Friday, January 15, 2016
Saturday Politics : The US Sailors Incident Made Obama and Iran Look Good before the $200 Billion Sanction Payment
Saturday politics. A political storm over a video almost achieved what Congress and the American people couldn't -- halt Obama's nuclear deal with Iran. A video on Iranian TV showing captured US sailors on their knees with their hands on their heads -- while the Iran Revolutionary Guard held guns over them -- sparked critics who said the episode, in which ten sailors strayed into Iranian waters in two small boats and were detained, was a humiliation for America. The Obama administration obtained their release in 24 hours, diffusing the anger in America and saving the nuclear deal. Obama officials touted the lessening of tensions with Iran that averted a much more serious diplomatic incident, calling it a victory for Obama's policy of talking to US enemies. ~~~~~ What do we know about the incident? **The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces : “What happened to American sailors on Tuesday proved how vulnerable the US is in front of powerful Iranian forces"....the US would be facing “yet another crisis now” if it weren’t for the “good intentions of the Iranian commanders,” who boarded the US Navy boats when they "illegally" entered Iranian waters near Farsi Island in the middle of the "Persian" Gulf. **US Navy Central Command issued a statement from Bahrain : "The Sailors departed Farsi Island aboard the two Riverine Command Boats (RCB) that they had been operating when they lost contact with the US Navy. The Sailors were...transferred ashore by US Navy aircraft...other Sailors took charge of the RCBs and continued transiting toward Bahrain, the boats' original destination." **An Iranian official told Reuters : "High-level gatherings in Washington were mirrored in Teheran, where top security and government officials held at least three meetings. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attended the sessions." Another Iranian official said : "Of course, there were tense moments and...various views over handling the case....After making sure there were no evil intentions from the sailors' side, Leader Khamenei gave the green light for the release of sailors." **On Iranian TV, one of the sailors -- now identified as the lieutenant in command -- apologized and said the boats had mistakenly entered Iranian waters. But, US officials said they had made no government-to-government apology to Iran. **US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said : “The information...is that they did stray accidentally into Iranian waters due to a navigation error." Carter said the sailors apparently did not radio their command : “It may be that they were trying to sort it out at the time they encountered the Iranian boats and discovered they were inside the territorial waters of Iran." He denied the sailors were on a covert mission : “they were simply transiting from one place to another.” **One unnamed US official said it was clear the boats did not run out of fuel. But, CNN Pentagon reporter Barbara Starr said later the boats were reported to be taking a shortcut because they were short on fuel. ~~~~~ Retired Navy Commander Chris Harmer slammed the Navy's actions on CNN, saying it's not yet clear why the sailors were in Iranian waters. He said the incident represents "a severe failure by somebody....Either the naval leadership put these sailors in an impossible situation or the sailors are professionally incompetent." Harmer said there was "no reason for a small vessel to be out that far and especially without escorting ships around it" -- the two small craft are designed to operate in rivers and shallower coastal or littoral waters : "The Navy has to explain why you have small ships transiting 300 miles of open ocean." ~~~~~ Dear readers, we can also ask where their GPS tracking was, why Obama and Kerry caved in, and if the incident was to make Obama and Iran look good before the sanctions fall and Obama gives Iran $200 billion. If so, we now know that Iran thinks 10 American sailors are worth $200 billion. But, we know the truth - every young American in uniform is priceless.
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The Farsi Island incident does not seem serious. Its resolution within hours by Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggests that Iran wants nothing to halt implementation, just days away, of the nuclear deal that will release $100 billion in frozen assets.
ReplyDelete“This administration’s craven desire to preserve the dangerous Iranian nuclear deal at all costs evidently knows no limits,” said John McCain. He castigated U.S. officials, presumably including Kerry, for “falling all over themselves to offer praise for Iran’s graciousness in detaining our ships and service members.
Marco Rubio, inflamed over the treatment of the sailors, pledged anew to kill the nuclear deal on his first day in office. But by then Iran will have complied with its terms and gotten its cash.
Still, what the reactions to this incident reveal is that not only is the United States dealing with a divided regime and nation in Iran, the U.S. is itself divided on what course to pursue with Iran.
First the Obama Administration told us “at least one of the boats” had experienced a “mechanical failure.” Then they said the boats had run out of fuel, although it wasn’t clear if they meant both boats. Then they said “there was no mechanical problem.” Then they claimed that the two crews had somehow not communicated with the military command, although “they could not explain how the military had lost contact with not one but both of the boats.” As the New York Times reported:
ReplyDeleteEven as Mr. Kerry was describing the release on Wednesday morning, American military officials were offering new explanations about how the two 49-foot patrol boats, formally called riverine command boats, had ended up in Iranian territorial waters while cruising from Kuwait to Bahrain. And they still haven’t explained it – or any of the other distinctly odd circumstances surrounding this incident.
The best they could do was having an anonymous Navy officer affirm “When you’re navigating in those waters, the space around it gets pretty tight.”
We know less of the truth about this Iranian kidnapping incident today than we did this past Tuesday. January 12, 2016.
Me thinks both Obama and the Iranians are protesting far too little.
There are far too many distinctly odd circumstances surrounding this incident. far, far too many friends.
ReplyDeleteStay turned for some of the truth
Quid pro quo ("something for something" or "this for that" in Latin) means an exchange of goods or services, where one transfer is contingent upon the other.
ReplyDeleteSo the United States got our ‘sailors’ back and our long held American citizens and a reporter in exchange for $200 Billion dollars. But first Iran had to kidnap the 10 American sailors to sweeten the pot they had to give back in order for them to get the 200 Billion.
So was the “kidnapping” for real or did the Obama administration have a hand in it knowing the eventual outcome had already been planned and agreed to?
I think we have just witnessed the Obama- Ayatollah Khomeini version of the old Shell game.
In politics, politics anyplace, any continent, any country, any state, and city or township if you follow the track of money the majority of the time you will find the answers your are looking for.
ReplyDeleteTake for instance the 10 hijacked American sailors. Obama wanted to be able to stand up in front of the American public one day very soon and pat himself on the back for getting both the 10 sailors released without incidence with Iran but also the 4 American citizens and the 1 reporter being help as political prisoners in Iran.
All Iran wanted was what it considers it's $200 Billion dollars to reinvest in their "peaceful" nuclear program that will one day soon be a threat to not only the Middle East (especially Israel)but the entire world after Iran spreads it's "peaceful nuclear bombs & smaller dirty bombs" around to their various Asian, South American, and Northern African Muslin terrorists friends (ISIS and their likes).
So the money and maybe a deal was struck to jeopardize a few American sailors for the sake of a deal beneficial to both the Obama Administration and the extremely ill Ayatollah Khomeini.
After all they are both running out of time to enhance their legacies.
If you believe they (sailors) somehow “drifted” within a few miles of Farsi Island, where a highly sensitive Iranian military base is located, then you probably think there’s a lot of money just waiting for you in a Nigerian bank account.
ReplyDelete