This is the Strait of Hormuz:
70% of the world's crude oil transits through Iranian Territorial Waters - the safe shipping lane is an incredibly narrow and hazardous navigation - aside from having to execute a harpin turn (which supertankers are NEVER especially good at, you may note the numerous rocks and shoals and tiny uninhibited islands which (its not disputed) are Iranian sovereign territory.
All else being equal, Iranian territorial waters, and Iranian law should extend 12 miles in every direction from any one of these rocks.
By any legal definition, all of these supertankers are transiting under Iranian jurisdiction for much of this passage.
Iran has never caused a serious problem or kicked up a serious stink about these daily incursions, often by its avowed and sworn enemies, except for a phase of the Iran-Iraq War known as the "Tanker Wars" where Ronald Reagan deployed the US Navy to seize Iranian Oil Rigs equipped for defence, destroyed an Iranian Boeing filled with pilgrims travelling to Mecca (and still has not apologised) and attacked an Iraqi navy destroyer.
This is Rear Admiral Chuck Gaouette. He's a racist.
And here is the flagship of his former command, on patrol.
Apropos of nothing, here is some information about the drill known as Millennium Challenge 2002 (MC02):
(Yes. There was, indeed, a General J.T. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove)
(Well spotted.)
I quote The Enemy:
Millennium Challenge 2002 (MC02) was a major war game exercise conducted by the United States armed forces in mid-2002, likely the largest such exercise in history. The exercise, which ran from July 24 to August 15 and cost $250 million, involved both live exercises and computer simulations.
MC02 was meant to be a test of future military "transformation"—a transition toward new technologies that enable network-centric warfare and provide more powerful weaponry and tactics.
The simulated combatants were the United States, referred to as "Blue", and an unknown adversary in the Middle East with many evidences pointing at Turkey being the "Red"-side.
MC02 was meant to be a test of future military "transformation"—a transition toward new technologies that enable network-centric warfare and provide more powerful weaponry and tactics.
The simulated combatants were the United States, referred to as "Blue", and an unknown adversary in the Middle East with many evidences pointing at Turkey being the "Red"-side.
Red, commanded by retired Marine Corps Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper, adopted an asymmetric strategy, in particular, using old methods to evade Blue's sophisticated electronic surveillance network.
Van Riper used motorcycle messengers to transmit orders to front-line troops and World War II light signals to launch airplanes without radio communications.
Van Riper used motorcycle messengers to transmit orders to front-line troops and World War II light signals to launch airplanes without radio communications.
Red received an ultimatum from Blue, essentially a surrender document, demanding a response within 24 hours. Thus warned of Blue's approach, Red used a fleet of small boats to determine the position of Blue's fleet by the second day of the exercise.
In a preemptive strike, Red launched a massive salvo of cruise missiles that overwhelmed the Blue forces' electronic sensors and destroyed sixteen warships.
This included one aircraft carrier, ten cruisers and five of six amphibious ships. An equivalent success in a real conflict would have resulted in the deaths of over 20,000 service personnel.
Soon after the cruise missile offensive, another significant portion of Blue's navy was "sunk" by an armada of small Red boats, which carried out both conventional and suicide attacks that capitalized on Blue's inability to detect them as well as expected.
In a preemptive strike, Red launched a massive salvo of cruise missiles that overwhelmed the Blue forces' electronic sensors and destroyed sixteen warships.
This included one aircraft carrier, ten cruisers and five of six amphibious ships. An equivalent success in a real conflict would have resulted in the deaths of over 20,000 service personnel.
Soon after the cruise missile offensive, another significant portion of Blue's navy was "sunk" by an armada of small Red boats, which carried out both conventional and suicide attacks that capitalized on Blue's inability to detect them as well as expected.
At this point, the exercise was suspended, Blue's ships were "re-floated", and the rules of engagement were changed; this was later justified by General Peter Pace as follows:
After the reset, both sides were ordered to follow predetermined plans of action.
