Navy Fired Shots At Iranian Craft In Dec.

U.S. Reports For First Time Confrontation Involving Small Boat In Strait Of Hormuz Last Month

(AP)  The U.S. Navy said Friday that one of its ships had fired warning shots at a small Iranian boat in the Strait of Hormuz in December during one of two serious encounters with such craft that month.

The USS Whidbey Island fired the warning shots on Dec. 19 in response to a small Iranian boat that was rapidly approaching it, said a U.S. Navy official.

“One small (Iranian) craft was coming toward it, and it stopped after the Whidbey Island fired warning shots,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

It was the first official confirmation that the United States had fired warning shots in any recent confrontation with Iran in the Gulf.

In the second incident that month, the USS Carr encountered three small Iranian craft on Dec. 22, two of which were armed, said the official. The USS Carr did not fire warning shots, but sent warning blasts on the ships whistle, which caused the boats to turn around.

The official could not confirm whether the craft in either incident belonged to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the elite military force whose boats swarmed three U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday.

The top U.S. military commander in the Mideast said Friday that Iran runs the risk of triggering an unintended conflict if its boats continue to harass U.S. warships in the strait.

Adm. William J. Fallon, chief of U.S. Central Command, also said a threatening radio call heard during Sunday's encounter was likely connected to the Iranian vessels' provocative actions. He said the exact origin of the message was still unknown.

“This kind of behavior, if it happens in the future, is the kind of event that could precipitate a mistake,” said Fallon. “If the boats come closer, at what point does the captain think it is a direct threat to the ship and has to do something to stop it?"

Iran has tried to downplay Sunday's incident as a normal occurrence, but U.S. officials have said that five Revolutionary Guards boats charged three U.S. Navy ships in a threatening manner, dropping boxes in the water in an apparent attempt to intimidate the Americans. The confrontation occurred just days before U.S. President W. Bush was scheduled to begin his first major Mideast trip.

The Pentagon has released a video of Sunday's incident, showing small Iranian boats swarming around U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz. In the recording, a man threatens in accented English, “I am coming to you. ... You will explode after ... minutes.”

Fallon said Friday that the U.S. was still trying to determine the source of the threatening radio call but remained convinced that it was related to the actions of the Iranian boats.

“The voice is very strange. I don't know whether it came from the boats or one of the shore stations,” he said in a telephone interview from Central Command headquarters in Florida. “But the timing of it is pretty suspicious. In my mind it is related to the maneuvers.”

“It certainly doesn't sound like a third party that just happened to say something threatening at that moment,” he added.

The radio call was heard over an open frequency often used by mariners to identify themselves and avoid accidents.

Iran has denied that its boats threatened the U.S. vessels and accused Washington of fabricating the video. Tehran has released its own video of the incident, which appeared to be shot from a small boat bobbing at least 100 yards from the American warships.

The footage does not shown any Iranian boats approaching the U.S. vessels or any provocation, and does not include threatening radio call. U.S. officials have said the controversial parts had been edited out of the Iranian video.

U.S. Navy and Iranian officials have said in the past that vessels from the two rival nations frequently come into contact in the waters of the narrow, heavily trafficked Gulf. They often communicate by radio to avoid incidents.

But the latest incident was the first time U.S. officials have spoken of such a direct threat from Iranian boats.

[b0ludo]

Some of you inbred, never left the trailer park excuses for an American are actually cheering for the bad guys? Get a life... Read a history book, not even one written by us... Get one written by a European author... You may, just may, learn that the Muslims have hated us longer than your favorite show has been on air... You might find out that they were enslaving our sailors in the 1800''s. Their holy Khoran gives them the right to annihilate us, not for what we do, but for who we are. Thank God for living in the U.S. of America, as in many of the countries whose actions against us seem so heroic to you, your sorry humanity would have ceased to see the light of day long ago...

[j-whitman]

ilikecats1,,,, I see you are finally starting to put the picture together.

[prinzowhales]

The Regime lies about the Iranian speed boats have been revealed...they are as contemptible as the lies uttered to justify the shooting down of a civilian airliner full of pilgrims by a US warship in Iranian waters years ago....the USS Vincennes, if memory serves.

[nothappyatall]

"Iran has denied that its boats threatened the U.S. vessels and accused Washington of fabricating the video. Tehran has released its own video of the incident, which appeared to be shot from a small boat bobbing at least 100 yards from the American warships.

The footage does not shown any Iranian boats approaching the U.S. vessels or any provocation, and does not include threatening radio call. U.S. officials have said the controversial parts had been edited out of the Iranian video."

LOL yeah, the US peeons WOULD claim that, but their record of LIES, deceit and fabrication caught up with them and the Bush regime one time too many in the past, now I dont believe one dam think any of them tell me or say.
The US version of the video was edited so as to cause the appearance of an incident to justify an invasion or attack. Google Tonkin Gulf incident and see how history repeats itself with FAKE "attacks" on US ships.

[grazinggoat]

let me guess, you will try to sell the idea that those boats are actually US navy manned by cia thugs posing as iranians...

Posted by libsluvsuvs at 05:26 PM : Jan 12, 2008

-Here''s Iranian version

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qaOdskQy2nM

politely inviting warship 73 to leave Iranian Territorial waters to International Waters!

[j-whitman]

I heard that on the Daily Show

[hawksprings]

j-whit, that''s proof enough for me!

[j-whitman]

hawksprings,,, Southern Baptists got out ouf WTC Bldg 2 before anyone else did

[hawksprings]

The problem with most conspiracy theories like the 9/11 one is that it would involve hundreds of people, it would all have to be executed perfectly, EVERYONE involved would have to keep perfect silence, it goes on and on.

Yet we are repeatedly told that Bush is the stupidest president we''ve ever had, Cheney has been "caught" in so-called scams like Halliburton that would be FAR easier to pull off.

Let''s list all the major conspiracies of the last 100 years that were all PERFECTLY executed:

9/11 was an inside job by our government.
The Davidian''s Compound in Waco was burned by our government.
The Moon landings were all faked by our government.
JFK was killed by a secret government conspiracy.
FDR knew that Pearl Harbor was going to happen and allowed it to get us into WW2.

It just goes on and on.
Ha.

[prinzowhales]

j-whitman--I don''t know how those eunuchs who killed themselves so as to catch the spaceship that was supposed to be following the Hale-Bopp Commet...the Heaven''s Gate cult...managed to castrate themselves...but, I understand the remnants are, like the ever-disappointed Jehovah''s Witnesses, coming together to await the next ''happening''.