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Saudi
Crown Prince Accuses Iran of Attack on Tankers in Gulf of Oman
16
June, 2019
Saudi
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accused Iran of twin attacks on oil
tankers in a vital Gulf shipping channel, according to excerpts of an
interview published early Sunday.
The
Saudi Crown Prince called on the international community to take a
"decisive stand" against what he believed was Iranian
aggression during an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
"The
Iranian regime did not respect the Japanese prime minister's visit to
Tehran and while he was there replied to his efforts by attacking two
tankers, one of which was Japanese," bin Salman said, quoted by
the newspaper.
"We
do not want a war in the region... But we won't hesitate to deal with
any threat to our people, our sovereignty, our territorial integrity
and our vital interests,” he added.
On
13 June, two oil tankers, the Panama-registered Kokuka Courageous,
operated by Japan’s Kokuka Sangyo Co, and Marshall Islands-flagged
Front Altair, owned by Norway's Frontline, were hit by blasts in the
Gulf of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz. Shortly after the explosions
occurred, the Japanese Trade Ministry said in a statement that both
ships were carrying “Japan-related cargo.”
The
United States claimed that
Iran had attacked the vessels, yet has not provided any substantial
evidence to support its claims. The US military subsequently released
a video showing alleged Iranian forces removing an unexploded mine
from one of the tankers. The footage, however, did not show any boat
names or flags that could help substantiate the claims. Iran has
denied all the allegations of having a role in the incident.
The
Saudi Crown Prince also noted in the interview that the kingdom's
strategic relations with the United States would not be affected by
"media campaigns or some stances published by US entities,”
referring to the media attention to last year's murder of journalist
Jamal Khashoggi.
Oil
Tanker Attacks in the
Gulf Have US
Fingerprints All Over
Them
15
June, 2019
It
was the Spanish philosopher, poet and novelist, George Santayana
(1863-1952), who warned us all: "Those who cannot remember the
past are condemned to repeat it".
Watching
the unfolding US promoted narrative in the Persian Gulf seas over
this past few days and weeks those words should ring loudly in the
ears of everyone who values peace and opposes the carnage,
destruction and horrific waste of life delivered by war.
If
you swallow the American propaganda plastered across newspaper front
pages and dominating news bulletins on every Western TV news channel
then you really are as bright as a dark night.
On
the morning of Thursday, June 13th, two
oil tankers were allegedly attacked in the Gulf of Oman, just off
the coast of Iran. The US government immediately blamed Iran for the
incident, without providing any evidence.
The
vessels happened to be en route to Japan at precisely the same time
that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Tehran. The
first Japanese leader to visit Iran since its revolution 40 years
ago, Abe was holding a historic meeting with Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei when the incident took place.
What
a great plan. It must have taken months of intense thought and
deliberation amongst the smartest cookies at the very top of the
Iranian government.
Let's
get this Japanese dude over here for groundbreaking talks about peace
and trade in the region and while he’s here we should attack two
oil tankers on their way to his country… It's ingenious. It will
really endear us to Japanese hearts and show the world just how
committed to peace we really are… Oh and while he is here we will
take him to an Elvis Pressley concert and transport him around Tehran
on a flying carpet.
US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John
Bolton have honed their skills in deceit and downright lies over many
years dedicated to promoting scenarios to justify
wars and US Military interventions regardless of the truth
and subsequent loss of lives.
Bolton
was such a strong advocate of the US war in Vietnam that he supported
it from afar in the safe confines of Yale Law School. He was also
convinced Iraq had to be invaded to destroy their weapons of Mass
Destruction no matter the cost in lives or the amount of blood spilt.
Pompeo
and Bolton lie incessantly about Venezuela, Iran and the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, North Korea and now the
tanker incidents in The Gulf of Oman.They are as credible as Bill
and Ben the Flowerpot Men and their lying abilities make Pinocchio
rage with jealousy.
Those
with even a morsel of brain matter between their ears can see right
through the two chancers selling wars like a second-hand car salesman
would be punting cars with doctored miles and baldy tyres.
The
fact they are given media platforms and space to spout their horror
fantasies makes them dangerous individuals. They are however only
following the well-trodden US path of inventing incidents to justify
wars.
As
far back as 1898, the American government understood the formula
required to prepare the ground for military invasions and wars. Cuba
had fought several wars of independence against Spanish colonial rule
when America sent the USS Maine battleship to Havana under the
pretext of protecting the American Consul on 24th January 1898.
Less
than three weeks later Maine was sunk by a huge explosion on February
15th and 266 of its crew were killed.
