We have belatedly learned that the threatening voice on the tape was not Iranian -- the accent is wrong, according to the Washington Post. The Navy now posits another source for the threat -- a practical joker given the insulting nickname Filipino Monkey.
In recent years, American ships operating in the Middle East have had to contend with a mysterious but profane voice known by the ethnically insulting handle of “Filipino Monkey,” likely more than one person, who listens in on ship-to-ship radio traffic and then jumps on the net shouting insults and jabbering vile epithets.Could a prankster initiate the Apocalypse? Mark Twain would get a grim chuckle out of the idea.
But the Pentagon also says that the audio and video were recorded separately. So who really did the pranking? Is "Filipino Monkey" a cover story?
To me, the telling detail is this:
In part because of the threatening language, the United States has elevated the encounter into an international incident. Twice this week, President Bush criticized Iran's behavior as provocative and warned of "serious consequences" if it happens again.If "Filipino Monkey" made the threat -- indeed, if there were any possibility of a prankster at work -- the President would have been so informed well before the video's public release. He would not have made any bellicose statements.
Ray McGovern compares the Strait of Hormuz encounter to the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
My guess? A small band of neocon operators, who may or may not work within the American intelligence community, fabricated this incident in order to foment war with Iran. Cooler heads within the military want to prevent the ruse from giving rise to bloodshed. The "Filipino Monkey" story exists to save face.
I'm open to alternative scenarios.
6 comments:
"If "Filipino Monkey" made the threat -- indeed, if there were any possibility of a prankster at work -- the President would have been so informed well before the video's public release. He would not have made any bellicose statements."
I don't know our POTUS well enough to agree or disagree. You make me think of the storyboarding for the Jessica Lynch rescue, the storyboarding for the Pat Tillman memorial ceremony, that clip of Bush fucking up the fool-me-once/fool-me-twice retort, and of course "Remember the Maine!" and TR's Rough Riders charging up San Juan Hill. You make me think they murdered Bill Hicks because he was the only person who could explain this stuff, while blowing smoke rings.
I listened to both the US released tape and the bbc release of the Iranian tape. In the bbc version of the Iranian tape, the Iranians sounded perfectly reasonable and were questioning the presence of the Americans in what they claimed were Iranian waters. In the US release, the Iranians sounded like characters from the movie "300".
Hilariously the Iranians voices were saying "we are coming to you", with doom-laden voices like the Klingons in Star Trek. It was nothing like the Iranian release.
So its perfectly possible to believe that it was a prankster. Frankly when I heard it I assumed it was a TV comedy in the UK called "phonejacker", where a prankster makes absurd phone calls to unsuspecting dupes.
What amazes me though is that this tape was released by the US at all. No sensible person could possibly have taken this tape seriously. To release it without questioning it is beyond my comprehension. Idiots or warmongering opportunists? You tell me.
Harry
These situations occur much more frequently than they are reported. After the USS Cole incident, I think it's fair to say that there is an unwritten rule about bringing small craft within range of CIWS.
It bears repeating that there are many occurrences of these encounters that go unreported.
And I would posit that the timing of this report and that of the seemingly perpetual election cycle in the U.S., are not mere coincidences.
George is a faithful servant of the NeoCons, and he needs to show them once in awhile that the overall goals are still attainable. All that is required is another puppet of the ideology. Whether they bleed Red or Blue is of no real significance.
Any real threat to a fleet of Naval Warships won't be powered by a Yamaha engine.
-sig Mentor
who wants this war more than any other nation? What nation has consistently, for the past 3 years, villianized and downright lied about Ahmadinejad and Iran? What "small band of neo-con operators" have been manipulating and lying to us since 9-11 occured? What nation was caught red-handed in Mexican Congress on Oct. 11, 2001, exactly one month after 9-11, with C4, grenades, and Glocks? What nation has the most false flags recorded in history? I'd say this is an easy "qui buono", but no journalists have the cajones to name this nation. To get any real news about this country, you have to read their own papers. I say this is an easy call and that the US military and govt. know EXACTlY how did this.
Not a prankster... a provocateur. That was my guess too. Sorry, Joseph, I have no alternative scenario.
And Mondo, it's "cui bono" (double dative) not "qui bono". And the answer, by the way, is -- NO NATION. Just a consortium of criminals of many nationalities who are perfectly capable of running provocations and all kinds of other nasty tricks. Or do you not understand what Sibel Edmonds is telling us?
--> "Yet there is no "international water" in the Strait of Hormuz, straddled between the territorial waters of Iran and Oman...".."--Per Article 39 of the UNCLOS, pertaining to "duties of ships during transit passage" US ships passaging through the Strait of Hormuz must "proceed without delay" and "refrain from any threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of states bordering the strait".
VERY interesting article indeed !
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/printN.html
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