Mullen: ‘I Have Not Seen’ Iran Act So Provocatively, But Admits ‘I Haven’t Seen The Full Video’
Mullen: ‘I Have Not Seen’ Iran Act So Provocatively, But Admits ‘I Haven’t Seen The Full Video’
Last Friday, Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke to reporters at the Pentagon about the recent incident in the Strait of Hormuz where five Iranian speedboats were alleged to have harassed three major U.S. warships.
An immediate White House statement urged the Iranians to “refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident.” Mullen uttered the same talking points in his press conference, claiming he had never seen something as “provocative and dramatic.” But just five minutes later, Mullen conceded he hadn’t actually seen the full tape of the encounter:
MULLEN: The — there have been other situations where certainly ships transiting the Straits of Hormuz have been approached. To my knowledge, I have not seen one as both provocative and dramatic as this.
[…]
Q: Is there any reason why the full videotape of the entire episode can’t be released?
MULLEN: I know the secretary’s got it. We’re considering it, and I can’t say it will be addressed this afternoon, but I know that request is there. From my perspective, first of all, I haven’t seen the full video myself. But I’ve been told about it and I’m told there’s nothing, you know, particularly inconsistent or alarming with it from that perspective.
Watch it:
In the days following the initial media reports of the Iranian encounter in the Persian Gulf, the Bush administration has offered a dissembling response to three key elements of the alleged threat:
1. The Dangerous Verbal Threat. Initial media reports said that a “threatening radio call from the Iranians” warned that the U.S. “ships would explode.” Later, we learned that the verbal threat may not have come from an Iranian, and may instead have been the voice of a famous heckler.
2. The Boxes In The Water. After the verbal threat, the Iranian boats were observed “dropping objects in the water.” But as the Washington Post reported, U.S. ships at the time of the incident determined the boxes “posed no threat to the American vessels.” “After passing the white objects, commanders on the USS Port Royal and its accompanying destroyer and frigate decided there was so little danger from the objects that they did not bother to radio other ships to warn them.”
3. Boats Coming At The Ships. Initial media reports said “the Iranians ‘maneuvered aggressively’ in the direction of the U.S. ships.” But as the video shows, “the only boat that was close enough to be visible to the U.S. ships was unarmed.” “The footage of the boats maneuvering provides no visual evidence of Iranian boats ‘making a run on U.S. ships.’”
Piggybacking off the media reports of the “provocative” encounter with Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, Bush has sounded the urgent need to confront Iran at almost every stop along his Middle East journey.
UPDATE: Newshoggers has more. Watch the full video of the incident here:
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54 Responses to “Mullen: ‘I Have Not Seen’ Iran Act So Provocatively, But Admits ‘I Haven’t Seen The Full Video’”
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Mountain, meet mole-hill.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:39 amThe crime was having a boat.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:40 am2. The Boxes In The Water. After the verbal threat, the Iranian boats were observed “dropping objects in the water.â€
- - Those boxes contained ballots from Florida in the 2000 presidential election.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:40 amImpeach all of these fascist bloodthirsty warmongers before they start WW3.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:40 amFacts??? We don’t need no stinking facts!!
How dare you question us!! Were we wrong about Iraq’s WMDs?? Were we wrong about being greeted as liberators??? Were we wrong about the levees in New Orleans??? Were we wrong about the surge???
You guys suddenly decide to ask questions now????
January 14th, 2008 at 10:42 amNational Call-In Day, Wednesday Jan. 16
Congressman Robert Wexler is organizing his colleagues to ask House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers to begin Cheney impeachment hearings. Wexler is asking his fellow Judiciary Committee Members to co-sign a letter to Conyers. Please Email your Congress Member here: http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/125
Then please call the Capitol Hill Switchboard: 1-800-828-0498. Ask your representative to urge Chairman Conyers to begin impeachment hearings against Dick Cheney. This is especially important if your representative is a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Once you’ve sent your Email and made your phone call, please urge everyone you know to do the same. If you have further time to help advance impeachment, please call and Email the media.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:43 amJeebus, what kind of ‘incident’ was this?
January 14th, 2008 at 10:44 amNearly every ‘factual’ statement turns out to be an exaggeration, and none of it believable.
Typical BushitCo Bushit.
Bush Urges Unity Against Iran
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: January 14, 2008
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — President Bush on Sunday urged wary Persian Gulf allies to rally against Iran “before it is too late,†even as the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that the country had agreed, yet again, to answer outstanding questions about its nuclear programs within four weeks.
[…]
http://www.nytimes.com/ 2008/ 01/ 14/ world/ middleeast/ 14prexy.html
unity… against… iran…
make it STOP!
January 14th, 2008 at 10:45 amkaty, it really does sound like der Boosh’s ramp up to the Iraq invasion, doesn’t it?
