Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

1
I have to admit, when Sec of State Pompeo claimed today that Iran was at fault (with zero evidence), I scoffed. He lies all the time. The administration lies all the time. We were warned that, if something important happens, we have to be able to trust the government. I don't believe a word from Pompeo and Bolton.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/oi ... story.html


Two petrochemical tankers in the Gulf of Oman came under suspected attack early Thursday amid soaring tensions between the United States and Iran. Here is what we know:

● The attacks, which were high-profile and apparently carried out in broad daylight, marked a serious escalation in a volatile region and one of the world’s most important waterways.

● The timing of the attacks was extremely sensitive and appeared aimed at undermining Japan’s efforts to encourage talks between the United States and Iran.

● U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says intelligence shows that Iran was responsible for the attacks on the tankers.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

3
We haven't had an honest entry into a conflict since WWII, have we? While Trump and his administration are a complete and total maelstrom of deceit, they hardly hold a monopoly on it, unfortunately.

I'm not sure why Iran would want to poke this particular administration. Seems like a setup. There is no way that Iran comes out ahead in an armed conflict with the US, even with out current inept leadership.

Re: Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

4
featureless wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 5:57 pm We haven't had an honest entry into a conflict since WWII, have we? While Trump and his administration are a complete and total maelstrom of deceit, they hardly hold a monopoly on it, unfortunately.

I'm not sure why Iran would want to poke this particular administration. Seems like a setup. There is no way that Iran comes out ahead in an armed conflict with the US, even with out current inept leadership.
Agreed. They are not stupid. I also noticed that these "attacks" were all minor and no oil was ever destroyed.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

8
Bullitt68 wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 6:47 pm Notice no witnesses or video of an attack in broad daylight. Weird.
Actually, they now claim there is video that "proves" it was Iran. 'It seems that no one actually believes them except some Republicans.

Of course, we just have to wait for them to manufacture... errr... edit and release it. No one has actually seen this shocking video yet.

If they really do provide support for Iran's enemies to attack Iran, this will be an election year problem and probably illegal.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

10
featureless wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 7:01 pm
Bullitt68 wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 6:47 pm Notice no witnesses or video of an attack in broad daylight. Weird.
Not really if it happened at sea. Wide open spaces out there, even in the more confined areas.
But the tankers were parked. Unless no one was on the bridge, you can see for miles up on a bridge.
We sit in the mud... and reach for the stars.
Ivan Turgenev

Prevent Suicides Call https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/t ... meone-now/

Re: Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

11
‘Flying Object’ Struck Tanker in Gulf of Oman, Operator Says, Not a Mine

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/worl ... on=topNews

TOKYO — One of the tankers that were attacked in the Gulf of Oman was struck by a flying object, the ship’s Japanese operator said on Friday, disputing at least part of the account of United States officials who had blamed Iran for the attack.

“Our crew said that the ship was attacked by a flying object,” said Yutaka Katada, the president of the operator, Kokuka Sangyo.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that American intelligence agencies had concluded that Tehran was behind the disabling of two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, a vital conduit for much of the world’s oil. Senior American officials had already blamed Iran for similar attacks last month against four tankers in the same area. Iranian officials denied any involvement in the events, which have escalated tensions in the region.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

15
Wino wrote: Fri Jun 14, 2019 9:11 am Eric Prince or Blackwater. Iran ayatollahs may be crazy, but unlike DJT they are not stupid. Expect this or similar to be orange pukes Gulf of Tonkin moment. Another "trumped" up movement to war.
The sad part is: Even if Iran did do it, the country won't believe this administration. They destroyed their own credibility and have only themselves to blame.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

16
K9s wrote: Fri Jun 14, 2019 10:59 am
Wino wrote: Fri Jun 14, 2019 9:11 am Eric Prince or Blackwater. Iran ayatollahs may be crazy, but unlike DJT they are not stupid. Expect this or similar to be orange pukes Gulf of Tonkin moment. Another "trumped" up movement to war.
The sad part is: Even if Iran did do it, the country won't believe this administration. They destroyed their own credibility and have only themselves to blame.
Oh, plenty in this country will believe it if Trump says it, true or not. :no:

Re: Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

17
I hope our "Allies" don't fall for this again and just say to hell with you, when Bolton, Trump and friends get their really hardon to go war. Just remember it was a Bush aide that said we need another Pearl Harbor, when the economy was starting to crap out and tings were not looking good for the White House. We got the Saudi's and 9/11. Later we got Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bolton among other with lies of WMD in Iraq. With Trump, Bolton and Jared's Saudi friends they are still trying to implement the Neocons idea of controlling the middle east. The Reptilians still believe the crap of the neocons and the The Project for the New American Century.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

18
Here we go Trump is ramping it up with a grainy video and photo.
President Donald Trump on Friday doubled down in accusing Iran of executing explosions on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, saying the incident had Iran “written all over it.”

