A new round of fires in Iran is leading to a new speculation of sabotage, when seven Iranian boats caught fire in Bushehr Port. The boats were made of wood, and substantially damaged, though there were no casualties.
Iranian officials denied that there was any evidence of sabotage, and it perhaps wouldn’t be strange for seven wooden dhow to catch fire the way these did. A number of fires in the recent past is raising concerns, however.
Bushehr is also the province with the nuclear power plant, which might make sabotage there more worthwhile. Previous sabotage has centered on a number of nuclear sites, including Natanz.Israel is suspected of past sabotage.
Presumably the wooden boats are not being used for anything too important, and that makes them less likely to be targeted. Israel rarely needs an excuse to attack Iran, however, and that will leave speculation ongoing.
The U.S. is throwing around money to destroy anything of value. It creates fear and confusion in Iran. That’s all we want, military, civilian, it doesn’t matter. Just look at reader comments on yahoo or FOX and see if U.S. citizens differentiate between nuclear facilities or food delivery trucks. Attitude, if it’s in Iran, destroy it. Great people.
We have plenty of money to throw away.
This is one more fire sensationalized. A wood sail boat typical for coastal transport caught fire that spread quickly. There was a gas explosion somewhere.
The problem is — if we daily review any fire in Iran, we are just helping spread nonsense. There was probably only one legitimate case of possible sabotage.
More than one, but not every incident in a country of 80 million people in a land area the size of all of Western Europe.
The title at the main page is
“7 Iranian Boats Burn in Latest Sabotage”
The title of this piece is the ambiguous
“Seven Boats in Iran’s Bushehr Port Burn in Latest Report of Sabotage”.
And the ending has
“that will leave speculation ongoing.”
I am in favour of subjectivity and judgement in journalism. The journalist has an understanding of the overall situation and I want to have the advice of the journalist. but it has to be labeled correctly: when you use judgement, you use judgement without redirecting it to third parties and without inserting it into statements of fact. That is, you should use it arrogantly and without shame 🙂
The title is ambiguous because the author foregone conclusion comes from Israeli media…! Now, that is the indication of bias and it is not his first time….!
– It is perfectly reasonable to conclude that the boats were sabotaged. I tend to disagree but it is a valid judgement and if that is the judgement of the journalist then I’m interested to hear it.
– Jason biased towards israeli media? No. Mostly the guy doing the titles should be more careful. Not an easy job though to summarize something in a quarter of a twitter post.
– my parent post says I don’t mind bias much.
Bushehr Province covers nearly 9,000 square miles and has a population of 1.5 million. Presumably some shit is going to happen there. Presumably not every flat tire and leaky faucet is sabotage by a foreign power.
Finally, some common sense. A rickety boat made of wood caught fire and fire spread. All other — save one — look just like incidents that can happen snd do happen anywhere in the world. One looks like a sabotage — even then, it could be anyone.
I wouldn’t put it out of the realm of possibility that this was sabotage but it seems like kind of a reach. It’s like reading about two people at some birthday party in rural Kansas getting infected because they weren’t wearing masks.
Some small wooden fishing boats on shore in a boatyard were damaged in a boatyard fire. Those happen, and in the US too.
Yes, Israel is attacking Iran in a covert war, and yes it is designed to draw the US into open war. But not every small boatyard fire is part of that effort.