Two U.S. Navy boats in Iranian custody but crew will be returned ‘promptly’

[tomahawk6]

The flip side is that the IRG erred in taking the boats with their crews and the Iranian leadership didnt want to jeapordize the prisoner release that occured yesterday,as well as the ending of sanctions.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

It could well be a part of a internal struggle in Iran where certain factions were trying to derail the agreement.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Meanwhile, from all the way over in separatist eastern Ukraine, the foil hats come on ...

A leaked Ministry of Defense report reveals that the Obama administration is “completely destroyed” after their top-secret mission in transporting a top ISIS leader was uncovered and thwarted by Iran.
Following the Iranian capture of two U.S. Navy Riverine Command Boats last week, intelligence officials in Tehran discovered a plot to transport a “top level” ISIS commander into Syria from Saudi Arabia in order to replace the toppled terrorist leader Zahran Alloush.

Once this Islamic State terror leader was in route to Kuwait aboard one of the US Navy’s RCB’s, this report continues, an “overwhelming” force of Iranian Sepāh naval troops captured both this terrorist, the US Navy boats (including the American sailors aboard them) transporting him and nearly ignited an all out war when Iranian forces were forced to fire “warning missiles” against the US Navy’s aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman attempting to intervene.

Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy overseeing this operation, this report notes, stated about this operation to capture this terror leader that the aircraft carrier USS Truman displayed “unprofessional moves” thus causing him to put Iranian naval forces on high alert and warning: “We prepared our coast-to-sea missiles, missile-launching speedboats and our numerous capabilities, to strike if they made a hostile move”.

Upon the US Navy “backing down”, this report says, the captured Islamic State terror leader and the American sailors accompanying him were brought to Farsi Island whereupon Admiral Fadavi immediately contacted Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi.

The importance of Admiral Fadavi contacting Minister Ravanchi, this report explains, was due to his, Ravanchi’s, months long ongoing secret negotiations with Obama regime representative Wendy Sherman—who, shockingly, the Obama regime put in charge of these negotiations as her prior experience in international diplomacy was her being a social worker and the former director of State of Maryland’s office of child welfare ...

The pro-Russian separatist media linked here tends to share a LOT of Russian (state) media without editing/question.

 

[cupper]

Today's latest clarification from DOD. It still doesn't explain how they ended up in Iranian waters.

Mechanical Failure Led Boats To Iranian Waters, U.S. Says In New Account

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/18/463471656/mechainical-failure-led-boats-to-iranian-waters-u-s-says-in-new-account

The United States Central Command is releasing new details about how two American Riverine Command Boats with 10 American sailors ended up in Iranian waters last week.

According to the account released by CENTCOM on Monday, one of the boats' diesel engines began to have trouble while it traveled from Kuwait to Bahrain. The crew began troubleshooting and the second boat also stopped.

Iranian authorities had said that a "broken navigation system" had led the boats into Iranian waters, but this account contradicts that.

"This stop occurred in Iranian territorial waters, although it's not clear the crew was aware of their exact location," CENTCOM said in a press release. "While the [U.S. boats] were stopped and the crew was attempting to evaluate the mechanical issue, Iranian boats approached the vessels."

The two sides traded words but not fire. Armed Iranian military personnel boarded the two American vessels while other Iranians kept watch behind machine guns mounted on their vessels.

At gunpoint, the Americans were taken to a small port facility on Farsi Island.

In a video released by Iranian state television, an American sailor is seen apologizing for the incursion. After about 15 hours of detention, the sailors were released.

CENTCOM says there are no indications that the sailors were physically harmed by Iran and an inventory of the boats found that no weapons were missing but two SIM cards "appear to have been removed from two handheld satellite phones."

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Gee both boats broke down, neither were aware of their positions, neither bothered to go to action stations or post a lookout to watch for the Iranians, neither bothered to tell the Iranians to piss off while one boat towed the other, someone is lying or a whole whack of incompetent people misplaced their spines.

 

[jmt18325]

Gee both boats broke down, neither were aware of their positions, neither bothered to go to action stations or post a lookout to watch for the Iranians, neither bothered to tell the Iranians to piss off while one boat towed the other, someone is lying or a whole whack of incompetent people misplaced their spines.

Exactly - this story makes absolutely zero sense.

 

[tomahawk6]

The Iranians have an ECW capability that has been grossly underestimated.How likely is it that two boats could lose communications AND GPS at the sametime ? Not likely.Remember a few years ago Iran took control of a drone while it was in flight and landed it in Iran.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

You still have radar to give you range and bearing and a depth sounder that can give depths, for those of us that sailed pre-GPS, that was pretty standard practices, you check all your navigation instruments against each other.

 

[jmt18325]

There's almost no question to me that the boats were there completely intentionally, and that they got caught.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Bumped w/the latest ...

The Navy has fired the commander of the 10 American sailors who wandered into Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf and were captured and held by Iran for about 15 hours.

In a statement Thursday, the Navy said it had lost confidence in Cmdr. Eric Rasch, who was the executive officer of the squadron that included the 10 sailors at the time of the January incident. He was responsible for the training and readiness of the more than 400 sailors in the unit.

A Navy official said Rasch failed to provide effective leadership, leading to a lack of oversight, complacency and failure to maintain standards in the unit. The official was not authorized to discuss the details publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Rasch has been relieved of his command duties and reassigned, the Navy said.

Although this is the first firing by the Navy regarding the incident, several other sailors received administrative reprimands. The investigation is expected to be finished by the end of the month, and others are likely to be disciplined.

(...)

Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the sailors made a navigational error and went off course.

An initial account said the "planned transit path for the mission was down the middle of the Gulf and not through the territorial waters of any country other than Kuwait and Bahrain."

That account said the crew stopped when a diesel engine in one of the boats appeared to have a mechanical issue. The second boat also stopped.

At this point they were in Iranian territorial waters, "although it's not clear the crew was aware of their exact location," the report said.

While the boats were stopped and the crew was trying to assess the mechanical problem, two small Iranian craft carrying armed personnel approached. Soon after, they were joined by two more Iranian military vessels. A verbal exchange ensued between the Iranians and Americans, but there was no gunfire.

The sailors had been scheduled to meet up with a U.S. Coast Guard ship, the Monomoy, in international waters to refuel. But about 10 minutes before the refueling was supposed to take place, the Navy headquarters in Bahrain got a report that Iranians were questioning the crew members.

Soon afterward, the Navy lost communications with the boats.

The Navy launched a large-scale search-and-rescue mission, but it is not clear whether the Americans had already been taken ashore on Farsi Island. The Iranians eventually told the U.S. that the 10 sailors were safe and healthy ...

 

[tomahawk6]

I think the Commander got a raw deal.

 

[jollyjacktar]

Somebody's head was going to roll.

 

[tomahawk6]

How about blaming the people who got captured ? Thats where I would start.

 

[jollyjacktar]

Honestly, I can't say who's to blame.  But you just knew that "someone" was going to be made to pay for this fiasco.  Losing face like that always costs someone their career.

 

[tomahawk6]

You are so right