January 14th, 2008 at 10:47 amkaty, it really does sound like der Boosh’s ramp up to the Iraq invasion, doesn’t it?
Comment by RUCerious
Yup, the “uniter-decider-not a nation builder-War Presidunce” is a stooge. He’s a “one-trick-pony” beating his little war drum.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:51 amOf course Israel & Saudi Arabia will jump on the anti-iranian bandwagon.
Jews and Arabs have hated Persians far longer than we’ve been a Nation.
If Bush & Cheney succeed in drawing us into Iran, they will have diverted attention from the real problems we have here at home. That’s their mission. Bush & Cheney need a bogeyman in the picture. Now that they declare the surge is working, they need to move on to a new threat.
The Iranian ‘killer speedboats’ were supposed to offset the NIE report…
January 14th, 2008 at 10:53 amJeebus, what kind of ‘incident’ was this?
Comment by RUCerious — January 14, 2008 @ 10:44 am
My old man, a former sailor who had heard anecdotally about the Filipino Monkey, now refers to the incident as The Gulf of Macaca.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:54 amGood grief. CAN WE IMPEACH THIS MFer NOW??????
January 14th, 2008 at 10:57 amLook fools, the hard right Israeli lobby has told us that we must attack Iran. Don’t you know they call the shots?
Quit complaining and get ready for some war!
January 14th, 2008 at 10:59 amThe Iranian ‘killer speedboats’
My God, we’ve got to protect our sandy, sunny beaches immediately!!!
I know, we can develop “stealth” sunscreen using no-bid contracts, hire a mercenary flotilla of drunk, redneck jet-boat enthusiasts to patrol the East coast, and continue selling weapons on the black market at ridiculous mark-ups!
WIN-WIN-WIN!!! EVERYBODY WINS, RIGHT?
January 14th, 2008 at 10:59 amThe top guy will make statements about a taped incident he hasn’t WATCHED??????
January 14th, 2008 at 11:00 amPosted on another thread, but apropos…
Rightoric: The same inane message with new words inserted daily to convey thoughts and actions the speaker has no intention of practicing.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:01 am“I have not seen one as both provocative and dramatic as this.”
… indeed, I haven’t even seen this one.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:02 amBe very afraid of Iran is the message. Scared people should immediately head to your bomb shelter equipped with clean sheets. O. Bigfoot must be there already and forgot to wire his shelter with internet cable.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:05 amIt truly must have been the most provocative incident he’d never seen!
January 14th, 2008 at 11:07 amBush had never seen it, either, but he sure had a lot to say about it!
January 14th, 2008 at 11:07 amYears ago a Russian trawler used to sit just outside the twenty mile mark off the NE shore. My boat would always circle around them to give our customers the chance to see it. Smaller craft used to race all around them. I wonder know what they must have been thinking.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:12 amRestraint isn’t too difficult when nothing happened that called for restraint in the first place. The advancement of this non-event is certainly war mongering.
God, conservatives are stupid.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:23 amThe fact that the ships did not shoot is great. That is not the problem. The problem is that the facts are unclear and this may not have been a real “conflict”. If that is the case, the war-mongering has nothing to do with the shots fired, but the case for further action in Iran based on a string of non-incidents that gives “justification” to entangling us in a THIRD WAR.
Again, you show your ignorance by conveniently ignoring the real issue and posting a comment devoid of facts, logical arguments, or even a relevant opinion with anything that can be considered support for it. Go figure.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:25 amgood_golly = rightoric
January 14th, 2008 at 11:27 amThe only shots being fired are coming the mouth of a certain chympident.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:29 amAn intellectually dishonest blog troll tries to obfuscate the fact that there was no reason to fire and calls that restraint… Go figure.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:31 amPlunger, weren’t those different ‘incidents’?
January 14th, 2008 at 11:32 amdifferent incidents… same war game…
they WILL have their war, it seems…
January 14th, 2008 at 11:42 amYes, I read both articles, I was just wondering why you would refer to different incidents, when the topic was this most recent incident…
January 14th, 2008 at 11:48 amTheir existance on this earth at the same time as George & Dick is a provocative action. George (as god) determined that if you’re “not with us you’re against us”, and we all know where non-believers go…
Come to think of it - the audacity of any of us who are not (or even, may not be) fans of this administration is provocative enough to justify the loss of our rights to occupy this planet. For sure, it constitutes “probable cause” to suspect us all of some offense.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:48 amAdmittedly, small boats running around a warship doesn’t seem very safe. But at the same time, the warships were from across the earth in waters where the exact national boundaries are debatable.
Why do I compare us to a small boy who keeps kicking a hornet’s nest. And then when the hornets swarm, it is the hornets’ fault and the problem is settled by burning out the hornets ?
