4 posts tagged “iran”
Oh, and the US insists its not escalating tension with Iran by conducting naval exercises in the Gulf. But I'm sorry, coming from this administration that statement is completely worthless.
Those British Marines are still being held, and Blair has warned that negotiations will enter a "new phase" if the hostages aren't released soon. US hawks are stoked as this means that if we go to war with Iran, the UK will be dragged along, despite their best efforts to pull out. Our Navy is conducting a "show of force" in the Gulf right now but insisting that this has nothing to do with Iran. What's really disgusting about all this is that the Iranian actions were far from unprovoked. The US kidnapped five high-ranking Revolutionary Guardsmen in Irbil, Iraq last month. Not only that, we have had our tankers just hanging out in the narrow, hard to maneuver mouth of the Persian Gulf for months, presumably with the hope that we could provoke a Gulf of Tonkin style incident and use it as a pretence for war. I don't believe a word the government says when it comes to Iran. The horrible, inescapable conclusion is that there is going to be another war. Sy Hersh warned us about this last year. The people making the decisions here have no perspective, no empathy. They don't care how many more kids die. They don't care if there are terrorist attacks all over Europe, if oil goes up to $60 a barrel, if the US never recovers from what they do. I'd like to believe that after Iraq, the American people wouldn't let this happen again but at this point I am faithless. The only thing that could make a difference, in my opinion, would be French-style general strikes. Fat chance.
They were in the Northern Gulf, near the Shatt al-Arab waterway which is a highly contentious dividing line between Iraq and Iran. The rules of territorial jurisdiction in the Persian Gulf are ambiguous--Iran is claiming that the Marines were in Iranian territory at the time of their capture, while the UK and US are insisting that they were in Iraqi waters and were 'forcibly escorted' into Iranian waters. This isn't the first time this has happened--8 UK Marines were kidnapped in 2004 and held for three days, but this is, to put it mildly, not the best time for another international incident with Iran. This could blow over, or it could not. Please, guys, let's be reasonable about this.
[UPDATE] Well, this is is just delightful. The foreign embassies in Tehran are updating their escape plans in preparation for a possible US/Israeli strike.
Covert operation? What covert operation?
According to Iranian sources, several officers have been abducted in the past three months and the United States has drawn up a list of other targets to be seized with the aim of destabilising Tehran’s military command.
...The first sign of a possible campaign against high-ranking Iranian officers emerged earlier this month with the discovery that Ali Reza Asgari, former commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force in Lebanon and deputy defence minister, had vanished, apparently during a trip to Istanbul. Asgari’s disappearance shocked the Iranian regime as he is believed to possess some of its most closely guarded secrets. The Quds Force is responsible for operations outside Iran. Last week it was revealed that Colonel Amir Muhammed Shirazi, another high-ranking Revolutionary Guard officer, had disappeared, probably in Iraq.
Ohh, that.
"This is no longer a coincidence, but rather an orchestrated operation to shake the higher echelons of the Revolutionary Guard," an Israeli source told The Sunday Times of London newspaper. A U.S. official with knowledge of the operation said the kidnappings were "essential for our understanding of Iranian activity in Iraq," the report said.
In other words, these guys are going to be staying in an Uzbeki prison with electrodes hooked up to their genitals until they tell us if its safe.
Iran Claims Officers Abducted [UPI]
Run Up to WWIII Provides Opportunity for Dick Joke [Wonkette]
