John Chuckman
EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
‘A Pair of Tankers ‘Struck’ and On Fire at Entrance to Strait of Hormuz
‘Iranian FM: "Suspicious doesn't begin to describe what happened"’
Looks like Bolton or Netanyahu decided the effort this time must be a little more dramatic.
The last effort, with a small dent in the rear of a tanker, bordered on the ridiculous.
Can there can be any doubt that if Iran were interested in such provocations, it could do a better job than this?
After all, it had the immense experience of fighting a terribly bloody war for most of the 1980s against invading Iraq, a war which was much assisted by American covert efforts in hopes then of toppling Iran's government.
And how can there be any doubt that Iran, threatened on every side by America, has no interest in making such provocations?
No, the vicious children in the room are Bolton and Netanyahu, both proven performers.
Of course, the fact that the stricken tankers were carrying Japanese cargo at a time when Japan’s Prime Minister Abe was holding talks with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, in Tehran is likely no coincidence.
I’ve just learned, too, the attack came not very far from a significant Iranian naval base at Jask, the last location Iran would choose for such a provocation.
But it is a location completely in keeping with the kind of vicious, bone-headed stunts Bolton has staged for us all to see in Venezuela. Some sick and obsessed people can’t help revealing themselves through their acts, almost as though they secretly want credit.
LATER INFORMATION:
The American military has released a video of men in a very small ship next to one of the stricken tankers. Supposedly, they are removing an unexploded magnetic-type mine from the hull of the tanker. But the video is of is such poor quality, it tells us almost nothing.
The height at which the blurry “unexploded mine” is located, where a man is vaguely seen reaching, is far above water level and seems ridiculous. And we have a good deal of confusion in various press claims over whether the ship actually was hit by a torpedo or mined or perhaps hit by a missile.
Is it even possible that any American military would photograph an event of that nature instead of immediately responding with gunfire?
A mini-ship of the nature used by the men in the video might well have been built in the past by America or Israel as a prop for future efforts. They have been ferociously occupied with Iran for quite a period of time.
And we've absolutely no more reason to believe the blurry figures are Iranians than that they are US Marines of IDF.
It just makes no sense. Or about as much sense as America’s opening shot over the bow for events in Venezuela, its ridiculous antics in trying to deliver unwanted food aid from trucks stopped on a bridge, aid that was shortly later set fire to, not by Maduro’s people as the United States publicly claimed, but by the same American-supported opposition members who were trying to force its delivery. It all showed up clearly on video.
STILL LATTER INFORMATION:
Yutaka Katada, president of Kokuka Sangyo, told reporters on Friday that sailors on board the ill-fated oil tanker observed “flying objects” just before the incident in which the ship caught fire and was badly damaged. The giant vessel was hit twice.
He suggested that those flying objects could have been bullets, and called reports of striking a mine “false.”
Further, Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that Iranian search and rescue teams picked up 44 sailors - 21 from the Kokuka Courageous and 23 from the Front Altair - following the incidents and took them to the nearby port of Jask.
So, Iran rescued the crews.
STILL FURTHER IMPORTANT OBSERVATIONS:
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
"The confusion in the Middle East is being stage managed to benefit Israel"
Note, the US has advanced drones active in the region.
We know that to a certainty because there was a complaint about Iran trying to shoot down an American MQ-9 Reaper drone near the location of recent events with the tankers.
And of course, the US has its unblinking fleet of Keyhole Spy Satellites operating 24 hours a day.
The satellites have cameras comparable to the Hubble Space Telescope.
Either source is capable of giving us infinitely better images than those grainy blobs the US tried passing off as proof of Iranian foul play in the Gulf of Oman.
Yet we never see a single image from either one of these sources in this matter, as in a good many others, such as the downing of Flight MH-17 in Ukraine.
Wonder why that is, do you think?
