Iran "Holding" US Sailors?

I’m just glad that we got the boys back so quickly.

It appears that we not only have the World’s largest Navy, but also the most incompetent.

Speaking of entertaining the masses, let’s have a few Admirals flogged in public.

DeckApe may be correct…but I was wondering why the able boat did not toss a line to the disabled boat…and tow it somewhere

[QUOTE=oldSK;177188]DeckApe may be correct…but I was wondering why the able boat did not toss a line to the disabled boat…and tow it somewhere[/QUOTE]

Did they have engine problem or navigation equipment problem?
Who to believe here?

[QUOTE=ombugge;177191]Did they have engine problem or navigation equipment problem?
Who to believe here?[/QUOTE]

If you believe that then you are naïve to the max. Let’s blame the GPS signals - or maybe they just forgot to check the fuel level - you know, an honest mistake.

Bullshit. We stuck our dick across the line on the map to show how tough we are and the Iranian Navy slammed the door on it.

[QUOTE=Jetryder223;177195]If you believe that then you are naïve to the max. Let’s blame the GPS signals - or maybe they just forgot to check the fuel level - you know, an honest mistake.

Bullshit. We stuck our dick across the line on the map to show how tough we are and the Iranian Navy slammed the door on it.[/QUOTE]

Oh is that what happened?? I’m totally baffled that things like that is done by the world’s only superpower. Why???
I like your way of describing it. I bet what hurt though.

Regardless of what is the truth, somebody’s ego may have got dented to.

I have read on more than one site that the Iranians might have been tipped off about the boats. One report said that there was a “Request” for assistance from High up sent to the Iranians.

All that I have to say is after watching the Video of our Serviceman telling the Iranians how sorry he was made me flash back to the Propaganda Videos out of Vietnam.

This entire event and the way it was treated by the Government is shameful! I will never forget listening to the Press Briefing when this was first being reported. The talking Head when asked if this would have any affect on the Nuke Deal, all he kept saying no these are two different things and NO this has nothing to do with the Nuke Agreement.

I will always Love this Country but right now I am not very proud of how all of the Government acted during this event!

[QUOTE=Tugs;177199]I have read on more than one site that the Iranians might have been tipped off about the boats. One report said that there was a “Request” for assistance from High up sent to the Iranians.

All that I have to say is after watching the Video of our Serviceman telling the Iranians how sorry he was made me flash back to the Propaganda Videos out of Vietnam.

This entire event and the way it was treated by the Government is shameful! I will never forget listening to the Press Briefing when this was first being reported. The talking Head when asked if this would have any affect on the Nuke Deal, all he kept saying no these are two different things and NO this has nothing to do with the Nuke Agreement.

I will always Love this Country but right now I am not very proud of how all of the Government acted during this event![/QUOTE]

Would you have liked for the Navy to go in with guns blazing to “get our boys home”??
That would likely have resulted in another Gulf War and to what end?? The Revolutionary Guards would have loved that.
Luckily cooler heads prevailed on both sides and not a hair was touched on the US servicemen and one woman.

I would like to see a few Admiral’s heads rolling.

Incredible stupidity to put these dumb kids and their little pisspot boats into such a situation. The US Navy looks even more incompetent than it is.

It’s just a sign that Iran wants the US to release 150 million of their frozen funds. The need the cash more than they need to hold a few low level hostages.

[QUOTE=tugsailor;177209]It’s just a sign that Iran wants the US to release 150 million of their frozen funds. The need the cash more than they need to hold a few low level hostages.[/QUOTE]

I hear what you are saying but in this case the two aren’t really connected. Their accounts get unfrozen when they meet the requirements of the international ‘deal’ like shipping out the nuclear materials they stockpiled etc. Whether they kept the boats or not the money would be released if they met the conditions. It’s not all in US banks either. The stories I read say 100 to 150 Billion not million. They also owe a boat load of cash to China.

[QUOTE=KPChief;177211]I hear what you are saying but in this case the two aren’t really connected. Their accounts get unfrozen when they meet the requirements of the international ‘deal’ like shipping out the nuclear materials they stockpiled etc. Whether they kept the boats or not the money would be released if they met the conditions. It’s not all in US banks either. The stories I read say 100 to 150 Billion not million. They also owe a boat load of cash to China.[/QUOTE]

Yes. You re right. $150 Billion. You correctly describe the deal, but if they had held the boys as hostages, even that wussy Obama would have had to hold back on the cash. If he released the money, Hillary wouldn’t stand a chance.

This was an innocent error on the sailors’ part (or so both sides are saying). In this case Iran wasn’t hostile. We are not at war. Apologizing to a host nation for violating their local laws (entering the country illegally) isn’t prohibited by article 5 as long as the host was not a belligerent.

It’s no different then if a soldier drove his truck full of weapons into Mexico illegally and without orders to do so.

TAMPA, Florida — Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday it appears a navigational error caused the crews of two Navy boats to stray into Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf, where they were detained overnight by Iran and released.
“It does appear — the information that they have given us and through their commanders — that they did stray accidentally into Iranian waters due to a navigation error,” Carter said in an interview in Miami with Fusion network. Later, he flew to Tampa to meet with leaders of U.S. Central Command, which oversees the U.S. military in the Middle East.

“They obviously had misnavigated … that’s how they believe they ended up in this circumstance,” he added. “They did not report this navigational error at the time. It may be that they were trying to sort it out at the time they encountered Iranian boats. … We don’t know that fully yet.”

Less than a day after being detained on Iran’s Farsi Island in the Gulf, the 10 sailors were back with their American fleet. Navy officials said the 10 were undergoing what the military calls “reintegration,” a series of interviews and physical and mental health examinations to ease their return to duty. A Navy investigation will ensue.

The Navy has given no indication that the 10 were injured or mistreated.