Outrage
against the Spanish followed despite the Commander of the ship urging
caution against jumping to conclusions. He was ignored and the main
circulation newspapers labelled the Spanish savages and demanded
retaliation against the bloodthirsty animals. The de-humanising of
enemies is a time-served practice of the US still deployed with gusto
today.
Newspaper
owners sent hundreds of reporters and photographers to cover the
apparent Spanish attacks. Upon arrival, many were disappointed.
Frederick Remington wrote to William Randolph Hearst of The Journal
saying:
"There
is no war …. Request to be recalled".
Hearst's
now-famous cable replied:
"Please
remain. You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war".
For
weeks, The Journal dedicated more than eight pages per day to the
explosion (J. Buschini, "The Spanish-American War", Small
Planet Communications, 2000).
Through
ceaseless repetition, a rallying cry for retaliation grew into a
roar.
"In
the papers, on the streets and in…Congress. The slogan was
'Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain'". (Buschini)
With
the US public and government safely on board, the US set sail for war
launching an era of "gunboat diplomacy". Anti-war
sentiments were drowned out by the sea of cries for war. On 25 April
1898, the US Congress declared war on Spain. Thousands of Spanish
troops were killed. Multiple atrocities were committed against those
taken prisoners.
Within
four months the US replaced Spain as the colonial power in the
Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico, and devised a special status for
Cuba.
Problem
is the Spanish didn't sink the Maine. It was deceit manufactured to
justify a war.
In
1975, an investigation led by US Admiral Hyman Rickover concluded
that there was no evidence of any external explosion. The explosion
was internal, probably caused by a coal dust explosion. Oddly, the
ship’s weapons and explosives were stored next to the coal bunker
(Michael Rivero, "Dictatorship through Deception", New
Republic Forum, 24 December 1999).
Events
and incidents have been similarly invented or deliberately
manufactured by the US and its allies ever since 1898 to justify
their involvement in wars or military invasions.
On
7 May 1915, a German submarine (U-boat) sank the Lusitania, a British
passenger ship killing 1,195, including 124 Americans.
The
public was not told that passengers were, in effect, a 'human shield'
protecting six million rounds of US ammunition bound for Britain
(James Perloff, "Pearl Harbor", The New American, Vol. 2,
No. 30, 8 December 8 1986).
To
Germany, the ship was a threat. To Britain, it was bait for luring an
attack. Winston Churchill was the British Admiralty leader at the
time. Historical documents expose the fact he was willing to
sacrifice the lives of over a thousand civilians including,
crucially, 124 American civilians.
He
had calculated, almost certainly in cahoots with the Woodrow Wilson
government in America, that the munitions loaded onto the passenger
ship would compel the German submarines to attack (Winston Churchill,
cited by Ralph Raico, "Rethinking Churchill", The Costs of
War: America's Pyrrhic Victories, 1997).
Detailed
knowledge of the presence of German U-boats on the path to be used by
the Lusitania was in the hands of Churchill and naval intelligence.
No warnings were issued to the defenceless passenger ship. No naval
escorts were arranged. It travelled at a considerably reduced speed.
A trap was set and the German U-boat did what was expected of it.
That tragic loss of life provided the justification for President
Woodrow Wilson to mobilise
American involvement in World War One (Harry V.Jaffa, "The
Sinking of the Lusitania: Brutality, Bungling or Betrayal?" The
Churchill Center).
Similar
cynical calculations, with wanton disregard for the loss of life,
were at play in the manoeuvres to create the justification for US
involvement in World War 2.
On
7 December 1941, Japanese bombers attacked the US Pacific Fleet in
Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, killing about 2,460.
US
President Roosevelt and his closest advisors, not only knew of the
attack in advance and did not prevent it, they had actually provoked
it. Lt. Arthur McCollum, head of the Far East desk for US Navy
intelligence, wrote a detailed eight-step plan on 7 October 1940,
that was designed to provoke an attack (Steve Fry, "Author: FDR
knew attack was coming", The Capital-Journal, 12 June 2001).
After
meeting FDR on 16 October 1941, Secretary of War Henry Stimson wrote:
"We
face the delicate question of the diplomatic fencing to be done so as
to be sure Japan is put into the wrong and makes the first bad move —
overt move".
On
25 November, after another meeting with FDR, Stimson wrote:
"The
question was: how we should manoeuvre them [the Japanese] into the
position of firing the first shot". (Henry Stimson, cited by
Robert Stinnett, Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl
Harbour, 2000)
The
US had cracked Japanese diplomatic and military codes ("The
MAGIC Documents: Summaries and Transcripts of the Top-Secret
Diplomatic Communications of Japan, 1938-1945", GB 0099 KCLMA MF
388-401).
