Fuckers! :mad:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pentagon-2-u-s-navy-boats-held-iran-military-n495031
QuotePentagon: 2 U.S. Navy Boats With 10 American Sailors Held by Iran Military
by Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube
Iranian military forces seized two U.S. Navy boats Tuesday and are detaining them on Iran's Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf, senior U.S. officials told NBC News.
The 10 American sailors aboard the small riverine vessels were on a training mission around noon ET when one of the boats may have experienced mechanical failure and drifted into Iranian-claimed waters, officials said. Iran's coast guard took them into custody.
The officials said it's unclear whether the sailors — nine men and one woman — had strayed into Iranian territorial waters before they were captured.
American naval ships routinely navigate the waters of the Persian Gulf near Iranian territory. The Gulf has been a flashpoint in the Middle East, and the incident comes on the same day President Barack Obama was set to give his annual State of the Union address.
"At this point, we're still monitoring the situation and it's not entirely clear what happened," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on MSNBC, adding that Iranian authorities confirmed that the sailors are safe.
Earnest said there remained no exact time frame for when the sailors would be let go, but didn't expect a long delay. Officials told NBC News that the Americans aren't expected to be released until around daybreak Wednesday.
Following reports of the incident, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Iranian officials in Tehran by phone, attempting to secure the sailors' release.
One senior official told NBC News the Iranians understand it was a mistake and have agreed to let the Americans go in international waters.
Senior U.S. military commanders had criticized Iran last month for its "highly provocative" actions when it fired unguided rockets near U.S. ships, including the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told The Associated Press that the boats were moving between Kuwait and Bahrain when U.S. officials lost contact with them. Farsi Island sits in the Persian Gulf in between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and is fortified by Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
"We have been in contact with Iran and have received assurances that the crew and the vessels will be returned promptly
," Cook said.
Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, an NBC News military analyst, said the seizure of American boats is "very bad news" and highlights how the Navy may have failed to have surveillance on its vessels.
"We simply can't allow ground, air or naval units to be seized by a foreign hostile power," McCaffrey said on MSNBC. "I hope they're back real quickly. This is an affront to our military presence in the Gulf and will unsettle our allies in the region."
GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush was among the first to attack Obama for appearing weak in front of Iran, which has been at odds with the U.S. over a delicate nuclear deal that was finally reached last year.
"No more bargaining. Obama's humiliatingly weak Iran policy is exposed again," Bush tweeted.
Quote
Jeb Bush
✔ @JebBush
If our sailors aren't coming home yet, they need to be now. No more bargaining. Obama's humiliatingly weak Iran policy is exposed again.
8:00 AM - 13 Jan 2016
GOP rival Marco Rubio, during an interview on Fox News, called for Iran to release the sailors "immediately," saying the nation is "testing the boundaries of our resolve."
But Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said on MSNBC that the pending release of the sailors shows how diplomacy between U.S. and Iranian officials "is working."
"Hopefully this will be resolved, and it won't be an issue that we're talking about in a couple of hours," she said.
I'm sure I am just being hysterical, but in these cases (it has happened a few times with Iran over the years), I wonder why the USN sailors don't start shooting up those pesky Iranian pirates that are trying to seize their vessal. :P
It seems your anger is premature, Tim. We don't really know what happened yet.
Sounds like they are going to be let go soon. They probably accidentally drifted into their waters...probably nothing to worry about.
Quote from: Valmy on January 13, 2016, 12:38:22 AM
Sounds like they are going to be let go soon. They probably accidentally drifted into their waters...probably nothing to worry about.
Traitor!
They've been returned.
Did they get bad suits?
Quote from: lustindarkness on January 13, 2016, 08:03:22 AM
They've been returned.
I assume that Bush will have to put the quick resolution down to Obama's strength, given that he decided that their capture was a result of Obama's weakness?
Quote from: Jacob on January 13, 2016, 12:39:49 PM
Quote from: lustindarkness on January 13, 2016, 08:03:22 AM
They've been returned.
I assume that Bush will have to put the quick resolution down to Obama's strength, given that he decided that their capture was a result of Obama's weakness?
Of course not.
