says that they radioed a threat to the vessels.

Reality
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/11/us_iran_navy_sp...30035

Rick Hoffman, a retired captain, told the paper: "For 25 years, there's been this mythical guy out there who, hour after hour, shouts obscenities and threats. He used to go all night long. The guy is crazy.
"Could it have been a spurious transmission? Absolutely."

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Pentagon makes up Lies to demonise Iran

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