Who's on the Radio?

Posted Jan 11, 2008 by mlh in Politics | 8 comments | 205 views

As more info in the Iran-U.S. Navy speedboat incident unfolds, it has been determined the voice heard over the radios with the threat "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes," may not have been transmitted from "fast attack boats."

As the Strait of Hormuz incident between the Iranian Navy, such as it is, and the US Navy unfolds, the voices that threatened to explode Navy ships may not have come from the speed boats sailing about amongst the Navy vessels. Naturally, anti-Americanists have begun the usual banter about the incident as if the incident never took place at all. This is incredulously atypical of a particular mindset so prevalent in today's political climates.

As reported in the New York Times, not considered a relevant news source in many circles, it names an "unnamed source". What with the usual history of the NY Times blabbing National Security secrets to the world in the name of boosting their plummeting circulation, the "unnamed sources" have come into question upon many an occasion.

The audio includes a heavily accented voice warning in English that the Navy warships would explode. However, the recording carries no ambient noise — the sounds of a motor, the sea or wind — that would be expected if the broadcast had been made from one of the five small boats that sped around the three-ship American convoy.

Pentagon officials said they could not rule out that the broadcast might have come from shore, or from another ship nearby, although it might have come from one of the five fast boats with a high-quality radio system.

With that being said, I find it curious that the liberal blogosphere has concluded that the transmissions did not in fact come from the boats so there was in fact no threat at all and the whole incident was contrived. Really. This is also atypical of the cherry-picking that the American liberal blogger and journalist so fall prey to so quickly. They do not read the entire news releases and plunge to conclusions that make them appear to be silly.

As the NY Times "unnamed source" stated, the transmissions "could have" come from the boats with high-tech communication equipment. Surely the Iranian government has such equipment seeing that high-tech IEDs have been found in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At this point, no one is quite sure where the transmissions came from but they all agree that the threat came from someplace. The threat was still there.

In another story released later on in the day, we learn this from a "spokesperson of the Admiral of the Fifth Fleet":

“It happened in the middle of all the very unusual activity, so as we assess the information and situation, we still put it in the total aggregate of what happened Sunday morning. I guess we’re not saying that it absolutely came from the boats, but we’re not saying it absolutely didn’t.”

And, there you have it. No one knows and we won't find out until we know for sure. Again, in another report from questions to Defense Secretary Robert Gates:

I have no question whatsoever about the report on this incident from the captains of the ships and also from the video itself.

Naturally, the Iranian government has denied the whole incident and the Blame America Crowds and the anti-America crowds will side with any and all potential or current enemies of the United States, depending upon who the current President is.

A blogger claiming to be a former Navy officer with alleged knowledge of the area was soon believed to be gospel because he said that mistakes could have been made. This possible mistake was soon bantered about as fact. Simply amazing.

In other reports, the entire "mystery Navy guy" comments are displayed that many either ignore or refuse to accept:

The Times quotes a retired sailor as saying "my first thought was that the “explode” comment might not have even come from one of the Iranian craft, but some loser monitoring the events at a shore facility."

As this "mystery Navy guy" said, it could have come from a monitoring facility on shore. So what and why does it matter?

From more rational beings that are capable of seeing a larger picture:

The Navy reported what its people saw and heard. If what they heard turns out to have been some bizarre transmission from shore, that doesn't change what we see on the tape: Iranian ships harassing and threatening American vessels in international waters. There's no reason to doubt our sailors' statements that the Iranians were dropping unidentified objects into the water--unless your default assumptions are that the American military is habitually mendacious, and that the Iranian regime is unerringly truthful.

This is what happens when the American liberal bloggers, unhinged as they are, not only jump to conclusions to reinforce their absolute hatred of the current American Administration, they will plunge into the unknown without safety nets. When they crash and burn as they always do and, truth be known, they will deny anything ever happened and blame someone else in the process.

For the readers' convenience, unlike a liberal blogger, here is a source where there are ample articles and pieces to read through to determine your own opinion.

In conclusion, if the radio transmission did not come from the boats and came from shore, so what? The threat still existed.

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