"Recordings Show Iran-US Clash in Gulf"
Jan 8, 4:29 PM (ET)

By SEBASTIAN ABBOT and LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON (AP) - Video and audio recordings clearly show Iranian boats confronting U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf, and a voice speaking in heavily-accented English can be heard threatening that the American vessels were going to explode, military officials said Tuesday.

The incident, which President Bush denounced Tuesday as a "provocative act," was videotaped by a crew member on the bridge of the destroyer USS Hopper, one of the three ships that faced down five Iranian boats in a flare-up early Sunday.

The recordings were described by several military officials who viewed them. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the recordings were still being reviewed and had not been released to the public. - full article: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080108/D8U1UNM80.html

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Here is the full video that was released, with audio: http://www.breitbart.tv/html/26424.html

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I suppose the anti-Bushies will blame this all on Bush still or against military presence there, but the ships WERE in international waters so they are fully allowed to be there. The Iranian ships did come incredibly close, at full speed, and relayed real threats to US military personal. However, they aren't sure if the messages came directly from a boat or an Iranian radio transmission station on land.

Whatever the case, the Iranians WERE trying to provoke us into taking military action. They are playing a very dangerous game and as a country who has to play by a strict line, should we ever fire WITHOUT being hit first despite threats and the location of the enemy, WE will be seen as the aggressors and blamed for everything by the media and the lefties.

I'd love to hear one person who leans left blaming this solely on the Iranians and granting the US navy the right to fire first should threats of attack or near presence of the enemy ever happen again. However, in this day and age I doubt I would ever get such agreement. Would this be before Bush I would have expected everyone to fall in line, but with such hatred I don't expect it one bit, I expect more blaming on our own government rather than the real aggressor.

All the lefties sure went on to blame the British when Iranian Revolutionary Guards oversteped international law and seized British soldiers, held them captive, and paraded them on TV for political games. So, based on that, I expect us US citizens to take sides, one in support of Iranians and against the US, and the other side to fully support the US, blame the Iranians, and say should it happen again to fire away.

I lean decently left and for the record I was disappointed to read the story and find out that by the time the Navy had manned their turrets and been given the order to fire, the Iranian boats were already retreating. It's important that the United States follow all applicable procedures so as not to be an aggressor. But...when a known aggressive country like Iran has their boats perform aggressive actions WHILE broadcasting aggressive and threatening messages, there is no argument whatsoever not to fire on those ships. There is a huge difference between declaring pre-emptive war on a country and defending yourself from them. In this case, I feel it would have been entirely appropriate to blow the ships to smithereens.

It was meant to greet him on his visit to the Middle East. They wanted a confrontation. I am surprised then can get people to get on these boats and go for a ride. Fu*king with a Navy gunboat is not a prudent act. I am glad we kept our powder dry. Bush has done a fine job, IMO.

I heard that two American planes crashed and some say was not connected with the Iranian boats, but if it was a separate event , how come it is not being explained what really happened, I don't believe we are getting a true story of what really happened. I was wondering if maybe a couple planes could have been sent after those boats and they crashed( got shot down) things have a way of getting explained backwards or just plain wrong, Hey, I don't think Russia and China will tolerate us taking over the world and all the oil, no matter what pretenses we use for doing it.

It could have been
a game of chicken.

'Who's going to shoot first?'

It's happened before,
it will happen again.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JA10Ak05.html

Blow the sh1T out of them..!!!

"All the lefties sure went on to blame the British when Iranian Revolutionary Guards oversteped international law and seized British soldiers, held them captive, and paraded them on TV for political games. So, based on that, I expect us US citizens to take sides, one in support of Iranians and against the US, and the other side to fully support the US, blame the Iranians, and say should it happen again to fire away."

I sure am glad to have you call the shots and tell me what I should and shouldn't support. Sounds just like the babyshrub bull that those who were against him attacking Saddam and Iraq for 9/11 were Terror supporters Crap!!! There is always more to everything than that which is posted. I will hold my opinion for a while longer. We won't be attacking Iran like we did Iraq cause we know they are part of the nuclear (well in the words of babyshrub nucular) race.

I say maybe men need to control themselves. They get a little gun happy sometimes. Lets use our brain and not our brawn on this one so we do not make the mistakes of our pres, okay???!!!!

You are right about us not attacking Iran but that is because Isreal will. When Hillary gets in office do you think she will control herself when the radicals get their hands on Pakistan's nukes? Maybe, maybe not but India won't.