Quote from: Jacob on January 13, 2016, 12:39:49 PM
Quote from: lustindarkness on January 13, 2016, 08:03:22 AM
They've been returned.
I assume that Bush will have to put the quick resolution down to Obama's strength, given that he decided that their capture was a result of Obama's weakness?
Don't be silly, it's out of respect for Obama's strong Muslim faith.
Quote from: The Minsky Moment on January 13, 2016, 12:46:25 PM
Quote from: Jacob on January 13, 2016, 12:39:49 PM
Quote from: lustindarkness on January 13, 2016, 08:03:22 AM
They've been returned.
I assume that Bush will have to put the quick resolution down to Obama's strength, given that he decided that their capture was a result of Obama's weakness?
Don't be silly, it's out of respect for Obama's strong Muslim faith.
Plus Iran's desire to remain on good terms with all Kenyans.
They put a head rag on one of our women. The conservative line is if Iranians feared the US, as they should and did during the Reagan days, they'd not have dared to pick up the sailors in the first place.
Quote from: Jaron on January 16, 2016, 03:20:33 PM
They put a head rag on one of our women. The conservative line is if Iranians feared the US, as they should and did during the Reagan days, they'd not have dared to pick up the sailors in the first place.
In the Reagan days he decided he was done messing with the Arabs after they attacked us once :hmm:
Smart man but not really one who left everybody sure any wrong move would get you nuked.
Well that was a non-crisis.
Surely the T-party lot can appreciate that the US would do the same thing if foreign armed forces strayed into American waters/airspace especially if they weren't formal allies.
Given how long the US-Mexican border is, do accidental border 'incursions' happen that often and if so, how does each side deal with the trespassers?
Quote from: mongers on January 16, 2016, 05:52:47 PM
Well that was a non-crisis.
Surely the T-party lot can appreciate that the US would do the same thing if foreign armed forces strayed into American waters/airspace especially if they weren't formal allies.
I doubt we'd be parading them on grainy film to the international media and forcing them to apologize on said video.
We'd treat them with great hospitality and serve them beer and ham sandwiches.
The important news from Iran is this:
QuoteIran Complies With Nuclear Deal; Sanctions Are Lifted
VIENNA — International inspectors confirmed Saturday that Iran had dismantled large sections of its nuclear program, as agreed in a historic accord last summer, paving the way for the lifting of oil and financial sanctions by the United States and other world powers.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/world/middleeast/iran-sanctions-lifted-nuclear-deal.html
If this holds it is a huge foreign policy success for Obama.
It's a treaty designed to prevent Iran from building a bomb for 10 years. Does that really qualify as a triumph for Obama?
Quote from: Admiral Yi on January 16, 2016, 06:39:59 PM
It's a treaty designed to prevent Iran from building a bomb for 10 years. Does that really qualify as a triumph for Obama?
Yes. Yes, it does.
Fuckers! :mad:
QuoteExclusive
U.S. Navy Officers in Crosshairs Over Iran Debacle
A military investigation into a bungled mission in the Persian Gulf could end the careers of several officers.
By Dan De Luce
June 22, 2016
ForeignPolicy.com
The U.S. Navy is weighing whether to punish several officers and sailors for the botched mission that resulted in two boats inadvertently straying into Iranian waters, embarrassing Washington and handing Tehran a propaganda victory, Foreign Policy has learned.
Based on the findings of a five-month internal investigation, naval commanders are reviewing potential punishment for nine individuals in connection with the case, Navy officials told FP. Unlike some other high-profile cases in the military, six of the nine service members in the crosshairs are officers, not lower-ranking enlisted personnel. One of those under intense scrutiny serves as the commodore overseeing a task force in the Middle East with more than 1,000 personnel, Capt. Kyle Moses.
"The investigation is complete and is being referred to the appropriate commands for adjudication," said Navy spokesman Cmdr. Mike Kafka, who declined to comment further on the case.
The Jan. 12 incident grabbed headlines around the world and called into question the Navy's ability to safely traverse a strategically important waterway that could be the site of fierce fighting in the event of any future military confrontation with Iran. It also threatened to spark new tensions between Washington and Tehran just as a landmark nuclear deal was slated to go into effect. In the end, the incident was resolved peacefully, though at a steep public relations cost for the White House.
