I have before, double the base rate, unlimited OT
What US crews?
āThe United States Coast Guard, over the objection of several seamenās groups, considered the Kuwaiti tankers as falling within the ambit of the exemption. Because the Kuwaiti tankers are not departing from or calling at a United States port, the 75% United States crew and 100% United States officer requirements were deemed inapplicable. The tankers are manned by non-U.S. citizens and U.S. masters; the Kuwaitis agreed to replace the Soviet-bloc sailors on four of its tankers with Fili- pino crew and European or Arab officers.
Fun fact, the Filipino crews sued the āUSā owner company set up to satisfy owner citizenship requirements. They sued for minimum wage under US law since the vessel was US flagged and they were getting less.
They lost.
Remember The Maine -Jim Wright is a retired US Navy Chief Warrant Officer and freelance writer.
Who benefits from war between the US and Iran?
The Cheeto and his babysitters; oil companies; defense contractors; a gaggle of admirals and generals; right wing politicians; Israel; Saudi Arabia; and a shipload of bankers for a start.
Dutch salvage company Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) has been appointed as the salvor for the Frontline and BSM tankers that were hit on June 13 in the Gulf of Oman in a suspected attack.
Shortly after the incidents the insurers of both vessels appointed Boskalis subsidiary SMIT Salvage to salvage the vessels and their cargo. A team with special equipment have already been sent in. The Kokuka Courageous is in a stable position and is being towed to a port.
The video of a boat alongside one of the tankers, purportedly removing an unexploded limpet mine, looks like it was taken with a Chinese cellphone. It is nothing like any of the many videos released by the US military when they want to show bad guys doing things the public doesnāt like.
If the Navy had an aircraft capable of recording video that same aircraft and other resources should have been able to track the subject boat from dock to ship to dock with great clarity and show the world with no room for confusion who was in the boat and where it came from.
This is looking more and more like another amateur attempt by the bungling morons in the Whitehouse who are scared shitless of losing their place at the trough.
Ship departed from Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia and was bound for Singapore. This is purely a provocative act and Iran is obviously looking for a fight so accommodate themā¦
The US Navy said that at 4:10 pm local time, āAn IRGC Gashti Class patrol boat approached the Kokuka Courageous and was observed and recorded removing the unexploded limpet mine from the Kokuka Courageous.ā The US Navy has posted video footage showing the apparent removal of the limpet mine. This proven attack by the Iranians does not bring the USN in action, all remains quiet. What are they waiting for?
A provocative act? Certainly. Proven? Not yet.
Two tankers with Japanese interests the day the Japanese PM was meeting with Rouhani? Iran would have to be bone crushingly stupid. Their current foreign policy is an attempt to keep the Iran deal alive in the face of unstable and increasingly isolated USA and regional dĆ©stabilizers. They will be looking for diplomatic coalition building, to withstand the Trump admin until a return to more pragmatic policies, not pretending to be Kim Jong Un and hoping for love letters. Thereās no good reason for them to provoke, cause the pressure on them is already bad, would only get worse and they know they are dealing with an irrational foreign policy posture and temperamental administration.
This is not state action, flag waving patrol boats rushing shipping or the usual more overt belligĆ©rance they employed like seizing a navy boat. Covert is not their game in the naval space especially when any bad thing will be seen or painted as their actions. Overt Confrontation at their borders is. Threats to the sea lanes of communication leading to negative effects on shipping would hurt their interests at a time when they are less able to absorb shocks. So what would this covert mine placement do except be the most likely way to cast Iran as a belligerent? Since it is covert, what would an unclear message like this do for their interests that doesnāt require considerable imagination? If covert for deniability, what value to the act at all, it wonāt change the dynamics save in a bad way. However just the kind of thing to destabilize the region.
Video of removal by IRGCā¦ Who else would remove a UXB but the local military while attached to a tanker in their port? Let me know when YouTube has the placement video.
Now as to who may benefit from an assault like this to derail the meeting with Japan PM to frustrate diplomatic action, and can employ covert actionā¦ wellā¦ several options present themselves.
Uhhhā¦ Norway?
Seriously, though, there was a rather excellent editorial on NRK this morning, which pointed out that there are internal struggles between the sitting Iranian president, the religious elders, and various intelligence services in Iran. Some of those forces openly advocate war with the US, no matter how little sense it makes. In other words, there is no shortage of players who stand to gain from de-stabilizing the country.
EDIT: Iām not sure if thatās supposed to be reviled or revealed in the Stonekettle quote.
American mariners when they call for Sealift to get to the fight.
ā¦didnāt they prove this behavior since 1979 ?
You can follow the drama at
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:57.5/centery:25.1/zoom:9
M/T Kokuka Courageous is doing 4 knots heading for Fujairah while M/T Front Altair is maybe also heading for Fujairah. .M/T Kokuka Courageous is assisted by M/S Al Wahsh and M/T Front Altair is assisted by M/S Aquila.
I wonder what the ships shall do at Fujairah. Spill oil on the beach?
You know the GOT incident of 02AUG64 was ligit, right? The one on 04AUG64 was bogus!
This is a highly suspicious āattack,ā and I for one am not buying it, given the plethora of lies from this administration. They better show more than a grainy video to convince the world that Iran was behind it especially given all the talk lately of deepfake videos. Ask yourself who benefits.
First the Navy claims to have rushed to the aid of two tankers, then shows really low quality video they claim shows Iranians removing a limpet mine.
So, the Navy and all their incredible surveillance technology rushed to the damaged ships that have been photographed by several news sources, then stood by while an Iranian gunboat pulled alongside and ārecovered a limpet mineā and recorded the scene with a 1970ās Betamax black and white video camera. All this happened while they did nothing to either investigate the intruder or intercept it?
Is there a single element of this story that has even a tiny bit of credibility? Letās rewrite the headlines:
US Navy stands down while a messcook takes low quality video of Iranian gunboat crossing Gulf of Oman to pull alongside damaged tanker.
There is only one source on the planet stupid enough to produce this kind of juvenile horseshit and that is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Iām thinking that might be a starlight video.
Video quality of Navy shipboard videos Iāve seen is usually full of crappy artifacts, presumably because the ship is pumping a few megawatts of RF into the air and it tends to crawl into everything.
My question I think has been raised here already ā who else should have been removing that mine? A couple tankermen in a fast rescue boat?
Maybe we should just send Iran more pallets of cash, Iām sure our REEEEeeEeesisting socialists here would be thrilled if that happened.
If that video was taken from a ship it was from the bridge wing of a very large ship very close to the tanker.
Which goes even further to support that it is bullshit ā¦ so your RF pumping US Navy warship just sat there while an Iranian gunboat came over the horizon and pulled alongside the tanker just a few yards away?
Those videos were taken from the air. Except for PR films, surveillance videos are crammed with data top bottom and sides and the Navy would have left that in just to establish credibility like they do every time they want to brag about their capabilities.
Who said it was a mine anyway? Did the US Navy rush to the aid of the ship, identify a limpet mine then back off just far enough to get amateur video of an Iranian gunboat going alongside to retrieve it?
This really does stink of rank amateurism at all levels. This is the nautical equivalent of chopping up journalists.