January 14th, 2008 at 11:51 am“If you look carefully at the transcript, which was not reported accurately by the media, or not reported at all practically, the commander — or rather, Vice Admiral Cosgriff actually makes it clear that the ships were never in danger, that they never believed they were in danger, and that they were never close to firing on the Iranian boats. And this is the heart of what actually happened, which was never reported by the US media.”
- Gareth Porter, historian and national security policy analyst, on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman
January 14th, 2008 at 11:51 amI wonder how the reich-wingers would act if Iranian cruisers were sailing in international waters off the coast of Florida?
January 14th, 2008 at 11:54 amWhy do I compare us to a small boy who keeps kicking a hornet’s nest. And then when the hornets swarm, it is the hornets’ fault and the problem is settled by burning out the hornets ?
Comment by MapleStreet
Because that the double moral standard used by the US govt.
Iran complies with every nuclear inspection, answers UN all questions regarding their nuclear program, yet they are up to something.
US and Israel are OCCUPYING sovereign territories, launch attacks against other countries and most important: DENY NUCLEAR INFORMATION TO THE UN INSPECTORS while vetoing every UN resolution against them…yet, they are the democracy and freedom paladins.
Well, propaganda is so much better than the cold hard reality.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:55 amPretty soon he will come out and say McHale’s Navy is a real show and that they need to bomb New Caldeonia.
Is there anyone at all in Washington that isn’t beyond help? Prove it.
January 14th, 2008 at 12:08 pmAnd Mullen stayed at Holiday Inn Express last night??????????
January 14th, 2008 at 12:08 pmI almost wish Bush’s approval rating were higher so he might consider the consequences of his actions on his “legacy”, but with only the braindead 25% at risk he has nothing to lose. 75% agree that his legacy is akin to an ugly brown stain on the carpet that Fabreze and bleach won’t help.
As for the 25%ers who still support this fiend from hell, they are resolute and will support their man if he raped Barney. Again.
I will call it a win for America if we can get to 1/20/09 without this POS starting another war.
January 14th, 2008 at 12:19 pmAnd Mullen stayed at Holiday Inn Express last night??????????
Comment by celtic cynic @ 12:08 pm
and he used a credit card to pay for it!
ah haha ha… ahhhh … it’s funnier when dixie blood does it…
(inside joke)
January 14th, 2008 at 12:23 pmActually, Good_Golly, America did fire some warning shots back in Decemeber but it was not a big deal.
January 14th, 2008 at 12:24 pmgood_golly = rightoric
Comment by Zimzone — January 14, 2008 @ 11:27 am
I think “wrongtoric” would be more appropriate…
January 14th, 2008 at 12:32 pmThen who are the ‘rightaholics’ ??
January 14th, 2008 at 12:35 pmAs a kid I started on a promising career pathway toward becoming a famous heckler then CB radios became uncool. Are we sure this wasn’t those two muppets up in the balcony section?
January 14th, 2008 at 1:07 pmI previously opined that the voice sounded more like a mix between Steve Martin’s “Wild & Crazy Guys†SNL character and that cuban guy who rolls cigars on Miami Beach…
January 14th, 2008 at 1:16 pmAs a kid I started on a promising career pathway toward becoming a famous heckler then CB radios became uncool. Are we sure this wasn’t those two muppets up in the balcony section?
Comment by dbadass — January 14, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
That’s a big Ten-Four good buddy. Brave Xray, Brave Zulu.
Report when on station and ready for call for fire.
Big Mary Two Six Charlie
Over
January 14th, 2008 at 1:17 pmMike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: ” I’m perfectly willing to comment on something I know nothing about, as long as it supports my Fuerher.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:27 pmI think this is a very dangerous situation.
While competition for oil, Iranian provocation and American unilateralism are all factors, the most destabilizing element I see are Israel’s internal problems.
I think we in the US have no clue what it was like to be subject to the scud attacks in the 90s, or the rocket attacks now — the death toll gives no clue to the level of existential fear. But I for one feel that the material military threat is the least central part of the problem.
Conflict with Palestinian arabs is just one part of it. Isreal as a whole seems to me to be losing its sense of purpose. Other than religious extremists, the Israelis I know express uncertainty about the future, about the rightness of the zionist cause in ways that I didn’t hear ten or twenty years ago.
The situation reminds me of what has been written about Weimar Germany, or the Blum regime in France in the late 30’s — when the center loses legitimacy, the extremists start taking control of the ship.
There is an ugly climate of fear and violence now. I don’t know whether the paranoia of the posts of “plunger” and others like him or her is correct (recent events give one little confidence that the paranoid scenario is wrong), but there is a visciousness on the Israeli right which when combined with W’s self-delusion and will to violence, is truly frightening.
January 2009 can’t come quick enough. I hope we can get there w/o another needless war.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:59 pmHey Plunger,
No one is criticizing your information. I, like many other readers thought you were trying to prove that shots were fired on THIS incident. The information is definitely relevant to the topic, but I think some were clarifying so it doesn’t look like us “moonbats” were just making stuff up or lying.
