Pentagon Sez: Evil Iranians Provoke US! Update

~ Not the other way around ~

http://theworriedshrimp.com/

Well, your Demon has to give it to the Iranians ~ they sure know how to annoy Bushco, without giving the satisfaction of an excuse to launch an attack on Iran. Which is just what Bush wants, & has been doing everything he can to provoke.

~ Further history lessons with respect to Iran ~

Remember this way back in May '07?

"The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert 'black' operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

"The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a 'nonlethal presidential finding' that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.

'"I can't confirm or deny whether such a program exists or whether the president signed it, but it would be consistent with an overall American approach trying to find ways to put pressure on the regime,' said Bruce Riedel, a recently retired CIA senior official who dealt with Iran and other countries in the region. " http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/05/bush_authorizes.html#

And further developments with the Iranian speedboats v. American military might in the strait of Hormuz incident last weekend: the Pentagon shreds its own credibility on its initial reports, parrotted mindlessly by a press you'd think would know better after the hype & propaganda of the Bush years.

The Pentagon released what, on closer inspection, is an artfully mashed-up video possibly intended to inflame anti-Iranian sentiment at home, & people started to notice that the allegedly provocative remarks, "I am coming to you. You will explode after a few minutes," were apparently delivered by "Boris Karloff" in a perfect unaccented English-speaking voice, & without any background noise or static. H/T to Glenn Greenwald on Salon, quoting the Huffington Post & others. (If you want to hear it for yourself: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/)

"Just two days after the U.S. Navy released the eerie video of Iranian speedboats swarming around American warships, which featured a chilling threat in English, the Navy is saying that the voice on the tape could have come from the shore or from another ship.[...]

"The Navy never said specifically where the voices came from, but many were left with the impression they had come from the speedboats because of the way the Navy footage was edited.
"Today, the spokesperson for the U.S. admiral in charge of the Fifth Fleet clarified to ABC News that the threat may have come from the Iranian boats, or it may have come from somewhere else.

"'We're saying that we cannot make a direct connection to the boats there,' said the spokesperson. 'It could have come from the shore, from another ship passing by. However, 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.'" http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4115702&page=1

* * *

The WaPo reports today that "Iranian boats harassed and provoked three American Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, threatening to explode the vessels, U.S. officials said Monday.

"In the most serious such incident in years, U.S. forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats during the incident early Sunday, when the boats _ believed to be from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's navy _ turned and moved away, a Pentagon official said.
Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman called it a 'serious incident.' Another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called it 'the most serious provocation of this sort that we've seen yet.'"

"Iran's Foreign Ministry said Monday the confrontation was 'something normal' and was resolved, suggesting the Iranian boats had not recognized the U.S. vessels. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the Bush administration urges Iranians 'to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future.'

"The incident raised new tensions between Washington and Tehran as President Bush prepared for his first major trip to the Middle East." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/07/AR2008010701098.html

Bushco relies on American short-attention spanners out there to forget, not only U.S. backed installation of the Shah, but all the way forward to March of this past year, when American & British war ships most recently seriously tried to provoke Iran into attacking us, no doubt to make a "defensive" bomb, bomb, bomb Iran politically palatable to the war-weary American public as a grand farewell gesture. After all, the Neocon "Project for a New American Century" first proposed it way back in 1997.

Refresher course on March '07 events:

"American warplanes screamed off two aircraft carriers Tuesday as the U.S. Navy staged its largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, launching a mammoth exercise meant as a message to the Iranians.

"The maneuvers with 15 warships and more than 100 aircraft were sure to heighten tensions with Iran, which has frequently condemned the U.S. military presence off its coast and is in a faceoff with the West over its nuclear program and its capture of a British naval team."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032700610.html

Contrast that with today's efforts to portray Iran as the provacateur. Getting a sense of deja vu yet?