Regional economic panic ensued today after a false report that Iran’s navy had attacked an American cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. Later the reports were clarified, and the ship, the MV Maersk Tigris, was confirmed to be flagged from the Marshall Islands, not the US.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard acted on the basis of a court order to seize the ship, ordering the Maersk Tigris to move further into Iranian waters. When they refused, warning shots were fired, and the ship changed course. It has since been boarded, with officials saying it is being confiscated related to a financial dispute between the owners and the Iranian ports authority. The ship was from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and bound for Jebel Ali, in the United Arab Emirates.
The confusion about it being an American ship appears to stem from a minor incident in the same area Friday between Iranian patrol ships and the Maersk Kensington, which is US-flagged. Iranian patrol boats approached the ship briefly, but did not halt its travel, and by Saturday that ship had docked in India.
Not that the US isn’t getting involved anyhow. The Marshall Islands ship issued a “distress call” when it was being boarded by Iranian ships, in Iranian waters, and the USS Farragut, a destroyer, has been dispatched off the coast of Iran to “monitor” the situation.
Of course, since the US has been threatening to attack Iran for years now, they’ve always got ships parked off the Iranian coast in various spots, but the Farragut itself was on anti-piracy duty near Somalia, and is now being sent to Iran in a “show of force.”
Details of exactly what the deal was with the Maersk Tigris financial dispute are elusive, though US officials appear to be operating under the assumption that the move was retaliation for the US navy chasing cargo ships away from the Yemeni coast last week.
Beware FALSE FLAGS!
Or it refused to pay its berthing bill, or the check bounced due to US made banking laws!
Let's see what the court dispute is all about before warming up the nukes, okay? I was just on a Yahoo News story about this and the unwashed masses are screaming for Tehran to be nuked into the proverbial glass parking lot.
One commenter went so far as to say that the Tigris would probably be inspected and when it was released it would be lighter by a few shipping containers- containers that were clearly "full of the parts needed for Iran to complete its nuclear weapons program". (This conveniently leaves out the explanation of why a ship out of the Marshall Islands would be carrying those exact 'needed parts' in the first place). The powers of deduction of the low-information public is staggering, indeed.
Not to hard to imagine why the Nazis were so successful in Germany. They learned their propaganda techniques from the Americans after all.
The ship may be flagged in the Marshal Islands, but Maersk is a Danish company. It is a huge company.
It is infamous for cost cutting. The food for the crews is horrible, for example.
It is entirely possible that a Maersk ship did cut corners to save a bit, and Iran could in fact have a real point, not just getting back at the US via a Danish ship flagged elsewhere.
It is even possible the dispute was manipulated by some locals hostile to the nuclear deal. Shipping in that area is deliberately kept so full of secrets that nobody knows what is going on. That is how Iran smuggles, and how our "friends" make money from the sanctions. That it would be used to keep the profitable troubles brewing is not far fetched.
The ship may be flagged in the Marshal Islands, but Maersk is a Danish company. It is a huge company.
It is infamous for cost cutting. The food for the crews is horrible, for example.
It is entirely possible that a Maersk ship did cut corners to save a bit, and Iran could in fact have a real point, not just getting back at the US via a Danish ship flagged elsewhere.
It is even possible the dispute was manipulated by some locals hostile to the nuclear deal. Shipping in that area is deliberately kept so full of secrets that nobody knows what is going on. That is how Iran smuggles, and how our "friends" make money from the sanctions. That it would be used to keep the profitable troubles brewing is not far fetched.
Before we dump the deal and go to war, we'd best double check what actually happened. Then check again. Remember the Tonkin Gulf, long before WMD.
The US close watch on the situation may suggest some possible US black op blunder.
Why do we get the feeling that this is all the setup for bigger, foolish events? More and more the inevitable military confrontation seems to be the plan of the day. Where the phuk are the adults? Why are the world citizens allowing this to get to a point where life as we know it will change. Don't people understand that we, as individuals, only get one chance…there is NO reset button. Why would we knowingly allow some individuals to screw the pooch for the entire human race? Friggin' idiots.
I've seen calls for action against this Iranian 'piracy on the high seas' on various news feeds and the masses get all bent out of shape when I point out that the ship complied with steering into Iranian waters, AFTER which it was boarded with no violence and no loss of life.
This contrasted with a little incident back in 2011 when Israel attacked- in international waters- a flotilla of civilian vessels, killing many passengers and crew. An act which really WAS piracy, but that little tidbit is dismissed as it was Israel doing the shooting.
I point out the obvious hypocrisy and double standard being applied, but of course it's to no avail- Iran executing a court ordered ship seizing (one of many that happen all over the world every day) is clearly worse than an aggressive attack and boarding by Israel. Apparently, despite my best efforts to point out otherwise, Iranian history did not begin until 1979.
We seem to have no standards at all except those we double up, one standard for us, another for the other side from us whatever that may be.
Finding a double standard isn't something to surprise. Finding there isn't one would be a surprise, and I have yet to be surprised that way.
I'll wait judgment until I hear the definitive report from Woof-woof Blitzer.