Trust me, I am as frustrated as every other patriotic American who believes in the ideals that this country was founded on, but we don’t get anywhere jumping down each others throats.
Keep up the good work - and as Kent Jones used to say - “VIGILANCE”!
Dan
January 14th, 2008 at 2:21 pmPlunger, it would have helped if you’d put just a phrase of context for us.
January 14th, 2008 at 2:47 pmThanks for the info, though. I had missed that one.
The Pentagon video release is a fake and it is eddited.
January 14th, 2008 at 2:50 pmThis is from and article of John Pilger:
Unlike Israel and the United States, Iran has abided by the rules of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which it was an original signatory and has allowed routine inspections under its legal obligations – until gratuitous, punitive measures were added in 2003, at the behest of Washington. No report by the International Atomic Energy Agency has ever cited Iran for diverting its civilian nuclear program to military use. The IAEA has said that for most of the past three years its inspectors have been able to “go anywhere and see anything.” They inspected the nuclear installations at Isfahan and Natanz on 10 and 12 January and will return on 2 to 6 February. The head of the IAEA, Mohamed El-Baradei says that an attack on Iran will have “catastrophic consequences” and only encourage the regime to become a nuclear power.
Unlike its two nemeses, the US and Israel, Iran has attacked no other countries. It last went to war in 1980 when invaded by Saddam Hussein, who was backed and equipped by the US, which supplied chemical and biological weapons produced at a factory in Maryland. Unlike Israel, the world’s fifth military power with thermonuclear weapons aimed at Middle-East targets, an unmatched record of defying UN resolutions and the enforcer of the world’s longest illegal occupation, Iran has a history of obeying international law and occupies no territory other than its own.
The only threat to world security and peace comes from the USA/UK/ISREAL.
INDICT IMPEACH IMPRISON BUSH/CHENNEY
“The Boxes In The Water. After the verbal threat, the Iranian boats were observed ‘dropping objects in the water.’ But as the Washington Post reported, U.S. ships at the time of the incident determined the boxes ‘posed no threat to the American vessels.’”
“DAMMIT!!! The coolers fell overboard!! There goes our beer!!”
January 14th, 2008 at 5:51 pmThis is so GD laughable! What gets me is the fact that Bush et al would give us so little credit to try to make us believe this bullshit. It looks like a comedy skit. Right along with this little puppet theatre, George is over there ginning it up, selling a war with Iran, and I’ll bet our little congressional wimps are just gonna take it and fund it. Rome is burning!!
January 15th, 2008 at 5:55 amI think Mullin is one of the good guys that Admiral Fallon is working together with to “put the crazies back in their box.” and that means cheney and the very dangerous, demented israeli military - see Seymour Hersh’s The Samson Option. I think israel has suitcase nukes around the world and has for some time and that is why they have gotten away with so many crimes against humanity and with hijacking our country.
Like General Peter Pace, Admirals Mullin and Fallon are walking a tightrope and are to be credited with preventing the planned nuclear attack on 70 million innocent Iranian citizens.
See the site Liberty Forum and Wake From Your Slumber and We Are Wide Awake. We need to show a more sophisticated understanding of the nature of the very dangerous games taking place.
Google Mullin and Fallon and carefully read their testimony before Congress, their quotes from trying to help our abused troops and interviews.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:16 amThe military brass is trying to prevent a replay of the Gulf of Tonkin incident and other israeli false flags to get us to attack their enemies. That is why some of this stuff is being released now. There is a war going on just barely beneath the surface between the demented duel citizenship israeli traitors and the demented israeli government and billionnaires - we need to see what is going on and offer verbal support to the military brass, just in case they decide to act against America’s real enemies.
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=83571
Report reveals Vietnam War hoaxes, faked attacks
AFP
Tuesday January 8, 2008
North Vietnamese made hoax calls to get the US military to bomb its own units during the Vietnam War, according to declassified information that also confirmed US officials faked an incident to escalate the war.
The report was released by the National Security Agency, responsible for much of the United States’ codebreaking and eavesdropping work, in response to a “mandatory declassification” request, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) said Monday.
But he said that probably the “most historically significant feature” of the declassified report was the retelling of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident.
That was a reported North Vietnamese attack on American destroyers that helped lead to president Lyndon Johnson’s sharp escalation of American forces in Vietnam.
The author of the report “demonstrates that not only is it not true, as (then US) secretary of defense Robert McNamara told Congress, that the evidence of an attack was ‘unimpeachable,’ but that to the contrary, a review of the classified signals intelligence proves that ‘no attack happened that night,’” FAS said in a statement.
“What this study demonstrated is that the available intelligence shows that there was no attack. It’s a dramatic reversal of the historical record,” Aftergood said.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:21 am