The investigation found the mission was plagued by communication failures, shortcomings with maintenance and training, missteps by members of the boat crews, and a lack of rigorous oversight by commanding officers, Navy officials said. When the boats veered off course, no one at an operations center warned the sailors they were heading towards Iranian waters around Farsi Island.
The sailors had set out from Kuwait after noon local time on what was supposed to be a routine mission to Bahrain. But they had no experience navigating across the Persian Gulf in their small riverine command boats, which are only about 50 feet long, and were not accustomed to traveling such a long distance. Before they departed, the crew also had to cannibalize a third boat to make last-minute repairs.
After having sailed into Iranian waters without realizing it, one of the American boats — the one that had to be fixed the day before — broke down. As the sailors tried to fix the bolt on the engine mount, two Iranian Revolutionary Guard patrols arrived, with their weapons pointed at the U.S. sailors. Soon a third ship showed up, followed by a fourth ship that was larger and more heavily armed. The Americans decided they would surrender to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops rather than try to shoot their way out.
The Iranians filmed 10 U.S. sailors kneeling with their hands on their heads, while the skipper of the boats, Lt. David Nartker, apologized for their navigation error, and then promptly released the videos.
Secretary of State John Kerry secured the release of the sailors within 16 hours, following a flurry of phone calls to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif. But Republican lawmakers accused the administration of caving in to the Iranians and withholding key details about what had actually caused the miscue.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Iran had violated international law by seizing the boats and accused the Obama administration of dragging its feet in divulging details of the episode. McCain even threatened to subpoena the sailors involved if the White House and the Pentagon failed to cooperate.
Since then, McCain and other lawmakers have received regular updates on the case from Navy officers and the Republican senator has dropped threats of a subpoena. The Navy's top officer, Adm. John Richardson, is due to publicly release the findings of the five-month investigation next week at the Pentagon and announce changes in procedures designed to ensure the blunder is not repeated.
Richardson will also outline the specific personnel being disciplined in the case, as well as their punishments.
People familiar with the investigation said it wouldn't conclude that the mission itself was misguided, but instead that personnel at various levels failed to carry out their duties properly.
"If you are going to do these types of missions, then the right training, preparation, and oversight has to occur," one Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told FP. "There are oversight lessons learned, communication lessons learned, and operational lessons learned," the official said, citing the investigation.
When the sailors were released, the White House said it showed the benefits of diplomacy with Iran. Kerry was able to take advantage of a working relationship that he has forged with Iran's foreign minister, Zarif, through the course of negotiations on Tehran's nuclear program, officials said.
But Iran also milked the incident for maximum propaganda value, releasing various video clips of the crew in the hours and days after the sailors were freed. One clip showed a sailor crying apparently in relief after hearing of his imminent release.
A few weeks after the incident, Iran's supreme leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, awarded the Fath medal for victory to the chief of the navy of the Revolutionary Guards and four commanders involved in the capture of American boats.
The decision whether to impose disciplinary action on the personnel involved is up to three top naval officers. The head of Fifth Fleet, Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, will decide the fate of Moses, the most senior officer named, who oversees Task Force 56, which includes the riverine boat crews, along with his deputy. The chief of the Pacific Fleet, Adm. Scott Swift, will review the case of three members of the boat crews named in the investigation, including the officer in charge, Nartker.
And the head of Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, Rear Adm. Frank Morneau, will decide whether four service members in the riverine boat squadron should be punished over alleged failures with the maintenance of the boats or other equipment, according to Navy officials and those familiar with the case.
One officer in the squadron has already been punished over the incident. Cmdr. Eric Rasch, who was the executive officer for Coastal Riverine Squadron 3, which included the boats that sailed into Iran's territorial waters on, was relieved of command last month.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on January 16, 2016, 06:39:59 PM
It's a treaty designed to prevent Iran from building a bomb for 10 years. Does that really qualify as a triumph for Obama?
It's a bigger triumph than Bush had with North Korea.