"You kill me in the first day and I sit there for the next 13 days doing nothing, or you put me back to life and you get 13 more days' worth of experiment out of me. Which is a better way to do it?"
After the reset, both sides were ordered to follow predetermined plans of action.
After the wargame was restarted, its participants were forced to follow a script drafted to ensure a Blue Force victory.
Among other rules imposed by this script, Red Force was ordered to turn on their anti-aircraft radar in order for them to be destroyed, and was not allowed to shoot down any of the aircraft bringing Blue Force troops ashore.
Among other rules imposed by this script, Red Force was ordered to turn on their anti-aircraft radar in order for them to be destroyed, and was not allowed to shoot down any of the aircraft bringing Blue Force troops ashore.
Van Riper also claimed that exercise officials denied him the opportunity to use his own tactics and ideas against Blue Force, and that they also ordered Red Force not to use certain weapons systems against Blue Force and even ordered that the location of Red Force units to be revealed.
This led to accusations that the war game had turned from an honest, open free play test of America's war-fighting capabilities into a rigidly controlled and scripted exercise intended to end in an overwhelming American victory, alleging that "$250 million was wasted".
Aftermath
Due to his criticism regarding the scripted nature of the new exercise, Van Riper resigned his position in the midst of the war game. Van Riper later expressed concern that the war game's purpose had shifted to reinforcing existing doctrine and notions of infallibility within the U.S. military rather than serving as a learning experience.
Van Riper also stated that the war game was rigged so that it appeared to validate the modern, joint-service war-fighting concepts it was supposed to be testing.
He was quoted in the ZDF–New York Times documentary The Perfect War (2004) as saying that what he saw in MC02 echoed the same view promoted by the Department of Defense under Robert McNamara before and during the Vietnam War, namely that the U.S. military could not and would not be defeated.
Responding to Van Riper's criticism, Vice Admiral Marty Mayer, who ran the war game and who was charged with developing the military’s joint concepts and requirements, stated the following:
“Gen. Van Riper apparently feels he was too constrained. I can only say there were certain parts where he was not constrained, and then there were parts where he was in order to facilitate the conduct of the experiment and certain exercise pieces that were being done.”
—Vice Admiral Marty Mayer
Navy Captain John Carman, Joint Forces Command spokesman, said the war game had properly validated all the major concepts which were tested by Blue Force, ignoring the restrictions placed on Van Riper's Red Force that led them to succeed.
Based on these findings, John Carman stated that recommendations based on the war game's result on areas such as doctrine, training and procurement would be forwarded to General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Based on these findings, John Carman stated that recommendations based on the war game's result on areas such as doctrine, training and procurement would be forwarded to General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Bro. Dick Gregory - Who Is Watching The President? from Spike1138 on Vimeo.
"They were gonna kill Romney"
Dick Gregory agrees with me and Webster Tarpley.
"When he went off to Arizona, and that white woman, the Governor, shook her finger in his face...?
Well, if you're the head of this State, and there's a whole lottsa people who would die for you in the National Guard, then is there somebody up there on the roof...?
I'm takin' my lead from you, yo' the Governor, you're the Head of the National Guard...
And yo' leader she her fist in my face...?
An' the people around him let him keep going...?
Like it's Business as Usual...?
...or is it different protocol for a negro President...?
Huh?"
I don't know why all of you can't see it.
Petraeus, Allen, Gaouette, Ham The Benghazi Story The Media Isn't Telling You from Spike1138 on Vimeo.
"Why doth Treason never prosper...?
...for if it prospered, none dare call it Treason...."
These are purportedly Stratfor e-mails flying back and forth on the ground, and at sea during Operation Neptune Spear, aka "The Bin Laden Raid", aka "Carter's Revenge".
I find them credible - everyone has heard of the US Navy, everyone has heard of the Pentagon, everyone has heard of the CIA.
Only hackers and geeks and National Security freaks have even heard of Stratfor - if they are fakes, why not fake something from somebody someone has actually heard of - check?
Between 2000 and 2008, the NeoCons and the Israel lobby privatised everything the first non-white and/or non-Republican would need to run the CIA - they did exactly the same with Jimmy Carter, to the same effect.