A complete picture of what happened is unlikely to be available for days, but the central cause for the crews’ entering Iranian waters was the navigational slip, which apparently was caused by human error rather than by an equipment malfunction, defense officials said. The boats, known as riverine command boats, were en route from Kuwait to Bahrain.

The navigational error cited by Carter was compounded by some sort of engine trouble aboard one of the boats, another U.S. defense official said. The engine problem did not cause the boats to go off course but apparently prevented them from evading the Iranians once the crews realized they were inside Iran’s territorial waters.

The Navy realized the boats were missing when they failed to appear shipside in the Gulf for refueling on their way to Bahrain, one defense official said. GPS devices aboard the boats enabled the Navy to determine, after the fact, that they were in Iranian waters, but the Navy was not immediately sure whether the crew members were safe or had gone overboard. So a search-and-rescue operation was undertaken, and at least one U.S. ship crossed into Iranian waters to look for the crew after alerting the Iranian navy of their intentions. The Iranians did not interfere, the defense official said. The official was not authorized to discuss these details and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Secretary of State John Kerry used the personal relationship he has formed with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to work out the crews’ release. Kerry credited the quick resolution to the “critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country secure and strong.”

Carter said the sailors were not on a covert mission and were simply making their way from Kuwait to Bahrain, both on the western coast of the Gulf. They ended up in Iranian territorial waters at least 50 miles offshore and were detained by the Iranian military at Farsi Island, which is home to an Iranian naval base.

Navy officials said the families of the 10 crew members were kept abreast of developments once it was confirmed that the Iranians were holding them.

Burns reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann in Washington contributed to this report.

Ridiculous to assume it should have been handled differently. I don’t like the current admin, but what else could you really do? I’d be calling out naval leadership saying they keep embarrassing the country and to get their shit straight; that sounds like the right response. Not the sailors fault in that overall context, but these leadership book writing admirals suck.

[QUOTE=z-drive;177227]Ridiculous to assume it should have been handled differently. I don’t like the current admin, but what else could you really do? I’d be calling out naval leadership saying they keep embarrassing the country and to get their shit straight; that sounds like the right response. Not the sailors fault in that overall context, but these leadership book writing admirals suck.[/QUOTE]

I just listened to Sarah Palin speaking at a Trump rally (Painful with that squeaky voice and all)
She claimed that Iran had broken international law by holding the American sailors that was just doing their country proud and saving the world.
I wonder who briefed her on the facts before speaking to the nation and the world?

Well, facts has never been her main concern. (Or Trump’s)
Maybe she should go back to Alaska and keep an eye on Russia from there?

[QUOTE=ombugge;177421]Well, facts has never been her main concern. (Or Trump’s)
Maybe she should go back to Alaska and keep an eye on Russia from there?[/QUOTE]

Yes, she can see it from her living room!

McCain Threatens to Subpoena U.S. Sailors Held by Iran

by REUTERS

Sen. John McCain said Sunday he would subpoena 10 U.S. sailors to testify about their brief detention by Iran if the Obama administration doesn’t hand over the findings of an investigation into the incident by the end of the month.

“It’s an option that I do not want to exercise,” McCain, R-Arizona, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told reporters as he was returning to the United States from an international security conference in Germany.

The sailors were detained by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after their two patrol boats strayed into Iranian waters on Jan. 12. U.S. officials later blamed a navigational problem.

Iran’s Release of 10 U.S. Sailors Heads off International Crisis 2:32
The Americans were freed the next day after Secretary of State John Kerry intervened with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, averting a diplomatic crisis just days before implementation of the Iran nuclear deal and the lifting of international sanctions on Tehran.

Related: U.S. Sailors Detained by Iran Are ‘Safely Returned’

Iranian media broadcast videos of the detainees, including scenes in which Revolutionary Guards personnel trained weapons on the sailors as they knelt.

The Navy has briefed McCain several times about the incident and will continue to do so, a U.S. official told Reuters.

McCain said he had been told that the sailors were still being debriefed, but he added that he assumed that administration members were “dragging their feet” in completing an investigation into the incident, which he accused Iran of exploiting for propaganda purposes.

“I guarantee you, if they don’t have a debrief by the 1st of March, like they said, we’ll have a hearing, and we’ll subpoena. We’re not going to wait any longer,” McCain said. "We will subpoena the individuals if we have to.

One theory is that because the US has a “Don’t fire unless fired upon” policy in their ROE, Iran simply stopped the vessels in international waters and towed them into Iranian waters, which may well be closer to the truth. They could have jammed all radio/satellite frequencies to interrupt communications. Hard to believe that with two vessels, that they didn’t have an approved voyage plan with waypoints keeping them in international waters, that they both made the same navigational error, and that the second vessel didn’t tow the first if indeed it did have a mechanical problem.

[QUOTE=water;179246]One theory is that because the US has a “Don’t fire unless fired upon” policy in their ROE, Iran simply stopped the vessels in international waters and towed them into Iranian waters, which may well be closer to the truth. They could have jammed all radio/satellite frequencies to interrupt communications. Hard to believe that with two vessels, that they didn’t have an approved voyage plan with waypoints keeping them in international waters, that they both made the same navigational error, and that the second vessel didn’t tow the first if indeed it did have a mechanical problem.[/QUOTE]

Maybe whoever “planned” this voyage didn’t notice that those little specs of islands in the middle of the Gulf were Iranian territory??

[QUOTE=water;177423]Yes, she can see it from her living room![/QUOTE]

Or not…

http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/russia.asp

[QUOTE=JayNola;179257]Or not…

http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/russia.asp[/QUOTE]

No sense of humor, eh? That was tongue-in-cheek.

The Navy take punitive action due to the incident in the Gulf: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-boats-idUSKCN0Y3313