I saw boats not flying any particular flag, or military insignia, acting in a possibly threatening way. Sure.. maybe they were Iranian.. Maybe not. Maybe they were there for ill intent.. maybe not.

When a Destroyer is on alert.. You'd think that a small speed boat or group of small speed boats is hardly a threat to a modern Warship. Apparently they didn't get to close. If they did...they would have been blown out of the water.

So what?

Is this any more significant then any other conflict over there. The only thing notable and worth mention is no one was hurt!

Other then for the military, the people manning the ships and maybe their families...

This sounds like a whole lot of noise about nothing. Unless you are speaking about a crisis averted.

From the way the op was writing..I'm thinking that was not the intent of this thread.

Exact response I was talking about in my post ^

Knew someone would come out soon enough and do the blame Bush thing and take a weak stance after Iranian ships threatened to blow US warships out of the water and circled aorund them.

Ever hear about what happened to the USS Cole when an even smaller single boat got too close?

And, then you go on to a point to say that maybe they weren't even Iranian because you didn't see a flag waving about from a grainy video. The men on the decks of the US ships obviously knew who they were eventually, but I suppose it is all a lie by Bush, a huge elaborate setup just as good as the whole inside job of 9/11 to bring about another war so Bush and Cheney can control all the oil of the world, right?

Come on.

I have no doubt it was a game of chicken and Iran would have LOVED if the US would have fired at all.

This is for everyone:

I am sure most of you remember the Israel and Hezbollah war in the summer of 2005 when Hezbollah had missiles firing endlessly into Israel from the border of Lebanon. Israel responded and attacked back, attacking Hezbollah who fled into Beirut and elsewhere in the state of Lebanon. During this whole affair multiple times there were reports of Iranians assisting and being killed as they helped Hezbollah.

During the war a very hi-tech missile system was used, which launched an anti-ship missile that hit the Hanat corvette ship that was off-shore. This missile was a C-802, Iranian made but Chinese technology.

The attack did kill 4 sailors on board, hurt the ship badly, and another C-802 missed the ship and sunk a Cambonian merchant ship.

This missile is as powerful as the US Harpoon missile, and can be fired from small boat (like the ones used), or land. It flies incredibly low to the water and hardly detectable and defense manuevers are very iffy.

So, these small boats were a threat, not just because they could have been packed with enough explosions to do far worse damage than the USS Cole attack, but could have fired a missile capable of extreme damage.

Now, I know what you will say, well Iran would never do such a thing because it would be incredibly stupid. Yes, I know, it is incredibly stupid, but put yourself on one of those three US ships that came under such a situation and their own safety was in such a threat. They aren't sitting back in a chair or on a couch making such statements, they are the ones with threats all around them coming far too close and circling around them.

I remember being on
a Navy ship in the
Persian Gulf with
a shrimp boat coming
toward our fantail.

Our weapons team
was out there in
a hurry with automatic
weapons (machine guns,
M16s).

Needless to say,
they backed off
in a hurry.

They were probably
just a harmless fishing
boat, but they could
have packed the bow
with explosives and
tried to blow up our
ship on a suicide mission.

What I'm wondering is
why don't we stop the
Chinese from sending
their technology to
Iran?

Answer: Because we
are in hock to the
Chinese up to our
eyeballs because
of the Iraq War,
therefore, we
can't tell them
anything anymore.

Thanks, President Bush.

Q. How is this 'weak stance' neoconservative warmongering like overpriced housing bought with a nothing-down, subprime mortgage?

A. There's nothing substantial behind either, people aren't buying it, and $100-a-barrel oil is part of the reason.

This president has a lot of answer for and you can't fool all the people all the time.

-Kerry O.

....but if you can fool some of the people some of the time, thats enough.

Peace is non-nagotianable Don't let a third world country bully us.

I smell bull****. Staging a phony attack to rally support for war is one of the oldest tricks in the book. It's amazing how stupid and gullible people can be. Yet it happens over and over.

I find it appalling that not one of our so called liberal media outlets even raised one question about the authenticity of these attacks. How many bogus stories have we heard about Iran? I can think of at least two off the top of my head that were proven to be fake.

This is my first post here! Let's see how many I piss of by the end of the week.

Lies, lies, it's all lies. Down with the "man". WTF?

If your agenda is to "see how many I piss off" then please refrain from posting on this thread. This discussion is for the distribution of information and opposing views. We can respectfully agree to disagree. But we can't have a pissing match... read the rules before you post.

Tell that to the families of the 19 sailors lost on the U.S.S. Cole.

Uh, we didn't attack anyone.