Carter helped them out by firing several hundred Black Operations "cowboys", who all went to work for George Bush's Presidential campaign or relocated to Tehran or Nicaragua to destablise those countries and further their global agenda in the private sector (i.e. - Cocaine).
These private enterprises comprise the vanguard of the Shadow Government, and their arrogance makes them lax with security measures and vulnerable to White Hat hackers.
I therefore believe these communiques to be the real deal.
"Subject: FEDEX," May 2, 2011, 2:02 AM and related emails, released in response to an Associated Press FOIA request to the Department of Defense, Secret.
Hours after bin Laden was killed, Rear Admiral Charles Gaouette, Deputy Commander of U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, emailed Samuel Perez, Rear Admiral of the strike group including the USS Carl Vinson, tersely asking, "Sam, Any news on the package for us?" The "package" was the body of Osama bin Laden. At 2:02 AM at a location somewhere in the North Arabian Sea, Rear Admiral Perez emailed back: "Sir, FEDEX delivered the package. Both trucks are safely enroute home base."
Other emails describe the procedures taken to ensure the secrecy of the burial. In one email, Gaouette wrote, "The paucity of documentary evidence in our possession is a reflection of the emphasis placed on operational security during the execution of this phase of the operation." Another email asked "if soldiers knew what was occurring or who the burial was for." "No" was the eventual response.
An email addressed to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen describes the burial at sea: "Traditional procedures for Islamic burial was [sic] followed. The deceased's body was washed (ablution) then placed in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag. A military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. After the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat board, tipped up, whereupon the deceased's body slid into the sea."
An aerial view of the Iranian frigate IS Sahand (74) burning on 18 April 1988 after being attacked by aircraft of U.S. Navy Carrier Air Wing 11 in retaliation for the mining of the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58)
The Iranian frigate IS Sahand (74) burns after being attacked by aircraft of Carrier Air Wing II from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65), in retaliation for the mining of the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58). The ship was hit by three Harpoon missiles plus cluster bombs.
Marines inspect a ZU-23 23mm automatic anti-aircraft gun on the Iranian SASSAN oil platform. Marines attacked, occupied then destroyed the platform as part of Operation Praying Mantis which was launched after the guided missile frigate USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS (FFG-58) struck a mine on April 14, 1988.
Camera Operator: CPL. JOHN HYP Date Shot: 18 Apr 1988
Memorial of Iranian navies who killed in Operation Praying Mantis
Damaged by a mine in the Persian Gulf, the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts is transported by MV Mighty Servant 2 from Dubai to Newport, Rhode Island.
On 6 November 2003 the International Court of Justice dismissed a claim by Iran and a counter claim by the United States' for reparations for breach of a 1955 'Treaty of Amity' between the two countries.
In short the court rejected both claim and counter claim because the 1955 treaty protected only
"freedom of trade and navigation between the territories of the parties" and, due to the US trade embargo on Iran at the time, no direct trade or navigation between the two was affected by the conflict.
The court did state that "the actions of the United States of America against Iranian oil platforms on 19 October 1987 (Operation Nimble Archer) and 18 April 1988 (Operation Praying Mantis) cannot be justified as measures necessary to protect the essential security interests of the United States of America."
The Court ruled that it "...cannot however uphold the submission of the Islamic Republic of Iran that those actions constitute a breach of the obligations of the United States of America under Article X, paragraph 1, of that Treaty, regarding freedom of commerce between the territories of the parties, and that, accordingly, the claim of the Islamic Republic of Iran for reparation also cannot be upheld;"
An Iranian command and control platform is set afire after being shelled by four US Navy destroyers during Operation Nimble Archer. The shelling was a response to a recent Iranian missile attack on a reflagged Kuwaiti super tanker.
Crew members monitor radar screens in the combat information center aboard the guided missile cruiser USS VINCENNES (CG-49).
Strait of Hormuz depicting intended path of Iran Air 655 and approximate location of downing.
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