How the Pentagon Planted a False Hormuz Story

[marmar]

from InterPress, via CommonDreams:




Published on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 by Inter Press Service
How the Pentagon Planted a False Hormuz Story
by Gareth Porter


WASHINGTON — Senior Pentagon officials, evidently reflecting a broader administration policy decision, used an off-the-record Pentagon briefing to turn the Jan. 6 U.S.-Iranian incident in the Strait of Hormuz into a sensational story demonstrating Iran’s military aggressiveness, a reconstruction of the events following the incident shows.

The initial press stories on the incident, all of which can be traced to a briefing by deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs in charge of media operations Bryan Whitman, contained similar information that has since been repudiated by the Navy itself.

Then the Navy disseminated a short video into which was spliced the audio of a phone call warning that U.S. warships would “explode” in “a few seconds”. Although it was ostensibly a Navy production, IPS has learned that the ultimate decision on its content was made by top officials of the Defense Department.

The encounter between five small and apparently unarmed speedboats, each carrying a crew of two to four men, and the three U.S. warships occurred very early on Saturday Jan. 6, Washington time. But no information was released to the public about the incident for more than 24 hours, indicating that it was not viewed initially as being very urgent.

The reason for that absence of public information on the incident for more than a full day is that it was not that different from many others in the Gulf over more than a decade. A Pentagon consultant who asked not to be identified told IPS that he had spoken with officers who had experienced similar encounters with small Iranian boats throughout the 1990s, and that such incidents are “just not a major threat to the U.S. Navy by any stretch of the imagination”.

Just two weeks earlier, on Dec. 19, the USS Whidbey Island, an amphibious warship, had fired warning shots after a small Iranian boat allegedly approached it at high speed. But that incident had gone without public notice. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/16/6404/

[Captain Hilts]

1. And didn't tell the Navy! nt

[screembloodymurder]

2. I'm so sick of this administration.

This president.
This military/industrial complex.

It's up to us.
Buy an electric car.
Get off the grid.
Barter.
Pay no tax.

[Lilith Velkor]

3. I'm not interested in how they did it

What I really would like to know is why they did it so sloppily that it didn't even fool the stupidest redneck in the county.

Did they forget to put stupid pills in the water supply this month? :tinfoilhat:

[spanone]

4. when no one is held accountable for lying, they continue to lie