However, as US-Iranian tensions soared, Trump dismissed previous threats by Tehran that in case of conflict it could block the Hormuz Strait — a narrow seaway vital to the world’s oil supplies.

“They’re not going to be closing it,” he said in an interview on Fox News television.

Speaking hours after the US military released grainy footage it said showed an Iranian patrol boat removing an “unexploded limpet mine” from one of the tankers, Trump said “Iran did do it.”

“You know they did it because you saw the boat,” Trump told the “Fox and Friends” show.

“I guess one of the mines didn’t explode and it’s probably got essentially Iran written all over it.”

“You saw the boat at night, successfully trying to take the mine off — and that was exposed,” he added.

Iran rejects the US accusations.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that the US had “immediately jumped to make allegations against Iran without a shred of factual or circumstantial evidence.”

He accused Washington of seeking to “sabotage diplomacy” as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Iran. One of the targeted vessels is owned by a Japanese company while the other was Norwegian-operated.

Iran has repeatedly warned in the past that it could block the Hormuz Strait in a relatively low-tech, high-impact countermeasure to any attack by the far more powerful United States.

Doing so, would disrupt traffic of oil tankers between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, which leads to the Indian Ocean and global export routes.

“If the hostility of enemies increase, we will be able to do so,” Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, Mohammad Bagheri, told semi-official ISNA in April.

Trump played down the threat.

“It’s not going to be closed, it’s not going to be closed for long and they know it. They’ve been told in very strong terms,” Trump told Fox News.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/06/trump- ... an-attack/
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

19
And on a side note, disruption of the oil through the gulf will raise oil prices, giving Venezuela more income, and maybe get some food to the subjects there, slowing down the crowd on our bottom border. Win-win.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
- Ronald Reagan

Re: Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

20
NY Times:
The attacks (on the Japanese vessel) in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday occurred as the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was meeting top officials in Iran, attempting to bridge the divide between Washington and Tehran.
Suspiciously timed...

US News & World Report:
Earlier, the ministry cited President Xi Jinping as telling Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of a summit in Kyrgyzstan that China would promote steady development of ties with Iran, no matter how the international situation changed.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/artic ... lf-of-oman

US is being sidelined and not controlling the narrative. Is Turnip finally learning the lesson of “cry wolf”?
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

21
Well our Media is already starting to beat the Administration's War Drums.
If there were any lingering hopes that the corporate media learned from its role in perpetuating the lies that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and would never again help start a Middle East war on the basis of false or flimsy evidence, the headlines that blared across the front pages of major U.S. news websites Thursday night indicated that such hopes were badly misplaced.

The U.S. military late Thursday released blurry, black-and-white video footage that it claimed—without any underlying analysis or further details—showed an Iranian patrol boat removing an unexploded limpet mine from the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous, one of the oil tankers damaged in attacks in the Gulf of Oman.

Iran has denied any involvement in the attacks, and Yutaka Katada—the owner of the Kokuka Courageous—contradicted the Trump administration’s account during a press conference on Friday.

“Our crew said that the ship was attacked by a flying object,” Katada said. “I do not think there was a time bomb or an object attached to the side of the ship.”

Independent critics were quick to call for extreme skepticism in the face of U.S. government claims, given the quality of the “evidence” and the warmongering track records of those presenting it.

But the media displayed no such caution.

Just taking a random sample of screenshots after the news broke Thursday night, major outlets largely did the Pentagon’s dirty work by posting uncritical headlines that took the claims at face value.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/06/how-th ... ws-louder/

Where Sec. of State Colin Powell was fed false information to get him to support the Iraq invasion with reservations. Pompeo's support is just see see see go go go to war.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Why dishonesty matters: Tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman

23
featureless wrote: Fri Jun 14, 2019 1:40 pm Let's face it. The media loves war headlines. So exciting and a great way to drum up viewership!
Yeah, I have seen this before. The "government" states something, most of the media blindly follows, and most viewers just scoff. In fact, I think it was just last month.

I guess they just don't want to be wrong in case it is true. Or maybe ratings.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot], Semrush [Bot] and 3 guests