A
Top Secret Army Board report (October 1944), shows that the US
military knew: "the probable exact hour and date of the attack"
(Paul Proteus, "Part One: Pearl Harbour", America's Phoney
Wars)
On
29 November 1941, the Secretary of State revealed to a reporter that
the attack's time and the place were known. This foreknowledge was
reported in the New York Times (8 December 1941) (Michael Rivero,
"Dictatorship through Deception", New Republic Forum, 24
December 1999).
The
Korean War in 1950 was started on the back of a lie about an
unprovoked attack by North Korea on South Korea and the United
Nations was deliberately deceived by the American government.
America's
official involvement in the Vietnam War was justified on the back of
another lie, another fictitious incident. They had of course been
involved covertly for many months supplying arms, training and
special forces to aid South Vietnam against the communist-controlled
North of the country but on 30 July 1964 it was reported by US
intelligence that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had launched an
unprovoked attack on the US Destroyer, the USS Maddox, in North
Vietnam’s Gulf of Tonkin. It was a complete fabrication.
A
barefaced lie. A lie promoted on National TV by President Lyndon B.
Johnson. In the nine years of war that followed (8 March 1965 – 29
March 1973) as many as 4 million lives were lost, including 2 million
civilians.
In
1983 America invaded Grenada on the basis of a pre-planned and CIA
organised coup within the country. The Organisation of American
States (OAS) "deeply deplored" the invasion and the United
Nations Security Council voted by 11 to 1 against it but America
ignored the protests and carried on regardless based on the pretext
it’s military intelligence had already prepared.
The 1989
invasion of Panama was justified on the basis of the alleged
unprovoked killing of an American soldier at a checkpoint within the
country. Detailed investigations including eye-witness reports
afterwards exposed the truth that the US soldiers had opened fire
first and killed civilians including a child. No matter the truth.
The lie was used as the pretext to justify the invasion.
We
are all familiar with the lies which justified the 2003
invasion of Iraq. Intelligence Reports were fabricated to
suggest the presence of WMD’s. Arms Inspectors who refuted the
existence of WMD’s prior to the invasion were withdrawn and
silenced. Those who spoke out were undermined and rubbished. A "shock
and awe" hell was unleashed on the Iraqi people and at least one
million lives were destroyed. All based on a lie, a false flag, a
manufactured justification.
Today
America is at it again. Grainy black and white videos offered as
'proof' of Iranian involvement in attacks on the oil tankers have
been dismissed politely as "inconclusive" by some
governments and as complete nonsense by others. Apparently, they show
Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces attaching mines to the hull of one
of the tankers.
But
Yutaka Katada, the president of the Japanese company operating the
Kokuka Courageous tanker hit by an explosion damaging its hull, has
refuted the US version of events in comments to
the Japanese media, saying that the ship's crew saw a flying object
ahead of the blast.
No
one in their right mind should be conned by more US lies. The least
likely to be involved in these oil tanker attacks is Iran. The most
likely to be involved is the US to provide the pretext for yet
another military attack or invasion against a country which refuses
to toe the Yankee line and do what Washington demands. Don’t
believe the hype. Reject US lies and warmongering manoeuvres against
Iran.
Iran: Japan's tanker crew thank Iran for rescue after Gulf of Oman incident
Crew
members of Japan's tanker thanked Iran for rescuing them after two
oil tankers were reportedly attacked near the Strait of Hormuz in the
Gulf of Oman on Thursday, as the interview filmed in Jask and aired
on Iranian TV on Friday shows.
"Everything
[is] okay, we have new clothing, we have food, we have fresh water,
good hospitality, thanks for everything," said one of Japan's
Kokuka Courageous crew members.
Other
crew members also stressed the hospitality they received in Iran.
Japan's
Kokuka Courageous with 23 people on board and Norway's Front Altair
with the same number of crew members, were reportedly attacked south
of the Strait of Hormuz where almost a fifth of the world's oil
exports pass through.
The
incident comes amid spiralling tensions between Tehran and Washington
DC, which has pointed the finger at Iran over attacks on four vessels
last month.
The
US accused Iran of being responsible for the recent alleged attacks
on the two oil tankers too.
Crew Of Norwegian-Owned Oil Tanker Arrives In Dubai After 'Hostile Attack'
Days
after explosions blasted through two oil tankers in the Strait of
Hormuz, the crew of one of the vessels arrived Saturday in Dubai,
according to The Associated Press.
The
workers' recollections of the Thursday explosion could potentially
help back up or refute the U.S. claim that Iran is to blame. The
nation's capital of Tehran denies the accusation.
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